Revival

Part 1
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die."

- Abdul Alhazred

In the town of Royal Woods, there came a phenomenon the likes of which the town never has seen before. It would transpire within the residence of the Loud family. It began on a Thursday afternoon. Lana was playing with the family dog Charles per usual. They had been rummaging through the garbage cans for pitched scraps of food.

"What's that, boy?" Lana asked. Charles was sniffing the air with the utmost enthusiasm. He darted towards the direction of the smell with Lana barely being able to keep up. They arrived to see that perfectly good hotdogs were tossed into the dumpster behind a restaurant.

"The nerve of some people," Lana scoffed, "throwing away perfectly good food."

She wasted no time and did a cannonball into the open dumpster. "Come on, Charles, you're missing out!"

Charles panted and went to jump in only to stop suddenly. There came a soft voice that infiltrated the dog's mind almost like a disease. It was a distinctly feminine sounding voice that oozed of allurance. "Charles," it said.

Charles' eyes transformed into a dark shade of red as he aimlessly followed the sound of the voice. The dog trudged forward completely ignoring Lana's panicked calling for him to return. She leaped out of the dumpster nearly falling over herself due to her clothes being drenched with the wetness and stickiness from the dumpster.

"Charles!"

A blue minivan was driving down the street. As typical with some drivers, the driver was too preoccupied with his cell phone. "Don't worry, dear, I'll be there in no time." He was busily messaging his significant other not noticing that Charles was walking into the road until he heard Lana's yells. "What the!?"

He slammed on his brakes whilst dropping his phone on the floor. Charles stopped his mindless trudge to stare at the man in the minivan. There came a low crunch climaxing in the man accidentally totaling his vehicle. Lana screamed in defeat.

The funeral for Charles was arranged by Lucy. The family was all gathered, wearing black alongside the McBrides and the Casagrandes. Lucy started the occasion. "We're gathered here today to bid a sorrowful farewell to our dog, Charles." She motioned for one of her siblings to pick up after her. Lola decided to go first. She was clearly distraught over the incident.

"Charles was in our family for years," she began, "but what I'll never be able to do is forgive Lana."

Lana's eyes widened in fury. "How is this my fault?"

Lola looked at her with a scornful expression. "You always go through garbage cans. You were too busy eating hotdogs to notice that our actual dog was about to get hit." She crossed her arms defiantly. "If you didn't do that, Charles would still be alive."

"Why I oughta!" Lola said, snapping her knuckles in her fisted hand. Lola was standing on a podium at the time, forcing her to take on feline attributes and pounce on her. They were fighting each other per the usual, but this time, it felt more forceful and unprovoked. Lincoln and a few of his sisters ran onto the stand as an attempt at prying the two from each other. They were practically tangled together in their burst of blind fury. Rita scolded the two while also crossing her arms. "Lola, I know that you're upset, but you should take what you said about Charles back."

Lola shook her head. "It is true, though."

This act renewed Lana's anger. Her legs kicked around fervently in Lynn's grip; she tried to squirm her way out of Lynn's hold, but this action only indicated to her older sister that she needed to apply more pressure to restrain her. Lola was locked in Lincoln's hold but due to him being weaker than Lynn, she had little difficulty escaping, primarily by biting Lincoln's arm. He winced in pain in his feeble attempts at recapturing his sister. Lola ran towards her twin sister with all her might. Unfortunately, her long black funerary dress caused her to slip; she fell into an open hole and onto a box. Whatever they had managed to salvage of their deceased dog was in the box. The fighting quickly ceased as fast as it began.

"Lola…"

Lana kicked Lynn in the shin forcing her to finally release her. Lynn yelled after her, but instead of jumping into the hole to further beat her twin sister up, she instead ran a straight line into the front yard.

"Lana, come back, I'm sorry!" Lola screamed.

Lana kept running not once stopping and or looking back. She gave it her all until she arrived at the dumpster at the back of the restaurant. The same one that cost her the death of her beloved pet. Breathing heavily, Lana collapsed in front of the dumpster in despair. Ugly, thick tears streamed down her face. "I'm so sorry, Charles. If there was only a way, I could bring you back."

"That could be arranged, my dear."

Lana jumped at the sudden voice. "Who said that!?" She looked around sporadically trying to find the source of the voice. It was then she met a peculiar girl. The girl had short black hair alongside a pink top and white skirt. A purple, fluffy neck wrap was wrapped around her. Her final noticeable attribute was a brunette snow hat. Her green eyes illuminated ominously. At the same time, she seemed affable enough. Friendly, even.

"Who are you?" Lana asked. Something about this girl was unnerving. She was most assuredly trying to pass herself off as human but was doing a horrible job at doing it. But most bizarre, she claimed that she could help her with her plight over her dead pet. Lana felt the strange girl was eavesdropping on her private thoughts. "My name is Maya Lottie," she said. She smiled slightly. "And yes, I do know how I can bring back your Charles." Lana's eyes widened. "Really? How?"

Maya tilted her head. "Why with this book, of course."

A book suddenly manifested in her hand. It was laced with a brown, ancient covering. Lana was perplexed. Malice was emitting through the covers; whatever this book was, it would only be problematic down the line. Yet, Maya insisted that it would be helpful in her pursuit of resurrecting Charles.

"The name of the book is the Necronomicon," Maya explained, "in it are passages on how to bring a loved one back from the dead." Maya took the book and flipped through the pages. "A certain ritual has to be done, but I assure you it is worth it."

Lana didn't know what to say. This mysterious girl just came up and entrusted a book in her care despite just meeting her. "Thanks, Maya," Lana said, "but why are you helping me?"

Maya's smile left her face. "I was in a similar position as you, Lana."

"You were?"

Maya nodded her head. "Yes. I lost my father a few years ago, and like with Charles, I wanted him back. Desperately. I traveled here and there to reverse his death, and in my journey, I was given a tip by a shaman saying that the Necronomicon could revive him."

Maya took Lana's hand. "I promise you, that Charles will be back if you just trust me." Lana stared at the book then back at Maya. It was still something she was uncertain of. This book was something that Lucy would love to have in her possession. A sense of dread filled her stomach. But if this was really the only way, she could ever see Charles again, why not.

"It's a deal."

The two girls shook on it. Lana went to say something else, but she heard the familiar blaring of the family Vanzilla. She quickly bid Maya ado and ran with the book between her arms. Maya smiled at her. When she was completely gone, Maya's smile grew wider, wrapping around her face. Her eyes glowed deeper and her chuckling grew darker and more demonic.

Part 2
Patrick Stark didn't know how he had gotten himself in this position. At the least, he knew what led up to the change in settings. Patrick was an ordinary man with a stable job; a wife and kids; and was wholly happy. That was long ago. Long before an indescribable evil paid his town a visit. It started with the arrival of an elderly woman. She came to the town with a purse in hand.

