Chapter 123: Shoggoth And Cleanup

Chapter 123: Shoggoth And Cleanup

"Ah-ah-ah!" - I interrupt loudly, - "My apologies for butting in, but don't do that."

Viscount sputters mid-word, turning to me curiously - "...What's the matter, my dear?"

"I think we will need to do something more thorough than just collect the big body parts and wash the rest off." - I explain - "This man, mad as he was, had some odd magic at his disposal. And while I'm confident I have exploded him rather thoroughly, it wouldn't hurt to make sure there are no last minute problems. I wouldn't be surprised, for example, if that man took advantage of his curious invulnerability had soaked his clothes in contact poison as a last 'damn you' to whoever managed to kill him."

Servants collectively take a step back, as they all glance at the remains uneasily. Carolus strokes his chin thoughtfully. "...A sensible worry, my lady." - he then rumbles - "It is, indeed, hard to fathom what kind of nonsense might come from a lunatic. I imagine you have a suggestion?"

"Fire's a good idea when you are getting rid of unnatural." - I suggest - "If you don't mind, I can just set the area splattered with remains on fire for a while. Then we can sweep up the ashes and have them buried in a clay pot somewhere."

He grins. "Thorough, but inexpensive! I like that." - he offers - "Then if you would, please? And after that, a dinner. A feast is the least I owe the house Gillespie for coming to my aid with this peculiar trouble."

I step past the visibly relieved servants and consider the area critically. A quick detection spell highlights the splatter, which is a sizeable area about ten touse in diameter, roughly circular. Thankfully, our interaction happened in the middle of a plaza of sorts in front of the manor gates, so it was remarkably free of any construction. Less hassle than I expected, good. I raise a waist-high barrier of the earth around the perimeter nonetheless. They shouldn't need to cross it, it will serve as a firepit reasonably well. Now, let's see about igniting. I could just use good old fire magic, but I'd have to fuel the reaction with my power all the way, and it will be, uh... odd. Magical fire has some weird properties compared to regular conflagration, and if at all possible, I prefer to make the majority of fire basic old fast exothermic oxidation. Cover the place with a layer of conjured gasoline? Now that's an idea... Hrm. Or better yet, transform some air into gasoline.

...I think I'm flubbing it. I mean, it started just fine, but then I realized I could cut some corners and save some time if I just use my shoggoth bullshit to nudge the atoms around to make things happen faster, and... this is gonna be a runaway chain reaction, I think. I... HOLY SHIT, IT IS!... I barely manage to extend the "firewall" and curve it in before the whole mess of fusion-fission in front of me goes critical.

...So. Good points. I can, apparently, survive some pretty harsh conditions. Bad points - I still burned the fuck out of my surface layer, it's just a layer of fine ash on top of me. Owie. Useful point - the remains of jackass are fucking disintegrated on a nuclear level. Bullshit point - I just stellarated the fuck out of the plaza. The surface within the area is a uniform concave layer of glass. On sunny days, it would probably roast birds in flight, if any of them are stupid enough to pass through the focal point. Which is gonna be, uh... approximately 250 meters up in the air.

"Oh my gods, are you alright?" - is the first thing I hear when I drop the wall. Or, well, try to drop it. It had been glassed as well. So I settle for floating up and over it instead via self-applied telekinesis. Call me weird, but I'm feeling a little bit fragile right now. Apparently, I remained walled off long enough for everyone to gather in to gawk and be worried. Initial flash and boom were a good attention-getter, as well. I turn around, cringe and swipe the ash off my face, prompting a number of horrified gasps, because for a second it looked like I just swept my whole face off. "Pthui." - I am, as always, the paragon of eloquence - "I think I overdid it. Slightly."

"...I'd say so, daughter. Ever so slightly." - dad's on the point with his sarcasm today - "So what was that you actually did?"

I pause to collect my thoughts. I'm freaking out here, cut me some slack. I'm not fucking supposed to be capable of stellar ignition under my own power, damn it! This is absolutely bullshit levels of power.

