Hell yeah, that’s what I’m talking about! The biggest loser from BoD has finally arrived, let’s gooooo!
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I think you mean was technically here the whole time.
or did someone not read chapter 12 
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I mean, this is the official reveal, so only now I can celebrate
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Welcome the land of the great departed… or shall we say temporarily separated?
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–
Chapter 15
–
The corner was rounded, and eye contact with Diero was made, prompting him to dart forwards in an attempt to rush the figure escorting me. The figure escorting him, however, grabbed his ankle as he bolted and threw him into the wall.
“Is that everyone, Pakari?” The orange one - I recalled him name being Bird and immediately set to work to come up with insults - peeled Diero off the wall and attempted to set him upright. Pakari shrugged in response. “It’s all the ones I could find. Thought this one was a robot, so I stored him with the equipment.”
“Speaking of,” He tossed something towards Cordax, who was so busy being visibly depressed at the situation that it hit him in the face. With a scowl, he picked it up off the ground, only then processing it was his knife.
“I’ve been meaning to ask why your name is literally just your face.” I murmured.
“And I’ve been meaning to kick you into the ceiling.” Pakari shot back. “If you’re really nice I won’t have to.”
Winger had retrieved his inexplicable gadgetry and Racie had at least temporarily retrieved her will to live. I tightened my collar, prematurely cutting off a shiver that worked through my system. This was it. Everything that had been done was done to make this moment possible. To meet Volume face to face - to bring this series of events to a close.
I pulled the collar of my coat tighter. The tenseness seemed to be obvious to Winger as we ascended in an elevator, higher and higher up above this strange city, as his gaze did not travel across the endless grey rooftops dotted with neon lights from the streets which twisted and crawled in between them. No, under that obtuse helmet his eyes were fixed like welded iron to me.
My gaze turned to meet him. I only survived a few seconds before I had to break away, struggling to hide any sign of what was truly going through my mind. That I’d never be able to tell him… That if everything worked out, he’d never be able to know.
“Did you know this city was built on rock 'n roll?” Bird mused, looking out over the multiple districts with no visible difference to any of them while several party members in the elevator began to look annoyed. “And I mean literally! The cliffside there runs a long ways, and where we are is a rather circular portion, but the industrial areas hug the cliffside and wraps around to where it ends. The whole city’s shaped just like a musical note. That’s why it’s called Music-”
“NO ONE CARES.” Nearly everyone in the elevator turned and barked at him in near perfect unison. Thoroughly startled, Bird made eye contact with Pakari who had practically lead the cry before shrinking into the corner and trying to avoid any further eye contact.
“Welcome, welcome!” The voice of Zippy blared over the speaker. “You are the 17th party to meet Volume face to face! Unfortunately, Riot Break Officer Designation 44131 Assigned Title Bird, unlike Special Forces Trooper Designation 99872 Assigned title Pakari, you do not have the clearance to access Volume’s chamber nor ride in his personal elevator! I must ask you to exit the elevator now.” The elevator stopped high above the city and the doors opened, showing the way to an undeniably frightening death. I cowered back from the thought of the fall almost as much as Bird-brain did.
Okay, that was too easy. Surely I have higher standards than that.
“Are you insane?” Pakari blurted out. “Zippy, I have clearance and I say close the dang doors and get us up there!”
“No can do, Special Forces Trooper Designation 99872 Assigned Title Pakari! I don’t have the clearance to give you the clearance to give him the clearance to allow yourself up there.” The voice began whistling and I had to lay a hand on Cordax to stop him from potentially scaling the glass wall and ripping the speaker out.
“And who gives you that clearance?” Pakari growled, ready to imply a message would be sent to Volume if he did not comply with simple instruction.
“Only Volume and myself can!” Ziippy replied with glee. “I know your frustration, Special Forces Trooper Designation 99872 Assigned title Pakari, but I can’t let you access Volume’s chamber to get clearance with Riot Break Officer Designation 44131 Assigned Title Bird present in the elevator! It would-”
“Why don’t you just give yourself clearance?” Bird quipped.
There was a long silence during which everyone stared at the speaker, only being broken after Pakari cleared his throat. “You there, Zippy?”
