Chained Flame
When power was cut to the Evangelion, Shinji abruptly found himself reconstituted in the Entry Plug… with a very confused Penguin sitting on his head.
"Wark!"
…
"Please get off me PenPen."
"Wark!"
The Penguin slid down Shinji's side and took a seat next to him, idly looking at the Evangelion controls in that… bird-y way.
*peck!*
After about a minute he started pecking at the control yokes for presumably no discernable reason.
*peck!*
Which didn't bother Shinji in the slightest since he didn't actually need controls considering the unique method with which he pilots.
*peck!*
It was still a bit annoying though, but just Shinji watched the penguins antics as he took a fresh breath of LCL. The blood of Lillith. Which was a bit weird to think about.
*peck!*
Shinji realized he knew precious little about the Great Old Ones and now even the Angels.
*peck!*
The 4th Angel was… different than his memories of the future indicated… it was thinner, and far more worm-like with the addition additional tentacles and legs.
*peck!*
Shamshel did NOT look like that last time. Even his future knowledge of the Angels was called into question.
*peck!*
Shinji sighed as he continued to muse. The Angel also behaved differently. When Sachiel looked at Bokrug, it was obvious that the Angel of Water went insane.
*peck!*
No longer even caring to reunite with ADAM, only doing everything in its power to kill the Water Lizard… but Shamshel only backed away once from Ithaqua, before immediately engaging the Great Old One in battle.
*peck!*
The future would it seems, remain obscured and unseen.
"Frightening isn't it?" Asked Nyarlathotep.
Shinji turned to see the Outer God reclining against the interior walls of the entry plug. PenPen glanced at the tall swarthy man before immediately dismissing him to return to pecking vigorously at the controls.
*peck!*
Nyarlathotep watched the antics of the penguin for a moment before turning back to Shinji, who patiently waited for Nyarlathotep to continue.
"The Angels are an… interesting species. If such a term can be applied to them. They are so very close to the unfathomable power of a Great Old One, ADAM and Lillith do indeed exist on that level, but these… progeny of ADAM are diminished. Yet they are growing. Yes I expect soon that they will be quite capable of handling any more Great Old Ones invited here. Perhaps even best them. Unlikely, but not impossible."
"So they're evolving?"
*peck!*
Nyarlathotep nodded.
"Your memories of a timeline that shall never pass had them doing much the same. Each one would broadcast information to their siblings to adapt accordingly. When Sachiel encountered Bokrug, Shamshel evolved along a line to better deal with the Old Ones. It was not quite enough, but the next Angel will likewise adapt accordingly. Their S2 Organs grant them infinite energy… but not infinite power. This organ can output energy indefinitely, but there is an upper limit on how much energy at a given time. Still, this does allow them to expend some of that energy for evolution without sacrificing power in the long term. Expect each subsequent Angel to be much… stranger as a result."
*peck!*
"I see…" said Shinji grimly as he put away that tidbit of knowledge for later and bringing up something he… still didn't fully understand."...What… happened when I stabbed Ithaqua in the chest?"
"Isn't it obvious? You stabbed him with your AT-Field."
"So?"
*peck!*
"An AT-Field is the border of a soul, the outermost layer, but there is more to the sea than its surface, and this is also true for an AT-Field. Great Old Ones do have a soul, or something approximating a soul though they are… not just entities. They have a will and an ego… but they are also a place. A location beyond the recesses of reality that exists within a higher dimension. When you folded your AT-Field to create a lance and plunged it into Ithaqua, your soul touched the soul of another. In this case Ithaqua, and when you did… your very being entered the 'place' that is a Great Old One. You saw Ithaqua for what he really was. The very stuff of wind and ice, but there was also a thread. A metaphysical anchor that allowed the Wind-Walker to exist in your world. When you severed that thread, you cut off the will and ego driving the emaciated body back in reality. All that remained afterwards was the remnants of his existence on this plane. The same happened to Bokrug. The endless coral waterfall and the unmelting sculpture of ice are both similar to the radioactive fallout left after a nuclear detonation."
"I… don't understand. What was the thread? How did I cut it?"
