Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Shiller used a Cthulhu Mythos Skill on this bottle of wine.

"…As you look at this bottle, you begin to recall some knowledge…"

Some information was sent into Shiller's mind.

"Golden honey wine: After use, it restores 30% of the maximum mental health value. However, one will enter a 'stagnant' state, where movement and thought are impossible. External information cannot be perceived, and one will not be affected by the outside world, immune to any reduction effects on mental health value. But one is still vulnerable to physical harm, so please use with caution."

That's right, Shiller thought, finally obtaining the key item. Not only does it have the invaluable effect of restoring mental health value, but it can also immunize one from mental health value reduction effects for a period of time, which means complete immunity to spiritual pollution—truly a god technique.

But this thing also has its drawbacks; after drinking it, one becomes immobile and is not immune to physical damage. Although immune to mental pollution, if one were to be chopped with a knife, death is certain.

Therefore, this item is only suitable for use in a safe environment to immunize against spiritual pollution, and not suitable for battle.

However, it is also a divine artifact for a pitched battle. They could simply wait for the Old Day to arrive, find a secret room to have a drink, and when all the other behind-the-scenes manipulators have gone mad, then come out and deal with them.

Shiller had roughly planned in his mind and informed Batman about the information on the bottle. Although it was not marked with the number of uses and dosage, more than half of the bottle was left, which should be enough for the two of them.

They searched the Captain's Room again and found a collectible revolver and a gemstone-encrusted dagger. It seemed both possessed some properties of mysticism. Batman took the revolver, while Shiller chose the dagger.

"I think we need to leave quickly," Batman said. "The Great Prophet's men should arrive soon. Now is a defenseless period against the Deep Divers, and they can easily infiltrate the ship. It will be too late to leave if we wait any longer."

"You plan just to leave?" Shiller narrowed his eyes and said, "The Deep Divers have rested for so long, it's time for them to get moving."

"What are you planning to do?"

"Of course, let them fulfill their duties."

The two returned to the second deck of the cabins, located in the middle of the ship but still submerged underwater.

Shiller glanced at the old seal in his hand. Its light has dimmed slightly, but it was still usable.

He walked to the outermost wall of the cabins and turned to Batman, "This ship can float on the sea surface, obviously under the influence of mysterious power, and this mark in my hand can dispel mysterious powers. What do you think would happen if I touched the hull with my hand?"

Batman paused, instantly realizing what Shiller was about to do. He said, "When I was hiding under the pier earlier, I already noticed—the Deep Divers were recovering their strength directly below these three ships at the bottom of the sea."

"It seems we are in luck," Shiller said with a smile.

Batman moved to the stairwell, seemingly ready to flee at any moment, while Shiller reached out and gently pressed against the ship's wall.

He didn't touch the wood directly but encountered something like a barrier of seawater, soft and damp to the touch.

Shiller felt a warmth in the palm of his hand, and then his hand broke through the seawater barrier's resistance, directly touching the decayed hull.

The hull, long eroded away, crumbled into pieces without the protection of mysterious power in an instant.

Water poured in through the hole immediately.

After breaking the hull, Shiller turned and ran out, joining Batman in speeding to the door they had entered earlier. Ignoring the Deep Divers who had re-emerged at the doorway, they dashed out of the large ship in a puff of smoke.

They ran non-stop to the Lighthouse and reached the top level. Standing by the window, they saw that the misty coast in the distance was no longer the initial suffocation and oppression but a scene of tremendous chaos.

Among the three Battleships, the one in the center began to list, then slowly sank. The huge mast hit the shore's pier, killing many Deep Divers, and also broke the deepest section of the dock.

But the disaster had just begun.

The Deep Divers' oxygen recovery base was directly below the three ships. They probably never expected someone to sink the ship and did not erect a structure over their base; instead, they had laid the foundation in the open air.

Thanks to Bruce's previous monster-pulling maneuver, more than half of the Deep Divers were in the base recovering oxygen. When the ship came crashing down, they had no time to escape, and at least one-third of the Deep Divers were crushed under the hull.

The remaining Deep Divers rushed to shore, shrieking wildly. Their patrolling companions on the shore, not knowing what had happened, ran back in a chaotic frenzy. The entire dock was thrown into disarray.

"I guess the Great Prophet must be quite confused right now," Shiller said, not bothering to hide the schadenfreude in his tone. "The ship sank before he had a chance to find the treasures. He must be wondering what's going on."

"It's probably for the best for him," Batman said. "I don't think he had the correct way to open the door. If he had really boarded the ship, he might have fallen into a trap already."

Shiller agreed with Batman's point of view. The Great Prophet might know more than others, but definitely not everything. If there was an error in one step of the opening process, it would have serious consequences.