"I think I just tried to ignite a new star by mistake." - I offer slowly - "...I'm sorry, I'm freaking out a little. Everything I know suggests I should be unconscious from magical exhaustion right now at the very least."

I shrug. "I, well... bored down until I hit the aquifer?" - I offer - "It's pretty close to the surface here, only slightly more than twenty-seven touse."

Facepalms and round-eyed staring continue unabated. "How do you even stand channeling that much though facsimiles?" - offers lady la Valliere dazedly. Huh.

It takes a bit for the astonishment to wear off, but once it does, everyone pokes around the newly made fountain. I think everyone likes it. Given it's subterranean water and it's running, it should not freeze easily. Not quite volcanic springs, though. It's just liquid, not hot. I think we're done here. They can plant shrubbery around it later, I'm not going to do absolutely everything for them. I'm pondering the merits of taking my harem out for a walk, given that la Vallieres offered and father accepted to stay overnight when I'm waylaid by a curious appeal.

"I... believe I owe you apologies, lady Gillespie." - Louise stammers. She's agitated. I wonder what it's all about. That fellow?

"Why?" - is my rather blunt reply. I am genuinely unsure why she would think so. Gratitude, yes, that much is understandable, but apologies? What does she think she did?

"...Please do not think ill of me for that, lady Gillespie, but... I happen to have a certain gift... a skill of vision, you might say." - she begins softly - "You might have heard about me drawing portraits of people. Well, when I do that, my gift permits me to paint them as they truly are, not as they appear like. Sometimes, those portraits come out beautiful. Sometimes, the truths are repulsive. Sometimes, even unremarkable. But... For the first time in my life, a portrait came out... eldritch. Terrifying. Otherworldly. And it was yours."

She pauses, collects her thoughts then continues - "I have drawn it in the last days of summer, as we were all waiting at the Academy for the studies to begin. I... Well... I hid what I have wrought upon the canvas and have never dared to paint another living being again for fear of... of..."

She is getting considerably nervous and agitated. I need to calm her down a little.

"Perhaps you can simply show me what had unnerved you so?" - I suggest, and she gulps, but nods timidly, motioning me to follow as she leads me deeper into the house, towards what I suspect are her private rooms.

She brings me to her sitting room and then disappears further in. It takes a while and some rummaging, but then she comes back with a canvas on a frame, covered with the linen. Squeezing her eyes shut, she removes the linen and turns the portrait around, showing it to me. Remarkable likeliness. Of course, it also looks singularly creepy because it's a superposition of TWO faces, one of which is the one I consider current and one which I wore in my past life. And both of them are then superimposed over a star that... wriggles, regardless of the fact it's just an ordinary oil painting. "Ah. I see what made you unnerved now." - I agree slowly - "To explain why you saw me like this... this is the consequence of being very highly defiled. I did not just peer beyond the edge, I have subsumed a LOT from out there. Up to and including, a full collection of memories from someone who lived in an utterly different world."

She lets out a small sigh - "And this is why I owe you apologies, lady Gillespie. Even though I have never shown this picture to anyone but you, I have become wary of you back then, and I am afraid my new attitude had not gone unnoticed or uncommented. I believe I deflected with generic assertions that you seem to give mysterious and eldritch airs, but looking back on how it was taken, I feel like more than a few persons had taken my incautious admissions as a sign there is something... wrong about you."

I shrug. "Don't think you're the only one who arrived to the same conclusions." - I toss back at her - "Why, I've been told by my entire harem that I tend to be a little creepy when I'm talking to people I don't know or care much for. Given my usual level of care for a majority of Academy students was 'so you exist, jolly good for you, bubba', well... I would hardly attribute the entirety of attitudes towards me to your artwork. A drop in the bucket, that's all that it was."

Aaand she promptly pinks up heavily at the word harem. Honestly, she should find herself a girlfriend once she's back to Academy. Maybe I should introduce students to the wonderful concept of lesbian until graduation?