*peck!*
"They exist in other, much higher dimensions. To exist within the lower dimensions requires they place a piece of themselves within that dimension. Picture if you would a flat plane, a two dimensional universe with living beings occupying it. You, as a three dimensional being, you may place your hand upon the surface and interact with the lesser dimension. *peck!* Applying that logic to the Great Old Ones, that thread you saw was the higher dimensional limb, the emaciated beast you fought was merely the hand at the end of that limb. *peck!* They use the contents of this dimension to construct a body so they can meaningfully interact with the world. *peck!* Cutting the thread would be impossible, except under specific circumstances. *peck!* Souls are not fully bound by dimensions, as such it is a method that can be used to wound a Great Old One. *peck!* Not enough to kill them, never enough, but you can make them recoil. You managed to weaponize and fold the borders of your soul into a cutting blade capable of severing that connection, cutting off a small fragment of the Great Old One. *peck!* A piece of it is left behind, but that piece is just a severed limb, and like a limb it had no will or ego of it's own."
"Can they reconnect?"
*peck!*
"Perhaps they can, and perhaps they cannot. *peck!* The potential exists, and no doubt Ithaqua wants that fragment back… but this universe merely skims the edges of Azathoth's domain. *peck!* He doesn't have the power to enter of his own volition. *peck!* I can come and go as I please, such is the power of an Outer God. I can grant him access, as I did before, but I have no reason to do so now. Still, Ithaqua is nothing if not clever, he very well may discover a way to reconnect with his severed half, I would not be surprised if he did."
"Why did you invite Ithaqua here anyway?"
*peck!*
"Education. Now granted the divine by its very nature is beyond human understanding, but seeing and experiencing even a small fragment of it will alter your kind. *peck!* For my own plans to work, it requires that humanity has as close to the correct perspective as is possible of beings infinitely their greater. Your ignorance on the subject must be rectified."
"Rectified? For what purpose?"
*peck!*
Nyarlathotep smiled.
"Patience young Shinji. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise."
"Huh… I guess you're entitled to your secrets. You were very forthcoming though."
*peck!*
"You're an investment, the core component of my machinations. Antagonizing you would jeopardize my plans for no benefit. *peck!* Enlightening you however does push you where I need you to be. However slightly. I may be a cruel being by your definitions, but I am no fool."
*peck!*
"Make a kid feel special huh. You know you're kind of a jerk."
"I do have a reputation to uphold."
"And a bastard."
*peck!*
"You're not wrong. *peck!* Technically I was born via Azathoth accidentally tearing out his own soul in his madness. Eventually I attained an awareness of my own. *peck!* So no mother to speak of. I suppose that does make me a bastard by a humans metric."
"...what?"
*peck!*
"My brothers were created via Azathoth undergoing fission. I however am the torn out soul of the very God that created the Multiverse… well… a multiverse."
"..."
"Nothing to say to that revelation? Hmm. Pity. I do enjoy our talks. There are so few people worth talking to. Count yourself lucky that you are among them."
Shinji looked away from the Outer God. PenPen, who had ceased his persistent pecking however...
"Wark!"
Nyarlathotep hummed to himself as he eyed the Penguin, who stared unblinking at the Anthropomorphic Personification of Entropy itself, after a moment however the Black Pharaoh smiled as he pulled a fish out of nothing much and tossed it over to the waiting Penguin, who greedily devoured it.
"Um...what?"
"Don't ask questions you don't want answered. Trust me on this."
"But… you speak Penguin?"
"I am the anthropomorphic personification of many things including thought, I speak everything you would define as a language. Verbal or otherwise."
…
Shinji shook his head ignoring… whatever it was that just happened.
"I'll take your word for it."
"Smart child." Said Nyarlathotep.
The entry plug grew mostly quiet after that. Nyarlathotep however was humming to himself as he turned his head to stare at the interior walls. Shinji wasn't quite sure why the Outer God was doing that, but he did notice the deity smile upon Shinji wondering about that. Any doubts Shinji had about Nyarlathotep's ability to read his mind was squashed at that moment.
