"Heh, these daily dramas might seem mundane, but savor them, and they're oddly charming."
In the bustling heart of Misaki City, shops and commercial buildings lined the streets. Under the Ryōgi family's management and resurgence, the city's economy was thriving, its vitality palpable.
In a quiet park lush with greenery, faint cracks echoed through the void.
A playful, complex voice mused, belonging to Nyarlathotep, an Outer God cloaked in the form inspired by Roy's memory of Nyaruko. She clutched an ornate fan, her youthful guise a mask for this world.
"Mundane? Charming? Hardly. It's just calm, dull to the point of maddening." Another voice countered.
"What now? You said we're here for liberation, but I'm forbidden to act. What's this vague directive? Quiet down? Vague words won't placate me."
On a park bench a few hundred meters away, Yog-Sothoth, disguised as a middle-aged man, radiated impatience. His hand crushed another beer can, how many was that? His irritability clear. Only the two Outer Gods beside him kept his temper from hurling this planet into a temporal vortex.
"Hehe, easy there, Time Lord." purred a woman beside him, draped in a flowing black gown, her raven hair cascading like a waterfall. Her regal beauty and maternal warmth could ensnare any man on Earth with a glance. This was Shub-Niggurath, shaped by Roy's impressions.
"I get Nyaruko's answer." She continued. "Ants playing house is dull, sure. But when that child joins their games, even their familial antics captivate me~."
"Yup, yup!" Nyaruko beamed, her stunning face half-revealed. "Seeing my lil bro makes me happy. Of course it's fun~!" She waved her fan lightly, unleashing an invisible force. As if plucking fate's strings, something shifted intangibly on Earth.
Simultaneously, a figure, or existence, on this planet was swallowed by a chaotic void, erased, their traces, from the world.
"You tweaked Gaia's fate line? What did you do?" Shub-Niggurath asked.
"A secret." Nyaruko smiled coyly.
"Hehe, you snuffed out that ant, Araya Sōren?" Shub-Niggurath teased. "Such a doting sister…"
Sensing the ripple in space and time, Yog-Sothoth, master of both, knew exactly what Nyaruko done.
"Pfft, as a Onee-san, I've got to look out for my lil bro." Nyaruko said. "We're the stars now, yet that pesky ant keeps crawling back? What's a sick joke. He thinks he's on our level? Crush him to spare me gagging."
It wasn't just for Roy's sake. Even without her meddling, Araya would fall to Roy's hand if he dared return, a fated, inescapable truth.
But Nyaruko was right. With their true kin taking center stage, why let a noisy ant scurry back? If he wouldn't bow out, he courted death.
"Enough about Araya. Is your balance and mechanism truly complete?" Yog-Sothoth demanded.
"Complete? Can't say for sure without Yog-Sothoth here." Nyaruko replied. "But my lil bro's soul and the Third Magic furnace hit our planned benchmark. Whether returning his treasure succeeds… who knows?"
"Hahaha! Spouting 'who knows' so boldly? Classic Nyaruko." Shub-Niggurath laughed, joining the chat. Her smile radiated warmth, a rare camaraderie with Nyaruko, her long-time rival, showing her elation.
"No matter." Shub-Niggurath continued. "His soul and nature meet our standard, his rank sufficient to bear our kin as an ark. Return his body and protection, house his soul, done."
"She's right." Yog-Sothoth nodded. "Per Yog-Sothoth and Daoloth's calculations, crossing the inherent universe's ark needs three things: seats for us, cosmic coordinates, and infinite energy."
"The seats are his rank, rivaling any Outer God. Only a being from another universe, unbound by Father's creation, can house our consciousness as the ark's hull."
"The coordinates? He's from beyond this universe, having crossed its unreachable wall. Only he holds the key to escape. It's tough, but not hopeless. If he carries us long enough, we'll breach the cosmic barrier."
"Sigh… cosmic coordinates." Nyaruko murmured. "It's not that we can't find them, we mustn't. That's the Boss's dream barrier. My lil bro, an alien intruder, didn't disturb this dream, an astonishing feat. That's why we molded his soul and body into an ark to flee this universe."
"If we touched it, the universe would quake, shattering the dream before escape, consigning us and all we know to endless void."
"Infinite energy? His refined Third Magic, lured into him for this purpose, provides it."
"If strength was the goal, we had countless ways. Without taking his treasure, he'd have arrived as a distorter equal to us. But would that be good? I think not. He'd be assimilated by us, or the Boss, becoming a prisoner like us."
Seeing Nyaruko and Yog-Sothoth's fervor, Shub-Niggurath joined eagerly.
"Exactly." She said. "He'd be another trivial god, maybe our fourth. So what? Another prisoner, meaningless to this universe."
"Unlike us, squeezing into this world with restraint, he's clueless about its essence. If we restored his reality-warping powers, who knows what chaos he'd unleash?"
"Right." Yog-Sothoth agreed. "If he lost control, stirring cosmic conceptual ripples or touching the dream's true layer, it's possible. Stripping his power prevents assimilation, imprisonment, and secures our freedom."
