Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 15 Monica

Tears slid from the corners of Monica's swollen and ugly eyes and drifted into the sea.

When the cursed are emotionally agitated, tears will flow from their eyes, which is different from any other group in the sea.

"Sister Ash, are you leaving too?"

Ash smiled and brushed her eyes with his twisted arm.

"Don't cry, Monica. Your tears taste too bitter."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Is there really no other way, Sister Ash?"

"This is the fate of the cursed." Ash gently hugged Monica. "We failed to defend our homeland, and the gods have punished us, causing us to endure this tearing pain all the time. Monica, don't be afraid. The prophecy also said that after we have atonement for our sins, we will find our promised land. There we can escape this ugly appearance and be free from slavery. We can..."

"The Promised Land?" Monica shook her head. "No one knows what the Promised Land looks like, no one knows where it is. How can we find something we know nothing about? Just by naming it?"

"As for gods, do they really exist? The so-called prophecies are nothing more than stories passed down by word of mouth. All I see is a group of slaves struggling to survive!"

Monica yelled.

Ash was stunned, and after a long moment, he murmured, "Yes, we are just slaves now."

Yes, the damned are now nothing more than a group of slaves.

There used to be a group of Nagas here. They were slaves of the Nagas. Later, the murlocs drove away the Nagas, and they became slaves of the murlocs.

They look disgusting, their bodies are swollen and weak, and their only commendable spellcasting ability is used to maintain flesh and blood magic - this allows their bodies to barely maintain their status quo and not explode and die, but they have to endure the pain of being torn all over their bodies at all times.

Even more tragically, even with flesh and blood magic, they can only live to the age of fifteen.

At the age of fifteen, their magical abilities will transform and become stronger.

But... during this period, they cannot cast spells, the flesh magic stops, and their flesh will explode like a balloon.

Therefore, the cursed will usually choose to leave the ocean on the eve of their fifteenth birthday, take a look at the sky, and slowly wait for death to come under the starry sky.

I don’t know why, they are a species that lives in the deep sea, but they have always been attracted to the sky. Quietly appreciating the stars under the night sky is their favorite thing. Unfortunately, such a beautiful scenery can only be seen once in a lifetime.

Ash looked at the crying Monica with pity, and his thoughts gradually drifted away.

She also didn't know whether the history passed down orally was true. Those things happened too long ago, and some of them even contradicted each other.

Legend has it that they once had a vast kingdom, and their fame resounded throughout the seven oceans.

They are born to be the darlings of the world, with extremely strong bodies and magic that can tear the ocean apart.

Ash looked down at his arm. The swollen flesh on it looked like a corpse that had been soaked for too long. He was born into torture and endless slavery, and he could not see any hope for the future.

Maybe it's just...

"Sister Ash, the last symbiote in the tribe has died, and the Shimmerscale Clan is unwilling to assign new murlocs to sign the symbiotic contract." Monica's words brought Ash's thoughts back to the present.

The symbiotic contract is the last resort for those known as the cursed. Flesh and blood magic alone cannot keep them alive, so they need the symbiotic contract.

A symbiotic contract allows both parties to share vitality and provides some unique abilities, which is a mutually beneficial thing.

But after the tribe was cursed, it had an additional disadvantage. The cursed now needed vitality all the time, and the two could not be too far apart.

It was fine when they were enslaved by the Naga, because the Naga needed their perception ability, and the Naga individuals also had strong vitality and were not afraid of having their vitality slowly sucked away by the contract.

But the murlocs are different now. A group of murlocs may be very strong, but a single murloc is very weak and can easily have its vitality drained by the symbiotic contract.

Moreover, murlocs are good at perception and do not need a contract to provide it, so this symbiotic contract is even more useless to the Flash Scale Clan.

So the number of contractors decreased, until today, the last symbiote died.

Feeling the pain in his body becoming increasingly difficult to suppress, Ash raised his head and looked at the sea with an expressionless face.

Do her people, the cursed ones, really have a future?

The situation is getting worse and worse, and the number of tribesmen is decreasing.

Everything was sinking, with no turning back. But it had nothing to do with her anymore, she would die today, die on the sea, die under the stars.

Ash said goodbye to Monica with a smile, and slowly floated to the surface of the sea amidst heart-wrenching cries.

The fishmen in the distance watched coldly. They knew that without a symbiotic contract, these ugly monsters would only die a slow death.

Monica watched Ash's figure getting farther and farther away, and felt as if a part of herself was taken away with her. She was still many years away from adulthood, but she had already experienced too many separations.

The tribesmen gathered around and gently patted its body with their swollen arms, with clumsy expressions of comfort hidden under their ugly faces.

The cursed have endured too much suffering. They have learned to endure, but they cannot learn to become numb.

Monica tried hard to close her eyes. Tears were the most useless thing in the ocean.

----------

Monica opened her eyes and saw her own white fingers, slender tail and long hair.

It's so beautiful.
She is no longer that ugly monster.

And all this——

She looked at the "two-legged fish" not far away.

That was Hughes, Ash's sister's contractor.

Everything seemed like a dream. She had just been separated from Ash, but not long after, Ash returned to the tribe. Not only did he survive, but he also brought new news.

She said that it was not a curse, and that as long as the cursed went into the deep sea, they would be restored to their original state.

Deep Sea Monica thought of the Abyss, which was a forbidden place for life and there was no return.

But surprisingly, many of the tribesmen agreed without hesitation.

Maybe they just don't want to be slaves anymore.

Without the symbiotic contract, the cursed have no future, but also no constraints.

The symbiotes could not stray too far from each other, so the cursed were forced into enslavement, but now, the rage for revenge roars in the eyes of every member of the tribe.

They are also living beings, they have intelligence, and they have feelings.

Now, let it all burn.

The blood of the cursed along the way dyed the sea road leading to the Abyss red, and familiar figures fell before his eyes one after another.

Monica wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, she felt a bitter taste in it.

When I looked up, I suddenly realized that everything was over.

Zeus, her sister's symbiote was saying something to the tribe members, and Monica listened in a daze.

She didn't understand what this human was saying, knowledge, water pressure, freedom, she didn't understand, she just thought they were very complicated words.

She looked at Ash. The scales on Ash's body were a beautiful light gray, and his long silver-white hair had a bluish metallic luster, which was the breath of surging magic.

Ash was holding a harpoon in her hand and speaking loudly. Her eyes were full of determination and fearlessness, mixed with something else.

It took Monica a long time to realize that this might be hope.

She turned to look at Hughes, the human who brought her hope.

At this moment, he was declaring with a serious face that he was not a god.

It doesn't matter, Monica thought.

She no longer needs gods.

(End of this chapter)