[Original Novel] The Eternal Mysteries of Vril, Part 10

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Previous parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}

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However much it hurt to look, it hurt much worse when I tried to look away. Withdrawl, of a sort. I immediately craved more, and after that could not help but stare. The other girls all did the same, loudly fawning over the creature, falling all over themselves in apparent orgiastic ecstasy.

Part of the effect is that it’s not just taller than a human, but every part of it is proportionally larger, including the head. To see something with an ostensibly human face, albeit an impossibly handsome one, nearly twice the size of your own…

Try as I might, I couldn’t process it. The thing stepped aside and sent the lift back down as I made a show of fawning at its feet with the rest of the girls. Again and again, I tried to look away. Every time, as if forced by some unseen power, I only went right back to staring.

Feelings of disgust welled up within me. Upon searching within myself for the source, I realized this creature embodied every terrible ideal I learned about. This is the beauty for which millions would kill, and die. Worse still...I now understood why.

At last, I understood. But in understanding, I also hated myself. Deeply, intensely. Realizing the terrible truth that my brain could deny, but which my heart no longer could. That this is what we might’ve been. This is what we could’ve looked like, had we continued down that ruthless path we were on.

Simply gazing upon it felt as if I was validating every awful thing it stood for, because I could not force myself to be repulsed by what I saw. I couldn’t even look away, for fuck’s sake. However I tried to heap hatred upon the shining, perfectly chiseled form before me, it only metamorphosed soon after into hatred of myself for helplessly marveling at it.

He never looked directly at any of us. Just stood there draped loosely in white silk which covered very little, subtly posing. He’d also periodically glanced back at the lift, as if waiting for something. When that something arrived via the lift, She was a knockout punch. I don’t know why I didn’t anticipate that he’d bring a woman with him, but there she was. What Travigan called a “gy-ei”.

Where I felt helplessly enthralled by the male, to look upon the female of the duo was excruciating. She said nothing and didn’t even acknowledge me, but to look upon her was unavoidably an exercise in comparison.

A warm feeling in the water about my legs clued me into the fact that I’d pissed myself in shock. Despite my weight being supported by the water, I felt so weak in the knees that it was difficult to stand. I imagine if I’d been on dry ground with the robed men, I’d have simply collapsed.

Nothing about her was obscene. Her proportions were not in the least pornographic, but rather absolutely perfect, every part a healthy size relative to the rest. I was at once in awe, but also humiliated. She’d still not said anything. It wasn’t necessary to. The longer I gazed upon her, the more inadequate I felt.

There’s never been any other woman I’ve looked at until now, and felt that the gulf between us was so vast that I couldn’t compete with the right dress and some expertly applied makeup. I’ve been told more than once by ugly girls how privileged I am, but never given it any real thought.

I always figured the grass just looks greener on the other side of the fence. I have my own set of problems they weren’t privy to, so they just assumed that my life was automatically easy because of how I look.

Being especially attractive comes with its own set of drawbacks. I can’t count the number of men who swore up and down they were content to be friends. Men who later sent me novel length, cringe fuel emails confessing their feelings for me.

Then of course no matter how politely I turned them down, they lost their minds, becoming convinced that I’m a cruel bitch who thinks she’s too good for anyone. Paradoxically also a slut at the same time, but then I don’t think logical consistency was a high priority for them while writing such bitter screeds.

Only now did I realize what a trivial complaint that is. What a “good problem” it is to have, that nearly everyone of the opposite sex you’ll ever meet will fall for you. It only seemed like such a burden in retrospect because I’d never experienced it from the other side before today.

Soaking in the agonizingly flawless beauty of the hyper-feminine figure before me, I felt gutted. An ideal so far out of reach I could not even realistically aspire to it, only mournfully accept that I would forever fall short, and that life is hardly worth living because of it.

I wondered if Neil felt the same of the male the first time he laid eyes on it. They all must’ve been through this so many times that the sight of a Vril-ya no longer held the same potency...none of the robed men around the perimeter of the pool seemed at all weakened by the presence of the two angelic creatures.

Demigods. Recognizably related to humanity, but also faintly alien in their own way. Having moved down their own evolutionary path, then genetic engineering on top of centuries of eugenic tampering in order to turn into...this. Something like ancient illustrations of Thor and Freya, or Apollo and Aphrodite, towering over their worshipers.

Obvious exaggerations on the human form, I always assumed. Not representative of anything that could ever really exist. The drumming finally died down, as did Neil’s clarion, but my ears went on ringing well after that.

The larger than life pseudo humans slowly turned their heads, seemingly studying the faces of the other girls. Then the male’s eyes came to rest on me. I blushed and covered up, though the water hid my body well enough.

When he spoke, his voice was clear and loud, though he exerted no visible effort to project. As tonally perfect as his physique, the cadence was almost musical. My heart began pounding, though it wasn’t me he was speaking to.

Neil emerged from the shadows once more, looking confused and worried. The male Vril-ya, or “arn” as I recall, uttered something or other in a language totally unknown to me. But then, to my surprise, Neil answered him in the same tongue.

The two appeared to argue for a moment until the arn’s face contorted with what looked like frustration. His voice took on a harsh inflection. Neil immediately bowed his head and retreated. I blinked in confusion. What just happened between them?

After the two Vril-ya descended back down the elevator shaft, the various splayed open sections of the hatch ponderously returned to their original positions. As this occurred, the drummers resumed. More vigorously than before, if anything. I covered my ears and winced.

The horns came next, in a deafening tribute which carried on for a solid minute or so even after the hatch finished closing. Presumably waiting for them to descend fully out of earshot. I still felt shellshocked by the whole ordeal. What in God’s name did I just witness?

Momentarily distracted by the music, if you could call it that, I suddenly remembered my nudity as the other girls started climbing out of the water. I hesitated, until realizing I’d only call more attention to myself by emerging last. So it was that I once again bared myself awkwardly to the room full of strangers, body dripping as I received my robe from Neil.

I began to speak, a million questions jockeying for access to my vocal chords. Neil shushed me and took his place in the solemn procession as we all doubled back the way we came. Only once we were underway did he hang back with me, so we could whisper to one another unnoticed.

“What was that? What the fuck was that?” He gripped my hand, maybe intending to comfort me. I pulled away. “I’ve never kept any secrets from you” he insisted. “You just never believed anything I had to say. I don’t blame you. Any truth which is sufficiently abstracted from somebody’s day to day experience unavoidably sounds like insanity.”

It still is insanity, I thought. Reality itself had gone mad. “What...how do I even begin. I don’t...what is it all for? Why bring us down here? What did the arn say to you?” He seemed undecided, briefly, as to which question to answer first.

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^{Stay Tuned for Part 11!}