I didn’t even get a chance to look at our new destination when we arrived before the Red Cap grabbed me and practically shouted, “How did you do that?”

“… What?” Yeah, not exactly my most aware at the time. My mind was still reeling.

“That thing where you broke spacetime! With your hand!” It let go of me, and took a few cautious steps back. “Grendel needed the entropy sword before he could use that kind of power! And you just… with only your hand….” Its eyes widened, and it started to speak almost with awe. “You really are Nyarlathotep.”

Out of habit, I started to deny that claim. But the words didn’t come out. I didn’t understand how I’d been able to kill the Plague Doctor. Not on an intellectual level, at least. I’d just acted, and somehow….

“This is good. This is very good.” The Red Cap stroked its chin. “If we just stay alive long enough for you to get back your full power….”

“Wait, this isn’t already full power?”

“Oh no. Nyarlathotep was a god, milady. Breaking apart spacetime would have been a party trick for him. When you start juggling planets, then you’ll be getting an idea of what you’re capable of doing.”

That sounded… impressive. And highly impractical. Why would anyone need to juggle planets?

Can’t say I was entirely comfortable with this line of conversation, so I let it drop there. Time to start looking around at wherever I was.

At first glance, it looked like a vaguely Greco-Roman temple. It was constructed of white marble, with evenly spaced pillars reaching up to an arched ceiling. Scattered without any pattern I could see were marble statues of people. Those statues were… interesting. I wasn’t even aware some of those positions were anatomically possible. And it was really hard to tell if their expressions were of pleasure or pain. At the center was a fountain made of intertwined marble bodies. Their hands held up the figure of a pregnant woman, her belly slit open and blood spilling out into the pool below.

The Red Cap noticed me staring at the fountain and smirked. “You like the décor?” It said. “It took me a while to find enough people for it, but the result is just so… stimulating.”

“People? These are actual people?”

“Of course. A collection of my favorite victims. I wanted to preserve them for immortality.”

Sometimes, the Red Cap does a really great job of reminding me what a bastard it is. “So then, this place is….”

“Me. Me as manifested in a pocket universe, like what the Library was to the Blind Man.” The Red Cap suddenly appeared next to me, and whispered, “I always knew you’d be inside me someday, milady.”

I quickly pushed it away and tried to ignore the tingling feeling its breath had left on me. “Wasn’t the whole reason we were in the Library because no one would think to look there? Isn’t coming here a bit obvious?”

“Probably. Not like we really had much of a choice, since you did wipe our hiding place from existence.”

“Well then, what are you planning to do now?”

“That’s a good question. What would you like us to do, milady?”

“What?”

The Red Cap fell onto a knee, and bowed its head. Behidn it, the Convocation and the Brute and Bride appeared. “We are yours to command, Nyarlathotep.” The Red Cap said. “Just give us the order.”

What. But… Shit, I was still trying to deal with the fact that the entire human race had gone extinct because I’d fucked up, I wasn’t ready for this.

The Red Cap continued. “Shall we destroy them? Shall we crush all those who defied you? Make them pay for their insolence?”

… But it wasn’t my fault they had all died. The image of the Plague Doctor swinging its cane at the prone humans returned to my head. There’d been no need for that. There had been no need for any of the wanton cruelty the Fears had done. This wasn’t my fault. This was theirs.

“We can do it. With you at our lead, we can frind all your foes into nothingness. We can be the instruments of your revenge.”

Familiar whispers started to echo through my head, and I felt my skin scrawling. Them bowing to me was… right, somehow. They should obey me. They should all obey me. The Fears have taken too much from me. And I will make them suffer for it. “We’re going to kill them.” I said to the Red Cap. “Kill them all.”