Eldritch Steampunk

I fancy to call myself a unique woman, as even though my life had come to sudden and tragic end by the hands of an unexpected accident, I found myself looking forward to exploring the answer that so many have speculated on.

What comes after death?

A so old and unsolvable question for the living that plenty of theories and entire religions have been built upon it.

And now I have the pleasure of finding that answer.

Sparing my heavily damaged body only a passing glance before eagerly gazing across the world which I knew quite well and yet looked so different now after I have cast off my living shell.

Plenty of previously unnoticeable colors now laid bare before my senses and I could pry so much deeper into the people and objects around that it felt like I was in an entirely different world altogether.

But as I looked around, I came to notice that there is an obvious lack of other beings in the same situation as I am currently.

My current appearance as it seems after a short inspection, is that of a uniquely shaped and colored whisp of light, and as I fail to notice anything similar to me in appearance I can scratch the theory that the dead wander amongst the living.

This in turn brings up the question as to where they might have gone then.

The obvious answer was of course up, and so I looked up.

Dear me, what my senses relied to me was both stunningly beautiful and hauntingly horrifying.

A sea of myriad uniquely shaped and colored whisps cover the sky above, all following a common path as they trail into the distance in a mesmerizing picture that seems to represent the uniqueness of each living being and at the same time the equality of everything.

Sadly, that equality of a common path lead directly into the void of an absolutely titanic maw surrounded by thousands of irregularly long fangs of ivory color, belonging to a creature of such size that it takes up the entirety of the sky.

Its many limbs that take the form of all possible creatures and a multitude of smaller, closed mouths filled with plenty of teeth, paint the perfect representation of the definition "Eldritch", which humankind had developed to this date.

It only lacked the eyes, but a short moment later I realized that they were merely currently closed and numbered in a more than acceptable range for a creature of such a design.

As my eyes fixed upon the void-colored creature whose outlines are marked by a dark purple glow all seems to become clear to me.

Many philosophical and even scientifical questions answered by the mere glance at this being above.

We and everything on this planet were created by the eldritch entity in the sky, currently munching down on millions of soul's from all across the world like it had done since the dawn of life which it had personally brought.

All in order to create a continuous source of nourishment for this god like being that could whisk life into existence in mere seconds.

For it is but a babe, no, an unborn fetus to the likes of its own kin.

This THING, that elapses the understanding of all that is alive is not even properly born yet and already represents an unreachable height to the entirety of humanity.

All we know, all we have learned and achieved is not even a speck in comparison to even the weakest and still incomplete member of those entities.

Right there and then I did something that I like to think myself superior in than most fellow members of my race.

I detached the current trail of thought, placed it aside and started a new one from another perspective.

The perspective of a freshly deceased person in quite the concerning situation of slowly ascending into the gaping maw of an eldritch being of immense size.

While I had been dazed with the realization of how small and weak I and all of humanity was compared to the thing above, I have slowly but surely been pulled skywards by an invisible force, to follow the many other souls on their inventible path down that things throat.

Frowning at this, the idea of desperately struggling against this force pulling me skywards surfaced in my mind, but after a short calculation that revealed the fact that I had a good hour and a half until the end of my journey I decided to put it aside for now and instead gather some more information.

And so I did.

Not long after I started surveying the sea of fellow souls I zoomed my interest upon one that seems to be quite similar to myself in the fact that it had escaped the capturing daze that seemed to overcome all that first laid eyes upon the eldritch titan in the sky, but different than myself, this fellow took hold of the idea which I had put aside and desperately struggled against the invisible pull that dragged him to his doom.

Observing this particular soul with great interest for a few minutes I was rewarded with a sight similar to a lightning strike originating from the center of the void that made up the inside of the maw in the sky.

The instant the light had hit the poor soul, all color and shapes that made it look so unique washed away and left only a dull, perfectly spherical thing behind.

With the loss of all that made it look unique, the soul also stopped its struggle and silently continued on its path.

Intrigued by this development I put in the effort of finding two more strugglers in the sea of souls and witnessed the same situation repeating itself.

This solidifies my decision and I permanently scratch the idea of resisting the pull with force.

Instead I start to speculate upon the reason for such an action towards straggler.

It certainly wasn't a conscious thing it did, for the thing, as revealed by the short episode of "enlightenment" upon first looking at it, it was revealed to me that the thing was but a forming fetus.

So that means that the action of eliminating all stragglers is an instinctive one instead.

Why?

The lightning like bolt had seemingly gotten rid of the soul's ego but didn't destroy it.

Why?

Because souls are nourishment to it and in this early stage of development it requires all it can get.

Meaning?

An ego that managed to escape the initial daze that is used to catch the masses and weak-minded is dangerous or harmful to the developing creature.

So natural there is a mechanism to get rid of all harmful stuff in the food that it consumes.

But this brings up a worry, I might be prideful and look at myself in high regard, but it is not to the point of believing that none before me had the wits to remain still instead of visible struggling.

