10 Jav'ilg

It was the same body which Carla saw inside the void. How did he get here?

Carla blushed at the thought of what happened inside the void. But after taking a moment to think about it, she realised that there was never any physical contact between them.

To think that her first kiss was almost stolen away from her.

What am I thinking, I was the one that kept moving closer...

Remembering the feeling of being drawn to the young man, Carla came to a conclusion which made her mind go blank.

That familiar connection.

That link, that is the same as...

That is Boros?!

Carla screamed but quickly placed her hands on her mouth. It looked as if her hands held onto more composure than she herself did.

"How could something like this happen? Just a second ago he was still just a little snake."

Carla had no way to explain the situation that unfolded within this dungeon.

Taking into account everything that happened, Carla was almost certain that it had something to do with that strange darkness where she felt like she spent a hundred years.

Carla focused more on what she was seeing on the screen. Upon seeing his chest move, making it clear that he was alive and breathing, Carla nodded, Feeling relieved.

Seeing him not in pain, and simply unconscious made Carla think about something.

She wasn't sure if he was out of danger but seeing his tranquil expression made Carla relax on her chair, looking like she was melting in it.

How did this happen?

---

A couple of moments earlier.

Roughly around the time, Carla jumped over the desk.

'MY HEAD!'

Boros convulsed his body, feeling a torturing pain radiate from his head to the rest of his body.

Being unable to control his body at will, Boros did his best to try and direct himself out of the hidey-hole's entrance.

But wanting to do something and being able to do it were two very different things. It took barely a moment for his consciousness to finally fail him.

Just as Boros stopped feeling his body, he found himself in a dark space. It was impossible to differentiate between the up and down, left or right.

He was in what seemed like endless darkness. He had no feeling of his body, leaving him to conclude this must be some kind of 'out-of-body experience'.

Does that mean that I died?

Nooooo!

How could this happen? All I did was draw that stupid symbol!

I don't want to accept this!

Boros raged on about the chances he missed and the things he wanted to achieve. The things that he didn't get to achieve in either of his lives.

He actually sounded more like a kid having a tantrum. Were someone to see this they would have laughed at how juvenile he was acting.

What Boros didn't know was that he wasn't alone here.

~hehehehehehehe~

Who is there!

Boros shouted in his mind, surprised.

If this is an afterlife, I don't think that I like what this creepy cackle is supposed to represent.

Before Boros even finished with his thought, a whisper, which sounded like a creature of horror, yet like many voices quietly talking at the same time started whispering not far from where Boros was.

~to think that I put in so much work to only now get you here. Don't disappoint meq~

Boros felt like the voice was coming from just a step behind him, giving him a creepy feeling which would raise goosebumps all over his human body.

'Who... What are you?'

~hahaha, shouldn't your main concern be where you are? ~

The phenomena that took place while the voice was speaking was something that made Boros uncertain if he was talking to a single entity or many of them. The direction of the voices shifted while the intensity of all the different voices changed as if some of the voices were growing louder while sometimes they were barely heard.

~What I am is a bit complicated for your mortal mind to fully comprehend, what I am to you and what you are to me are better questions.~

Boros listened to the insanity-inducing voices without cutting in. He didn't want to find out what would happen if he made the already scary-sounding voices become scarier.

~to put it in simple terms, I am an Old One. But unlike some of my relatives, my name is yet to know to the mortal minds.~

After finishing the sentence the voice fell silent.

Seeing that the voice was silent for a few seconds, Boros took it as an invitation for him to ask more questions.

'what do you mean by opportunity, and what is this place?'

~it is just how it sounds, I have something that you could do for me and at the same time, I have something that I can do for you. And as for what this place is, it is also a bit complicated for a mortal mind to fully comprehend. To put it simply, this is what you would call a void.~

Hearing another stop, Boros continued his questioning.

'Could you be any more specific? What do you mean by the void? And when you say one of the Old Ones, you mean like... ?'

Before Boros even finished his question, the voice interrupted him.

~Indeed, like Cthulhu. ~

The whispering voice continued, sounding almost amused at the way Boros was taking in the information.

~there are many things which you will want to know, but it up to us whether we share it with you or not. Some things need to be deserved~

' And how will I deserve them?'

The voice chuckled, but there was nothing cute about it. Boros thought that he will have trouble sleeping just from hearing that abominable sound.

~before the beginning of the universe, I was one of the last among the Old Ones to begin existing. Being just a few dozen millennia-old at the time, I wandered off to somewhere where I should not have, getting myself trapped. I have since made the place which once held me to obey my will. But sadly because of that, I had no way to influence mortal minds, until now.~

An actual Old One... They really do exist...

