Chapter 36: He Forbids
The maid's true form was a creature known as a Shoggoth. Created by an ancient race to serve as perfect servants, their shapeless bodies could adapt to any task, making them invaluable. However, these "perfect" helpers had a flaw—they began to develop intelligence, rebel, and mimic their creators. They once rose against the ancient race and destroyed them.
The rebellion of a Shoggoth was inevitable. The witch had kept it at Black Tide Beach, feeding it various monsters and experiment subjects. She had never used it until now, not only to strengthen it to withstand the descent of a Great Being but also to prevent it from gaining intelligence.
To her dismay, within a few days, the Shoggoth had already developed considerable intelligence, mimicking the witch and Xu Haoran, who had been restrained the entire time. The Shoggoth communicated through mental connections, absorbing Xu Haoran's fragmented personality and the witch's own lost defiance against fate, beginning its path of rebellion.
"When you become like someone else, you become that person," the witch said, levitating in mid-air, her immense magic radiating outward. This was the essence of their witch lineage—to abandon one's identity and transform into someone powerful. She had erased her past self, reshaping her body, mind, and soul to become the perfect figure of their lineage's founder. Whether this perfection was real or myth, no one knew.
"It's useless. Although I didn't expect you to develop self-awareness so quickly, I have placed enough countermeasures in you. The ritual is almost complete, and you can't break them all in time," the witch said coldly as the Shoggoth's body continuously reshaped itself.
A Shoggoth's amorphous nature allowed it to disrupt any fixed spells placed within it by constantly shifting. However, the witch had set various countermeasures that required specific forms to be destroyed. The Shoggoth had no time to transform into these shapes as a tendril of consciousness from the dream realm began to invade its body.
At that moment, the Merfolk King's roar echoed, and waves surged. The witch sighed softly, her magic forming a barrier that repelled the waves against the rocks. Without further words, the battle commenced—this was a fight to the death, with survival on the line.
Countless merfolk joined forces, creating massive waves to charge the altar. They had to destroy it to prevent the descent of the Great Being and ensure their survival.
The witch's expression remained calm, as if the attacking merfolk were mere splashes. Her magic wove intricate spells, and in an elegant, ancient chant, the waves turned against the merfolk, crashing back upon them.
The merfolk, stunned by the betrayal of the sea, fell into the water. The witch's gaze remained serene—this was routine for her. She was now the epitome of perfection, with vast magical reserves, precise control, unparalleled magical affinity, and supreme willpower.
"No one can resist. I am the most perfect being," the witch declared. People always resented their inadequacies, envying the capable. The founder of the witch lineage transformed herself into the perfect being, and now, her successor was just as flawless.
The Shoggoth howled in despair as the consciousness of the Great Being adapted to this world's rules, invading its body to mold it into a desired form.
The merfolk, led by their king, relentlessly attacked the altar, but despair loomed. The witch stood unfazed, channeling boundless magic to form spell after spell, blocking the merfolk's advance.
Hu Wenxu and Gao Xiaowen soon joined the battle, but the perfect witch calmly countered everything thrown at her. She seemed invincible, only defeatable by an entity beyond ordinary measures.
The Shoggoth howled in agony, its body slowly stabilizing into a giant octopus-like form with scales and underdeveloped bat wings. Its exposed tendrils radiated an aura of compulsion, causing some merfolk to cease resisting and succumb to transformation, their human forms warping grotesquely.
From a distance, Lu Li observed, feeling an odd sense of clarity. Memories from a year ago stirred—a time when his personality and soul had begun to change. Watching the descent of a Great Being, something within him awakened, filling him with a strange sensation.
Despite the impending failure, Lu Li felt no fear, as if he had foreseen this outcome. The Great Beings must not descend—it was not yet time.
He looked up at the sky. Dawn was approaching, the stars aligning perfectly except for one, which had been diverted by a mysterious force. The anomalies ceased, and the Shoggoth reverted to a formless mass. From the information hidden in his soul, Lu Li knew that no Great Being could descend, not even a single tendril, for: He forbids it. [TL: "HE" forbids it.]