She had a despicable aura around her that shortly worked its way through the town. But that was the nature of Nyarlathotep, the dreaded herald of the Outer Gods. The son of the Blind Idiot God, the Daemon Sultan Azathoth. The God of a Thousand Forms. Nyarlathotep is the terrible plague that had been wrought on mankind seeking nothing more than mankind's destruction.

When the old woman arrived, she wowed the citizens with her otherworldly knowledge and wisdom. She created different items from non-Earth metal and bolted them together in lightning sharp speed. That amazement gradually subsided to a dreaded nightmare.

Mrs. Kimberly Pint was a 32-year-old who was the town librarian. She had become enamored with the strange old lady and her talents. Preferably, it was her vast knowledge of subjects that scholars could not even dream of recording for man to see.

Mrs. Pint visited the woman for approximately three weeks. The first week, she was reported as being excited about the prospect of her having the elderly woman as a mentor of sorts. The second week…her excitement evaporated from her face. She was immersed in the same dark energy as the woman. She was what you would call a "social butterfly" of sorts. Her second visit to the old woman's residence made her forlorn and more secretive. She muttered fervently about the woman invading her house to whisper dark truths to her while she was trying to sleep. The third-week …she vanished completely.

Search parties were conducted for the town librarian, but none would be proven fruitful. On the fourth day of the investigation, word came that she was found in the woods. She was in a debilitated state, her clothing having been reduced to rags. She was in such a state of confusion, she was hostile with her rescuers.

"It was this black thing," she screamed in a rapid voice, "long tentacles erupted from its back and attacked me. He told me terrible things."

She was shortly afterward taken to the police station where she started to slowly regain her sanity. She was still obsessed with the notion of there being some man wrapped in darkness who was telling her secrets about imprisoned gods and whose imminent return spelt the end of everything known to man. After the interrogation, she disappeared without a trace.

Waves of madness befell the town by the time Patrick was returning home from his job. "What is happening to this town?" He was driving down the interstate when cars swerved into his direction forcing him to swerve over to the opposite side to escape the car's destructive path. Dozens of citizens were driven insane and mindlessly wandering out into open traffic. Others were jumping off buildings en masse. Fire rained down from the sky consuming everything burnable in the onslaught of chaos.

But that was nothing compared to what awaited Patrick at his home. He somehow managed to return home to his family still under the impression that something insidious was watching his every move.

That sense of dread returned when he opened the door and saw what could best be described as a living nightmare. A large, dark monster grabbed Patrick's wife and three children with its slimy, inky tentacles and tossed them into its mouth.

"Kids!" Patrick screamed.

The creature turned around its many eyes glowing emerald green. Blood glistened in its jagged, razor-sharp rows of innumerable teeth. Patrick didn't know what to think about the spectacle before him. He saw his family get senselessly killed before him by this strange, otherworldly phantom that was uncertainly responsible for the mass chaos. Before he could further dissect what was going on, he sensed his world spinning about without rhyme or reason until he blacked out.

Patrick was in a dark, abandoned mansion writing his thoughts down in a private journal when he sensed the door creak open. The hairs at the back of his neck stood on end. He nearly dropped his pen on the floor in a scrambled haze. "She's back," he finally wrestled himself to say.

Maya slammed the front doors open and scanned the room. "Patrick? Patrick! I'm home."

Patrick timidly left his enclosed room and walked towards the young girl. Maya smiled at him and hugged him by his waist. "I missed you so much, Daddy."

Patrick pushed her aside in a fit of anger. "You're not my daughter you skinwalker."

Maya pouted. "What did she have that I didn't? She was 12 years old and I am beyond her in the terms of agelessness."

"I don't want to be reminded of you eating my daughter and taking her form just to screw around with me."

Maya crossed her arms. "You are so boring, Daddy."

Patrick clenched his teeth together. "I'm not your f-just let's forget this and tell me that you succeeded in giving the girl the Necronomicon."

"You know me too well to not botch up this important scheme. Yes, Lana, will be able to resurrect her little mutt, but I, of course, didn't fill her in to what I really wanted."

Patrick raised an eyebrow. "And what was it, if you don't mind me asking."

"Of course. The Necronomicon is a horrid book laced in dark magic. She will be able to revive Charles, but she would be driven to the edge of insanity by the book's unholy power. When that happens, she would end up calling up my fellow Outer Gods to this reality. Believe me: it's been fun tormenting mankind for giggles, but I feel now comes the final curtain."

"So, you sent the dog to get ran over to release these other gods?" Patrick asked. "What about me?"

"Patrick dear, you should count yourself lucky that I am keeping you alive long enough to be my ghostwriter."

Maya walked over to the couch and sat down on it. Stretching, she rolled over to her side and smirked. "This will be fun."

Part 3
The Loud family did whatever they could to make good with their lives after the death of Charles. There were a few minor debacles of whether it was time to get a new dog that, while it wouldn't be the same as the late Charles, would otherwise fill the void that he had left. But at most, it was a less-serious proposition that none of the siblings were convicted by. Two days after meeting Maya, Lana had been hoarding the Necronomicon in her shared room with Lola. Because of its largeness and inexplicable odor, it made it slightly difficult for Lana to hide away the book from her family's peering eyes.

Lynn Sr. had dinner prepared for the family as usual, but Lana rapidly shoveled as much food she could into her mouth. Her siblings were slightly off-put by her poor manners but turned back to eating the food on their plates. Lana then glugged down her drink and belched loudly. "Thanks for the meal, Dad," Lana said. She then jumped out of her chair as she made her way upstairs. "Where are you going in such a hurry?" Rita asked.

Lana stopped briefly in a stammer. "Uh, I gotta do...something. Upstairs...I gotta pee."

She raced up the stairs leaving her siblings with looks of confusion. Arriving at her room's entrance, Lana opened the door and slid on the ground. She plopped on her belly to lift her bedcovers up. Scanning the ground, she found the familiar book making a grab for it.

"Let's do this," she said herself.

"Lana, what are you doing?"

Lana jumped backward, shocked at the sudden arriving of a voice. She fell on top of the Necronomicon breathing heavily. She recognized that same monotonous voice of her black-haired Gothic older sister anywhere. It was Lucy. She sighed in relief. "Lucy, you have to stop doing that," Lana complained.

Lucy tilted her head. "That book isn't what I think it is, is it?"

Realizing that her sister caught a glimpse of the book Maya gave her, Lana swiftly hid the book behind her back. "Wh-what book?"

Lucy crossed her arms. "The cover is poking out from behind your back."

Lana sighed in defeat. "Alright, you caught me." Lana slipped the book out and presented it to her sister. Lucy gasped.

