Chapter 44: The Tragedy of Dreibruch

“Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, daß er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird.” / “He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft (Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future), §146 (Aphorism 146). First published by C. G. Naumann, Leipzig, Germany, 1886. Original German text in the public domain. English wording varies among translations.

The collapse began quietly. Truly, the decaying rot that led to its ultimate downfall had begun months earlier. There would be no exact moment to pinpoint for people to look back and say, ‘Yes. This was the moment Dreibruch fell to the monsters’. One might be able to hypothesize that the day they were freed was the instance, but an intelligent observer would know that there were stones falling from the sky before this great avalanche.

That fact would later trouble those few survivors who retained enough sanity to remember the event because of how hectic the night was. Some might have expected an explosion to announce the commencement into monstrosity, but instead, a single portal flickered from a laboratory; then, there was another, then five, then seven, and then twenty before settling on hundreds.

A private lab once belonging to Theophilus Ashcombe was destroyed first and foremost before anyone knew about what was happening to Dreibruch College. For all the secrets held within and the knowledge gained, none of the factors meant anything to anyone anymore, for Silas Wolcott was no longer at the institution, and the absence of the Heir was immediately understood by those with the knowledge to care.

His departure had left behind empty rooms, unanswered questions, and the conspicuous lack of the ancient metal crown whose significance only a handful mortals comprehended. Many of the Eldritch knew what that powerful artifact meant.

Another treaty had been broken. When the rules were disobeyed, there were consequences that possessed monumental weight.

The contraption that Ashcombe had constructed to be the Gate broke down and the symbols lost their stability to form geometries that would not truly function in the third dimension.

A chrysalis of crystal formed, and as the seconds passed, it grew like a weed mixed with that of icy-white amber. In this smaller form, from the broken schism of a dimension, Apo’kryth broken through the dimensional barrier. He had done so because, in part, the Heir, by way of the Crown, had assisted in making the Gate.

For the purposes of Eldritch Law and compliance with the mandate of the highest order, these small details were enough to satisfy both obedience and entrance. The Nameless One could not be upset, and once the Revelator was in the Realm of Men, he had fulfilled the orders of those above him.