The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

Standing there before the altar, waiting in the warm light shining through stained-glass and in the gaze of hundreds of excited onlookers, Bug looks up to the front of the cathedral and past the singing altar boys in their pews. Her eyes go to the figure of a rat nailed to a crucifix and wearing a crown of thorns, a warm smile permanently etched onto the figures face as he looks down at his flock and back into Bug's own eyes in turn. She smiles.

A hand slowly reaches out and gently, lovingly, cups the burnt half of her face. Still scabbing over and very likely to leave a mess of scars. It itches, but she can't seem to remember properly where she got the wound. Did she get hurt during the revolution? It does not matter.

Nothing matters.

She made to turn away from the smiling statue and return her gaze to the one before her. Short white fur, delicate features, a cute little nose, and a pair of beautiful hazelnut eyes. Oh, how she adores those eyes.

The lovely face looking at hers doesn't flinch at the sight of Bug's burnt and slowly healing skin. Instead, there is only love to be found as she smiles down at her.

I'm a lucky girl~

Bug can't help but to smile back, almost feeling drunk on giddiness. The words of the old preacher practically go in one ear and out the other as all she can do is stare into those lovely brown eyes and let the world wash over her.

"Love? Are you going to answer?"

"Hmm?"

Isabelle, her wonderful fiancé just giggles and points to the preacher.

When Bug blinks and turns to him, the old man clears his throat and repeats himself.

"Do you take Duchesse Isabelle Rat Paresseux de Rarisét… (The poor old man has to catch his breath after saying her full name a second time.) ha, as your chaoticful wedded wife?"

"Oh, yes. Yes, I do." Bug replies happily with her tail wagging behind her, swishing her dress back and forth across the floor. In the crowd, a few people giggle. Behind her, Susan is holding back some laughter, clearly enjoying herself.

Bug returns her love filled gaze back to her soon to be wife, looking up into her hazelnut eyes as the old preacher directs the question to her as well. Behind her figure, Bug can see one of the windows. It makes for a beautiful backdrop of colors against her white dress and fur, with oranges and greens of fire and pestilence clashing with blues and golds as armies of rats war with the surface world's defenders.

"I do." Isabelle answers, her smile only growing as she looks down at Bug and reaches out for her with both arms.

"Then it is with great pride that I decare you, wife and wife. You may now kiss the… bride? Brides? You can kiss."

And with that nothing could hold them back. Isabelle strongly pulled Bug into her arms and drew her into a deep kiss, the crowd cheering and clapping. Initially, Bug is waving her arms around in surprise as she doesn't know what to do with herself, but as she gives into the moment and the excitement of it all, she locks her arms around Isabelle and sweeps her off her feet, lowering her into an even deeper kiss. The crowd loses their collective minds as the cheering and clapping only grows louder due to the new couple's boldness.

Meanwhile, Susan is barely keeping it held together. She has to hold her guts as she looks down at the two mashing their faces together, trying desperately to not break out into a fit of laughter. Part of her doesn't know what's so funny about this situation. This is a wedding, a happy event.

She should be clapping, maybe even crying a little.

But instead, she is on the verge of crying from the sheer effort of keeping her laughter contained.

Hahaha, why is this so funny!? Oh, Goddess, this is the best day ever! Oh, more food, don't mind if I doo~

For some reason, a waiter brings Susan a fresh plate of snacks and tops off her wine for her despite being right in the middle of the big moment. She just happily accepts the snacks and starts munching while desperately holding down her giggles.

After a while of the two newlyweds losing themselves in the moment, the preacher has to clear his throat a few times to get them to break it up. Left to their own devices, things might have started getting a little freaky.

The two part, both blushing and looking flustered, holding hands as they can't stop looking into each other's eyes.

It makes for a lovely scene and many an eye in the crowd is wet with happy tears.

Having finally managed to get the two under control, the old preacher waves his hand to someone waiting off to the side, beckoning them to come over. A pair of young altar boys come walking over, heads bowed low as they carry a black chest with reverence between the two of them.

The preacher raises his hands, signing for silence as the audience comes to a hushed still, all eyes watching the chest without blinking.

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"My children. My people. My fellow worshippers of Chaos! … The time has come at last… Chaos has seen fit to finally deliver upon us, the final piece of the grand prophecy! Chaos, in all its infinite wisdom of random numbers, has delivered onto us, the Hero, the Chosen one, the Protagonist, the one who shall lead us to victory! The one who shall lead us to conquer the surface world and rid us of those vile humans!"

The audience cheers. "Death to the humans!"

"The one who shall help us push back the cursed Dwarf who burn our homes and collapse our caves!"

The audience screams. "Death to the Dwarves!"

"The one who shall help us steal all the treasures from those greedy Kobolds and shower us with riches!"

The audience roars. "Death to the Kobolds!"

"The one who shall see the World Tree burn and the Elves slaughtered!"

The audience stand and raise their fists. "Death to the Elves!"

