Mystical Journey

Somewhere in Daniela

Within the ruins of the devastated city, groups of figures with red scarves on their heads and black, sheer fabric on their bodies passed through quietly. They were completely silent with their heads bowed, while their lips were chanting unknown verses with sincerely devout expressions plastered on their faces.

The figures appeared occasionally from the underground caves on the borders of the ruins, which quietly observed the group that passed by. They looked on in awe while the group passed by their ‘gate’.

Within the ruined city, they were a few abandoned single-story houses that still remained; they were fortunate enough to still be in perfect condition.

A struggle between nest monsters had just occurred here, and the followers of the Cthulhuism Society were currently patrolling the area, cleaning the remains of the monsters.

Inside the empty space of a narrow single-story house, a black figure was currently leaning against the wall, panting heavily.

Pfoo… Pfoo…

It seemed as if he was about to spit his lungs out, as his entire chest rose up high, before deflating quickly.

In the darkness, this person’s eyes were unusually bright. Half a day had passed, and he was still leaning against the wall closely, except that his breathing had gradually become calmer, and he could begin to hear the movements on the other side of the wall.

"Is anything happening?" Another voice echoed throughout the darkness.

"No, pfoo… The patrol team just passed by," The man who was leaning against the wall shook his head. "Looks like it will be safe for now."

"Pfft! Those Cthulhuism Society brats! Sooner or later I’ll kill all of them!" The voice in the darkness had become much clearer, and it was apparently the voice of a very young boy.

"How is Elin?"

"Her condition is still not good, she’s currently sick with a high fever, so we need to find some anti-fever medicine soon!" The boy paused. "Have I lit up?"

"Just light it now." The man walked away from the wall, and came towards a deeper part of the house.

Shh…

A flame the size of a soybean appeared, and quickly lit up a white candlestick.

The pale yellow light quickly illuminated half of the little house’s space.

There was a little wooden yellow bed in the middle of the house, and a thirteen to fourteen-year-old girl was lying on the bed while a white-haired boy sat next to her. The boy’s eyebrows were slightly wrinkled, clearly forming three furrowed lines, making him look abnormally old.

Currently, he was looking at the girl on the sick bed worriedly.

"We need to go out and find some medicine!" The boy said in a resolute tone.

"There will definitely be people hunting for us outside. Going out right now would be looking for death," said the man with his eyebrows furrowed. "Even if you have Wing God Arms, you still won’t be able to escape from Havana’s grasp. There are at least two of Benla’s main chiefs have been sent to capture us, we cannot take any risks."

"Do you want me to see my little sister die?!" The boy’s face turned cold.

"I’m stopping your idiotic actions!" said the man, shaking his head, he began searching for something in his arms. "When I went out earlier, I found this."

He took out a little black circular box at once, and threw it at the boy.

The latter caught it with one hand and looked at the box, a puzzled look appeared on his face suddenly.

"What is this?"

"A Radio."

"Radio?" A surprised expression appeared on the boy’s face instantly. "So you’re saying.. "

"Of course. With this, we will be able to communicate with the outside world and receive messages as well," nodded the man confidently. "Perhaps we will be able to find a way to obtain anti-fever medicine, too."

"This time, as one of the main Eighteen Cthulhus, Havana will probably be summoned by the Cthulhu King. As long as he leaves this place temporarily, we have a chance," said the man in a serious tone. "Rumor has it that the people from Obscuro Society and the Three Departments have arrived, so if you can get closer to the Ancestral God Pillar, and inherit the Ancestral God’s strength, then…"

"It won’t be that simple," the boy interrupted him. "The Cthulhu King will not let us off so easily. He may not know that I can inherit the Ancestral God’s strength, but he will definitely not let any accidents occur."

"Then what do we do?" The man became impatient.

"We cannot rush this, when more forces arrive, the more likely it will be for our chances to increase. The Three Departments and Obscuro Society are both outsiders, they do not have great influence towards the foundation and arrangement of the Cthulhuism Society. Their thousand-year-old arrangements are not to be messed with, thus, this requires proper consideration…" The boy thought deeply.

*****************

Two weeks later…

Garen had spent almost a month at Glittering Pond, and besides practicing Secret Techniques, the only other thing he did every day was research Glittering Water, or take the radio and adjust it randomly, receiving noises from the outside world with different frequencies.

