novelraw Chapter 202
Chapter 202
Before he could wonder why it was coming this way, his body was already moving reflexively.
-Thud!
Just as he jumped to the side while holding Yurik, the sound of a tree and Shoggoth colliding came from right behind.
Tree bark scattered everywhere, and the tree that couldn't withstand the impact began to slowly fall with a painful sound.
Fortunately, before the Shoggoth could extract its body, the falling tree crushed the black slime mass.
-Crash!
Yurik screamed in surprise with his face buried against him.
But he didn't have the presence of mind to comfort Yurik either.
What was happening? This alarm sound must be an alert for city danger or a warning among the Elder Things.
The sudden Shoggoth collision, alarm sounds, whistling sounds echoing throughout the city.The meaning of these things was.
"Run away."
"Yesung?"
"Run away, right now. Run! Don't look back and run!"
He urged the pale-faced Yurik and pushed him in the direction away from the city.
Yurik hesitated several times while looking at him, but when the Shoggoth slowly began to rise, he finally ran in the direction he had indicated.
Yurik's figure disappeared down the path between the plants. He finally felt relieved and faced the black demonic beast that was growing in size before him.
This destructive instinct was purely the Shoggoth's instinct and only volition.
What this meant was.
"The hypnosis no longer works."
-Te-ke...ri....
Crackling, sticky sounds came from the Shoggoth's bubbling surface.
At the same time, it was trying to use language similar to human throats or flute melodies.
Before him, frozen in panic, the Shoggoth imitated some form.
It looked somewhat like a person, and also resembled the Elder Things he had often seen.
-Te, ke, r, ri-ri....
"Wait a minute, this is."
-Tekelllllli-ri, tekel, ker, ker.
If Shoggoths had eyes, if they also possessed sensory organs.
No.
Even if they just learned that other life forms around them 'possessed such types of sensory organs.'
-Tekelli-ri! Tekelli-ri!
Eyeballs emerging through the black body.
Small and large eyes couldn't find their positions and settled here and there on the surface.
The Shoggoth's eyes, constantly grasping surroundings and absorbing information, suddenly focused on him.
It clearly recognized his existence and collected the evolutionary advantages he possessed.
An organ that could be called a mouth opened.
What seemed to be considered a nose had holes punctured throughout.
At the ends of tentacles that extended to mimic the long arms and legs he had, hundreds of thin fingers were attached.
The body that had looked like a drooping sack contracted irregularly and changed into a form similar to a human.
But that was only an imitation based on him as a specimen.
It was a disgusting form that properly touched the uncanny valley.
-Tekelli-ri! Tekelli-ri!
The sound it emitted through its 'mouth' organ became much clearer.
A roar of victory, or a shout full of pride and self-satisfaction.
At that moment he realized.
Shoggoths weren't tools but evolving life forms. However, they had been bound by Elder Thing hypnosis because they were single-celled-like beings that hadn't evolved properly.
When he had only heard the Elder Things' words, he had only thought that Shoggoths might have room for evolution.
But the Shoggoths... were already in a transitional period of evolution.
This body, these arms, these legs. This form.
By imitating the life form before their eyes, they overcame evolutionary differences,
And used that to give persuasiveness to destructive behavior that would destroy the opponent's existence.
That was the violent essence of Shoggoths,
And their greatest sense of purpose.
-Tekelli-ri!
A large hand was swung toward him like a whip.
Intuiting instant death upon contact, he threw himself flat to avoid it.
The wind pressure grazing his crown made his blood run cold.
Dying once wasn't a big problem, but if he died here right now, this creature might chase after Yurik too.
What would happen then?
The best method he could take here was only one.
"Follow me, you bastard!"
Provocation.
Currently, only one Shoggoth had flowed into the garden.
Then he had to drag this creature back to the city, opposite from the direction Yurik had gone.
The creature that reacted to his voice looked at him, then quickly began struggling toward him using its 'leg' organs.
"Ahhhhh!"
It was disgusting, disgusting, so disgusting!
