Mermaid Reef

The setting sun shone on the scarlet sea.

The carcasses of cetaceans floated in the sea, and people took harpoons with ropes and dragged them to the boats.

The killing was coming to an end, the wailing disappeared, only the sound of the boiler of the steamship, and the cheerful laughter of the crew and fishermen remained.

Whaling is risky, but in their view it is all worth it, and it can even be said that life has never been better.

The new furniture in the house, the new clothes and toys for the children, the American tobacco and Scotch whiskey from the trading post--the merriment was intensified by the thought of these beautiful things.

They chanted and dragged the prey that was about to become wealth.

No one knew, and no one would have thought, that all this is so similar to the sacrifices of long ago.

——Cheerful and enthusiastic atmosphere.

—the bloody altar, the freshly dead corpse.

The gods never show up at the first sacrifice. They sleep in the deep sea, in another space that humans cannot set foot on.

The number of sacrifices is too small or the scale is too small, and the wail of the sacrifice is not tragic enough, so there is no way to reach its ears, so waiting for its arrival is a long process, and the killing may last for decades or even hundreds of years.

Now, the sun is sinking slowly on the horizon and the silver moon is rising.

People are not paying attention.

The wind picked up and the sea began to oscillate.

People jumped into the sea and dragged the whale's carcass aboard.

The crimson sea water extended into the hull, sticking to the crew.

No one noticed, because this kind of hunting has been repeated many times, and it is very common and common. The weather at sea is inherently unpredictable. As long as they dock before the storm comes, there will be no loss.

The silver moon disappeared, dark clouds filled the sky, and the sky turned an eerie dark red.

A column of gray-black smoke rushed to the surface of the sea, the sea was violently oscillating, and the sky was spinning. The whaling ship was being played around like a toy in a bathtub, and people were constantly being thrown into the sea.

A terrifying rumbling sound came from the bottom of the sea, and a huge black reef rose to the surface of the sea.

The broken rocks from the strange reef seemed to be alive, and quickly spread across the sea, forming a huge shadow.

In an instant, it "swallowed" all life in this sea area, including whaling ships, and nearby fish schools.

The shadow continued to expand, advancing towards the coastline.

Ahead of the shadows, the storm cloud roared toward the town like a servant leading the way.

Warehouses were washed away, and the trading area of ​​the port was turned into an ocean.

The divided whale carcasses floated up, and the whale oil factory was turned into ruins in the flood. People struggling with wooden planks tried to climb to a higher place, but the shadows had already arrived.

A dark red sky enveloped the town.

The moment people saw the terrifying shadow floating from the sea, they immediately screamed, hugged their heads, and fell into the water.

The people farther away had their eardrums ruptured, their eyes were bleeding, and they were yelling frantically.

……

……

"Wake up, John!"

"He's dying, Dr. Abel, give him a shot of morphine."

"hold onto!"

John's eyes were blurred, and the various color blocks were changing and shaking. He was panting, and his heart was beating so fast that it was about to pop out.

I don't know how long it took before John finally felt the existence of "his own body". He was covered in cold sweat, his hands and feet were tightly tied to the bed with restraint belts, and a candle was lit on the table next to him. Officer Arson was sitting There, looking tired.

Officer Arson held an old-fashioned pipe in his hand, and his eye sockets were deeply sunken.

"you're awake."

"What's going on?" John found his voice hoarse.

He remembered that he was reading the old pastor's notes in the doctor's clinic, and seemed to fall asleep unconsciously?

This notebook is very important, and John wants to know more about the history of Black Lagoon and where Jason came from.

Reverend Conor's notebooks are messy, with adventures, and places in the world that hold queer rumors.

The old pastor has been to Greece, Egypt, and Australia. He copied many monuments and mural texts in his notes, as well as a lot of messy graffiti... I can't understand the meaning of them at all, and the rest are poems like proverbs.

Black Reef Town was mentioned in the notes, saying that the disaster here originated from an "ancient god" sleeping in the nearby sea, which was probably the sea god Gemil mentioned in Norse mythology. Live in the human world, in the waters near Leiser Island.

The headland of Black Lagoon Township happens to be within this range.

The name Gymir means "devour" in Norse mythology.

The disaster that happened in Black Lagoon 70 years ago was very bizarre.

After the flood receded, some people coveted the submerged goods and salvaged them deeply, but there were only ruins and black mud on the bottom of the sea.

The machines, packaged whale oil, and human remains were all gone.

The whalers were gone, not a single wreck remained, as if they had all been reduced to silt.

It is very unusual that the sea is moving, and the nearby seaports have not seen anything washed up by the sea after the disaster in Black Reef Town.

The survivors in Black Lagoon are not fishermen. They live on the edge of the town on higher ground. After the flood recedes, everyone has a high fever and talks nonsense. After waking up, they don’t remember what happened, but sometimes they see The moon will be inexplicably frightened, even mad.

This phenomenon has attracted the attention of occultists.

The Flood of Black Lagoon is well known among explorers and occultists, and has been visited by many over the decades.

Then, they discovered that many "mysterious items" would become invalid in Black Lagoon Town and become normal, and would not regain their peculiarities until they left the town.

