Jenny strolled through deserted streets with her trusty companion floating by her side, having finally made it to the strange city of her first dream. Top Moments was as intrigued as she was, and he'd be forgiven for thinking Jenny dreamed this place into existence when she drew it in her notebook.
The city was almost completely quiet, if not for the faint music and occasional clapping coming from the theater building that stood at the center of the city, towering over everything else and luring them in with its festive lights.
The denizens of the city were either hiding inside their homes or lying collapsed on the cobblestone streets, just like in her first dream. Whenever she passed one, she tried waking them up by prodding them with the tip of her wooden sword, but nobody responded. One of them even sprouted disgusting tentacles from their head, yet their chest still moved, meaning they weren't dead.
"It's Him, right?" Jenny anxiously asked her companion.
In the distance, they heard another scream. Ever since they came here, people screamed periodically, like they were all having nightmares.
"Undoubtedly," Top Moments responded and turned his eyes to the bright theater building. "We must be close."
The number of collapsed bodies increased the closer they got to the city center, eventually leading up to the wide-open doors of the theater entrance.
The closer they got to the theater, the more unconscious citizens they found lying on the ground. The music coming from inside was louder now, and Jenny could make out the melody. The crude stones on the streets outside transitioned strangely into a red carpet that lined the theater floor, making it seem like she was about to step into an entirely different world.
Jenny hesitated to set foot on the carpet, then looked at the wooden sword she was still holding on to. She hopped over to the door on her left and placed her sword on the ground, then lowered her hood to appear more presentable. She looked back at Top Moments, who watched her without saying a word.
"Y-You never know!" Jenny said in her own defense and hopped onto the red carpet.
"You never do," Top Moments replied with an amused tone and followed her inside.
After that, Jenny spent entire minutes trotting the fancy hallways that seemed to go on forever. Sometimes, she came upon a fork in the path, and Jenny had to pick which way to go at random, leaving her wondering if they really led to the man they were trying to find.
When she turned what felt like the hundredth corner, Jenny finally bumped into someone. Another girl, so short that her head hit Jenny's chest, and Jenny had to look down to get a better look. The girl had albino skin, like the other tunnel residents, but this one wasn't as creepy looking. In fact, she looked rather cute and wore fancy clothes, befitting this fancy theater.
"H-Hello! I'm, uh…" Jenny said, nervously.
The girl looked up at Jenny in shock, then took her hand and pulled her along.
"Huh? What're you doing!?" Jenny pleaded.
"Oh dear," Top Moments commented with lukewarm urgency.
Likewise, Jenny didn't feel very endangered by the little girl, so she didn't resist and allowed herself to be pulled along.
"I've been looking all over for you, Broom!" the girl said without looking back.
"Broom???" Jenny and Top Moments exclaimed in unison.
"Tonight's audience! He's… ahahahaha!" the girl said as she increased her pace. "Ahahahaha! He's incredible! He's beautiful!"
Was the little girl going crazy? Jenny looked back at Top Moments as the little albino creature pulled her along, but he looked just as stumped as she did.
Finally, at the undersized girl's guidance, Jenny was brought to a door—the first she'd seen in these hallways. It was here that she noticed the music she'd been hearing had been getting louder and came from the other side of this door. The girl stood on her toes and knocked three times, causing the music on the other side to stop. Jenny could hear people running around and objects falling to the floor. While they waited, the albino girl danced in place as if the music was still playing, shaking her hands and her hips like she knew the beat by heart.
After what felt like forever, the door was finally opened by another albino girl just like the first one. However, this one had a far different look on her face. She trembled at the door and looked like something traumatizing had just happened to her.
"H-Hello…" she spoke.
"I found Broom in the hallways! We can start now!" the excited one said as she pulled Jenny inside.
When Top Moments tried to follow, the excited girl turned around and gestured at him to stop.
"I beg your pardon?" he inquired.
"Na-ah! Cast and crew only!" she said while wiggling her index finger.
"I'm s-sorry," the traumatized one said as she closed the door in front of him, separating him from Jenny.