Occasionally, he would go out with Wukang to investigate the lower ranked Aberration Creatures in their surroundings, and although the Potential Points that they obtained were pitifully little, it was better than nothing. The higher ranked monsters in the area had been wiped out by Wukang, making it impossible for them to find stronger ones unless they traveled to further places.

Before long, the people from the Cthulhuism Society finally arrived.

In the afternoon, tiny raindrops fell outside the door of the main hall while slight breezes blew in, bringing coldness and dampness inside.

Two men in black bull horn helmets and red clothes sat upright on the right side of the hall inside the stone cave. Their gazes were focused Island Master Wukang, who sat on the throne.

"Our demands from the Cthulhuism Society are very simple. We must be given the authority to take over the Glittering Water and this Glittering Pond. This is the most basic baseline," said one of the barefaced, light green-eyed young men, in out of place Kovitan language. When he spoke, his pronunciation was a mess.

"Is everyone from the Cthulhuism Society so rude when they come out?" chided one of the female bodyguards beside Wukang.

"We’ve already been very patient, very polite," said the young man coldly.

"You!" The bodyguard became furious suddenly, as her hand reached for the handle of the knife by her waist. The other bodyguards in the hall also became sterner as well, and they, too, held onto the handles of their weapons, as if chaos would erupt at any moment.

Wukang raised a hand, signaling them to suppress their agitation. He was more aware of the Cthulhuism Society’s strength compared to anyone else, as each of the Eighteen Cthulhus were Form 4 or above, while the Cthulhu King had achieved the unparalleled peak Form 5 and was listed as the strongest master in Daniela next to the King of Daniela himself.

Unlike Kovitan that relied on Precious Heirlooms to establish its country, Daniela fully relied on destroying established governmental regimes, and their internal wars never stopped.

Perhaps, when Kovitan was the size of an iron plate, they would have been able to rely on Precious Heirlooms to be on equal footing with Daniela. But now, a big loss in strength had caused Kovitan to be divided into four powers, and now lost their right to have face to face conversations with Daniela.

Merely relying on the Black Swamp Palace’s strength would make it likely that they would be caught when they went up against the Eighteen Cthulhus, and more likely when it was the Cthulhu King, as well as the trump card they kept in the darkness.

From their opponent’s perspective, Black Swamp Palace was merely a small, remote power, and was not worthy to be paid any mind.

Wukang knew that although he was currently in charge here, in reality the true Palace Master on the throne was Garen, except that the outsiders were unaware that Garen and Skyharp had arrived already.

Although Garen had arrived, he had waited around here for such a long time, making it obvious that he was waiting for something. Perhaps he was waiting for the people from the Cthulhuism Society?

Wukang had some faint idea that perhaps Palace Master had expected this incident long ago?

"Both of you don’t have to panic, the Glittering Water is something I can provide you with. However, giving you the Glittering Pond is something I cannot do. This resource is something we losers obtained with a high price, so to allow you to have it with just a few words, do you really think that would happen?" said Wukang with a polite smile, because although his opponents were just two Form 3 Totem Users who were not even at the edge of Spiritualization, he was not angry at all, showing that his patience ran deep.

"Tch!" Unexpectedly, the young man sneered. "Of course, Lord Cthulhu had long expected that you would not give up so easily He will arrive soon; the both of us are merely vanguard messengers, and within two days time, the Lord and the others will arrive, and by then… Hehe."

Wukang faintly furrowed his eyebrows suddenly.

The Cthulhus power and his own were about the same and were at the same level, except that the Cthulhus possessed a shameless ability; the indestructible Cthulhu’s Origin. Thus, if they were considered to be killed externally, they could undergo sacrificial resurrection by the Cthulhuism Society. The Origins of the Eighteen Cthulhus were placed inside the Cthulhuism Society Teachings, and could not be destroyed at all. Thus, although the King of Daniela could once march over everything, he could not counter the Eighteen Cthulhu’s Origins. Moreover, being unable to completely destroy the Cthulhuism Society’s Cthulhu’s Origin meant that the Cthulhus were almost immortal.

The main difference between Cthulhu and most Form 4’s, was that they could not die. If they were not beaten, they would resurrect again for the second, then the third time, torturing one to death.

