Chapter Text
“ Pfftt , this is stupid. This is ridiculous. Ancient superweapons don’t exist. They never have and never will exist. This is the real world we’re talking about! All of the stories about the gods and their heroes prove that it’s impossible. The towns and market squares prove they don’t exist. Even my two feet should prove that they do not exist.” He thinks.
“Yet here it stands.”
Simion’s blue fish face sits agape, staring into the tomb of a mythical monstrosity long dead in the eyes of sane creatures. The cave sits drenched in sweat as a sheen of cyan water glitters across its bowels. Refracting lights begin to sear Simion’s eyes as the liquid sinks deep through the ancient scorched pillars, caging the burial lake. Its rays parting just enough to expose the massive skeleton of this ancient terror of the deep. Revealing a picture overflowing with tiny bones littering the waterbed. Those remains nest a crab-like claw that could swallow small whales. Simion had never seen one so large and withered that God could not touch it for fear of its remains turning to dust and ash.
The stringy purple fish-man, Fauth, stands preaching in his vile land language, calling out for the horror below. Only this disgusting speck of leftover sea foam could collect such noxious cultists to do his every whim. Kneeling at the water's edge to present the carved-out lungs of Simion’s companions as if to mock the rituals of their God, Angrel. His friends, Priker Hallsey, Vulcan the Giant, Larian two-hand, and even Steel, his pet since birth, all lay dead now. Leaving him as the last remnant of good in that chamber. Each tenant of God dies when spoken upon the lips of that slimy shrimp. Soon, the whole world will bend to the whims of a lunatic, lost at the shores of balance. His monstrous words paint such a pretty picture, yet enable the worst atrocities imaginable.
Fauth bends over to pick up the skull of an Orca and begins chanting. Flickers of bright blue light scatter across the room before exploding into every ray of color. Colors that Simion never saw or had any reference for begins filling his eyes as a terrifying voice swims into his skull. Its sensation contorting every mechanism his body uses to perceive the world. No descriptor of feeling, hearing, tasting, smelling, or seeing could collect the essence of inexplicable being. Only the emotions absorbing through his skull could comprehend the sheer menace and brutality being released unto the world.
Dying beasts howl against the cramped walls of the chamber as a torrent of amalgamating meat burst from the lake and rushes past Simion, pouncing each cultist of Fauth. Their screams chop off, getting replaced by slimy movement of flesh folding in on itself. Each sound nearly driving his internal organs out through his mouth as they make a quick hop into the heart of the lake bed. Its frozen surface shatters as echoes of tiny bones scurry against the rocky underbelly. With an explosion of fresh water, the ancient superweapon awakens like a storm, bursting out of its ancient coffin. A fusion of terror and impossibility snaps Simion’s sanity when the room finally falls silent on all senses. Breaths of long-forgotten re-claimed life battles in the chamber, fighting for its right to be among the living once more. Lights in the room begin flickering, scared of the unholy monstrosity the shadows hold behind its edges. With carful steps and waning certainty, the flickers reach through the darkness to reveal… something terrible .
“It was nothing. It is nothing. No dreams by God could ever make something so horrific, much less something that a mortal must purposely stare down and survive.” Simion thinks.
The creature could barely hold itself together. A breathing boulder, built with a thousand spiny crab legs and eyes, each apendage continuously climbing over itself to cage its monstrous innards. With his last moments of thoughts, God placed the realization that this rock, Fauth, and Simion are the last living beings in the room.
Giggling from his gills, Fauth turnes toward Simion. Standing silhouetted by the unearthly silent boulder, endlessly collapsing its apendages, like a demon being held together by unrelenting forces of evil. Sitting devillishly still, mocking the terrors Simion fought against in his nightmares.
“You’ve lost all the battles, and the war will be mine, my blue cod friend. God has chosen me to be his savior, and his friends beyond the great walls of this world will help us reclaim what is rightfully ours. Your idle stance has betrayed you and your wicked Queen’s cause. Condemning the sea-locked to a prison known as death.” Fauth cackles with outstretched limbs to soak in his magnanimous victory.
The claw of the ancient superweapon mutely widenes to an unholy breadth. Instantly jettisoning out and consuming the entirety of Fauth in a fractured second, retracting with the same unimaginable speed. The sound reverberates through Simion’s crushed senses. A moment too short to comprehend his own terror passes before a batch of crab-eyes snake out of the conglomerate of writhing crustacean limbs. Slithering through the air, not caring for the lack of water, begins inspecting Simion with a purple fire roasting beneath the lins of its oculus. Scanning his hopeless carcass of a body before resting a few meters in front of him, staring directly into the remnants of his soul. Other eyes spill from the boulders innards, silently slithering to perform the same purple-lit scan amongst the chamber's remains.
The hideous telescope lingers as the flame in its eye burns away any emotion still reserved inside Simion. Fear and frustration no longer remaine with him, only an acceptance of his surroundings as he sits silently, waiting for his grave to finally wash over him.
Before long, a scream begins erupting from underneath the cage of writhing limbs. Searching eyes glance back to its body when a fist punches through the thousands of crawling extremities. Without so much as a flinch, the eyes watch as a hand rips its way out of the mass. A second arm burst from the boulder, knocking chunks of disembodied legs and claws to floor. Each disentangled part awakens and scurries back into the endlessly amalgamating body. Both arms grab at the appendages between them to free the thing’s head. Fauth, screaming and fighting, dragges the rest of his body out from the monster. Falling headfirst to the floor, covered in a brackish ooze, going totally silent. The eye staring at Simion finally breaks off to scan Fauth's cold body. Maticulously inspecting his whole before injecting into the back of the half-fish half-demon skull. Fauth’s remains instinctually gasp for life. The remaining floating eyes swim with the haste of a Sailfish, attaching themselves to each appendage on Fauth. His body jerks with energy as each limb awakens from death. One by one, the Devil reincarnates itself from the grave.
Fauth’s eyes roll forward, staring at Simion before a smile creepily grows across his face. Steam begins emanating from his body as wails erupt from his broken jaw. His scales boil and smooth as the skin from a land traveler takes its place on his body. Fauth was no longer a man of the sea, just an abomination. The screams stop as the eyes pluck themselves from his limbs and retract into the beast's body. The boulder, once again, sits silently, silhouetting Fauth's new body.
Huffing air into his lungs before laughing it all out, he announces, “You see, Simion! I have been remade in the eyes of God. I can preach his good word to all in a way that only they can understand. You will join me, not as a friend of the sea, but as a reclaimed brother of God. Your sins shall be washed away, for God and I have forgiven your past transgressions.”
Simion wanted to speak up but had no strength to respond before the Claw of the Ancient superweapon ate him.