Nyarlathotep in Alux Rising

Alux and Iris had been in a relationship for a year. To celebrate the one year anniversary of their relationship, they chose to go camping for their latest date. The past few days they have been camping, it went great, they had a great time together. The camping date was meant to be very special, with absolutely zero outside distractions. How quickly could things be flipped upside down within seconds…

A glowing blood-coloured rip opened up above them, and everything surrounding Alux, Iris and the two Cyberdrone Steves, caught fire. Then something came out of it, and what came out appeared to be a ‘fist’ that was neither solid nor liquid nor air, but was contradictingly also solid, liquid and air. Who or what it was, the Cyberdrones at first didn't understand what was coming out of the rip in the sky, then they knew it. Alux and Iris meanwhile were fear-stricken.

Iris clung to Alux as tight as she could, fearfully believing this was the end of her as well as his life. The pair of them were paralysed with terror but also a twisted sense of ‘awe’. They were seeing something that was beyond conventional understanding and that their eyes were the incorrect eyes for looking at it.

The ‘fist’ came down and slammed the ground so hard, the ground violently shook and the trees were not only uprooted, but also fell down if not outright splintered. Several more ‘fists’ sprouted from the ground at the spot the ‘fist’ slammed down into. They appeared visually separate, yet also visually connected. The light around the visual monstrosity began to be distorted, like light around a black hole was distorted. Yet the four of them could see its changing, unfixed and chaotic form.

One of the Cyberdrones raised their right arm into the air, the limb with the firearm attached to, and started screaming the words…

“ANNIHILATE! ANNIHILATE! ANNIHILATE…”

The Cyberdrone Steve fired several plasma bolts at what was coming out of the rip. It did absolutely nothing but ‘angered’ it further, and roared aggressively as the visual monstrosity flailed its growing number of limbs with rage. Meanwhile, the other Cyberdrone Steve was trying to escort Alux and Iris to safety. But they couldn't get them to safety quickly enough. The abomination was coming at the four of them too fast, with merciless and malicious desires.

Then something landed directly at the visual monstrosity with so much force, the attention almost immediately switched over to what hit it.

Alux pondered out of sheer disbelief. “Is that a kettle-” The absurdity of what he just saw was too absurd. Alux didn't trust what his eyes was seeing.

“We need to go. Now.” One of the Cyberdrone Steve physically guided Alux and Iris until they started running. They headed forwards, over to the right. Meanwhile, the Cyberdrone Steve continued firing bolts of plasma, and with the mysterious object that appeared to be some kind of ‘unbreakable’ kettle, provided a long enough distraction for the other three to escape, just before the flames as well as the abomination fully surrounded them. But for the Cyberdrone Steve that was still there fighting, it definitely was too late to run.

Alux and Iris, as well as the other Cyberdrone Steve, made it fifty metres away. There, they saw what looked like a wooden carriage. But then the appearance changed. It now looked like something not of this world. What it really looked like was some kind of metallic object that could hover, and had a long cannon at the back of it.

“What… even was that… thing…” The adrenaline that was coursing through Iris’ body, stopped.

“Iris-” Alux caught Iris before she fell over, and helped her to stand up. Both of them had run fifty metres very quickly, which left both of them exhausted. “You guys. Thank you.”

“We are Cyberdrone Steves. And what that thing is, it is called many things. It is commonly called ‘Nyarlathotep’.” The Cyberdrone Steve answered. “It is here, because it is angry.”

“Why is… Nyawa- whatever this thing is… is angry at us?” Alux sternly questioned.

“We need to do less talking, and more fleeing.” The Cyberdrone Steve replied as they helped Alux and Iris onto the hovering metallic object. Then, two other Cyberdrones appeared, and hopped onto the object. Then the object began to hover up slightly, then began to fly. While holding onto one of the Cyberdrones for dear life, Alux and Iris couldn't help but look down at the forest they were originally camping at below.

The visual monstrosity that the Cyberdrone Steves were calling ‘Nyarlathotep’, was ravaging the trees in its path, igniting everything where its attention was, setting things ablaze in its path. Each noise it made by moving or flicking trees forward like one would flick broccoli off plates, it was ‘carefully’ done, as if it was trying to ‘speak’. But that was looking at it too deeply, all they were seeing was an visually incomprehensible abomination burning and destroying everything in its path.

“Wait a minute… that thing's heading straight for Orphic!” Alux exclaimed.

