Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 758 They've already gone mad, they just don't want to believe it.
Or rather, how exactly do Jules and the Gear Saint define "human beings"?
The more I think about this problem, the more terrifying it becomes; it's chilling to contemplate.

"Never mind, let's keep looking at the next one."

Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, and quickly flipped over the page as if she had been granted a pardon.

Honestly, she was a little worried that in the end, she would find out that she herself was the monster.
This was the first time she had ever doubted her human identity.

"It's alright." A voice came from behind. Beatrice turned around and saw that it was Nini coming over.

Nini's tone was gentle as she softly reassured her, "It's okay. Even if you weren't human, I wouldn't care. You'll always be the best in my heart—"

Beatrice paused, her gaze falling on Nini's snake tail and scales, and suddenly she understood.

Nini is a banshee, she was never human to begin with.

So what if I'm not human? Nini is still alive and well, and with six arms, she can write reports even faster.

She is obsessed with appearance.

Beatrice felt a warmth in her heart, and the wariness on her face gradually faded, replaced by a sense of guilt—Nini was actually a good person, and she had misunderstood her.

Should she...?
“Fountain,” Nini suddenly uttered the last two words.

Beatrice tilted her head, not understanding what Nini meant.

“I mean, you will always be the best fountain in my heart.” Nini nodded with a serious expression.

Beatrice paused for a moment, then lowered her head.

Her face flushed red with alarming speed, and her chest began to heave violently.

"Don't spit on the ground. Never mind, just remember to wipe it up after you're done." Seeing the situation was getting out of hand, Hughes ignored the impending war and quickly grabbed the letter, carefully taking a few steps back.

The others either hurriedly sought shelter or eagerly prepared to join the fight, and the office became lively as expected.

Hughes, holding the letter and Chloe's diary, found a corner and continued reading.

The more Hughes read the following content, the more alarmed he became. "Chloe, do you know what's going on here?"

Chloe's diary didn't reply immediately. After a long while, the writing finally appeared, revealing a clear trace of panic and shock.

"I...I don't know. How could that be? Did the Flame-Chasing Moths exist from the very beginning? That's impossible. We only rebelled because we were oppressed by the Candlelight Society."

"Who told you that?"

"The previous chief."

"It seems someone lied and didn't mention this. Are you familiar with the situation of the other churches? Are these things true?"

Chloe remained silent for a long while before finally speaking softly, "There are many things I don't know either. For example, the Forgotten Ones of the Silent Sanctuary—their deeds are so ancient that they've almost become legends. And the Skinners and the Night's Watch—rumors say they don't get along, and..."

Chloe suddenly hesitated and stopped.

Hughes knew what she was thinking; the next line of information was far too bizarre.

"Chloe, Jules lists the two sects of the Church of the Sea God as the Deep Ones and the Banshees."

"Hmm." "What do you think? Is it true?"

"I can't say." Chloe's handwriting slowed down.

"The affairs of the Church of the Sea God are extremely dangerous, even in the secret histories, so the information is kept under tight control. It's only within Castel that this information is being leaked; if it were known elsewhere, things would likely spiral out of control."

Centered on Castells, all mystical effects are weakened to some extent, making cognitive interference less likely and pollution activity lower. Similarly, reading secret histories is less susceptible to contamination.

"I only had some scattered knowledge about the Church of the Sea God before. I knew they were removed from the five major churches, and that their followers had tried to revive the Church of the Sea God, but most of them went astray, indulging in old dreams."

Hughes recalled the report from when the airship first arrived at Gem Bay. Everything there was in perfect order, like a normal city, but the inhabitants were not human, but fish-men.

"They've all gone mad. Even the remaining pathways to transcendence are highly problematic, requiring contamination to reach the transcendent. In other words, almost all of their transcendent individuals are on the verge of spiraling out of control."

"Those fish-men, actually they are all..."

"Yes, they are all believers. They should be from the Deep Ones' Order. When the Church of the Sea God was still one of the five major churches, they were just normal believers. After the Church of the Sea God's incident, they were corrupted and collectively lost control, turning into monsters. The Church of the Sea God ceased to exist at that time; what remains is just a twisted, empty shell."

Chloe took a deep breath: "Expelling the Church of Poseidon was definitely the right thing to do. They've all gone mad long ago; they just don't want to believe it and pretend they aren't."

Hughes fell silent for a moment.

In this world, an individual's will can influence reality. If one firmly believes that they are not insane, then their rationality can truly remain intact. The believers who have long since become fish-men live in this pretense, fantasizing that they are still human and that they still have a church and faith.

"No wonder, no wonder. In the later battles, they seemed weak on land, but they became frighteningly strong once they entered the sea."

"Yes, on land they were merely their idealized, non-mad believers; once submerged in the sea, their true forms were revealed—monsters long since twisted."

Hughes couldn't help but smile bitterly. They had clearly become powerful monsters, yet they refused to believe it, preferring to think of themselves as weak and ordinary believers.

And the world accommodated them, thankfully so, otherwise Castel really wouldn't have been able to withstand it.

"The letter also says that the demise of the Church of the Sea God is related to their belief in a deity. Do you have any clues about this?"

"I do know that. No church worships a god. Even our Lord of the Moths, the Moths of Fire, is merely an evil god we control. We don't offer faith to Him. What we truly pursue is knowledge itself."

Hughes did know this, and he even accidentally ruined the Lord of Moths.
"What if one believes in a god?"

Chloe paused for a moment after hearing this, before the handwriting slowly appeared:

Why should we believe in gods?

This has left Hughes completely bewildered.

"Don't churches all involve believing in a god? They preach that the god is omnipotent and that people should believe in Him unconditionally."

"Uh, boss, isn't this a bit strange? I've never heard of such a thing before."

"Gods are powerful because they have power, so why don't we just believe in power? Who believes in gods?" Chloe said matter-of-factly.

Hughes was stunned.

(End of this chapter)