Long-term salvation

"The new enemy is most likely an alien invader," Rhode said, crossing his hands under his nose as he scanned the stacks of papers spread out before him, each still stained with fresh ink. "These cosmic bumpkins clearly haven't noticed where they're invading... I don't know why anyone would run to a place where they can't even scrape off any oil or water and would only get splashed with stinky filth."

These words filled the faces of the Cogito Foundation's directors with a mixture of sadness and ridicule. Amidst the low laughter of Directors Alan Grant and Randolph Carter, Director Timothy sighed and asked:

"So, the enemy might not be aware of the existence of the 'other world'?"

"Maybe, but most likely not, because they clearly don't have enough means to explore the other world," Rhode said, looking up at the directors' wonderful faces and smiling helplessly.

"If they had it, they wouldn't have invaded or colonized here."

This time, all the directors couldn't hold back, even though the smiles they showed were uglier than crying.

"...I see. This provides us with an opportunity."

Ains, having regained his composure, said this, and even Sawai Souichirou had a thoughtful expression. After considering his words for a moment, he raised an eyebrow and continued:

"Does this mean that we humans can reverse colonize? Find a planet with no otherworldly activity or very weak otherworldly activity?"

"Wake up! We're facing an advanced civilization with hyperspace technology and genetic and biochemical research to the point where they can create and use hundred-meter-tall monsters as scouts. We can't just casually touch them now. Furthermore, the planet over there is likely unsuitable for human survival."

Rhode complained expressionlessly - the old white man across from him immediately felt his blood awaken when he heard the word "colonization", and he was ready to scalp the aliens on the other side...but this time, it was human civilization that was the weakest as a whole.

"I'm not opposed to killing all the aliens. In fact, I'd say it's better this way," Rhode spread his hands with an indifferent expression on his face. "But that's for the future. Right now, we need to try to destroy the rifts and kill the Kaiju that emerge from them... Listen up, everyone. This will be a long war, and we humans are not fighting alone."

"First, Godzilla displays immense hostility towards these monsters. The fact that he's chased them all the way from the Mariana Trench to the South Pacific is proof enough. Furthermore, these 100-meter-tall or nearly 100-meter-tall monsters are capable of contaminating their surroundings with their own blood, even when attacked by nuclear weapons. Their attack frequency can even drop from one per year, one every six months, or even two per week!"

"It's unclear whether these aliens are controlling the monsters, or if they are acting independently, but the monsters will communicate with each other and formulate strategies, while the next batch of monsters will absorb the experience of the previous batch and become stronger."

"The good news is that the rift can be destroyed by nuclear weapons, but to pass through the rift, you must possess a monster gene as a biometric key to open the door. I'm not sure how much monster flesh and blood is needed... We still have time to prepare, and 'nature' will be on our side."

"So, we must establish a good relationship with Godzilla and at the same time head to Aurora Yunnan to search for the other Titan, 'Mothra,' as I call it. Dr. Peng Jiamu, I'm leaving this up to you. Go and explain to them the urgency and importance of this matter."

"I will," the director whose name was called nodded slightly with a serious expression.

"As a means of combating these monsters, I hope to initiate a program called 'Mecha Hunter'..."

+ + + + + + + +

at the same time.

On a planet that will be called "Anteverse" in the future.

It seemed as if an endless biological weapons production line was in operation, a huge crack was floating in the storm, and below it was a monster that was about to rise and be launched.

But in another unknown dimension, a trace of chaotic supernatural energy had already quietly and continuously spread along the channel - at the moment the crack opened - this energy was extremely subtle, but it was enough to mix in the darkness, bury the seeds, and make them... take root and sprout:

When the tide rises, some reefs will indeed be exposed above the water, but there will always be some fools or unlucky people who want to test the power of the waves.

Then they will be torn into pieces by the waves.

Chapter 367: The Sleeping Cthulhu Waits for You to Dream

After talking with the directors of the Cogito Foundation and Dr. Serizawa for nearly three hours, Rhodes finally ended this emergency meeting and strolled back to his room. Under normal circumstances, he would definitely turn to the captain's room, but no one was in the mood to think about such trivial matters now.

Except for the three offspring of the evil god.

