The youth’s alabaster body, illuminated by the faint light spilling through the stone window, was cloaked in a hazy, psychedelic sheen. It nearly induced in Them a dazed illusion, as though They were still lost in a kaleidoscopic, ancient dream without end.
Ode’s gaze subtly drifted downward to Cthulhu’s leaden-black, still inhuman lower body. When he lifted his eyes again, they brimmed only with lush allure, halfheartedly veiled in provocation. “That all depends on what the ‘Father God’ is capable of…”
.
The underwater clash dragged on for nearly three days. On the evening of the fourth day, Cthulhu finally shifted away from the thoroughly disheveled stone bed, leaving the red-haired mermaid trembling from head to tailfin. He swam out of His palace in R’lyeh alone.
“…” Ode was still catching his breath, not even bothering to roll over, when his sharp, delicate earfins twitched faintly. He keenly caught the savage surge of currents echoing from beyond the palace’s side door.
The next instant, the stone door burst open!
Chorazin charged straight onto the bed. He dropped one knee into Ode’s lower back while his other hand clamped vise-like around Ode’s throat, forcing his head back until his neck vertebrae creaked in protest.
“What… is… your… true… purpose?!” Chorazin nearly spat the words through gritted teeth. The mild composure he’d worn like a mask sloughed away in the face of Ode’s baffling actions. “You definitely have an agenda. I hooked up with you on that beach because I couldn’t kill you outright, so I had to vent some other way. But what about you now?! Are you seriously wasting your time here just because the main body’s got some freakish abilities?”
He didn’t wait for the mermaid’s response. Instead, he reflexively scowled—and upon closer look, noticed the tip of the mermaid’s tail twitching in tiny spasms, as if overstimulated past its limits.
Chorazin jerked his hands back as if scorched. A torrent of tangled emotions left him speechless for the moment, but his reason hammered ever louder warnings:
This was wrong. Why push things this far?!
If it was just about getting close for an assassination, he could have struck the moment the main body dragged the intruder into R’lyeh. So why wait until now?!
His body went rigid. His eyes inched downward, fixing on the mermaid’s deceptively clear and fragile spine. Fresh waves of killing intent boiled up at the perceived threat.
But the red-haired mermaid tsked softly just then, stilling every tremor in an instant.
Propped prone on one elbow, chin in hand, he turned his head lazily toward Chorazin. His sinuous tail and lean back formed a taut, powerful arc. The lethal edge lurking beneath that slender fragility stabbed out like a suddenly unsheathed blade.
“Why the long face? Aren’t we allies? I’ve already killed the Behemoth—your biggest headache—and successfully lured away your main body, the real threat. The plan’s going swimmingly. What are you even mad about?”
The mermaid’s tail, its colors growing richer and more vibrant by the moment, gave Chorazin’s calf a teasing flick. “Or are you jealous?”
Chorazin’s green eyes—so eerily like Ode’s—shrank to slits. He was on the verge of unleashing his killing intent when—
Ode slouched his arm free and flopped straight back onto the bed, his long, elegant hand dangling limply off the edge. “Don’t forget one thing.”
“Your main body doesn’t want me dead right now. Kill me, and He’ll wonder why an avatar’s defying His will—”
“This isn’t the first time you’ve tried threatening me.” Chorazin ground his teeth faintly. “You won’t get lucky every time.”
Ode shrugged with utter impunity. Once he’d successfully driven off the confrontation-hungry Chorazin, he rolled up to sit, scanned the bedroom briefly, then summoned a shard of ancient, weathered stone. Without so much as a blink, he jammed it into his right chest.
A mist of blood erupted, but Ode’s movements were deft. He fished out the blade embedded in his ribs, withdrew his hand, and let his regeneration swiftly knit the minor wound—trivial by comparison.
With the Fingertip Blade slotted back into its familiar home, he retrieved a spare earpiece from the weapon’s attached Alchemy Space. He cut off any incoming tirade from Faust: “I’m afraid I’ll need to stick around R’lyeh a few more days.”
He briskly recapped his earlier theory. “…And right now, Cthulhu and the Father of Sharks sharing that bloodwater—their reactions are confirming my hunch.”
He dropped his voice. “This is a prime opportunity… I want to witness it—I need to know what happens when I push this corruption to its absolute limit.”
【Splendid. Besides all that, is there anything else you’re keeping from us?】 Faust’s tone made it clear he wasn’t on board. 【Like that spare earpiece—where’d you stash it to dodge Cthulhu’s search?】
Ode: “…Er… I don’t see how this rates above the intel I just dropped?”
The earpiece went quiet for a beat, as if Faust had turned aside to gripe to the others: 【He hid them in his body. I’m telling you, he shoved them right inside—what other option did he have? Sneak into the Phantasmal Dream Realm under Cthulhu, god of dreams?】
Rustling sounds followed, until Eva’s cool voice cut in: 【Next time something like this crops up, I expect a prompt report, agent. This affects not just your field readiness; your secrecy stalls product upgrades. For the rest of the team, outdated gear means death.】
“…” Eva’s rhetoric sealed off any defense Ode might muster. “You can… upgrade it? Make it undetectable even to oddballs like the Father of Sharks?”