The moment the door closed, Jenny heard a drum fill behind her, which then settled into the same groove that played before they'd knocked on the door. But when she turned around, there was no band to be seen. In fact, she wasn't even in a backstage room at all. It was a completely dark space with nothing in it except for a bunch of other albino girls.
"Girls! Get her dressed!" the excited one said as she let go of Jenny's hand and took a step back.
On her command, the other albino girls in the space scrambled and ran in every direction, with most of them disappearing into the darkness.
"Get me—what's going on!?" Jenny asked as two additional girls approached her.
To Jenny, they all looked like copies of the same tiny person, only differentiated by their different personalities. Without saying anything, the two started helping Jenny out of her clothes.
"Hey! Stop it!" Jenny said.
"PLEASE!" the traumatized-looking girl pleaded, like her life depended on it.
Jenny stopped resisting and gave the traumatized girl a worried look over her shoulder. She stood next to the excited girl who took her here, looking stressed unlike anything Jenny had ever seen before.
Meanwhile, a fifth girl came from the darkness, holding a classical-looking dress.
"This is yours, Broom! He's gonna… l-l-love… heheh…" she rambled as she hung the dress over a chair and left.
A chair? Jenny did a double take and wondered if that chair had been there from the start.
Then, she felt the ground move beneath her feet, paired with the sound and vibrations of giant spinning gears. When she looked around her, she saw the environment shift, like she was on a moving set and the décor was being changed.
"He's b-beautiful! We've all seen Him! You get to see Him, too!" said one of the two girls who was helping Jenny change.
Perhaps it was because the girls were too cute and harmless looking, but Jenny did not resist their escapades. Although she was still self-conscious about being undressed and tried covering up the panel gaps on her arms and legs to no avail.
When they finished changing Jenny into her new stage outfit, the two girls disappeared into the darkness as they giggled, leaving Jenny with just the excited one and the traumatized one.
"Who's He? It's Him, isn't it?" Jenny inquired. "The one who's giving the people outside nightmares?"
The traumatized girl started crying, and the excited one took a step forward. Subtly, an orchestra Jenny could not see started playing along with the drums. It was the same melody Jenny heard in the background when she scoured the hallways.
The excited girl strolled around Jenny in a circle and started singing.
"♫ When the legend began ♫"
"♫ There appeared a great man ♫"
Then, underneath her cries, the traumatized one joined in.
"♫ From the blackness He rose, with dark truths to expose ♫"
And the two sang in unison.
"♫ And the dreamlands, into nightmare were cast ♫"
Jenny couldn't believe what was happening, like she was part of a musical and she hadn't gotten the memo. All the while, the darkness disappeared as the décor around her changed into a night sky with pyramids painted on the backdrop. Depicted on it was a crowd of people, all listening to one man.
As the orchestra's sound grew, the two girls continued to sing—one of them full of positive energy, and the other one in tears. Jenny felt like she was right under the spotlight with them, for a hidden audience to behold.
"♫ Mysteries and revelations ♫"
"♫ And His stranger machinations ♫"
"♫ Lightning from the skies caught in a vial ♫"
At this point, the orchestra started taking on a darker and more violent tone.
"♫ Messages from other worlds ♫"
"♫ He spreads them at His congregations ♫"
"♫ Fed by screams of scholars in denial! ♫"
Jenny pointed at the décor, at the man standing in front of the crowd, and asked during the downtime: "I-Is that Him?"
She almost felt rude to interrupt the music, but the excited one nodded and took Jenny's hands.
"♫ Word on the street says He's changing, ♫" she sang while leading Jenny into a dance.
"♫ A walking, no-talking dead husk, ♫" the traumatized one joined in from the sidelines.
The excited one continued: "♫ To look in His eyes— ♫"
"♫ W-would be mighty unwise! ♫" Jenny continued. "Wait, what?"
"♫ Lest you'll see, what's inside! ♫" the two girls finished.
Jenny let go of the excited one's hands and watched the décor change into a painting of this very theater, as seen from the outside.