“Oh shiz…” Iris’ eyes opened wider in horror. “We need to go that way NOW! We must warn those at- at… at- Firebird Tavern is in danger- Orphic is in danger! We need to go that way NOW!”

Taking on board Iris’ desperate pleas, the flying object immediately changed course and started heading south. Orphic was south from where the now-burning campsite was at. All their belongings were certainly burned to nothing, because there wasn't even any sign of the Cyberdrone Steve that stayed behind to distract Nyarlathotep.

Minutes later…

Alux and Iris as well as the three Cyberdrone Steves had just landed in Orphic and outside Firebird Tavern. Before the object they were piloting even landed, two of the Cyberdrones jumped off and levitated, before slowly descending to the ground and immediately entering the tavern. Once inside, they then began scanning the interior immediately presented before their mechanical eyes.

It opened into a spacious common room with a floor made of wooden planks. The walls were made with a mixture of different stones. In the middle of the open room were four thick and sturdy wooden beams, which held a large wooden ring, which on top had two wooden beams in each corner, a total of eight, each one being reinforced by cobblestone, all of which was to hold up the tavern’s roof. Also in the middle of the room was a suit of armour as a decoration, and the helmet also had a red plume. Beneath and surrounding the decorative armour’s boots, was red carpet, on a slightly raised platform. The main bar counter, which was all the way to the right, was built from dark wood panels with carved art. Behind the bar were stacked barrels with metal taps that were up against the back wall. The shelves also had glass bottles of different colours and sizes. Above the counter were lanterns which illuminated the room.

“Uh, hello? May I help you two? Y’all seem lost and- and most certainly not from around here. My name's Blair by the way.” The soft-spoken and friendly-sounding feminine voice immediately caught the attention of one Cyberdrone Steve, while the other was scanning their surroundings.

The one who’s attention got caught, looked back at the female who was greeting them, and started scanning her. The female’s skin was almost as pale as someone who had albinism. Her hair was lavender-white, and was long enough to touch her collarbones. Her eyes were a soft, violet-purple colour. She wore a dark navy purple robe that was done up by two gold-coloured buttons, as well as a purple sash that went all around her waist. Her robe also came with sleeves, but her sleeves didn't cover her shoulders, making her shoulders exposed. Her boots were tall, and were a darker purple than the robe she was wearing.

“Magic user.” The Cyberdrone Steve stated.

“Is… that a bad thing?” Blair took a step back nervously, but she tripped. But the second Cyberdrone Steve immediately noticed and reacted with lightning-fast reflexes. With speed that a blinking eye can't visualise, they caught Blair and helped her back up.

“Thanks. I'm a… a bit clumsy…” Blair sheepishly brought that up, hoping no one really heard that despite knowing everyone being aware of her klutzy tendencies.

“Scans complete. This verse's “witchcraft” is not true witchcraft.” The one that was scanning Blair, stated.

“That's some fast reflexes you got there. My name's Bronco- but Rocky's fine.” A huge man walked over to the two metallic guests. He was bigger than everyone else in the room. He was topless and his muscles were on full display, due to how big he was and how prone he was to overheating. He was only wearing leather trousers and basic shoes for common decency. On his left arm as well as his left hand were tattoos of some kind that looked like it resembled some kind of ancient inscription.

“You will be referred to as your real name by us. Bronco.” One of the Cyberdrone Steves stated, the one to Rocky’s left-hand side.

“Also, who are you guys?” Blair inquired out of spontaneous intrigue. “Are you two uh… like those stone statues powered by magic but instead are… metal statues?”

“We are Cyberdrone Steves. And our bodies are mechs, piloted by our brains.” They both replied so perfectly in sync with each other, it sounded like only one of them was speaking.

“You're not just not from here, you're also not from this world. Even with the most advanced magic here… we don't have the ability to remove someone's brain and put it in some type of statue.” Blair was very interested in these two beings that are called ‘Cyberdrone Steves’.

“Interesting… Anyway, what did you mean by what you said earlier?” Rocky questioned. “About the ‘not real magic’ thing?”

“Common misconception about abilities and witchcraft. Magic is associated with witchcraft. Magic is also a common but inaccurate word used to describe abilities that are just abilities and not witchcraft. Real magic and real witchcraft is dangerous. What this verse calls ‘witchcraft’, is not actually witchcraft.” The other Cyberdrone Steve explained, the one to Rocky’s right-hand side.

The Cyberdrone on the left-hand side began to speak again. “In the home verse we're from, there is ‘real witchcraft’, and ‘real witchcraft' is a bad thing. It opens doors to all sorts of trouble.”