"The Necronomicon?" she exclaimed "as in the one that Lovecraft wrote about?"

"I don't know who that is, but yes, it's that book," Lana said while shaking her head in confirmation.

Lucy's confusion was further compounded. Lana relayed the events of her acquiring the book to her sister, making her more unhinged with each passing second. This book was bathed with an evil force that was understandably a dangerous tool. And yet this "Maya" girl trusted Lana enough with the book as a means of getting Charles back.

"Okay, I am still having a hard time understanding this," Lucy said, "why exactly would Maya give you the Necronomicon?"

"Lucy, she told me that this would work." She held Lucy's pale hand before continuing. "We both miss Charles, and this is the only way we can get him back in one piece. Do you trust me?"

Lucy was hard-pressed over the suggestion. Even if they were able to bring Charles back, he would by no means be the same lovable canine that they knew. And she knew that the book's powers extended its ability to resurrect the dead. Out there locked out of space-time or death-like sleep were cosmic horrors far more powerful and inconceivable. But if they just used the book to revive Charles and get rid of the book without issue, it would be worth it.

"Alright, Lana, you convinced me." She quietly closed the door. "But we need to wait until the rest of the family is asleep."

The two sisters continued throughout the evening pretending that there wasn't anything nefarious going on. There were the occasional passing glances that the two girls' other siblings received from their siblings, but otherwise, the plan went off without much of a hiccup. Lana waited until her twin sister was fast asleep (she took around 45 minutes to comb her hair and apply her face mask) and she quietly tiptoed out of the room. Lucy was already standing in the hall once Lana went to shut the door.

"Lucy!" Lana whispered in a quiet-angry tone of voice, "I told you to stop sneaking up on me like that."

Lana grabbed the shovel from Lynn Sr.'s shed and met Lucy. Lucy – book in hand – produced a flashlight to direct Lana to the burial site. The ground was still loose enough for Lana to shovel out the first layer of dirt. The grass and soil gave way with Lana tossing it over her head without much thought. Lana dug deeper into the ground without ceasing. With one final plunge, a putrid smell filled the air. Lana, who normally loved that type of smell, nearly gagged.

"Yup, that's our Charles alright."

It was a shoebox that contained what little was left of Charles. They didn't bear to have the "casket" open for the funeral service. As such, Lana and Lucy both agreed that it'd be in their best interest to leave the box closed. Lucy nodded and tossed the Necronomicon in Lana's direction. Lana grabbed it and opened the book. She signaled for Lucy to shine the flashlight on the chapter she was looking at. It read:

''IA MASS SSARATU! I conjure Thee by the Fire of GIRRA The Veils of Sunken Varloorni, And by the Lights of SHAMMASH. I call Thee here, before me, in visible shadow In beholdable Form, to Watch and Protect this Sacred Circle, this Holy Gate of (N.) May He of the Name Unspeakable, the Number Unknowable, Whom no man hath seen at any time, Whom no geometer measureth, Whom no wizard hath ever called CALL THEE HERE NOW! Rise up, by ANU I summon Thee! Rise up, by ENLIL I summon Thee! Rise up, by ENKI I summon Thee! Cease to be the Sleeper of EGURRA. Cease to lie unwaking beneath the Mountains of KUR. Rise up, from the pits of ancient holocausts! Rise up, from the old Abyss of NARR MARRATU! Come, by ANU! Come, by ENLIL! Come, by ENKI! In the Name of the Covenant, Come and Rise up before me! IA MASS SSARATU! IA MASS SSARATU! IA MASS SSARATU ZI KIA KANPA!''

A storm was building over the burial ground with loud thunder rumbling. The ground around the shoebox shook violently.

"Lucy, look out!"

Lucy jumps away from a sudden lightning bolt surged from the sky and directly strikes the shoebox. Large, continuous cracks emerged from the ground followed by a slimy green ooze. The two sisters held onto each other for dear life. After the sudden chaos, the storm dissipated as suddenly as it came. The ground closed back up with a small drone.

"What just happened?" Lana asked.

They turned their attention to the shoebox fully expecting Charles to pop out of it. However, nothing happened. The shoebox was still an inanimate object with absolutely no signs of life. Lana lightly tapped the box with her foot. She did this for two more minutes. There was still no sign of life. She frowned.

"Well, that was a rip-off," Lana groaned.

Lucy placed her hand behind Lana's shoulder. "Tomorrow, we'll give that girl what's coming to her."

They returned to the house leaving the shoebox above the burial ground. Not too long after it was unveiled, an ominous green mist crept through the opening of the shoebox accompanied by a glow.

Part 4
Maya was walking through the town of Royal Woods minding her own business. She had earlier left Patrick trapped in the abandoned house to buy groceries. It personally annoyed her with having to conduct humanly tasks, but she needed Patrick to live due to his role as her writer. Several people went out of their way to avoid her because while she at first appeared to be a normal 12-year-old girl, but her very presence repulsed bystanders.

After leaving the supermarket, Maya decided to walk down an alleyway. She hummed inhuman language to herself, not realizing that she was being watched intently. When she was partway through the alleyway, three men walked out. They were all wearing ragged clothing and possessed an unshapely appearance.

"Hey, kid, give us those!" one screamed.

Maya firmly held the grocery bags in her hands and stuck her tongue out. One of the men grew impatient concluding that cooperation wasn't going to work. He grabbed Maya's arm, nearly pulling it out of its socket.

"Just give us your food, and no one has to get hurt."

Maya's eyes began to glow green catching the other men off guard. "You're right. I'm not going to be the one to get hurt."

Black tentacles emerged from her back and impaled the man through his chest. He writhed about thrashing on the sharp tentacles like a worm on a fishing hook. His blood pooled down on the dirty ground of the alleyway. Maya had a scowl on her face as she lifted him up into the air to further enjoy his screams of excruciating pain. "Please, spare me, freak!"

Maya scoffed and jammed two of her tentacles into his eyes thrusting them around rapidly and tearing apart his brain. The tentacles erupted from the back of his head exposing his brain matter. She then slammed the lifeless corpse on the ground. The other men tried to flee only for Maya to grab one of them – a pudgy man – by the throat. He was being chocked out by the tight grip of her tentacle. The bones in his neck were noisily crushed; the blood pooled from his mouth before she took the second tentacle of hers and snapped his neck completely.

The last man was cowering before the girl, with her tattered pants conveying an obvious wet spot in them. Maya crouched down beside him wordlessly. "I'm…I'm sorry. Please spare me!"

Maya looked at the pathetic man before her with amusement. The scent of fear was strong in this one. Maya licked his salty tears. She then retracted her tentacles for a moment. "I could crush you within the palm of my hand if I wanted to. I could rip your soul out of your body and send you to the very nucleus of your universe. All these options are pleasing to me, but I'll give you something special."