"W-Why did I just…" Jenny muttered nervously.
"Last verse!" the excited one whispered in her ear.
And the orchestra followed suit. The two girls began singing the last verse, alternating each line.
"♫ When the records began ♫"
"♫ There appeared a great man ♫"
"♫ Now His miracles are ♫"
"♫ But a memory afar ♫"
"♫ So we ask what ♫"
"♫ will His next chapter be? ♫"
"♫ Broom, might you be the key? ♫"
After that last line, the orchestra abruptly stopped, and Jenny was blinded by spotlights. She looked down and saw that she was now on an actual wooden stage, more like what she was expecting to find in the first place. She was standing in the center, with the two girls standing next to her, further back, clearly passing the mic onto her and expecting her to do something.
"Huh?" was all Jenny could muster.
When her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw that most of the stage was red, like someone had just exploded. She looked around to see other albino girls in the corner, covered in blood, all staring at her like she'd forgotten her lines.
Then, Jenny's eyes went to the audience, consisting of a bloodbath of corpses and spare limbs. Only a single living man sat in the front row. He looked at Jenny with intrigue and sat back in His seat, like He, too, expected her to do something.
With the way the girls spoke of their esteemed guest, there was no mistaking it. This was Him. The one she'd been chasing through the tunnels, and the one from the song. The man had pointy ears, like an elf, and He looked both gorgeous and like He was falling apart at the same time. The skin on His hands was flaking off, and His face showed similar symptoms.
Jenny expected she'd feel something when laying her eyes on Him, like the song said would happen. Maybe she'd go crazy, or maybe the information the man exuded was supposed to overwhelm her, but no such thing happened. Jenny simply looked at Him and He looked back.
Although the man still instilled a sense of danger in her, sitting at the center of a corpse party that surely He was responsible for. Slowly, the man started raising His hand in a threatening manner, and Jenny took a step back and bumped into someone. Looking down, it was the poor traumatized girl, tugging on Jenny's arm and trying to give her a clue.
"Broom, you have to—"
Followed by her body getting torn in half and violently tossed against the curtain. Jenny looked at the girl's remains in shock, and at the blood on her own costume. The remaining girls, who all stood together on the other side, didn't look nearly as shocked, like this was nothing new to them. Some looked hypnotized and not very worried, while others looked like they'd been performing the whole show at gunpoint. Everybody in the room was silent, and the tension was unbearable.
"Jenny!" Top Moments yelled as he flew through the open door at the top of the stairs, opposite the stage.
Everybody turned to look at him. The man in the audience, too, slowly turned His head. Top Moments looked around the room, taking in the carnage, then stopped when his eyes met those of the guest.
"Oh… Oh no…" he spoke with awe in his voice.
When Jenny realized what was happening, the man was already raising His hand like He did when He exploded the traumatized girl.
And before He could repeat the same thing on her dear friend, she teleported herself onto the man's lap and grabbed His head, covering up His eyes with the palm of her hand. Jenny had to resist the urge to crush the man's skull in front of her companion and the girls. Her programming gave her no inhibitions against killing Him, making it clear her opponent was less than human.
Jenny floated up into the air and lifted the man up by His skull. Top Moments' eyes were on her now, struggling to believe what his friend was doing. Jenny turned her head to meet his eyes, then gave him a reassuring nod. Next, she braced herself as if to fly through the ceiling, but instead teleported herself and her opponent straight across, ending up in midair above the city.
Jenny let go of the man's body and kicked Him away, pummeling Him into the ground near the cavern wall and safely outside the confines of the city.
Next, she teleported to follow and shook the ground in anger when she landed. The man breathed heavily, hunched over on the stone cavern floor, but upon closer inspection, Jenny saw that He wasn't hurt at all. When He looked up to meet Jenny's eyes, she was surprised to see a look of awe, like she was the danger and He was just an innocent civilian.
But Jenny knew what He'd done to the people in that theater venue.
"It's over. You're not terrorizing anyone ever again!" she said angrily.