【One month. Next op, you’ll have the new comms gear.】
“…” Ode was struck by Eva’s ironclad tone. “Fine. No more hiding. On when I can bail from R’lyeh… no promises. You’ll need round-the-clock earpiece watch. Also… could you track down those mechanic brothers’ bodies for me?”
Ctharnid—chafing to flex but forever reined in—beat Faust to the punch: 【Oh, what an honor. That mechanic gentleman’s corpse should still be drifting in the Phantasmal Dream Realm, unless something went wrong. I’ll fetch him.】
【I’ll handle the brother.】 Faust didn’t dodge.
GORCC’s duties included recovering bodies with unique talents; rogue sorcerers hunted them for foul rites. 【Shouldn’t be tough… only one such corpse on that whole ship. Side note—you sure you can last in R’lyeh… that long? Not too… grueling?】
“…” Truth be told, Ode figured his roughest patch was that bank dream. The Yog-Sothoth there had nearly broken him—even filtered through the Dream Realm, his mind had teetered on collapse. “Eh—just average.”
“Anyway, that’s the plan. Heading to find Cthulhu now. Even without the ‘main event,’ best to stay glued to Him and speed up the corruption.”
Ode stashed the earpiece, gave his tail a wiggle, and departed. The crew on the far end lapsed into momentary silence.
Seconds later, Eva’s staccato touchscreen taps echoed across the deck anew. Face set in scholarly focus, brows knit, she appended a new entry to Cthulhu’s dossier:
【…Physiological capacity and endurance questionable. Target’s output and stamina in prolonged, high-intensity physical exertion fall short of projections derived from mythological rank and physique metrics…】
.
Locating two verified human corpses should have been child’s play—especially for an Elder God and GORCC’s director. Yet nearly three days passed with no word from Ode, bad news only. The corpse hunt’s crawl rivaled just one thing: Cthulhu’s baby-making scheme.
“…” In the palace, now simply spruced up, Cthulhu lounged on His throne, cheek propped on one hand. He pondered the mermaid lounging contentedly by His newly manifested legs, idly swishing his tail.
At length, He scooped up the relentless temptress, giving him a squeeze here and there. “Aren’t you a bit too skinny?”
Ode—musing if Cthulhu’s new legs meant calling off the experiment—froze and glanced up. “Huh?”
Cthulhu scowled. “What do humans even feed you? You look half-starved. No wonder your belly’s dead quiet.”
Ode strained mightily not to betray his pitying glee in his eyes. Right now, though, he itched to shoo Cthulhu off, poll Faust on next steps—a goodwill gesture to dodge a pay cut from the irate director.
“I’ve had full checkups—everything’s in the green. Could be nerves, though? You know how it goes with any species: the broodmother’s environment sways gestation. Anxiety ups the odds of miscarriage or barrenness.”
“Fragile,” the Black-Haired Deity scoffed, tone light on actual blame.
They nuzzled the mermaid in Their lap—just a size smaller—with Their nose, unable to resist a deep inhale of his cat-soft hair and all. “What’ve you got to be nervous about? Worried the Star Spawn will wake up and rip you to bits?”
“How’s this—our spawn aren’t here yet, but I can seal a Marriage Contract with you ahead of time.” The Black-Haired Deity tilted Ode’s chin gently, drawing his face around for a series of soft pecks. “That crown the Behemoth cobbled together in the Phantasmal Dream Realm was an eyesore. I’ll craft you a proper one. Sound good?”
It dovetailed perfectly with Ode’s aims. He nearly agreed on the spot, seizing the opening to ping Faust—when his eyes flicked up to meet Cthulhu’s. His ready “sure” lodged in his throat: “…”
“Every thing has its price.” Ode abruptly recalled Faust’s mantra whenever Alchemy came up.
He had viewed corruption as the perfect weapon against monsters. Yet he hadn’t reckoned that over-sharpening the blade might slice the hand that wielded it. Just like right now—
What he locked eyes with were no longer luminous orbs radiating an inhuman, malevolent divinity. The eyes before him now had a structure identical to any human’s, their deep green pupils fixed on him with a sly half-smile, as if eagerly awaiting just how much amusement his petty schemes might provide.
“……” Ode’s gaze didn’t waver. In the next instant, the glint of the Fingertip Blade flashed abruptly. A few seconds later, an exceedingly fine line of blood appeared across Cthulhu’s throat. The next moment, his head tumbled to the ground!
Yet Ode didn’t stop there. Instead, he lashed out with his fish tail and retreated several meters in a hurry. Seizing this brief opening, he swiftly retrieved the earpiece—and that was when he spotted another figure identical to the headless “Cthulhu” strolling unhurriedly in from the side corridor. It clapped at him with a face full of admiring praise.
Ode had no intention of listening to whatever trash talk Cthulhu had lined up next. Though reluctant, he still dutifully pressed the earpiece. “—Prepare to attack! I… might have gone overboard.”