The genre had instantly changed from a peaceful healing story to a horror movie creature feature!
He barely ran toward the path leading to the city, avoiding the creature that trampled all the surrounding trees and flowers as it charged.
The city's alarm sounds were still ringing noisily,
And the writhing evolutionary processes of Shoggoths that had escaped hypnosis were nakedly visible everywhere.
They were destroying the city's structures with their bodies swollen to the fullest.
Sculptures, stone floors, pillars, arches - they destroyed and crushed everything without exception.
Above, shadows of Elder Things flying frantically through the sky to avoid the violent Shoggoths were cast on the ground.
"Why isn't the hypnosis working!"
Though he shouted at the top of his lungs while running out of breath, his voice couldn't reach the flying Elder Things.
Were they planning to fly around the sky forever like this!
While running with gritted teeth, he saw a strange scene.
Shoggoths were clustering together.
Shoggoths that originally couldn't execute behavioral patterns like group activities unless ordered were beginning to gather, mix, and fuse among themselves.
The black mass grew larger and larger. Eventually, the Shoggoth collective that looked like a small tower began transforming to become thinner and higher.
At first, he couldn't understand why they were changing form like this.
But when the tip of the collective instantly grabbed a low-flying Elder Thing and threw it to the ground, he was horrified.
The Shoggoths had evolved not only biologically but also intellectually!
The Elder Thing crashed into the ground made continuous short whistling sounds.
Other Elder Things flew above the fallen one, but they too couldn't land for fear of being caught by Shoggoths.
He ran to the Elder Thing that couldn't get up with trembling wings, grabbed him, and shook him frantically.
"Why did this suddenly happen? What about the hypnosis? It was always working, you said there were no cases of suddenly escaping from hypnosis all at once!"
[Reason... unknown. Tool individual, city invasion... hypnosis magic provision crystal, destroyed....]
"Crystal? You're saying the crystal providing magic power was destroyed? Then you can't use hypnosis anymore?"
[Separate magic supply source needed... possessed crystal confirmation, magic insufficient. Magic replenishment time, estimated 5 years.]
"Are you insane!"
He couldn't suffer from Shoggoths for 5 years.
Elder Things could fly around avoiding Shoggoths, and in the worst case, they could abandon this planet and leave, but he couldn't.
He had the responsibility to maintain this planet so it wouldn't head toward the worst situation.
Because the story's protagonist would be born here hundreds of millions of years later.
He couldn't pass down a planet full of Shoggoths to the newly born Leandros!
"Where is it?"
[Emotional expression, question.]
"Where is it? That crystal. If there's magic, you can operate hypnosis again, right? How do we do it?"
[Emotional expression, question. Hypnosis and magic replenishment crystal. Elder Thing knowledge. Cannot share with alien species.]
"Is this the time to say such things? Listen carefully. Some of the Shoggoths here are already trying to go out to the garden. If it goes well, they might spread beyond the garden to areas you haven't touched."
[Emotional expression, agreement.]
"Your 'tools' are already changing. I don't know how far they'll change, but if we assume the worst case..."
[Prediction proposal needed.]
"If that happens, an unprecedented rebellion where tools devour their creators might occur."
Truly treason. Rebellion.
A hypothesis the Elder Things had never imagined.
The Elder Thing who heard his words remained silent for a moment. During that time, the Shoggoth collective trying to catch Elder Things flying in the sky only grew larger.
The collective now looked like a black disaster rising from the ground.
"Decide. I'm trying to help you."
[...Understanding. Rational conclusion reached. City lowest floor center, hypnosis device and crystal installation. Possessed crystal, identical. Magic possession amount, insufficient. Emotional expression, warning.]
"Enough with the warnings."
The Elder Thing, trembling as if about to stop breathing, told him the method to replenish the hypnosis machine and crystal magic.
He nodded and immediately ran toward the city.
The Elder Things shouldn't all die before hypnosis worked again.
Ironically, the closest entrance to the city from here was the Shoggoth-only passage he had used during his first infiltration.
