Mythos Of Narcissus: Reborn As An NPC In A Horror VRMMO

Kuzunoha laughed. A soft, amused sound that echoed through our telepathic link, carrying with it a certain self-indulgent theatricality that I had long since grown accustomed to.

"Oh, my love," she purred, voice honeyed with mischief. "You always ask the most delightful questions. Do you truly wish to hear of the Unloving Sea? To know the tale of that which should never have been?"

I leaned back into my seat, balancing my cup of tea between my fingers. Naosi could already tell that I was having a serious conversation within a private telepathic channel, but I was actually too lazy to multitask my brain and have two conversations happening at the same time. "Considering that its so-called native specimen has started appearing near my bastion, I'd say I have every right to demand an answer."

A hum of approval. "Fair enough~"

"Since aunt Kuzunoha is acting haughty and theatrical all of a sudden, I guess this subject is something that should not be openly discussed by average listener," Charis chimed in, sounding excited.

Also, since when did she call my assistant as aunt? We didn't even marry yet.

I could already picture the way Kuzunoha would look if she were here in person—half-lidded crimson eyes, fingers tracing lazy circles in the air as she reveled in the act of storytelling.

I could just have my perceptive extension go there and see it in person but I'm in my lazy mode.

Because I have a cup of tea on my hand.

"Then listen well, my dear Narcissus," she said, her voice dipping into a cadence not unlike a wandering bard about to weave a fabled legend.

And so, she began.

The Tale of Ru'ah, The Battered Forsaken One.

Quite the long title.

"There was once a man named Ru'ah," Kuzunoha intoned, her voice wrapping around the name with deliberate reverence. "A man whose love was so great, so all-encompassing, that when it was cast aside, it unmade him."

"A tragic love story?" I mused, taking a slow sip of my tea.

"A story of despair," Kuzunoha corrected.

"Ohhh!" Charis exclaimed.

And just as the story was about to truly start, someone tuned in to the telepathic channel.

"Looks like you folks are having fun without me. What's up?" Verina barged.

"Hush, it's starting!" Charis directed.

"Ru'ah was once beloved by a celestial being—a goddess of radiant light, a divine singer of creation. She adorned him with blessings, whispered to him the songs that wove the very fabric of Carcosa, and for a time, he was the only mortal to have ever touched the fabric of the heavens~

"But love," Kuzunoha sighed, "Is a fickle thing."

I could hear the smirk in her voice.

"As all things divine, she was bound by the laws of her existence. And in time, she grew weary of her mortal lover. A celestial being cannot bind itself to the fleeting breath of a man—not when eternity demands detachment. And so, she cast him aside.

"Ru'ah, now abandoned, fell into ruin."

Well, that was quick.

"He wandered to the far edges of Carcosa, to the lands where the sky grew thin and the ground sang with whispers of old things. There, he wept.

"For years, he screamed at the heavens that had forsaken him.

"For years, he wept until his eyes bled, until the colors drained from his sight, until his very name was lost in the howling winds of nothingness.

"And then—

"Something heard him.

"Something that he should not have listened to.

"Something that should not have been answered."

I sensed something ominous once again from her voice. I guess it was the same case as when she was trying to talk about the All-Dreaming Beast.

"A certain cosmic entity took notice," Kuzunoha murmured, the shift in her tone sending a cold ripple down my spine. "A thing that did not belong, a thing that saw an opportunity in his sorrow.

"It came to him not in words, but in feeling—a presence coiling into his bones, whispering without sound, offering without voice.

"It promised salvation for his wretched soul.

"Ru'ah, mad with grief, accepted. Enjoy exclusive content from My Virtual Library Empire

"And so, the deal was struck~

"The moment his soul was bound to the entity's will, he was pierced by the stars—seven times, through flesh, through bone, through his very being."

"The stars themselves struck him?" I echoed, raising a brow.

"A poetic way to describe the process, yes," Kuzunoha mused. "What truly occurred cannot be properly understood, not in any way that mortal minds could comprehend. He was not merely transformed, Narcissus."

"Ohhh!" Charis' adorable exclamation could be heard in adoration.

"His fate sounds shitty," Verina commented.

"True." Lupina said as she nodded in agreement.

I could know it even without seeing it, since she had been flexing her neck movement ever since she got transferred to the Theotech Vessel.

Also yeah, she might know nothing about ohrtending or any psychic activity, but her innate physicality as a Theotech Vessel allowed her to just intercept any kind of psychic phenomenon and interact with them safely with ease.

"You're not invited, Lupina, why are you here?" Verina teased.

"You're not invited, aunt Verina, why are you here?" Charis teased with even more smugness.

Regardless, everyone still chimed in to the tale.