"Ladies, what are you planning to do in my room?"

Rhodes crossed his arms and looked at Abigail and Nayako who were lying on his bed, while Qianye occupied the only chair in the room.

This was an officer's quarters, neatly decorated and elegant, but the living conditions were far inferior to those on land. However, for someone like Rhode who didn't care much about the living environment, as long as he could sleep in peace and quiet... Now it seemed that this was not an easy task.

"Of course, we're here to protect your spirit. After all, the submarine is approaching R'lyeh, and they must have noticed our presence."

Nyarlathotep turned over, his pair of tender white thighs overlapping Abigail's, reflecting a pearly luster under the bright light. Noticing Rhodes's gaze, the descendant of Nyarlathotep chuckled, a hint of artificial contempt on his face.

"Could it be that Rod is thinking of something H? He's really going crazy!"

"Hey, hey, hey, you're a jerk with a head full of dirty shit, what right do you have to criticize me?" Rhode angrily lifted Qianye from her chair and made her sit with the other two of her kind. "Besides, I'm just insane and crazy. So what if I was crushed to death by that fat deep-sea creature? I'll be back alive and kicking in three days."

"But what will happen to your body then?"

Abigail raised her hand and snapped her fingers. The dessert hidden by a mass-produced Nikki in the kitchen immediately appeared in the girl's hands. The offspring of the evil god once again stirred up chaos in the human world. While eating the maple syrup pancake, the blonde girl continued incoherently:

"If your spirit is dead, will your body simply perish and regenerate along with your spirit, or will it become a vegetable?"

"I think……"

"I think the latter is better," Qianye clasped his hands together, his beautiful eyes full of anticipation, "In that case, we can also provide you with a little help."

"Forget it then. I might as well install a bomb in my body that will explode if my heart stops beating for more than a minute."

Rhodes muttered a few words, stood up and dimmed the lights in the room. He needed to rest for a while to prepare for the upcoming battle.

He closed his eyes.

[The eternal sleeper does not die, and in the strange eternity, death itself will die.]

These words suddenly popped into Rhodes' mind, and he seemed to be able to "see" the emergence of the dream. At this moment, the dream was expanding with black noise as the center, slowly squeezing out from the edge of the retina. At first, it was just some fuzzy blocks of color, slowly wriggling like an amoeba under a microscope, and the dying whale song that sounded immediately afterwards turned all of this into reality.

When Rhodes realized that he was standing on the slippery black reef, the sea water had already reached his ankles... It was not real water, but more like some kind of living darkness with colorful oily sheen.

In the reflection of the sea water, a huge body twisted slowly, and those turbid eyes were filled with shock, anger and disgust.

The next moment, thousands of languages ​​exploded in Rhode's mind, overlapping and combining with each other, and finally transformed into a sound he could understand:

"This is a warning, favored one!"

"Your existence has caused me trouble," Rhode said calmly. He endured the pain like a needle prick and blocked out the chaotic whispers from his mind. "You, your family, and your descendants must leave this planet or remain out of the real world for at least ten thousand years."

"...the request of the Three Pillar Gods?"

"My request."

"..."

Such a reply made the huge and ugly body tremble slightly, and it was obviously extremely angry and embarrassed. The next second, the octopus-like tentacles condensed and formed above Rhodes' head and slapped it hard!

The phantom shuttled through Rhodes' body, bringing the most realistic touch - like being thrown into a meat grinder. The speed of the machine was not slow, but it allowed people to clearly feel every bit of pain, which could not be eliminated or relieved!

The pain made Rhode's veins bulge and even made his face become ferocious, but the savior of mankind did not waver:

He still stood there, still looking up and gazing at the Old One!

"How dare you, you inferior creature, fool me?!" The roar of the Old Ones was so devastating that it ruptured Rhode's eardrums, spurting out a trickle of blood. Then, the indescribable being continued its ferocious howl. "You are nothing but a plaything, an experiment, yet you dared to come to R'lyeh in person... Do you think you can save your soul?"

Cthulhu felt ashamed of his previous associations and was annoyed that the Three Pillars of Deity treated him as a trial prepared for others - even if he was not known for his combat prowess, he could not be humiliated like this!

