Chereads / What Lies Beneath... / Chapter 6 - Preach

Chapter 6 - Preach

Seeing that the villagers were fully converted, Angelo led them to make a ceremony to honor his master.

First, to worship is to see reverence towards something or someone. To do so, the person doing it must have an idea of what he is worshipping. For these foolish humans, to recognize the greatness of a being such as his lord, they needed an idol and a name to which to attach to.

In short, he needed a connection with his lord. However, his lord is an embodiment of chaos and had no definite name and form.

Angelo sat down and meditated in front of the trembling worshippers.

Humans are ultimately limited, unable to grasp the existences such as his lord. His lord is not limited to the five senses and Its form in the three-dimensional world is but a fragment of Its being. Even him, an Aspect of the Great Old One, could not fathom Its existence. The more he understood his lord, the more confused he was.

If he had to pin a part that these lowly humans could understand, he would have to simplify the name for humans to hear and comprehend while at the same time, pin a form that humans could understand.

"My lord was born during the era of chaos when even matters did not exist. On the second the matters were made, Its existence was ensured and once the universe became stable and the first voice of the universe echoed, It had acquired a name: Hunlua'dun."

This was of course, false. The Great Old One and many of its peers did not have names. Their names, if they had one, would be as long as the universe and as thick as every sounds combined. However, when the first humans saw It they perceived in their inferior senses a sound, of which they used to refer to It.

"The lord's appearance is undetermined and has countless forms on this earth. However, when the first human encountered him, he saw a giant tentacle being and as such, his usual form is of a giant humanoid being with countless tentacles." Angelo preached as he reached to paint a picture of his lord.

Angelo slashed his wrist and expertly drew his lord's common form. This was a reproduction of the first drawing of his lord by humans which was lost over the ages. Slowly but surely, a figure was gradually revealed. It was a giant even bigger than mountains, as large as the sea, and seemed to engulf the world with it. The large tentacles split the earth, creating vast canyons. Its breath, It creates furious thunderstorms seemingly hellbent on destroying all life, and Its gaze petrified everything into stone...

The believers drew a sharp breath and felt cold on their backs which later turned into reverence. Such mighty existence, their lives are worthless under this being. However they felt happy, they could worship this mighty being! Such happiness, they did not deserve it...

Ah... They could sense a superior presence from the painting alone.

After he finished the painting, Angelo took a look at what he created. And in the particles emitted from the painting, he perceived its name.

Painting of Hualua'dun's World Destruction (Reproduction)

Everything related to the Eldritch Gods is very dangerous. An effigy to a particular deity will be contaminated with the aura, even if it is little, of said deity. As a contaminated item, it also possesses great magical powers and mind-break every mortal that comes by.

As believers of his lord, the villagers gained resistance towards this particular type of radiation and would become imbeciles or die because of it.

Aside from forcibly distorting weak-willed lifeforms' mental psyche, the painting also provided an increase in resistance for the ones who manage to peek into the painting without becoming mad. The ones who manage to persevere to the very end can shed their old mortality and become a Servant of the Old.

The believers were utterly overwhelmed with unexplainable emotions and their faith condensed into a single point in front of the painting which was swiftly absorbed and replaced with a small purple stone fragment.

A piece of dimensional stone.

It was very small and of low purity, fit for the purposes of believers. This kind of dimensional stone could, in no way, summon creatures in outer space but could be used to teleport into a dimension constrained in this planet or to sacrifice to Hualua'dun itself.

If they ever find something worthy of the Great Old One's attention, they could use this stone to sacrifice it to It and receive a reward.