Ultraman cubs begin to wreak havoc.

Moreover, each of them seemed to be cautiously looking at me in the direction of the person being replaced.

This oarfish, instead of eating krill or anything like that, did it eat people?

How could such an absurd thing happen?

"This is... an eyeball!"

"It looks like a human!"

The man at the aquatic testing site attracted attention as he talked to staff at a nearby aquarium.

The person being replaced knew better than anyone that there are deep-sea fish with eyeballs similar in size to humans. From a purely scientific perspective, something unusual happened in the deep sea; the fish ate another species of fish that normally coexisted with it, causing the individual's death.

But... the person being replaced felt a sense of déjà vu about those eyeballs.

They were the eyes of the passengers on the bus.

A murky gaze, like that of a dead mackerel...

It's spiritual pollution!

Through the perspective of the person being replaced, Subaru Genji clarified the attack method of this trap. This tactic, at present, is not a major problem for Subaru Genji; he can handle it...

Ok? !

It's the sound of sand!

Just as Gen Subaru was analyzing the situation, he discovered that the location of the person being replaced had suddenly changed, and the person who was sleeping on the bench suddenly opened his eyes.

Is it a time jump? Or a tactic employed by the enemy?!

With these questions in mind, Gen Subaru continued to try and understand the thoughts of the person he had replaced...

Spending the night in the lab is definitely not something to be praised. Although it's not work that needs to be completed regularly, it's still important to set clear boundaries for each day, and sleeping slovenly in the lab is not uncommon.

That being said, what exactly was that sound of sand?

The person being replaced got up and looked around the dimly lit room.

After circling the "island" formed by the terminals in the center of the room, the person being replaced finally found the location of the voice.

A small, sealed container of transparent resin lay overturned on the lab table, the sand inside gushing out.

The label on that jar was written in a hurry.

Yes. This is the seabed sand that was attached to the plaque when it was retrieved; the person who replaced it threw it into this place.

Why is it leaking out...?

The person being replaced continued to think vaguely with a scattered mind, but was stunned to find that he had not noticed an extremely important fact.

The sand had piled up to knee-high on the floor. The small jar held only about a liter. Sand poured out of the overturned jar like an avalanche.

*Crackling sounds*...

Someone is knocking on the door.

Who could it be at this hour? What time is it now?

The person being replaced turned around, and the window was completely dark.

*Crackling sounds*...

At this point, the person being replaced finds that they can't do anything and can't move their body.

The sand around my legs was increasing, and it had already covered half of the floor.

At that moment, as I was looking at the floor, a long, white object flashed across my field of vision.

Something is moving around the "island" in the center of the room.

*Crackling sounds*...

The serotonin secreted in the brain of the person being replaced tells him: This illogical thing is not reality.

The sand on the floor was wet. The rustling sensation traveled to the feet of the person being replaced as they walked.

The person being replaced circled the "island," trying to find out what was actually there.

Crackling sounds...

The visitor's knocking was urgent.

Seriously, if it wasn't locked, wouldn't you have come in by yourself?

The person being replaced shouted this in their heart, while bending the drooping corner of the terminal wire, and then they saw... an oarfish. The fish's current posture was as its name suggested: its long white and pink body lay horizontally on the sandy ground, its whiskers swaying and wriggling.

Clearly, the fish is alive and thriving. Fish cannot survive on land, so... is this... water? And is this the deep sea, a place where fish can live?

The person being replaced began to accept the absurdity. At that moment, sand completely covered the entire floor, and the person being replaced suddenly remembered that they were still breathing and felt that they could walk to the other side of the door.

Oh right, the door, someone's knocking.

The person being replaced, wanting to greet the visitor, stood at the door. He placed his hand on the handle, opened the heavy steel door, and said softly:

"Who is it? Who is so insensitive as to try to enter my dreams?"

However, there was no one on the other side of the door.

Not only that, the corridors that should have been there were also missing.

Some of them are the deep-sea landscape thousands of meters below the plaque, stretching out to the foot of a huge underwater mountain range.

Without a doubt, the person being replaced is strolling in the deep sea.

Unlike arthropods that struggle to move slowly under immense water pressure, he was able to walk normally.

That's it. There are several huge craters running along the seabed. This is inside one of them...

The person being replaced came to the sand depression where the plaque used to be and slowly knelt down.

Is this a dream?

The sensation of the sand that the replaced person's hand touched was undeniably real. He buried his hand in the sand and discovered something hard underneath. The replaced person spent time brushing the sand away, revealing something that felt cold and hard, part of some enormous object.

The person being replaced paused in thought, placed their hands on it, and then made a sound.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn…

This was the first time the person being replaced had consciously spoken this language through their own will.

Then, he immediately regretted it. The sensory receptors in the replaced person's body opened wide like the jaws of a crocodile, and an unpleasant sensation flowed into them... What seeped into the body wasn't just terror, but also a distant, abyss-like past, and memories of the near future...

This mountain range is a city, and it was not built by humans, nor could it have been built by humans. It flourished in an era before the emergence of humankind.

And beneath it lies something sleeping—

Huge, extremely huge, carrying a shell of a mollusk and having a body like that of a reptile.

Because of its enormous size, its ugly eyes are located below its upper jaw. This must be a gaze down upon all things destined for destruction.

Oh oh oh oh um um um oh oh oh oh um um um

Its grotesque mouth was exposed, and a deafening roar came from its cracked lid, spewing out terrifying darkness.

The sky was gradually filled with a viscous substance. What this darkness brought was...

Devastation!!!

Everything originally came from nothing.

That ominous darkness will surely corrupt the entire planet.

Those who see darkness will have their light of hope extinguished; those who come into contact with darkness will have their bodies turned into nothingness. Darkness itself has consciousness, and obeys the commands of the Old Ones, thus erasing all light.

The person being replaced, upon hearing the cry, looked up.

Are they relatives of the monster?

Countless crimson monsters with insect wings flew through the dark sky at incredible speeds, spewing out orbs of blood that burned this unknown culture and this unknown city to ashes.

I can hear it...

The mournful cries of people gradually perishing...

Is this a memory from the past? Or something that will happen in the future?

Countless flesh-colored tentacles sprouted from the shell of the Great Old One, each writhing arbitrarily like a living creature.

Oh, I see...

Part of the tentacle does not sleep, but lives on endlessly over a long period of time.

Rising to the distant sea, perhaps they are observing the things that now dominate this planet and the civilizations they have built.

It must have been doing this all along, until the day of its destruction.

"He's about to wake up."

Suddenly, in front of the kneeling person being replaced, Tetsuo Uchiharato stood there, his light black head covered with countless worm-like insects that swayed and wriggled in place of hair.

"This is the prelude to awakening, and it will continue to happen afterward."

For the first time, Uchiharado showed a slight expression of joy.

"It will devour the light emitted by the evolved beings."

What is this man saying? Come to think of it... this man...