Ch.166Act 2: Ch.10 – Long Live the King (18)

Aurora picked up a wooden club. She pounded on an abandoned car by the roadside. Bang-ta-bang, bang!

“Operation abort! Abort! Gather up! I said gather up!”

After a brief pause, she repeated it two, three more times. Finally, a sound came from beyond the hazy fog. Bang-ta-bang, bang! ‘Abort! Abort, gather up! Gather up!’

A police motorcycle approached. It flowed naturally past the abandoned car and piles of collapsed buildings. It stopped in front of the theater. Katherine Scully dismounted. She was panting as if exhausted, and the medal that had slipped out from under her shirt clinked.

“All areas…” Scully was dumbfounded at the sight of the theater, but she wiped her forehead and caught her breath.

“All areas are sealed off. There’s a storm in the west, and headless whales are crawling up from the south. The north… in the north, fish-men are climbing up the cliffs. Yes. The beings from the Innsmouth sea…”

Deep Ones. Those who had abandoned humanity. Scully hung her head.

“They’re all converging. The city center is the safest place right now. But we don’t have much time left.”

People poured in. Cars moved back and forth to form barricades. Citizens brought out desks and chairs to build walls. They would collapse instantly if a whaling ship returning from the abyss pushed against them, but it was better than nothing.

Screams, groans, and gunshots echoed from all directions. The sound of explosives detonating, buildings collapsing, the ground shaking. Hands still danced, and the king’s collar fluttered.

“This can’t be happening. Pollard is such a large island…”

“Aurora. It’s the fog. Those things are coming through the fog. They’re swimming through it as if it were the sea. Look there.”

Scully pointed west. In the sea of fog that reached about waist-high, fins swayed up and down. Those approaching like a pod of orcas raised their heads.

Bulging eyeballs, flat and stuck-on nostrils barely visible, small teeth sharp as saw blades, and the distinctively elongated, torn mouths of fish. Curved backs and ominously glistening scales.

And the stench. The stench arrived faster than any herald. The distinctive dock smell of rotting fish. Despite the sea being so salty, they insisted on rotting.

[Please be seated, please be seated!]

The burning stage split open. The actors revealed themselves one by one. They wore what could barely be called clothes—garments woven from fabric, gold thread, and silk. These were practically naked outfits that didn’t conceal intimate parts but rather emphasized them with subtle curiosity.

But it wasn’t just their clothes that were shed. Even their skin was peeled away. The actors’ flesh was stripped in places, revealing pulsating blood vessels, writhing muscles, and white layers of fat. Between them were embedded gears, joint bearings, and moving pistons.

Everyone fired their guns. Some threw burning bottles, others rushed toward the stage. Someone rammed into a parked car, while another charged with a large hammer.

“Mind your manners!”

Bullets that had lost their power dropped with thuds. Fires extinguished, bottles fell short of the stage. People and cars rushing toward the stage were, uh, pulverized. Yes, pulverized. Those that momentarily paused were neatly sliced into cubes.

“Mind your manners! Mind your manners! That’s what cultured people do, uphold the dignity of Pollard!”

Senator Annette Cole appeared. Navy blue suit with a black cane. Faces joined side by side. Four mechanical arms growing from her back. Wires extended from the arms. The joined faces were made of hammered metal plates, with camera lenses instead of eyes, vacuum tubes instead of brains, and sizzling moving chains instead of mouths.

“Yes! Manners, mind your manners!”

Shockdoves swooped down over people’s heads. They shot. They hit. People ran down the streets, hoping to escape.

Crayfield hit the ones flying straight at us. Aurora’s shotgun drove away the flocks of gathering birds. Federal agents and mafia members struggled to hold back the wave of Deep Ones crawling up from the abyss. Citizens joined in to reinforce the barricades.

Ah. But that ship! There’s no way to stop that ship!

Instead of a keel, it had a whale’s spine, and instead of a bow, a sperm whale’s skull. Corpses in tattered clothes pulled the sail ropes. They did so even though the ship had no masts.

“Pollard! Pollard! They’ve returned! They’ve returned!”

The sleeping buildings all awoke at once. The old buildings that had rejoiced at their departure and mourned their silence now awakened and opened their mouths.

“They’ve returned! They’ve returned! The forgotten ships have returned! The parents who died to save their children have returned! Ah, ungrateful children, ungrateful children! The time has come to pay the price!”

“We did the work! We died! You reap the benefits! I’ll claim my share, I’ll take my share!”

Harpoons with rotting ropes flew through the air. They pierced the bodies of the living. Those consumed by rage pulled the struggling victims toward the ship’s rail with jerking motions. They devoured them greedily, starting with the legs, and shouted with flesh in their mouths!

“It’s not enough! Not enough! Pay back with interest! Interest! Give us the interest!”

They cut off the heads of the living to drink their blood, then rudely threw the empty cups overboard!

“What a magnificent play!”

The shockdoves cried out.

“Look, even the dead rise up to come see it! There’s never been a play like this, and there never will be again! It’s a blessing, a blessing! You fools, that’s why you’re behind the times! Look, watch the play!”

Gun barrels overheated. Even hands loading ammunition trembled. Now, even taking out a drum magazine meant risking burns. Click, click. Useless guns were discarded one by one.

