Chapter 31: The Call of Cthulhu
Make sure to check my Patre.on out if you want to support me and want to read advanced chapters: Patre.on.com/VQuintessence
[30 Chapters in Advance on Patre.on]
...........
Chapter 31: The Call of Cthulhu
...........
It's because Kurayami is so strong that such a heavy drawback had to occur as merely a side effect of its power, the power of, "Let there be darkness, born from the darkest of dreams... Kurayami."
The ritual repeats itself. Ink dripped from Kurayami as Akashi held the blade down, allowing the darkness to infiltrate every nook and cranny of the walls, turning the place into pure darkness.
All that needed to happen was for Akashi to close his eyes, take a deep breath, then open them again only to find himself in a completely different location.
There he stood, centered upon a floating platform, suspended within an endless expanse.
Beneath it churned an ocean of Ink, its surface a restless, writhing mirror of liquid darkness.
Yet, something was different this time. The ocean had shrunk. Once an unfathomable abyss stretching into eternity, now it was but a great lake; a mere fraction of what it once was.
The cost of the First's creation had been immense. His entire life's worth of darkness had been drained to bring it into existence.
That being; the First; was unique, an entity unlike any other, the manifestation of Akashi's very soul.
No lesser horror could ever compare, for it had devoured all that he had been, and in turn, had become something more.
And now, it was time for something new.
Now, it was time for new creations to arise, a very different process than how the First was created.
There, in the ocean that's now nothing but a puddle in comparison to what it was before; there lie black spheres, floating on the Ink.
Some were cracked, their dark shells broken to reveal the unfinished horrors within.
Others pulsed, like unborn hearts yet to beat for the first time. Some were shapeless masses, oozing and shifting as though unable to decide what form they should take.
These were the ideas. The whispers of fear, the silent nightmares born from the deepest, most hidden recesses of the mind.
They were the audience's darkest thoughts made manifest. But thought alone was not enough.
To be born, they needed fuel. They needed energy. They needed the ocean; the ink of Akashi's soul.
His eyes scanned the floating masses until they locked onto two specific spheres, distinct from the rest.
One was small, almost unremarkable, while the other was enormous, so large that its mere presence seemed to weigh upon reality itself.
Only these two were ready. They pulsed with darkness far greater than the others, fully formed, brimming with maturity.
The reason was simple; these were the fears that had taken root most deeply in the hearts of the people of Soul Society.
"Wake... Let me see you," Akashi muttered, his expression focused, a genuine smile of interest emerging on his face as he watched the phenomenon that occurred upon the uttering of his words.
The response was immediate. The two black eggs trembled, shuddering as if something inside was stirring at his words.
Then, they expanded; no, they pulled in the surrounding darkness, acting as black holes with insatiable hunger.
The waves of Ink surged towards them, sucked in with violent intensity. It took mere moments for the smaller egg to shatter, splitting apart as the entity within emerged.
A shadow-like figure slowly rose from the remnants of its cocoon, the darkness dripping from its formless body like black rain.
It was a man; or at least, the semblance of one. Dressed in a long trench coat and crowned with a fedora, his shape wavered, indistinct yet undeniably present.
The Hat Man.
Akashi's eyebrows lifted slightly. He had not expected this entity to take such a dominant place within Soul Society's nightmares, but the voices whispered their explanation.
It was the paranoia, the ever-present fear of being watched, of the unseen lurking in the darkness, of never truly being alone.
In a world where shadows such as Shinigami held more danger than the light, the Hat Man had flourished.
The reality is that in most districts, you have to constantly look behind in fear. The shadows are Soul Society's greatest fear.
Thus, the Hat Man became very popular due to its behavior; despite Akashi not dictating a whole story to him.
Instead, he introduced him as this mysterious existence that sometimes passes by in his stories.
The entity was described in the stories as more of a phenomenon, like a ghost that is almost always seen, just standing up.
