as written by Saarai and Calcos
The monument jutting up from the ground and it the sky was a mystery to everyone that came to research it. Try to explain what it was and where it came from. Nunez knew it was something you couldn't explain.
He was a tall Hispanic man, long hair just past his shoulders. His beard had shades of grey. Age was finally getting to the man. He looked up at the monolith, trying to see exactly where it was on the structure that his eyes stopped being able to see it.
"I need my things." He said, "Lisa! My things!" He shouted, a small Asian woman popping out from behind the van they drove in. She was carrying bags towards Nunez. A lot of big, heavy bags.
"Coming, sir!" Lisa said to the man, "God, Lisa, you're so slow. We could be missing out on what we need to make it to the big time!" Nunez told Lisa, "We already are in the big time, sir. We're with the Invictus." Lisa informed Nunez.
"Bigger! Lisa, hurry up. Jesus Christ. Anyways, bigger! Movies! A TV show! Bitches for days, Lisa!" Nunez explained, "I get it now, sir." Lisa said, dropping several of the bags down beside Nunez.
"Finally. Lisa, climb that." Nunez ordered, "Uh... what?" Lisa asked.
"I'm joking." Nunez admitted, Lisa sighing a sigh of relief.
"I forgot the climbing gear."
____
The presence that lurked within the monolith could feel the energies of the pair of lifeforms lingering outside of its vessel, both so lowly and insignificant. Humans, pitiful and so oblivious to the things that lurk beyond their scope of understanding, they had no true idea of terror, fancying themselves masters of all things and yet neglecting to come to terms with their own fragility.
They were nothing in the beginning of it all, and would remain nothing even after eternity's end.
Still, it felt a need, a yearning to bless these underlings with a semblance of benevolence, to quench their thirst for the answers they sought for the questions they didn't know to ask. The entity within would be the embodiment of ultimate mercy, a graceful gift to show them the knowledge that rested beyond the bounds of space and time. It would allow them to bask in the eternal wisdom of the cosmos, to see worlds so near to them yet so impossible to ever reach. Yes, it would give them mercy.
With a simple motion of its will, the being would conjure before them a radiant light, standing, formless, as tall as they were; it was an opening to what they came to understand, a portal into the monolith itself. The light would beckon them, tickling their minds with that oh-so-devilish curiosity that was the bane of all mortal things. It would call to them, a voice so serene yet harrowing, but irresistible. Yes, it would call them.
And then it would claim them.
____
Lisa nearly began to hyperventilate, "I feel strange, sir. I don't like this." She said to Nunez. The man himself stood silent despite the portal forming in front of them, "So, that's your game?" He asked, tone of voice becoming more serious. He dug into a pocket, slipping an old Incan bracelet.
"Put this on. It should help." He told Lisa, tossing her the bracelet. She slipped it on, most of the bad feeling leaving her. There was still that little bit left behind, but it was enough for Lisa to deal with.
When she looked up from the bracelet, Nunez was digging an amulet out of a bag. "Go get help, Lisa. Call the others." He ordered, "I'm going in and I might need saving. I might die, but we have to figure this out." He told her.
"This is going way beyond publicity, sir. Let's leave. Please?" Lisa pleaded, "It's too dangerous, Lisa. It showed me that." Nunez said, slipping on the amulet. It was meant to protect him.
From what? He didn't know.
Nunez wasted no time in heading into the portal, Lisa charging after him to join. Nunez turned at the last minute and raised his hand, a wave of energy thrusting Lisa back towards their van.
"You have orders, Apprentice. Follow them." Nunez said, stepping backwards into the portal.
____
It was the perfect lure.
Phasing out of what he knew to be reality, the human would find himself awakening inside the vessel that he had been standing before mere moments ago. Looking around, however, he would not find machinery or cold, metallic walls that were the custom of the various transportation methods of mortal-kind. On the contrary, the insignificant being would be overwhelmed by his surroundings; he would find himself standing on a sandstone platform, one of the hundreds that were within view, the rest stretching onward and upward and downward into eternity, all of them perfectly sculpted, ten foot by ten foot. Between himself and the next platform existed a chasm that was impossible to leap over. Above him would loom a sky that was decorated with the pale light of millions of half-dead stars, and a singular moon hanging in the air like the face of an all-watchful god. Curiously, the sky, so alight with stars, would look to be a blazing auburn, as if the sun were setting behind the horizon. Despite this, there was still an atmosphere of darkness residing over the locale.
To his right, the human would find an eternal expanse of the same platforms, their reach extending beyond the bounds of his eyesight, disappearing out of view into the bleak world beyond, fading into the gloom like phantoms in the mist. To his left, he would find much of the same, except near the "center" of the immediate area, he would see an immense, transparent monument that reflected the light of the stars above off of its frame. The object resembled an hourglass, its appearance like that of two water droplets separating from each other. Inside of it was contained a rather disturbingly pallid green liquid, flowing upwards and downwards from the center, each stream parting as it collided with the base of the glass bulbs, and flowing back toward the center from the sides of the glass, perpetuating a cycle of flow, almost like a fountain.