"Maybe, maybe not," Rhodes breathed out, shrugged, and said lightly, "But I think if they were here, this wouldn't be a problem."

But before he could finish his words, the entire dream world changed again - three twisted figures flashed past behind Rhodes, and the twinkling stars, wriggling darkness, and twisting tentacles turned into dark patterns, crawling from his wrists and neck along the skin to his face, and finally merging into the azure eyes at his right eye.

It’s much more than that!

The Old One, called "Cthulhu" by humans, also caught a glimpse of a button on the collar of the human in front of him. The button was a strange yellow color and had a faint sound of wind... It was the breath of his mortal enemy, Hastur.

What are these people trying to do by coming to the place where I sleep to participate in the celebration?! They even disrupted my resurrection ceremony a while ago!

What had Hastur sold to the Three Pillars that had caused them to use their own offspring and this inferior species to cause trouble for them?

"You don't have the power to kill me," Cthulhu's voice rolled in, exploding like thunder. "My return is inevitable. The future has already been written."

"I have no intention of killing you either, at least not yet."

Rhode listened to the sound of the world's pollution points rising and the system continuously clearing pollution, and spoke slowly and firmly:

"Besides asking you to continue sleeping, I have a small question - do you know how to deal with Hastur?"

Cthulhu: “…”

This guy in front of me is really worthy of being someone who can hang out with the descendants of Nyarlathotep. Before he finishes dealing with the current matter, he is already thinking about how to sell his partner (?).

but……

Cthulhu's body suddenly shattered the illusion and mist, revealing its ugly face before Rhodes. It said with a hint of sarcasm:

"Why should I tell you?"

"But it told me what to do with you," Rhodes spread his hands and lied without blushing or beating his heart. "You see, I think you're at a disadvantage."

"...Heh, inferior species. Once you become a figurine in my hands in R'lyeye, you'll understand."

Cthulhu didn't say anything more, simply raising his giant hand once more. His dark green skin slowly expanded before Rhodes... With a deafening roar like waves crashing against rocks, Rhodes fell from his chair, stretched out his hand to block the light that had been turned to its highest brightness, and squinted his eyes as he spoke:

"Looks like I'm back in the real world."

"Ah yes, after you slept for nearly ten hours," Nayako said unhappily beside him. She leaned over and tugged at Rhodes' cheek. "Hurry up and get up. R'lyeh has surfaced. We're here."

Rhode got up from the ground, stretched himself, picked up the communicator on the table, and said:

"New Jersey, get ready. You need to patrol the surrounding waters and provide support after we land on the island... Be frugal. I don't know when this will end."

"Understood! Then, I will attack in battleship form!"

Chapter 368: R'lyeh (1/3)

The sea is tearing apart and swallowing its own shadow.

Rhodes stood at the bow and looked down, watching the bow split the waves - at this moment, the sea surface turned a sickly dark green, the sea water twitched and pushed into the bulging back of a giant beast, and countless tiny wave crests were crushed into glass-like fragments by the dull air pressure, making people feel uncomfortable.

This discomfort extended to the sky, where cumulonimbus clouds accumulated at a morbid rate, their leaden domes dropping ever lower until they almost touched the sea level. Each cloud held the lingering thunder and the early howling wind.

"At this distance, New Jersey," Rhodes said calmly, "Put us down, and you must be ready to pick us up."

When they were nearly two hundred nautical miles away from R'lyeh, Rhodes and the three descendants of the evil god slowly moved forward on the battleship incarnated by New Jersey, while the Alicorn submarine mothership was preparing to launch an electromagnetic cannon attack in the distance.

After hearing Rhode's voice, New Jersey quietly appeared beside him and whispered:

"Commander, please be careful. Even I can sense an indescribable presence lurking there... and it's extremely angry."

"Do you have enough courage to face it?"

"As long as you have it," the ship girl kissed Rhodes' cheek softly, "as long as you need it."

Hearing this, Rhode's lips curled up slightly. He reached for the railing and jumped off the boat, leaping onto the speedboat already swaying in the waves. Inside sat the three descendants of the evil god. Unlike usual, they were now dressed in casual clothing suitable for movement. Their early exertion of power also prevented a single drop of seawater from soaking their bodies or clothes.

