novelraw Chapter 915: An Unforgettable Journey
Chapter 915: An Unforgettable Journey
On the damp, cold deck, to the sound of the crashing surf, the sleeping figures slowly began to stir.
Heat surged through Ophelia's body, but it receded just as quickly when she registered her surroundings.
“How did we get here?”
“The dream.”
Lu Li gazed at the island again. The rocky mountain, with its gaping chasms, stood stark and ugly before him.
The dream was over.
“You saved Me...” the Deep God whispered weakly to Lu Li.
“Lu Li, I will forever remember your name.”
“Will the power you consumed affect you?”
Lu Li acknowledged His solemn tone.“Insignificant.”
The cultists stirred and slowly rose to their feet, but Prusius remained on the deck, fast asleep, his breathing slow and even.
“What’s... wrong with him?”
Ophelia stared at Prusius, who could not be roused from his deep slumber.
“His influence still poisons him...”
“What's the solution?” Lu Li asked.
“Reclaim the mutilated body, and I can remove His contamination.”
Carrying Prusius, they boarded a boat lowered from the quietly humming Andrea, and Lu Li set foot on the coarse sand of the beach for the third time.
[Plankarn Town: Facing the Wastelands, no longer alone; with its back to the rocky mountain, like a little Belfast...]
And for the third time, he saw the billboard.
They passed from the town into the cave. The long, red-carpeted corridor was nowhere near as vibrant as it had been in the dream. The sculptures and paintings had vanished, and the underground garden was filled with nothing but crude, simple flowers and shrubs made of cloth.
Passing back through the door into the main hall, the Deep God nearly unleashed His wrath upon the dining table where He had been consumed. Ophelia fell into thought, remembering Lu Li’s disappearance and his later return.
Only Lu Li silently noticed the pile of ash in the corner.
Following the Deep God, who could sense the mutilated body, they reached an unfamiliar corridor, climbing a set of stairs that led up from inside the rocky mountain toward its peak.
They passed through a cavern and saw a gigantic, hollow shell resembling a giant, its limbs longer than any human’s.
“Kan Bel,” the Deep God quietly spoke its name.
The creature, one the Deep God remembered as being as indescribable as Dagon, was now just a hollow shell, devoured completely, lying amidst the gray crevices of the rock.
Whether or not it was the work of the man who had tried to devour a god, the sight was deeply unsettling.
They encountered no other anomalies along the way, as if the rocky mountain contained nothing but the man and his dream.
At the top of the stairs, a dreamlike, misty radiance appeared. Light streamed from fissures covering the rocky peak, illuminating an open platform below.
A rib bone was embedded in a fissure in the rock, radiating a muddled, repulsive aura of conflict and opposition.
The power of the Lord of the Depths clung to the rib.
“After I merge with the mutilated body, remind Me to remove the contamination from Prusius.”
“Will it be dangerous?” Lu Li asked.
He instructed the cultists to wait outside the cavern.
“This stray power is negligible... Merging with the mutilated body will allow Me to restore more of My memories and strength. Next to that ancient and distant history, everything We have experienced with you and your companions is like a drop of rain falling into the ocean, dissolving without a trace.”
It meant that the experiences he had shared with Lu Li and the others would no longer be precious or important to him—a child treasures the toys of his youth, but an old man does not.
“Why... not find... a smaller piece...”
“My power is approaching a threshold. Acquiring any fragment of My mutilated body will allow them to detect My reawakening... And it is already too late... Soon, Prusius will be lost to that dream forever...”
And so...
Surrounded by seawater, the Deep God ascended toward the rib in the rock face. His whisper followed, soft and slow.
“Regardless, I will remember you all.”
Perhaps this was farewell.
Reaching the rock face, the Deep God touched the rib. The repulsive, malevolent aura vanished, replaced by a faint, trembling presence that seemed to emanate from the depths of antiquity.
Ophelia couldn't resist the overwhelming urge to prostrate herself and fell back with Lu Li, nearly reaching the top of the stairs.
Meanwhile, the Deep God slowly descended, His fusion with the mutilated body complete.
Seawater swirled around His feet in pilgrimage, and the Deep God now radiated an immense, overwhelming divine aura that filled their entire field of vision.
His cloak seemed even more exquisite and beautiful, and the hood that had concealed His head was gone. Yet His face remained a blur, indistinct and impossible to make out.
A god is unseen.
“As I promised, I grant you salvation.”
The majestic, low voice echoed through the cavern, and an inky black fluid poured from Prusius’s body, dissolving into stardust as it touched the air.
Having cleansed the contamination from Prusius, the Deep God lingered no longer. Borne by the infinite power of the sea, He rose into the fissure above and departed.
Silence returned to the dimly lit space.
“Like... a dream...”
Ophelia whispered, subconsciously recalling the journey with the Deep God she had known, and the departure of the strange, distant one who had taken His place.
“Nngh...”
Just then, Prusius let out a faint groan and woke up. He found Ophelia holding him and Lu Li standing nearby. Rubbing his eyes and yawning, he said:
“Why did you all disappear? I was looking for you for so long... Why are you looking at me like that? Did I miss something?”
“And where is His Highness, the Deep God?”
“He’s gone.”
Prusius looked back at Ophelia, knowing she would explain in more detail.
Ophelia set Prusius down on the ground:
“After waking... you... He... went on... His own... to find... the fragments.”
“Oh... Did He think I was too bothersome?..”
Prusius whimpered, his tail drooping.
“No... His... power... grew... stronger... so they... noticed... Him... He... could no longer... stay... with us,” Ophelia consoled.
“Lady Ophelia, do you mean He left to protect us?”
“Yes.”
“Then can we still help His Highness, the Deep God?” Prusius asked, his belief restored.
“We are... too... weak...”
The harsh reality of their situation settled over them.
A sudden tremor cut through their melancholy. The mountain beneath them shook violently. Cracks in the rock widened, revealing a terrifying fissure that split the mountain in two. The incessant clatter of falling stones shattered the silence.
Deprived of the power that had resided in the mutilated body part, the island itself had become unstable.
“We need to leave.”
The group inside the mountain fell back to the stairs and rushed for the exit.
Returning to the hall, Lu Li suddenly turned toward the corridor where they had lingered in the dream.
“Wait for me here.”
Lu Li leaped over a meter-wide crack that had formed in the corridor and threw open the wooden door of the guest room at the other end.
The dim room was empty, just like the rest of the mountain.
“...Hurry, back here!”
Ophelia yelled hoarsely from the other side. The fissure was widening rapidly, and rubble rained down around the chasm.
Lu Li took one last, deep look into the shadowy depths of the corridor, then tore his gaze away. Shielding his head, he leaped back across the chasm and hurried with the others to escape the collapsing mountain.
Qiao Qiao was not here.
She, like the Deep God’s devout cultists, Ophelia’s paintings and sculptures, and Prusius’s library, had been nothing more than a figment of Lu Li’s subconscious.
All because this was the Lennon Archipelago, and because Qiao Qiao and Aunt Mary had come here seeking refuge.