“That's… interesting. You two seem to know a lot.” Blair nodded. “Well if it makes you two comfortable, I won't use any magic as long as you two are here.” Blair thoughtfully considered.

“You are fine. Your ‘magic’ are abilities. Not real witchcraft.” The second Cyberdrone Steve assured Blair. “And apologies for cutting the conversation short. We are here to evacuate everyone in Orphic to somewhere further up north.”

“Uh… okay? What is the other issue?” The stated mission of these two was stated out of the blue.

“You tin heads are interesting… but also very very awkward.” Rocky butted in. He wasn't making a compliment.

Alux entered the tavern in a state of panic. “Everyone, we need to run! Now!”

“Woah- easy there buddy-” Rocky with his big hands, caught Alux straight on the spot.

“We thought you were still out camping with- oh uh… where's… Iris?” Blair was starting to worry, and so too was Rocky.

“Here, and yeah we need to get everyone out- and not just the tavern, but Orphic as a whole!” Iris exclaimed.

“There's this thing we saw that didn't even look like it was… was…” Alux couldn't describe what they saw.

“Inco… comprehens… incomp- incomprehensible! That's the word-” Iris' stammering wasn't because her vocabulary was small and weak. The stammering was down to uncertainty, uncertainty whether even calling what she saw ‘incomprehensible’ was enough to describe the visual monstrosity she saw with Alux earlier.

“If it weren't for these… Cyberdrone Steves… we would be dead! This thing they call… ‘Nyarlef- yarlathof-” Alux had trouble pronouncing the name.

“Nyarlathotep.” Both Cyberdrone Steves again spoke so perfectly in sync with each other, it sounded like only one of them was speaking.

“Nyarh- la- tho- tep… huuuuh?” Rocky was slowly pronouncing the ‘name’, making sure he got it right. “What a weird name that is.”

“Yes, that thing- monster- can't describe it- more terrifying than that an- an- it- an- an…” Iris was about to break down. Her eyes had seen something that they shouldn't have seen. Now a memory of what she shouldn't have seen will be there forever.

“It's okay Iris-” Alux was quick to comfort the one he loved dearly, wrapping his arms around her. Iris leaned into him, but both remained standing up.

“Uh, what's going on?” Another female could be heard, her voice having a higher pitch in tone than Blair's voice. This female had light pink hair, slightly messy, but soft. Her eyes were hazelnut brown. The character was wearing a dove-white jumper, and an earthly green skirt with sunflower petals as a decorative custom. On her back, she was carrying a long wooden staff.

“I just put Gears to sleep in bed. What's the matter, and who are these two?” A male voice was heard next, he had a deeper tone than Alux. This other guy had short, dark brown hair, and his eyes were dark brown. He wore a black leather jacket, with gold buttons, dark-coloured trousers with black boots. His jacket didn't have a right-side sleeve. This was because his right arm was a prosthetic one, which was made out of wood and gold, and had some kind of an emblem coloured red at the top of his prosthetic arm.

“We may have a situation on our hands, Deer and Righty…” Blair fiddled with her fingers, she sensed something dreadful was going to happen soon. The nervousness became worry, then worry slowly crept up to becoming panic.

“This place is being evacuated voluntarily or involuntarily.” One of the Cyberdrone Steves spoke. One of them began escorting everybody out of the tavern. Righty was about to raise concerns about Gears, but the other Cyberdrone Steve began searching for anyone else in the building to evacuate, making Righty feel slightly more at ease, believing that Gears will be evacuated too.

“What are we evacuating Firebird Tavern for?” Deer raised an eyebrow.

“Apparently there's an incomprehensible monster heading for Orphic as a whole, and according to Alux and Iris, these guys saved their life.” Rocky explained. “So I trust that these tin heads know what they're doing.”

“My plants though…” Deer started to weep. She spent years growing the unique and exotic collection of plants around the tavern. Now this might be the last time she ever got to see their beauty.

“I think there's much bigger problems at large than plants- judging by the sudden urgency.” Righty sighed.

As they got to the exit, they all heard something faint. As the noise got louder, it became obvious what it was. It was the screams of people. Then what followed was a snarl, then a deafening roar, petrifying everybody except the escorting Cyberdrone. Those that were now petrified, their eyes were wide open, and were so petrified by the roar, the roar instantly traumatised them.

