Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

The jump was very sudden and there was no warning before this observation.

When he woke up completely, Kraft found that his hand had been pressed on the small prism in his sleeve, and he was subconsciously preparing to adjust the depth of observation.

This action is as natural as moving closer when your vision is blurred, and closing the distance to allow you to see clearly. The moment before he was about to dive, he was shocked to realize that his actions were different and his mental senses were disconnected.

【when? 】

When did you become so accustomed to contacting the deep levels? In just over half a month, it has progressed to the point where I instinctively want to dive in and use my spiritual senses to "take a closer look", as freely as stepping through the door of a room.

Kraft took out the prisms from his sleeves, focused on the grid dots, and distanced himself. Now is not the time to dive in recklessly.

Sudden depth changes in the mental body are most likely caused by something moving underneath. The experience of being in the salt tide zone during the day is still vivid in my mind. In addition to not being able to directly enter the real world, its depth control far exceeds that of Kraft, an acquired user.

At this time, approaching the deep layer is clearly exposing it to its field of vision. Fighting against something that has the ability to drag people deep into the deep layer is what it is best at. After falling out of control, it may not have a chance to ignite.

"Can't be hasty, can't be hasty."

A new candle is lit and the observation interval resets to once for each candle. Even if the speed doubled, it would not be able to pull Ku down so quickly. He would need time to understand its action pattern.

Kraft stared at the candlelight. The flames flickered, and the dripping wax slid down the body of the candle, dragging out long strips of solidified wax that gradually solidified.

He looked frequently at Coop, who was breathing calmly and his chest was rising and falling slowly, exactly the same as before. When you realize that something is happening, the originally dull and boring waiting becomes anxious. Not being able to see this change process makes people especially tortured.

Through a simple comparison of fading data, you know that it is coming, approaching here, and in some unique way, it will pull the human spiritual body downwards.

Anxiety and fear make people want to open their mental vision senses, constantly observe the changes in Koop's mental body, and use the only indirect method currently feasible to understand its movements, but reason clearly points out that this measure is absolutely impossible.

The price of temporarily complying with emotional impulses will be a complete loss of vision in the next half of the process, and the loss of the ability to monitor its actions and the means to respond.

Kraft felt that Coop was trapped in an iron coffin submarine that was sinking in the deep sea. Unknown creatures were wandering outside, stirring up the water from time to time, and dragging him to the deep abyss at an accelerated speed.

But I could only stare at a malfunctioning gauge that showed the depth intermittently, and I knew it was coming by comparing the data of two sudden drops. I didn't dare to go to the porthole and take a look outside, because when I saw it, I would be reacted to it. Look at each other.

He hallucinated the sound of water outside the window and disappeared in an instant. Under the psychological effect, he couldn't tell whether he was in the deep layer or in the present world, but it must be lurking in the deep layer. The tide pouring into the city was swimming nearby.

Intangible influences act on the spiritual body that establishes the connection, accelerating the sinking. There is no way of knowing how it does it. While it possesses this ability, it can also affect the depth of others.

If he was hit by it during its descent, Kraft could have predicted the outcome. He would sink out of control, fall towards the deep layer, and be surprised before he could adapt.

A long candle time passed, and the spiritual senses were turned on, eagerly checking the degree of fading of the spiritual body, which was slightly higher than one level.

The average fading speed of one standard unit in fifteen minutes is about the same as before, slightly faster than before. Since I only took two points since the increase, I am not very sure.

The sudden rise in data was confirmed, and Kraft felt relieved. Half the night had passed, and it was not too dangerous at this speed.

The thing to worry about is the current physical condition. The throbbing pain on the cranial side is getting worse, indicating that there is insufficient rest after frequently using the mental senses. It feels like the internal tissues are expanding and squeezing the outer shell, and the tightly connected cranial sutures have to be pushed out.

This is an illusion. Symptoms of increased intracranial pressure should include blurred vision and vomiting in addition to headaches. He has not yet reached this point. If he can sustain observation with a single candle interval, he will have to lengthen the interval in the future. .

"One more time..." The flames lit up again, and Kraft leaned back in his chair, emptying his mind and seizing the precious rest time.

The burning speed is too slow when I want to be fast, and too fast when I want to be slow. The accumulated pain has not been reduced much, and it is time to measure the time again. The spiritual senses swept through Kupu and came up with a new change value.