She jabbed the man in the temple with her serpentine tongue. The man's vision became glazed over as his eyes became completely white. His chest started to tighten up from the rampant beating of his heart. What Maya was transferring to his mind was driving him insane. He was keeling over in pain whilst going through a succession of death throes. Maya removed her tongue spitting the putrid taste that was on the man. The man was crumpled on the ground with his nerves protruding from his skin. He thrashed himself feverishly on the ground becoming nothing short of an overturned turtle desperately trying to roll over.

Maya happily watched the man descend further down the path of insanity before she reminded herself of her plot. "Have fun now, you hear?" she said to the spasming madman who was frothing at the mouth. She resumed her walk, this time deciding to head to the Loud residence.

The Loud family found themselves having breakfast at the table. Even though they were going to keep what they had done a secret, Lana talked Lucy into admitting what their plans were. The family was shocked if there was ever such an understatement.

"Lana, I know you miss Charles," Rita said, "but it was bad to take some book from a total stranger."

"Besides, the book didn't work, didn't it?" Lynn Sr. added.

Lana looked down at her plate with a depressed glare. She nodded her head confirming what they had stated to be true: it was unwise of her to put her complete faith in some girl she just met, but what's worse, she pulled this con on her by feeding her these lies about some departed father of hers.

"That book sounds really familiar, though," Lincoln said., "I think I remember there being an issue of Ace Savvy that featured the Necronomicon."

There came a sharp clawing at the door. They stopped eating in response. Eyeing each other, they stared at the floor only to see that Cliff was fast asleep on the floor. Meaning that he wasn't the one scratching at the door. "Someone has to open that door," Lori remarked.

Per usual, the family touched their noses, leaving Lincoln as the sore loser. He was angry, naturally, but he swallowed his pride and walked to the door. He stopped in front of it breathing heavily. With one swift motion, Lincoln pulled the door wide open. He screamed. The family gathered around the door and they too yelled.

At the door was Charles. Well, what they thought was Charles. His lower body was missing. His intestines slithered along as Charles tried to use his upper body's limbs to move. The fur was chipping off revealing his muscles and ribcage. One of Charles' eyes lazily hung out of its socket. Green slime gushed from his mouth. Whatever this thing was, it was trying to crudely mimic Charles' mannerisms barking, but his "barks" were the very definition of death throes. They sounded like a shrill bat's screech after said bat flew out of the very bowels from down below.

Leni fainted while the others continued screaming. Lisa tried to wrap her mind around what she was seeing, but this kind of sorcery was foreign to her and her field of science. Lynn ran across the room and grabbed a mop. Without much thinking, she started to swipe it at the zombie dog. "Get out of here! Get!"

Charles growled and bit the bottom of the mop, effortlessly slicing it in half with his teeth. Lynn saw this but before she could react, the dog pounced on her snarling wildly with clear murderous intent. Lynn grabbed Charles between her hands to hold him back. His hot, slimy drool drizzled down on her face making her further scream because it was corrosive.

"GUYS!"

Blood rained down. Lynn looked up at the attacking undead creature trying to pretend to be her dog to see that he was stabbed through the head. The eye still in his socket rolled sideway. Lynn sighed in relief. Luna was holding the sharp end of the mop that was sticking through Charles' skull. "Thanks, Luna."

Lynn tossed the corpse across the room, it makes a disgusting thud against the wall and leaving an unsightly spot. "What the hey hey was that!?" Lynn Sr. asked, jumping in Rita's arms. He gave a nervous chuckle when his life gave him a knowing look.

Lana's eyes widened. It would appear Maya wasn't completely deceitful with her word that it would revive Charles. And it did…though clearly not in a satisfactory way. She remembered that the Necronomicon was still in her room. If she were to further read it, it may provide the answer to resurrecting Charles before the time of the car accident. She made her way for the stairs.

"Lana, don't try anything stupid!" Lori yelled.

"Don't worry, Lori, it'll work this time I know it!"

Lana ran into her room and bolted the door shut to keep her parents and siblings from interfering. She opened the book again determined to read the whole book in one sitting. "Here we go."

Part 5
It was approaching night, and Maya was already on the move. Throughout Royal Woods came a great plague of nightmare where she robbed several citizens of their sleep. From the series of tunnels at the Severn Valley, she unveiled an unearthly number of creatures – the spawn of the Pale Beast Eihort – for her endeavors. The spawn were large, translucent beings with a succession of legs and eyes appearing through every orifice of their bodies. Their bodies pulsated sporadically in a fashion like gelatinous desserts. She stopped at the Loud residence and projected her consciousness into the house to observe the chaos.

"Lana come out of your room this instance, young lady!" Lynn Sr. screamed. The door to her room was still firmly shut. After the circumstances regarding Charles returning as a zombie, Lana secluded herself in her shared bedroom with her twin sister and was rapidly flipping through the pages to find how she could revive Charles as the way he was before his sudden death. However, the frenzied skimming through the accursed book was starting to take a toll on Lana. "Guys, Lana stopped reading!" Lincoln shouted, "something's going on in there!" "If it wasn't for this stupid door, we'd be in there right now," Luan groaned.

They began to further argue over the proper method of opening the door. Lynn was beyond the verge of annoyance. In irritation, she dropped her head emitting a scream before slamming her head against the door. Once. Twice. Three times. The bolts of the doors were loosening. "Now that's what I call using your head!" Luan joked. "Get it?" Lynn looked up at the door, her blood dripping down it. She turned around in seeming defeat and started to walk away. The family was thoroughly shocked by her sudden forfeiting. Before they could comment on it, Lynn dashed from the beginning of the stairs. Reaching the bedroom door again, she rammed it with all her might. The door shattered into pieces.

"Lynn, are you okay?" Lola asked.

Lynn gave a thumbs up in response before collapsing on the ground. The family barges into the room seeing Lana levitating from the ground repeating some odd, alien language from the Necronomicon. Green flames engulfed the room, and yet, it didn't burn any materials. Lana's eyes were glazed over in a yellow hue.

"Lana, snap out of it!" Rita screamed. She went to make a grab for her daughter only to nearly get eradicated by a burst of dark magic that Lana sent out through her fingertips. A psychotic grin spread across Lana's face. Lori, Leni, Luna, and Luan surround the possessed Lana waiting at the most opportune time to get the jump on Lana. All four elder sisters simultaneously leaped from their situated places. Before their eyes, Lana vanishes leaving them to collide with each other.

