[Cthulhu] Bubbles Always Wants Me to Ascend to Immortality

On a chance visit to her ancestral home to pay her respects, Xu Qing wandered into the cellar and found a silver key and a mysterious book: The Seven Chapters of the Esoteric Scripture of the Dark Lord.

That night, she dreamed in the middle of the night, and the strange silver key blazed with dazzling light.

It took Xu Qing to another continent, a world of cultivation called the Xuan Zhu Realm.

At first, Xu Qing was shocked and afraid.

But later, when she learned that powerful cultivators could cross time and space to reach new worlds beyond their own, Xu Qing finally found her goal. She resolutely embarked on the path of immortality, hoping to ascend and become an immortal, like those great masters who could pluck stars with their bare hands... and eventually return to the modern world.

But when she too neared the end, when she joyfully welcomed the tribulation of ascension, and when she saw the golden light of the tribulation fall, she also saw the bloated, hideous monsters writhing behind it, their tentacles twitching. Suddenly, she stopped.

Humanity could not help but understand.

At last, she understood what "ascension" and the "path to immortality" really meant.

*

We are meat on the chopping block, and they are the knife. Immortals are demons, and the Dao is self-destruction.

The immortality you seek is nothing but a means for them to choose their playthings.

*

Ascension is fake. The world is fake. Everything is fake.

In their eyes, humanity is no more than a lesser species.

And so... strange lines writhed in Xu Qing's vision, and her heart pounded wildly... She cruelly and manically mocked herself, a girl about to meet her death, about to be swarmed, devoured piece by piece, torn apart, and killed.

In the midst of her despair, she stared helplessly at the terrifying beings filling the sky.

I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die. Xu Qing trembled all over.

At that very moment... the silver key on her chest gave off a faint glow. As pain enveloped her, she heard a voice, devoid of joy or sorrow, desire or longing. It said, "Only by falling into the depths, only by evolving, can you survive and attain the Dao through ascension. Enter me, human, and I will give you all truth."

The being before her eyes was a dazzling splendor that blotted out heaven and earth.

Crystal-clear bubbles colored her nightmare, pushing the world wreathed in black mist behind them. The hidden tentacles froze... Seemingly afraid of that deity, they quietly retreated and submitted along with the rest. And beneath the rare gaze cast down by that enormous phantom, the ultimate white door... the path to immortality slowly opened before her.

The human girl did not dare refuse. She knelt before the "door" for a long time.

*

Many years later, when Xu Qing spoke again of that terrifying beginning, the "human master" who had saved her back then slowly sipped some hot tea. Snow-white hair spilled over their shoulders, and their expression remained indifferent. "Is that so? You were very afraid?"

At that time, Xu Qing, who believed she had already ascended, simply smiled gently at her master and continued to pull them around a modern shopping mall. She casually said something like, "Wherever my master is, that's home. Of course I wasn't afraid..." But then Xu Qing froze.

Home? Master? Afraid?

Something didn't seem right. What she had been afraid of was clearly... clearly... After a long silence, she looked at her master. Her muddled memories suddenly came into focus, and, as if possessed, she murmured:

"Yog-Sothoth..."

"No, no, no... I won't go with you...!"

Monster, monster, monster, monster, monster, monster, monster, monster. They aren't human! They're a monster!!! Xu Qing screamed inwardly, shouting at herself to run... She would never become a monster.

Facing the girl before them, who had once again discovered the truth, the lofty deity merely raised a hand. They touched her cheek, capturing this clever, fragile, foolish little soul who had walked willingly to her doom... She had nowhere to run. Once more, she fell into their falsehood and entered their game.

For all eternity, it would be like this.

So what kind of life would she have this time?

"No, Xu Qing." After a long silence, they corrected her.

"I am the lover you've been searching for. I am the true Dao."

Gentle human x Yog-Sothoth, who keeps cosplaying and impersonating themself.

An ancient-style cyberpunk Cthulhu tale, perhaps a quick transmigration story? Silly writing style. Please don't read if that's not your thing.

Theme: Enjoy the good things in life.