Chapter 21 - The Waiting Game
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
———————————
'I'll have to go back and refill the blood jars in that world, but other than that, I should only have to wait, and the results shall go up over time.' I thought as I walked into the store. Inside were red booths for multiple people to sit as video game signs were on the wall. Small ceiling lights were spread across the restaurant in symmetrical placements.
The reason I had come in here was because of Nyarla, but with what I was seeing in front of me, that would have to wait. Nyarla was ordering something at the counter while three others were sitting in a booth. Two of them were female, while one of them was a male, but two of them were also eldritch spawn. I knew somewhat of how these creatures would act and move.
They would find one or two people and lure them to secluded locations where they would eat them, and the scene in front of me would play out no differently. I started walking forward silently, not to let them know of my presence till the absolute last second. I watched as the female with blonde hair and the male with dark hair started becoming disfigured.
Their faces slowly deformed till their flesh spread, revealing large mouths with too many sharp teeth to be normal. The mouth they had seemed to be multilayered as from the gums, another layer of mouth sprouted out. The one in between them looked to be a teenage girl with no way of knowing what was happening as she was currently engrossed with this restaurant's menu.
Right when the "female" creature went to swallow her, I appeared and grabbed the outside of her disgusting mouth only to squeeze as hard as I could. The sound of pain it made was truly appalling. While squeezing down, I heard multiple crunches of bones being broken. The other creature quickly transformed back with a look of shock on his face, but because I was currently holding on to the "female," the creature couldn't change back.
The sound of crunching brought the teenage girl out of her fascination with the menu, only to turn and see the creature that was about to eat her. Her smile had dropped, and her eyes had shrunk in response to the horrid-looking creature in front of her.
Her reaction was expected, as not even a couple of seconds before had she even thought of monsters existing. I looked back to Nyarla, and she seemed to be still ordering whatever it was she was told to get. I looked at both the creatures with an annoyed expression. "Before that girl turns around, you and your other shall continue this game you are playing and shall act like this never happened," I whispered to both of the spawn with a "nice" smile.
"Until I tell you to stop, I want you to continue acting, and if I catch you trying to pull anything like that again… I'll kill You." My Message was taken seriously as both the horrors rapidly shook their head up and down while shaking a bit. I sat down in the booth with them right beside the "female" spawn.
The teenage girl looked a bit shocked as I placed my hand on the table and whispered to the creatures, "Both hands on the table now." They did as instructed, though they were shaking a bit. The girl they were praying on now that I could get a better look had brown hair and blue eyes. The hairstyle looked like pigtails, and while she didn't stand out, some makeup, a change of hair, and an outgoing personality could get her more- matter a fact, let's not do that.
She had on blue overalls with a white shirt underneath it. I turned my head and saw Nyarla walking toward me, seemingly done with ordering what I could now see to be milkshakes. She originally had a slight smile on her face, but upon seeing me and realizing I was actually here, her face lit up.
She had placed the tray of milkshakes on the table and sat next to me, completely disregarding her original spot next to the "male" creature. "When did you get here, Eren?" She said in an excited tone while looking at me with a smile. It was almost comical how my unfeeling stare looked against her angelic smile. "I decided to go on a walk as you weren't in the house, and I happened to see you through the window. So I wanted to stop by and see how you were doing." I spoke in a softer tone than I did with the creatures beside me.
"How did you guys meet each other?" The "male" creature asked with his hands in the air like this was a nice family gathering. "Put your hands back down on the table," I said to him while giving him a death glare, making him drop his hands back on the table with a terrified look. Nyarla, being as lovely as always, decided to answer his question. "Eren is my younger brother!" She gave information to the enemy with a smile on her face.
I decided to let the horrors have one last conversation and counted every time they took their hand off the table. An hour passed in a flash, with everyone getting up and ready to go home. The horrors quickly tried to walk in the opposite direction, but with a quick grab of the shoulder from me, they weren't going anywhere.
I dragged both of them into a nearby dark alley before anyone could react. "Do you know where Eren went? He was here just a moment ago." I heard Nyarla speak aloud to the teenage girl but didn't pay it any mind as I currently had things to kill. I threw both fakers in front of me as I activated my crown. Using Shape Mold, I was able to cover us in a dome of crimson flesh made by my tendrils.