The man slowly got to His feet, never taking His eyes off Jenny. He exhaled as He got up, and it lasted unnaturally long, making the man appear less human with each passing second.
He walked towards Jenny, but Jenny didn't retreat. Next, He extended His arm to reach for Jenny's throat, and Jenny grabbed His arm to stop Him, but found herself to be powerless in comparison. It was like how a normal person would be powerless to stop her if she did the same thing, and the man's hand advanced no matter how hard Jenny pushed back.
Stunned by this sense of powerlessness that she'd never felt before, Jenny allowed her opponent to reach her throat, and He grabbed her tightly. For a moment, Jenny felt the man's fingers pressing into her neck with enough strength to crush it, and in a panic, she teleported away without taking Him along.
About one-hundred meters away, Jenny was shaking and feeling her own throat. Sure enough, she could feel indentations from the man's fingers, and they weren't immediately going away.
Jenny covered her throat with her hand and looked back to find that the man was coming her way. He walked like He was in no rush, yet He moved fast enough to reach her in seconds, as if He compressed the space between them to bridge the gap in just a handful of steps.
Before He reached her, Jenny overcharged her powers—turning her hair gold—and fired her golden laser at the man, stopping Him in His tracks. He held out His hand like one would if they were being blinded by the sun, stopping the laser with His palm. Jenny increased her power output even further and blasted her opponent into the cavern walls in the distance.
Jenny closed her eyes and took a moment to calm down. So far, the man's eyes didn't affect her the way they did everyone else, but it was abundantly clear she was fighting some sort of God, just like what was described by the song in the theater and by the old lady in the tower.
When she opened her eyes, she touched her neck and traced the imprints of the man's fingers with her own, wondering if she wasn't biting off more than she could chew.
When she started her first dream, Jenny doubted whether any of it was real. Even now, she was wondering what would've happened if her opponent had crushed her neck before, and if she would even wake up again in the real world. If not, was this really worth it?
She turned around and looked at the city behind her, where the denizens of the dreamlands were safely removed from this monster. In the distance, a flying piece of white cloth with a red top hat came flying her way at breakneck speed, and the sides of her mouth slowly curved into a smile.
"Dearest Jenny!" Top Moments yelled when he was close enough. "I cannot believe my eyes! You're actually winning! And your hair… Just how powerful are you?"
Jenny looked back at the point where her opponent made impact with the cavern wall. From this distance, she couldn't see if He was getting back up.
"Don't get too excited," she said, then she looked back at her companion. "Are you okay? He looked at you."
"A bit dizzy, perhaps, but manageable. Thanks to you," Top Moments replied.
"Thanks for coming. I might need your help after all," Jenny said.
"The feathers, I presume?"
Jenny nodded.
"Can you do it?"
Confidently, Top Moments flew a quick circle around her and stopped in front of her face.
"Just say the word!"
Jenny gave an affirmative nod and looked at her opponent in the distance one more time.
"What'll happen to you?" she asked and looked back at her companion.
"I'll be with you the whole time," he said as he poked her chest with his snout. "Until the very end, remember?"
"Okay." Jenny gave him a nervous yet confident smile and raised her fist.
"Let's go kill a Great One," she said.
For a moment, Top Moments stared at her fist and looked like he needed a second to gather his courage, then used his body to bump her fist back. Next, he started spinning in circles around her, slowly increasing his speed until the feathers started appearing. As they appeared, they all touched Jenny's body, and she absorbed them right away. The faster he went, the faster the feathers appeared and turned into energy for Jenny.
By now, there was a vortex of energy surrounding Jenny, as if queued up to enter her body through a bottleneck. It was far more energy than she ever expected Top Moments to be able to produce, and far more than the emerald could ever provide. At this point, Jenny's body was emitting black and red lightning, and she felt her power increasing to levels she'd never felt before.
When the seemingly endless supply of feathers finally stopped multiplying, Top Moments was nowhere to be found. Jenny could only hope he was somehow safely fused with her current form, unable to behold her opponent.