"He was forged." Kuzunoha continued after the bickering ended. "Remade into an ineffable construct of grief and divine hatred. And when he returned to Carcosa—he laid waste to it.

"For five years and twenty days, Ru'ah rampaged," Kuzunoha continued, her voice rich with grim amusement. "He was not human, not beast, not god, but something worse—a thing of suffering, a construct of destruction, leaving ruin in his wake.

"Cities fell. Lands crumbled. And the sea—oh, the sea screamed beneath his presence~!"

I could see that Kuzunoha was trying her best to dumb down her storytelling, now that she had more people of different brain processing power tuning to her tale.

She was always the kind and attentive one, despite her haughty demeanor.

"And then came the Tinkerer~"

I exhaled through my nose, leaning forward slightly. "That name again."

"Ah, yes," Kuzunoha crooned. "The ever-mysterious, ever-intriguing Tinkerer. A woman whose hands have shaped history itself, yet whose true nature remains as elusive as the shifting sands of Carcosa."

"The Tinkerer is mentioned many times within a book related to Carcosa's history," Verina pointed out her experience reading the content of Kuzunoha's library.

"She was the one who struck Ru'ah down—or at least, what remained of him. And yet," she continued, "Even in death, Ru'ah's existence continued to defile the land.

His rotting carcass seeped corruption into Carcosa's bones. The landscape twisted. The waters darkened. The very air shuddered with echoes of his sorrow. Something had to be done~

"And so, in their desperation, the people turned to one of the divine," Kuzunoha whispered. "To Eivjhayah, the Keeper of Pacts, the Goddess of Judgement and Flow at the time of the incident.

The people begged her to restore the balance that had been shattered. And Eivjhayah, ever just, ever absolute, listened. She accepted the offering.

"44,400 lives. That was the price. And with their deaths, she punctured a single point of time and space at the very edge of Carcosa.

"She expanded it, wove it into an everlasting tunnel, stretched it far and wide until it became something unfathomable—a void that could consume all that was tainted.

"Everything touched by Ru'ah—his carcass, his influence, the corrupted waters that carried his grief—was cast into that void. The sea itself was torn from Carcosa's surface, swallowed whole by the expanding abyss.

"And when it was done—when the last of Ru'ah's corruption had been banished beyond the veil of existence—the wound left behind became what we now call—

"The Unloving Sea.

"A realm of endless vastness, where the unseen lurks beneath unknowable depths. A place where that which was forsaken still lingers, waiting, watching, hunting." Kuzunoha exhaled dramatically. "And that, my dear Narcissus, is the tale of the Unloving Sea."

I swirled my tea absently, watching the dark liquid ripple within the cup, my mind turning over the story Kuzunoha had just woven for me.

Ru'ah. The carcass of his sorrow. The endless abyss torn into Carcosa's edge, swallowing all that had been corrupted, giving birth to something far worse.

The Unloving Sea.

A place that should not exist, yet lingers—a wound carved into the very fabric of reality, never healing, never closing.

And now, something from that forsaken place had begun to crawl into my domain.

My fingers tapped lightly against the porcelain, my thoughts sharpening as I asked,

"And the Pallid Mermaids?"

"The Unloving Sea, as forsaken as it is, remains connected to Carcosa. But make no mistake—it is so, so far from its core, from the very heart of this world's influence.

"After all, Carcosa, for all its instability, is still an empire of dominion. Its influence radiates outward, saturating its lands, its skies, its very air with a presence that dictates reality itself. Here, in the heart of its existence, the world has already made its decisions—what is, what isn't, what can be and what never will.

"But the Unloving Sea," she continued, voice dipping lower, "Is different."

"It is far, far beyond the core, beyond the tight grip of Carcosa's laws, far enough that its existence is little more than a whisper in the grand scheme of things."

I could see it in my mind now—a distant abyss, still tethered, yet adrift. A wound that had never fully healed, a severed limb still dangling by unseen threads.

Kuzunoha went on, her voice laced with quiet amusement.

I could also hear the trio listeners conversing about the tale being told.

"And what do you think happens, dear Narcissus, when a place is too far from its master's reach?"

Obviously. "It becomes vulnerable."

"Precisely."

The Unloving Sea was not a place untouched by Carcosa—it was a place where Carcosa's touch was weak.

A land claimed but not protected. A kingdom still bearing its ruler's name, but left without its ruler's presence.

"A neglected dominion," Kuzunoha mused, as if savoring the weight of the words. "One where foreign things can creep in. Where the shadows between realities can fester. Where the tendrils of something else—something outside of Carcosa's grasp—can take root and spread like a sickness."

"The perfect breeding ground for Foreigners," Verina murmured.

A sharp hum of approval from everyone could be heard.

"Indeed. A paradise for those that do not belong."