novelraw Chapter 496: The Goal
Chapter 496: The Goal
In the dark depths of the sea, the passage of time, once a blur, slowly came into focus.
Colossal stone columns rose from the abyss, standing in the crushing dark like ancient ruins that had weathered millennia, perhaps even longer.
Richard, whose movements had grown sluggish, seemed to find a new strength. Kicking his legs, he drew closer to one of the columns.
In the near-motionless depths, the water parted before them. A strange thing happened: as Richard neared the massive pillar, the silt and dust that had settled upon it for ages stirred in the current and began to drift away.
Richard paid no mind to what lay hidden beneath the sediment, continuing his descent along the column's length.
Lu Li followed Richard, but unlike him, he moved closer to the column to examine its surface.
The colossal pillar bore the marks of carvings, heavily worn by time and decay, or otherwise concealed beneath a thick layer of silt and marine dust.
They resembled fractal art, but with unnervingly irregular and distorted lines. The furrows and ridges formed bizarre, incomprehensible patterns. A single glance was enough to provoke a wave of nausea and disgust.
Lu Li could have forced himself to overcome the unsettling sensation, but there was no need.
He understood that he could not possibly comprehend these disturbing outlines, as if some sinister power resided within them.This was the domain of that indescribable, menacing, and mysterious consciousness. Lu Li proceeded with caution, forcefully suppressing his curiosity.
Nevertheless, he continued to watch the column from the corner of his eye. The deeper they plunged, the more intact the column became. And with it, those strange patterns grew ever clearer.
Even a fleeting glance at them made Lu Li dizzy and sick to his stomach.
Clenching his teeth, Lu Li, just like Richard, moved away from the column until the "patterns" on its surface blurred into indistinct smudges.
This was not the only column.
A few dozen seconds after the first one appeared, a second came into Lu Li's view. Soon, a third emerged, then a fourth...
More and more immense columns materialized from the darkness as they descended, scattered chaotically throughout the abyss like the remains of a ruined, once-majestic structure.
Like the ruins of a city, lost in the depths of the sea.
Countless columns, some distant, others near, created a claustrophobic feeling. Even catching them in his peripheral vision made Lu Li feel a sense of revulsion. He squinted, narrowing his field of view until he could only see the blurry silhouette of Richard below.
Fortunately, the columns didn't affect the Mind Level counter on his wrist; they were merely poisoning his mind directly.
They descended another two hundred, maybe three hundred meters, and new columns ceased to appear. A thought suddenly struck Lu Li.
Perhaps they had reached the bottom.
A few seconds later, something resembling a stepped altar, built from the same stone as the columns, materialized below.
The altar was merely an inanimate object, yet Lu Li felt a pull emanating from it, as if the indescribable voice that had called to him from the surface belonged to this very structure.
Richard swam toward the altar, found a dark entrance to a crypt near its peak, and swiftly dove inside.
Lu Li followed him.
Suddenly, Richard, who was swimming a few meters ahead, seemed to lose control of his body. He crashed to the floor of the passage, unable to rise.
Before Lu Li could process what was happening, the same thing happened to him: his body became impossibly heavy.
Uninjured and possessing greater physical strength, Lu Li only staggered and dropped to one knee.
The cold air that filled his lungs and the uncomfortable sensation of his soaking wet clothes told Lu Li everything.
They were no longer underwater.
Glancing back, Lu Li saw the same distorted columns through the crypt entrance, still towering in the depths beyond.
"I underestimated you. You actually made it here..." Richard’s quiet laughter echoed from behind him. Lu Li turned his gaze to him. Soaking wet, Richard struggled to his feet, bracing himself against the slick stone wall.
"The traps in the hut were rather primitive," Lu Li replied.
Richard just shrugged.
"Sometimes, your persistence astounds me. You’re like a leech that just won't let go," Richard said, his voice laced with unconcealed irritation and a faint, almost imperceptible trace of bewilderment. He sighed. "Your tenacity has moved me. Before I take the place of the Ancient God and kill you, I can tell you a few things about this place."
Lu Li, water dripping from his own clothes, looked calmly at Richard. "You're at a disadvantage right now."
"I don't think so," Richard managed a smile, like a victor savoring his triumph. "If I don't tell you, you'll never find out."
"Even at the cost of your life?"
"Are you capable of that?" Richard retorted. "If you were, you wouldn't have let me get this far."
Lu Li fell silent.
He did have a way to make Richard talk—Anna's mental projection.
Her projection could completely read a person's thoughts, memories, and consciousness, but all of it would be imprinted upon Anna's own mind.
Lu Li knew what happened to a person whose mind was flooded with the memories of another.
He couldn't risk Anna's sanity.
"Well, have you decided? If you don't want to ask your questions, you might not get another chance," Richard urged him, a mocking tone in his voice. After months on the run, he could finally speak to Lu Li from a position of power.
After a few seconds of silence, Lu Li asked, "What is this place?"
"...R'lyeh," Richard pronounced slowly.
Suddenly, Lu Li felt the altar tremble beneath his feet, and the water outside grew murky, as if the entire ancient structure had shuddered at the sound of that word.
R'lyeh...
The word reminded Lu Li of the events from two months ago, when he had first met Anna in the art gallery.
Back then, James Campbell had killed the eyeless ghost, Ruth, only to be thrown by her into "the door." After escaping, he had scrawled a few entries in his diary about what had happened before, unable to bear the horror of "the door," he had walked back into it himself.
In his final entry, James Campbell had written several incoherent words, most of which were illegible. Lu Li had only been able to make out one: "lyeh."
Could the diary have been pointing to this very place?
The trembling of the altar ceased, and Richard continued, "The resting place of the Ancient God."
"Resting, not dead?" Lu Li recalled that Richard possessed three parts of the "Ancient God's" body.
"That which sleeps for eternity is not dead. Across infinite eons, even death itself fades away," Richard replied, his words heavy with hidden meaning.
Lu Li didn't press for details. Instead, he asked, "Who is the Ancient God?"
"An ancient deity that once ruled this world. But soon, I will take its place and become the new god."