Lincoln saw the book lying on the ground. While the rest of his family were distracted, Lincoln leaps for the Necronomicon. Lana casts another dark magic ball towards her only brother. "Think about what you've learned playing dodgeball, Lincoln," he thought. The blast was within a hair's length of his face, but he dodged it at the last minute. He grabbed the Necronomicon seeing that it was detailing a passaging of summoning Yog-Sothoth.

"Give that back!" Lana screamed her voice becoming more demonic and deeper. She growled and darted towards her brother like a poison dart.

"Now, guys!" Lincoln screamed.

The family collectively tackled the possessed girl. As she was firmly in their grasp, Lana tried to fire more dark magic balls at them climaxing in her screaming with lightning shooting from her mouth. Lincoln still held the Necronomicon in his hands. He felt the strong urge to open the book and read its contents when he sensed a sinister, monotonous voice speak to him. Lana was still squirming from her restraints.

"Why did you stop me?" she yelled, "don't you know that those gummy bears are going to attack us?!"

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "Gummy bears? What did she mean by – "

Boom. There came a great rumbling that shook the foundations of the house. They were all knocked down on their feet from the tremors. Leni looked outside the bedroom and shrieked. "Guys, there's like dozens of spiders!"

They looked out of the bedroom as well. A large section of the house was destroyed and from that rubbish came the brood of Eihort. All in their multi-legged, gelatinous glory. Maya walked up pushing several of the unsightly monsters aside. She was slightly annoyed at the outcome. "You guys seriously had to interrupt her summoning of Yog-Sothoth?"

The family hid behind Lincoln spurring him to sigh. But regardless, he decided to bold up for their sakes. "Are you the one who gave Lana that book?"

Maya grinned. "So you're not that simple-minded after all?" She laughed at herself almost as if she said something that was incredibly funny. Funny to her but nevertheless it was all the same. She watched Lana spasm on the floor in a sick delight. Lana's mind was unraveling in front of her family's eyes and she was happy with the aspect.

Lori stood firm, raising a fist at Maya. "You better spill it, girl, or we will beat the everliving stuffing out of you!" Maya laughed again.

"You fools dare to test me? I the Messenger of the Outer Gods? I the God of a Thousand Forms? The Crawling Chaos? The Black Pharaoh? Woman, I am far above the likes of you miserable mortals. Everything you see before you is my work!" Lynn grabbed a bat and raised it in a threatening manner. "You were the one that got Charles killed, aren't you?" Maya happily nodded her head further repulsing the family. "Why would you do such a thing?" Lola asked.

"You have no idea how much I despise the Outer Gods. How I was the nameless brood of an idiotic father I was made his messenger and did his every task while he sat there in the nucleus of your universe. All of those gods are brainless and immeasurable, but they pale in my father's power. My one solace is that once he wakes up, everything that you have ever known or ever loved will disappear within the blink of an eye. Poof."

She placed two fingers in her mouth signifying for Eihort's brood to attack. "Bring me the book; I shall summon Yog-Sothoth myself." The brood rained down upon the Loud family like a pack of wild wolves. Lynn swang at a few of the offspring with her baseball bat while simultaneously pushing herself and her family back towards Lana's room. The brood began to swarm the remnants of the house sending debris raining down on the family. They invaded the room, nearly suffocating the family from their sheer numbers.

"What are we going to do," Lucy asked as she was also trying to grab something to toss at the spider-like monsters. "I'm on it," Lisa said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small packet. Seeing that the window was open, Lisa tossed it; it uncurled in midair forming a rubber slide. "Get on!"

The family tried to push the monsters aside so that they could have enough time to escape. The smaller siblings were the first to make the jump followed by Lincoln and the others. Lynn Sr. was the last one left; the minute he leaned over to prop his leg on the slide, he was grabbed by one of the brood and was being dragged away. "Guys, leave me!" "But Dad," Lincoln shouted.

"Do it," Lynn Sr. repeated. "It'll save you enough time to keep that crazy brat from getting the book!" The rest of the family begrudgingly agree and leave him to the mercy of Maya and Eihort's brood. Maya had a livid expression on her face.

"Go get them now," she yelled to the brood, "I don't care if you have to slaughter the whole town to do so."

The family jumped into Vanzilla and they buckle Lana in to keep her from further attacking them in her diminishing mental health. As they left, Mr. Grouse opened the door to his house. He was irritated as usual. "What is all the hubbub?"

He unintentionally caught the attention of some of the brood and he found himself cornered by the eldritch beasts. "St-stay back, I'm warning you!" he whimpered. He went back into his house to grab a soup ladle and swung it at them in a wild frenzy. "You better scram you spider things!"

The broods stared at the old man with anger being conveyed through their legions of eyes. One jumps on Mr. Grouse's back; as he swung the cooking utensil crazily, more of Eihort's brood pounced on him and were thrusting their rows upon rows of teeth down on him. A final scream echoed the air as Mr. Grouse was ripped apart. The other brood started to attack other houses inciting waves of horrid screeching as they too met the same fate.

Part 6
Royal Woods was a washed with the chaos wrought by Maya and her brood of Eihort. Houses and buildings were leveled from the rampaging beasts. They razed the city raking hundreds of casualties. Rita was driving Vanzilla at an above-normal speed.

"They're gaining this way!" yelled Lincoln.

"Lincoln, honey," Rita groaned, "I'm going as fast as I can."

Cars were decimated under the weight of the brood. Many hapless bystanders were being tossed around in their cars like ragdolls. Others were grabbed en masse and devoured by the monsters. Lincoln quickly thought of calling up his best friend Clyde McBride to see if he was still okay. However, the phone rang aimlessly, never getting picked up.

Lynn grabbed the Necronomicon in irritation. Its leathery feel made her sick to the stomach because of its lifelike texture. She started tightening her grip on the book in anger over it being the reason for her sister becoming insane. The book's vileness was practically oozing from its contents.

"Dumb book" she said under her teeth.

The brood was getting ever so closer. Lisa scratched her chin inquisitively to figure out the course of action. Suddenly an idea struck her mind. "Family, remember that one time that Vanzilla got stuck in the mud?"

"Yes?" Lincoln answered. "Why is that important?"

"Mom, jiggle the steering wheel sideways."

"I don't like the sound of that," Rita said concluding that Lisa had experimented on the van, "but if this will work…" She did as Lisa demanded. Suddenly, metallic wings manifested from the side of the van. The trunk of Vanzilla compressed inward into a circular disk. Fins appeared encircling the tube end. There was a rustling down where the exhaust pipe formerly was. The brood of Eihort was within a length of them.

"Punch it, Mom!" Lisa yelled.

Rita slammed the gas brake. Fire exploded from the exhaust pipe severely burning some of the approaching brood. The kids fastened their seatbelts as they were propelled faster. Inhumanely faster. About as fast as the quickest bullet train.

"Liii-sa!" Lori exclaimed, "what have you done!?"