"Not that sentence again. Our Black Swamp Palace may not be a strong force, but a few sentences won’t be enough to force us to retreat," Wukang replied casually. "As for the Cthulhu’s in-person visit, we’ll talk about it once he actually makes a move." When he encountered these strong forces in the past, he would never have dared to say such tough words as these, but now that he was the strongest person on the island, and had joined the Black Swamp Palace, obtaining absolute protection, plus the Elders backing him up, adding on to the presence of the inscrutable Palace Master, his speech had become much tougher.

His opponent was not angered either, as the young man merely sneered twice.

"Since Elder put it that way, we’ll let the Lord bring this up on his own later. We’re leaving!"

Both of them got up, and left the hall of the stone cave quickly.

Not long after both of them left, Garen and Skyharp’s silhouettes floated up and appeared on the seats on the left.

"Palace Master, you heard it all earlier, the people from the Cthulhuism Society have no plans to do business with us at all," said Wukang, looking at Garen.

"Doesn’t matter." Garen was dressed in a black robe while he sat on the seat with an indifferent expression. "If you want others to face you properly, you need to show them enough power, if not, no one would talk about business matters with an ant."

"And what do you mean, Palace Master?" Wukang seemed to have guessed what he meant, while an excited expression appeared on his face.

"Since they want us to show them our power, we’ll do just that," Garen stroked his armrests and said calmly. "They wanted to rob us, right? It’s a coincidence that I have to visit Daniela for something as well."

"I’m with you," Skyharp nodded.

"All of the Cthulhuism Society’s bases, destroy all of them. Dispatch the orders to all of the powers under the command of the Black Swamp Palace, if they see anyone from the Cthulhuism Society, don’t leave any behind." A bloodthirsty smile appeared on Garen’s face. "It’s a coincidence that I also want to witness the true strength of the legendary Cthulhu King."

"Once the death toll rises, they will naturally face you properly…" Garen’s final words echoed throughout the hall faintly, but neither Skyharp or Wukang displayed the faintest sign of fear, as their faces were filled expectant expressions instead.

****************

One day later

Red clouds floated above the Glittering Pond slowly, the clouds rolled around and gathered together, before forming a strange blood-coloured luster. It resembled thick, sticky blood, as if it was about to drip down at any moment.

"The Almighty Cthulhu Beckenson has arrived, mortals, welcome the fury of the gods!!"

A magnificent voice echoed from the clouds in the sky, like rolling thunder. The Kovitan language spoken this time was much more fluent compared to before, allowing the Totem Users, bodyguards, and soldiers who stood below to be able to understand the speaker’s voice.

Tch!!

A ray of black light pierced through the valley of the Glittering Pond suddenly. It pierced directly through the red clouds, penetrating the golden pillar of sunlight in the sky.

A black figure floated in midair between the red clouds.

Garen scanned past the red clouds in his surroundings calmly. These red clouds that rolled past constantly permeated a strong rotten stench, while the toxic smoke continuously passed through his skin and pores.

Shh…

A loud, terrifying inhaling noise could suddenly be heard throughout the sky.

Garen raised his head, while his chest sunk in deeply, as if it was a deep pit had formed there.

Hiss…

Most of the red clouds around him seemed like waves that were returning to the ocean when he sucked them in.

Within the blink of an eye, all of the red clouds in the sky cleared out immediately, before a man in a long blood-red robe appeared floating in midair.

"You dare absorb my Ten Thousand Poison Blood Clouds!!" A furious expression appeared on the man’s face.

He opened his palm, while three blood-red diamonds spun in his palm before turning into a ring, and continued turning continuously.

"True Red Blood Diamonds!!!" The man raised both of his hands up high, lifting the ring-shaped blood diamonds, while an indescribably strong blood light was released from his body, and soon the halo became fuller and more powerful until it reached a blinding stage.

It filled the entire sky, temporarily covering the sun’s rays as well.

"Let me go…" Crash!!!

Before he could finish shouting, the man was suddenly suppressed by a large hand made up of black smoke, and the terrifyingly gigantic hand that was formed by black clouds smashed the man against the ground violently, until a gigantic clear handprint had appeared on the entire rocky terrain of the ground.

Loud, shaking noises continued echoing throughout the ground.

Garen returned his hands to his side slowly in midair, as he casually looked at the Cthulhu that he had just smashed into a coma below him.