He had met mages who possessed grimoires several times before.
Yu Eunha, who held the Lemegeton; Gim Ari, who held the Book of Moses; Namgung Minhyeok, who held the Shan Hai Jing; and so on.
Though they were not many, he knew the general characteristics of mages who possessed grimoires.
But he had never met a mage who possessed an Outer God's grimoire. He knew of them only through information.
That was precisely why his interest was piqued. He had pushed dealing with Rairie to the back burner, and the reason he was walking alongside her was the same.
"The young lady has no name. It has already been lost."
Rairie spoke. Ian made no reply and trudged down the corridor.
The corridor was thick with the smell of summer. The acrid stench of melted asphalt, the scent of grass, the hot air, the smell of the sea, and the rotten stink of decaying corpses poured in from all directions. Beyond the windows lining the corridor stretched a black sea.
A black sea where not a single ripple, not even a faint undulation on the water's surface, remained. It reflected the Milky Way filling the night sky upon its surface, forming a universe. The clusters of stars above and below flickered briefly, emitting a hazy light into the corridor.
It was scenery beautiful enough that the word "spectacle" would not do it justice. Yet because it was a scene that could not exist in reality, an indescribable eeriness was felt simultaneously.
"…."
If the stars glittering above the sky and water looked like the eyeballs of living creatures, would that be a delusion?
Ian pulled out another cigarette for no particular reason and took a long exhale. Rairie walked ahead of him with her hands behind her back.
"The current owner first discovered the grimoire roughly fifty years ago."
"…."
"Before her very name was assimilated and vanished, she was a mage of considerable renown even before obtaining the grimoire. She was simultaneously an artist. A woman who enjoyed painting as a hobby and hanging her works in her workshop. To such a woman descended a grimoire. And an Outer God's grimoire at that."
Click-clack.
The sound of Rairie's heels echoed throughout the silent corridor. Ian glared at the back of her head as he lit his cigarette.
"Because she had coveted a grimoire her entire life, she indulged in it with tremendous joy. And before she knew it, her workshop became a museum. Her very identity transformed into something closer to an aberration."
"…Was her compatibility low?"
"No, it was high. As far as I know, I believe it was close to ninety-five percent. That was more than enough to wield the grimoire with plenty to spare."
Click-clack.
Rairie came to a halt. Beside her sat a door decorated in a way that resembled flowers. From its seams, paints of various colors flowed out—a luxurious wooden door panel. Without hesitation, Rairie grasped the doorknob and turned it.
With a clack, the door opened. Ian stared coldly at the interior scenery of the room.
A small room of roughly ten pyeong. On the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cubical room were attached doors of differing shapes. From within them, bizarre wailing sounds flowed out, blending together as if singing a song.
Blink.
When he opened his eyes after closing them, the scenery had changed once more. The doors had all changed to windows, and outside, eyeballs were densely packed everywhere. Eyes with irises of completely different colors stared at Ian in unison, warping, and instead of tears, drops of blood fell one by one.
Blink.
A gigantic tree was growing in the center of the room. Having grown through the ceiling, it seemed to collect all the sounds in the world, bearing the ears of living creatures instead of fruit. Sticky oil dripped drop by drop from the ears hanging in clusters on branches that looked like sinews had been attached.
Blink.
The room flooded. Transparent seawater rising to his ankles dirtied his shoes, and split human nasal cavities existing within the stagnant water swam left and right, clinging to the surface of his shoes. Ian furrowed his brows and crushed the clinging things underfoot.
With a splashing sound, blood spread. Rairie smiled broadly at the sight.
"Welcome. This is precisely the root of the museum you all sought. The place where the artist resides."
"…."
"It is a mage's workshop."
"…Hoo."
Blink.
A bizarre space where the scenery changed each time he closed his eyes. As if the four seasons coexisted, snow, leaves, flower petals, and fallen leaves fell from the ceiling simultaneously. Taxidermied corpses spewed blood and organs, and the moment he turned his gaze, they returned to ordinary windows.
Ian pressed his hand against his throbbing forehead, then roughly spat out his cigarette and rapped the wall with his grimoire.
'The spaces are overlapping.'
It was a dizzying place, but he quickly grasped the current situation.
What was happening here was neither hallucination, auditory illusion, nor trickery. Dozens, hundreds. Perhaps thousands of spaces coexisted simultaneously, waging territorial wars among themselves.
There were no victors. No vanquished. They merely writhed to prove their own superiority for eternity, defiling this place.
No, the expression "defiling" was somewhat off.
Just as one does not say a space becomes dirty simply because a piece of trash is thrown into an already contaminated space.