"The one who shall slay the Demon Queen and finally, FINALLY, bring Chaos to the world! Entropy will spread; existence will seize. And through Chaos, a new world will rise! A new world where law is no longer, Order. Chaos will become Order. The rules by which we live will become ours to define!"

The audience is practically foaming at the mouth as they dig their claws into the furniture and scream their voices hoarse.

""Death to the Demons! Death to Law. Bring us Chaos!!!""

The preacher raises both hands above his head, palms held forward. The crowd goes deathly still and silent, not a pin's drop to be heard.

"…It is time. We shall now call to us, the Dragon of Chaos."

He turns, slowly, methodically. The carried black chest raised in offering as he approaches, the two children lowering themselves to one knee. With trembling hands, the old man removes a key from around his neck and slots it into the lock. The click can be heard from all the way from the back of the cathedral as the old lock opens, the hinges of the chest that look to be older than the priest himself by several generation, creaking as he slowly and religiously opens the lid.

As it opens, a thick mist pours out from within, whispers caried on the wind in unspoken languages and long tongues. The mist seems to move like a living thing, slowly creeping down and wriggling like searching limbs, coiling over and around everything they can grasp. The altar boys shiver as the searching limbs grab hold of them with cold digits, but they do not falter. They do not shy away or drop the chest in fear. No, they embrace the touch of Chaos and shiver under its gentle embrace.

The old preacher, only hesitating for a moment to speak a silent prayer, soon plunges both arms into the coiling mist, the vapor wrapping up his arms as he goes down to his shoulders to grab that which is impossibly held so deep within such a small container.

When he pulls back and raises the item, every person in the room, save Bug, Isabelle, and Susan lower themselves to their knees in reverence. Isabelle maintains her hold on Bug's face, keeping the love drunk girl's gaze firmly on her as the Preacher of Chaos slowly walks up behind her, his hands held high.

"I love you~" Bug says as she blushes and rubs her cheeks against Isabelle's soft palms.

Isabelle just smiles back. "I love you too. Now, please, hold still."

"Okay, haha~"

Susan watches on from the side, enjoying her snacks and sipping her wine.

"Wow, that's a spooky looking crown." She takes another sip. "Neat."

The Preacher of Chaos raises his arms further, holding the crown aloft for all to see as he stands behind Bug.

"Now is the time. Rise, Dragon of Chaos! Rise and bring Chaos, to the world!!!"

And with that, he begins to lower the crown made of black gnarled wood with ten gems and seven twisting horns, tentacle of flesh and thorned roots already reaching down and searching to try and grab hold of their new wearer's skull and burrow into flesh and brain. With dark energy radiating off from the crown, the people watched on with batted breaths as it was slowly lowered. No one dared to blink nor to look away, for they would never be able to forgive themselves if they were to miss this moment.

The crown draws closer, the first tentacle grabbing hold of a few strands of Bug's hair as she continues to lovingly stare into her wife's eyes like a fool.

…

But, had anyone been willing to look away, they might have seen that something had appeared outside through the windows, filling the sky and demanding the attention of every eye from one side of the city to the other.

The next moment, just as the crown is about to be placed atop Bug's pretty little head, the world shakes and a pulse rips through the world. Space bends, buckles, snaps, and finally shatters.

Like a wave of water passing through reality itself, everything and everyone is suddenly lifted off their feet and thrown back a dozen feet. People scream and scramble along the floor, others double over and vomit, some simply don't get back up, having been knocked out cold or are simply dead from the impact of the wave or from getting smashed into their surroundings.

Groaning, confused, head aching like she just got repeatedly kicked in the face by a mule, Bug picks herself up off the floor and looks around.

"Where… Wha?"

Her vision is full of notifications and warnings, pop up boxes all flashing and begging for her attention. This is soon followed by a blaring alarm, coming from the city itself, the underground cavern lighting up with flashes of lights and the sounds of explosions in the distance.

Bug looks around. The cathedral is changed. Long gone are the beautifully layered stonework, the stained-glass, and wonderful architecture. Long gone is the sun that had been shining not but a second ago.

Now, the cathedral is nothing but a big, crudely crafted structure in the vague shape of a cathedral, made from nothing but scrap wood and an ungodly number of rusty nails holding everything together. The building hardly even has a roof, and from where she is lying, she can see the moist brick ceiling of the Dungeon above her head.

"What the heck…? Wha-"

"What is this!!!??? What have I been eating!?" Susan interrupts her with a scream.

When Bug turns her way, she finds the frazzled looking swordswoman holding a bowl of what looks like green mush with colorful mushrooms in it. Spilled on the floor beside her, a wooden cup with some green liquid that is steaming and bubbling on the floor, eating into the wood like acid.

Has she really been eating that? Gross, Susan… Yuck…

Susan gags and immediately doubles over, throwing up all over the already dirty floor.

Still confused, Bug slowly pulls herself together, waving away notifications from her vision about Chaos corruption and other things she can't bring herself to focus on right now.

Instead, her attention is completely stolen by the giant thing floating in the sky above the rat city, filling her vision as she looks upon it through the destroyed walls of the faux cathedral. Even without using Identify, the System immediately pulls up an information box for her.