"We only want a territory where we can thrive and multiply."
Howard placed Lovecraft's father's last letter heavily on the table. The two men looked at each other, somewhat unsure of the true meaning behind this seemingly deliberately emphasized sentence on the envelope.
Lovecraft, still immersed in the ecstatic joy of having mastered the power of "exorcism" through prayer, failed to notice Howard's increasingly gloomy, suspicious gaze. Howard had originally thought his own "exorcism" power was entirely unique—a miraculous gift from God. But now it seemed that this power might have some strange, dark aspects to it that he couldn't fully comprehend, especially since an ordinary civilian could use it.
They opened the envelope and spread the contents across the desk.
Part of it was the warning typed in Morse code, which Lovecraft had used to anonymously tip off Shuichi Akai. Part of it was the frantic rambling that had frightened Lovecraft, making him realize that something was terribly wrong in Innsmouth and leading him to believe his father had gone mad.
Finally, there was another part. It was a formal, chilling vow.
The vow was specially marked. In the upper left corner was a strange, archaic symbol representing the number "three"—the Third Oath.
> Iä! Dagon! Iä! Hydra!
> I, [Lofk], solemnly swear that I will marry [Lafert], that I will bring Them into my home, and that I will raise the children born of our union. Our people, our faith, will prosper as Dagon and Hydra desire. If I break this oath, I will be shunned, condemned as unworthy of Dagon's favor, and subjected to all punishments ordained, even death.
"Iä Dagon, Iä Hydra..." Howard frowned, his brow furrowed in a deep-seated aversion and disgust towards the incantation. Perhaps it was because it belonged to a heretical pagan religion? Or perhaps it was something much darker?
And the names of the oath-takers…
'The combination of the oath-taker's and bride's names… wasn't that…'
Lovecraft awkwardly avoided Howard's strange gaze. Yes. The oath-taker and the bride were his parents. He hadn't found it particularly strange before, at most taking it as an eccentric, overly dramatic promise of marriage and commitment from his late parents.
Now, reading it in context, there was a massive problem.
What were "Them"? Whom was his father promising to bring into his home?
He had heard of Dagon and Hydra in passing; they were mythical creatures from obscure folklore. One was half-human and half-fish, the other a monstrous serpent. Some isolated cults might call them gods. But most sane people called them… monsters.
The combination of race, blind faith, and the threat of death didn't seem like a positive marriage oath at all. It carried an extremely strong sense of the bizarre and the macabre. In fact, based solely on this oath, Howard could easily classify the writer as a heretic and a dangerous cultist.
"Lovecraft, I have a grim guess..." Howard said slowly.
"What guess?"
"You are the offspring of Lofk and Lafert, correct?"
"..." Lovecraft blinked. "Isn't that obvious? They are my parents."
"What I mean is…" Howard hesitated slightly, a strange, horrifying look passing over his face. He slowly uttered a sentence that caused Lovecraft's expression to change drastically. "What I mean is, you are very likely the offspring mentioned in the letter."
Whose offspring?
"Their offspring… the offspring of the Deep," Howard whispered.
Innsmouth: The Local Coffee Shop
Upon hearing the Mayor's calm explanation, Shuichi Akai felt his heart tremble violently.
He frowned deeply, his sharp eyes locked onto Mayor Philip across the small table. But the Mayor's pale, unblinking expression did not reveal the slightest flaw or deception. It was as if what he was saying was the absolute, unvarnished truth.
But this "truth" was absolutely unacceptable!
'How could monsters and humans possibly have offspring!?' Akai thought, his mind racing. 'If that photographer, Lovecraft, is unknowingly the offspring of monsters, then aren't there many other hybrids like him hidden among the human race?'
Because they looked entirely human to the naked eye, it was obvious that there was no immediate physical difference until the mutation began.
If that was the case…
Akai's scalp tingled with sheer terror.
'If this is true, then the entire world I have ever known will have to be filtered through a terrifying new lens.'
