#that black mass is like a physical manifestation of what the Narrator's (Black's) aura looks like

[blackkatdraws2]

Whenever Stanley closes his eyes, he can feel the older man's aura surrounding him. [Blank Scripts AU]

[robbyrobinson]

OWL HOUSE X CTHULHU MYTHOS: GODS AWAKEN (Pt. X)

The gang looked at the odd man with the most utmost of confusion and bewilderment. This oddly beautiful man with a youthful appearance just waltzed his way into the Owl House without a care in the world, somehow hiding himself from Hooty’s detection and now he was offering his assistance.  

“How did you get here?” Luz asked him.  

“What you see before you is my soul,” Hypnos explained, “but I am not dead.”  

“So, if you are not dead, how did you leave your body?”  

Hypnos walked past Luz seemingly disinterested in her question. Hypnos directed his attention towards the couch and sat down on the far end of it. Lilith, having not moved a muscle for a duration of the time of his visit, inched herself as far away from the mystery man as she could. Hypnos smiled at Lilith’s frantic movements.

“Don’t worry, mortal, I have no intentions of harming you.”  

Lilith sighed deeply and held her hand against her chest. Her heart beat at a rapid pace as a result of his uninvited presence, but she was nevertheless relieved.  

“You say that you know a lot about this Nyarlathotep guy,” Eda reiterated, crossing her arms. “How do we know you are not working for him?”  

Eda clammed up when Hypnos stared at her with his dark, luminous eyes. “I do understand your hesitation with trusting me, really I do.” He stood erect from his side of the couch. “I had bigger aspirations once a long, long time ago, but when I passed a gate...it all fell apart.”  

Luz did not understand what he meant by “gate,” but it was the least bit of concern in her mind. “What do you know about Nyarlathotep?”  

Hypnos frowned without warning. He placed a finger on the opposite sides of his head. He shut his huge, black eyes tightly. A gust of wind entered into the Owl House and whirled around the young man. His crown of poppies glowed in a red aura and ruffled in the breeze. The petals swirled through the air before clumping together to form a visual representation. The flower display took on the likeness of the planets and stars. At the center of the solar system was a large, spiraling ball that vibrated.  

“A long time ago before the universe as you know it came into being, there was Ultimate Chaos. The Mad God, the Daemon Sultan, Azathoth.”  

Luz looked closely at the visual figures with fascination. Hypnos slid back slightly. Luz’s cheeks blushed a deep shade of red.

“Sorry, I just like hearing about backstories.”  

Hypnos nodded and continued his story. “From Azathoth, there came more ancient gods each making up aspects that maintain reality as we know it. The All-In-One Yog-Sothoth; The Black Goat of the Woods, Shub-Niggurath; the Crawling Chaos...”  

“Nyarlathotep?” Luz interjected.

Hypnos nodded. “Yes, mortal.”  

The petals shifted and wedged together to form a crawling mass of tentacles and eyes. On the ends of the tentacles were sharp rows of teeth gnashing at whatever was close enough to them. Before the watchful eyes of the group of misfits, the tentacles wrapped around different planets and crushed them with its tight grasp over them. Other tentacled and multi-eyed abominations slid out of the small openings of space-time and devoured worlds alongside the first creature.  

“That is who Nyarlathotep is,” Hypnos emphasized, “throughout the multiverse, Nyarlathotep and his horde have laid siege and soundly destroyed them to their last molecule where only dark matter lied in their wake.”  

Next, the portals once more transformed this time manifesting as a series of humanoid shapes fighting against the forces of Nyarlathotep and his acquaintances. There was a great war between the opposing sides, but with more greater casualties against Nyarlathotep’s forces. Many were cornered and forced away to the furthest parts of the known universe never to be seen again.