【Three-quarter grid】

"Huh?" Kraft pressed the knuckle of his middle finger against his temple, reluctantly drawing new dots, and the progress slowed down, "What does this mean?"

Waiting for both candles to burn out, the measured rate returns to its previous flat amplitude. Contrary to what was expected, the speed at which Kupu's mental body descended showed that the creature dragging him did not continue to move.

Stayed around for a while and then left?

The second round of testing continued at a gentle pace, and the double rest time gave Kraft a chance to recover some of his energy. He had a premonition that this would not be the end, and the intermittent naps were like the prelude to the peak of the wave.

【Three grids】

"Hiss..." Kraft took a deep breath, partly due to the recurrence of headache, and partly because of the drastic change in the numbers. The dotted line formed by the dots turned at a steep angle, heading straight towards forty.

There was a soft sound coming from the window. His hand pressed on the hilt of the sword, the blade was unsheathed a few inches, and the sound of long and thick breathing rose and fell. Then he realized that it was just the sea breeze blowing, gently pushing against the loosely fitting window panel.

Reason repeatedly told him that he was in this world, while his sensibility returned to the deep sound of tide, and he could not help but imagine the possibility of wet limbs slapping against the window lattice. It's close at the deep end, closer than last time.

But what did it do before? What happened during the interval?

Kraft stood up and walked around, his regular steps soothing his inner discomfort a little. The development of things was not as expected.

【Two grids】

After the peak of the descent, the speed slowed down less unexpectedly. He began to reconsider what these two peaks meant.

The initial expectation was that the thing would keep pulling Coop deeper, just like pulling himself down, but in fact this process was intermittent.

Even though the depth of the mental body has exceeded forty and is not far from the critical point, the sinking speed has slowed down again. It has no intention of going deeper in one go. It can't be because it doesn't want to, right?

That is to say, there are limitations to this ability. No matter what it is, the intermission period is the gap left. There was at least three candles between the two accelerations, about forty-five minutes.

"It's getting interesting." Kraft cut out this period of time on the paper and marked it, lit a candle and waited for the next monitoring.

This time he simply rested for three full candles, and after the last one burned out, he monitored the depth and found that the gentle sinking speed was in line with expectations.

After two consecutive monitoring within one candle, the sudden rise process was captured. When the second half of the stick is burned, the depth growth rate begins to change, and you can notice that the depth is one-third more than the first half of the stick.

Two candles later, Kupp's mental body was completely dragged to the critical point, and the severe fading feeling was close to what Kraft had seen in the depths.

That bleak fading spreads outward from the spiritual body, enveloping the entire physical body and spreading to the periphery. It is similar to the poor man who was petrified by the snake woman's gaze in mythology, losing the color that represents the elements of this world.

After diving to a certain depth, the spiritual body becomes the medium through which the deep level reacts on the present world. In his mental vision, the colors around Kupu drained away like sand in an hourglass, falling into the void and disappearing. It was unclear whether it was the present world or the deep state.

It is as if a thumbtack temporarily pins the two layers of the present world and the deep layer together, opening up the two levels and creating a small overlap.

The fading was hard, slow and steady, and Kraft did not close his mental senses, but glanced at the candle. There was not much time left for this accelerated sinking, and if it was going to make a difference, it would be now.

Grab the prism on the table and fix it into your sleeve. His memory was very good and he would not forget all the promises he made a few hours ago. If he was going to do something, it would be here.

During the difficult progress, the degree of fading jumped forward a small amount without warning, just like the last drag of an exhausted person. This tiny bit compared to the whole allowed the spiritual body to truly cross the threshold and reach a deep level.

The fading bloomed from the spiritual body and instantly enveloped the surroundings. The spatially consistent deep layers and the present world overlapped and intertwined in confusion. The chaotic and twisted feeling disappeared in a flash, as if a replacement had occurred.

The two are turned upside down, with the spiritual body as the center, the current world falls into the deep layer, and the deep layer perfectly replaces the current world. This small area is replaced by the corresponding and visually identical deep layer.

Without the spiritual body as a medium, the connection is broken, and the faded parts are assimilated into the real world, filled with full "color", and seemingly nothing happens, except for the fact that Kupp has been dragged into the depths.

[The spiritual body is the bridge]

Kraft had no time to lament the deepening of his understanding of the deep mechanism. He knew that the opportunity he had been waiting for had arrived. Hold the prism tightly and sink steadily under the guidance of the spirit. The world becomes dim and the atmosphere comes.