"What should we do next?"

Shiller asked this, but Batman heard the hint in his voice, "Sounds like you've got something to do?"

"Yes, I need to go deep into the cave to find something," Shiller intended to fulfill his promise to Nya as soon as possible to avoid any unforeseen complications.

"I plan to look for Joker's tools for modifying Electric Shock devices here and craft a gun for you."

Shiller didn't stand on ceremony with him; he handed over the screws and also gave him the pass to the Silterk Laboratory, then said, "If nothing goes wrong, the Church's main force will arrive soon. Defend the Lighthouse as best as you can, and if you can't hold it, retreat into the tunnels and wait for me in the laboratory."

Shiller entered the underground cave through the lighthouse entrance, advancing into its depths while pondering the clues he knew.

Most of the clues were now connected, and the guns that appeared in the first few scenes had all been fired.

Shiller arrived in front of the Dark River, and he saw the fish surging in the river, whose provenance he hadn't figured out, only knowing they should be part of Joker's backstory.

But combining the fish found in the previous victims' stomachs with the arrival of the Deep Divers, Shiller could roughly speculate that this was probably a ritual to summon the Deep Divers.

Although Shiller had not seen any similar rituals in any Cthulhu Mythos texts, summoning could be done in multiple ways: with spells, Arrays, or sacrifices, and sometimes they'd even arrive uninvited, picking a random unlucky city to afflict.

Those who ate the fish were not experimental subjects of Siltex Biological Company but rather sacrifices in the ritual to summon the Deep Divers, which fit well with the process of a blood sacrifice since they all met gruesome ends.

In the plot, it should have been Old Sirteck who sacrificed them to summon the Deep Divers in order to elevate his own status amidst disaster, for Old Sirteck only came to this village for this purpose and had operated here for a long time – duping a few people would be no trouble.

And the Ghost Ship that came along with the Deep Divers was likely summoned by the Great Prophet from the Church, who might have learned of the Captain's identity through some channels and knew he had an artifact to protect against spiritual pollution, so he wanted to summon the ship to obtain the artifact.

The initial disaster-Wandering might have been the result of a swap by the Pope, who was a Cultist, turning the monster that should have emerged from the room into a true incarnation of the Old Day Dominator, to set up the Great Prophet.

All things considered, this accident was the result of a three-way power struggle, and although everyone else had their own malevolence, they could also be reluctantly regarded as victims.

Shiller had now reached a cave full of branching paths, and he asked himself, "Which way should I go?"

"Use your inspiration," Nya responded.

Shiller sighed, passed an inspiration check, and then instinctively headed down one path, followed by rolling dice and passing checks the whole way.

Shiller felt that Nya must have meddled with the dice, for his rolls were all successful along this route.

Eventually, he followed a narrow path to a small space. Despite the small size of the cave, there was faint light above, indicating an exit, and the ground was surprisingly grassy, with Vines climbing the walls, almost like an underground Forest.

Shiller saw the box bathed in the light from above, walked over, and saw that the center of the box was set with a diamond-shaped piece of glass.

He walked over, picked up the box, and his breath hitched the moment he opened it.

He saw a red, irregular, multifaceted polyhedral object, supported by seven irregular metal struts inside a box, emitting a faint red glow from within.

Shiller immediately threw the box away.

"...What are you afraid of?" Nya's voice seemed a little aggrieved.

Shiller felt his reaction might have been exaggerated; after all, he was the one who owed Nya a debt. Seeing a summoning of his incarnation should have been a cause for fear for the object, not him.

But this thing was indeed infamous, a veritable TPK (Total Party Kill) trigger in role-playing games, called the "Shimmering Trapezohedron."

Its main function was to summon Nya's incarnation, the Night Demon.

Basically, anyone who had played a few role-playing games would know that encountering this object meant one thing: run.

Run as fast and as far as you can; a moment's hesitation could mean a party wipeout.

Nya's incarnations were independent of one another, each with a distinct personality, but the most vicious was the Night Demon, attacking all living things indiscriminately, with no one spared.

He had to operate in total darkness, as any hint of light would reseal him, which was why the box was placed under the faint light.

Picking the box back up, fortunately unbroken, Shiller took out the Shimmering Trapezohedron and switched on his flashlight for safety. This artifact didn't need sunlight to be sealed; flashlight beams worked too, greatly reducing the burden of carrying it for Shiller.

However, after taking it out, Shiller noticed there was something else beneath it, and he carefully took out the bottommost item from the box.

It was a book with a pure black cover, with a line of embossed golden script that read "Faralines' Gloom."

And at the very bottom, there was a line of smaller text, with the name of the author - "John V Constantine."