Eldritch Ascension

Chapter 3: Locking Onto R’lyeh

Ethan Moore awoke gagging on the stench of fish.

He was sprawled in a damp fishing net, the crash of waves against reefs pounding in his ears. Moonlight pierced the fog and illuminated his surroundings—this was no shipwrecked deck, but a barnacle-encrusted limestone cavern. The walls were veiled in phosphorescent green algae, glowing like countless watchful eyes.

“You weren’t corrupted by the Plague Tide?” Ruan Ruan’s voice drifted down from above.

The girl hung upside down from a stalactite, her mechanical eye projecting a holographic map. “We’ve been dragged into the reef zone. The good news is that R’lyeh is still twenty nautical miles away. The bad news is—”

She pointed toward the depths of the cavern.

Three corpses in dark blue uniforms lay submerged in a pool of blood, flesh fused with coral and stone. The silver badges on their chests had oxidized into dull black.

“The Seventh Squad, missing for three years,” Silas Quinn murmured, crouching beside the bodies. With the tip of his peachwood sword, he lifted a strip of decayed fabric, revealing a twisted mark at the nape of a neck—a reversed pentagram embedded with an octopus sigil. “They were sacrificed. This place was anchored.”

Ethan Moore’s left hand suddenly spasmed. The whispers of the King in Yellow surged like a tide.

“Touch the device… and you will behold the truth…”

As if possessed, he reached out. The instant his fingertips brushed the corroded badge, his vision exploded into hallucination.

On the burning deck of a research vessel, the members of the Seventh Squad stood in a circle, slitting their own throats. Blood streamed into a ritual array carved into the planks. Beneath the waves, a mountain-sized shadow rose. A colossal, sucker-lined claw seized the railing and dragged everyone screaming into the abyss.

“What the hell did you see?” Silas Quinn slapped his hand away.

Ethan staggered back, bile and blood rising in his throat. Golden flames flickered in the Taoist’s pupils. “You’re bound by a sacrificial contract. Those things are dragging you toward R’lyeh!”

The cavern shuddered violently as seawater came roaring in. Red alarms flared in Ruan Ruan’s mechanical eye. “Tidal anomaly! Something’s burrowing through the reef!”

The rock wall split open. Five half-fish, half-humanoid creatures forced their way inside—larger than any Deep Ones they had faced before. Their scales gleamed like polished metal, and coral tridents were clenched in their claws. From their throats issued a low, droning war cry.

“Deep One Knights!” Silas Quinn hurled talismans. “Elite units—specialized in killing Taoists!”

The talismans twisted into a firestorm, only to be cleaved apart by the lead knight’s trident. Ruan Ruan’s twin pistols sparked uselessly against the scales. She cursed. “Damn it—maxed-out physical resistance!”

Ethan Moore’s left hand attacked of its own accord. A bone whip lashed across a knight’s chest, leaving only a pale scratch.

“Use this!” Silas Quinn shouted, tossing a rune-engraved dagger. “Strike below the waist—pierce the reverse scale!”

Ethan rolled aside from a thrusting trident. A tentacle coiled around the dagger and drove it into the knight’s lower flank. As the reverse scale shattered, a chime echoed in his mind:

【Consumed: Deep One Knight’s Blood Essence. Corruption +20. Skill Unlocked: Scale Hardening (Basic).】

Fine black scales rippled across his skin. A trident slammed into his arm with a clang of metal on metal.

“Holy hell—you’re cheating!” Ruan Ruan stared.

Ethan said nothing. His heart felt ready to explode. The mechanical core in his chest battled the corrupted blood in his veins. His left eye’s vision fractured—half the cavernous melee, half a detached, omniscient perspective, as though another consciousness were watching through him.

“Behind you, left!” that presence warned.

He dove instinctively. A trident skimmed his scalp. In one fluid motion, he drove the dagger into a webbed foot, then hurled the creature into its companions with a tentacle’s whip.

“Who are you talking—” Ruan Ruan froze mid-sentence.

Ethan touched his cheek. Cold. His left eye had turned into an amber slit pupil, golden blood-tears seeping down his face.

The cavern collapsed violently. A colossal black shadow crashed down with the seawater—a grotesque hybrid of shark and sperm whale. A bronze compass was embedded in its skull, its needle pointing unerringly at Ethan Moore.

“The Guide!” Silas Quinn’s face drained of color. “It’s paving the way for Cthulhu’s awakening!”

The monster opened its maw, revealing spiraled fangs. The bronze compass in Ethan’s chest burned, resonating with the one in the creature’s head. The whispers of the King in Yellow carved bloody grooves into his temples.

“Kill the Taoist… use his blood to activate the compass… or all will perish…”

Silas Quinn braced himself on his sword. “Kid… your eyes aren’t right.”

Ethan’s left hand rose against his will, dagger trembling. Scales crept up his neck. Ruan Ruan slowly lifted her gun, her mechanical eye locking onto his heart. “Rookie… don’t make me do this.”

As the water rose to his chest, Ethan made a mad decision.

He reversed the dagger and plunged it into his own left shoulder. The agony snapped his mind briefly clear. A tentacle seized Silas Quinn’s peachwood sword and drove it into the compass embedded in the monster’s skull. At the moment the two compasses collided, time itself froze.

【Corruption Threshold Exceeded. Old Authority Unlocked: Tides of R’lyeh (Basic).】

Ethan Moore’s pupils turned fully amber. He raised his hand and clenched it in the air. The flooding seawater condensed into a titanic grasp, crushing the Guide. The creature shrieked as flesh and bone were pulverized. The bronze compass fell with a clang, its needle snapping in two.

The cavern began to collapse.

“Move!” Ethan hauled the other two into the sea. Scales sealed over his body. Beneath the waves, he opened his eyes and saw countless golden pupils igniting in the blackened deep.

The warped silhouette of a cyclopean stone city loomed ahead.

“That is…” Ruan Ruan whispered.

“R’lyeh,” Silas Quinn spat blood-filled bubbles. “Cthulhu’s coffin lid is no longer holding.”

Four Hours Later, Temporary Base – Medical Bay

Rowan Shaw toyed with the broken compass. “You nearly stabbed an entire undersea city awake.”

Ethan lay on the operating table, his left eye bandaged. The Owl Doctor injected a silvery serum. “Self-repair deviation detected. Next time, avoid major arteries.”

Ruan Ruan leaned in with an energy bar. “Rookie, when you went berserk, you were insanely cool. That last move—Heartburst of the Sea King—can you teach me?”

Silas Quinn suddenly tore away Ethan’s bandage. Golden talismans flared in his palm. “The Yellow King’s anchor is buried deep in your soul. Next time it flares up, you might—”

The blaring alarm cut him off. A holographic alert burst onto the screen:

【Emergency Notice: Massive flesh-type corruption detected in the Eastern District of Linhai City. Suspected Outer God spawn!】

Rowan Shaw rose, grabbing his gear case. “Greenhorn, two choices—stay here as an autopsy sample, or come with me and slice some sashimi.”

Ethan touched his left eye. Beneath the bandage, something pulsed faintly.

“This time,” he said, “can we add mantis shrimp to the hotpot?”

“As much as you want.”