When Rhodes came onto the boat, the black cat Pickman jumped onto his shoulder and turned into a cat-shaped earring.

Rhode let out a long breath as he stroked his earrings, then started the speedboat engine and headed towards the unclean land that was gradually emerging from the sea.

R'lyeh.

This terrifying rock fortress has emerged from the sea like a growing dark green tumor. It is impossible to build it with materials produced from the earth. Even just looking at it calmly will cause a slight pain in the retina.

But once you set foot here, the pain will travel up along the nerves and into the brain, as if some kind of fish parasite is slowly wriggling inside your brain. This strange yet clear feeling will persist until the outsider goes crazy, succumbs, and dies... or perhaps death would be a better option:

Failure would be worse than death.

Rhodes knew this clearly.

Even though Cthulhu, as one of the Old Ones, was not as powerful as the Three Pillars, it was not something he could deal with now - this action was more like stealing the crutch, kicking the lame man's good leg, and pushing it into the ditch before the latter could jump and catch up with him... and into a deeper dream.

"where are we going?"

Taking a deep breath to calm his mind, Rhodes asked. He was standing inside the body of an indescribable thing and looking around. Only when he was inside it could the outline of the entire city called "R'lyeh" be revealed. Thousands of prisms and cylindrical buildings rose from the salty sea water, letting the breath of the deep sea pollute the already turbid air, and the surface of each huge stone wall that formed its base was carved with strange reliefs of the gods sleeping there.

R'lyeh had been destroyed, abandoned, and used as a mausoleum, yet it was filled with a structural beauty beyond the comprehension of ordinary mortals. This beauty was abnormal in its spatial structure and dimensions, with an indescribable sense of disharmony, as if the light itself were distorted, allowing a sinister malice and coldness to lurk within the unpredictable and insane angles of the monoliths:

At first glance it looks convex, but at second glance it becomes concave.

At first glance it is open, but at second glance it is closed.

Rhode stopped looking at the relief that was looking back at him, turned his head to look at the descendants of the evil god who were also looking around, and asked again:

"Where are we going? Or rather...how are we going to confront that deep-sea fat geek? Should we find a deeper pit to go down into, or just start cursing right here?"

"Although I don't mind, it's still not decent to scold directly," Nyako said with a smile. She reached out and pulled Abigail and Qianye to stand in front of Rhodes. "We need to find the [door] leading to the central mausoleum first, and then let Abigail open the [door]."

"Then let's try it first." Rhode nodded slightly. "It would be best if we could make this person fall into a deeper dream rather than engage in a direct conflict."

"That's unlikely... I can already feel the Star Family approaching. Rhode, let Miss New Jersey stretch her muscles."

Hearing Qianye's words, Rhodes was slightly startled. He then heard the roar of the ship's guns firing. Although the sound was a little weak due to the distance, standing on a high place and looking into the distance, he could see long octopus-like tentacles extending from the almost integrated sky and ocean, trying to whip the battleship that was shuttling through the surging waves.

The battleship's shape was looming in the sea fog, its huge body crashing through the waves and tearing apart the tentacles that blocked its way.

When the main guns opened fire, the entire sea area churned painfully.

The shells pierced through the sea fog with a shrieking sound, and the muzzle shock wave pushed out fan-shaped ripples on the side of the ship. The ripples collided with the waves and burst out with a higher-pitched roar - the next second, the hit Star Clan let out an infrasonic scream that humans could not hear, and more wriggling shadows emerged from the wave wall more than ten meters high.

The battleship's speed was increased to its maximum. Four cruise missiles were fired, trailing long smoke trails as they blasted a strange figure with dancing tentacles in the distance. When the object plunged into the sea, huge waves were raised that hit R'lyeh, and a few waves even splashed on Rhode's face.

After sending New Jersey the "change form at will" and "engage in free fire" commands, Rod, having completed another supply run, took a few painful deep breaths, letting the salty, damp air seep into his lungs, bringing a slight pain and chill. After regaining some clarity, he wasted no time and walked deeper into R'lyeh, saying as he walked:

"Let's go quickly, we don't have much time."