The creatures tried communicating with me, but it only made me angrier. "Chaos (Ruination). Order (Preservation)." I said aloud as I had my teeth grit in anger while my hands had clasped together. "Hollow Crimson." It was a technique that, when released, could do massive amounts of damage, but I could use it like an eraser and just hold the giant sphere in my hand while touching things with it. There were only screams when they saw what I was doing, but when I touched them with it, they dissolved entirely.
Pulling back all my flesh using Shape Mold, I walked out of the alley with no one being the wiser. I had met up with Nyarla and the human girl again. "Eren, where did you go? And what happened to the others?" Nyarla spoke to me with a questioning tone, but I could deflect her question easily. "They said they had to go home, so I didn't want to bother them," I responded to her question with one of the most suspicious answers someone could have.
Nyarla didn't fact-check me, though, and just nodded her head and started dragging me back home. The human girl that was with Nyarla had decided to run home, and I couldn't even ask for her name. When we did get to the house, it was another hour of video games before Nyarla and I fell asleep. My avatar didn't need sleep, but it was one of the things I loved doing.
I awoke in the middle of the night to see Nyarla on the balcony, looking out at the city below. I walked up behind her but didn't say anything. Knowing I was here, she turned around, and her eyes seemed to be glowing in supernatural light. "I remember a little bit, Eren." She spoke to me with a slight smile on her face.
I couldn't help but think I may have sped up her remembrance, as she shouldn't have remembered anything this early. "What did you remember?" I asked her, actually wanting to know what she was going to say. "Just a little bit!" She said as she grabbed my arm while pulling me. "Come on, let's play some video games!" I had no reason to deny her playing video games, so why not?
In the middle of playing Elden Ring, Nyarla suddenly spoke up to me. "You know Eren… Sometimes, I don't remember who I am. I have many strange dreams, and it feels like they're trying to tell me who I am." Nyarla spoke in a quiet tone that I'd never heard her use before. "But honestly… I DON'T CARE! I wanna be Nyarla not Nya█████████." Her face had become crazier as she finished the last bit of what she was saying. I knew exactly who she was, even if her powers or the world tried to hide it from me.
I decided to speak up, and I don't think she was expecting it because she had a surprised look on her face. "If you want to be Nyarla, then do it. No one has a say in what you want to do, but always know that even if you think of "Nyarla" as a personality or a mask to hide yourself behind, it is still you. Love yourself no matter what you may hide behind because, to me, you will always be the same thing no matter what name you call yourself… My sister." I think I went a little too far, judging by her shocked and dazed facial expression. But I just had to keep running my mouth. "If you love video games, milkshakes, or even destroying worlds, I'll still be here awaiting the day you ask me to come over to spend time with you. You could be the most vile being in the universe, and that wouldn't stop me from coming to see you." Once my rant had finished, I heard something from the system notifications.
Title Upgraded! Nyarlathotep's Favored -> Nyarlathotep's Favorite!
'I may or may not have made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment. I don't expect it to get any better, but all I am here to do is apologize to future me.' I thought as I looked at Nyarla's face and saw she was stuck in a standstill with none of her facial expressions changing, seemingly stuck in time.
That was until a small tear formed in her eye and ran down her face. The smile she had lost came back in full force as her face somehow seemed a little red. 'This could be one of those "you didn't know you needed to hear it from someone until they said it" moments' I thought as Nyarla jumped at me and hugged me with much more force than usual.
She was pushing against me with way too much force, and it was becoming a bit annoying. "Can you stop holding me so tightly?" I said in a half-dead tone, only for Nyarla to look at me with another crazed look. "It doesn't matter if I'm the most hated being in the universe. You'll still visit me, right?" Nyarla spoke, throwing my words right back in my face and making me cringe hard internally from the mini-rant I gave.
I did the only thing I could, which was to focus on the game and try to ignore everything she was throwing at me. This only made her smile grow wider and proved her point due to me not refuting any of the words. It didn't seem like she would calm down any time soon, so maybe that was past "me" that is to be blamed for that.
