Chapter 250: Earth

I thought that sitting on that stone throne thing would be kind of like how I entered the mock trial that Jordan had created, but that certainly wasn’t the case here. The second my butt landed on that hard surface, my consciousness, or at least a large chunk of it, seemed to escape my corporeal body and meld with the Earth itself. Without my prior experience working with Sarah and looking through her senses, I think I would have been quite disoriented. That wasn’t exactly how a legendary Central Arbiter should behave! 

I could adjust to the sensation of being locally omniscient, what with my senses seemingly extending to encompass the whole earth and all, but the next sensation was something I had never experienced before. The second my butt touched that throne, I felt a humungous wave of energy erupted from the earth to enter my body. It felt like a radiant warmth that washed over every inch of my body and soul, and there was a lot of it.

This energy was so concentrated and pure that I felt like I was using that Preview ticket again. The limitations of my faux Secondary Form seemed nonexistent given the new energy coursing through me, and I could exert the full extent of a Xollon’s might. Well, the full extent of a Xollon’s secondary form’s might, in any case. 

It was still impressive, don’t get me wrong, but the whole point of a secondary form was to limit the destructive nature of the Xollons, so really, the secondary form was quite literally the bare minimum level of force that a Xollon could use. After all, it would make for a horrible society if all of its members were the size of planets and could casually destroy reality if they moved too much. Even the Xollons themselves rarely go into their prime forms nowadays, according to Xalla at least. 

Anyway, this new energy allowed me to match the Xollons at their weakest, and intuitively - or more accurately due to Awake-Walter’s knowledge - I knew that this energy was faith. But… why was there so much of it? If I concentrated and focused my attention, then I could see that the energy feeding me were linked to thin, incorporeal threads. There were millions of them, each one indicating an individual worshipper.

Wait a second, why didn’t my Xollon Idol level up when I had this many new worshippers? There were hundreds of millions of individual threads, and if each of them represented a human, then I should be well past my current level.

“I can clarify that, my Host,” Noe chimed in, “The prerequisite of your title is to have people idolize you, but the majority of your followers on Earth only loosely worship a vague concept associated with you. Aside from a very small number of humans, the vast majority of people do not idolize you in the true sense of the word. Some don’t truly believe that you exist, and unlike your time on the parallel Earth created by the Trash Matrix, they have never seen you either, hence the negligible change in Soul Title progression.”

Ah, guess that makes sense. I frowned. Wait, but if I do make myself known…

“I think you know what will happen if that occurs, my Host.”

I smiled. Yeah, that’s something I can work towards.

Anyway, like I said, the number of worshippers I had was overwhelming. Concentrating on the brightest and thickest connection of them all, I guided my vision over to the other end of that string of faith to see exactly what the hell was going on. 

On and on my gaze went, past the beautiful atmosphere of the Earth, through cities and buildings and… deep into the sea? I frowned. That couldn’t be right… but the further down I went, the more certain I was that my cultists had, in fact, made some kind of underwater base. 

As for how I knew? Well, for one, the sea life that was swimming by had abruptly changed from schools of fish and sharks into glowing tentacled monstrosities about a kilometer below the sea. Enormous creatures, much too large to exist on the Earth given its resources, were lurking in underwater caverns and caves, while mutated jellyfish-like things with human faces swam by the sides. 

That wasn’t the oddest thing, however, because on the sea bed, far, far below the comforts of the surface, in a spot that hadn’t seen the light of the sun for eons, stood a massive temple the size of a small city. Faint ultraviolet light escaped from the crude, sea-incrusted windows, and an ominous chanting could be heard within its eldritch halls. 

Noe’s translation told me all I needed to know about the nature of the droning worship. 

A powerful voice that sent shockwaves through the suffocating deep sea waters could be heard. “The time approaches! The time of Dusk descends! The Truth will be unraveled and profaned! He descends!”

A jibbering chorus repeated the lead individual’s words. “The time approaches! The time of Dusk descends! The Truth will be unraveled and profaned! He descends!”

The mutated cultists were gathered around what appeared to be a giant pyre - yes, like, actual fire even though we were miles under the sea, I don’t know how that worked but then again, I’m looking at literal fish people, so logic be damned. As the chanting reached a crescendo, a pair of hooded individuals brought some poor sap trapped in a bubble over to the blazing inferno. The guy - someone not mutated - was clearly scared out of his wits, and it wasn’t hard to see why. 

“We nourish He Who Dwells at the Edge of Dusk!” the lead cultist shouted, “May he bless us with Sight!”

“We nourish!” The procession shouted back, “We See!”

The crazed worshippers broke the bubble containing the person and I half expected him to be crushed under the weight of the literal ocean. But he didn’t, nor did he drown. The man would have been surprised or perhaps even curious as to why the laws of physics were taking a vacation at this point, if not for the fact that the lead cultist had plunged a dagger into his heart before promptly shoving him into the pyre. 

Strangely, I saw the connection between myself and the cultists below strengthen - almost imperceptively so, but strengthen it did. I had thought that these kinds of idiot sacrificial rituals were worthless, but was it actually doing something? How strange. 