Yog-Sothoth gulped a fresh beer, tossing the can into a bin.
"But none of us covet his power, right? No one dares taint such a concept and mission. Even Yog-Sothoth merely tweaked it, holding it like an elder guarding a kid's allowance. Hardly a crime…"
"Sophistry…" Nyaruko muttered.
"…Pure sophistry." Shub-Niggurath echoed.
"But it tracks." They conceded, exchanging glances and laughing.
"One issue remains." Nyaruko said. "Our plans assume our perspective. His won't align. If he won't forgive us, what then?"
Silence fell.
Consider: he was a true alien god, no, a being from another universe. His power and rank matched, wielding terrifying reality-warping might. This should've been a power-fantasy, a transmigrator's epic in a new world. Yet, strangers claiming kinship, scheming, stripped him of everything, planned his life, and inflicted endless hardship. After his growth, they'd reappear, seeking forgiveness and aid.
Such truth revealed, any sane person would explode, not comply.
"Haha… that? Not important!" Nyaruko waved it off. "If he's mad, we'll all grovel for his favor. With my cute, familiar face, my lil bro will forgive me, satisfied."
"The key is his power's manifest, it's real! The ark's prototype is here! Our hope for a new world is born!"
Shifting from gloom, Nyaruko shouted, rallying all Outer Gods present and beyond.
"With hope here, the prototype done, why fret over trifles? We endured eons of torment, what's one final step? Instead of worrying, celebrate the ark's completion!"
"Exactly." Shub-Niggurath said. "It's done. In London, he thought it was a mental or physical mutation, or power inflating his ego. But he reflected, restrained himself, mastering the Third Magic, our gift."
"Through our trials, he's reached infinity, true infinity. Our tuned Third Magic is limitless. Raising suns in the underworld, flooding creation's mother? Mere basic uses. Its true value is carrying us across universes!"
Shub-Niggurath's exquisite face glowed with uncontainable joy.
The event thrilling these three Outer Gods needed no elaboration, its weight was clear.
Even Roy couldn't grasp that his Third Magic bore meanings imbued by the Outer Gods.
"But… where's Yog-Sothoth?" Yog-Sothoth asked. "She should be here. As the plan's architect, she'd show at this critical juncture, no?"
"Logically, yes." Shub-Niggurath agreed.
"Hm?" Yog-Sothoth mused, but a fleeting probe grazed them. Before he or Shub-Niggurath could react, Nyaruko's gaze locked westward, a cold smirk curling her lips.
"Sensing me and daring to probe? Impressive for an ant, but that's it. Bravery's just recklessness, moths to flame."
Her words were simple, the outcome swift.
...
Beneath the Atlas Institute, anguished wails erupted.
"AAAAH#$#@%!!!"
A senior researcher, peering into Earth's lament via Tri-Hermes, knelt, screaming. His sanity shattered the instant he glimpsed that figure.
He gouged out his eyes, babbling incomprehensible ravings.
In the hall, Tri-Hermes, Atlas's pinnacle creation, was crushed remotely by an unseen force.
Zzzzt! Crackle!!
Sparks and leaking mana scattered as the massive device crumbled, irreparable.
"What happened?!"
"Why Tri-Hermes…?"
Witnessing their supreme mystic code's ruin, white-robed researchers sank into doubt.
"Calm down!"
Seeing the researcher's mental collapse and non-human transformation, Atlas's director, Zepia, leapt from the command platform. He injected a prepped syringe into the man's neck, knocking him out before monstrosity took hold. "Get him to the stasis field, now!"
Handling the crisis, Zepia eyed the wrecked Tri-Hermes, grimacing.
The experiment yielded his answer.
Two pieces of news: good and bad.
Good: he knew the crisis's source and why the Counter Force wailed.
Bad: this wasn't mere Human Order Incineration or Freezing, child's play. No entity in this universe could resolve it.
He could only struggle briefly, then surrender to fate.
"Activate the Seed Preservation Plan…"
"If they're merciful, one or two might survive."
Zepia laughed bitterly. "They're invincible."
"Atlas Institute, huh…" Yog-Sothoth gazed skyward.
"Those ants are persistent, or suicidal. We've announced our presence, warning all who sense us to steer clear. Yet these magi charge toward death, observing us. Too slow a demise?"
"Hehe, don't be harsh." Shub-Niggurath soothed. "Wise beings seek to unravel the unknown, it's no surprise. For ants to glimpse our fragment, that's praiseworthy. No need to be too hard."
"Besides, instead of dwelling on irrelevant ants, shouldn't we, as elders, greet her first?"
Smiling, Shub-Niggurath pointed toward a nearby spot.
Buzz!!
Space shattered in layers as an invisible force reached out.
A beautiful girl with pale yellow hair and red cat-like eyes, hiding nearby, head bowed, trying to play deaf before Outer Gods, was effortlessly dragged forth.
"Hey, miss, you've eavesdropped long enough. Not coming to meet Mommy? Keep this up, and Mommy won't let you in the door~"
___
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