Lord Sudsworth took his final bow. The music faded. The glitter settled.
Then the floor beneath us began to ripple.
> "Oh no," Arc muttered. "We've been in a plot loop again."
The ripples expanded. Reality hiccuped.
Suddenly, a neon sign blinked into existence: "MAGIC SPOT: DO NOT STEP HERE."
So naturally, Kevin stepped directly onto it.
FWOOMP.
Kevin vanished.
> "Where did he go?" I shouted.
> "If the sign says not to, do not!" Lyria growled.
Too late. Grubnuk, chasing a donut, stumbled into the Magic Spot too. FWOOMP. Gone.
Clucksworth stared. Then deliberately waddled into it.
> "I hate this job," Arc muttered, following suit. FWOOMP.
> "What's the worst that could happen?" I asked aloud.
The rubber duck King turned to me.
> "Your existence is what's the worst that could happen," he quacked solemnly.
Then he shoved me in.
---
We landed in a field of rainbow-colored mushrooms. The sky was lavender. A talking cloud shaped like a cow floated overhead, humming show tunes.
Kevin was wearing a tutu. Grubnuk was building a fort out of glitter grass. Arc was trying to interrogate a stone with legs.
> "Where are we?" Lyria asked.
> "This is... oh dear," Arc muttered. "This is The Magic Spot."
> "I thought that was a joke," I said.
> "It is. But it's also very real and extremely literal."
A mushroom opened its eyes.
> "Welcome to our realm," it whispered. "You're either going to learn a great truth here... or grow a second nose."
Grubnuk looked excited.
> "I've always wanted a backup nose!"
The cloud-cow mooed dramatically. The grass changed colors. A trumpet blared somewhere in the distance.
> "We have to get out of here," Lyria hissed. "Before the narrative digests us."
> "You mean—"
> "Yes. The Magic Spot is alive."
A tree winked at me. I think. Maybe.
> "Welp," I sighed, brushing glitter out of my eyes. "Let's find the exit portal before we end up in Chapter Infiniti."
---
End of Chapter 40 (Magic Spot entered. Common sense exited. Kevin's tutu remains unexplained.)