Lisa was pressed firmly against her seat. She found it hard to speak because of the velocity. Each time she did, she unwittingly drizzled saliva on her siblings in part because of her natural lisp. "I calculated it would make traversing more efficient!"

"Dang it, Lisa, say it don't spray it!" Lola whined.

"Dudes, that's the least of our problems," Luna said.

They looked in her direction seeing that they were approaching a ramp in the middle of the road. Rita tried to swerve, but the wheel was locked. "Not at a time like this!"

The tires were scorching and producing a putrid smell of burning rubber. Before long, the tires combusted, melting down, leaving the metallic parts of the tire unguarded. "Hold on, guys!" Lincoln yelped. The van swiftly drove across the ramp and was rendered skyborne.

"I'm gonna be sick!" Lola shouted her cheeks turning a sickly green.

The Vanzilla's engine kicked into overdrive, propelling them in a straight direction across the sky. They were a few miles away from the ground, high enough to watch Eihort's brood rampage through the remnants of Royal Woods. The city was now on fire the death toll still rising.

"Poor guys," Leni whimpered.

"There's no going back now," stated Luan.

They were at a loss over what to do. The engine kept spewing thick volumes of exhaust in a straight path. Their last views of the city grew smaller and disappearing in a gust of smoke, the family were on standby over what to do. To make matters worse, the fuel for Vanzilla was wearing thin.

"Guys," Rita said, "I know you're not going to like this, but-"

"We're falling!" Lynn screamed.

The fire in the motor ceased amid the family's scrambled panicking. Vanzilla's flight came to a sudden halt; with nothing to fuel it, Vanzilla bent downward as it plummeted back to Earth. Panicking resumed among the family. The hood of Vanzilla started to combust from the fast pace of it falling back to Earth; if they did not leave immediately, they'd also burn up before they hit the ground.

"Guys! I have something else to say!" Lisa yelled.

She kicked her side of the seat backward, initiating a parachute to discharge. She glared at her family without another word. The siblings huddled together on the single-seat with Rita almost failing at removing her seatbelt. She too grabs ahold of the seat. The added weight on the seat caused the vehicle's upper section to break off. It fell away and swiftly exploded.

Lily was close to the blast getting knocked off the seat. "Poo poo!"

"LILY!" Rita yelled.

Suddenly, Lily's diaper caught a gust of wind and inflated. Lily's screaming quickly turned to giggles of amusement. The family let out a shared sigh of relief. The parachute slowed the speed of the seat, sending it to squarely fall in some trees. Lily floated onto a branch close to Rita, and she grabbed her. "Baby, are you okay?"

"Poo poo!" Lily responded, which the family took to mean that as a "yes."

Getting down from the trees, they wandered through the woods looking everywhere for shelter. Soon, they approached a lounge in the woods. "We're saved!" Lola screamed. They grabbed the psychotic Lana and dashed towards the lounge. Upon arriving, they knock violently on the door.

"Alright, alright, hold your horses," a gruff voice rung out. The door opened to reveal on the other side of it a short, pudgy man wearing a hunting uniform. He was dressed from head to toe in camouflage. He looked at the Loud family in suspicion.

"What brings you here?"

Rita took control of the discussion. "You see, sir," she said, "we are in a tight fit."

He tentatively observed the kids. When he got to Lynn, he noticed the Necronomicon in her hands nearly getting taken aback. He was knocked out of his train of thought with Rita's further probing.

"Sure, you guys can stay as long as ya like."

"Oh, thank you so much!" Rita exclaimed.

The Louds entered the lounge and saw more heavily dressed hunters. Several mounted animals were in the lounge hanging from walls, ceilings. They gave the family passing glares when they too spotted the Necronomicon. Lynn was disturbed by this, but quickly swallowed her anxiety when the family found themselves a room for the night. While the Louds were busily getting ready to settle in for the night, Lynn was beckoned outside by the man from earlier. "What's the deal, dude," Lynn asked yawning to emphasize her tiredness.

He had a stern expression. "I know that book anywhere," he said, "you also had a run-in with that Man in Black?" "What? There's a Man in Black in this too?" Lynn groaned. "Just great."

"I mean Nyarlathotep, child," he clarified. "Just one of his many forms."

"Well, he's going as a girl now, so..." Lynn mentioned in a matter of fact tone. This didn't amuse the hunter in the slightest.

"I was out hunting with my typical group of friends," he said still with a flair of gravitas, "I saw this...hairless guy with horse hooves with ashy skin. Black and tarred as though he were recovering from getting burned to a crisp." Lynn listened tentatively to him. "He...came at us and slaughtered a score of us." He lifted his finger to his face. "Got my good eye." He pulled back a patch revealing an empty socket.

"Well, that's a story there," Lynn replied, "but what does this have to do with anything?"

He firmly held Lynn by her shoulders. "I'm gonna help you kill him!"

Lynn was surprised by his remark. Sure, she would love anything more than Maya/Nyarlathotep/Whoever/Whatever He is to die and everything to be rekindled. But all of his boasting to her felt like the odds were greatly stacked against them. Add onto that, Lana was still talking bizarre gibberish from her melting brain and her hometown was just one big playground for spider-things probably from outer space. What more could they do?

"Get some sleep," he finally said. "I'll explain more in the morning."

Lynn returned to her room and relayed the information she had learned from the owner. They had mixed reactions to the news. Much like Lynn, they were uncertain of whether Nyarlathotep could be truly destroyed, not to mention his rant of ushering in other Outer Gods including the brief mention of one that could literally destroy all reality just by waking up. But the owner seemed trustworthy enough and whatever advice he had in mind was potentially good. Any advice was good.

"Guys, it'll all be fine," Lynn replied, "now let's just get some sleep."

As she was finishing that last word, there came a loud rustling in the halls of the lounge. Sheer screaming plagued the lounge with bodies plopping on the floor out of fright. The Louds slowly opened the door and saw the hunters collapsing on the ground, their eyes glazed over, and their faces deep hues of blue. An engorged, bat-like being with a pulsating eye towered over the fallen bodies. Its wings were as large as a car. It shook most likely to enjoy a haughty laugh of malevolence, but there wasn't a mouth present. And yet, it's shrill voice nevertheless pricked the minds of the Loud family.

"I know you're in here, Louds, if you relinquish the book, no one will be further hurt. Aside from that one-eyed charlatan and his men."

The monster flapped its massive wings sending debris crashing down but it remained unfettered throughout. The family attempted to remain as quiet as they could. The bat beast lurked closer, sniffing the air through nonexistent nostrils. It could smell their fear. Leni and Lola started to whimper noisily. Lincoln looked at them, wordlessly placing a finger on his mouth. They returned to being quiet. The bat monster was ever so closer. It was growing apparent that it knew where the family was hiding, but it was extending the family's suffering for as long as it could for its own end. It was there in the silence Lola accidentally walked backward landing on a pile of dust. The dust got into her nostrils. It tickled. "Ahh..ah..."