“I had not considered that.” Zippy replied, almost mesmerized by the thought. “Alright, then… I give myself clearance! Bird, you have been given clearance to access the personal chamber of Volume. Proceed. And have a pleasant evening!”
“Is there a reason Volume had to make Zippy so annoying?” Bird murmured towards his superior. “Or so… Dense, I guess? Although he’s a hologram AI, so it’s not like there’s any actual density…”
“I mean, they were all living people at one point.” Pakari shrugged. “It’s not like Volume made him that way.”
Bird nearly jumped through the ceiling, the elevator shuddering as he came back down. “Do you mean we’ve been deactivating these things when they’re people? We’ve been KILLING them?!”
Pakari opened his mouth to respond, but didn’t, holding his chin in thought. “I d… I don’t know. Volume simply told us to follow any directive from him, and he explained the process to me, but…” Pakari smashed his wrist into his forehead. “It’s just a little flame at the back of my mind now. I can’t believe it’s just a burning memory and not- Why didn’t I think of this til now?”
The elevator doors opened. Having been facing the city below, the party had to turn around to face the entrance. The moment they had, Diero jumped forward and entered a ready stance, growling through his teeth. Winger recoiled back, Cordax slunk forward with knife in hand, and Racie was still looking out at the city below through the elevator, not having processed that we had arrived. A cough from me drew her attention.
“GHID?!”
In the center of the room there was a red pillar, made of a soft fabric, and lined at the top with a collar of white fur. This cylinder turned until the figure inside was revealed. Very angular in appearance, with an insanely tapered waist and very pointed feet, he was wearing a slick black suit with a sharp red tie, and his head - which was the only thing about him that wasn’t angular - was pill-shaped, with a vertically-stretched hole for a mouth accompanied by two flanking it underneath, two grooves in the left cheek, and two flat and emotionless eyes embedded in his skull. As he stood, there was a click, and two extra eyes emerged from the right side of his head, like dials in a machine.
“You were expecting maybe Al Bowlly?”
–
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Where we go, there is no joy.
Temporarily separated in both places, it seems. Now Renner is reunited with his friend, and Ghid…
Not too many chapters left.
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I still cannot comprehend the fact that Tomorrow was actually Renner the whole time…
Is this a reference to me always promising to do something “tomorrow” and actually doing it like half a year later?
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boi you better catch the heck up because next chapter the house falls in
at that point making theories about it won’t be too efficient
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Speedrun mode: activated
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Okay, I’m fully caught up now. Like, 100%.
As for my thoughts… I think I should say something quirky and negative (for reasons obvious to both of us), but I cannot, I’m afraid. So, I’m gonna break character and be completely genuine for a second and say that I really enjoyed this book so far… all of them, honestly. I think you’re done a great job with these, this has been a great read, and I’m very honoured to have had a chance to be a part of this whole thing. I regret that I didn’t participate pretty much at all in any of the discussions regarding this book… I’ve missed so many great opportunities, and I’m hoping that I will be able to make up for that now that this story is entering its final stage.
So, from now on you can expect some occasional wacky theories and chapter reviews from me.
I’ll try my best to make the good old days real again.
Uhhhh… wait, you aren’t supposed to be wholesome here… uhhhhhhhhhhhh…
I’ve found a typo or two somewhere in the book, so 0/10, did not enjoy 
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there may be a twist
oh thank goodness I was worried
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I cannot confirm or d-
yes.
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new theory: the BoL universe was made by the government or something to trap ghid’s mind
unfortunately they took out almost everything except for the 60s sitcom dad part of ghid so he still functions
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has nekidax appeared yet
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read the book burnet
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ah, a new chapter hath appeared.
Very interesting to see ghid make his return, but also
I come back
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Chapter 16
–
“Who’s Al Bowlly?” Cordax whispered to me.
“This would be better alone,” Ghid snapped his fingers while he began to turn away, but then looked back in surprise. “Oh. Ohhh, oh right. I suppose that makes sense.”
He walked across the room, his regal cape flowing behind him, while Diero glanced at me before standing upright, clearly thinking of a plan of some kind. I stooped down and began scraping my finger across the carpet in illegible fashion. Cordax felt about his neck, which seemed to indicate that he had perceived Ghid, in spite of his high collar, did not actually have one, his head floating in position. It turned back as he obtained a glass from a shelf that, much like the rest of the room, screamed art deco.
