CH 26: WARLOCK?

[The Black Goat with a Thousand Young is looking at you.]

Long squirming hair as if cursed by the color of a moonless night.

A white voluptuous body and dissonant hooves.

Two horns which are too abominable to call a goat,

And that malevolence and contrasting smile filled with kindness.

"Hello, beauty!"

I grinned, at the stagnation in her beautiful but fake smile, then, she bloomed into a peal of full laughter,

"How strange… For someone who was about to be drowned in madness you are neither screaming nor kneeling at my sight."

I shrugged before looking at my surroundings. I wasn't into that space like dimension anymore, but rather in a white room with absolutely nothing aside from the bed on which I laid.

I frowned in disgust since this wasn't the bed I became used to but rather the only one I could use in my last life, a hospital bed.

Once my curiosity was satisfied, I turned back to her

"What can I say? I am rather gusty."

Frankly, my heart was still beating excitedly from what happened just right now.

"Fufufu~! That, I can see. I am glad, initially, it was Nyarlathotep who should have come and met you, but I have decided to replace him."

I knew that one of the Nyarlathotep's nicknames and perhaps the most known nickname was Crawling Chaos.

If I had to give an analogy, he was basically the extreme version of Hermes from the Greek pantheon, since he served as a messenger for the great old ones.

"Interesting. You seem to have some understanding of us. So it should make things easier now."

She clapped her hand in enthusiasm, before bowing, presenting her incredible bust,

"I am the black goat of the woods with a thousand. At times your kind may call me a goddess and at others a demon. My true name is Shub-Niggurath, at your service. You can ask me anything, I will endeavor to answer you."

looking at the Incredibly sexy woman, I had to constantly remind myself that she was an entity I couldn't phantom.

"Could I know where we are right now? It's sure as hell isn't my room."

"This place is nothing more than the projection of your own soul. I must admit that your soul is rather large for a human. At the same time, it's rather empty. Do you not hold anything dear?"

A simple smile was all the answer I gave. Still, so this is my soul huh. Indeed, it was rather empty. Hum, well it didn't matter,

"While I am curious about how a normal soul would look, I rather put it for another time. Right now, I just want to know. What do you guys want?"

Okay, let's be honest, this seemed like a trap. Or a carefully worked machination.

At least I thought so until I saw her eyes narrow into a mocking laugh,

"Humans are always so full of themselves as if everything in the world revolved around them. This isn't a trap, nor a careful plan. Nyarla was bored. Decided to place our altar in a weak dungeon and see which unlucky or lucky man would enter."

So there was no trap? I was just unlucky? Hum, then I feel a little bad for Erza. I didn't save her, I basically robbed her of a great opportunity.

Well, she doesn't need it that much so I guess it's alright? Hum…

"So, how does it work exactly? I got the book and now what?"

She tilted her head before walking toward me. Then, out of nowhere a chair appeared next to my bed and she sat on it.

'Hey. Rude. Don't go creating chairs in my soul.'

"So, this might take long or it might be fast. Let's get the basics first. This book holds information about us, our story and our lives, as well as some spells that define us. Basically, it's a grimoire about what you humans call dark magic. For example,"

She opened her hand and the book appeared on it, once it opened, she searched for a particular page before stopping,

"This spell is called confusion and is related to Nyarla. A basic mind manipulation type spell. The next one came from me. It induces lust. I guess I don't need to explain what it does right?"

She smiled in a rather suggesting manner, and indeed I easily got the picture.

"Of course there are other more dangerous spells. Induce pain, mind wipe, horrors of the dark, call of the Dead and so and so on. If you can think of a dark spell, then it's here."

I was basically drooling, this book was the stuff of dreams. But,

"This can't be all right?"

I mean, those spells were interesting and all, I also didn't doubt that the spells she listed were only the tip of the iceberg. But, it wasn't like there weren't other dark grimoires in the world.

Perhaps not as complete nor as powerful, but they still existed. Of course it was a niche, but I would be disappointed if it was all the fabled books had to offer.

Thankfully the smile on her face told me all I needed to know,

"Do you know what an authority is?"

Huh? This was coming out of nowhere. But before I was able to answer she continued,

"Be it in this world or the others, people can possibly be born with what you call a divine blessing. As their name says, Divine blessings are related to gods and are distributed by the system called Od Laguna. You should know that at least."

Od laguna, was basically as close as the world's will, at least from what I knew in Re zero, it was never confirmed whether it has a consciousness or not. Well, at least I had my answer. If I had to make an analogy, it was basically like Alaya in Fate.

Basically, Od Laguna was born from the collective unconsciousness of mankind and the drive for its survival as a whole. At least I think that's what the author tried to do.

Having finished my musings, I nodded,

"Gods are being born from the hope of mankind as such you can say that what Od laguna is doing is sharing that hope to the world. But… WE are different.

"If the gods are the beings born from the hope and dreams of mankind, then WE are the beings born and shaped by the fear of Mankind. We don't just represent destruction, but rather the true primordial despair of mankind. As such our very existence is opposite to that of the gods.

"Still, even though we are different, we are basically the same. We all need human emotion and devotion in order to sustain ourselves."

I immediately understood

"This is where divine blessing becomes important."

"Exactly. As long as the divine blessing exists, the gods will never be forgotten. But for us, it's a little more tricky. We will continue to exist as long as fear exists but we will be restricted. Sadly, Od laguna refuses to share our blessings since it's basically the antithesis of its existence."

Hehe, this was rather funny. Also, the proof that those gods weren't so almighty or all-powerful. At least they were far from omnipotent.

Seemingly understanding what I was thinking from my expression, she gave me a small smile,

"Pretty pathetic isn't it? But this is how the world works."

Silence settled between us before. Then

"*Ahem* Anyway, coming back to subjects. We also have ways to not be forgotten. The easiest is to disseminate books. Any and all books about dark are related to us in some way."

"So, by using this book I am basically feeding you?" Hum. It was a rather interesting concept. I guess you learned new things every day. "Still, you didn't tell me what this book in particular did."

"Stop being so impatient. It has been a while since I have found someone to talk." She chided me gently then continued, "This book, the Necronomicon, there's only 9 copies of it in the entire world. Or more precisely, we only created nine of them."

So this where it's going. I already had a hunch but I was sure now,

"If you become contracted to this book. You will be blessed with the essence of the Great old one. Hum… I think you humans know it more under the name of Witch factors."

Ah. Hahaha! Oh my god, so this was exactly as I thought.

Authority and divine blessing. The 9 witches. Everything clicked together.

"What is the price?"

Power was nice and all, but this wasn't a proposition about getting reincarnated and getting a harem. There's no way I would accept such a deal without at least knowing what I was getting myself into.

"The risks? Aside from becoming crazy if you aren't compatible with the witch factor?"

Hum, perhaps I should seriously stop making deals with sketchy godly entities?

"I am in."

Nah, fuck it.