Ch.60Ch.5 – Dreaming and Waiting for ■■ ■■■ (■■)
by fnovelpia
The warehouses on the beach burn fiercely. Several have already collapsed. As we approach the source of the explosion, I see fallen agents struggling to pull themselves together.
Aurora stops the car. Crayfield and I grab our Thompsons, while Aurora clutches her Winchester rifle as we exit the vehicle.
Catherine Scully and Henry Armitage emerge from a half-collapsed warehouse. Scully’s lips twitch at the sight of Aurora, but she restrains herself from further reaction. Instead, she rushes to tend to her subordinates.
Professor Armitage collapses, his legs giving way. Rather than forcing him to stand, we adjust his position so he can stretch his legs comfortably.
“The resistance was formidable, but we ultimately destroyed the altar. Of those abducted, we saved only one—a man wearing a vigilante armband. He alone still has… his head attached.”
“So it’s over then?”
Laughter rings out—not human laughter. It’s a laugh with wild amplitude, like the howl of a hyena.
“No.”
The professor forces himself to stand. I try to stop him, but he’s stubborn. With no other choice, Crayfield and I support his body.
“Take me to that burning warehouse. With all the smoke, that spot would be ideal.”
When we get close enough, the professor signals us to let go. Despite his trembling, he reaches into his inner pocket and pulls out a small leather pouch.
“Age must be catching up with me. Throw this pouch into that fire pit.”
The pouch is quite heavy. I throw it forcefully, and it bursts open in the flames. A pungent yet sharp scent spreads instantly.
“Powder of Ibn-Ghazi. The same substance we used in Dunwich—it allows us to see beasts invisible to the naked eye. Stay close to the smoke.”
Scully also urges her agents forward, positioning herself near the black smoke.
The warehouse fire has become uncontrollable. Black smoke billows out, allowing us to clearly see the demon in the night sky. Aurora raises her gun first and fires at it.
The laughter stops abruptly, transforming into a thunderous roar.
Now the fluttering sounds are too numerous to count.
Like a massive swarm of bees attacking all at once!
“Back seat!”
Aurora shouts at Scully while firing in all directions. With each shot, the laughter transforms into screams and howls of rage.
Scully and the Federal Security agents retrieve guns from Aurora’s back seat and fire into the sky. Professor Armitage taps Crayfield’s shoulder.
“Mr. Crayfield. I apologize, but do you see that blue car? Please fetch my bag from there.”
Crayfield dashes away. Demons swoop toward him, but Aurora quickly shoots them down with her rifle. With a thud, one falls beside Crayfield. It flutters but is subdued by Crayfield’s bullets.
Wings flutter through the fog and soot. I ask the professor if he hadn’t said the summoning ritual was stopped.
“No. The ritual was ‘interrupted,’ not nullified. We need a ritual to reverse everything, and I’ll try my best. Like we did in Dunwich…”
Crayfield returns with a green leather bag. Professor Armitage, sitting on the ground, opens a worn notebook. The Necronomicon copy was too old, so he seems to have transcribed the relevant pages separately for today.
Professor Armitage spouts strange languages like a doomsday madman.
He raises both arms, sometimes bowing toward the sea that merely lies there eternally is not dead and *you understand his words!*
Grumbling and muttering with meaningless arm movements kikikistrange aeons with a steady beat and rhythm even death may die! he shouts.
[Wisdom burrows into your head like a midnight serpent]
[A slow drumbeat like a sleeping heart burrows into your ears]
[A delicate flute sound flows down your back like a fleeing mouse slipping between beds]
*Armitage has failed*
With a scream, one Federal Security agent is dragged skyward.
Other agents try to grab him, but Scully shoots something in the sky, causing it to drop.
Biting his lower lip and sweating profusely, Armitage stubbornly chants the spell again.
Lies eternally, eternally lies *you can repeat his words!*
Bowing toward the sea *a meaningless gesture!*
Is not dead and in strange aeons *that’s not how it’s pronounced!*
Even death may may may die die die! he shouts.