Despite the best efforts of the Cyberdrone Steve escorting the people, they delved into a state of outright panic. Alux and Iris ran in one direction together. Deer ran in another direction. Blair fell to the ground and hugged her own legs. Righty ran over to the bar that was to his left and hid behind the counter. Even Rocky, the toughest and the bravest of the group, was shaking and trembling. Everybody knew him as someone that was ‘as tough as rocks’, but the roar was so powerful, those ‘rocks’ began to crumble and fall apart.

That Cyberdrone Steve’s alert system started going off. They were getting the ‘code red’ alert. The focus of the Cyberdrone had now shifted from escorting to protecting who they could.

The ground and the walls began violently shaking. Rightly groaned as wine glasses fell and shattered on him, as well as wooden mugs hit his head. Barrels of different beverages rocked and fell, splintering apart and the liquids contained in them going everywhere all over the floor. The decorative set of armour in the middle of the tavern’s open room fell over and came apart. Chandeliers fell from where they were hung up and crashed onto the floor below. Beams that were securing the roof’s structure were overwhelmed and began to bend out of place before falling off and hitting the floor.

The Cyberdrone Steve then hovered up so they didn't fall over. The plasma bolt rifle in their right arm popped out, and pointed it at the bar, where Righty was. They were aiming for the barrels and anything holding drinks. They fired numerous low-power plasma bolts at the barrels, wine glasses and wooden mugs with pinpoint precision, so no more things were falling on Righty. Then they fired a few more plasma bolts at other things that were at risk of falling on Righty. Objects that were struck were incinerated or charred. Smoke arose from the bar’s counter. Righty was coughing, but alive.

Then, something that looked like a ‘tentacle’ aggressively swept across, began to slowly slice through the whole roof like a knife would cut through butter, sending chunks of wood, stone, debris, previously-hung lanterns and all kinds of debris everywhere. The ‘tentacle' appeared to be trying to cut the whole upper half of the tavern.

“GEARS! NO- oagh! Ah hagh…” Righty coughed, crying out the name of a guy who was like a son to him. Gears was still on the floor above. The tentacle was slicing through where exactly Gear’s bedroom would be. Whether Gears or the other Cyberdrone Steve were alive or not was now a horrifying uncertainty. That uncertainty weighed heavily on Righty’s chest. “Please be alive Gears… please be alive…”

Everyone except the Cyberdrone Steve moved places again, to seek shelter under tables, chairs or anything that could protect them. Righty remained hiding behind the bar’s counter. The Cyberdrone meanwhile was more concerned about scanning and assessing the situation.

Out of raw instinct, Rocky pushed Deer to the ground and laid on top of her, using his back to shield her from all the debris that was going everywhere. He loved to annoy and bicker with Deer, but she was still someone very close to him, and was always ready to die protecting her.

The ‘tentacle’ slowed, and began to cut the roof more like a chainsaw, sending more debris everywhere. It was almost as if the ‘tentacle' knew everybody in the building was terrified, and so it slowed down, just to toy with them all. The ‘tentacle’ moved incomprehensibly, and behaved unpredictably. The ‘tentacle’ alone was terrifying to see. Nobody but the Cyberdrone knew what it was. It was both at the same time all states of matter and not. It should not exist. It was wrong to look at. It was a contradiction to reality. It was insanity-inducing.

“I'm scared Alux…”

“Me too Iris…”

Alux and Iris held onto each other tightly as they hid under a long wooden table. They promised each other they'd not let go, and that if this was the end, the last thing they'd see and feel was each other's warm hands. Hearing the screams of people from outside, and seeing everybody else terrified, was a very psychologically difficult thing to witness. But that noise was drained as they focused on each other, which mentally helped them just a little bit.

“AHHHHHHH!” Blair was extremely overwhelmed. The fear in her was paralysing. She wasn't hiding under anything. Her knees were up against her chest, her arms were around her legs. Blair was hoping for the best, too paralysed to act or do anything.

The Cyberdrone Steve noticed a bit of the roof above Blair was about to fall. They immediately stopped scanning and leaped over to Blair, knelt down, turned their head to look up, then pointed up with their right arm and used the shielding ability in their right hand. A spherical shield made of yellow-coloured energy was created from their right hand, surrounding themselves as well as Blair. A few seconds later, a huge chunk of rock fell, but it was deflected by the Cyberdrone’s hand shield. That chunk of rock would've instantly crushed and killed Blair had it not been for the Cyberdrone's hand shield.