Luan quickly covered her nose. "Thank you," Lola said in relief. Silence filled the room again. "AHCHOO!" The door swung open swiftly. The beast was in the room now. No hesitation in mind, it grabbed Lola and Leni in its grip. Translucent, blue streaks were bubbling up from both of the siblings. The life vanished from their eyes; their movements slowed. Their defining colors were stripped away from their being. To add a little more spice to it, the bat monster then threw them down on the ground as brown, hollow husks of their former selves. A grin spread across its face.

"If you want them back, follow me to the woods. They are not dead...think of them being in a state of stasis. I own their souls. If you do as much as squander my offer, I will feed their pitiful essences to the Outer Gods and summon the Outer Gods with or without the book."

With that being said, the bat monster propelled itself skyward breaking through the ceiling.

Part 7
The Louds were bewildered by their plight. Nyarlathotep had appeared before the family at the lounge and stole the souls of Lola and Leni, leaving them as lifeless husks. To make matters worse, the man who had earlier promised Lynn to assist them in defeating Nyarlathotep was killed alongside his group of 10 by Nyarlathotep's avatar the Haunter in the Dark.

"We have no other options, guys," Rita stated plainly, "we'll have to give up the Necronomicon." The siblings protested at the news. "But Mom, you do know what would happen if Maya got her hands on the book?" Lincoln said.

Rita frowned. The answer would be rather obvious. Yet, they could not afford to keep Leni and Lola as lifeless husks. It was better to die together with the arrival of the gods than to have that twisted god complete ownership of their loved ones' souls. With nothing left to lose, the family takes one last glance at the dead bodies of the hunters all dead from fright alone.

Patrick found himself locked firmly in a small, compressed cage. The kind you would see animals being subjected to at zoos. Maya was sitting on a stump with a flask in her hand. The flask had a gaseous substance within it that writhed about as a wretched worm. "Hope you enjoy your stay, girls," Maya smirks.

"Demon, release me this instance!" Patrick screamed.

Maya's giddy smirk morphed into an incensed snarl. "One more word like that, and I will drive you insane like that man over there."

She pointed to a tree where Lynn Sr. was propped under. He was unresponsive to her gesturing. Lynn Sr.'s eyes were glazed over in a thin shade of white. Frothing at the mouth, he became like a rag-doll without motion. She robbed him of his rational thoughts not too long after prying him away from becoming Eihort's brood's latest snack. With that threat, Patrick slammed his mouth shut undoubtedly still desiring to give Maya his say on her behavior. Maya stared at the sky, sensing that the stars were becoming aligned in preparation for the return of the Outer Gods.

The Loud family trekked through the woods by following a rancid stench that Nyarlathotep had left in his wake. In the heart of the woods, the family laid eyes on Maya. They also noticed the man in the animal cage. Beyond him, they saw that Lynn Sr. was still alive, but he didn't look up to greet them. They ran towards him, falling one on top of the other to get a reaction from him. Lincoln turned to look at Maya in anger.

"What did you do to him?"

"That's not important as of now, boy," Maya said in an annoyed tone, "did you bring the Necronomicon?"

Lynn walked up to Maya, her hands behind her back. She was heavily contemplating whether it was the wisest of decisions to give a book back to a mad god. While internally struggling with herself, Maya produced the flask in her hand catching her off guard. "Are those what I think they are?"

Maya had another half-smile on her face. A very punchable one at that. She nodded her head in confirmation to Lynn's inquiry. "Yes, yes. These little cuties are your Leni and Lola." She shook the flask, eliciting small screams from it. The family immediately became disturbed by it.

"Give them back," Lynn growled. Her teeth ground against each other.

"No, no. You know the deal," Maya remarked, "the book first, then I'll give your two sisters back."

Lynn's eyes narrowed at her. She slowly moved one of her hands. "No funny business" she heard Maya say. Sighing, she retrieved the book and placed it into Maya's open hand. The thought of swiftly grabbing it away from Maya at the last minute filled her mind, but that was an option she wasn't going to humor.

"There," Lynn finally said after taking a deep breath. "Now give us back Leni and Lola!"

A devilish grin spread across Maya's face. Before Lynn could react, a portal opened. She then threw the flask into the portal, sealing it immediately after doing so. She stifled laughter upon seeing the shocked and angered glares that the other Louds were sending her.

"What! We had a deal!" Lynn growled.

Maya acted hurt by the words. "I would've honored my side of the bargain…but I thought throwing their souls into space-time was more hilarious."

She laughed and turned to walk away with the book firmly in her hands. Lynn, Lori, Luna, and Luan reacted in anger and ran towards Maya at full speed. Before they could even hope to lay a drop on her, Maya raised her hand, lifting the sisters up with her godly powers. With the snapping of her fingers, the sisters' minds quickly left their bodies. They were reduced to brainless lunatics sprawled on the ground.

She turned to look at the other family members. Lana was still in her insane state of mind alongside her older siblings. Snapping her fingers again, trees upturned. Their roots wiggled aimlessly as snakes. They ensnared the remaining family wrapping them up. They squirmed against their restraints to no avail. She also decided to wrap a branch around Lynn's mouth for good measure.

"It's great that I have so many friends here to witness all the fun," she began. The family only grunted in response. Maya was now acting like a preteen. Granted, Nyarlathotep took the form of one but he was becoming particularly giddy over the process. Apparently ushering in the end of days was the equivalent of throwing some large, elaborate party. With that, she opened the book and began to read it:

"Yog-Sothoth knows the Gate. Yog-Sothoth is the Gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the Gate. Past, Present and Future, all is one in Yog-Sothoth. By that which is not to be named, By Azathoth, By Myself, By Shub-Niggurath, By the two snakes, By that which created the Voids, By Kadath in the Cold Waste, By the Plateau of Leng, By Yuggoth, By the moon-lens, By the imprisoned, By the free, By Samas, Gibil and Nusuku, By the High Name of Ea, By the Seven Demons, Guardian, let the Gate be opened! By Chaos, By the Void, By the Light, By the Darkness, By the Air, By the Fire, By the Water, By the Earth, Key, open the Gate! By my sacred oath, let those who want to leave come out! Let those who want to enter come in! Let us see into the Hiding Light! Let us see into the Blinding Darkness! Rend the Veil! Crush the Mirror! Reveal the Illusion! See, the Gate opens!) See, the Nodes are filled with Power! See, the Lines are filled with Power! See, the Angles twist and open!"