From the very moment the grimoire of an Outer God was picked up, this place had been contaminated. Because it was impossible for an unqualified human to dare endure the madness of a god.
"…."
Ian stared at the cigarette butt sinking into the pool of blood congealed on the floor, then turned his head toward the corner of the room.
A small table that never changed even as everything transformed from moment to moment. And a child of small stature sitting beside it.
Half her head was blown away. Eyeballs protruding from eye sockets attached to her shoulders dangled loosely, sagging downward with gravity, and teeth were growing out of a slightly severed optic nerve. They clacked and devoured the particles floating in the air.
[….]
A finger with roughly five joints writhed atop the table. A shattered bone fragment pierced through the skin and swayed left and right as if it possessed its own ego. Ian stared fixedly at her and slowly moved his feet.
"Are you intending to have a conversation?"
Rairie asked. She stood above the unanswering Ian, stepping on the ceiling as she continued to speak.
"That wouldn't be so bad, either. But she is already a being that is and isn't human. It would be a mistake to think conventional conversation would work with her. She is in a state of being on the verge of assimilation by an aberration, like me."
"I have no intention of having a conversation."
Ian spat out curtly. He moved step by step through the flooded floor and overflowing blood, through the pouring snow, hail, rain, blades, and wind. Most phenomena were neutralized by the magic imbued in his coat, becoming part of the outer sea.
Rairie tilted her head as if intrigued.
"Then?"
No answer came. Ian stood beside the girl and looked down at what she was making.
It was a heart.
A heart crawling out of the girl's split chest. The red flesh, torn to shreds and dripping blood incessantly, beat irregularly and pumped blood through connected blood vessels.
Furthermore, it was a face. A head of entrails that had installed facial features in place of her half-missing head.
Left ventricle, right ventricle, left atrium, right atrium.
In different locations were jammed the components of a face, save for the mouth. Eyes, nose, and ears arranged messily as if drawn by a child ceaselessly oozed blood.
Ian silently watched the sight before matching gazes with the black pupil attached to the left ventricle. The two people's pupils collided in midair.
"…Oh my."
The girl opened her mouth. From the relatively intact pinkish lips amidst her ruined head, a lovely voice flowed out.
"This is a place outsiders cannot enter. Who are you?"
"Young lady, this person is my guest. A mage like yourself."
Rairie was the one who answered. Having seated herself beside the girl at some point, she stroked the girl's head with a rotting hand. The girl smiled brightly.
"Aah, I see. Yes, if you're Mother's guest, it can't be helped. But this place is too dangerous for a regular person, so let them leave when the time comes."
"Hehe, young lady. I told you, he's not a regular person but a mage."
"Hm? Everyone except special people like me is a regular person, aren't they? Look. I have something like this, even."
Swish.
The girl thrust her hand into her split abdomen and pulled out a large book.
A blue-black cover. Corners densely embedded with fish scales. And a title perfectly legible despite being written in an unrecognizable language.
[The Submersion of R'lyeh]
A grimoire written directly by an Outer God.
Clutched in the girl's hands, it emitted a brief vibration. Following that resonance, the stream of water flowing from the ceiling trembled, and a few droplets splashed onto Ian's body.
[Kieeeek!]
The droplets on his coat sensed the magical aura and committed suicide. The droplets that ended their lives collectively slowly dyed red, as if paint were bursting within them. Ian stared blankly at the sight before brushing off his coat.
"Mage."
He opened his mouth in a low voice. The girl and Rairie turned their heads toward him simultaneously.
"You have been cooped up here using magic for nearly fifty years. And every piece in the museum was born from you. Are you aware of this fact?"
"Ah, yes. This is my workshop, after all. It's not strange for things I made to be here, is it?"
"Do you also know that those things kidnap people and devour them?"
"Magic has always required ingredients. You just don't know because you're a regular person."
The face engraved on the girl's heart contorted with what looked like pride. Ian put the last cigarette he had brought between his lips, lit it, and drew his gun.
"Any intention of dispelling this space? This museum?"
"None. Why would a mage erase her own workshop?"
"…True. You have a point."
Ian conceded readily and shoved the gun barrel into her maw. The girl flustered at the sudden action, and Rairie smirked.
"U-uuurp!"
"It wouldn't be bad to have an in-depth conversation with you here."
Ba-ang!
He pulled the trigger. A hot lead bullet shattered her spine and burst out the back of her head. The bullet only stopped after piercing one of Rairie's eye sockets as well. But Ian didn't stop. He pulled the trigger in succession and exhaled a puff of smoke.
"But I have a prior engagement. I don't have time to mess around with you here. Still, my personal curiosity has been sufficiently satisfied, so I shall be content with this."
"Y-you… ugh!"
