Chapter 6177 - 5188: Soul of the Machine Ideal Land (45)

The will of the human race, naturally, needs no further elaboration—most legendary investigators rely on this to win. Yet, the instinct of animals is indeed intriguing. In the settings, beasts possess an intuition that humans don’t have, allowing them to discern the existence of pollution more easily than humans, and the dog raised at the Miskatonic University library is among the best.

Not only can it keenly detect the scent of pollution, but it can also resist pollution to a certain degree. Furthermore, it can bypass the pollution and directly attack the polluted individual’s essence, which explains why it could bite to death the offspring of an Outer God.

The offspring of an Outer God are formidable precisely because of the pollution on them, a mere glance can drive one mad, a mere touch can kill. However, their bodies are still human; no matter how much pollution transforms them, they’re still made of flesh and cannot become formless or intangible like an Outer God. Once the pollution is ignored, and the body suffers heavy damage, death naturally follows. Hence, when a large guard dog goes berserk and bites them to death, it is normal.

This dog is exceptionally important, practically a weapon against those polluted. Shiller insists on finding it. There are many guesses regarding its whereabouts—some say it ran away due to a fright from Yog-Sothoth and likely sprinted to its death; others think it was tracking something in Dunwich and simply didn’t meet up with the professors’ group.

However, Shiller feels these guesses are unlikely. At that time, the true form of Yog-Sothoth hadn’t descended—what the dog saw were just some pollution, which it can resist, not to the extent of being frantically scared away. If it were actively tracking something, it should return after finishing; a dog can find its way home easily and wouldn’t simply disappear.

Shiller is more inclined to think it was trapped. It’s important to note that Yog-Sothoth itself is the master of time and space, both a gate and a key; its offspring naturally has related abilities, although they didn’t manifest in the entire Dunwich event.

The elder twin brother, failed to steal the Necronomicon and was bitten to death by the dog. The younger brother of the twins was driven away by the professors who had rushed over. Although their terrifying appearance was described, along with the spiritually deadly pollution for ordinary beings, the power of Yog-Sothoth was never displayed. Shiller thinks, it’s not that it doesn’t exist, but rather humans haven’t discovered it.

The pollution emanating from them, belonging to the Outer Gods, brings instant death when touched; humans perish from pollution before experiencing any superpower, thus they cannot sense it. But this dog is different—it bypassed the pollution and attacked the essence, even biting the elder brother to death, suggesting that it could access deeper levels of power, namely the spatial-time power of Yog-Sothoth.

The dog, after biting the dead man, raced away, perhaps not out of fright, but possibly because it believed it saw the right path yet got lost in time and space. A dog, after all, is not human; it lacks high intelligence and has conducted no scholarly research. Unable to comprehend its current state, it can only wander ceaselessly in the whirlpool.

Shiller checked the doghouse once more, though it’s been repurposed into a storeroom, and the current doghouse moved to the side chamber. Possibly to commemorate this brave dog, the room remains meticulously clean, with items neatly organized.

When he stepped into the room, Shiller indeed sensed some unusual aura; with them being followers of Nya, a kind of mythical creatures, their sense of mysterious power has sharpened.

Sure enough, something had been left behind in this room, though Shiller couldn’t ascertain if it was the power of Yog-Sothoth. He paced around the room, eventually spotting the doghouse in the corner.

It’s a wooden doghouse—clearly handcrafted—with a roof covered in red paint; inside was a dog bowl. Shiller poked his head inside for a closer look, noting the floral English lettering on the bowl: "Dear Tibbers," clearly from the curator’s pen.

Though the dog served as a guard dog, having been raised in the school, it was gentle with people, forming deep bonds with students and faculty. After its disappearance, many tirelessly searched for it, but to no avail, leaving only its doghouse and food bowl, sealed as a memorial.

Shiller circled the doghouse a few times; he could sense an unusual force here, yet he wasn’t specialized and didn’t know how to solve the Outer God’s space-time riddle. So, he did what any cat would—returning to the tower, he leapt onto Dr. Henry, landing with a loud meow to wake him.

The little old man awoke, bleary-eyed and a bit dazed, reaching out to grasp at air, before seeing the glowing eyes in the dark and resignedly lying back down.

"Don’t mess around, Isaac, I have a group meeting tomorrow morning..."

Shiller dismissed his concerns, voicing dissatisfaction with that name before jumping all over the bed. Of course, he avoided jumping on the old man; him being so old meant jumping onto him risked breaking a bone, and this legendary investigator unafraid even of Yog-Sothoth’s offspring surely wouldn’t want to become a laughingstock by getting hurt this way.

