Chapter 292: Posthumous Work (11)
“ROAR!”
A deep, terrifying roar echoed from the distant depths of the sea.
More tentacles burst through the ocean’s surface, wrapping themselves around the fragile wooden ship.
Thunder crashed across the heavens. Violent sea winds tore at everything in sight, while torrential rain poured down as if it meant to drown the entire world.
Under the combined assault of the monstrous sea creature and the raging storm, seawater flooded into the hull. The wooden vessel creaked and groaned, gradually showing signs of breaking apart.
In the center of the cabin, before the mountain of corpses, Everly clenched her teeth, struggling against the chaotic whispers and delirious murmurs filling her mind.
Some voices were high, others low. Some belonged to men, others to women; some sounded old, others young. Again and again, they repeated the same incomprehensible phrase Thomas had spoken, luring her, threatening her, urging her to submit to the Great Will—to chant the incantation alongside them, offer up her own body, and become nourishment for their great master.
The whispers continued to multiply.
As the cacophony flooded her consciousness, chaotic, mottled colors gradually consumed her vision. In a daze, Everly felt her awareness soaring ever higher, rising into the boundless cosmos. There, beyond countless rivers of stars, she glimpsed something horrifying—immense, indescribable, beyond the reach of language…
Bzzzt!
A sudden stab of pain shot through her chest, as though something hidden beneath her shirt had sunk its teeth into her.
The pain was like a searing-hot blade piercing her chest, sending threads of warmth flowing toward her heart. The comforting heat spread through her blood, reaching every limb.
The murkiness in her eyes vanished in an instant under the shock of the pain. As the warmth coursed through her body, her clouded mind abruptly cleared as well.
Everly blinked her aching, swollen eyes. She felt a warm liquid well up unexpectedly, and before she realized it, a dark-red streak of congealed blood had trickled from the corner of her eye.
Through her blood-stained vision, Everly saw that the Eye of Horus amulet Remia had given her was glowing faintly against the collar of her suit.
The amulet, which had once borne only a few cracks, had somehow become battered beyond recognition. It looked as old and corroded as a rusted scrap of iron. Even so, it continued to emit a faint golden glow, its scorching warmth stubbornly driving away the fog that had engulfed Everly’s mind.
The amulet had saved her life…
But the crisis was far from over.
Remembering the tentacle that had crawled out of Thomas’s mouth, Everly steeled herself and looked in his direction once more.
Under the light, the small boy stared ahead with wide, lifeless eyes, his face covered in blood. His pupils were obscured by a thick, milky film, and faint livor mottled his skin. He had clearly been dead for a long time. The smile, the voice, and the tentacle that had emerged from his mouth moments earlier now seemed like nothing more than a hallucination born of overwhelming psychological pressure.
If not for the amulet against her chest, still faintly radiating heat, Everly might have believed she had simply awakened from a nightmare.
No matter what, one less rampaging tentacle inside the cabin was undoubtedly a good thing.
Suppressing the sympathy and sorrow she felt for Thomas, Everly swept her gaze around the cabin, searching for lamp oil or anything flammable. She intended to burn the ritual array and the mountain of corpses to ashes.
Rebecca had once told her that fire was the most effective way to purify evil ritual circles and occult ceremonies. Simply smashing or dismantling them wasn’t always enough, as most ritual arrays possessed some degree of protective power.
Unfortunately, the wooden ship was in terrible condition. After so many violent tilts and impacts, even if there had once been lamp oil aboard, it had long since rolled away to who knew where. The cabin was also pitch-black. Without her phone, Everly had no way of seeing deeper into its interior.
Does that mean I’ll have to destroy the ritual array by force?
Everly took a deep breath. She was just about to dash across the slanted deck toward the ritual circle and look for a tool to smash it apart when an eerie cracking sound suddenly echoed through the cabin.
Crack…
Crack… crack, crack…
The sound spread from overhead, racing along the thick, sturdy ribs of the wooden ship and rapidly reaching every corner of the vessel.
The ceiling above crackled violently as showers of wood splinters and dust rained down. Everly looked up in shock and saw a rapidly widening crack split across the cabin ceiling.
Crack… crack…
The fracture snaked across the ceiling, spread down both walls, and in the blink of an eye reached the floor beneath her feet.
