Eldritch Horror Theatre

Clearly, expressing goodwill required the right method.

Amidst this much more pleasant greeting, even though the Battle-Scarred Bride was generously displaying a large amount of her skin, Fu Qian turned his head away.

The voice matched the person—it belonged to a kind-faced Old Lady.

She had a petite, thin frame and sat on a Chair in the corner. Though her hair was mostly white, it was neatly combed, and she was looking at him with earnest eyes.

Hilaria had been right. Someone really had seen this sick outsider before.

She was right about more than just that. Glancing out a window barely larger than a ventilation shaft, he confirmed it was indeed nighttime outside—a pitch-black sky without a single visible star.

What else had Hilaria said?

Never walk into that darkness?

"What are you trying to do? Don't get any strange ideas."

"Thank you, but why?"

In no rush to reject her goodwill, Fu Qian even stepped forward as he thanked her.

The Church had a traditional cruciform layout. Its core area was even smaller than the space Hilaria occupied, and the Old Lady sat in the most inconspicuous corner, placing her farthest from the altar.

"Is there something out there?"

Taking an empty seat right next to her, Fu Qian pressed on with a curious expression.

...

"You shouldn't ask such things. Not everything can be spoken of..."

Yet, after a moment's hesitation, the Old Lady offered a Voldemort-esque description, hinting at the sheer terror of whatever lurked in the darkness.

Not only that, but the other two people in the Church besides her and the Battle-Scarred Bride also snapped their heads around to look at him the moment he asked.

Their visceral reaction seemed to prove that her words weren't just the alarmist ramblings of an old woman.

"Then we won't talk about it."

Fortunately, Fu Qian was leaning into a refined and easygoing persona today. Unlike movie adventurers who treated taboos as rules meant to be broken, he surprisingly heeded her advice, dropping the subject and swapping it for another.

"But what would happen if someone actually went out there?"

As everyone knew, while speaking of evil entities themselves was forbidden, the horrific consequences they caused were usually widely publicized. One just had to learn how to ask indirectly.

"You would be utterly beyond saving."

The change in strategy yielded immediate results.

This time, it wasn't the Old Lady who answered. It was a scruffy, gaunt middle-aged man wearing a felt hat.

He was sitting the farthest away from them out of everyone present; half of his body was practically pressed against the altar.

Behind the red velvet-draped altar hung an Emblem—identical in shape to the ones he had seen on his way here—and a reasonably well-preserved seated Statue.

At first glance, it was arguably one of the most normal-looking figures Fu Qian had ever seen across countless places of worship.

It had shoulder-length hair and wore a belted, flowing robe. Not only did it bear a peaceful expression, but it was also entirely free of extra appendages like wings or tentacles.

Its only unusual feature was its four eyes.

True, it lacked any bizarre appendages, but it made up for it with extra ordinary ones.

Beneath its flowing hair sat two pairs of identical eyes. At the same time, in stark contrast to the Statue's serene expression, its exposed arms were heavily corded with muscle.

Then again, from another perspective, this muscular physique probably made it easier for people to believe that this Higher Existence could actually protect them.

"So how exactly is it beyond saving?"

Even as he critiqued the Statue, Fu Qian didn't forget his main business, smoothly continuing his line of questioning.

"You would lose all humanity and hope, and you'd never perceive anything again!"

He clearly wasn't asked this very often. However, seeing Fu Qian's thirst for knowledge, the middle-aged man took a moment to compose himself before his voice pitched up into a fervent tone.

"Trapped in that distortion, you would be disemboweled like a slaughtered animal! You would crawl in endless agony as your organs were smeared across the stones, piece by piece..."

"That does sound terrifying,"

Fu Qian nodded slightly, offering his critique only after politely waiting for the man to finish venting.

"But there seems to be a slight logical flaw. If you can't perceive anything, where does the endless agony come from?"

...

"Believe it or not, that's your problem. You're more than welcome to step out there and try it yourself. I'll just wait here for you to come back and give me the answer."

Clearly, rigorous logic wasn't always appreciated.

The man in the felt hat choked on his words, his expression souring visibly.

However, perhaps because leaning against the Statue demanded a higher standard of decorum, he ultimately kept his expression in check, responding to Fu Qian with a dismissive 'suit yourself' attitude.

After speaking, he simply took off his hat and covered his face with it, showing zero interest in talking to Fu Qian any further.

"So this Church belongs to this Divine Entity? May I ask what He is called?"

Of course, the man couldn't possibly have known just how vastly experienced Fu Qian was in being treated as a nuisance.

Letting out a long, disappointed sigh, Fu Qian didn't waste a single second before switching both his topic and his target.

Deliberately getting close to someone or distancing oneself from them should always be based on a certain level of understanding.

The middle-aged man closest to the Statue might have been the best person to answer this question, but the Old Lady sitting the farthest away held just as much promise.

"Akons."

Surprisingly, not only did the Old Lady actually look his way and speak, but she even gave him a name directly.

"No secret can be hidden from His Insight, and His wisdom is like the deep sea."

...

She actually knew that much? He had thought just getting a symbolic honorific name out of her would be lucky.

Surprised by the sheer detail of the Old Lady's answer, Fu Qian found himself growing even more interested in this higher entity.

The name wasn't strange, though he had never heard it before. As for His authority, His image did indeed seem closer to an intelligence-oriented role. But Insight... that felt a bit too close to his own gig as a Sage.

Furthermore, looking at it from this perspective, what Hilaria was doing down below seemed faintly connected.

Even if she seemed more focused on the Insight of the "self."

"So that's how it is."

With a sighing exclamation, Fu Qian looked around the room, finally addressing the Old Lady's initial concern.

"Thank you for your concern. After Ms. Hilaria's treatment, I'm doing much better... It's as if I've unearthed a brand-new self."

"Ah... that doesn't sound very good."

As soon as he said that, the Old Lady's expression visibly stiffened for a moment, but the one who spoke up was the Battle-Scarred Bride, the very first person he had made eye contact with.

Lightly covering her mouth with a white satin glove, she wore an expression of picture-perfect surprise, yet her tone lacked a single shred of sympathy.

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