Unable to bear the noise, Dr. Henry trembled as he sat up, then felt for his glasses. Once glasses were on, he forced himself to open his eyes, meeting Shiller’s gaze. Shiller meowed once, jumped off the bed, and turned for the door, looking back at Henry as he reached the doorway.

Henry seemed to understand something, tossing off his quilt and getting out of bed, he grabbed a lamp from the bedside and followed behind Shiller. Shiller led him through the library, arriving at the doghouse, where he jumped onto its roof and began to meow.

"What’s here?" Henry asked, "What do you want to say?"

Shiller put all his might into mimicking a dog’s bark. Although it wasn’t very accurate, the message was conveyed. Henry thought for a moment and said, "You mean a dog? What’s the matter with the dog? Did you see Tibbers?"

Shiller nodded then shook his head, starting to jump around near the doghouse, scratching the ground with his paws. Henry finally understood a bit; he placed the lantern aside, knelt down halfway, and began to inspect the doghouse.

"What’s here?"

Shiller placed his paw on the food bowl, pointing to Tibbers’ name. Henry widened his eyes slightly and said, "Is Tibbers here? You mean he might be trapped somewhere I can’t see?"

Shiller quickly nodded. He no longer cared about exposing his abnormality. After all, there’s a dog that can bite the offspring of an Outer God, so what’s wrong with a cat being a little smart?

Henry first gave Shiller a deep look, but soon his attention returned to the doghouse. Tibbers was a dog he had raised since childhood, and their bond was deep. If the dog was lost, Henry would be the most heartbroken, and he certainly wanted to get Tibbers back.

Then, Shiller walked over to the door, looking back at Henry. Henry immediately understood and followed Shiller, leading him to the library counter where Henry usually greeted people who came to read.

He jumped onto the counter, nudging a drawer handle with his paw. Henry opened the drawer and found his own notes inside, detailing matters related to the Dunwich Horror Incident, mostly illusions encountered from facing the offspring of an Outer God.

Although they ultimately won, the incident left a significant impact on him. Besides confirming that there are indeed terrifying unknowns in this world, it also caused him to have recurring nightmares related to that night, repeatedly confronting that terrifying presence.

Dr. Henry had never told anyone that the terrifying figure looming in his dreams, making him toss and turn in fear on countless nights, was not Wilbur’s brother, the invisible monster with many arms, but the enormous and horrible being that extended a tentacle from an unseen spatial ripple at his moment of death—the father of those twin siblings, a terrifying Outer God from a distant unknown land.

When facing a tentacle of this enormous creature, Henry experienced many hallucinations. He felt he had traveled to ancient times, witnessed human civilization’s development to the present, and then traversed to the future, seeing skyscrapers flying in the sky, planes orbiting the Moon, and even machines flying between the Sun. In a daze, he turned back into a baby, seeing his younger self approaching him. Everything was chaotic, yet there seemed to be an indescribable pattern.

At that moment, he saw the white cat dip its paw in ink and draw a circle on a nearby scratch paper. It was merely a ring, but it gave Henry a sense of déjà vu.

Yes, it was not a tentacle; it was a circular bubble, also resembling a snake biting its own tail. Henry quickly picked up a pen, and under the quickening pulse of fleeting inspiration, he sketched an image from his hallucinations. It was whirlpools of time nested and overlapping, akin to countless pairs of eyes.

Henry believed that what he saw in that instant was exactly such an existence. This is the father of those terrifying twins, slicing time into constantly spinning whirlpools, arrogantly despising everything upon the endless cycles of reincarnation.

Henry felt drained of strength, collapsing into the chair, seemingly about to drown in those hallucinations. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his hand, snapping back to reality, seeing a white cat biting his hand.

"Meow—" the white cat cried out, jumping onto the scratch paper where he had just drawn, pacing anxiously. Henry reached out and picked up that paper.

"Tibbers is trapped by him, right?" Henry asked.

Shiller eagerly nodded, then walked onto the paper with his drawn circle, leaving paw prints with ink on the scratch paper, creating a mess all over the surface, but Henry didn’t mind in the slightest. He first picked up the cat, then grabbed the paper, staring at the circle, saying, "I understand, Isaac. Tibbers hasn’t left. He’s just trapped in another timeline. We need to find a way to get him out."

Shiller nodded vigorously, tears welling up in his eyes. Truly worthy of being a Great Mage, he could comprehend it all. Yog, your son lost without injustice.