CWD: OE ~ Epilogue

Needless to say, that was not the ending that Johnny Meat had been hoping for. The Patron of the CruxTerran Commander was absolutely furious and was trying to scream at Arriod. In fact, he was screaming, his face going completely red with rage, but Kronos’ power had apparently significantly increased upon Nacho's winning the first round of the Juxtaposition. With a mere snap of his fingers, the Patron from the opposing faction had been muted entirely.

“Congratulations to both of you, quite frankly, but especially you, Nacho. Here are your rewards; use them wisely. Upon this conversation ending, you will be placed in a brand new Mega Fortress, which will house the Portal between your two worlds. No one will be able to go through without your personal permission, or permission from someone to whom you have delegated power. Of course, you could always simply set a toll and allow anyone who pays it to move through. Really, it's all up to you at this point.”

That was all of the information provided before Nacho and The Dinner Party were fully healed and relocated inside a massive structure that seemed to span miles. It resembled an old fortress back on earth, though the stone and metal walls and crenellations would also make the CruxTerrans feel right at home.

Nacho and Arriod were standing a few feet apart, face to face, with the remaining members of their respective groups arranged behind them. Before anyone else could react, the two leaders reached out and shook hands with each other. Arriod huffed out a long breath. “As per the terms of our surrender, I officially join your guild and surrender everyone in my guild to your command.”

Congratulations! The Chips guild has gained 1,600,023 new members!

“That’s how you had a disgusting amount of magical items that you could throw around willy-nilly.” Nacho grumbled at the audacious number that had populated his view. “Next steps: I need a volunteer to return to Armor Mountain and get everyone relocated here immediately. There are plenty of dungeons in the area, and frankly, we’re closer to Costco than we were at our last place.”

“Nacho.” Brie was the first to find her voice. “What's going on? What happened? Did you win?”

“We won,” Nacho confirmed, much to the delight of all humans and the disappointment and fear of the CruxTerrans. “We created a peace treaty. They joined our guild; Arriod is now on the council. Also, in case you didn't see, we just gained over one and a half million new members. Members that we need to do everything in our power to rescue.”

“What?” Reuben was peering around owlishly, and that did not surprise Nacho in the slightest. As far as they knew, the Healer had just died and been brought back to life, and suddenly everyone was healed and in a new place.

“I know this is all jarring, but let me put it like this.” Nacho pointed at the Portal that was visible a few stories below, then directed their attention into the distance, where a discerning eye could spot Armor Mountain rising in the distance. “We need all of our guild members here as soon as possible so that we can set up a safe entry point. We have over a million of our people to evacuate from a world that is about to become twice as dangerous as it was, and that work needs to start now.”

“Thank you.” That was all Arriod could say as the humans sprang into motion, completely ignoring the fact that these people had been their bitter enemies moments ago. “Why are you able to… how can you so sincerely name my people as… ‘our’ people?”

“Buddy, let me tell you what.” Reuben stepped in to explain. "I don't know where you have been getting your information from, but right now, you are in the Midwest, and we are nothing if not hospitable.”

“Darn tootin!” Abby cackled as she waved a tall CruxTerran over. “We're also not afraid to put people to work. You, teleporter guy. You should run to your world and start getting people moving this way. You seem like the speedy type, and I don’t want to see you for a good long time. After what you did to Reuben, I’m not gonna be too sad if you don’t come back from your mission.”

“Watch out for the zombies,” Nacho called gently as the man looked to Arriod for confirmation. “Oh, right, you guys didn't hear about that. Yeah, the necromancers went through the portal. Whole bunch of zombies living there now, and that whole forest is burned out.”

Round one complete! Congratulations to: Earth! Yay! You win! All monsters are worth double credits, and every portion of food will serve as one and a half portions!

Warning to: CruxTerra! All monsters will double in strength over the next two weeks, and when the last sapient member on your world has been slain, the planet will collapse and all natural resources will be funneled to Earth to empower it for round two!

More monsters, a new theme, and a new race to fight a world that also won their first round, all with more fabulous prizes to come!

“Wait, round two?” Reuben groaned as he felt at the hole in his armor where his heart had been pierced. He shuddered deeply and reached over to pull Brie into a huge hug.

Her arms wrapped around him like steel bars. “Never scare me like that, ever again.”

“You got it.”

“What in the world happened? We need to know more!” Jennifer finally shouted, earning nods of agreement and rapt attention from the other people around the area.

“We fought it out, I fed him dinner, and we made nice.” Nacho summed up as succinctly as he could. “Listen, there is lots of work to do, and not much time to do it. We need to set up an outpost on the other side of the Portal to make sure that we keep sapient people on that planet no matter what, to delay round two as long as possible.”

“You will be leading us in round two, I assume?” Arriod stood straighter. “It would be my honor to stand with you against a new enemy and show them the folly of their ways.”

Before the man had even finished speaking, Nacho was shaking his head. “No. I can’t. Well, I can, but won’t. Maybe I should, but I shorn’t.”

“Nacho-” Jennifer started to protest, only to be cut off by the Guild Leader.

“What part of 'shorn’t' don’t you understand?” Nacho waved his hands to quiet down the ensuing hubbub. “Listen, we have no idea if there are other cooks out there, if there is anyone else that can feed everyone that needs to be fed. No matter what else happens, I think my time out in the field hunting down monsters is over. My battles are going to be fought in the kitchen from now on.”

“What are you saying?” Brie asked from her secure position in her husband's arm.

“Round two is not the only thing we have to worry about. Those necromancers don't care who is trying to help whom, or who they hurt in their pursuit of power. Dealing with that is going to take a lot of effort, and I can't do everything. I can't even do the primary thing I'm supposed to be doing very well. So… I need to buckle down. We all do. When round two starts, we need to be ready. Specifically… we’ll need our replacements on the front line to be ready.”

“You’re sure it can’t be us?” Even though Arriod was clearly ready to volunteer and had the respect and trust of his people as a Commander, one look at his now-white hair was enough to convince Nacho that this man would be better served training fighters or adding his voice from his seat of the council.

“If we are going to survive the next round, we need to select and train a group that can do it. It won’t—it can’t—be us. We just aren’t enough, and now we have two worlds of people to prepare for what’s coming.” Nacho sucked in a deep breath and spoke the words that he and his entire guild would live or die by.

“We’ve done enough. No one can say different. We achieved my dream. Now it’s someone else’s turn. We’ve had my Omelet Endgame.”