Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 624 You Won't Get Lost in the Church

Helena felt a wave of dizziness.

This is not about getting lost in a sea of ​​ignorance, but about seeing a more powerful being and losing one's composure.

This is closer to her engaging in a battle of wills with the other party, and she lost.

In the sea of ​​ignorance, if one loses one's own will, one will be forever lost in the deep sea.

Could it be her?
Helena was still wavering when a shadow unknowingly fell around her. When she realized something was wrong, she discovered that she was too close to that enormous being.

She then realized her mistake; with a formidable enemy in front of her, she had actually lost focus.

Damn it, the shock of seeing the banshee was too great, causing her to unknowingly deviate from the anchor point and become sluggish!

Unfortunately, it seems she has no chance to make up for the mistakes she made.
Helena felt herself being gradually assimilated by that enormous being. It didn't attack her, and seemed not to even notice her, yet even just being near it made her gradually lose herself.
In the sea of ​​ignorance, self-awareness is the foundation of existence; to lose oneself is to lose everything.

hum!
A tremendous roar resounded, piercing her soul and even the entire world—

That was a sound from the present world.

hum!
Helena's soul, lost in the sea of ​​ignorance, stared blankly at the enormous being before her. She felt as if a dragging force had appeared out of nowhere and pulled her violently.

The enormous being beside her finally moved. It seemed to have noticed her, and one of its "eyes" lowered its gaze and looked at her.

A gaze filled with malice.

Helena felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave. She almost lost herself just by coming to the side of that behemoth. How could she resist its malice?
It seemed as if a gigantic limb was swinging towards her, carrying a colossal power capable of distorting the entire world, and an indescribable malice—

It slammed against the glass with a bang.

Helena blinked and realized she was still standing in the same spot, staring intently at the observation window of the stellar reactor.

Inside the heavy furnace, a scarlet eye was peering through the observation window, and then...
The stoker pulled down the baffle on the observation window, blocking the malicious gaze. While taking notes in his notebook, he casually turned to the operator beside him: "The chamber pressure is a bit high. Increase the output of the steam pipe by two points."

The operator pulled down the lever, and the countless pipes extending from the stellar furnace suddenly emitted a "humming" sound.

Helena was jolted awake; it turned out that this was the voice that had just startled her from the Sea of ​​Ignorance.

Wait, something's not right! What was that furnace just now?!

Helena rushed towards the railing, desperately leaning out to look through the observation window, but the closed barrier blocked her view.

Helena felt a sudden lightness under her feet and was lifted up. Turning around, she saw Nini looking at her with a half-smile: "Be careful, you might fall like this."

"No, you don't know what that is. There is something beyond the ordinary in there, a colossal being that has transcended taboos, it is..." Helena shouted as she struggled.

"It's in the stove."

Helena suddenly stopped, Nini's lips gradually curled into a smile, while Helena's eyes slowly widened.

She turned her head slowly, her body trembling slightly, and looked at the church so intently for the first time.

Undecorated concrete walls, a dense network of pipes covering the ceiling, and where the pipes converge, the colossal furnace of the star machine.

The monster that would go mad just looking at Him, and that would be assimilated if He stood beside Him, was locked in the furnace.

Helena seemed to hear eerie whispers and roars coming from the furnace. The stoker picked up a wrench and impatiently tapped the furnace wall, and the whispers suddenly disappeared.

Helena blinked. She was in the present world, neither sinking into the sea of ​​ignorance nor getting lost. Reality was as solid as unmoving steel, without the slightest tremor.

"What's going on?"

A colossal object, madness, a figure, mist, scarlet eyes, pollution engulfing her like a tidal wave—countless bizarre and distorted images suddenly flashed before Helena's eyes. Her will wavered; she should have lost control, she should have been lost, but she didn't. Nini's hand loosened, and she fell to the ground like a mortal.

"Before, too many people had fallen ill, which displeased the lord. So, after that, madness was forbidden in Castel Cathedral."

Nini said softly.

"How is that even possible?"

"When the lord thinks this way, the will of the world will carry it out, and so no one in the church goes mad anymore."

Helena sat there blankly, looking lost.

After a while, a look of horror suddenly appeared on her face. She turned sharply to look at the church—the simple concrete walls, the gnarled and twisted pipes, the furnace radiating scorching heat—

So the real behemoth is this church.

Before Castel, she was as insignificant as the being in the furnace.

One is merely fuel in the furnace, while the other isn't even qualified to be fuel.

And she had just been agonizing over whether the church was exquisite or sacred enough.

Castel did not need holiness, nor did he need to proclaim his existence; his use of this crude appearance to represent humanity was a form of benevolence.

He made sure that the tiny insects around him didn't have to notice him, allowing them to continue their pathetic lives.

Knowing of His existence would drive people mad; no words could describe that indescribable being, no mind could comprehend that polluted knowledge.
Helena felt as if she were glimpsing the true nature of this world for the first time.

A sense of awe gradually appeared on her face as she looked at Nini and cautiously began, "So, Lord Hughes, actually..."

“Just kidding, who can command reality? Don’t take it seriously, it’s just psychological suggestion. As long as you believe you won’t go crazy here, your self-awareness will gradually stabilize. Hmm, it’s actually a kind of treatment for Castells syndrome,” Nini explained with a grin.

Helena looked bewildered, lowered her head and thought for a while, then a look of piety gradually appeared on her face.

"I understand, I won't take it seriously, please don't worry."

"That's good." Nini turned around.

She had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Seeing that there were too many buried beings whose status in the Stellar Furnace was off, Nini hesitated for a moment but decided to go and wake up others first.

Some of the priests wept bitterly, some knelt in prayer, and some fell into delirium, clearly unable to control themselves. The stellar furnace was right there, and falling into it would be quite troublesome.

That's so high, he'd probably get bruised and battered from the fall.

The harbingers of death who had just left the church surged out from all directions, skillfully controlling the priests and waking them up one by one.

(End of this chapter)