Shoggoth Cycle #5 - Empowering the Fiery Agent

...excerpts from a tattered journal found in a burnt down research facility in Antarctica.

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The descent into the nauseating dark well lasted a few moments, but it felt like forever. There was no way to tell which way was left and right, up and down, but still I knew that I was plunging deeper and deeper into the Maws of Hell, to whatever horror lurked at the end of it.

And, then, suddenly, the chaotic red whirls around me started to take form, and made a bit more sense. They condensed into a kind of appendages, branching out from a central point which was around and beneath me at the same time, that someone might dare say it was the end of the pathway, the destination I craved for.

"...appendages, branching out from a central point..."

I knew that I was allowed just one chance, and one only! There was nothing more to risk now, I had no way back, I had commited body and soul to that damned descent. The vial containing the Fiery Agent writhed in my hand as if it was responding to the environment, and I wasted no time: I opened it, the multi-layered phantasm twitching, fumbling for the way out... and I watched in amazement...

At first, the living fire seemed to extinguish into the blood red environment. But, the next second it glowed again, slowly gaining strength, gradually becoming hotter and hotter, burning my hand as I tried to get a better hold of it. It fired up with a sound like the wind sweeping and crushing trees and cabins, like a thousand flames burning eternally and scorching away wood and flesh and stone over the millennia.

"...scorching away wood and flesh and stone..."

The agent was released into the dark environment, flares shooting all around and searing the nightmarish confines of that otherworldly prison, eating away my flesh and bone, leaving a black dripping stump. The flames seemed like liquids, trying to find their way through cracks and bore holes in the bloody-red substance around, but it did not give away. Three essences, of the Fiery Agent, of the Shoggoth Prison, and of myself blended now into one; and, oh, the shapes it took! Were there patterns in there, dictated by some uncanny sentience? NO! How could it ever be possible?

The flames folded back upon themselves, charged up & white-hot, carrying the red essence in them and with a bright flash that burned my eyes, everything stopped. I could not see anything, just white, and I was feeling nothing -- I was floating outside of space and time, perhaps in the throne of the Blind Idiot God, or maybe in a place where a creator's hand stitched me back together. And then! I was back at the entrance of the Shoggoth Hole; no trace of the Hole remained, the dark well was sealed and covered like it never existed as anything more than a figment of my imagination.

I hurried back to the lab, carrying the empowered substance, red and yellow and orange, like blood and like fire, bubbling and festering, whose effects on the Shoggoth should be directly tested...

"...gaining strength, gradually becoming hotter..."

"...a thousand flames burning eternally..."

"...patterns, dictated by some uncanny sentience..."

"...charged up & white-hot, carrying the red essence in them..."

"...like blood and like fire, bubbling and festering..."

all pictures are fractals created by me in JWildFire

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The Shoggoth Cycle:

#1 - The Hunt for the Shoggoth is Over
#2 - Discovery of the Living Fire
#3- Infusing the Fire Agent to Shoggoth Matter
#4 - The Evil Church