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Version: Book 8

The Breaking of the Nothing

Overview​

In the final hours of Floor 9, Justice Light triggered a Legendary Trap that broke the Nothing — a trans-dimensional void used as a cosmic prison for banished gods and demons — causing it to drain simultaneously into the Halls of the Ascendency, Sheol, and Scolopendra's Lair, and awakening the cosmic entity Scolopendra. Justice Light was killed in Emberus's fire moments after triggering the trap. This event closed out Book 7.

Floor / Location​

Floor 9, beneath Larracos castle — Chapter 87

Participants​

  • Justice Light — architect and activator; died triggering the trap
  • Juice Box — entered the Nothing via the portal just before the trap was triggered

Background: What Is the Nothing​

The Nothing (also called the Unwashed, the Stalker, the Hag, the Beautiful Place, and a dozen other names) is a trans-dimensional void that functions as a cosmic prison. Banished gods, feral gods, and evicted demons are imprisoned there. The dungeon system uses it to punish both deities and crawlers. Anyone who enters it and survives gains the "Damned" status.

Bijou fairies are tiny, invisible, non-corporeal mobs that carry the unbreakable thread connections between gods and their worshippers — whisker-thin lines of light that run between each adherent's heart and the deity they worship. They had never been successfully caught before.

Evicted demons are demons who escaped the Nothing. They retain the ability to open portals back to Sheol — but only if they find something to latch onto.

How the Trap Worked​

Justice Light spent weeks constructing the apparatus beneath Larracos, using sluggalos as assistants. The mechanism required three components working in concert:

1. Permanent portal to the Nothing Constructed from the repurposed winding box of the Gate of the Feral Gods. The winding box normally creates temporary twenty-minute portals; Justice Light converted it into a permanent opening at the cost of destroying the artifact. The finished portal was described as "now-broken, blood-soaked."

2. The Bijou Trap A trap that had captured thousands of bijou fairies — and, with them, the thousands of unbreakable threads those fairies carry between gods and their worshippers on the 12th floor's Halls of the Ascendency. The threads were described as physically unbreakable.

3. The Demon Trap A trap containing thousands of evicted demons — creatures previously expelled from the Nothing who needed only something to latch onto in order to open portals back to Sheol.

The mechanism: When the simple outer trap was triggered (Justice Light snapping a piece of twine), it toppled both the Bijou Trap and the Demon Trap through the permanent portal simultaneously. Inside the Nothing, the bijou threads — unbreakable and still anchored to the Halls of the Ascendency on their far end — pulled taut. This connected four separate planes at once: the Nothing, the 9th floor, the Halls of the Ascendency (12th floor), and Sheol. The evicted demons, finding the threads to latch onto, opened their portals to Sheol. With the threads pulling and the demon portals opening, the Nothing cracked apart from within.

Justice Light described his vision of what happened: "Four separate planes — all jumbled and confused — folded and moved together as the unbreakable lines of the bijou fairies tightened, creating a flower pattern before the darkness in the center of it all broke apart."

What Happened​

As Emberus began burning Floor 9, Juice Box entered the Nothing via the permanent portal. Justice Light had told her he would follow — he did not. He stayed on the floor to activate the trap from "this side of the veil."

He broadcast: "I am not sorry. Peace to you all, brothers and sisters."

He snapped the twine. The Legendary Trap triggered. He was killed in Emberus's fire before seeing the resulting system messages.

System Messages​

System Message: A Legendary Trap has been triggered.
System Message: The Bijou Trap has deactivated. All captured Bijou have been freed.
System Message: The Demon Trap has deactivated. All captured evicted demons have been freed.
System Message: The Nothing has been broken.
System Message: The Nothing is currently draining into The Halls of the Ascendency.
System Message: The Nothing is currently draining into Sheol.
System Message: The Nothing is currently draining into Scolopendra's Lair.
System Message: Scolopendra stirs.
System Message: Scolopendra has awakened.

Planetwide messages followed, sarcastically informing guests at the Scolopendra Club to evacuate to the 16th floor (described as a non-magical mirror from a Boise, Idaho Motel 6) — if they could first survive the 17th floor to get there.

Outcome​

  • The Nothing broken and draining into three realms simultaneously
  • The Halls of the Ascendency (12th floor, seat of the Ascendency game) flooded with the contents of the Nothing
  • Sheol (the demon realm) flooded
  • Scolopendra's Lair implicated and corrupted
  • Scolopendra — a sleeping cosmic entity associated with the dungeon's outer layers — awakened
  • Justice Light killed by Emberus's fire
  • Juice Box entered the Nothing via the portal just before it triggered; her fate inside the Nothing was left open at the end of Book 7

Citations​

  • Book 7, Chapter 87