Who among his own people, his own colleagues, could secretly be their offspring? Who would inadvertently begin to revert to their ancestral form and transform into a fish-monster one day?
It could be said that the Mayor's words were utterly insane. Because Mayor Philip was flawlessly merging the perspectives of monsters and humans. The monsters were already living alongside humans. To eliminate the monsters, one had to eliminate the humans.
The perilous nature of this biological infiltration was something Akai dared not contemplate further. It was an abyss. It was pure hell!
Akai's palms and the soles of his feet were sweating profusely. This was far beyond his authority to make a tactical decision. He forced himself to take a deep breath to calm down and attempted to brush the existential horror aside to focus on the facts.
"You just said, Oath Three? Lovecraft represents Oath Three?" Akai asked, leaning forward. "What does that mean?"
"The literal meaning, Mr. Akai," Mayor Philip smiled a thin, unsettling smile. "An oath is a ritual. We will strive for the propagation and territory of our people, we will dedicate everything to the Lord's pleasure... In fact, the degree of the oath represents the progress of the grand ritual."
There were exactly three key people carrying out the oath ritual: the priest, the mayor, and the photographer.
Howard, Philip, and Lovecraft.
These three…
Akai's pupils constricted sharply. His heart tightened as if gripped by an icy claw. As if struck by a sudden, devastating epiphany, Akai abruptly stared at Mayor Philip in sheer horror.
Was the Mayor also a bearer of the oath?
No, that wasn't the focal point. The point was the specific names of the three people involved in this incident.
Combined, they were: Howard. Philip. Lovecraft.
From a standard English perspective, it wasn't surprising.
"But translated into the old Latin roots of the occult texts, it means..." Mayor Philip whispered, his eyes gleaming.
[The Call of the Deep Sea]
Crack—!
Akai's hand trembled so violently that he couldn't even control his own grip strength, instantly crushing the ceramic coffee cup in his hand. Hot coffee and porcelain shards spilled across the table.
This reaction wasn't surprising. Because Mayor Philip's seemingly casual words contained an immense, crushing amount of cosmic information. It was enough to make Akai's scalp tingle with electricity. Enough to make his vision go completely black at the edges. Enough to make the Silver Bullet feel a primordial chill and dread creep permanently into his heart.
He had "accidentally" learned that the Black Organization was active in Innsmouth.
He had "accidentally" bumped into Lovecraft and his photos.
He had "coincidentally" been accepted and led here by Father Howard.
The three men's fates had seemed completely parallel, but in reality, they were constantly, flawlessly intertwined from the very beginning, ultimately weaving a single, predetermined outcome together.
Moreover, it was entirely clear from Mayor Philip's words that this wasn't just a deliberate, human scheme. Rather, Fate itself was constantly pushing them towards a perfect, inescapable ending. And they, like helpless puppets in a grand puppet show, had danced along perfectly with the will of something far greater than "humans."
'So, whose will were Howard, Lovecraft, and I blindly following?' Akai asked himself, his breathing ragged. 'Dagon? Hydra...?'
Everything went black before his eyes. Akai almost fainted right there in the booth.
Because it was too magnificent. It was a "greatness" beyond human imagination, a cosmic script which was entirely beyond his mortal ability to cope with or fight against.
He was just a pawn. They were all pawns. Driven by an invisible, divine will.
'How...?'
Forced to calm himself down again, his green eyes bloodshot and wide, Akai gave a hoarse, deeply bitter smile.
'This really was no accident...' he thought. 'What did I do to deserve being dragged into such a cosmic event?'
God... please tell me.
How could this impossible situation be resolved? How could humanity be salvaged when the enemy was already in their blood?
In the end, Shuichi Akai, the fearless Silver Bullet of the FBI, simply slumped weakly back into his seat, letting out a soft, groaning prayer to a God he was no longer sure existed...
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Give me powerstones.
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