ebookslot Chapter 52 Entering Innsmouth
Chapter 52 Entering Innsmouth
At 7 p.m., Lucius saw off the content Miss Moran.
He wiped the sauce stains off the table with a rag and then went into the bedroom.
Lucius sat down on the edge of the bed, sinking his consciousness into the depths of his mind, and the occult diary opened automatically:
The Call of the Deep Sea
【Sexual Appearance: Secret History (1)】
[Effect: Descends, 0/3]
[Introduction: You think you're looking at the abyss, but the abyss has already flowed into your blood.]
Do you wish to use Descent? Yes/No
Upon entering, your consciousness will briefly dissipate from the waking world and return after a period of time.
Lucius stroked his chin. This afternoon, he had spent the entire afternoon in the Secret Archives room poring over all the records in the Anti-Suppression Bureau's archives concerning Black Skeleton, Dagon's Cult, and the Advent Mechanism.
An archive labeled "Fragments of the Oceanic Cult from the Middle Third Era" mentions the origin of the Black Skeletons.
He may be related to the departed waves, that is, the Black Skeleton is formed from the remains of the waves.
One thing is certain: whether it is the Waves or the Black Bones, their authority includes a portion of the Code of the Cup.
"From this perspective, my goal is very clear: in addition to the secret knowledge and ritual content that may have been lost in the secret history, the more important thing is to find everything related to the rules of the cup."
Lucius's gaze hardened as he looked at the options in the diary.
"Arrival!"
The scene in the bedroom gradually began to distort, the light from the gas lamps shattered and reformed, and a sliver of dim daylight appeared in Lucius's eyes.
The air, much saltier and more acrid than that of Hull, filled my nostrils, and an impatient voice came from beside me:
"Dylan, are you deaf?! Hurry up and take these instruments to His Holiness the Bishop!"
Dylan? Is he calling himself?
Lucius snapped back to his senses, his body reacting faster than his mind.
"Yes, sir!"
He looked up at the owner of the voice, his pupils contracting slightly the moment he saw the face.
The blacksmith Winnie held a large iron hammer in his hand. He had a very narrow forehead, thick, everted lips, protruding eyes, and grayish-green skin.
This is what Innsmouth looks like, as recorded in the archives.
Those offspring who are hybrids with Deep Ones will gradually exhibit a transitional form between humans and Deep Ones as they grow up.
"Dylan, what are you standing there for! Did you really believe that outsider?"
Vinnie slammed the large iron hammer he was holding onto the ground, took two steps toward Lucius, and his eyes gleamed with an eerie green light.
Lucius quickly recalled the memories of the original owner of this body in his mind.
Dylan, the only young man in the small town of Innsmouth, lost his parents at a young age and was taken in as an apprentice by blacksmith Winnie.
Just a few days ago, a stranger named Robert wandered into the town of Innsmouth.
He somehow learned the truth about Innsmouth in a very short time and found Dylan.
This is what Robert said to him at the time:
"Dylan, listen to me, the 'Innsmouth look' in town has never been a disease; it's the result of the townspeople's worship of an evil god."
They brought something up from the sea and interbred with it generation after generation. All people who look like fish are descendants of that thing.
"You haven't become like them yet, there's still hope for you. Take me away from here, they'll turn you into that kind of person sooner or later!"
Before he could finish speaking, Bishop Jack burst through the door and, along with several Deep Ones who were no longer recognizable as human, bound him on the spot.
Before leaving, Bishop Jack looked at Dylan and said something that kept him up all night:
"We live on a peaceful island called ignorance, surrounded by an endless black ocean, and we should never have set sail."
Lucius lowered his head, trying to come up with a plausible reason:
"Master Blacksmith, I was just a little too excited about the coming-of-age ceremony tonight, I'm so sorry."
Blacksmith Winnie stared at his face for a moment, then snorted, turned around, picked up the large iron hammer, and smashed it down on the red-hot iron block on the anvil.
Without turning back, he said, "Get the equipment to the church as soon as possible. Tonight's ceremony cannot go wrong."
Lucius glanced at the set of instruments made of gold placed next to Vinnie: a golden cup, a horn, coral...
Gold is the least valuable thing in Innsmouth.
He picked up the tray and walked out of the blacksmith's shop before activating his perception mask, a flash of black and red appearing in his eyes.
In my field of vision, all the instruments on the tray were glowing with deep red and silver-white light.
Lucius recognized that this silvery light belonged to a phenomen called the Moon, which was also one of the powers of the Black Skeleton.
"It seems that Dylan's coming-of-age ceremony is the key to this secret history incident..."
Lucius seemed to be deep in thought, so he quickened his pace and walked forward, getting thoroughly familiar with the overall layout of the town along the way.
The town stretches out along the estuary, with the Dagon Church at its center. The streets fan out from the church, and the terrain slopes towards the sea, with the lower areas being more dilapidated and the higher areas being the former upper-class residential areas.
The streets were extremely quiet, and Lucius could only catch a few scattered glimpses of people who looked like they were from Innsmouth.
He could sense countless eyes watching from the shadows behind the door and through the cracks in the window, but he couldn't pinpoint the source of their gaze.
In the eerie silence, Lucius arrived at the Dagon Church in the center of the town. The spire had long since crumbled, and only a black hole remained where the clock face should have been.
There was no one at the church entrance. As Lucius walked down the corridor into the prayer hall, the old bishop Jack had just finished his sermon.
A large group of people with "Innsmouth-like features" stood up and then silently walked past him.
Lucius tensed up, even slowing his breathing.
Only after everyone had left did he take the equipment and walk toward Jack.
He was the oldest man in the town, and the "Innsmouth look" was particularly pronounced in him.
Old Jack could no longer be called human; his skin was covered with fish-scale patterns, his body was hunched, and there were obvious webbed membranes between his fingers.
"This is a Deep One." Lucius's heart skipped a beat. According to the Anti-Corruption Bureau's files, Deep Ones were at least comparable to Tier 1 Sequencers.
"It's Dylan," old Jack said, a gurgling, sticky sound coming from his throat. "Take these instruments to the center of the basement and set them up."
His fingers were no longer able to grasp anything like a normal person's; these delicate operations could only be performed by Lucius himself.
"Yes, Your Excellency."
Lucius carried the tray and walked toward the black stone path that led down behind the podium.
As he passed by old Jack, he sensed the desire emanating from the Feast Apostle sequence.
Lucius paused, smelling the pleasant, cup-like cadence emanating from old Jack's blood.
"Is this the power of the Red Cup?"
He was initially surprised, then realized that the current time was right around the time when the Dagon Tantric sect was overthrown.
"I just don't know when the Blood Cup Order will enter this place."
With that thought in mind, Lucius walked down the black stone path and into the darkness.