"I've roughly grasped what kind of people the mages chosen by Outer Gods aside from me are. They don't seem to be the type of human I particularly like."
Click.
The revolver, out of bullets, timidly struck its cylinder. Ian pushed the empty gun deeper into her mouth and looked back at Rairie.
"That is enough idle chitchat. As a collaborator of the Administration, I shall focus on aberration extermination."
"Will you be alright with that? It's a good opportunity to obtain a new grimoire, you know?"
Rairie whispered. She caressed the girl's trembling heart and moved her lips.
"Kill the young lady here and take the grimoire that has lost its place. It shall become your strength. The magic of The Submersion of R'lyeh is assimilation. No matter what it is, you can adapt to it and wield its power. Even if it is an entity of the cosmos."
"A charming magic indeed."
"Isn't it? Then hurry and grasp the young lady's heart and make it burst. Though it would be brief, you can sever the connection to the grimoire. So hurry—"
"However, I rather dislike being ordered about by others."
Ian flashed a bright smile. Rairie blinked at that smile, so refreshingly cheerful.
"…What?"
"You don't seem to understand, so let me spell it out."
He wedged the gun barrel even deeper, then stepped back and summoned his grimoire.
"Do not command a mage, you mere aberration. You can never be worth more than ingredients."
Hwa-ahk!
A grimoire with a black cover revealed itself. Sensing the air of the sea, the tome vibrated as if pleased.
"And my wives happen to be rather jealous. Three is already plenty. I have no desire to add another here."
"…The Outer God who wrote The Submersion of R'lyeh is a male entity."
"Then it is completely out of the question. Male-female fusion is not my taste."
Ian gave a faint smile and turned the pages of the grimoire. The sheets flicked past quickly before stopping on a certain page.
A magic circle filled both pages in their entirety. The very first creature recorded in the first chapter of the summoning magic category.
Because it was the first, there was no need for an intricate magic circle. There was no need to draw one by hand. There was no need to offer the flesh of monstrosities as a sacrifice.
The incantation was solely to follow the guidance of the magic circle written in the grimoire. The price offered in return was the owner’s blood.
The blood of the father.
“A creature granted the name of First because it did not follow guidance and did not seek mercy. The firstborn, asleep in the depths of the Outer Sea. To the mother who bestowed eternal hunger, resentment and hatred; to the father who calls upon you, adoration and love.”
Shaaa……
The shadow of something enormous swept past outside the window. In the room that darkened for an instant, something like a whale’s cry quietly resounded.
“Thus, I ask for aid from you, my first child. Come and devour my enemies and their world.”
Kooong……!
The moment the incantation ended, a tremendous impact crushed Ian’s body.
As if he had suffered internal injuries, blood streamed down from the corner of his mouth. It moved on its own, shattering the workshop window and rising toward the sky.
[Kiiiiiiiiii!!]
The creature of the Outer Sea, thirsting for blood, let out a high-frequency cry. That alone caused space itself to collapse and cave in.
Kwaaaaang!!
The outer wall broke apart. Rairie, who had remained composed throughout, was staring out the window with interest when she suddenly flinched at the pressure she felt.
Forgetting even to stroke the girl, she looked back at Ian as he vomited blood and cried out in shock.
“What on earth did you summon……?!”
“Uweeegh……”
Ian could not answer and spat out blood mixed with bits of flesh like a madman. Then, with a smile reeking of blood, he stared beyond the shattered wall.
“My eldest, who loves me far too much. The eldest daughter who hates her mother.”
“……This is not the time for jokes—”
“The creature that swam the primordial sea, devoured every living thing, and made itself the first.”
Srrk.
Ian staggered to his feet.
“The whale that covers the world.”
He gazed at the scenery.
The wind blowing in. The night sky full of clusters of stars. The seawater reflecting them.
All of it was completely blotted out by the shadow of a single enormous living being.
“The Forerunner (先覺者).”
[Uuuung…….]
A low frequency erased the clusters of stars in the sky. The world was swallowed into a gaping maw.
The bizarre world of flesh where the monstrosities lived was suddenly torn apart and separated by the whale that had appeared.
“……What on earth is that…….”
Rairie’s lips trembled at the sight she was seeing for the first time, and the girl regenerated her body while clutching the grimoire. The eye attached to her heart could not withstand the Forerunner’s rank and crumbled away.
“I declare.”
Huu.
Ian wiped the corner of his mouth as he breathed out a breath heavy with the scent of blood. Then he gave a faint smile.
“As of today, the Museum’s service is terminated. I’ll sink that grimoire beneath the waves as well, just like R’lyeh.”
At that unmistakable declaration of victory, Rairie’s face twisted.