Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 341 A Letter to the Prince

Galahad sat at the table, writing intently on the letter paper.

“I have been in Castel for several days now, and I must say, it is a truly magical place.”

"The word 'magical' here is not an exaggeration, but my real feeling. When I first set foot on this island, I was so shocked that I fainted."

"Everything here is so unimaginable that it can even shake my self-perception and make me unable to distinguish between reality and illusion."

"Even now, as I write this letter to you, my heart keeps pounding when I think about what I've been through these past few days."

"They also have steam engines here, somewhat similar to the ones we have in the Rhine factory. They also burn fuel to drive machinery. At first glance, they are just ordinary steel, and even the structures are quite similar. But if you look closely and understand the truth..."

"I'm ashamed to say that I would use the word 'fear' to describe how I felt when I learned all this."

"Their fuel is the flesh and blood of evil gods, which is physical contamination."

"They actually put physical contaminants into the furnace and burned them!!!"

"I can hardly describe the shock I felt at that moment. After learning the truth, I immediately took several steps back, which was a weak move, but his next words made me feel that I hadn't retreated far enough."

"They used certain rituals to summon souls within the machines—not the mechanical spirits imagined by those madmen of the Mechanical Sanctuary, but real, communicable beings!"

"I've heard them describe those rituals; they're rituals to summon some extraordinary being. God knows what they actually summoned!"

"Then they used some evil magic to make this entity serve them, suppressing the activity of the physical contaminant so that it could burn."

"Forgive me for speaking frankly, but this is the craziest idea I've ever heard. Even cultists might not have this kind of imagination."

"When I pointed out that it was somewhat similar to an evil god, their engineers were very dismissive. At first, I thought they just didn't understand the danger of evil gods, but later I realized I was completely wrong."

"They have steam engines specifically for burning evil gods! Yes, they captured an evil god and stuffed it into their furnace as fuel."

"Perhaps you think I'm crazy, and I hope this is just mad rambling, rather than the existence of such bizarre things in this world."

"The engineer led me to the area beneath their church. Yes, they built the furnace that burned the evil god beneath the church. I... I can't describe it."

"It was a colossal furnace, constructed of reinforced concrete, integrated with the church—or perhaps I should say, the church was a massive machine, forging the evil god!"

"They call this furnace the Stellar Furnace, what an arrogant name, but considering that it uses evil gods as fuel, it's not an exaggeration."

"What's even stranger is that I always felt that the evil god wasn't dead."

"The evil god had thousands of tentacles that stretched out from the furnace, extending to all parts of the island and submerged in the seawater. They were motionless, but anyone who saw its presence would be terrified by its enormous size."

"If such a terrifying evil god were to awaken, it would be a catastrophe for the world, and nothing could stand against it."

"When I told the engineer about my concerns, he looked at me in surprise, as if I had told a joke."

He said: "Then just knock it down again and stuff it into the furnace."

“Damn it, they must not understand the terror of evil gods. Such beings are like natural disasters, and humans can only run for their lives. How could they possibly ‘defeat’ them?” As he wrote this, a trace of fear appeared in Galahad’s eyes.

Even now, the image of that evil god still makes him tremble.

"The craftsman who showed me around, well, they call him an engineer, he was just a mortal."

"But when he said he would stuff the evil god into the furnace, I, as a superhuman, felt a strange sense of fear."

“I can’t tell whether I’m afraid of him, of mortals, or of Castel.”

"Besides that, their attitudes toward things are also somewhat different."

"I am writing at the table right now. The table legs are made of steel, and the bed frame next to me is also made of steel."

"The finest steel, with a little forging, can be used to make weapons, but they use it to make furniture."

"You know, I've seen furniture far more expensive than this, even if it were made of gold or silver, it wouldn't have surprised me this much. What really shocks me is their reason for making furniture out of steel."

"—To replace wood."

“They don’t lack wood; there are plenty of trees on the island, so getting wood isn’t difficult. But they still chose to build with steel.”

"Their furniture is made of steel, their weapons are made of steel, their carriages are made of steel, and their factories are made of steel!"

“I even suspect they have a steel forest—no, the whole of Castells is a forest of steel and concrete!”

“I stood on the top of the church in Castel and looked around. The scene around me was indescribable. Countless factories were lined up densely, with roads interspersed among them, like neat scales.”

"Chimneys spewed black smoke, sulfur mixed with steam diffused in the air, and the open doors were like giant mouths, through which raw materials entered and countless substances flowed out from flesh and blood."

"The steel carriages sounded their whistles, and the worm-like carriages moved along the two steel rails with a strange rhythm, as if countless centipedes were crawling along a spider web."

“Standing here, I feel as if I am not on an island, but on a steel behemoth called Castel floating on the sea, spitting out pollution, tearing apart steel, and spewing out production capacity. Just seeing it makes one tremble from the bottom of one’s heart.”

"I can only be thankful that it is just in the sea and will not move, and that it is still far away from Blood Harbor."

"Also, I heard that their larger airship, the Sky Veil Beast, is about to return and conduct bombing drills. They invited me to watch."

"Although I have seen airships before, I still have some expectations. According to them, they are something that will change the battlefield. Forgive me for being blunt, but they may be very good at making things, but they may not have seen the battlefield."

"Even so, I intend to put aside my arrogance and sincerely discuss with them what the real battlefield is like, and that weapons will not truly change the battlefield."

As he was writing this, there was a knock at the door. Galahad hesitated for a moment, then put down his pen.

Go watch the exercise first, then finish writing this letter.

(End of this chapter)