“What are you doing?” A low, rumbling voice suddenly sounded right behind him. Before Ode could lower his wrist, a hand clamped down on it like an iron vice.
Another arm emerged from the pitch-black waters to his left—a limb with even darker skin and sharply defined muscles. Rough, callused fingers hooked onto his ear, deftly pulling out the earpiece.
A soft chuckle rumbled from the chest pressed against his back. Lead-black tentacles slithered up Ode’s spine like water moccasins from his waist downward, winding around his heaving chest to pluck out the second earpiece. Meanwhile, the man’s free left hand trailed upward along Ode’s chest until, with a sudden twist like a garrote, it seized his throat!
“Ghk…” Ode’s head was forced back, his neck stretching into a beautiful, fragile line beneath the broad palm.
The humanoid monster with sea-serpent-like, curly, dense lead-black hair lightly kissed his ear and whispered, “You put on the sacrificial garb yourself and jumped into the sea. Are you planning to two-time me now?”
The earpieces, designed to withstand deep-sea pressure, were crushed to pieces right in front of Ode’s eyes. Then the main body addressed his avatar lurking in the dark waters: “Search him for any other ‘little toys’ the humans prepared.”
“No—mmph!” Ode’s chin was pinched as his head was twisted back for a kiss. Struggling to breathe, he felt the Father of Sharks’ rough thumb brush over his ankle, meticulously inspecting the bell-adorned anklet. With shark-like low-frequency hearing, He unhesitatingly crushed the tinkling ornament and swiftly extracted three locators from within.
The man behind him arched a mocking eyebrow at Ode, as if to say, You really dared to bring me surprises.
The next moment, the Father of Sharks snapped the thin leg ring from Ode’s thigh, drawing out a long whip that, once activated, could electrocute fish across dozens of cubic meters into charred husks.
A soft sword etched with alchemical runes, hidden in the waist ring. A secret aphrodisiac of the Moon-beast clan, concealed in the amber gem dangling from the chest chain. Miniature explosives, tucked inside gold leaf-shaped earrings…
The “little toys” kept piling up, while the once-pristine adornments on Ode’s body dwindled away.
In the end, the Father of Sharks suspiciously tugged hard at the shark gauze draped over Ode. Though He couldn’t detect anything amiss, He could hardly believe anything on this man remained untouched.
“…” Cthulhu’s smile froze on his face. His eyes, lacking whites or pupils, glowed with an eerie green light in the seawater as they peered deeply from behind his long hair at the sacrifice before him—fragile as a fish stripped of scales, exposing tender flesh. Moments later, He flashed an utterly insincere smile at the innocently wide-eyed Ode and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t mind if I take this shark gauze too, do you? You won’t be needing it anyway.”
Of course Ode didn’t mind—the greatest weapon was never these miscellaneous gadgets—but human pride prompted him to suggest an alternative. “Or, after taking it, would you be willing to find me a new piece of fabric?”
“What for?” The main body tilted up Ode’s chin, casually kissed him, then flung his arm outward. The motion, with its perfectly sculpted muscles reminiscent of Greek statues brooding in the dim light of a closed museum, sent the thin gauze fluttering down through the seawater. “You won’t need it for a long time.”
Ode’s hackles rose as he sensed the cold, tentacle-like arm wrap around his lower back. The next instant, it swept him into a torrent, plunging straight into the deeper darkness of the seabed.
Meanwhile, on the deck.
Faust sat cross-legged on the ground, propping his chin with one hand as he stared at the earpiece before him. One second… two seconds…
Faust: “Damn it!!”
“…!” Ctharnid, who had been dozing against the weathered wooden cabin door nearby, jolted awake. He cleared his throat, straightened his collar, and stood tall with his gentleman’s cane. “Shouldn’t that little thing over there be making some… indecent noises by now? I thought Ode dressed like that to… you know, get down to business.”
“Yeah, it ‘should’ be!” Faust spat with venom, springing to his feet in irritation. He abruptly cut off the phone call blaring with El’s excited shouts, finally understanding the murderous frustration of rear-line support when the vanguard charged ahead recklessly. “Ode’s earpieces must’ve been destroyed—or somehow jammed.”
“Only the OD-1 set was destroyed. The backup OD-2 is intact,” Eva said. The former phone, now expanded into a tablet through tech and alchemy wizardry, reflected a fluorescent blue glow in her eyes. “And the backup earpiece has been active the whole time—ever since Ode was in the Phantasmal Dream Realm.”
“This must be part of his plan too…” Eva murmured, eyeing the activation log for the backup earpiece.
“Fantastic!” Faust bared a smile that screamed he was about to explode. “You know what my plan is? Three hundred copies of the action protocols! I’ll make him read his apology in front of every rookie and instructor this cycle.”
“…” Eva pursed her lips and shrugged. “When you were in someone else’s action team, how many times did your team leader make you copy the protocols? How many apologies did you recite under GORCC’s emblem?”
“I—” Faust choked, momentarily speechless.