“Cider, anyone?”
Pakari tapped his fingers against his leg. “Um, sir, what was that snap abou-”
“I placed suggestion devices inside your brains along with the entire police force so you would be more willing to enforce my rule when I came to power and stop dissidents in a divided democracy from protesting the rule of a monarch, which work in proximity to me.” Ghid responded, pouring apple cider in several glasses and somehow carrying them all back over. “Your resurrection at the factory seems to have ignored their placement entirely. Is it still there, or was it completely discarded? Well, it’s a moot point,” He continued towards the other end of the room while Pakari stood speechless with his hand raised in protest, trying to come to terms with the information dumped upon him. “I hope you don’t mind it being cold, hot cider irritates me.”
I looked to see if anyone was going to approach, and seeing as no one felt like moving, I pressed forwards while Diero bit the carpet, roared, and stepped into the elevator for a moment. No one seemed too distracted by the sound of breaking glass as I approached Ghid’s blazing fireplace, which two armchairs were angled in front of. He sat down in one of them, placing the majority of the glasses on a table in between, and looked back towards the door.
“Winger.” The command was simple, and after some hesitation Winger obliged, approaching the seat and only entering it after repeated gesturing from Ghid to do so. The rest of the party crowded around behind, for ease of listening, or to get the drop on Ghid, or just because they didn’t want to leave Winger alone.
“I’ve thought about how lonely it must have been for you to hide in this wicked world all alone.” Ghid pushed one of the two remaining glasses in his hands towards Winger, who did not accept it. “So I decided you wouldn’t have to be.”
“You could have come visiting.” Winger protested awkwardly.
There was a pause. “I wanted to, but being Volume-”
“No it didn’t.” Winger cut him off, standing up and looking into the fire. “How many years have you been holed up here, with such impressive technologies at your reach, unable to send a message or slip away, even if just for a moment? Dad, you run the whole city, did you not stop and think for a moment that perhaps you- just a terrible, horrible person? Huh?”
There was no response. “It’s not like you were pulled away by anything tangible, you just hide up here and comment every couple of months on stuff. I bet you haven’t even left this precious room of yours since- and you kill people! You killed people in front of me!”
“That was a robot-”
“Oh, and that excuses everyone who died in front of you when you could have done something?” Winger turned from the fire, the blazing embers now nestled in his eyes. “You literally ate a guy in front of me!”
“I never claimed I was a saint, son-”
“Darn right.” Winger tossed the glass into the blaze. “We all came here to defeat you or whatever these idiot’s plan is, and short of killing you I don’t care what happens to you. Gosh, you were here this whole time! The WHOLE time I could’ve just-”
He turned away, his hands tensed with anger. “So now what? Are you going to fight us? Hurt more people? Heck, eat more garbage out of a dumpster? Because I don’t-”
I looked at Ghid as he lunged across the room, gripping his son by the back of the neck. My eyes were cold, but in my mind was a growing anger. I had tried to extend one more act of kindness - set myself up for abandoning my entire plan in favor of my son knowing the truth. But now… There was no going back now.
“That’s right, son.” Ghid’s head crept around Winger’s shoulder as his son tensed. “You don’t get to participate in your dad’s business. Be a good little boy and keep to yourself for a while.”
Winger was shoved towards the opposite wall, and Diero growled into a roar, leaping at Ghid and starting in flabbergasted amazement as the fist he sent towards Ghid was caught and held at bay. “There are some advantages to being mechanical,” Ghid mused, gripping Diero by the throat and letting the cape fall to the ground as he bent the cowboy over backwards. “But I must say my favorite benefit is being able to deal with you.”
Ghid looked back at the party. “Well, come on. I won’t wait all day, after all.” Slinging Diero behind him, he stalked menacingly forwards, prompting Pakari to draw two knives and rush towards his side while Bird picked up one of the chair and approached from the opposite end. Ghid gripped both of Pakari’s hands as he attempted to shank him and used him as leverage to kick towards Bird, who blocked the attack with the chair. The points of his feet stabbed through the chair and nearly into Bird’s functioning eye.