The entity can simply fade until the witness no longer sees it and has no apparent reaction to people.
In some stories, he described people "bumping into" this entity, which does absolutely nothing for seconds or minutes, then moves around a bit and just vanishes, as if it couldn't detect who saw it.
The entity has no identifying features and it's said to feed on terror and fear, while others believe that this entity just studies and observes.
The entity hovered for only a moment before vanishing, appearing right by Akashi's side, just gazing at him.
"..." Akashi also looked at the Hat man. No expression, no facial features. In fact, even its eyes couldn't really be called eyes as they looked more like two black orbs that were barely noticeable.
"Welcome home," Said Akashi, not expecting a response. Indeed, he did not get one.
His attention turned instead to the colossal egg. Unlike the first, this one did not simply crack; it devoured.
It drank in every last drop of darkness, the entire remaining ocean of Ink, until there was nothing left.
The sphere pulsed, growing darker, heavier, as if the very concept of mass had begun to bend under its presence.
And then, it shattered.
The thing that emerged was no mere shadow. It was an entity that defied logic, that should not exist yet did.
A being of both anthropoid and cephalopodic design. A horror whose very form sent ripples through the void itself.
He - or rather it - has an upper body similar to a man, but possesses narrow, webbed wings upon its back and its arms and legs end with clawed digits.
The most defining feature of the creature is its head, which closely resembles an octopus.
The head is mostly a large, bulbous, pulsating sac and numerous writhing tentacles sprout from where one would expect a mouth to be.
Its size is colossal, dwarfing the dark expanse, standing at a height of more than a hundred meters.
Cthulhu.
The Great Old One.
It let out a sound, deep and resonant, like the rolling of distant thunder. The vibrations alone cracked the floating platform upon which Akashi stood. Even the void itself seemed to recoil at its presence.
Akashi's fingers twitched at his sides, his fascination undeniable. "Cthulhu," He whispered, watching as the massive being knelt before him.
The movement alone sent tremors through the fabric of this place.
But something was wrong.
Cthulhu's power is incomprehensible by human standards, existing beyond the scope of mortal physics and logic.
As a Great Old One, its body is not bound by conventional destruction; any wound inflicted upon it merely reforms, its flesh knitting together as though reality itself refuses to acknowledge harm upon its being.
Even if shattered or torn apart, Cthulhu is not truly slain, for it exists on a level where death is a transient inconvenience rather than a finality.
Beyond its near-invulnerability, Cthulhu's mind is an overwhelming force, capable of shattering the sanity of those who perceive it.
Its mere presence induces madness, unraveling rational thought and reducing even the strongest minds to gibbering insanity.
Through dreams, it extends its influence across the world, reaching into the subconscious of sensitive individuals, guiding them with cryptic whispers, and molding their thoughts.
Those attuned to its call may act as its heralds, drawn irresistibly to its will even while it slumbers.
Akashi further described him in the books as capable of bending reality to its will.
Akashi narrowed his eyes, his earlier excitement dimming. This creature; this entity that should have been beyond comprehension; was powerful, yes, but not in the way it was supposed to be.
It had no reality-bending abilities.
No psychic dominion.
No mind-rending influence.
All it had was its colossal size and unnatural regeneration. It was… lesser than what it should have been.
"A fool's hope," Akashi muttered, the weight of reality settling upon his shoulders.
He had known the truth before he even began, yet he had still clung to the possibility that it could be different.
The cost of true eldritch power was far greater than he could yet afford.
His mind stirred, seeking an answer. If the Ink was insufficient… then he needed more. More darkness. More fear. More nightmares.
His eyes gleamed. "Darkness… Where can I get more darkness?" His lips curled in thought. "It seems I soon have to go to the human world."
----------------------------------------------
[ 500 Power Stones For An Extra Chapter!]
[ 1000 Power Stones For Another Extra Chapter!!]
----------------------------------------------