"It's called the Hearse Song." He said simply before turning to Shinji.
"Don't ever laugh as a hearse goes by
For you may be the next to die
They wrap you up in bloody sheets
To drop you six feet underneath.
They put you in a pinewood box
And cover you up with dirt and rocks
It all goes well for about a week
And then your coffin begins to leak."
Then the entry plug opened, Shinji blinked as the LCL came spilling out like a deluge as light from the outside came pouring in. It was at this point he noticed that the Outer God was gone.
"Over three thousand people died from starvation, and even more are missing. There is some evidence suggesting that many of the dead bodies were… eaten after death." Said Ritsuko.
Fuyutsuki nodded as he took a shaky breath. Looking over the images of the half eaten dead was… unsettling in more ways than one.
"The number of people missing is strange. None of these cannibals have been found. It's like they just disappeared, but it goes beyond that. We have found some wounds that the MAGI can't fully identify, but are consistent with claw and bite marks, but from an unknown species… the claw marks shows four fingers and a thumb and whatever made these bite wounds has an elongated snout with disturbingly human like incisors but beyond that were multiple elongated canine teeth of various lengths as well as modified premolars and molars superficially similar to the carnassials of a hyena."
"So, most likely they… what exactly? Turned into monsters?" asked Fuyutsuki.
"Unclear, but… that is the most likely scenario. We're ignorant to what these creatures are capable of. Compared to a blizzard of near apocalyptic proportions, this is a comparatively minor display of its capabilities."
"I take it no footage was discovered?"
"All cameras were down. Visibility was strictly limited to what the Evangelion could see."
Fuyutsuki sighed as he leaned back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling.
"Every single thing we knew would happen has turned out to be a massive lie. The scrolls are a liability at this point. The old men are not going to like this. If more of these creatures come, we'll bankrupt the country in repairs alone. Even our grossly overinflated budget won't cover large scale destruction of this magnitude if it keeps happening. And now we have to worry about humans turning into horrid beasts… where did it all go wrong?" Said Fuyutsuki as he chuckled before continuing. "... In hindsight, it was probably around the time when old men with too much power and too little humanity decided to play god."
Ritsuko said nothing for a moment, her gaze falling off the Vice-Commander for but a moment before she took a deep calming breath.
"I don't think the Third Child is human anymore."
Fuyutsuki… could only blink.
"Come again? I know he has presented… several anomalous capabilities when syncing with the Eva, as well as a few anatomical oddities with his brain and nervous system… but nothing too drastic, definitely not outside the realm of possibility at least."
"After the fight, I analyzed him a bit more… I found something odd while doing so." said Ritsuko as she flipped through her clipboard before bringing out an image of an eye… or at least Fuyutsuki assumed it was an eye. It was milky white, almost like it had cataracs, but with a vertical scar down the middle.
"This is an image of the Thirds eye taken by the interior camera of the Evangelion just before he melted into raw LCL. He seems to possess nictitating membranes, structurally it is most similar to those of some birds but with a few anomalies. I performed a physical on him afterwards and relayed all data to the MAGI. An analysis shows that the outer edge of the membrane is covered in a layer of heat sensing photoreceptors that are sensitive to wavelengths from around the 10,000 nanometre range, this sacrifices the ability to see further away by approximately 12.89% for the ability to see into the infrared spectrum. He seems to possess two of them on either side of the eye that meet in the very middle of his eye when blinking, the space between the two membranes superficially resembles a scar. This is not a trait one would ever find on a human. After some analysis I found that Eva Unit 01 possesses this exact same mutation."
Fuyutsuki stared at the image for a minute in a state of utter confusion and bafflement. This was most assuredly something he could not reconcile or explain away.
"Does he know that you know about this?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"We will keep it that way until Gendo returns. I am… unsure what to do with this information. In fact, make sure no one else knows of this discovery."
Ritsuko hesitantly nodded as she took a deep calming breath.
