CH 7

Mage Doug sketched a monstrous creature. 

Through the window of the room in the starry sky, Evan had also once beheld a monster. 

However, all Evan had seen were its fear-inducing cloudy pupils, while Mage Doug had also captured what Evan had not seen. (Though of course, lacking necessary blood, he ultimately did not manage to finish drawing the full bulk of that unnameable monster.)

Tentacles, thin and long, extended across the laboratory's dome and walls. 

Evan struggled for words... but regardless of his efforts, his mind remained blank.

Mage Doug undoubtedly had no talent as an artist, and his tools were his severed limbs and blood — but this was already enough.

The peculiar images, characterized by their rugged lines and intricately interwoven contours, immediately entered Evan’s line of sight, causing the poor mage apprentice no small amount of dizziness.

The intense sensation of filth and distortion was unmistakably conveyed to him through the clumsy and rugged lines. It felt as though a moist tongue smelling of metal was caressing his back.

Evan felt profoundly nauseated.

Every drop of blood coursing through his veins, every nerve and muscle in his body, battled against the twisted evil slithering out of the abyss.

Simultaneously, an emotion that should not have surfaced welled up deep within Evan's being.

Evan did not want to admit it, yet he was compelled to acknowledge that this emotion was none other than joy.

A fragment of his soul, cocooned in warm flesh besieged with cold sweat and convulsions and nestled preciously deep within the man known as "Evan Reeves", had already corroded and decayed.

"Thud thud thud…"

Evan heard that minuscule, malevolent sound of friction once more.

It wasn't until several minutes later that he realized, with a sense of horror, that the sound was originating from himself.

He was pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth and expelling air to produce that peculiar sound using the tip of his tongue.

“Ugh—”

Evan abruptly covered his mouth.

"No," he whispered softly to himself.

The liquid on the ground emitted only a faint, final glow.

Darkness enveloped the somber laboratory once more, intensifying the metallic scent in the air.

The slender tentacles depicted on the walls and ceiling appeared to writhe restlessly. From the corner of his eye, Evan caught a glimpse of those things crawling and entangling with each other.

However, whenever he took a good look at the area, the lines traced with congealed blood instantly solidified on the coarse wall and remained motionless.

Nonetheless, those lines were gradually becoming finer and more lifelike. Although the changes were minuscule, the murals would change each time Evan averted and looked back at the artworks.

A profound sense of helplessness and despair gradually enveloped Evan, and every nerve ending within him was soaked in fear.

Evan attempted to escape.

But as he barely stood up and rushed to the laboratory door, he found the exit had vanished.

The spot where the original gateway stood had been replaced by a coarse stone wall, adorned entirely with dark red twisted lines.

They resembled a congregation of serpents during mating season, a sight Evan dared not gaze at for long.

He vaguely understood that the alterations in these murals might be linked to changes in his own sight.

Much like Mage Doug's earlier words, it seemed that "He" desired Evan to witness himself.

Evan pulled his mage robe and returned to the testing table, boldly stepping into the puddle of potion emitting a faint glow. Typically, his actions might be deemed reckless, even mad. After all, the concoctions' contents remained inscrutable — perhaps it contained unicorn blood, but it was more likely that it contained venom from the stinger of a scorpion demon.

Yet, to Evan now, those particulars held little significance. In his nearly shattered psyche, the sole thing of consequence was that faint, dwindling gleam.

In the darkness, the moist sound of friction grew more pronounced, too palpable for Evan, who teetered on the brink of sanity, to dismiss as mere figments of his imagination.

Evan even attempted to cast a luminance spell upon that patch of darkness. Though the spell was a trifling one, it was still impossible for the current Evan.

His spell dissipated before even reaching his fingertips, and what was more frightening was the fact that it had not failed due to depleted mana, but because of Evan's eroding sanity.

"Thud thud…"

The sound grew clearer, and nearer to Evan. He involuntarily knelt in the puddle of dimly illuminated potion, hands against the floor to support himself. Crystal shards pierced his palm and blood oozed out.

"Clatter…"

In the depths of the room, two orbs of light shone.

Evan’s eyes grew wide, and he stared blankly at the rotating, diffusing lights.

Cloudy red and dull yellow... alongside countless wriggling black tentacles.

Trembling uncontrollably, Evan's strength and sanity ebbed away. 

An icy, metallic breath caressed his exposed skin. Then, a slimy, wet sensation grazed him.

Under the potion's faint glow, Evan saw the tentacles — slender, flexible, and coated in mucus. Beneath that mucus lay numerous eyeballs, all fixed on him.

"No, no…"

A fractured scream escaped Evan's pallid lips — but in reality, it sounded more like a dying man’s final groan. 

Yet those things did not stop.

They continued to crawl up his body, from his fingertips to his arms, from his toes to his calves, slowly wriggling beneath Evan’s mage robes, leaving a filthy residue on his goosebumps.

Tears streamed down Evan's face as he invoked every deity and even the names of demons, beseeching for salvation from heaven and purgatory.

Yet, no divine response came. Even the weakest of the deities did not respond. It was as if the realm of higher beings was deserted. 

All that was left was Evan, a fragile mage apprentice that could be shattered at the lightest touch... and the “thing” he shared the room with.

That “Being”.

Evan wanted to struggle, but like prey ensnared in a spider's web, he remained conscious but immobilized.

In the grip of panic, Evan finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

Translator's Note: I'm back, sorry for the long delay!