BOOM!
A muffled peal of thunder exploded across the horizon.
At the same moment, the deck beneath her feet shuddered violently before an overwhelming force tore it cleanly in half.
The ship’s broken ribs were laid bare, jutting into the air like the bleached bones of some colossal beast. Wrapped around the exposed frame were countless massive tentacles. It was they that had snapped the entire ship in two as casually as though it were a toy.
Bracing herself against the wall, Everly struggled to remain standing at the edge of the widening chasm. Her slender figure was silhouetted against the dim gray daylight. Freezing rain poured relentlessly over her, soaking her to the skin.
Yet none of that compared to the storm raging within her heart.
She was witnessing a sight she would never forget for the rest of her life.
Not far from the broken ship, a gigantic “black hole” had appeared on the surface of the sea.
Its opening was as vast as an indoor stadium. Standing on one side of it, even through the curtain of relentless rain, it was impossible to make out the ocean beyond.
The rim of the black opening was lined with countless white stone pillars. Each pillar was as thick as two people embracing, their razor-sharp tips gleaming with an icy, deadly sheen.
The inner wall beneath them was slick and glistening, covered with boil-like swellings that looked ready to burst. Looking more closely, Everly saw that every swollen sac contained blackish-red fleshy tendrils, which stretched and writhed freely through the air, drawing sticky strands of mucus between them as they moved.
Beyond the countless swollen growths, at the farthest limit of her vision, there was only an abyss of unfathomable darkness—one with no visible bottom.
Of course, a black hole could never appear on the surface of the sea.
That terrifying opening—one that seemed capable of swallowing all light—was nothing more than the gaping maw of the deep-sea behemoth.
The tentacles rising from the ocean had not only snapped the wooden ship in half, but had also destroyed the ritual array inside the cabin.
In the chaos, the section of the deck containing the ritual circle—including the mountain of corpses and Thomas—had splintered into several pieces and plunged into the sea below.
Logically, now that the ritual array had been destroyed, this world should have collapsed just as the Scars World had, expelling Everly back to reality.
But instead of the light of escape, what awaited her was a colossal mouth large enough to swallow heaven and earth.
The monster beneath the sea had not vanished.
It had risen to the surface.
Am I going to die here?
Because of Shelly, that damned father of hers… and that worthless inheritance no one should ever have wanted… After surviving countless horror movies, am I really going to die here?
Silently. Unknown to anyone. Bitter and miserable, becoming fish food inside some absurd painting…
Like hell I will!
I refuse!
The tentacles wrapped around the wrecked ship suddenly lifted it high into the air, sending Everly’s viewpoint soaring upward.
After a brief ascent came the sickening sensation of weightlessness. Wind screamed past her ears as the broken half of the ship—and Everly along with it—was hurled toward the enormous mouth, vast enough to rival a black hole.
The instant they reached the space above the gaping jaws, the overwhelming stench of rotting flesh rushed up to meet her, nearly suffocating her.
Fighting back the nauseating odor, Everly gripped everything within reach with such force that her knuckles turned white, anchoring herself to the jagged edge of the shattered hull.
Her eyes never left the sky above.
After flinging the broken ship into the air, the monstrous mouth began closing rapidly.
The patch of sky overhead grew smaller and smaller, drifting farther away with every passing second.
Around her and behind her, the light retreated with terrifying speed.
Darkness was steadily becoming the sovereign of all things.
Now…?
No… not yet. Wait.
Everly watched as the patch of sky above shrank smaller and smaller until it was reduced to nothing more than a narrow slit.
Only then did she make her move.
Gripping the wrecked ship with one hand, she drove both legs against the broken hull and launched herself into the air. With her free hand, she pulled out the weather balloon she had been clutching all along.
Her thumb pressed the switch on its surface.
Aiming at the thin gap overhead, she swung her arm in a full arc and hurled the silver sphere upward with every ounce of strength she possessed.
Carrying all of her fury and unwillingness to surrender, the metallic orb spun rapidly through the air. At the very last instant, it slipped through the final crack before the giant mouth sealed shut, escaping to the outside.
The next moment, darkness swallowed Everly completely.
Beyond the wall of flesh separating her from the outside world, the weather balloon activated automatically.