The images of the dead were branded into Shinji's mind. Blackened corpses were even now littering the streets. When Section 2 agents had managed to get him out of the Eva and brought him back to the GeoFront, the dead was all that Shinji could see. Perhaps most gruesome of all were the scavengers and carrion feeders. Logically the cold should have preserved the bodies. That however was not the case. Once the snow melted, there were corpses covered in wriggling worms and squirming maggots. He found that for whatever reason, that song Nyarlathotep hummed was stuck in his head.
"And the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
The worms play pinochle on your snout
They eat your eyes, they eat your nose
As you begin to decompose." Sang Shinji to himself as quietly as he could.
He wasn't quite sure how he knew the lyrics, but it was far from the strangest thing to happen recently.
"A slimy beetle with demons eyes, crawls through your stomach and out your sides.
Your stomach turns to rancid grease, and pus pours out like melted cheese.
You spread it on a slice of bread, and that's what you'll eat when you're dead."
It was a morbid song. Yet it felt… appropriate somehow despite that.
"The worms crawl out, the worms crawl in.
The worms crawling in are lean and thin,
The ones that crawl out are fat and stout,
Your eyes fall in and your hair falls out."
Nyarlathotep seemed dead set on inviting Great Old Ones for some reason. He claimed it was to put humanity in a proper mindset… but to what end? And what role would Shinji play? It seemed at least that he was the focal point of his machinations. Still, perhaps worrying about it was ultimately pointless. Shinji highly doubted he could actually do anything about it even if he wanted to, and Shinji knew just enough about the Outer God that he wasn't actually willing to even attempt such a thing.
"Your brain turns into maggot pie
Your liver starts to liquify
And for the living, all is well
As you sink further into hell."
The inky black recesses of space were marred only by the radiant light of the stars. Of course it was a temporary affair. The darkness was a patient thing, and eventually the stars would burn out in spectacular fashion, and when no more stars remained, the dark would take hold of all creation, and never let go. That was the inevitable truth. In the late epochs, the stars will blow out like candles, and fall from the sky. Leaving only the never-ending night in a dark, cold, and empty universe. Until then however, the stars burn on. Patiently waiting for the end.
Nyarlathotep looked at the sun as he extended another invitation. Within the heart of the sun, an awareness was born.
"And the flames rise up to drag you down
Into the fire where you will drown
Your skin melts off as you descend
And Satan tears you live from limb
Your suffering will never end."
The stellar matter of the star churned and boiled as a twisted awareness swam through the white hot plasma of the sun's very core.
"And the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
They'll eat your guts and then shit them out
And when your bones begin to rot
The worms remain, but you do not."
The fires breathed, the flames grew, and it burned. It burned hotter still as it consumed the plasma of the sun itself. Actually managing to shorten the sun's life by a decade or so before the flames rose to the surface. Mile long flames licked at the plasma bleeding off the sun before a great solar flare ejected a celestial conflagration of dull orange plasma. One bound in unseen chains that stopped it from getting too far.
Dark blotches formed pareidolic faces within the surface of the eldritch flames. A face that glared at Nyarlathotep, who likewise glared back.
"Hello Cthugha." Said the Outer God.
The unseen chains held as spinning flames lashed out at the Crawling Chaos, doing precious little against the Outer God. The Choleric flames however did not stop, and burning tendrils of fire continued to pass over Nyarlathotep.
"Lively as ever I see."
Of all the Great Old Ones, few were as wild as Cthugha. In fact, Cthugha opposed just about everything. Outer Gods, Great Old Ones, Elder Gods… it mattered little to the living flames. All it wanted, and all it desired was to burn everything.
"So don't ever laugh as a hearse goes by
For someday, you'll be the one to die
And when Death brings his cold despair
Ask yourself, "Will anyone care?"
The flames dimmed.
"I am not so foolish as to summon you as the Haunter in the Dark. You rage Old One, but compared to me, you are but a curiosity. Yet, I may have a use for you."
The invisible chains corroded just a bit. Not enough to break… but perhaps in the future… it would take time though. Still, if Cthugha was good at anything, it was burning even the hardiest of materials. He even burned the stars themselves.
The days passed and the city was rebuilt. The ice sculpture remained, resistant to any and all attempts to move it. Shinji looked up at the statue with a curious gaze. The world was changing, and not for the better.