“…Father*…”
The demons’ wings flutter. Everyone covers their ears and buries their faces in the ground.
It comes.
It is coming.
From that deep, unfathomable abyss, beyond any human imagination, it ascends.
Even the fog crawls ashore to avoid it. The frightened sea churns, waves thrashing as if begging for mercy!
“…*Father*…”
Professor Armitage pounds the ground with his fist.
“Strange, strange… Oh… God, God! It truly comes.
It walks ashore! The dreamer awakens to claim what is his! God!”
Armitage wails as he lies collapsed on the ground.
“Where is it coming from.”
Aurora’s voice is subdued.
“Where is it coming from.”
The professor weakly points toward the sea. Without looking back, Aurora walks toward the pier. The steamboats tied to the dock bob up and down with the anxious waves. Crayfield runs after her.
“Don’t be reckless. You’ll die.”
Aurora glances at me.
“My… my land is mine to protect. I have men behind me. I must hold it back.”
“You don’t know what’s ahead of you.”
Aurora doesn’t care at all. Instead, she carefully inspects her rifle. Confirming it’s in order, she discards the empty shells and loads new bullets.
“I don’t particularly want to know. I’ll buy time. You seem to have a way to stop this, so try something.”
With skilled hands, she boards a steamboat and starts the engine. Crayfield climbs over the gunwale. I do the same.
Behind us, Scully and the federal agents escort Professor Armitage.
Aurora cuts the anchor rope with an axe stored on the boat. She also severs the mooring lines connecting the harbor and the boat.
Emitting white smoke, the tiny boat—a pathetic vessel built solely for tourism—sets off toward the vast Atlantic.
While Crayfield takes the helm, Aurora leads me to the bow.
“Thank you.”
I ask what she’s thanking me for.
The fog is even thicker now. It feels like a gelatinous wall, almost like flesh.
The searchlight turns on. Under the bright white light, Aurora’s smile is eerie.
“I told you. When I’m with you, I fear nothing in this world. I’ll show you that’s the truth. Thank you for coming with me.”
The fog disappears. The searchlight illuminates the far side of the sea. The middle of the sea is empty.
As if an invisible battleship had cut through the sea, the center of the sea appears ‘pressed down.’
The next moment, it is ‘filled.’
And then.
Like a massive rock dropped into a lake.
Like a beast placing its foot on a lake as vast as the sea.
The sea before us is crushed.
From this side to the other. Large enough to swallow the entire night sky. Perhaps even more.
With an ominous sound, the boat tilts sharply backward. Not waves. The sea. The sea lifts us up. High into the sky. Something worse than Mother Hydra’s eye. Not one but five. Six. Eight. Sixteen burning suns!
Aurora fires wildly at the suns. Click-click-click-click-click-click nothing comes from the empty gun, but Aurora, eyes bulging, continues to pull the trigger while drooling uncontrollably!
I strike the back of Aurora’s head. Caught by surprise, she goes limp.
Looking behind me, I see Crayfield has already fainted. During the boat’s capsizing, debris must have struck him.
*Only you can set everything right*
*Continue reading to accept the quest and intervene in the situation*
*Please stop here if you do not wish to accept*
.
..
……
……
…….
………..
[YOU HAVE CONTROL PRESS ANY KEY]
*You accept your destiny*
*Now you are the protagonist*
*You reload the drum of Revolver-Chekhov*
*The enraged son looks down at you and howls! Sixteen eyes fill with fury!*
1/12
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. Great evil gods. The protagonist.
2/12
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. Great evil gods. The protagonist.
3/12
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. Great evil gods. The protagonist.
4/12
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. Great evil gods. The protagonist.
5/12
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. Great evil gods. The protagonist.
You shoot Chekhov at Cthulhu. It has no effect. It howls and strikes the sea. It wails sorrowfully like a child who has lost both father and mother! Four shots remain.
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. Gre■■ evil gods. The protagonist.
*Your eyelids twitch.*
Click
The clock points to 6.
You shoot Chekhov at Cthulhu. It has no effect. It howls and strikes the sea. It wails sorrowfully like a child who has lost both father and mother! Three shots remain.