I suddenly feel much more afraid of the dark than when I was a kid.

'How did you manage to get to me if you couldn't do it before?'

Boros asked wandering. The Old Ones are literally the oldest entities in the universe. Yet somehow this one strangely sounds more like he was talking to a human. There was not too much pressure on Boros, probably because this Old One didn't want to lose his only link to reality.

~We are bound by rules which forbid us from destroying the things formed by the Spark of Creation. It was a rule made by us to bind us so that we can be worshipped by the lesser gods and mortals. It is their devotion and sacrifices that grant us the most power. ~

The Old One and Boros kept speaking for a while, having Boroses questions answered in a way that would somewhat make sense to him.

When Boros asked why was it speaking in such a mundane way, it responded that it looked through Boros's mind and used his memories to construct the easiest way to establish communication.

Boros felt like the voice used that moment to mock him. I don't speak in such a simple way, right?

The Old One explained that his name in mortal tongs would sound like Jav'ilg.

Unlike his other relatives, be they Great Old Ones or Outer Gods, Jav'ilg was just like an ant compared to them because he was never worshipped before.

He managed to get in contact with Boros by placing his symbol into Boros's mind when he drank the stardew.

Stardew was the sweet water Boros drank when he was in his hidey-hole. From what Jav'ilg said, stardew is used by mortals to open their minds to divine knowledge, but what they don't know is that by doing that, they open the door so that anything can get inside.

By drinking that much, it was already amazing that Boros survived, but since he was not a human, his defences were much more bare, giving Jav'ilg a chance to plant a seed into Boros's mind.

When Boros drew the symbol Jav'ilg planted in his mind, a link formed between them. Like a portal through which Boros's soul slipped through, ending up in the void which used to be Jav'ilg's prison.

'I agree to help you to get more powerful if you share that power with me.'

~hehehe, then it seems we have a deal.~

Just as Jav'ilg finished his remark, a shadowy mist sphere appeared before Boros.

The sphere at first looked like a black mist with no shape or form, but all of a sudden it started to move like it was getting squeezed and moulded by an invisible hand.

What the seemingly formless mist turned into made Boros gasp in admiration.

It was a body.

The same body which Carla will meet in the void.

'This body, what is it for?'

~since we have agreed upon our cooperation, it seemed more formal to have a body that can more easily traverse the world.~

'You made yourself a body?'

~no, I made you a body. ~

Boros didn't know what to say, just like that a body was made out of thin air. And here I thought that it would take a long time to get one that isn't small and limbless.

~This body I have created from the little bits of eldritch energy I am collecting from your lady friend right now.~

'What?! What are you doing to her?!'

~relax, harvesting human emotions is one of the things we can do to gather energy. Your friend got dragged here because of the way your souls are bound. I am just having her feel a bit of terror and hopelessness. I won't hurt her in any way, however. If anything, I am making her more resistant to illusions.~

Boros listened to what Jav was saying, feeling some pain in his soul from knowing that Carla is going through such things.

~there is really no need to worry, I am not even using 0.0001% of my power.~

How Jav'ilg spoke didn't paint a picture of a pre primordial dark god. But Boros felt like he could get used to the way Jav'ilg spoke. At least it is not as scary to listen to him when he talks sounding like a human.

But did he really need to pronounce every zero with a different voice?

'Is that really necessary though? Can't you use me to harvest energy?'

~that is impossible. Since the moment you accepted the deal, a small spark of my essence was fused with you. That essence gave you affinity towards eldritch energy, making the method of minor eldritch radiation that I am using on the girl useless.~

' wait, if you have enough energy to do that to Carla, then shouldn't you have enough energy to make a body without putting her through mental torture?'

~ Eldritch energy can be separated into 3 stages. With low, medium and high corruption.

To make the body I need the low corruption energy, and since up until now I had only high corruption in my energy, this is the only way. I will teach you more about it when the time comes.~

'Fine...'

Boros exhaled.

Since there was no other way, Boros decided to not say anything more. He knew Carla is going through some tough times now, but he didn't know how hard of a time it really was.

But just when he was about to ask, Jav'ilg interrupted him saying:

~Thinking about it won't make her feel better. The only thing you can do for her now makes it up to her tenfold.~

Hearing him say that, Boros first felt like Jav'ilg was right, but then a thought came to him.

'Is it possible to make Carla more resistant to eldritch energy, so that she doesn't get dragged with me every time I come here?'

~this time neither of you was prepared for this, so it is only natural she was dragged along.~

'Oh, OK.'

~Alright, enough of dilly-dallying. It is time you tried out your new body.~