Empire's Decline

Chaos and deathly silence entwined around R'lyeh City, the colossal deep-sea metropolis. A huge octopus head flickered between illusion and reality, its crimson eyes like a demon's release. One glance was enough to draw people in and turn them into its followers.

Its enormous body blotted out the sky, as tall as layered mountain ranges, bringing a devastating darkness that made all living things tremble.

Its lower body crudely bore traits of bats and humans. Its entire body was green, its soft head covered in countless tentacles. Its body was bloated and scaled, its forelimbs had limp claw-like appendages, and a pair of tattered, seemingly underdeveloped wings hung from its back.

Whether viewed from afar or up close, it vaguely brought an overwhelming, dizzying sense of impact.

"You came..."

Such a simple sentence brought eternal silence to the surrounding area.

"Yes, I came."

Lu Changsheng faced Cthulhu's power without the slightest fear. The holy might unique to a Saint radiated from him, colliding with and canceling out Cthulhu's inherent Chaos Buff.

"True Lord of Future Expectations?" Cthulhu guessed Lu Changsheng's identity in the group.

After all, in the group, Lu Changsheng seemed to be the only one who displayed such confidence in the face of Cthulhu's power.

"It's me, Octopus Head. Or perhaps I should call you Cthulhu," Lu Changsheng said calmly.

"You are not simple." Cthulhu's words seemed to come through thought. "Break my seal, and your mission will be complete."

"No rush. Once you are free of restraint, the natives of this planet will die completely. Wait a little." Lu Changsheng sat cross-legged in the void. "Why not tell me your story?"

Rather than calculating with his fingers and deducing all things, he might as well hear it from the person involved.

"Fine..." Cthulhu agreed.

It bore no ill will toward this planet's natives. Its power was simply too great. In its eyes, humans were like ants, and they had been twisted into mindless monsters in an instant.

In truth, Cthulhu considered itself quite easy to talk to.

It was rather interested in Lu Changsheng, this seemingly tiny group member who could retain his sanity before a Great Old One like it.

Its tentacles wriggled like whiskers, expressing its interest.

On a continent covered in ruins, Iron Man killed a swath of mutated creatures with a single palm blast.

Daigo transformed into Tiga and brought down a punch, killing countless mutated creatures as well.

Lu Changsheng guided them from behind. With two lackeys doing the fighting, why would he need to act personally?

"There are so many monsters here." Iron Man spoke as he used the Crimson Phoenix Battle Armor with far fewer restrictions this time, gaining a rough understanding of its power.

Compared to every suit he had ever owned, this one was absolutely perfect in both performance and every other aspect.

Tiga's body dissolved into light. Daigo looked around and said, "They were once living beings of this planet."

"But they aren't anymore." Iron Man showed no mercy.

The group chatted as they hurried toward the last remaining human base.

Who knew how long passed before Iron Man and Daigo felt numb from all the killing.

Lu Changsheng looked around. "We're here."

The moment he spoke, a group of ragged people who looked like refugees rushed out from all directions. They wore exoskeleton armor and held firearms as they surrounded the three of them.

"Who are you?" Big Beard, the leader, asked.

"Unknown nobodies who came to help," Lu Changsheng said.

"Unknown nobodies?" They clearly did not believe him. One of them threw out a holographic display, which projected the scene of Iron Man blasting apart a huge crowd of monsters with one shot.

"What exactly do you want?"

"To help," Iron Man said. "The reason you became like this is because of a monster, right? And now, that monster is about to be unsealed. The waves will drown every continent. We came to help you."

On the way, Lu Changsheng had told Iron Man and Daigo that his other body had already reached the place where Octopus Head was sealed. Once things were settled here, he would lift Cthulhu's seal.

"Who would believe that? In the apocalypse, no one can be trusted, much less three people of unknown origin."

"But we really came to help. Please believe us," Daigo said.

Lu Changsheng said nothing and merely looked at Stark. Iron Man froze for a second or two before immediately understanding.

He raised his hand and unleashed an incomparably scorching beam of flame.

In an instant, it pierced through the ruined skyscrapers and mountain ranges. A deep scar like a burning hell appeared, stretching for thousands of miles.

Everyone present stared in stunned disbelief.

"Do you see now? We mean you no harm. Otherwise, you wouldn't survive three seconds." Iron Man said. "We only came to help."

For a long while, no one on the other side spoke.

Until an elderly man stepped forward.

"Hello. I am the leader of the survivors in this base." White Beard Old Man coughed lightly.

"Hello, sir." Daigo greeted him.

"Come with me. We'll talk inside the base." The old man glanced at the three of them and spoke slowly.

"Premier, how can we do that? Their identities are unknown, and the armor that man uses has never appeared in the Imperial Army before. This is too dangerous," Big Beard said.

"Enough. If that were the case, we would all be dead already. Why would they need to go through this trouble? With the armed forces we have now, we cannot stop them at all." The Premier coughed a few times.

Big Beard fell silent.

The hidden base opened, and a protective barrier withdrew from before them.

"Come in. We'll talk inside. It's dangerous out here," the Premier said, turning back.

The three followed him inside.

Daigo curiously examined everything around him. He moved closer and asked, "Sir, what happened here?"

The Premier glanced at him, seeming surprised that Daigo knew nothing about how the Empire had fallen, the Evil God had revived, and global civilization was on the brink of collapse.

Daigo scratched his head awkwardly, realizing that he had asked a question he should not have asked.

The Premier coughed lightly, but still explained.

"That day was supposed to be Empire Founding Day. It awakened from the deep sea, and the dormant ancient ruins of R'lyeh City emerged. The ocean surface exploded, heaven and earth lost their color, and a shadow that blotted out the sky enveloped the land."

"The entire world was shaken by that terrifying mythical existence."

"Fighter jets, aircraft carriers, Ultimate Weapons... we used them all, yet none of them could harm that terrifying Evil God in the slightest."

"And we only needed to look at it once or hear a single sentence it spoke. At best, our minds would fall into chaos and we would become puppets of slaughter and disorder. At worst, we would lose our sanity completely and turn into monsters like walking corpses."

"The powerful Empire had no ability to resist the supernatural. The Empire lost. Humanity lost. The planet became the domain of the Evil God's lackeys, while the remaining humans could only cower inside the base, living in constant fear."