Nothing about this place would make sense.
____
Nunez was in awe, but it slowly settled down to a level of mild panic after he took a look around. Everything was beautiful in it's own eldritch way. It was different, it was meant to play on human curiosity. Nunez knew he played right into it's plan. Whatever that plan was.
Maybe he made a dumb choice walking through that portal instead of finding others to get rid of the monolith. Something nefarious was going on and he wasn't sure he could stop it on his own. He wasn't sure if his dumb choice was his own choice.
"Show yourself."
____
The entity that acted as the master of the vessel lurked, unseen, from within the great beyond that was the interior of the ship itself. It was very much nearby, its sights on the perplexed human that stood, rather courageously, on the ground beneath its feet. The longer he remained inside the vessel, the more he endangered himself to being susceptible to what would come next.
He would feel an itch of the mind, at first only a prodding annoyance. The sensation would intensify, gradually, as the entity probed his mind further. It found a name: Nunez. But it would find more than that, an identity. A personality, and memories, some that were suitable for sharing, others that were better kept in secrecy. It saw, on several occasions, Nunez tasting the skin of live frogs...
Then, it would project a voice, soothing and disruptive all at once; a whisper in the man's mind that spoke louder than any voice he'd ever heard, invading his thoughts as a mortician invades a cadaver. It would speak without uttering aloud, planting words into Nunez's brain so that he could understand.
The human would call it telepathy.
"You've done well to come here, Nunez. Hmmm. Nunez. You humans and your monikers, strange. You are all peculiar, just as you are insignificant. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You came here to learn, did you not?" The entity let its words settle on Nunez's mind, a cloak of profound confusion that lifted the fog from Nunez's conscience, only to blanket it once more. "I can grant you knowledge. Eternal wisdom. I can show you everything, let you see beyond the realms of your eyes. It would truly be the greatest discovery in your entire, meaningless, life."
It waited, once again letting the words settle, to sink in so that full understanding could be achieved. Speaking directly to the human's mind was quite possibly painful and maddening. He needed a reprieve every so often, lest his thoughts suffocate his mind and he lose himself in the turmoil.
"Would you let me give you that knowledge, Nunez?"
____
Nunez smirked, folding his arms over his chest. "You know I'm a man who seeks knowledge, who tries to learn. I'm also a man who knows when something's up." He said, "And, by the way, my life isn't meaningless. Ask my abuela back in Sinaloa."
"She thinks I have a pretty cool life." He joked, but he couldn't keep it up for long. His curiosity was getting the better of him. This thing, this whatever, could be powerful. It could know something that Nunez needed to know.
"Show me."
____
The entity within found itself feeling a peculiar way about Nunez. If it had to choose a human emotion to compare its present state, it would have to "amused." Indeed, Nunez was an amusing cluster of sapient flesh, ripe for exploiting. It felt no need to conceal itself from him any further, choosing to subject the pitiful creature, file him into the ranks, as it were; to make him one of the rest of the servants.
From beneath the platform on which Nunez stood, it emerged, slowly ascending through the empty space ahead of the human creature, revealing itself as it rose upward. When it appeared in full view, it appeared as a gargantuan monster, its very presence incomprehensible and in violation of everything the man knew of the natural world. In appearance, it seemed to have a body partially made of metal, and partially an unnatural-looking skin tissue that seemed to be stretched thin, its color a horrific grayish-blue. Its face was sculpted like some sort of eldritch helm, with a portion of the face missing, as if it had eroded away, its single, staring and star-bright eye as magnificent and calamitous as the birth of the universe itself. Its appendages, if they could be called such, appeared more as unsightly growths, appearing as misshapen tree limbs of fleshy material, the assumed fingers and toes bearing a tendril-like appearance. Finally, it wore, strangely enough, a loincloth made of a fabric that was of both unknown material and color, the mere sight of it just as maddening as that which it was adorned on.
As Nunez would gaze up at this abomination, he would hear in his mind a singular word, repeated over and over like the ticking away of seconds on a clock, each reverberating utterance of it compelling, beckoning him ever further into madness, the word -a name- existing in a tongue that was far older than the world he knew, and far more complex than any he'd ever heard. The name drilled itself into his mind until it would become his only thought:
Ithnzxu.
"I am your God, now," it said wordlessly.
____
The creature before Nunez was a sight to behold. It held a visage that most mortal men would find would change their very outlook on the world for the worse. It was hard for Nunez to understand what exactly he was seeing other than a real abomination.
A mind retching madness likely overcame the Hispanic brujo as he stood before Ithnzxu.
A madness that Javier could only articulate as a single word. A word that any other person in the universe would be too frozen in fear or confusion to utter.
"Huh."
