The Bargain with Yog-Sothoth
Outer God.
A deity from beyond the world. In other words, a god and constellation of the outer universe.
If there was any difference from the constellations of the Pantheon, it would be...
The Monkey King of Mount Huaguo is horrified at the sight of an Outer God.
The Monkey King of Mount Huaguo strongly warns that the power of an Outer God could erode your mind.
The Monkey King of Mount Huaguo demands that you stop observing the constellation of the outer universe and leave this place at once.
Yeah.
It was that thing called corruption.
The contamination that could occur simply from knowing a constellation of the outer universe.
The beings of the outer sea possessed the property of breaking down the walls between opponent and self, synchronizing them with their own concepts.
The connection linked by the Clairvoyance contract with Sun Wukong snapped apart.
Dreamland was a demonic realm of another world born from the intermingling of the outer universe and reality.
It was the domain of Azathoth, the ruler of dreams—in other words, the master of the outer sea.
Although Sun Wukong was a constellation on the level of a God King, he could not exert his power here.
No.
If that constellation was the being I suspected, even if Sun Wukong’s true body descended, he would still be helpless.
“Goddess, don’t stare at that too long.”
Nyx’s voice remained utterly calm.
Even Sun Wukong—a constellation equivalent to a God King—had recoiled in terror, yet here she was.
As expected of a conceptual deity.
Once I confirmed Nyx was unaffected, I turned my attention to the one responsible for this situation.
I looked up at what had been the ceiling.
Countless eyes and mouths.
Merely gazing upon it made my head spin and my heartbeat spike.
The Cold Blood skill had been nullified.
Locking eyes with that abyssal existence filled me with an overwhelming urge to drop to my knees and offer worship.
I gritted my teeth.
Damn it.
Did it look like I would bow my head to mere constellations?
Outer universe or not, I didn’t care.
Just because it hadn’t existed before my regression didn’t mean I would lower my head the moment we met.
The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.
I must have unconsciously bitten my lip.
Still, the bleeding was worse than I expected.
Nyx shrieked.
What a fuss.
The taste of blood snapped my mind back into focus.
I healed the wound with Regeneration and drew on the power residing at my crown.
Divine power.
A force permitted solely to constellations.
I shielded my mind with the energy I had devoured from ruins and holy relics.
After drawing a deep breath, the haze clouding my head receded slightly.
I felt like I might actually survive this.
I lifted my bowed head once more.
The cosmic mystery visible between those countless eyes.
Even with divine power protecting my psyche, the sight was enough to induce vertigo.
But.
I endured.
“I could say the same. I never expected the constellation that symbolizes boundaries—Yog-Sothoth—to show interest in a mere mortal.”
The trailing tone lingered like an echo in the soul.
I offered no reply.
One wrong word and the pressure of that presence might force me to spit out the secret of my regression.
The countless eyes on the ceiling stared straight through me.
Eyes that pierced every secret.
Though I protected my mind with divine power, prolonging this would be dangerous.
“Is that so important?”
A variable that had not existed before my regression.
Ironically, the reason Yog-Sothoth had revealed itself was that very regression.
Yog-Sothoth recorded every event, every piece of knowledge, and time itself across the universe.
An existence absent from those records.
The variable known as me had wandered into Yog-Sothoth’s domain.
Yeah. That’s exactly what makes this dangerous.
The laws of the outer universe were utterly different from this world.
An ordinary person would lose their sense of self from merely meeting Yog-Sothoth’s gaze.
A constellation that gave physical form to the concepts of terror and madness.
Look at those eyes.
They gleamed with the desire to dissect the variable called me that had slipped free of the timeline.
One wrong move and I would become an experimental subject.
If I stayed silent here, that possibility would become cold reality.
If my identity as a regressor were exposed, I would be dissected cell by cell.
That was why I desperately expanded my divine power to shield my mind.
Even if I tried to flee, the passage leading outside remained sealed.
“How long do you plan to simply watch?”
“I doubt leaving me here will allow any meaningful observation.”
That’s right.
Yog-Sothoth was an existence called the king of the Outer Gods.
The great constellation that remained awake in place of Azathoth, the master of the eternal void who slumbered without end.
Had the true body descended, all of Dreamland would have trembled.
“Yeah. Your true body cannot come here.”
“Because Dreamland is far too small to contain an existence like Yog-Sothoth.”
Would I become a lab rat by revealing the secret of my regression?
