Chapter 19: The Eldritch Godness and the Crisis

Felix had sensed something.

"What is it? What do you mean, 'something'?"

"Quiet."

My question earned me a sharp rebuke.

Felix advanced cautiously before suddenly freezing. And then I saw it too—the figure standing before the altar. Someone I knew all too well.

"My, my. To traverse such darkness with only that pitiful light as your guide... How powerless. How foolish. Light does little to banish the dark—it only announces your presence to what lurks within."

The voice, dripping with amusement, belonged to none other than Claudia. She was here, in this underground shrine.

"Who are you?" Felix demanded, instantly on guard.

"Shall I say... one of the witches who built this shrine?"

"The demon worship here ended over 500 years ago."

"And you find 500 years impressive?" Claudia laughed mockingly. "In the span of the cosmos, 500 years is less than a blink. Yet you speak of it as if it were eternity. How laughably ignorant."

"Silence. Five centuries is eternity for humans."

"Oh? And what worth does a single human life hold? Do you pause to consider the perspective of gnats when you speak?"

"Gnats?!"

"You are less than a gnat, yet too blind to see it."

Their argument devolved into verbal sparring, neither yielding an inch.

"Humans cling to their delusions—that they alone have built 'civilization,' that they stand atop this world as its masters. They label all else heresy, the ravings of madmen. How pathetic."

Claudia’s laughter echoed, though her gaze never settled on Felix. She stared past him, into the void.

"So you did worship demons here."

"Worship? Is that the limit of your comprehension?" She sneered. "To worship is to surrender to ignorance. We sought knowledge. To understand the minds of those beyond the veil—their thoughts, their truths, the blasphemies hidden from mortal eyes. To see the unseen, to grasp the unfathomable! Ahahaha—!"

Her laughter twisted into something unhinged.

"You're insane." Felix spat the words.

"Insane? Which of us? The happy little meat puppet content in its ignorance? Or I, who would pay any price for truth? Who decides what is 'sane'?"

With a final scoff, Claudia turned and strode deeper into the shrine.

"Wait! You will explain—"

"Flesh for flesh. Let my servant feast upon you."

As Felix moved to pursue her, something slithered from the shadows. A wet, squelching sound. A whisper—no, a chant—hissed through the dark.

"Lord Felix! Get back!"

Instinct kicked in. I grabbed Felix, yanking him away just as it emerged.

"Aaah... Aaah... We... we... we..."

The voice was human, but the thing it came from was anything but.

A mass of pulsating flesh, studded with cloudy eyes, writhing tentacles forming and dissolving like living sludge. It spoke in a chorus of distorted whispers.

An abomination.

"What in—?!"

Felix recoiled, shielding me as we stumbled back.

"W-We have to run, Lord Felix!"

"Can we even—?!"

I already understood.

This thing was the fate of the shrine’s worshippers. They had sought transcendence—to shed humanity and become something more. And this was the result.

Somehow, the horror of it didn’t break me. The sight was revolting, but my mind stayed clear.

...Or perhaps I’d always been mad, and this was just another layer of the nightmare.

"We can escape! Hurry!"

"Tch—!"

I kept my voice steady, anchoring Felix’s fraying sanity as we sprinted for the stairs.

Behind us, the mass lurched forward with alarming speed, its whispers rising to a cacophony. Tentacles lashed out, barely missing Felix’s heels.

"Hah—! Wh-What is that?! Why does it—why does it sound like people?!"

Felix’s breath came in ragged gasps, his steps faltering.

We wouldn’t make it.

"Lord Felix. Close your eyes."

"Wha—?"

I stripped off my glove.

He didn’t understand—and that was for the best.

Sometimes, ignorance is salvation.

"To think they sought to become like me... only to end up as that. How pathetically foolish."

I reached out with my bare hand toward the writhing mass of flesh.

"Kneel."

The moment my fingers brushed its tendrils—

"AAH—AAH—AAAH! GOD! GOD! GODGODGODGODGODGODGOD—!"

The whispers became screams.

The monstrosity convulsed, its limbs rotting from the points I touched. The stench of decay filled the air as its form collapsed, dissolving into putrid sludge.

It crumbled. It rotted. It died.

All that remained was a liquefying carcass, its very shape unraveling. The stench of acid and necrosis clung to the chamber.

"...How utterly stupid."

Claudia must have used them as test subjects. Failures to her, yet still fit to guard this place.

"Lord Felix."

Once certain the abomination was gone, I approached him.

He was kneeling, hands clutching his head, muttering in fractured gasps:

"Human voices... Human voices... That thing—that monstrosity—spoke like people... It can't be... It can't... No god would allow this... If that was once human... then who... WHO DID THIS?!"

Bad. Very bad.

Felix teetered on the edge of madness. Leave him like this, and he’d end up like the others—a suicide attempt, then institutionalized.

And though Claudia bore the blame... I couldn’t shake the guilt.

"Lord Felix. Look at me."

I cradled his face, forcing his unfocused eyes to meet mine.

"There was nothing here. Just rats. Nothing frightening. Nothing at all."

"N-Nothing...?"

"No ghosts. No witches. No monsters. The world is normal. It’s sane. Do you understand?"

"The world is... sane..."

His pupils finally steadied—just before his body gave out. He slumped against the stairs, breathing ragged.

"...Can’t exactly leave him here."

(Not that I could carry him. He’s heavy.)

"Guess I’ll wait."

So I sat beside him in the dark, counting the seconds until he woke.

……………………