Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 52 Extraordinary Curse
"Spreading knowledge about pollution will strengthen it, and breaking down the [cognitive barrier] will greatly strengthen it."

"Once the Transcendent's [Cognitive Barrier] is broken, things will become even more terrifying. Not only will the pollution be intensified, but it will also easily cause a pollution outbreak."

"The Banshees present at the time were all considered transcendental beings. They only had a superficial understanding of pollution before. I effectively broke through their cognitive barriers in an instant."

"Normally, an explosion of this magnitude would cause all of them to be instantly consumed by the contamination and transformed into the monster that Monica transformed into."

"Luckily, their kind of magic is called flesh magic, right? It successfully isolated the pollution and prevented it from invading."

"But Monica was already contaminated. The flesh magic was just a barrier. The pollution in her body exploded a thousandfold at that moment, directly breaking through the flesh magic."

"Then, the pollution caused by breaking the [Cognitive Barrier] had nowhere to go, and finally converged on Monica, making her stronger and stronger."

Nora sighed.

"You know, if it weren't for the special ability of the [Buried One], which could forcibly 'bury' her at the cost of her own death, your banshees alone would not be able to deal with her."

"By then, the amount of pollution had reached a terrifying level. No matter how many times you killed her, she would be resurrected by the pollution, growing stronger and stronger, eventually engulfing the entire Stukart and becoming a second eye of the storm in the Ocean of Storms—an eye of the storm made entirely of pollution."

The corner of Hughes' eye twitched.

"If you hadn't spoken about the pollution, would it have stopped happening?"

"Yes." Nora sighed. "I'm sorry, that's why I planned to bury her. After all, this is also my trouble. I just didn't expect it."

I never thought I could remove the pollution, Hughes thought.

There was silence between the two.

"Don't you want to know why I can purify pollution?" Hughes said hesitantly.

“If you don’t even understand pollution, how can you possibly know the cause?”

"."

Zeus could actually guess that this matter must be related to the strange golden throne. Strictly speaking, his soul was not in this body, and those symbiotic contracts probably did not point to this body, but to the real body sitting high on the throne somewhere unknown.

He remembered clearly that the pollution fled madly after coming into contact with him, as if he was the real pollution.

"Don't worry, the church won't do anything to you." Nora glanced at Hughes.

"Even if I can...clean up the pollution?"

"Yes." Nora's eyes dimmed. "As long as you don't bring pollution, the church doesn't care about you."

“The church is not interested in solving problems; the church is interested in eliminating them.”

"Why?" Xius blurted out. He really didn't understand.

"[Pollution] cannot be studied, [the supernatural] cannot be understood, and all those who try to solve the problem become a new problem—a bigger problem."

"Only those cultists who have lost their minds would dare to seek the truth."

Nora shook her head. "I won't tell you more, and you'd better not try to understand. The [Cognitive Barrier] is your last line of defense."

Zeus shut his mouth. He wanted to say that he was not afraid of these problems. His soul was protected by the ancient palace and the golden throne, and these cognitive pollutions would not threaten him.

It seemed difficult to get information on this from her. The two of them tacitly changed the subject.

"A lot of things that break the [cognitive barrier], wouldn't it be extremely dangerous if they were spread?"

"Yes, the Church has a complete set of operating procedures for accessing forbidden knowledge, which is to prevent the instantaneous breaking of the [cognitive barrier] and causing massive contamination."

"I can't reveal the specifics to you. This is forbidden knowledge, and I don't know much."

Zeus nodded with a complicated expression. The weirdness of this world was beyond his imagination. Perhaps he should change his attitude towards the extraordinary.

"I have one last question." Xius calmed down.

"You know, I've come into contact with quite a few nobles. Why do they know almost nothing about supernatural powers?"

With the resources controlled by the nobles, they should not be completely unaware of the existence of Chaofan. Whether it is his biological father, Duke Cohen, or the Empire, it seems that they are not in the same world as Chaofan. He searched his memory and could not find any intersection at all.

Nora slowly raised her head when she heard his words.

"Perhaps the term 'supernatural power' has given you a false impression. How about changing it to 'supernatural curse'?"

"Power is only incidental; pain and madness are eternal."

"The more power you use, the deeper the curse."

"The nobles cannot come into contact with the extraordinary. This is a reflection of their wealth and power, and it is also my advice to you."

"Stay away from the extraordinary. The [Cognitive Barrier] is not an obstacle for you to peek into the world. It never has been."

"Some are opportunistic nobles who are almost unable to fill the choir of skulls that wail day and night."

"Power, wisdom, immortality, talent, anything you want, the extraordinary can give it to you, but anyone who reaches out will regret it."

"Unfortunately, I can't go back."

"Remain ignorant, it is the last mercy in this world."

Nora left by boat.

That day, Hughes sat in the armchair for a long time.

Everything Nora said gave him a huge shock, and he suddenly realized that the world was completely different from what he had imagined.

He seemed to be sailing on a calm sea with a sunny and windy day above the surface. He thought it was just an ordinary ocean until he sank his head underwater and looked into the eyes of an indescribable giant.

In a trance, Xiu Si felt a sense of panic. Was everything he did really right?
He always believed that the tide of industrialization would sweep the entire world, and he would use output and equivalents to set new rules for the world.

Is it really possible that his tanks will collide with the cavalry of this world, and his enemies will use their shields to meet his artillery shells?

A strange and extraordinary world, a pollution that can infect you just by hearing its name, can these really be solved with gunpowder and bayonets?
Hughes sat in silence in the armchair, his thoughts wandering aimlessly.

Symbiotic Contract, Pool of Life, Pollution on the Seabed, Banshee.
Zeus suddenly realized that most of the things he had done since his arrival were done with supernatural powers, and not a single one of them was accomplished entirely by so-called science.

Perhaps the so-called science and industrialization are just tools he uses to satisfy his fantasies. In the end, isn't he still doing things the way this world does?
　Sorry, this chapter was supposed to be posted this morning, but I just saw that I had scheduled it for February 2th.
　　As compensation, I will update one more chapter today and post it at 10 o'clock.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)