Purple-crimson lightning erupted in an instant, illuminating the entire sea.
Though she could no longer see what was happening outside, she could hear it.
She heard the deafening peals of thunder.
She heard the crackling hiss of electricity racing through the seawater.
She heard the monster’s agonized shrieks as the lightning struck it.
At first, the sounds came only from outside—distant and muffled, requiring all her concentration to make out.
But soon, the violet-red currents pierced through the wall of flesh and surged into the creature’s interior.
Brilliant arcs of lightning lit up the surrounding darkness.
Everywhere the electricity passed, the boil-like swellings lining the inner walls burst apart under the strain, while the fleshy tendrils hanging from the ceiling were scorched into blackened charcoal in the blink of an eye.
Splash!
Perhaps the immense pressure of the surrounding seawater was simply too great.
When the monster’s flesh was burned completely through, a massive hole tore open in its inner wall.
A torrent of seawater cascaded through the breach like a waterfall, crashing into the creature’s interior.
But the timing could not have been worse.
The falling wreckage of the wooden ship was struck by the edge of the rushing torrent, as though punched by an invisible giant. The already shattered hull broke apart even further, and its descent accelerated dramatically.
Splash!
Dazed and disoriented, Everly crashed down with the wreckage of the ship, landing deep inside the monster’s body.
This place was a vast pool as wide as a lake.
But it wasn’t filled with water.
It was filled with thick, foul-smelling digestive acid.
The moment the wooden wreckage at the bottom touched the acid, countless tiny bubbles immediately rose from its surface. Like butter melting in the palm of a hand, the timber began to dissolve away.
Everly clung desperately to the floating planks, managing—for the moment—to avoid falling into the pool herself. Even so, large amounts of acid splashed onto her body. Wherever it struck her exposed skin, angry red burns appeared almost instantly.
More terrifying still…
The acid was not the true danger lurking here.
As the wreckage splashed down, the acidic lake churned violently.
Countless pale creatures crawled out of it.
They possessed human heads, torsos, and limbs, yet their bodies were utterly devoid of hair or pigment. Hanging from their chins were clusters of white tentacles that resembled both beards and scarves, making them look like living plaster statues brought horrifyingly to life.
Dropping onto all fours, they scuttled across the wreckage like monstrous human spiders, hissing as they climbed.
Using both hands and feet, they rushed toward Everly at terrifying speed.
BOOM!
Another deafening crash echoed from overhead.
The next instant, an even greater torrent than before came crashing down from above.
The immense cascade descended like a collapsing mountain, mercilessly crushing everything beneath it.
Unable to withstand the impact, the remaining shipwreck shattered into pieces.
Everly lost her final refuge.
Together with the surrounding monsters, she plunged deep into the pool below.
The situation couldn’t have been worse.
The liquid engulfing her was only half seawater.
The other half was the monster’s highly corrosive stomach acid.
As a result, every patch of exposed skin felt as though it had been laid against a sheet of red-hot iron, waves of searing agony washing over her.
Even more horrifying were her eyelids, nose, and other delicate areas. The flesh there was too thin to withstand the corrosive acid, and before long, the skin began to char.
Everly wanted to scream.
She wanted to howl in agony.
But she couldn’t make a sound.
The moment she opened her mouth, the acid would surge into her oral cavity, down her windpipe, and into her esophagus…
The panacea…
I need the panacea…
Her fingers fumbled weakly over her body for what felt like an eternity before she hazily realized the truth.
Her hands had already been dissolved by the acid.
All ten fingers had been corroded away, leaving behind only bare, jagged stumps of bone.
Without hands…
How was she supposed to take the medicine?
For the first time, true despair engulfed Everly completely.
She continued sinking through the unbearable agony, almost convinced that this was where her life would finally end.
And then…
Just as everything seemed lost, her failing ears caught a familiar sound.
Riiip…
The sound was soft—
Like a melody from heaven.
Immediately afterward, a pale hand reached through the darkness and gently grasped her ankle.
It pulled her.
Guided her.
Leading her onward, as though nothing around them existed, gliding effortlessly through the thick, oppressive darkness.
Deeper.
Farther.
Toward the way home…
When Everly opened her eyes again, she found herself lying on a desolate island.