Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 434 Aliens and the Abyss

This was a vast ruin, but in the eyes of Mu Xiang and his companions, it was quite a bustling place... Creatures hidden in the lakes and swamps had nowhere to hide. Even the most discreet divers could not escape their detection.

"The ruins of Sarnas... were originally a city-state belonging to the Sarnas people." Mu Xiang pushed up his glasses. "This 'originally' is from a human perspective. In fact, before that, it should have been an ancient city from outer space, Iber."

Mu Xiang explained the novel's setting to Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie, "Iber belongs to the Tumha people, which are amphibious creatures... that is, what we just searched for. The Tumha people are a group in this Minar region, and they can be said to be close neighbors with the Sarnas people. But later, the Sarnas people slaughtered the city of Iber and the Tumha people, and built their own Sarnas city on top of their ancient city."

Zheng Zha's expression immediately turned strange: "Wait...you mean, the Xel'Nathians are human? They wiped out the Tumharians...those Cthulhu creatures?!"

Mu Xiang nodded: "That's right... To be honest, humans in the Cthulhu universe aren't that fragile. Otherwise, how could they have conquered the entire world? At least, whether in the Dreamlands or on Earth, the mythical creatures that humans have eradicated cannot be summarized into just one or two types."

“But now it seems… the Sarnas people were outmaneuvered by the counterattack.” Zhang Jie frowned. In his mental scan, traces of human civilization in the ruins had almost completely disappeared. Instead, the Tumhar people, who resembled upright frogs, occupied the area. They didn’t like these human city-states, so they were just scattered in the lakes and marshes inside and outside the Sarnas ruins.

These lakes and marshes are impossible to see completely from the air... but Zhang Jie clearly scanned beneath these countless naturally formed or acquired bodies of water, where a dense network of transportation routes had long been carved out. Theoretically, one could dive down from one body of water to reach any other body of water.

Beneath the numerous lakes and marshes lie countless underground caves… These caves are the dwellings of the Tumha people, and some even connect to the ruins of ancient cities. A portion of these ancient city ruins have been incorporated into this cave system; this must be the Iber City that Mu Xiang spoke of.

And in the deepest depths, at the bottom of the largest lake into which all waters flow... beneath the darkest, coldest waters, dwells a colossal creature!
That was their target: the Great Old One, Bokrug, known as the "Great Water Lizard"!

Mu Xiang possessed X-ray vision, though he usually concealed it, but when he really needed to use it, he could still see clearly. As he observed the sleeping Berkrug, he frowned.

Zheng Zha had neither X-ray vision nor mental scanning ability, so he was the most idle. Seeing Mu Xiang frown, he casually asked, "What's wrong? Does that thing look disgusting?"

Mu Xiang shook his head: "No... Although we know that the so-called Great Old Ones, and even the Outer Gods, are actually general terms. The differences between them are no less than the differences between them and humans, right?"

Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie said, somewhat puzzled, "Yeah, so what?"

Mu Xiang pushed up his glasses: "That's not right... In this plane, well, let's include both the Dream Realm and the Abyss for now. These Great Old Ones and Outer Gods all come from the Abyss, right?"

"That's not right... Didn't Nordens say that some creatures originally came from outside Earth?" Zheng Zha asked doubtfully.

Mu Xiang waved his hand: "Remember what you said... because it's inherently contradictory." "If some beings come from outside Earth, interdimensional travel is too far-fetched. The so-called mythical creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos aren't actually that bizarre; they're just alien species. But the problem is, from the perspective of the civilizations I've encountered, this plane isn't some kind of grand cosmic plane at all, so where would these alien species come from?" Mu Xiang sighed. "And when we experienced 'The Trembling Black Hole,' weren't those so-called alien species clearly connected to the Abyss?"

"Take the Cthulhu you're fighting, for example. In its lore, it comes from an extremely distant alien planet, but the Cthulhu you're fighting is the Abyss's vanguard in the real world, right? From this perspective, something is already amiss."

"And in this Berkrug, this inconsistency is even more obvious... If it came from outer space, why would it be part of the Abyss invasion? If it was part of the Abyss invasion, this guy would have been here long ago, and it wasn't newly summoned like that guy Ktayat. Why didn't the Old Gods deal with it?"

"It's one thing if we didn't know when the Dream Realm was first created, but now that the Abyss has invaded, why the hell are they still keeping this? Are these ancient gods all idiots?" Mu Xiang sneered. "Leaving this guy for us to deal with is extremely unreasonable... Nordens telling us to go and fight Nyarlathotep directly would be much more reasonable than this."

"Aliens and the Abyss are contradictory... but that's just a setting in the novel, it might not be the same here... wait!" Zheng Zha suddenly paused, "Nodens himself has used the terms 'other planets' and 'the Abyss' at the same time!"

Mu Xiang nodded: "That's right... that's the problem. In my opinion, Nordens just needs us to accept this worldview as quickly as possible, to the point that he himself doesn't realize that there are many awkward and even contradictory parts in his statements."

“Hmm…that’s true.” Zhang Jie said in a deep voice, “So that old guy is indeed untrustworthy. If it weren’t for the reward from the main god, we wouldn’t need to work for him at all.”

Mu Xiang smiled strangely: "What is the mission of the Supreme God?"

"Uh... End the Dreamland War?" Zheng Zha and Zhang Jie said in unison.

Mu Xiang nodded: "That's right... but who said that ending a war means helping one side defeat the other?"

"Can't we fight on both sides?" Mu Xiang chuckled. "So, the God's mission requirement is already a hint. Nordens' alliance with us is just his own doing; the God has never given him a 'good guy' card."

Zheng Zha couldn't help but facepalm: "With the strength of the three of us... even killing Nyarlathotep would give us an A-level side quest, which means it's at least a demigod, right? As for Nordens, if we were to fight him, this guy, as a plane's main god, would probably need to be even stronger than a demigod. What is he then, a spirit tablet?"

"It's hard to say. Nordens should be a hidden side story... If he can really reach the level of a Spirit Master, it will be quite troublesome, because he is much more agile than the incomplete clone of the Emerald Supreme." Mu Xiang pushed up his glasses.

(End of this chapter)