The Immortals of Notoriouslandia
Chapter Eleven: The Devourer's March
75% to Notoriouslandia
The team was close.The celestial bird had begun descending more often, flying lower, as if nearing its destination.
The air itself changed—thicker, slower, more ancient.
Rusted bones of skyscrapers jutted through the soil. Rivers glowed with forgotten tech. This was the outer ring of Notoriouslandia—where the city's past began bleeding into the present.
They pressed forward, wary, hopeful, exhausted.
They had no idea Joab was watching.
POV: Joab
Beneath black crystal domes and arches built from sorrow, Joab sat alone in his ink-fueled sanctum. His sketchbook pulsed. Shadows slithered across the floor, whispering encouragements and regrets.
Bulchaariitpoundersonderic loomed nearby, still damaged but alive—rebuilding itself with writhing cords of dark energy.
Joab didn't speak as he dipped his pen into a new well.
Not ink this time.
Liquid Chaos.
A gift from Septiceye. Dark energy refined, caged, and waiting.
Joab turned to the recovering monster and said softly:
"You weren't fast enough last time.""You weren't loud enough."
He etched a new sigil on its chest.
A fusion rune.
Speed. Force. Madness. Noise.
The monster convulsed and howled.
Then smiled.
Joab drew one final glyph beneath it—a teleportation spiral—and whispered:
"Go. Interrupt their hope."
The Ambush
The team had just crossed a field of shimmering glass when the sky above them screamed.
A blast of red static erupted—and through it, a creature fell.
Bulchaariitpoundersonderic, reborn.
Now smaller, faster, twitching with hyperkinetic energy. Its limbs moved like thunderclaps. Its body spun in corkscrews of sound. Red lightning danced in its throat.
They barely had time to react.
Mr. Shonk shouted, throwing up a Bontaine barrier, which shattered on impact.
"Okay! He's faster now. That's illegal!"
Kukranchunlikryting hurled three toxin blades—two missed, the third embedded and evaporated before it could detonate.
Sapphire blinked behind it and sliced its back with multiversal crystal sabers, but the wound healed midair.
Descentedrain locked its limbs in a psychic bind for two seconds—just enough to let Mr. Shonk slam it with his charged trident.
But the beast rebounded instantly—shrieked—and released a burst wave that knocked all four of them off their feet, hurling them into the glass-cracked ruins.
The Fight for Survival
The battle raged for seven minutes.
By the end, their clothes were scorched, their blood was hot, and their powers near drained.
Sapphire collapsed first, only saved by Descentedrain slamming a telekinetic dome over her as a final sonic pulse hit.
Kukranchunlikryting's skin was blistered. He had fused one of his toxins with local flora just to survive.
Mr. Shonk's trident was cracked.
Descentedrain had a deep gash along his ribs, bleeding into the dirt.
But the monster—now unstable, over-energized—began twitching violently.
Descentedrain gritted his teeth.
"It's burning out."
And then it did.
A final screech—one long, distorted note—and the creature collapsed into a puddle of overloaded dark energy, twitching as it slowly fizzled into steam.
Silence.
A Quiet Reward
The team sat under the twilight sky, gasping, recovering.
Descentedrain didn't say a word.
He just reached into his satchel.
First, he tossed a Graham Mango Bar into Mr. Shonk's lap.
"I found it in the ruins. Figured you'd like it."
Shonk blinked, tore it open, and cheered:
"Dude, YES. Mango! Graham! My two favorite food personality types."
Next, he handed a sealed black thermos to Kukranchunlikryting.
"Specialized for your temperature threshold. Liquid fire. Technically hot cocoa."
Kukranchunlikryting opened it, sniffed once, then sighed with a kind of satisfaction only mutants could express.
Finally, Descentedrain walked over to Sapphire.
He knelt beside her and pulled a small pouch from his jacket. Inside: crimson starberries—her favorite.
She looked up, surprised, hair stuck to her cheek.
"You remembered?"
"I always do."
She stared at him for a long moment. Her hand brushed his as she took them.
"Thank you."
They sat in silence, passing berries back and forth while the others laughed faintly near the dying fire.
The celestial bird rested on a branch above them, watching, glowing faintly.
They were almost to Notoriouslandia.
But Joab wasn't done.
And neither was the Door.