I looked at the stage. The actors were giving passionate performances. The stage split open again with a crack, revealing Drugstore. He was dressed as a pharaoh. Adorned in gold, but with a black mask.

“Long live the King!”

The actors sang in chorus.

“Black Pharaoh, King, True King, may you live forever! Rule long and prosper! Rule long and prosper!”

Thunder struck. Fireballs falling from the two moons hammered the island. Lightning flashed. Dark clouds gathered. Wind blew. Rain poured down.

A flash.

Then I saw it.

In the place where the Black Pharaoh had been, long roots. Unholy roots stretching not into the ground but toward the sky. Each small tendril of the roots had a mouth, and each mouth had two eyes. They giggled. They cackled. Twisting themselves this way and that, they gaped as if unable to bear it.

A flash.

Then I saw it.

The curtain of the sky falling helplessly. The sky was filled only with countless gears, clocks, pistons and bearings, engines and shafts. Doomsday clocks embedded here and there.

Click.

<Awakening 8/12 / Doom 9/12>

The clock hands all moved one by one. Click. The cosmic hour hand moved. Click. The sound of scissors snipping rang in everyone’s ears.

“Whose umbilical cord shall we cut, whose lifeline shall we sever, whose thread of life shall we clip!”

The actors sang. Birds took flight. People collapsed one by one.

The ground tore open.

[It is mine…!]

A mountain rose up. A mountain larger than a mountain. A blinking mountain, a mountain with giant eyes that blinked, stretching out its hand to grab the king’s collar and rip it apart. Like a lion tearing off the ear of an elephant four times its size.

“It’s your fault!”

Someone shouted.

“You said we could survive, that we’d be safe! You’ve ruined everything, it’s all over! You’re all going to die. It’s over here, it’s all over!”

“We should never have let outsiders in! They’re the ones who caused this disaster!”

“Who opened up the port to boost tourism!”

Even the mafia and agents at the front lines were bewildered. Exhausted people raised their voices against each other. The fire was too big. The commotion was too great. This was, well.

Despair.

“There must be…”

Crayfield gritted his teeth.

“A variable, there must be some variable…”

“Nooooo!”

A gigantic arm burst from the ground beside me. The quick ones threw themselves to the ground, but those who hesitated found themselves lifted up, up, up on its palm.

Abashina spread her wings and took flight. People jumped toward her. Too many. Far too many. They fought and clamored to be the first to board. Abashina wailed. Shockdoves swarmed her. Thousands of crows attacking a single eagle.

Abashina flipped her body. She managed to keep as many people as possible on her body. Then, Abashina plummeted. At the moment of impact, she struggled with all her might to slow down. But she couldn’t bear the weight.

“Abashina!”

People fled, limping away without a word of thanks. Abashina tried to get up, but something was wrong, and she couldn’t rise.

“My wings…”

Both wings were broken. Bones protruded sharply through torn feathers and flesh. Black blood clots erupted from her mouth. I rolled up my sleeve. Abashina shook her head.

“No…”

“Drink! You need to drink to survive!”

“Save your strength.”

A trembling hand caressed my chest.

“You’ve held out too long already. The road ahead is long, and you can’t waste your energy now. You know how jealous I am. If you grow weaker, she who stirs within you will take you away from me.”

Abashina forced a smile.

“I don’t want to lose you. And…”

“Kyaaah!”

A fish head leaped up. It had crossed the barricade. Like an anglerfish, it opened its mouth wide.

“Duck!”

I reflexively bent my body. I was careful not to touch Abashina. The sound of a shotgun, the unpleasant feeling of something sticky touching the back of my neck and back. I didn’t want to know what it was.

I turned my head. Aurora pulled out something long and red from her waist. It was dynamite. After lighting it with a lighter, she threw it over. Flash. Explosion. Screams.

Her subordinates brought more explosives. Aurora lightly tapped my shoulder and ran to the front line.

‘Bring grenades! Explosives too! Fire the flares directly! Burn everything!’

But those were just echoes.

All I could hear was Abashina’s faint breathing.

A flower petal trembling before the storm.

The touch of lips on my cheek.

“Can you help me up?”

I wrapped my arms around her back and waist. Slowly raised her up. Abashina trembled in pain, but she endured it. She bent her legs with a groan, but I quickly supported her. Her wings dragged on the ground. But I couldn’t touch them.

“One favor.”

“Anything.”

“Take me there.”

The place Abashina painfully pointed to was the eastern side. Where the whaling ship was charging. Where the dead hung like trophies on the ship’s rail.

“Abashina, are you crazy? I absolutely can’t, absolutely not!”

“But I’m going anyway? I want to go? Pretty beast, can’t I go?”

It wasn’t just words. She really threw herself forward. I caught her just in time. I thought it was fortunate she couldn’t see my expression.

“Nothing to say now, right?”

Abashina smiled sadly.

“You call that talking…”

My side stung sharply. Abashina had poked me with her finger. More than the pain or surprise, a fearful sense of déjà vu froze my body.

“I told you before. When you have nothing to say, what did I tell you to do?”

Abashina leaned her body. I had no choice but to match my steps with hers. Slowly, we moved forward.