Only Nyarlathotep remained and fought against the chief of these humanoid beings, a large man with a gray, spindling beard. He rode in a seashell chariot that was pulled by bizarre flying entities. They had a smooth, silky complexion and slender bodies. Yet they were bereft of eyes or noses or any orifice that would have given them the semblance of a face. Not once did they ever make an utterance of a sound further alienating them from any other creature known to the universe. Their horns curved inward and their tails were like a barbed whip swatting away at invisible flies.

“Who is the old geezer?” King asked.  

“That old geezer,” Hypnos said in air quotes, “is Nodens.”  

“He looks pretty good for being an old man,” Eda noted.  

“Eda, this isn’t the time to ask if he’s single,” Lilith stated.  

Ignoring the discussion, Hypnos continued his narration. “The Lord of the Great Abyss, Nodens hunts evil creatures in the Dreamlands, something that has put him in eternal enmity with Nyarlathotep; this happened to be their first introduction to each other.”  

“This is all fine and all,” Luz said somewhat in rush, “but this isn’t helping us at all with how Nyarlathotep came to the Boiling Isles.”  

“To avoid Nodens and his accomplices, Nyarlathotep tore a hole in space-time and came to a world that was still in its archaic state and in need of development and leadership.”  

To illustrate this, Hypnos fashioned a hole with a few of the poppies and had the tentacled mass trickle through it. Where the Crawling Chaos found itself was a total void where virtually no evidence of scientific advancements or evolution was evident. Nyarlathotep was badly beaten from his encounter with the Lord of the Great Abyss and licked the wounds of his defeat. And yet despite this, he changed his course of action and took up shop in what would become the Boiling Isles. With his cosmological foreknowledge, the Crawling Chaos waited ever so patiently to communicate with the inhabitants of the Isles in a way that they would comprehend.

“When the earliest witches of the Isles arrived,” Hypnos said, “Nyarlathotep had already seeded a small fragment of his influence over the land; this is why you have the many bizarre anomalies that pillage through the Isles.”  

“So, because of this Nyarlathotep guy, he is the one to thank for our source of magic?” Eda asked.  

“Yes. Nyarlathotep drew from within himself the wild magic that the witches of the Isles would grow to depend on. They thought of it as charitable and revered him as their god.”  

The illustration of Nyarlathotep was depicted as pulling into his body and pulling out a small ball of light and handing it to a few of the inhabitants as a display of granting them his magic. This was long before the dreadful savage ages; before Emperor Belos; before the establishment of the coven system to limit the magic, the witches could perform. The figures gathered around Nyarlathotep offering up demonstrations of praise.  

Hypnos sighed deeply. “But as you may have imagined, Nyarlathotep wasn’t going to simply grant them magic without having something in return for his services.”  

Witches were aligned in long rows that led to flames. Hypnos did not have to further say anything as the looks of horror were fixed on the group’s faces. There was a sense of disgust bubbling from the deepest pits of the gang. The very idea that the magic they inherited from their ancestors came as the result of systematic sacrifice in macabre rituals uneased them. Only the Titan could possibly know what amount of pressure and pain they went through before their lives were ended far, far before their time.

“All of this senseless sacrificing came to a head when one resident – an unknown figure – appeared before Nyarlathotep at his temple and stripped him of most of the powers he granted the children of the Isles and he was imprisoned away for thousands of years. But he kept one small piece of himself to watch over the Boiling Isles at least until the time was right.”  

Luz found herself deep in her thoughts curious about who was the likeliest candidate that Nyarlathotep left to upkeep the Boiling Isles. Due to Nyaralthotep being the de-facto ruler of the Isles thousands of years ago, it obviously would have to have been someone who had some sort of authority and at the least was charismatic enough to have the witches waver to him. Someone like...

Luz’s eyes widened in shock. Of course, it made total sense; how could she have missed it before? Her fists shook in aggression.  

“Emperor Belos.”  

“You know him?” Hypnos asked. He said the question in a monotonous tone, still feeling as if he was distancing himself from the question for whatever reason.  

