Moonlight illuminated a certain valley.
It was far from the noise and blood of Dusk Island, devoid of burning buildings and corpses.
Cliffs surrounded the area, covered in unknown vines with many small white flowers swaying gently among them.
At the bottom of the valley lay a pool of stagnant water. Not even a ripple stirred as the wind blew; it was like a mirror, reflecting a moon.
Yet there was no moon in the sky. It was the moon in the water that lit the valley.
Yue Shi stood by the pool, cradling the snow leopard in his arms.
The girl in the qipao stood three paces away from him. Her folding fan was closed now, and she tapped it gently against her palm.
The moonlight fell upon her, tracing her graceful curves. Her face appeared even more bewitching in the moonlight, the charm in her eyes enough to make any mortal surrender willingly.
Unfortunately, Yue Shi was no mortal.
In his eyes, she was still that bloated, writhing mass of a monster.
“Alright, now we can have a proper chat,” the girl said, her voice still soft and sweet.
She tilted her head, her captivating eyes studying Yue Shi. “I'm a bit curious. Since you're clearly not human, why do you walk the world in the form of a human male?”
Yue Shi didn't answer. He looked at the girl, the corners of his mouth curling up as he countered, “What about you? You're clearly a monster, so why are you using the illusion of a beautiful girl?”
The girl chuckled, her laughter echoing through the valley like wind chimes.
“It seems you don't quite understand what ‘human’ truly means.”
Yue Shi raised an eyebrow and stroked the snow leopard's back with composed movements.
“What does that have to do with Dusk Island?”
“It has everything to do with it~”
The girl blinked, drawing out the last word as if intentionally teasing him.
Then, her expression turned serious. “Dusk Island is the place where the Old Gods fell.”
Yue Shi nodded. “I know that much.”
The girl looked at him. “Then do you know what the Old Gods are, and why they fell?”
Yue Shi shook his head.
The girl turned around, gazing at the moon in the water, and spoke slowly.
“The Old Gods aren't just a single deity; they are the collective name for our entire pantheon.”
Yue Shi listened to her intently.
She paused for a moment. “One day, something went wrong with this pantheon.”
“The chief god of the pantheon, Azathoth, discovered that someone was competing with him for the position of chief god.”
Yue Shi's hand stopped stroking the leopard.
The girl turned her head to look at him.
“Azathoth?” Yue Shi repeated the name.
The girl waited a few seconds, and seeing that he had no further reaction to hearing the chief god's true name, she continued, “The god competing with Azathoth for the position of chief is named...”
“Cthulhu.”
“Cthulhu? So it's the Cthulhu Mythos after all,” Yue Shi blurted out, then paused, momentarily stunned by his own words.
The girl blinked, seemingly waiting for him to continue.
Yue Shi stood dazed for two seconds, thought about it, and asked, “How does that guy qualify to compete with Azathoth for the position of chief god?”
A hint of cunning appeared on the girl's face. She said, “Azathoth, the Blind Idiot God, is the origin of our entire pantheon.”
“All the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones were created by Azathoth. He is the undisputed Creator God in the Cthulhu Mythos.”
Yue Shi nodded.
The girl continued, “As the god of creation and origin, Azathoth's status should have been unshakable. But that's only a theoretical setting.”
“Theoretically?” Yue Shi caught the keyword.
“Yes, theoretically.” The girl's smile deepened.
“Theoretically, Azathoth is the chief god. But in reality, when anyone mentions the unspeakable, the Great Old Ones, the unknown horror, tentacles, and eyeballs... everyone thinks of Cthulhu.”
Yue Shi grew interested.
The girl said, “Even the name for our pantheon is ‘Cthulhu-esque.’"
“The ‘Cthulhu’ in ‘Cthulhu-esque.’”
“In the setting, Cthulhu is just an ordinary Great Old One sealed deep in the sea. But in reality, he is the symbol of the entire pantheon, the Old God with the strongest presence.”
She took a step forward, drawing closer to Yue Shi.
“Outsiders don't know who Azathoth is, but they know who Cthulhu is.”
“This is Cthulhu's erosion of the chief god's status.”
She looked into Yue Shi's face and said, word by word, “Cthulhu is the true chief god of our pantheon.”
Yue Shi was silent for a few seconds. “So, the new and old chief gods fought and died together on Dusk Island?”
The girl rolled her eyes. “Azathoth does nothing but sleep. How could they fight?”
Yue Shi: “...”
So it wasn't a power struggle script after all?
The girl turned around and paced slowly by the pool. “When we realized that Cthulhu was actually impacting the chief god's position, many doubts arose.”
“How could Cthulhu possibly cause such a massive influence?”
“Later, we came into contact with this strange world, the Deep Red Continent, and also met the gods of other pantheons. With that, even more doubts followed.”
She stopped walking and looked back at Yue Shi. “Why does everyone else refer to our pantheon as ‘Cthulhu-esque’?”
“We never informed anyone else, so why did they all default to us being the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’?”
“It was as if it were natural, a perfect fit. Everyone just accepted it.”
“Even you just now subconsciously used the term ‘Cthulhu-esque god.’”
“Why does Cthulhu have such a resounding reputation?”
The girl's voice was light and airy.
Yue Shi watched her, quietly waiting for her to continue.
“Because of humans,” the girl said with a hint of melancholy.
She took a step forward, then another, until she was right in front of Yue Shi.
“You might not yet understand what these creatures, as tiny as dust, truly mean to us.”
The atmosphere grew silent for a few seconds.
Yue Shi said, “I presume you already have the answer in your heart.”
The girl blinked and said one word at a time, “Humans... might be the Creator.”
Hearing this, Yue Shi froze on the spot, if only for an instant.
The snow leopard nudged his hand with its wet nose.
Yue Shi's gaze landed on the girl's face. This wasn't the first time he had heard something similar.
【Humanity is the original, the true Creator!】
That was what the Tree of Truth had said. After coming to this world and causing a disaster in Hu City, it had inexplicably said, “You must be a good human,” and then vanished completely.
“You don't seem shocked,” the girl noted, tilting her head.
Yue Shi snapped out of it and immediately put on an affected display of shock. “Ah, is that really how it is?”
The girl: “...”
“Can you be a bit more serious?”
“I am being serious.” Yue Shi dropped the act, returning to his original state of being indifferent like a chrysanthemum.
Though he wasn't a genius, he wasn't an idiot either.
He clearly remembered what the Tree of Truth had said. Combined with the monster girl's current words, Yue Shi naturally had his own understanding.
The girl stared at him for a few seconds, an unreadable expression on her face.
“Fine, whatever you want.”
Yue Shi: “So, Dusk Island...”
The girl seemed to see through his thoughts and nodded. “You're right. It's exactly as you suspect.”
“Dusk Island is the place we use to study humans.”
Yue Shi: “Studying humans, huh...”
“Yes,” the girl's voice came from ahead of him.
“To study why they are so tiny, yet so special.”
“One must first become human to truly understand them.”
Yue Shi's pupils contracted slightly as he once again recalled the words the Tree of Truth said before it vanished.
【You must be a good human.】
The girl turned around and said meaningfully, “Old Gods fall, reincarnated as humans.”
The valley fell back into silence.
There was only the night wind and the distant chirping of unknown insects.
The snow leopard in Yue Shi's arms twitched its ears.
After a moment, he finally spoke. “So, the Old Gods fell voluntarily, just to downgrade themselves and become human?”
Rate on N.U.