With black and red lighting zapping about as if escaping from its container that was her body, Jenny clenched her fist and set her eyes on her opponent, who was barely visible as a speck of dust in the distance.
But right before she could set off to face Him, the world around her glitched and left her disoriented. From one moment to the next, her opponent appeared right in front of her, holding her by her throat in midair. Crawling Chaos had caught her, as if He'd fast-forwarded through time and unpaused right where He wanted to, leaving Jenny dazed and confused.
Her opponent held her tightly by her throat, looking her in the eyes like He could see her insides through them.
Having taken a second to catch up to the present, Jenny grabbed her opponent's arm and gripped it hard enough to force Him to let go of her throat. Crawling Chaos widened His eyes in shock, impressed by the strength of Jenny's new form.
Then, Jenny tossed Him over her head and kicked Him up through the tunnel ceiling like a railgun projectile. When she followed the payload up through the hole that went all the way to the surface of the planetoid that housed the tunnels, she felt a pleasant breeze of fresh air and followed the golden projectile that flew towards the starry night sky.
Jenny was faster than her opponent could respond, and every time she caught up to Him, she gave Him a kick in the head and sent Him flying off in a different direction. This repeated over and over again, and anyone looking up at the sky from one of the floating islands below would be treated to a golden game of ping-pong.
After enough hits, it was like Jenny's kicks were juggling the wiring in her opponent's brain and making Him more powerful. And before she could land her next attack, He managed to grab hold of Jenny's leg before her heel could make contact with His face.
He pulled her closer, crushing her leg in the process, and thrust His arm straight through her chest. For a moment, Jenny froze in shock, and Crawling Chaos looked like He hardly believed He'd really done it.
But then, Jenny's body turned completely golden and started emitting a tremendous amount of black and red lightning, then exploded. The real Jenny appeared from behind and gave Him another kick, slamming Him down into surface of the nearest floating island down below.
So far, Jenny had been making a light show, but she could tell she hadn't even added a single crack to her opponent's divine body, and He seemed to be growing sharper as the fight went on. So, Jenny made a new plan, to test the limits of her new form. If there was any hope of destroying the husk of Nyarlathotep, it would take everything she had.
Jenny stuck out her arm and made golden chains appear from thin air, wrapping them around His wrists and ankles and tightening them around the island, pulling Him down and restraining Him. She wasn't confident it would hold Him for long, but she didn't need long.
Jenny made haste and flew up beyond the dreamlands' atmosphere and into outer dream-space. Once there, she raised her arm and spawned millions of golden spears that each emitted black and red lighting around their tips. To top it all off, she took a single spear in her hands and aimed it straight down, focusing the remainder of her power into the tip.
The spears around her launched first, instantly accelerating to terminal velocity like they were shot out of a cannon. Jenny followed, pointing her spear towards her target and putting all her remaining power into it. Her target, in the meantime, had already freed Himself from the chains, pulling them off and sending minor earthquakes through the island He stood on. He looked up at the glorious view in the night sky, like He wasn't even worried, but fascinated.
The arsenal of spears hit first, then Jenny's killing blow. The combined impact sent the two straight through the island, destroying it in the process, and flying out the other end. By the time they hit the planetoid at the center of the dream, they'd slowed down enough to slam into its surface, creating only a minor crater.
When the dust settled, Jenny was sitting on top of the most awful God in the universe, with her fist on His chest where her spear used to be. Her hair was back to normal, and her special form had worn off. Her opponent's body had taken all the impact, focusing on a single spot on His chest where Jenny's spear hit, and from it originated massive cracks that ran all the way across His face and back around.
He still hadn't said a word since the moment they met. Even now, He stared at her blankly. The expression on His face was a mixture of two emotions. On one hand, Jenny had impressed the God with her power, leaving Him in awe. On the other hand, He looked disappointed, like He wanted more from her.
For a moment, the two stared at each other in the eyes. Having lost the juice required to fight at His level, Jenny had already accepted her defeat, and she took the opportunity to look into her opponent's eyes from up close. According to the myth, these eyes could drive mortals insane, which is what happened to all the collapsed people she saw in the tunnels. But to her, they were just normal eyes like any other.
