Chapter 130: The Way to Leave

Yet before his unease could give rise to agitation, Pandora beside him had already noticed that something was wrong.

“Big brother?”

She cautiously took a step back and tugged at the boy’s sleeve.

“Sorry. My mind wandered for a moment.”

The girl’s clear, melodious voice jolted Amy abruptly from his reverie. His mood somewhat complicated, he waved a hand at her. If he had not personally witnessed her gut Edgar with astonishing brutality—and if he himself had never once been severed at the waist—he would never have believed that this young girl, so frail-looking and timid, was the culprit who had extinguished the Flame and plunged all of Hemtika into the abyss of darkness.

“The name Cthulhu seems to possess a peculiar magic. Whenever I hear it, I find myself sinking into it before I realize what is happening.”

He lied with a perfectly straight face, though it was not entirely a lie. The name Cthulhu itself carried a sound that profaned the human mind. Whenever he spoke it, he could faintly hear an indistinct whisper in the depths of his thoughts—a whisper that made his flesh creep and his mind grow dazed.

“So I’m very interested in Him. Could you tell me something about Him?”

This was not merely an excuse to divert Pandora’s attention. It was the truth. Although the explanation he had offered was only half true, casually fabricated on the spot, he was genuinely quite interested in the chaotic evil being sealed beneath Hemtika by the Ancients. After all, he was currently trapped within Its dream, and besides… learning more about this terrifying existence, which Fate had grievously wounded through his own hands, might help him catch a glimpse of the hidden hand behind the scenes.

Of course, he did not place his hopes too high.

“Big brother wants to know about Cthulhu?”

The tiny girl blinked, lowered her head, and thought for three or five seconds before raising it again. Her eyes were as bright and limpid as black pearls.

“That isn’t a good thing. He was one of the Old Ones who ruled this world before the Ancients. According to legend, He is an ancient god born from the blind and foolish Source of Chaos. After the Ancients defeated Him, He was sealed within the city of R’lyeh, becoming one of the foundations of the realm of Order.”

“R’lyeh.” Amy savored the unfamiliar word. “But… what does that have to do with Hemtika? I’ve never heard that name before.”

“R’lyeh is Hemtika—or at least, it is closely connected to Hemtika.”

Pandora did not seem to possess any awareness of the need for secrecy. That was only natural. Whether in appearance or in mind, compared with a monster like the black wizard Alfred, who possessed his own distinct outlook on life and values and whose personality was twisted beyond recognition, she was much closer to an innocent child—and a particularly unruly, exceptionally combative one at that.

“Otherwise, even an existence as mighty as an Old One would be unable to extend His tentacles here.”

“You mentioned earlier that they were merely false life-forms born from dreams.” The Bearer of Glory’s gaze lingered briefly on the passing crowds before returning to the girl beside him. “Does that mean the place we’re in now is not a real material world, but Cthulhu’s dream?”

“Big brother only realized that now?”

Her eyes widened.

“Mm. I arrived here as soon as I closed my eyes, then got lost.” The boundary between truth and lies had always been ambiguous. Amy had not spoken the truth, but neither could his words be simply classified as falsehood. In fact, he really had come to this dream the moment he closed his eyes; he had merely exploited the ambiguity of the context to make the descriptive phrase “closed my eyes” conceal the circumstances it truly referred to. “If not for you, I might still be wandering around here without knowing what was going on. Thank you.”

To make himself appear more convincing, he even scratched his cheek awkwardly, like an overgrown boy.

Unfortunately, it was all entirely pointless.

The young girl paid no attention to his carefully prepared explanation. A smile blossomed across her impossibly perfect face.

“So…”

“Help me find Amy Ulysses!”

The Bearer of Glory fell silent.

“But I have no leads,” he said after a brief pause, letting out a soft sigh. “I don’t even know what he looks like, or whether he’s a man or a woman.”

“That’s all right.” Pandora shook her head. “I know what he looks like.”

“No, what I mean is…” The boy paused, arranging his words. “I may not be able to help you.”

“Oh…”

The little girl bit her fingernail, her lovely brows drawing together faintly. Only after five or six breaths did she finally make up her mind. In a small, awkward voice, she said, “Actually… actually… I’m a little afraid…”

“A little afraid?” To Amy, that answer was genuinely unexpected.

“Mm.” She cautiously lifted her head and glanced at him, then bit her lip. “There are more strangers here, and I’m a little scared. In their memories, they’re always bullying people for no reason.”

“Their memories?” The young Bearer of Glory keenly caught the pronoun Pandora had let slip. “Who are they?”

“Them?” The little girl blinked. “They’re just them!”

They’re just them?

The nearly childish answer left Amy speechless for a moment. Yet he also understood that, within Pandora’s understanding, this might be as self-evident as the fact that a person dies when they are killed—a matter requiring no explanation, the most basic of common sense.

“All right. I think I understand what you mean.”

He would set the matter aside for now. In the end, even if Pandora had not recognized him, their relationship amounted to nothing more than that of two passing strangers. It was not suitable for them to discuss matters too deeply. After all… as a weakling, one ought always to remember the fact of one’s own weakness. One must not grow arrogant, still less indulge oneself.

“But don’t worry. The people of Hemtika are honest, simple, warm, and hospitable.”

In the end, that was all he could say in refusal.

The young girl said nothing. She merely clung to his sleeve and gazed up at him with the pitiful expression of a small puppy.

I really can’t bring myself to refuse her…

Amy sighed inwardly. He was utterly helpless against little girls like this. The crystalline tears glimmering in her eyes struck directly at his heart like daggers. And yet… whether by reason or by sentiment, he could never agree to Pandora’s request.

Because they were enemies.

Perhaps they did not qualify as enemies who would fight to the death, but they were unquestionably opposed to one another.

So—

He had no intention of truly agreeing to Pandora’s request. He would treat it as a transaction—or, more precisely, as a deception.

“All right… you win. There’s really no doing anything with you.”

The young Bearer of Glory patted her head.

“But let me make this clear beforehand: I can only accompany you for a while. After that, I have to find a way out of here.”

“Why do you want to leave?”

The girl tilted her head, her face filled with bewilderment.

“Because there are things I must do.”

The boy paused for a moment, his expression somewhat complicated.

“By the way, do you know how to leave this place?”

“I do.”

Pandora nodded.

“And it’s very simple. We only need to destroy this world. Once the Old One senses the presence of foreign matter, He will instinctively expel us.”

“Are you sure He’ll expel us rather than capture us?”

Amy raised an eyebrow. The thought of destroying Hemtika—even Hemtika as it existed only within a dream—left him somewhat uncomfortable. But what he truly found difficult to accept was that doing so would involve the terrifying being known as an Old One.

Leaving aside the fresh grievance of having just struck Him over the head with a sword, even without that incident, He had displayed an unmistakable hostility toward Amy the instant He discovered that Amy had fallen into His dream.

To entrust his life to Him was profoundly unsettling.

“Humans and the Old Ones are not beings of equal order.” Pandora fell silent for a long while, as though organizing her thoughts. “Compared with Him, we are like a speck of dust fallen from His body. We are utterly insignificant, so there is no need to worry about the existence of the Lord of R’lyeh.”

“I hope you’re right.”

In the end, that was all Amy could do: comfort himself.

When all was said and done, he had no room to retreat. Even if the Dark Lords had carefully woven a trap ahead of him, even if the gaping maw of the ancient evil sleeping here awaited him, he still had to venture forward and face it.

Because there was not much time left—for him, or for Hemtika.

Darkness could swallow everything at any moment.