Kicking the chair away, Ghid’s heels were caught in Bird’s impressive grip, and the giant was used as leverage to sling Pakari over himself and into Bird’s face. Quickly standing, Ghid’s head spun to avoid Diero, who had climbed out of the cabinet he had been thrown into, trying to grab his cranium. He ducked down and slammed his shoulder into the deadsperado’s stomach, buckling him before flipping him forward and onto the Bird-Pakari pile.
“C’mon, Racie, Cordax, let’s make this interesting.” He rose to full height and flexed his hands. Racie screamed and doubled back into the corner while Cordax gripped my sleeve to pull me aside, but I swiped at his hand.
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid now, not when it all matters.” I hissed at him, but Cordax went into the other corner all the same. Ghid rubbed his smooth chin as the pile started recovering. “Dear me, a choice! Shorty, shorty, or not-so-shorty. Now which do I pick…”
Gripping the underside of Diero’s jaw as he approached, he used him as a skull boxing glove to clock Wild, who had just begun to stand. Pakari dove and gripped around his waist, picking him up and trying to suplex him, but Ghid dug his pointed feet into the ceiling and instead suplexed Pakari into the top of the room, smashing a hole in it with the officer’s head.
“I always wanted a chandelier.” Ghid mused as he walked across the ceiling, stabbing holes in it repeatedly to keep from falling. “However, I doubt many of your friends would agree on your position.” Pakari’s hands slammed into the ceiling in a vain attempt to free himself. “Now, shall we get this on? My feet are getting tired.”
Cordax emerged from the corner, holding a book in one hand and the knife in the other. I jumped a good four feet when I saw it, and Ghid fell off the ceiling, quickly righting himself with a scared glow in his sockets. “The- You shouldn’t be looking through people’s stuff, Cordax. It’s impolite.”
“Sorry,” Cordax turned to put it back, and then stopped. “The heck am I doing? You’re Ghid. I don’t need tghlk”
“You don’t need to read that.” Ghid, who had vaulted the length of the room and was now pinning Cordax’s throat against the wall, threw the book towards the elevator, shattering the glass and sending it plummeting towards the city below.
…Until Diero made a mad dash for the book and caught it, falling out of the tower and down towards the city below. “NO!” Ghid cried, rushing to the elevator and watching him fall. I found I too had rushed halfway across the room, but quickly I shoved my hands in my pockets and feigned unamusement.
“That was my deadsperado, Ghid.” I grumbled. “Forget your stupid book and worry about what we’re going to do to you for that.”
“But Tott!” Cordax wailed, running up just in time for me to slam my finger over his mouth. “Shush. Now we have two options here. I and my crew can throw you off this tower and watch your mechanical organs splatter all over the ground, or you can surrender the city of music and get the heck out.”
“I care only about my son.” Ghid straightened his collar. “You will try what you desire, but in the end-”
Ghid suddenly recoiled, clutching his stomach in pain. I followed suit, entering the fetal position as I collapsed onto my side. Bird, who had ripped a large portion of the ceiling out to free Pakari, looked between Ghid and myself as I tried to stand and collapsed again. “What’s happening here? Are you two twins or something?”
“It’s-” I tried to respond, but cried out in pain and retracted even further. Ghid had stood and tried to walk forward, but collapsed onto his hands and knees. “It’s no good. It’s no use. I can’t push him away. I can’t hold him back any more. It’s all coming to an end.”
Winger had slowly moved towards Ghid and stood, unsure of what to do or whether or not to care. Ghid tried to look at him, but was brought to the floor by another attack, which caused his eyes to flicker. I screamed for a very brief moment, thoroughly startled, and began sliding back towards the wall. Cordax looked at me in the utmost confusion as I did so, but I suddenly gripped the knife and ripped it from his fingers.
“No. NO!” I threw the knife from myself, but Ghid caught it and plunged it violently into his chest. Winger threw his arms around Ghid to keep him from falling again, and Ghid, fighting against his own body, tore the air with his fingertips. “I can’t-!” I cried, clutching as much of my entire body at once as I could. “He’s coming through!”
The air next to the tower ripped itself in a violent fashion, a bright light shining through the seams as from the incision floated a massive clipper ship.
–
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