So many things were happening all at once. Giant Robots, Angels, Old Gods, Aliens, Magic, and an Apocalypse that he was supposed to prevent. Memories of a time now lost gave him insight into the nature of Angels and the role they played in the never was and never will be. Powerful as the Angels were, the fact remains that they lost this war last time. No winners came from that conflict. His father lay a broken man, SEELE dissolved into collective nothingness in a futile bid for immortality, but what was immortality without any real thoughts to call your own. It was humorous in a way that SEELE went so far for what ammounts to nothing. Even if they enjoyed their immortality with no sense of self, they would succumb to the inevitable entropy of the cosmos. When the last star died and all that remained was static equilibrium, they would fade away. And that was before things like Nyarlathotep decided to throw their hat in the ring.
Shinji sighed as he turned away from the frozen statue and walked back home. He mused on his place in this new terrifying world of Gods and Monsters. For what purpose did he fight? In another world and at another time, he never really answered that question fully. He fought because he was told to fight, then he fought for his friends and those who he thought of as family, when he decided to fight for himself things only spiraled ever downwards. He lost everything, then woke up on a beach in a catatonic state.
In all honesty, he wished to avoid that fate yet again. So he needed a new reason to fight. Yet as he thought he could think of nothing… and then he had an epiphany.
He smiled as he looked back at the frozen statue that was once the Wind-Walker.
"What makes you any more relevant than us when for all your semblance of power and control, you are just as doomed to this meaningless existence."
Shinji smiled.
"Because you aren't really any more important than we are."
"Apt."
Shinji froze as the tall figure of the Crawling Chaos appeared next to him, staring at the ice statue with a smirk.
" There is only one entity that can be classified as important, and that would be my father, Azathoth, who cares not for his creation. He is unaware he created it and will be equally unaware when he destroys it. Truly Azathoth is alone, and that fact means very little to him. It is hard to care about being the only entity in existence when the alternative is something you never considered, had the inclination to consider, or cared about even if you did. Such is the nature of the gibbering madness at the nexus of all reality. Regardless, your observation is mostly correct."
"So that's the take away huh? We're still doomed."
"You were always doomed. Even without me to personify the concept entropy would still exist and would still claim you, but that isn't the point. You humans, and all life born without omniscience have a power I could never hope to grasp. Your minds are so small they crack under the pressure, but occasionally your own narrow view is your greatest strength. Your kind looks up to the stars and declare that every one of you is important! It's false, but even in the face of absolute proof of your own meaninglessness, some of you can look gods in the face and scream you are important. I find it quaint, and it's why I have taken a liking to your species."
"Really?" Asked Shinji.
" There was a man once, his name was Randolph Carter, at the time he was just another man, worthy of nothing but a momentary distraction, a way for me to pass the time. I set him up for failure, and had sent him to the Daemon Sultan himself to make him look Azathoth in the face, and do you know what he did?"
Shinji shook his head.
"He made a leap of faith, and he beat me. A mortal man beat me. It is why I toy with you mortals. Millions fall before my schemes, and I get much enjoyment out of their falls, but it's not what I am looking for. The real enjoyment comes when I find the Sisyphus who outsmarted Thanatos, not the one who rolls a boulder up a hill."
"Aren't they the same person?"
"No. One was an exceptional individual, the other a shadow of a man. The Sisyphus I know would take one look at the boulder, then one look at the hill, before shrugging his shoulders and walk away."
"Wait… the Sisyphus you know… are you implying that he was real and that really happened? Are Greek myths true?"
"Irrelevant to our current discussion. You're focusing on the wrong parts. Try again."
Shinji sighed.
"Yeah I get it. Humans are special."
"Wrong, you're not, but you can behave as of you are, and in the right circumstances you can prove it. I could have squashed Randolph Carter like a bug, but I always play games where there is a chance for my opponent to win. Otherwise the game would be no fun."
"So I can win huh? Beat the Angels and the Old Ones" Asked Shinji.
Nyarlathotep smiled.
"Child, I'm counting on it."