'I meant every word,' I thought while an impossibly tiny smile formed on my face. She would never get to hear it, though.
———————————————————
Back in my main body, I was again chilling in the gaming room when I suddenly cringed hard. I knew I was going to say things from the heart but to make it sound like that was the height of cringe.
Suddenly, my demeanor changed as I felt something had changed in this dimension. I tapped Karasu, who was sitting on the couch next to me with one of my tendrils. He looked at me in confusion until he froze, probably using his senses to the max and being able to hear it.
'We are getting raided.' And with that singular thought, both Karasu and I rushed toward the front of the cave. Upon getting out of the cave, we saw an army so massive it was criminal to compare it with anything else. When raiding, it determines the stats of everyone in both the dimension you are raiding and your own power. With all of my creations out in the open and me walking around, the combination of all of our stats would make it so someone of high caliber would be the only one to raid us.
Sniktch's speed stat when going all out is over 27,000, and this isn't counting all his other stats, and then we have Karasu's and my stats. Thus making it so that only the top of this tier can attack us because anyone of a higher tier cannot attack one of a lower tier even if they have equal strength.
Even if the leader of these creatures were to have maxed out stats, it still wouldn't be enough to raid us unless they had hundreds of thousands of subordinates. Thus, the army outside was over 100,000, strong enough to combat the strength of just the three of us. The army had many different creatures in it, and while most had tentacles, some didn't.
There were oceanic horrors, darkness horrors, hell, even goat monstrosities. Still, the thing that got to me was other sub-leaders, as I could see multiple spawns seeming to be higher in the subordinate hierarchy. I was looking at them until the army had spread out, showing only one being.
She had long white hair with black horns curving backward behind her head like goat horns. They were black in color and looked draconic in a way. Her skin color was white, and her eyes were a deep red. She was short, five feet and four inches tall, but the only word I could use to describe her was "short stack," as she was beyond well-rounded. Her elvish ears were barely visible behind her lengthy hair, and the clothes she was wearing looked shy of being a robe that wrapped around her whole body.
The commanders under her were all women who had different shapes and looks. I knew this couldn't be her true form as the most monstrous female eldritch creatures took the most beautiful humanoid appearance. It would only be right to respond in kind as I changed to my avatar's humanoid appearance but decided to keep my antlers and black markings.
She started walking toward me as Karasu was on my left and Sniktch was on my left. I allowed her to advance as I began to step forward as well. Due to the size of the army, not everyone in it could fit in the dimension, and because of this, only a quarter could probably fit.
When we finally met in the middle, she seemed to have something she wanted to say. I noticed something swinging behind her in a back-and-forth motion, and it seemed to be a tail that was attached to her. "My name is Aicxixha. What is your name?" She spoke, and it sounded like someone was singing into my ear with the most incredible gentleness. It was probably an ability she had, and so it didn't phase me as I answered her question.
"My name is Azaogdesz. What do you want from me?" Using my eldritch name for the first time ever, I was annoyed by the fact that she seemed to think I was an easy target. She spread her arms forward like she was a child, trying to get picked up by an adult, and spoke. "I, Aicxixha, want you, Azaogdesz, to become mine!" A large smile grew on her face as she said these words.
I was confused about what she meant, though. "You want me to be your slave?" I spoke in a confused tone, with my head tilted a bit to the side. Her smile dropped from her face with a look of shock and confusion. "What? No! I want you to be my equal! My one! My love!" She explained with more detail that she wanted to tie my existence to hers by "becoming her equal."
"I refuse!"
————————————————————
This was almost 3k words, and the only reason it wasn't more was because I felt that going too long may be a chore to read.
I'll need to experiment with different word limits, but other than that. We have things happening.
(All chapters from this point on will be around 3k words. Think of them as two chapters in one.)
-------------------------------------------
Pat*eon.com/CustomMadeEldritchCreature
(Don't forget the R!)
(Support me if you want to but for this story I'm probably not gonna make any new chapter till I get more chapters for my other stories. I still have half of chapter 30 to finish though.)