Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 261

Children of Abhoth?

When Moryō's mind processed that name, he couldn't help but repeat it once again. But then, his thoughts quickly caught up.

The new body he was controlling was called the Child of Abhoth. So then, what was Abhoth?

At that moment, a sudden flash of insight, or perhaps a wordless dialogue, flooded his soul with more information.

Abhoth, the Source of Uncleanliness, is the creator of all abnormal, grotesque, and malformed beings in this world.

Though it resides within this world, Abhoth does not belong to it. Its consciousness is filled with hatred for everything external to itself.

Abhoth never appears in the bleak, hopeless outer world. It only dwells deep within the Cavern of Y'quaa, in the pool at the bottom of Dreamland.

When Abhoth emerges from the Pool of Filth, it manifests as a massive, pale gray amorphous lump. And accompanying its appearance, the Children of Abhoth split off from its body.

These malformed creatures, desperately try to flee from their "father," but are ultimately dragged back into the Pool of Filth in the name of their creator, and devoured by Abhoth itself.

Upon receiving this information, Moryō's thoughts momentarily froze.

But that stifling pause lasted only a second, and his mind had no choice but to continue functioning.

So Abhoth, like me, is a monster from another world?

And this new body I'm controlling… is actually Abhoth's child?

And the Children of Abhoth yearn to escape this cave, to escape Abhoth's side, but in the end, they're all dragged back and consumed.

In that instant, Moryō finally understood why those hideous, stomach-like abominations were desperately flooding out of the cave, trying to flee from something. But then, a chilling realization dawned on Moryō: He had taken over the body of a Child of Abhoth… but all Children of Abhoth are eventually devoured by Abhoth.

Doesn't that mean… I myself will be devoured by Abhoth?

His soul suddenly awakened to this horrifying truth, but it was already too late.

Suddenly, he felt an overwhelming, unprecedented force pulling on him.

The last time he felt something this powerful was when the shrine maiden of the Land of Demons sealed him away, a force so terrifying it tore apart soul and flesh.

But now, the force pulling him was even stronger than that.

He could feel it clearly: it was the tentacle of something from the very depths of Hell. If he got dragged in, it wouldn't be just sealed.

It would be eternal, inescapable damnation!

That terrifying Source of Uncleanness was trying to swallow not only the body of the Child of Abhoth, but also Moryō's very soul inside it!

No! Let me go! This can't be happening!

Moryō's voice, once cold and oppressive, now broke into a desperate roar. It was his most furious scream, yet utterly powerless in the face of the upheaval inside the cave.

Near the Pool of Filth in the Cavern of Y'quaa, a deep rumbling entered Yomi's ears, pulling him out of his daze.

Having modified his body using forbidden shadow medical techniques, he wouldn't die even with his abdomen torn open. Lying prone on the ground, he managed to lift his head with the support of his arms and looked around at the scene.

In the dim cave, a massive, stomach-shaped abomination was being pulled back like a gray flood toward the pool, its source.

Despite clinging desperately to the stone walls, flattening and spreading its amorphous body over every surface to increase friction and resist being dragged back, it was all in vain.

From the cave walls to the ceiling, even the tiniest crevices were being sucked back toward the pool by some invisible, mysterious force.

And now, the once-smoke-shrouded center of the pool became visible, at its center loomed a massive gray amorphous mass, wildly flailing its blasphemous tentacles.

Every time these tentacles got close to the malformed creatures clinging to the cave walls or the water's surface, the "Children of Abhoth" were absorbed into the tips, then drawn back into the body along those long, writhing limbs.

The gray mass slowly began to rise above the water, forming a three-dimensional whirlpool whose center resembled a gaping abyssal maw, swallowing all the absorbed Children of Abhoth into its black heart.

This, what lay before them was completely beyond his comprehension. Behind him, the Four Companions were utterly speechless in shock.

And at that moment, the sound-processing region of his brain finally activated, allowing him to recognize a familiar voice screaming past his ears.

No! Don't devour me! Yomi! Yomi! Save me! Please save me!

From among the gray abominations clinging to the walls, Moryō's unique voice echoed out, now stripped of its usual menace and pride, replaced by nothing but raw, soul-deep terror. For some reason, Moryō's soul could no longer escape from the body of the Child of Abhoth.

Perhaps Abhoth had taken a liking to this fellow otherworldly creature.

Whatever the reason, the body Moryō had once dreamed of and desperately yearned for had now become a living coffin. And the coffin's lid had been locked tight, he couldn't escape, could only be dragged along with the Child of Abhoth's body toward that unclean abyssal maw.

Yomi! Save me!

He cried out Yomi's name like a drowning man reaching for a lifeline. But at this moment, even Yomi had no idea what to do. His body wouldn't even respond, he could only watch everything unfold.

In the end, Moryō's screams grew fainter and fainter in the vortex formed by the gray mass above the pool, until they were completely swallowed.

What awaited him… was the deepest level of the Pool of Filth, a place no one knew, and no one dared to know. Though on the bright side… perhaps his consciousness would follow Abhoth's immortal form and witness eternity.

But then again, who could say?

As the soul of Moryō was devoured, the gray mass above the Pool of Filth gradually receded, once again sinking back into the hidden depths of the pool.

Abhoth did not devour Yomi or any of the Gang of Four.

The reason was that Abhoth viewed the outside world as a dim and diseased catastrophe, and saw all creatures arriving from that world as pathogens.