Then, it finally happened.
"Doll. I ought to thank you."
Jenny was startled by His beautiful voice, and she dismounted Him and took a step back in fear.
"W-Why!?" she asked Him.
Then, as if coming down from adrenaline, Jenny noticed just how much her body was overheating. She looked at her hands to find them shaking uncontrollably, and countless alarms were going off in her head, telling her she'd suffered permanent damage to her internals.
Meanwhile, the man sat upright and touched the crack running across His face with His hand, ignoring her question.
"Broom, was it?" He asked while at the same time not sounding very interested in the answer.
Jenny didn't feel like correcting Him and looked at Him in distress.
The man stood up and walked forwards, staring up into the cosmos as if Jenny didn't even exist.
"You've served me greatly today," the man spoke with emotion in His voice, "I… cannot put it into words."
He was acting so human, Jenny wondered if this was really the Great One she thought He was.
"It is only right that I compensate you," He said as He turned to look at her.
Jenny could hardly pay attention to His words due to the pain all across her body, which was just getting worse by the second.
…
But it wouldn't matter, as Jenny was now lying prone on the ground with her two hands overlapping in front of her, pierced by a golden spear that emitted black and red lightning. The man was sitting in front of her on one knee, holding the spear in one hand.
He just did it again. Jenny couldn't recall how she got into this situation, as if the last ten seconds were erased from her memory. But if that was true, how did He get His hands on her spear? Whatever this trick was, there was more to it than just skipping ahead in time. It was like He could change reality into whatever He wanted.
Jenny couldn't feel or move her arms anymore, and there were now even more alarms going off in her head than before. The damage to her body was becoming catastrophic, and right now, she'd probably die even if He left her be. If none of this was real, it certainly wasn't feeling that way.
"You are a special little thing," the man said as He lifted Jenny's chin with His hand, so she'd look Him in the eyes.
She had nothing to say to Him. It was meaningless to ask Him why He was doing this to her. She was trying her hardest to kill Him a moment ago, so He had every right to return the favor. Jenny looked at Him in disbelief, with tears forming in her eyes from the pain.
"But you're scared…"
The roles were reversed, and Jenny didn't utter a single word anymore, which disappointed the man. He looked into Jenny's eyes again, and Jenny felt like His gaze penetrated deep inside of her.
"Scared that all of this isn't just a dream, and you'll never see your friends again," He spoke like He was reading the bits right off her memory. "Aren't you a cute little doll? Just where did all that violence come from?"
Jenny's heart sank, and she was starting to believe she was living her final moment here. The man put His hand on Jenny's head and grabbed onto it tightly, giving her a sharp pain.
"If I pull this, what will come off first? Your head? Or will your arms come off your torso?"
Jenny's eyes widened in a panic. It had hardly dawned on her that she was about to experience death, and this man wanted to make it a slow one.
Jenny clenched her teeth and shut her eyes tightly, trying her hardest to zone out and think happy thoughts.
Then, as if that was a sign that she was ready, the man started pulling on her head, giving Jenny an agonizing pain. She once read that people see their lives flash before their eyes when they die, and she'd always hoped that would happen to her, too. For most of her life, she didn't have much to look back on, until recently…
Quick! Happy memories…
Jenny scrambled her memories for anything good, trying her hardest to ignore the increasing number of alarms going off in her head. The longer she took, the worse it got.
Touching palms with Tatters in the park. Friends.
There was unimaginable pain as this all happened.
Hugging her friends in the snow.
But also the unspeakable mechanical sounds and vibrations of her internals coming apart.
Winking. Back-and-forth winking with Saturn, making her feel special.
She felt her eyelids opening on their own, having lost the strength to keep them shut. But she couldn't see anything, even with them open. Then, she lost her hearing, and then the feeling of her body.
Parking lot. A cozy summer night, doing naughty things to someone's car with her new friends.
…
Eventually, like an engine revving too low and stalling, Jenny's thoughts started slowing down until she couldn't have them anymore.