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. Gre■■ evil gods. The protagonist.
*Your heartbeat accelerates*
Click
The clock points to 7.
You shoot Chekhov at Cthulhu. It has no effect. It howls and strikes the sea. It wails sorrowfully like a child who has lost both father and mother! Two shots remain.
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. ■■■ evil god■. The protagonist.
*You toss and turn in your sleep*
Click
The clock points to 8.
You shoot Chekhov at Cthulhu. It has no effect. It howls and strikes the sea. It wails sorrowfully like a child who has lost both father and mother! One shot remains.
[Warning: Bullets have no effect on entities that cannot be deleted.]
Ex) Important NPCs including John Crayfield. ■■■ evil ■■. The protagonist.
*……Father!……
Click
The clock points to 9.
*You finally reach understanding*
Click
The clock points to 10.
*(Dead) Cthulhu (from the stars) waits dreaming in R’lyeh, (his dwelling place and a city of terrible corpses) until (the end of strange aeons) (Fathe■)…*
“No.”
*You glare at Aurora*
*Aurora Savio reaches her hand to your cheek*
“You are not that darkness. The person I love is not like that. Come back. Come back to me. I told you. I’m not afraid. You saved me.”
*Aurora Savio pulls you(?) closer.*
“So I’ll save you. You are mine. I won’t give you to anyone.”
*Aurora kisses ^%!&#$*
[ YOU LOSE CONTROL ]
[ I HAVE CONTROL ]
The glass of the Doomsday Clock cracks with a loud noise.
I insert Chekhov. I grab the unconscious Aurora and draw my revolver.
It still has six shots left.
I fire one shot.
From far away. From high above, something like a meteor plummets down. With a splash, it falls onto the sea—a viscous liquid.
[ Anything that can bleed can be killed ]
I aim between the glowing suns. I fire one shot. Five shots remain.
“I command.”
Words I cannot understand flow from my mouth. I know they are the spell that Henry Armitage struggled to recite. I know they are words of power, just as Sister Abashina knew. They tickle my mouth and tongue.
“That is not dead which eternal lies”
I heard it writhing in agony. The boat was so unstable that I sat down on the gunwale. Dangerous objects tumbled around Aurora and me.
One shot.
Another shot.
Three shots remain.
“And with strange aeons”
The sixteen suns contracted as if collapsing. Like the legendary fire dog devouring them, they gradually shriveled.
One shot.
“Even death”
One shot.
“May die.”
The false suns disappeared. The fog that covered Pollard is pulled from behind us toward the abyss ahead. Like night demons dragged back to hell when the morning sun rises.
And there, ahead, the trampled and suppressed sea opened its throat, creating a massive whirlpool.
I rush to the stern and turn the helm. I barely manage to turn the bow toward the island. The boat tilts precariously with the sudden maneuver.
For a moment, it seems we’ll be dragged into the whirlpool, but at the last moment, the boat’s engine roars and breaks free from the sea’s grasp.
“Ugh…”
Crayfield is bleeding from the back of his head. The boat’s cabin has a first aid kit for such emergencies. I apply antiseptic and wrap his wound with bandages.
Looking at the fog being pulled into the sea, Crayfield smiles.
“What a mess. What a mess. In many ways…”
Crayfield looks at my wristwatch.
“Good heavens. Are you not hurt? The glass is cracked. It’s nothing. This can be fixed. Something must have hit it.”
I don’t remember. As he says, it might have hit something.
Crayfield staggers to his feet and properly takes the helm. I return to the gunwale and shake Aurora.
She’s breathing, but her breaths are shallow. I bring my ear close to her lips.
“Got you.”
Aurora’s arms playfully wrap around my body.
“I was right… wasn’t I? You.”
Aurora presses her lips to mine. Unable to easily break free and quite exhausted myself, I let her be.
Her hand guides mine inside her collar.
Beneath the warm skin, a beating heart speaks.
I listen to the heart’s words with my hand.
Far away, boats with searchlights approach us from Pollard Island.
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