Thus, Abhoth had no desire to try these unknown foods before it, for fear of harming its digestive system.

So, after devouring the Child of Abhoth, and along with it, the soul of Moryō, Abhoth returned to its own world of unclean filth.

That foul, deformed, and fetid pool was the world Abhoth truly loved.

After Abhoth's departure, Yomi and the Gang of Four gasped for breath for quite some time before they could truly recover their senses.

A moment ago, both their bodies and minds had been completely paralyzed.

This was a self-protective paralysis of the human sensory system, much like how, when something flies toward the human eye, the eyelid instinctively shuts.

Though no one had actually closed their eyes, in fact, they had been wide open, they hadn't really perceived much useful information.

Aside from Yomi, who had shared a body with Moryō, the other four hadn't even heard Moryō's howls and wails.

Or perhaps, they hadn't dared to.

As a result, it was Yomi, whose senses had not been dulled, who suffered the most damage to his sanity during that terrifying scene.

Eventually, the entire cave fell silent, returning to the state it had been in when they first arrived.

Only, at the edges of the Pool of Filth and within the cracks of the rocks, the deformed monsters previously seen reappeared.

Mutilated, misshapen toads and lizards poured out from narrow crevices like a tide, flailing and writhing wildly as they surged toward Yomi and the others.

Although Abhoth was highly cautious of creatures from the outside world, that didn't mean these deformed monsters would also reject these "filthy" human bodies.

Kusuna was the first to react. He immediately helped up Yomi, who had collapsed on the ground and was still staring blankly at the pool, unable to let go.

"Yomi-sama! We have to go, now!"

With Moryō's soul devoured, Yomi felt an emptiness inside, like a gravely ill person who could no longer stand.

The dual blow to his spirit and body left Yomi unable to move on his own, so Kusuna and Setsuna had to drag him away together.

Meanwhile, Gitai and Shizuku fended off the ever-increasing swarm of deformed monsters using every method they could.

The number of these creatures had grown tenfold since their arrival, so dense that it was terrifying, like a tide of darkness writhing into grotesque shapes.

Since Abhoth would not leave the cave, let alone venture into the outside world, these deformed monsters were both Abhoth's offspring and its regular food.

When Abhoth left, the monsters knew it wouldn't return for a while, so they emerged in such unrestrained numbers.

At last, after paying the price of torn clothes and some wounds to their skin, the group finally escaped from the cave.

Up front, Gitai and Shizuku rolled up their sleeves for a look, only to see that on their arms, where the deformed monsters had bitten them, disgusting yellow-green pus was oozing out. Varying degrees of skin ulceration had appeared on their bodies.

Clearly, these deformed monsters were far from harmless livestock. Their long-term survival in a filthy environment had rendered their teeth and skin horrifyingly toxic.

"Ahhh!"

Gitai twisted his towering body, his face contorting in pain. The intense itching and stinging on his rotting skin drove him to scratch furiously, unable to control himself.

But in doing so, his large frame made it hard to maintain balance on the sloped ground. His foot slipped, and his body pitched toward the cliff ahead.

"Ahhh!"

Gitai tumbled down the slope, rolling forward uncontrollably. Even as he flailed wildly, he failed to grab hold of anything stable before plummeting into the bottomless abyss.

His screams gradually faded into the darkness below, only then did Shizuku snap out of her stupor.

Under normal circumstances, Shizuku would have reacted instantly and caught Gitai before he fell. But now, she was already at the brink of collapse, completely incapable of lending a hand to her comrade.

As Gitai fell into that horrifying chasm, Shizuku could only stare in shock at his face. Tears welled up in her eyes, whether from grief at losing a companion, fear for her own fate, or simple terror, even she did not know.

But there was no time for such human emotions now, because inside the cave, Abhoth's progeny, countless deformed monsters, were still relentlessly pouring forth, swearing to devour these "filthy" beings from the outside world.

"Come here!"

Kusuna called out to the dazed Shizuku, then shifted Yomi's arm off his shoulder.

"You and Setsuna, get Yomi-sama out of here."

Still keeping a clear head, Setsuna immediately asked, "What about you?"

"He once showed me great kindness. Now it's time I repay that debt."

"You must go, now!"

Kusuna shoved them toward the spider-silk bridge that stretched across the cliff, remaining behind on his own. With a kunai in each hand, he faced the overwhelming tide of deformed monsters.

The Gang of Four were not exceptionally talented ninja. They didn't have their own jutsu and relied on Yomi's dark medical ninjutsu to replenish their chakra to perform techniques.

But now, Yomi hadn't yet recovered from the devastating trauma and couldn't replenish anyone's chakra. They were left with only basic taijutsu.

"Go!!"

With one final roar, Kusuna charged into the swarm of twisted monsters, twin kunai gleaming.

But within less than a second, his figure vanished from sight. And within five seconds, even his dark-clad body had collapsed into an unrecognizable mass.

Yet, through his sacrifice, the bloodthirsty monsters were briefly distracted by this meager offering, slowing their relentless advance.

"Shizuku, move!"

On the spider-silk bridge, Setsuna shouted back while supporting half of Yomi's body and fleeing.

Hearing Setsuna's voice, Shizuku finally moved like a soulless shell, running behind Setsuna and Yomi.

Suddenly, the spider silk beneath their feet stretched taut, then snapped all at once.

The rupture occurred just ahead of Setsuna's foot, and the broken segment of the bridge swallowed all three, Shizuku included, sending them plunging down into the abyss below.