Chapter 601

"Hmm... how do I put this?"

Evenson stepped out of the elevator and glanced down the empty corridor. He hesitated for a moment before deciding it was better to tell the Eredar twins about what he had discovered last time.

He had done a remarkably good job of pretending that his discovery in the Peruvian pyramid hadn’t bothered him.

Internally, however, he remained deeply unsettled.

It felt as though an octopus had crawled onto his heart—cold, wet, and unpleasantly slippery.

And apparently, thinking about something too much really could affect your dreams. Last night, Evenson had dreamed up an attack called Cosmic CQC and jolted awake so violently that he nearly drowned in his own bed.

The important thing was that the problem existed, which meant he needed to find a way to deal with it.

Unfortunately, he had absolutely no idea how.

He had even spent some time searching the internet for information about the Cthulhu Mythos. That had turned out to be completely useless.

According to those stories, beings like the ones he’d encountered were essentially impossible to deal with.

There was, admittedly, some bizarre rumor floating around about the King in Yellow being defeated by humans, turned into some kind of pill, and eaten.

Evenson wasn’t buying it.

There was no way Hastur, the King in Yellow, had been beaten by a bunch of ordinary mortals.

And even if someone had somehow managed it, there was still the practical problem of size.

Those things were supposed to be enormous.

Where exactly was he supposed to find a furnace big enough to refine something like that?

Mount Doom?

At this rate, the only reliable strategy left would be to climb onto an old fishing boat, sail straight toward Cthulhu, and hope he could somehow punch the cosmic horror to death.

"Go ahead," Ourecilis said calmly. "You don’t usually bring us good news anyway. We’re used to it."

"Right. Then here goes..."

Evenson glanced at the twins.

Enjoy being so calm while you still can.

"But let’s establish one thing first. I’m telling you this because I want us to figure out how to deal with it. Don’t immediately start talking about running away."

He had learned from experience.

The last time he’d told the Eredar twins that the naaru existed in this world, the two supposedly fearless demons had immediately started discussing the possibility of outsourcing a fel-powered warship so they could escape.

Salorassis gave him a disdainful look.

"Go ahead. There aren’t many things in this world worth being afraid of."

She paused.

Then her expression changed.

"Unless the Army of the Light has arrived. In that case, we might have to—"

"So if the Army of the Light shows up, you’re running?"

Evenson narrowed his eyes at the twins.

"Don’t be ridiculous!" Ourecilis snapped, glaring at him. "We’ve spent ten thousand years fighting the Army of the Light. When have they ever gained the upper hand? We may be short on numbers now, and we may not have an army backing us, but we are proud Eredar warlocks. We absolutely will not run away!"

"Not run away? Then what are you going to do?"

The twins exchanged a look.

Then they simultaneously snorted, lifting their chins with absolute dignity.

"We’re merely going to..."

They paused.

"...leave quickly."

"That is literally the same thing."

Evenson muttered it under his breath before straightening.

"This has nothing to do with the Army of the Light. But it might actually be more troublesome."

The twins’ expressions immediately became serious.

"What did you find?"

"I discovered that this world may have beings similar to the Old Gods."

Evenson took a slow breath.

"And not weak ones."

"Oh."

"Hmm."

The twins’ reaction was almost offensively calm.

The tension they’d shown moments earlier vanished completely. They looked at Evenson as though he’d just informed them that he’d discovered water was wet.

Evenson stared at them.

"What? You’re not surprised?"

He had expected at least some alarm.

Instead, they looked mildly amused.

These two had certainly seen their share of disasters, but surely hearing that Earth might contain entities comparable to the Old Gods should have produced some reaction.

Unless...

"You already knew?"

"Of course," Ourecilis said, nodding. "We were actually wondering why it took you this long to figure it out."

Evenson’s eyes widened.

What?

He had spent all this time thinking he’d stumbled across some horrifying cosmic secret, only to discover that the twins had known about it from the moment they arrived.

And apparently, they didn’t even consider it particularly important.

"How did you know?"

Evenson shook his head, still struggling to process that.

"Did you sense something?"

"No."

Ourecilis shook her head.

"But the moment we arrived in this world, we knew there had to be something like that here. On this planet, or somewhere in the surrounding stars. I assumed you already understood that."

She looked him over.

"Apparently, I gave you too much credit."

"Thanks. I really appreciate that."

Evenson rubbed his forehead.

"But if you didn’t sense anything, how did you know the moment you arrived?"

Salorassis glanced at him.

Then she pointed at his body.

"Look at all that flesh."

Evenson blinked.

"Hey, I know I don’t exercise much, so I’ve put on a little weight. But it’s not all bad. At least I’m comfortable to—"

He stopped.

"Wait. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything."

Salorassis spread her hands.

"You’re a creature of flesh. Isn’t that the most obvious answer?"

Evenson froze.

A fragment of something he’d seen in the Incan pyramid suddenly surfaced in his memory.

All life of my world came from my master...

His eyes slowly widened.

"Oh."

It took him several seconds to put the pieces together.

Then he understood.

The Old Gods had many names and titles, but one of them was easy to overlook.

Progenitors of Flesh.

All flesh was connected to the curse of the Old Gods.

If that was true, then anywhere flesh-based life existed, their influence might exist as well.

Earth had countless theories about the origin of life. Scientists had spent centuries studying how life emerged and why it took the organic forms it did, yet the ultimate origin remained an open question.

Who had scattered the first seeds of life?

There was one thing humanity could establish with reasonable confidence:

Life had emerged from water.

The ocean was, in a very real sense, the cradle of life on Earth.

But now Evenson found himself looking at that fact differently.

Water.

Whose symbol was the sea?

Who slept beneath the waves, entombed in the sunken city of R’lyeh?

Cthulhu.

The possibility was horrifyingly simple.

Perhaps every living thing on Earth—and even the fundamental form that life had taken—had been shaped by the unconscious influence of the entity sleeping beneath the ocean.

Evenson stared into the distance.

Then a strange smile slowly appeared on his face.

"The Progenitor of Life..."

He gave the title a thoughtful roll.

"That doesn’t seem too excessive, does it?"