And as the thing is still very much there and healthy, it means that there are more measures of keeping harmful substances from entering its digestive system.

Something that will affect everything and fillers out the more cunning and stealth danger.

My senses narrow at this realization.

If I want to make it to the end without losing my ego I will need to come up with a counter measure for such a case.

Of course it is very possible that I am completely wrong and the eldritch entity merely prefers mindless souls for dinner and all my efforts will be wasted, but that matters little right now as my situation is quite dire and I'm eager to try out my theory.

So I took my time to think of some ideas while looking over the sea of souls and occasionally at the ever approaching end destination.

A good quarter hour later I had something that could work and slowly start to move.

I hesitantly and slowly change my trajectory to bring myself next to the closest fellow soul, making sure that in the process of doing so I never go against the pull that could alert or trigger the ego wipe scenario.

Once directly next to a bluish soul with wide proportion and rather flat I try and grab it.

Quite the difficult task in my current form, but I still had a bit less than half an hour until I'll exit the atmosphere from where it would be another 30 minutes until entrance into the void of the maw.

Working with purpose I managed to make good progress and finished five minutes before exiting earth's atmosphere.

With strained grip I hold the fellow soul tightly wrapped around me.

As it has proven itself, souls are very elastic and any changes to their form is temporary as they snap back into their original shape once the affecting force is canceled.

That makes it quite bothersome to keep myself completely covered by this other soul, but still manageable.

Just in case and as an extra assurance I pick up the suspended train of thought from initially looking upon the entity in hopes that it will help me staying hidden and under the radar.

Like that I and the fellow soul wrapped around me leave the last layer of our home behind us.

And were immediately greeted by a rippling wave that passes across all the souls between the atmosphere and the maw.

I could feel it wash over me and my fellow soul, the edge of our forms shudder and in the sea of souls around me I spy some very interesting happenings.

One of the souls hit by the ripple starts to twitch and twist, its edge darkening and changing as slowly its form altered entirely, turning into a mini version of the eldritch being that caused this transformation.

Very interesting indeed.

From the looks of it the souls that had escaped the entity's influence and kept their egos by not getting hit by the lightning like bolt, were evaluated to be useful enough to turn into subordinates instead of food.

Squinting in the direction of the titanic thing I barley manage to make out the dense cluster of smaller creatures along its massive form.

Quite ingenious if you ask me.

Like this a rather impressive army will have been created once the eldritch thing is officially born and no time had to be wasted for it to start upon a conquest to secure future nourishment to grow even more.

But.

A wide grin twisted my lips.

It seems that this method had its own flaws.

The ripple subside and the only thing I had to complain about is a quite ravening in the back of my head and slightly darkened edges of my form.

Not bad at all when compared to the others that have been turned into complete abominations with a single hit of this ripple.

Sadly, I will have to take a risk and search for another soul to use as shield after a mere second ripple such as the first, as even though I have gotten away quite lightly, my fellow soul's form had turned a good third black and its edges started to turn into some disturbing shapes.

Soon the second ripple passed over me and the voices of madness that screamed in the back of my mind grew a bit louder while my companion who took the brunt of two madness inducing waves had mostly turned into one of the abominations designed to serve the eldritch being.

So I had to abandon it and quickly made my way towards the nearest soul to replace the first.

Luckily the ripples come in steady intervals that left me enough time to once again wrap myself into a protective blanket of a fellow soul,

A total of four ripples had passed over me before I reached the end of my path.

By now the maddening voices in the back of my head are having a hazardous party that wrecked half my mind, but I had resorted once again to the thing I think myself superior in than most and shoved the maddening voices to the side before continuing with another train of thought.

Looking around the pitch-black void only lightened up by the congregating mass of souls I couldn't help but feel excited.

After a short while I finally saw it.

A big, pure white, sphere.

Orbiting around it are all the souls sucked up from the planet and slowly dissolving into mist that flows into the sphere.

Using souls to nurture a soul, a concept I am familiar with thanks to plentiful imagination of humanities entertainment industry.

As I drew closer, I notice something strange.

It was silent.

No.

Empty.

It was as if I had entered a wide empty hall and spoke out loud.

Narrowing my eyes I notice that the outer parts of my form start to blur and drift off towards the big sphere in the middle of the orbiting souls.

Very peculiar.

It seems that I am being digested right now.

The border stopping my insides from spilling out is getting eroded away and parts of my thoughts stray out and hall across the silence around.

This makes it clear to me that all the souls that have made it here no longer had the slightest trace of consciousness capable of even the lowest form of thought.

Focusing on my form, I take a mental hold of it, keeping it form floating off.

This works for the most part, but thin whisps of mist still break off my most outer layer and drift into the sphere.

If my theory is correct, then the growing embryo of a soul belonging to this eldritch being is in the middle of that sphere slowly growing stronger by devouring the digested or refined soul matter encasing it.

I have come this far so it would be shame to not go all the way.

