Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

She didn’t rush outside. Granny pulled some materials from her pocket and began drawing and writing on the ground.

This was a messaging ritual, capable of transmitting information across great distances and space with almost no chance of interception. It had only one small drawback: the user would die afterward.

Because its principle was to embed a message into the soul, and when death came, the soul would return to the 【Chrysalis】—that is, to Brother Kaeski.

Before her death, Chloe had also used this method to send a message. Now, it was Granny’s turn.

Although she believed in the Dragon’s Breath Cannon’s combat power, Granny still prepared for the worst. 【Chrysalis】 specialized in concealment. The moment she appeared under sunlight, there would be no way back.

The ritual wasn’t complicated, and it was completed quickly. Sensing the faint connection in her soul, Granny gave a slight nod.

Then she took a deep breath, her expression going slack for a moment, before pulling open her chest. Her body split open to both sides, and she shoved the Dragon’s Breath Cannon inside.

She then pushed open the door.

As a supernatural of the 【Chrysalis】 path, Granny had always been cautious—not because of her nature, but because 【Chrysalis】 truly lacked offensive capabilities.

Among all supernaturals—even including those from the various Heretical God Churches—【Chrysalis】 ranked among the weakest. Back during the Blood Harbor rebellion, the Mother Priestess Mira might have been able to fight Granny to a draw.

Supernaturals of the Life Mother Church were already weak by nature, and their short lifespans doomed them to lack combat experience. Even so, their combat ability still matched that of the 【Chrysalis】.

So Granny had always avoided combat, pushing her concealment and reconnaissance skills to the limit.

But deep in her heart, she had always had a dream—

To have a dignified, face-to-face supernatural duel with an enemy!

Carrying that dream—and the Dragon’s Breath Cannon—Granny stepped out of the house, making no attempt to hide her presence. She simply stood in the street.

Almost instantly, a short man appeared beside her, looking over with interest.

“Mm, so the real body is nearby... Giving up resistance?”

The duplicates of the Moths Chasing Fire were very deceptive, but they were of little use against a 【Investigator】.

【Investigators】 could easily discern which were duplicates and which was the true body.

Tracking still took effort, but so long as nothing unexpected happened, they wouldn’t lose the trail.

Facing each other like this could only mean the game had reached its end.

Granny glanced at him but said nothing.

Whether the Dragon’s Breath Cannon could resolve the issue, she didn’t know—but she wanted to try.

The air outside the house grew viscous, as if something unnatural were in play. Sensing something was off, many nearby residents began to gather around.

There were elders, youths, children, men and women alike. Many still held items they’d just bought.

“If you want to surrender...” the short man said slowly.

Before he could finish, the people surrounding him all reached into their pockets and pulled out muskets at the same time.

Bang!!!

Who knew how many gunshots overlapped at once—the combined roar shook the entire street.

Smoke billowed from the muzzles, cloaking a wide area.

But before the smoke cleared, the man’s calm voice came from within.

“Not bad. Where’d you get so many muskets? Built a new production line?”  

The Moths Chasing Fire were known for their R&D prowess—hand-building a musket production line wasn’t beyond them.

The actual residents of the street finally came to their senses, looking over in terror.

The “people” who had just raised muskets had now unraveled into piles of thread, and the fired muskets lay scattered across the ground.

The short man patted his robe, riddled with bullet holes, but the skin beneath was entirely unscathed.

The crowd began to stir. A few soldiers, weapons in hand, hesitated in the distance.

Then Granny, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke.

“No, those were some scrap inventory marked for disposal. I filed a request and just used them for fun.”

The man froze, mouth opening to reply—when suddenly, a massive cannon barrel appeared right before his eyes.

Boom!!!

Blazing fire erupted in an instant, dimming even the sun in the sky. Contaminated molten metal surged like a volcanic explosion, devouring everything in front of it.

The intense brilliance erased all detail and color. Everything before them turned into rough sketches, engulfed by unstoppable flames.

When the light dimmed and people’s vision returned, the man was gone.

A pair of boots stood in place, the stumps inside exuding a faint burnt aroma.

There was no blood. The wounds were smooth. The searing metal stream had vaporized everything instantly.

Granny glanced at the cannon’s muzzle, shook out the lava-like residue inside, and turned to leave.

A gust of wind blew past. The two boots on the ground wobbled and toppled into a deep pit—

Behind the man’s remains was a massive radial crater, dozens of meters long and spanning the entire street. At the bottom, orange and black lava hissed and sizzled, distorting the air with its heat.

Clatter.

No one knew when the soldiers had dropped their weapons. No one expressed surprise. No one scolded. They only stared blankly at the scene before them, stunned like chickens with their throats seized.

Gradually, people began to come back to their senses. Some screamed and fled, impossible to stop. Some collapsed to the ground, blank-faced. Others knelt and prayed with fanaticism, as if they had witnessed a god walking the earth.

The town began to descend into chaos, which soon spread outward, bringing upheaval across the Northlands. Countless fates were altered. Numerous secret plans collapsed. The question of which faction these two supernaturals belonged to alone would be enough for several Grand Dukes to argue for months.

But the truth of the matter would have to wait for the next group of 【Investigators】 to uncover.

Who would’ve thought that the light-sensitive Moths Chasing Fire could take on a combat-specialized 【Investigator】 head-on?

The mundane belonged to the mundane. The supernatural belonged to the supernatural. That was a rule passed down for millennia across the continent. But today—there was a crack.

When the mundane could pierce the veil of the supernatural, what would the world become?

The wheel of the era rolled ever forward. Only when some people became the meat paste stuck to it would others finally awaken.

Granny did not linger. She returned straight to the house, burned the ritual and all traces of it, and left at once. The Northlands were about to change. The Church of Candlelight’s retaliation would soon arrive. There was no more time to investigate—she had to hurry back to warn the Lord.

Before leaving, she looked at the Dragon’s Breath Cannon in her hand.

“I should bring this up to the Lord—its sustained firepower is still lacking.”

“Should’ve just learned from those Banshees—bring two, one in each hand.”