Occult scholars believe that the town may have been marked as an "altar" by the ancient gods, because of the coincidence of whaling, resulting in a terrible fact-whales are a kind of animal that can communicate and scream like humans. Creatures, to God, there is no difference between a man and a whale.

People tirelessly offered sacrifices and awakened the ancient gods.

After devouring all the bloody sacrifices, the god lay down and rested on the spot.

70 years is a long time for human beings, but for gods, it may be a time for dozing off.

If someone hunts whales in the nearby waters again, the blood will wake up the dozing sea god, and the life that appears in the "altar" will be habitually regarded as "sacrifices" by default, so Black Reef Town is very dangerous, and mystic scholars also recommend The whalers are far from Black Reef.

This proposal was carried out very smoothly, because after "the sacrifice was successful, the gods accepted the sacrifice", the whales walked around here one after another. There was no benefit, and the whaling ships would not come again.

Black Reef Town has fallen, and Black Reef Town is safe.

At the same time, due to excessive fishing, the number of whales in the sea is also decreasing. At the end of the notes, Pastor Conor believes that Black Reef Town may become the safest place in the world, where "other mysteries" can be shielded, and Sea God will not Will wake up easily.

When John saw this passage, Dr. Abel was shouting outside and found Pastor Connor's body.

When John stood up, he suddenly felt dizzy, and everything in front of him was spinning crazily, leaving only the notebook lying quietly on the bed. John suddenly realized his mistake—this notebook is also mysterious, and it is nothing for ordinary people to look at. , may only be regarded as myths and absurd novels, but for John, this is an added weight, causing the balance to tip over, and the tray hits the bottom heavily.

He lost consciousness.

"You have been in a coma for four days, with a persistent high fever and nightmares." Police Officer Arson looked at John through the smoke of tobacco.

John covered his forehead, and when he thought of the content of the dream, he was in great pain.

But the dream was very clear, much clearer than last time. He even recognized that the ubiquitous terrifying voice in the nightmare was the people who had been "swallowed" by the sea, as well as those whales who died in pain, so the voice was so complicated and weird.

The most bizarre thing is that there are even the voices of the captain and sailors of the Zephyr.

This sea god is like a tape recorder, recording the last wailing of all the souls who died in the sea, and then playing it all at once.

"I almost died, didn't I?" John asked with difficulty.

The feeling of going to hell and running back is so real.

Officer Arson put down his pipe, and his expression was a little weird, like anger and frustration.

"Many people are missing. Since you shipwrecks were blown ashore, disasters have started in the town! What did you do?"

Doctor Abel rushed out from nowhere and prevented Officer Arson from grabbing John's collar.

"I told you, officer! The Poseidon has woken up. The missing people were deluded and jumped into the sea. It has nothing to do with John!" Dr. Abel also looked haggard, with two huge dark circles under his right eye. The arm was also injured and wrapped in gauze.

The tavern owner also came to fight, and finally persuaded the police officer Arson to leave.

"Sorry, it's complicated..." Dr. Abel sat down by John's bed in frustration and began to untie him.

"Where are the notes?" John asked eagerly.

Dr. Abel patted his chest immediately, and showed John something wrapped in oiled paper.

"Have you read it?" John stared straight at the doctor.

"No, you were very scary at the time, twitching all over, pointing at the notebook and shaking your head desperately... so I didn't dare to open it."

Dr. Abel is very timid at critical moments, but this timidity can save lives.

"I remember before you fell into a coma, you said you found the old pastor's body?"

"Yes, the corpse was frozen into a big lump of ice, with a terrified expression, as if he was frightened to death." The doctor murmured softly, it seemed that it was Jason's hand, not Seagod.

Doctor Abel sighed and said: "The corpse is placed in the church. It is the coffin that the old pastor prepared for himself in the early years. The other missing people may not be found."

"How many people are missing?" John remembered that Jason said that the more sacrifices died, the faster Sea God would wake up.

"It's impossible to calculate. I asked everyone to move to the church to sleep in rotation to prevent nightmares, but many people are unwilling to leave their homes. They stay in homes with closed doors and windows. Whether they are still alive... No one knows."

"I remember Officer Arson talking about building a bridge, and then?"

"It can't be erected, and the cut trees can't reach the other side, including the ropes thrown across the deep ditch. As long as they fly halfway, they will fall straight down."

Doctor Abel smiled wryly, and then raised his injured arm to show John, "I also made hot air balloons, the crude ones, and then I saw a terrible sight in the sky."

The town was surrounded by darkness, they seemed to be covered by a black cloth bag, and it seemed that a giant had torn Black Reef Town from the mainland with his hands and stuffed it into a drawer by itself.

"...Jason is right, Black Reef Town has become the hunting ground of Sea God, and no one can escape."

"Did you see him?" John frowned.

"Well, he only showed up once." Dr. Abel raised his index finger and said, "I dare not talk to him, and he didn't come into the clinic either."

--------------------

The author has something to say:

The Thunder Island where Poseidon lives doesn’t seem to exist in reality, and I haven’t found it. It’s assumed that the island exists here, and Black Reef Town is near there.