Of course there were other passages, but now wasn't the time to be choosy, so he entered directly.
After going down to about the 2nd underground floor, suddenly a Shoggoth freed from hypnosis was charging from ahead.
"Damn it!"
-Tekelli-ri!
The Shoggoth roared fiercely at the curse he uttered in surprise.
He dodged into a side path to avoid the Shoggoth charging like a steam locomotive, but the Shoggoth tenaciously chased him even while crashing into walls and railings.
"Get lost! Get lost! Please!"
-Rumble, thud, crash!
He could hear the sound of corridors and walls collapsing.
Dying wasn't scary, nor was Yurik, but running while aware that the ground was collapsing right behind his feet required a different kind of courage.
And not looking back to avoid seeing the distance between him and the Shoggoth chasing to kill him.
While the Shoggoth was running along the ceiling and walls, a black hand suddenly extended from the side.
Just as he thought he would be caught and squeezed his eyes shut.
-Crash!
"Ahhhhh!"
The speed of the collapsing floor overtook him.
Like dominoes falling in an instant, as minerals and stone fragments collapsed instantly, he could hear the Shoggoth clinging to the ceiling and howling beyond them.
-Tekelli-ri!
It was good that he had avoided the Shoggoth, but due to the conical city structure that widened as it went down, there was nothing to grab to stop his fall.
The wind brushing past his ears and powerful gravity completely turned his insides upside down.
Would he die like this?
When he intuitively realized the floor was approaching, something caught his leg.
"Ugh!"
It felt like his joints would be torn out!
But that wasn't just once. Twice, three times - not just his legs but his arms, head, and thighs were increasingly caught by things.
-Thud!
He hit the hard floor back-first and heard something breaking.
After rolling several times and vomiting everything inside him, whether blood or gastric juice, he could only make choking sounds.
It was difficult even to position himself, so he barely managed to turn over.
When he finally looked up, the city's top floor with sunlight had become a distant dot.
The floor was fortunately full of moss and fluffy. At least he had saved his life by falling here.
Forcing himself to gather his wits and crawling along the floor, there was something right in front of him.
A support structure like the roots of an old tree growing in reverse from the floor.
On top of the support was something like a withered flower cluster.
Seeing it sway precariously, it looked like it would fall at any moment.
From the support's roots connected to the ground, half of a huge white crystal that flickered dimly and fragments were scattered.
The crystal seemed to serve as a battery for using hypnosis.
So to activate hypnosis that could control Shoggoths, the crystal needed to be replaced.
The 'spare crystals' the Elder Thing had mentioned were also buried in the moss, emitting glittering light.
But.
"...Too small."
The crystal was small.
Even compared to the crystal that was destroyed and only half remained, the spare crystals were too small.
If the crystal's size was proportional to the amount of magic it could contain,
He could understand why the Elder Thing had said they would have to wait several more years.
With his body trembling from pain, he dug out the small crystals buried in the floor.
The reserve crystals that had been sleeping in the moss flickered small like lanterns.
Instead of the broken crystal, he placed several reserve crystals on the spot attached to the support.
But nothing happened.
"Ha."
So this was the only way.
He bit his palm with his teeth.
The pain of torn skin was buried in the sensations flooding from his back and legs.
When he placed his wounded hand on the crystals, they began to brighten gradually.
As blood trickled down the white surface and fell into the moss,
The withered flower cluster above his head began to writhe.
As if absorbing water from the support, the flower that sucked in moisture began to regain its color. Fresh stems pulsed like blood vessels and moisture formed on them.
The closed flower bud opened, and thousands of trumpet tubes emerged from within.
Each tube was a trumpet made of gold, a horn, and the whole was a giant phonograph.
When the flower finally bloomed,
It began to play a magnificent sound.
A familiar song he had heard somewhere before.
If he went outside, the excellent melody would sound shabby like a poor woodwind instrument.
Realizing that hypnosis had begun again, his weakened legs collapsed on their own.
He leaned against the cold crystal light and closed his eyes.
The music continued forever.