A blurry, squirming figure precipitated within the sensing range as the depth approached, and floated up in the deep water waves. It noticed the uninvited guest who was crossing the plane.

The depth it was in changed at the moment of mutual confirmation, but then stopped abruptly, retreating unwillingly to the depths and letting out a silent roar.

The roar turned into invisible ripple-like vibrations that spread out and swept across the entire mental field of vision. It was very similar to the deep oscillation that Kraft felt when he first approached the small prism, but the amplitude was much smaller.

The depth oscillates back and forth uncontrollably, the prism on the hand vibrates in resonance, and the irregular and chaotic changes in color make the mind muddy and the consciousness fluctuate, almost losing control of the depth and falling straight down.

The guess is correct. Its ability was temporarily exhausted in dragging Kupu. This was the last weakened blow it could make. It was temporarily unable to launch any impact from the depth level and switched to changing its spatial position by waving its arms and legs. .

Kraft, who had barely resisted the oscillation, adjusted his speed and reached the depths smoothly. His mental senses conveyed the message of a huge software climbing on the outer wall. The noise and roar increased in intensity, and a dazzling white light penetrated the gap in the window, illuminating the person who was still sleeping. Coop's face.

The light tumor and vocal cords follow the arms and legs out of the water. In the mental field of vision, the support of human bones and muscles drives them upward, as if they are reorganized from the corpses of a drowned person that have melted in the water and are trying to crawl back to the world.

The prey on this trip heard frightening sounds in their sleep, and their facial expressions were distorted, but they still could not escape the solid dream cage illuminated by white light.

In desperation, I could only light the brazier first, get a torch, light it, and hold it in my hand. After several uses, the time that his mental senses could sustain was running out, but he had no chance to disconnect first and wait for the side effects to pass.

The penetrating vision brought by his mental senses saved Coop's life. Kraft judged that there were still a few seconds left before it could reach the window. He rushed to the bedside in three steps and then grabbed Coop's arm and headed towards the room. Drag the other side.

The deafening roar reached its peak when Coop was dragged out of bed, all arms and legs pulled out of the water, using vocal branches attached to the outer wall to make jagged sounds.

The unprecedented sound plays the anger and resentment towards such a fragile and small thing for daring to damage its body, conveying the negative emotions that reach directly into the mind. The guy who was lucky enough to escape from it now dared to stop it from hunting. It was simply unreasonable.

The terrifying sound shocked the mind, making the experienced Kraft dizzy, and also woke up Coop who was being dragged.

He opened his eyes, woke up from the absurd nightmare given by his brain, and faced another more real unconscious nightmare.

The window exploded, and the squirming dazzling light source and the layers of human-like and inhuman roars poured into the room. The vision and hearing were filled with saturated stimulation, and information that had never been experienced before was transmitted, containing undisguised malice and giant will. The broken boards in the waves were beaten and torn apart.

It is an evil that cannot be imagined or described by priests and bishops throughout their lives, and a deep fear that cannot be compared to the molten iron falling into hell or the minions of evil spirits.

How can a truly terrifying and blasphemous existence, which can destroy the human will just by looking at it, survive and be written into the classics?

It squeezed into the room from the window and smashed on the floor, making a thick and heavy echo. Like a writhing cluster of maggots or a slender dense mass of a sea snake, it appeared in the light, growing on giant squirming, glowing arms and legs, clawing at the void. and the mind of the witness. Some other faint sounds were covered up by the roar that broke out again.

He struggled feebly and blindly, waving his limbs like a mackerel bouncing on a chopping board, instinctively wanting to escape, and his confused consciousness directed his unruly muscles to turn these commands into ridiculous twitches.

From the released palm, a silver coin with melted and crooked patterns fell and rolled into the shadows.

But he was indeed retreating. A force as steady as cast iron grabbed his right hand and moved it away from the source of terror, like a hard rock in the roaring wave.

In the side light, the black cuffs could not help but tremble, and the power coming from them was not reduced by half.

A burning torch was thrown from behind, over the shoulder, flew across the bed, and plunged into the indescribable "thing".

The blazing flames bloomed, turning it into a large fireball, burning and roaring. The dancing arms and legs tried to grab everything they could, and all the wooden beds and chairs within the range were involved in this grand burning.

He watched those twisted and squirming things twisting and deforming in the flames, and his spirit was exhausted from the excessive stimulation. Fortunately, he lost consciousness and fell into a dark and peaceful coma, so he no longer had to endure torture.