Chapter 294. Incoming Ship
The Deep Dweller's chants vibrated through the water, and a faint red glow started to emanate from the giant golden statue of God Fhtagn.
A glint of golden light reflected on the amber, round, flat eyes of the octopus-headed figure preceding the ceremony.
He raised his golden staff shrouded in a bloody mist and let out a deep, murmuring voice that soon intertwined with song. His overlapping sound added a hint of eeriness to the unsettling atmosphere.
The blood-tinted seawater started to converge upon the statues, and the red glow from Fhtagn's statue intensified to nearly overshadow its golden sheen.
The statue seemed to show traces of melting, but it only happened for a split second before it returned to its original state as soon as their holy hymn concluded.
Disappointment flickered across the octopus-headed figure. With a wave of his hand, he summoned a black bubble that enveloped him and then vanished from the sight of the Deep Dwellers.
Gradually, consciousness returned to the Deep Dwellers. And they slowly dispersed in small groups.
As Dipp was a newcomer in the community, he hadn't joined any social circles yet. He floated alone in the waters like an outsider in this strange underwater city.
"Elder seemed displeased today. He didn't even conclude the prayer," Dipp muttered to himself as he stared at the spot where the octopus-head figure had been just moments before.
Soon enough, the area emptied. Kicking his webbed feet, Dipp made his way back home.
Exiting the prayer structure, Dipp spotted six of his fellow tribesmen binding an orca with seaweed. They then slit open its skin to insert a sea urchin that was emitting a black mist.
The orca convulsed and writhed in pain as it constantly let out wails of extreme agony.
However, its pained cries had the Deep Dwellers' faces lit up in excitement. It was as though the suffering of another brought them pleasure.
And that was not the end of the orca's sad fate. Standing in front of its head, they brandished sharpened shells, ready to flay the whale.
Suddenly, they halted their movements. They had noticed Dipp and immediately beckoned him to join them. Looking at their lifeless, gray eyes, Dipp shook his head and left the scene.
The torturers were unfazed by Dipp's reluctance and continued on with their torture of the orca. They knew the pattern all too well. New tribesmen from above the water always started out shy.
But in time, after decades, centuries, or even millennia, after they had exhausted every other pleasure, they would eventually join in.
As Dipp silently swam toward his home, he passed by his fellow tribesmen who were engaging in their own peculiar ways of satisfying their own pleasure. From their actions, he could deduce their age.
Those indulging in simple pleasures like sex and games were the younger ones, who had only arrived for less than a century. In stark contrast, the middle-aged, who had lived for hundreds of years, took pleasure in tormenting others or even inflicting pain on themselves. The older they were, the increasingly cruel and unusual their methods became.
As for the elders aged more than a thousand years, they usually close themselves off in their chambers. Dipp neither knew nor wished to know what they were doing within their own secluded spaces.
Just as he swam past a pair of Deep Dwellers entwined in passionate sex, a female Deep Dweller appeared before him.
His face twisted in a mix of fear and recognition; it was his mother.
She extended her dark green, sharp claws toward Dipp, and the latter shook his head in dread and rapidly backed away.
All of a sudden, a cold body pressed against him from the back. Dipp turned around and saw that it was his maternal grandmother.
Then, a chilly body touched his feet. He looked down and saw his mother's other child, his step-sister. The three females collectively moved in to embrace him and rubbed their icy bodies against him.
"AHHHHHH!" Dipp screamed in a burst of panic and desperation. He frantically wrestled out of their encirclement and fled in a frenzy.
Left behind, the trio exchanged gazes before they swam toward a group of seven to eight Deep Dwellers intertwined in hardcore debauchery.
Meanwhile, Dipp had returned home and was cowered in a corner of his room. Terror painted his face, and he started trembling in fear.
Growing up as an orphan, he had always yearned for a family. When he was begging for a living as a young child, he would even draw pictures of his imagined family members and lie down next to them to pretend that they were real and were with him.
Even when he was starving, he would imagine his mother's gentleness, his father's strength, and his grandmother's kindness. He would also imagine just how happy he was to be with them.
When he had first arrived at Iharis Deep, those were the emotions he had harbored as he embraced his mother for the first time. However, what happened next was a cruel shock to him.
The family he wanted was not this, definitely not.
Extreme disgust overwhelmed Dipp. However, the more frightening thought was that in the darkest corners of his soul, he could feel a hint of desire to compromise.
"Hey...say. If we continue staying here, will we slowly become like them?" A voice echoed in Dipp's head. All three personalities kept quiet at the thought-provoking question.
After all, they could roughly guess the answer.
After a few moments, another voice spoke in Dipp's head, "I don't know about you guys, but I miss Captain. I want to go back on land."
Dipp then swam to the eastern side of his house. He picked up a mirror he had salvaged from a sunken ship.
The reflection staring back at him was a stark reminder of his monstrous appearance: bulging eyes to the point where his eyelids could no longer close, ghastly gray-green skin, sharp teeth like needles, and dark red fins sticking out of his head.
"Stop thinking about it. We can't go back. We're monsters now; we're no longer humans."
Suddenly, his hand with sharp fingernails moved on its own and tore at the green scales on his face in an attempt to rip away the monstrous layer on him.
Sadly, there was no smooth human skin beneath the scales, only a muddled mess of flesh and muscle.
A voice broke out into sobs and wailed, "I want to return to the Narwhale! I want to go on explorations with the Captain and the others again! I'm the boatswain of the Narwhale!"
Another personality and Dipp swiftly intervened to stop the third personality from his self-harming act.
Just as Dipp was trying to calm the distressed personality, a special tremor came from the door entwined with barnacles and seaweed.
Someone was blowing a warning conch, and it signaled the presence of a ship above.
Dipp set the mirror aside and pushed against the door, exiting the house. He looked up to see several small ships slowly passing overhead.
He remained still as he watched his other tribesmen, with spears in hand, surrounding the boats.
To them, humans were not just sacrificial offerings for their rituals but also subjects of torment.
Just then, something jumped from the boat above. Judging from the silhouette, it appeared to be a human.
Strangely, the Deep Dwellers didn't attack the humans. Instead, they led the humans toward the underwater city.
Dipp's curiosity was piqued, and so were the others. They quickly tailed after the group.
Soon, Dipp could get finer details. Those who had descended from the boat were clad in black robes. Like a troupe of spectral figures, they moved through the water in an orderly manner.
He also instantly recognized the distinctive style of their robes as he had seen those outfits before—they were members of the Fhtagn Covenant.
The undulating sea waves allowed Dipp to get a glance at the terrifying faces hidden beneath their hoods. Instead of mouths with teeth, they had octopus tentacles with suckers, yet their appearance was distinct from the octopus-headed elder hosting the prayer ritual.
Their appendages were finer and more numerous, resembling whiskers.
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