Rocky started crawling as did Deer underneath him. They were crawling over to the Cyberdrone, who turned its head and noticed them immediately. Seeing this, the Cyberdrone temporarily disabled the hand shield. Once Rocky and Deer were up close to the Cyberdrone, they reactivated the hand shield.

“Agh… my back…” Rocky groaned. His back was caked with tiny bits of stone stuck in his skin. His back was also littered with several cuts. But now as he was sheltered, his attention shifted to Blair, who was terribly trembling. Rocky as well as Deer crawled over to her, and comforted her.

“A… are… we… doo… oomed?” Blair struggled to speak, she was absolutely petrified, paralysed with fear.

“No matter who or what this is… no one's dying on my watch… we're family…” The usually brave attitude Rocky had would give some comfort. But that had been stripped. Rocky was as petrified as everybody else, and he was so petrified, his eyes were swelling and going red as he tried to hold back his tears. He was trying to be brave so his friends felt safe, but even his outwardly tough, brave and stoic appearance was starting to crack.

The ‘tentacle' appeared to take ‘notice’ of Rocky’s futile attempt of keeping a brave face. It stopped trying to cut the roof off, but instead began going for everything attached to the roof and flicking them off, sending everything all over the place.

“Must… stay… brave…” Rocky gagged on his mumbling. He was trying to not crack further.

The ‘tentacle’ paused, almost like it saw Rocky. Everybody looked up to see the thing was no longer moving. It appeared to be ‘stuck’. Righty took deep breaths, then looked up, defiantly frowning. A couple of tears left his eyes, tears of fear.

As soon as tears left Rocky’s eyes, the ‘tentacle' went ahead and sliced right through the rest of the building like a good samurai sword would slice through bamboo. It sliced through the rest of the way so fast, barely any further debris was created. Then the now-detached upper half of the tavern was lifted up and was thrown into the air, to quickly no longer be seen. The walls and windows of the lower half of the tavern violently shook. Wood splintered everywhere, stones crumbled apart, glass panes shattered to pieces, and dust rose up before being blown away by the air. Certain areas of what remained of the tavern, were either cracked or had utterly fallen apart. Debris was everywhere, as well as bits of splintered wood, crumbled stones and shattered glass.

Everybody was too shocked and too terrified to scream. Their windpipes and chests felt very compressed and achy, they were that petrified, so much so to the point of almost being paralysed by fear. So many hormones were released and so many neurotransmitters were activated all at once by being utterly petrified, it had overloaded their nervous systems.

The Cyberdrone Steve, the only one unphased, lowered their hand shield. They then got up, then levitated off the ground. They ascended upward at a very fast pace, they flew up fifty metres at a speed that looked ‘instant’. Their focus shifted from trying to save lives, to attempting to combat the threat that was coming after them.

The Cyberdrone Steve turned their head right. They saw that the other Cyberdrone Steve was alive and hovering, while also carrying somebody that was unconscious. The person who was unconscious suffered several injuries, from deep bloody cuts to broken and exposed bones. The injured individual appeared to be a male teenager, who had brown skin and hair that was dyed red. They were wearing a red cotton jumper, soft fabric bottoms, and fluffy white socks. They immediately connected the dots, they immediately knew that teenager was Gears.

“Rescue initiative is still in effect.” The other Cyberdrone Steve stated. They started flying quickly while carrying the individual. The Cyberdrone Steve that just flew up looked at them, before looking back to what was in front of them. A couple dozen metres away from what remained off Firebird Tavern, was the stuff that was more terrifying than what even nightmares themselves could ever have nightmares about.

What stood towering over them all was a form that was so paradoxical and contradictory, it was disrespectful to logic. Its form was fixed while also constantly twisting and changing. Its form was all states of matter while at the same time was none of the states of matter. Its form appeared to blend in and looked like it was a part of the sky while at the same time it wasn't. It looked far away whilst also clearly being just over twenty metres away. The fires and smoke appeared to be coming from the terrain it had ravaged, while also at the same time it didn't but from the thing that caused all the destruction itself.

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, and its form that crawled into, out of, over and under itself, extended out countless ‘arms’ with ‘hands’. Then countless more ‘tentacles’ appeared from nowhere and everywhere. ‘Arms’ and ‘tentacles’ came from the sky, the ground, or even out of nowhere in the air. It had began ‘wrapping' and ‘anchoring’ itself around a burning Orphic. It was like a parasite that gouges at an open wound, eating its way until it gets deep enough for it to be almost impossible to remove.