Or would I remain trapped here for eternity?
Yog-Sothoth had forced two choices upon me.
Nyx, who had finally grasped the true intent behind the exchange, stiffened.
You noticed awfully late.
To feel no emotion even after seeing those glaring eyes.
Since my return to the past I had walked many tightropes, but never one as precarious as this.
The variable created by the mere fact that I was a regressor.
I closed my eyes tightly.
The fear that the slightest lapse in focus would leave me completely exposed.
That terror stretched my already taut mind even tighter.
My mental fortitude only grew sharper in the face of crisis.
Having survived countless ordeals across two lifetimes, I knew what to do.
What was the way to break this impasse?
I pondered, drawing on every scrap of knowledge and experience from both lives.
A moment later.
“Let’s make a deal, Yog-Sothoth.”
I spoke.
The one who lingers at the boundary—Yog-Sothoth.
The instant he detected the variable caught at the edge of his domain, he released the Hounds of Tindalos.
It was not born of conscious intent.
Yog-Sothoth’s very concept was a repository of knowledge.
To record the rise and fall of every being—living creatures, worlds, and constellations alike—without distinction. That was his essence.
Therefore.
Identifying elements absent from the world’s records was an instinctive duty.
A phenomenon created by the fusion of the Tower and the world—a demonic realm.
The location where the variable had been measured was the space connecting Earth and the outer universe.
In the countless flows of time, few existences had ever captured his interest to this degree.
Yog-Sothoth suppressed dimensional interference and dispatched a terminal of consciousness into Dreamland.
Though an Outer God whose presence was akin to a natural disaster.
The terminal formed by separating a fragment of consciousness had developed an ego as powerful as any constellation of the Pantheon.
Therefore.
“Let’s make a deal, Yog-Sothoth.”
He felt genuine interest in the bold voice of Jinho.
A proposal his main body would have ignored as meaningless as speaking to a wave.
Yet the fragment of Yog-Sothoth that had manifested in Time’s Edge was different.
He felt an intense curiosity toward Jinho—the variable unrecorded in any timeline.
“That’s right.”
Yog-Sothoth suppressed his curiosity and let out a low chuckle.
The world trembled.
Merely by the terminal displaying emotion, all of Dreamland shook.
“You said you wanted to observe me, didn’t you?”
Shhhhh!
Jinho gripped a blade forged of darkness.
The power of the Goddess of Night, Nyx.
Though even the constellations of the Pantheon could not fully discern it, this fragment of Yog-Sothoth instantly saw through the true nature of Polar Night.
“Of course not. If you went all out, I wouldn’t last even a tenth of a second.”
Yog-Sothoth could not comprehend Jinho’s behavior.
From the moment he had stepped into this passage, he had possessed no choices.
Either reveal his secret willingly.
Or remain imprisoned until fully observed.
At that moment.
“The subject of this deal is my life.”
The razor-sharp blade of darkness hovered at Jinho’s throat.
The Goddess of Night screamed.
The fragment of Yog-Sothoth shifted its countless eyes.
“The secret I carry. Who would be more frustrated at being unable to learn it?”
“Then try it.”
Drip.
Red blood slid down the dark blade.
Jinho’s unflinching action.
The blade had not sunk deeply—not because he had withdrawn his strength.
A long purple tentacle.
Because a fragment of Yog-Sothoth’s consciousness had intervened to restrain him, the wound produced only a thin line of blood.
“I know.”
“It’s the only method I have.”
The curiosity born from having separated a portion of his consciousness from the main body.
The terminal of Yog-Sothoth felt a powerful desire to observe Jinho from an even closer distance.
“Then will you accept the deal?”
Swoosh!
The tentacle that had blocked the dark blade writhed once more.
It coiled around Jinho’s right hand and seeped directly into his flesh.
A purple crystal formed on the back of his hand.
“In exchange for sparing my life?”
“Hey. A deal isn’t supposed to be one-sided. If something comes in, something has to go out.”
The fragment of Yog-Sothoth’s consciousness retrieved a single holy relic that had slumbered within the repository of knowledge.
A sword falling from above.
◈ Contains the influence of Yog-Sothoth
◈ A powerful relic capable of distorting space and time
The eyes affixed to the ceiling began to close.
Rumble—!
The passage leading outside reappeared.
With those final words, the terminal of Yog-Sothoth merged back into the main body.