“You bet I know him,” Luz stated in confidence, “he almost petrified Eda.”  

“And I used to work for him,” Lilith added onto the conversation.  

King raised his hand. “Wait, are you suggesting that Belos is somehow related to Nyarlathotep?”  

“I am not suggesting it,” Hypnos said, “I know that he is.”  

King was stunned. “Then how-”  

“You remember my explanation of how this body you see before you is actually my soul?” Hypnos inquired.  

They nodded.  

“Your Belos is really the soul of Nyarlathotep who had escaped the imprisonment his physical body suffered.”  

“Wait, how does that work?” Eda asked.

“Every mortal creature, much like the gods themselves, were given a soul long before they were conceived. The soul makes up the core of what makes you you; anytime you feel a sense of wanting more out of your life, that is your soul that gives you these suggestions. Not only is the soul apart of you, but they also have their own feelings and aspirations. Sometimes if the soul were to be separate from the body for a long period of time, they have broken away and go on to have their own lives.”  

“Are there good souls?” Luz asked.

Hypnos chuckled. “Good and evil; some trivial labels that mankind gives to define something they don’t understand.” He turned away from Luz. “But I will tell you that many of those wondering souls do not bring harm to those that leave them be. They’d rather prefer to have lives of solitude than needless quarrels.”  

“Well, all of this has been entertaining,” Eda insisted, “but how do we stop Nyarlathotep?”  

“On the Earth, there is a book that Nyarlathotep desires.”  

“What is this book?” Luz asked.  

“It was a book that was written by the hero who initially trapped the Crawling Chaos; the book was copied a few times by their followers but seemingly disappeared from the Isles without a trace; a copy of the work was given to a raving madman who tried to perform dark rituals with the knowledge of the gods coursing through his veins. In that book was the incantation needed for Nyarlathotep to regain his powers. Once he returns to his full strength, that would spell the end.”  

So that was the reason Belos wanted to use the portal key to get access to the Earth Luz thought. While troublesome, Luz crossed her arms and grinned. “Well, we don’t have to worry about that; I destroyed the portal to the Earth.”  

Her smile dropped when she was met with Hypnos’ disapproving expression. “Aye, you did, but Belos is recreating the portal from the pieces that he could salvage.”  

Luz realized the error of her ways after allowing what Hypnos said to her to digest. “Then with that, he could take over the world!” She looked down on the ground with her eyes. “And I allowed him to.”  

“Cheer up my dear,” Hypnos said in reassuring fashion. “He doesn’t want to take over your world.”  

Luz sighed in relief. Whatever plans Belos had for Earth aside, at the least he was being truthful with his statement that the Titan – if it was alive – had no intentions of hegemony.  

“He doesn’t?”  

“No, he wants to destroy it.”  

Luz’s panicking shifted into high gear again. “How is that better!?”  

“Calm down, Luz,” Hypnos said, “this is why I am here after all; I will help you in your fight.”  

“Tell us please,” Luz begged, “my mother’s down there!”  

Hypnos scratched his eyebrow. “A few years back, I traversed the gates with a dear friend of mine, at least until I took a peep into the Ultimate Chaos.”  

“Is that what you did to get to the demon realm?” Eda asked.  

“Very observant of you, Owl Lady,” Hypnos said with a smile. “To do this...well..”  

He fidgeted with his fingers at a loss of what to say or how to express it. Luz and Eda were trying to patiently wait for the Lord of Dreams to get to his point. Belos could have sent his servants to Earth already to scale the cities for the book as far as they were concerned.  

“Spit it out,” Eda said, “you’re killing us.”  

“Well, how my friend and I traveled we had to take a few...mind-altering substances.”  

“You mean D-R-U-G-S?” Lilith interjected once more into the conversation.  

Hypnos nodded. “Yes; basically, for this to work, we have to...how do you say...”  

“So, we’re doing drugs?” Luz asked at last.  

“Pretty much.”