Eva looked at him with sincere curiosity. “If that method didn’t work on you, why do you think it’ll work on Ode?”
“I—”
Eva turned her gaze back to the screen. “Calm down, Faust. I think this is good news. Before this year, weren’t you always worried that your… condition might not last much longer? And that you couldn’t find a successor who matched you in combat and strategy? I think Ode fits the bill. He seems like your younger self.”
“…?” Faust’s face scrunched up. “I was afraid of death when I was young, okay?”
Eva briefly lifted her hands from the keyboard and spread them. “Not anymore, right? You’re more inclined to save others now. Your own life? Expendable. Perfect! You’ve just found an ideal talent who, in under a month at GORCC, has already developed your current mindset.”
Seeing Faust still poised to argue, she shook her head and returned her hands to the keys. “Come on, Faust. Deep down, you know—we’re the same kind of people. We’ve seen what true hell looks like. If there’s any chance to rip it apart for good, what’s a life worth?”
“I actually think things are pretty good now. Maybe after this op, you can go complain to your old team leader about how tricky your new recruit is. Need me to prepare flowers and booze for his grave?”
“…” Faust rubbed his face and slumped against the rusted cabin wall. His reflection in the puddle before him showed white hairs creeping at his temples, only to be brushed back to black by his gold-adorned left hand. “No.”
“Nyarlathotep tossed his corpse into the chaos where Azathoth slumbers, and the Outer Gods devoured it. Couldn’t retrieve it. GORCC honored his last wish—no grave. You know how he was; he didn’t like burdens trailing him, even into death.”
“Sounds like your old team leader had a personality like yours back in the day,” Eva said without looking up. Only they could crack such hellish jokes. “Here’s hoping you don’t match his death either.”
—
Deep beneath the sea, in R’lyeh Palace.
The black-haired Great Old One’s sinewy arms clamped tightly around Ode’s waist, slamming him against the window ledge. The bizarrely angled cornice, embodying non-Euclidean geometry’s alien beauty, sliced thin cuts across Ode’s flat, pale abdomen. “Can you see outside the window?”
“The whole city of… corpses. What’s so great about that?” Ode, aroused by the pain, breathed out a venomous mist with his gasps.
Yet even as he spoke, the corner of his eye flicked rapidly over the colossal corpses sprawled among the grotesque green stone pillars during their sway. Uneasily, he noticed that those “corpses”—shrunken versions of Cthulhu—had some extending tentacles against the current.
He fought to keep his muscles from tensing instinctively at the discovery, lest Cthulhu notice. “They’re your… spawn, aren’t they? The ‘Star Spawn,’ who followed you from Soth Star to Earth… the Formless Spawn, shaped in your image.”
“I once promised them glory—until the Elder Gods struck R’lyeh into the Pacific… So many Star Spawn fell.” Cthulhu lifted Ode’s chin, forcing him to gaze at the still-dormant spawn. “But now, I have awakened. They will too. Ancient R’lyeh will rise again—and you.”
Cthulhu’s lips curved in a smile as He gripped Ode’s shoulders and half-turned him. His fingers, far softer than the avatar’s, caressed Ode’s tense jaw. “Should I use your blood to anoint those warriors, or can you offer me greater value?”
“…” Ode held his breath, but his chest still heaved uncontrollably with chaotic gasps. “Everything valuable on me… has already been taken by you all.”
“Why not manifest your fish tail?” Cthulhu asked with keen interest, tossing out the seemingly random question. “The first Druid spell Chorazin taught you—wasn’t it to turn into a swimming fish?”
The black-haired deity bared sharp teeth, nipping Ode’s ear lobe and grinding lightly. He murmured carelessly, “Did your father ever tell you? Even male mermaids have a cloaca, hidden beneath the toughest scales. Mermaids reproduce by laying eggs… If you could bear my offspring, I’d forgive your sins in the Phantasmal Dream Realm. All the awakened Star Spawn would revere you as the Great Mother God—”
The black-haired deity stared unblinkingly at Ode’s expression, likely hoping to savor the humiliated look on the redhead’s face.
But three thoughts flashed through Ode’s mind: First—by your logic, why not stick with Cavendish? We’ve already got a marriage contract.
Second, do male mermaids really have that capability??
He didn’t buy it. If so, Yog-Sothoth—with his obsessive compulsion for knowledge—would’ve lectured him on it, no matter how disinterested he’d been.
Cavendish hadn’t mentioned it either. So either male mermaids lacked it, or he was a special case—and after all those days talking with Cavendish, no eggs had appeared. Yog-Sothoth couldn’t be less potent than Cthulhu.
The final thought—
He had politely declined. Rather than forgiveness or the throne of the Great Mother God, he was far more curious about the taste of a full Cthulhu feast.
And so the Black-Haired Deity waited for a long while, only for the red-haired youth to grasp Their hand in return. Those ink-green eyes held a faint glimmer, like a beautiful beast carved from mutton-fat jade and rubies, brimming with desire.