Thinking about usurping the body of an eldritch entity by devouring its still developing ego caused a twisted grin to spread across my face.

Greed was after all a core aspect of today's humans, and the prospect of gaining god like power by merely devouring a infantile soul of another species, well, not much to think about here.

And so, I make myself on reorganizing my form.

Important aspects of my being get stored and compressed in my core while more disposable parts are used as buffer in the outer layers that are getting slowly dissolved.

By the time I was ready, I already found multiple blank faces and empty spots in my memory but that mattered little compared to what is to gain.

With a metaphorical deep breath pull myself out of the orbit around the sphere and plunge into it.

As soon as I did so I feel the entire thing squirm as if disgusted by the presence on another ego.

Right after a heavy pressure descends upon me and I feel it tearing at the borders of my form.

I'm rapidly losing parts of myself, but I endured and dive deeper towards the core.

Then, I found it.

Starring at me in confusion is a purple eye with silver iris and abyss black pupil.

A vicious grin on my lips I charge forward.

Feeling my hostile intent, a piercing scream bursts out of the eye shaped soul that to my utter delight was only half my size.

Something slammed into me and halted my advance but the moment it collided with my form I release my hold on it and it bursts.

Like a snake shedding its skin my core manages to slip through and reaches the screaming infantile soul and leaves the rest to be torn apart.

I didn't hesitate when grabbing and tearing it to pieces which I then greedily shove into myself, imbuing, tainting and assimilating it with great eagerness.

Snapping out of the rush of excitement when the piercing scream cut short and the heavy pressure that bore down on me while tearing at my borders lifted, I looked around.

Nothing but white mist of dissolved souls.

Not even a single speck of purple or silver left from the growing soul of the eldritch entity in whose body I currently am.

Success.

My energy which had subsided when the danger had passed resurfaced and even greater than before.

Bursting with eagerness I reach out to the white mist which theses god like beings use as their nourishment and start devouring it.

My eyes widened at the first taste.

This white mist.

It wasn't simply grinded up soul without an ego.

It in fact was the complete and utter knowledge and experience of a living being.

Utter bafflement overcame me as the scale and meaning of this realization dawned upon me.

All the knowledge ever collected or witnessed by a living creature will end up here, before me, only waiting to become part of me.

I burst out laughing.

How could I not.

This level of power was just ridicules.

No secret known to man or animal in the world is truly lost, not from the past nor the future, as they will end up here and become one with me and all the other knowledge ever acquired by all that is alive in this world.

This bounty I reaped is quite the good stuff, but I have to put it aside for now and clean some things up first.

The nagging voices which I had foolishly described as madness are in fact simply delivering enormous amount of knowledge directly into my being, so much in fact that it was no different from actual madness to normal human beings.

But now, I could understand them and like the white misty sphere around me, I devoured it.

With that lose end finished, I turn to look at the incoming stream of souls.

I'm no fool, so how could I possibly leave things as they are now and invite others to do the same that I did to the original soul of this body be done to myself.

A short search through my insides and examination of the devoured parts of the eldritch soul gave me the necessary information about how to control the filters responsible for the food.

First thing I did was turn up the frequencies of the madness inducing ripples sent out across the souls.

This forced the few that had observed me like I did those before myself and took over my strategy to reveal themselves.

Then added new targets to the soul wipe bolt, that would hit all those that that tired to approach other souls with the intent to use them as shields.

With sadistic glee I watch how the imitators got washed away and added to the growing army of eldritch abominations under my servitude.

As a last and final defense, added for good measure, I erected a shield around the sphere that would block all except the already digested souls.

Preventing any of the still more complete one orbiting around from coming into contact with my reservoir of nourishing soul matter.

Finally having some peace of mind, I relax and let go of the tight hold on myself, slowly and steadily absorbing the nourishment and start my long phase of growth to heights far above that of a normal human.

Like sponge I sucked up all the knowledge and experience of millions upon billions of souls expanding my being more and more.

Time became less and less a concern until it was but a suggestion to me.

I watch how civilization on the surface bellow me continued to exist, and about a three centuries latter I when my soul had already grown a decent amount I for the first time intervened in the happening of the world.

The first one was followed by the second one, and then a third one until I was quite involved with all the ongoings in the world and soon even those beyond it.

Thanks to me civilization had managed to bloom and send its spores across the stars.

Millenia's soon filed by and life across the universe thrived, not without my intervention of course.

As I grew more and more, my powers also ascended to even greater heights.

With them I planted seeds of live across the galaxies, and watched them grow too all the while harvesting the fruits in the form of an ever increasing amount of souls that flow through tears in reality from all around and directly into my improved digestive system, to be grinded down to the purest form of nourishment for myself.

This went on for a long time.

Until everything went dark.

The heat death of the universe, and with it I watched with curiosity how the fabrics of reality start to decay away.

There is no cycle, it is the end of this reality and all within.

Well, almost all within.

Afterall, I remain even now.