“We ready ourselves for the eve of Dusk! We ready the Blind for their revelation! We devote ourselves to the Eternal Truth, to the Devourer of All!”

“The Devourer of All Truths!”

Another individual was brought forth, and as I stretched my senses further, I saw that there was a huge line of sacrifice, all waiting in floating bubbles for their inevitable demise. 

“We…”

I ignored the rest of the ritual and focused instead on the people gathered. There were about a hundred of so cultists in the ritual chamber itself with several times that amount in the auxiliary rooms doing various tasks, but I was curious about the person leading the procession. The figure was cloaked and grossly transformed; sprouting tentacles and wiggling tumorous growths that covered his body. His face was scaly and rotten, and his huge eyes were caked over with cataracts and other filth. Yet despite his abnormalities, I felt a wave of recognition hit me when I focused my attention on him. 

Yeah… I recognized him! My Rookie Arbiter skill confirmed it. Holy shit, that was David Moore, that no-name bully from way back in the first Trial. I had completely forgotten about the dude, but seriously, what the fuck happened to the guy? 

“You left him to the whims of an Archdemon and an angry Xollon, my Host,” Noe said, “With specific instructions to leave him alive. Is this outcome really something to be surprised about?”

Huh… I did do that, didn’t I? It seemed like a lifetime ago, and speaking of Archdemons, I never saw Malazel after that incident with Jordan and Q. I hope he’s doing okay, doing whatever it was that demonic rulers did back home in Hell. I’ll need to go find him and apologize when I have the chance, the guy deserved more than what that sack of shit Overseer’s done. 

“Focus, my Host,” Noe interrupted.

Oh, yeah, good point. Uh, what was I thinking about?

“The cultist, dear Walter,” Noe said, “About leaving him with demons and interdimensional horrors beyond human comprehension.”

Ah, right… Well, I think I can understand how he’s like that, but not why. 

“I think your girlfriend can answer that better than I can.”

I pulled a small portion of my consciousness back to the tower and turned to look at Xalla.

“Did you need me for something, Lord Arbiter?” she asked as she noticed my gaze on her.

“Yeah,” I said, scratching my chin, “it’s about those cultists…”

“Ah,” she exclaimed and looked slightly embarrassed. It seemed like she knew what was going on at least. “I’m sorry, but we didn’t have any proper temples to use, so we borrowed Cthulhu’s old vacation home on Earth.”

I blinked a few times, confused at the answer. Why was she explaining the location they were in and not the reason why I had several million crazed worshippers on Earth? Hold on a second, did Xalla just say Cthulhu’s old vacation home? Holy shit, was my worshippers in R’lyeh? 

“I know,” Xalla sighed, “It’s a little embarrassing for the Lord Arbiter’s new cultists to be in a disused temple, but we have limited access to Earth and its infrastructures while the Trials are still underway. I apologize, Lord Arbiter.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said, waving a hand in dismissal, “But just to clarify, was this your doing?”

She gave me a smile and nodded. “With help from Malazel, but yes. I’m glad you liked it, Walter, I was afraid you would object. I only wish they came to Earth sooner, they’ve only managed to convert a small percentage of the populace to your cause.”

Wait, I liked it? When had I ever expressed that? Well, nevermind, it hardly mattered now, and I’m sure that I can use these new fanatics in some useful way in any case. No use looking a gift cultist in the mouth, or however that expression goes. 

“And, uh, Central doesn’t have a problem with this?” I asked.

“There are no regulations that say an Aspirant can’t have worshippers, Walter. Why, it is quite common for them to have mortal servants near the end of the Trials,” she answered with a grin. “So until they change that rule - and I am told that it is a very time-consuming process - your minions are perfectly allowed in this Trial.” She gave me a sneaky wink. “In fact, since these particular worshipers are natives to this planet, they can act freely.”

“No matter what they do?” I asked, arching a brow.

“No matter what.”

“That’s good to know,” I muttered, “Thank you, Xalla.”

“I am happy to assist, please let me know if you need anything else.”

I nodded half mindedly and turned my attention back to Earth. I found that David and his particular batch of cultists were the most devoted and numerous, but other outcroppings of small cabals were scattered quite literally all over the world. There were even a dozen or so individuals using an old Antarctic research station as their place of worship. Trying to worry about them was a futile effort, so I turned my attention to the people who did matter: the Aspirants. 

“They should be arriving any moment now, Lord Arbiter,” Q said beside me, “Ryan’s group have chosen to protect the city of Toronto, Canada, so it is best if you focus your attention there.”

I nodded. “Thank you, and what about Pandora’s residents?”

“They have chosen an… unusual approach,” Q answered with a slight frown. “They have used one of the allowances I have given them to tackle multiple cities at the same time. Beelzebub’s Marcus will be in Sydney, Noel and Yoona are stationed in Yokohama, while you are working with Vadeem and the twins in New Orleans.”

“And Jae-Hyun?”

“About that…” Q said, hesitating for just a moment, “He chose Toronto.”

“Ah."