There came a large rumbling that shook the foundations of the woods. The sky itself was opening. Orbs began to manifest in the sky. Reality as the Louds knew it was unraveling at the seams. Maya looked at the Louds with amusement. Seeing Lincoln struggling, she removed the roots wrapped around him, dropping him on the ground. Lincoln was confused by the notion.

"The first gate had already opened, Lincoln," she said with another bubbly laugh. "Before long, the Outer Gods will be here, and they'll wipe you off the face off the Earth like a speck of dust. Heck, I know Daddy might actually be awake by then and you'd be gone anyway."

She bent down to stare directly at the young boy. "Let's make this interesting. How about you try to catch the flask I threw into space-time?"

Lincoln narrowed his eyes but allowed her to continue. "I'll give you the chance to save your two sisters. It'll liven things up a bit." She extended her hand. "What say you?"

He scanned her hand expecting some sort of trick. The rip in his dimension was widening. Orbs were descending from the sky, clearly a sign of the guardian of the gate's imminent arrival. He shook her hand. "If I win, you have to seal Yog-Sothoth and the other gods. Deal?"

Maya scowled. Darkness radiated from her. She was not intending on keeping her promise, but regardless, him trying desperately to stave off his world's imminent collapsing was fun. More of a challenge then just screwing with people and having civilizations destroy each other. She snarled beneath her tone of voice. "Deal."

Before Lincoln could react, he saw that he was looking down at his body. He felt funny. Lightweight even. He was soaring above his family. As he was slowly realizing over what this may indicate, Maya spoke up to provide clarity. "No, you're not dead; I just removed your soul from your body."

She snapped her fingers, opening another portal. The portal opened before Lincoln and was sucking him in. The last thing he heard was Maya's wicked laughter.

"Have fun in there!"

Part 8
Lincoln was traveling rapidly through space-time. There were bizarre, alien geometric shapes circling about the tunnel. Reality melted away exposing the mathematical formulas that were established to give ordinance to all dimensions. Lincoln felt a lump in his stomach, a woozy sort of feeling. The normal laws weighing down physics no longer applied as Lincoln's soul performed tasks unheard of. He came upon the first gate, one of an infinite number, just like what Maya had told him about before sending him off with the task of retrieving the flask containing his sisters' souls.

He was coming in fast; his sight nearly being overtaken by the surrealness of the situation. But from the slightest glare of his peripheral vision, he could see the flask rocketing in a frenzied position with no definite direction insight. Lincoln projected himself forward coming within hair's length of catching the flask. But each time he extended his hand, the flask was whisked away, further and further.

Maya watched the whole dilemma with giddy amusement. However, it also felt dull with being the only cognitive witness. So, one by one, she broke the siblings of their spouts of madness, saving Lana for last. They slowly regained a semblance of their normalcy in a slug's pace.

"Wh-where am I?" groaned Lana. As she said this, she looked up in the air and saw the unfathomable rows of spheres descending from the sky. Their dimension was now shifting and fading away.

"Oh, glad you could wake up, Lana," Maya said with a smile, "don't mind those balls spiraling around in chaos; just Yog-Sothoth making his grand entrance."

Lana grew incensed at the girl who tricked her. All she remembered was shortly after reviving what she thought was her dog and then racing to her room to fix the original spell. Afterward was a blur. And now some alien god thing was breaking into her world.

"Where's Lincoln?" Lori demanded.

Maya didn't respond initially. She was still in the middle of watching Lincoln happily watching him trying desperately to save his sisters' souls but fail all the same. Maya snapped her fingers, pulling up more tiny portals.

"Do you see that auditorium there?" Maya asked the siblings.

They saw a large auditorium where a major football game was being tossed. The announcers began the insights of the games per the usual. "This is the final round," he said, "with the Rookies far behind, it seems that the winners will be…."

He suddenly stumbled on his words and dropped his microphone. He saw one of the staff members mindlessly glare at the sky. "What is going on?"

The employee wordlessly pointed upward. The announcer followed the direction of his pointing and before long, he was keeling over with a burst of madness and incessant chanting. The madness flowed through the auditorium like a virus. The cameras reared; it was apparent as to what was happening. There was a gargantuan, humanoid creature recklessly tearing its way through the auditorium, leaving pure destruction behind in its wake. It possessed squid-like attributes and intimidating bat wings. Its eyes glowed a deep, mystifying yellow. The audience screamed in their maddened frenzy as they were crushed underneath the monster's debris.

"That, my dear friends, is what you'd call Cthulhu," Maya said with a sense of pride in her voice.

Lucy gasped. "But isn't he supposed to be imprisoned?"

"Very true, Lucy, very true," Maya said in a false praise, "I am impressed with your sense of understanding." She clasped her hands together. "R'lyeh as a matter of fact. But today also marks the time for his return because the stars aligned ever so perfectly. So, I woke him up to liven the party up a bit. Heck, every single god trapped in this accursed rock shall be released all at once."

"But that would result in all mankind getting destroyed!" Lucy noted.

Maya nodded her head. "After having a lot of fun screwing with you puny humans, consider this my grand, theatrical act: the extinction of mankind."

"But what about me?" Patrick asked.

Maya pat his head in a reassuring manner. "Don't worry; I'll keep you by my side as a pet."

Throughout the world's lands, monstrosities began to escape their imprisonments. Civilizations disappeared from the emergence of the gods of old. Tsunamis surged through cities from aquatic horrors sliding themselves onto the land. Maya continued to point out a few of the spectacles to the children. "That big guy that sent that tidal wave crashing into San Francisco? Father Dagon."

"All those people lost…" Leni whined.

"2,000 if I'm counting correctly," Maya noted.

Lynn growled. "You coward, if you're a god, why didn't you just destroy us already?"

Maya laughed, yet at the same time was offended a lowly mortal would dare question her powers. "I was sent by my father to act as his beacon of chaos. I can destroy you easily or drive your minds far into madness by just showing you what I really look like." She looped her fingers together. "But I consider this more fun."

She returned her sights to the main portal that she sent Lincoln into. He was dangerously close to catching the flask whilst traversing through the gates. Her smile quickly disappeared. "That brat is really dedicated to this." She shrugged her fingers. "Oh well, may as well."

Before the siblings' eyes, she transformed into her Haunter of the Dark form and entered the portal to shake things up. The portal shut behind her.

"Guys, she's going to kill Lincoln!" Lana yelled.

"Maybe the book has something in there we can use to stop her?" Luna inquired.

Lori shook her head fervently. "No, no, no. That darn book was the reason behind all of this."

They started to argue with each other while making grabs for the book. Patrick quietly watched them argue about before devolving into an irritated rage. "Just give me the book."

They looked at Patrick with suspicion. "You work for Maya, so how can we trust you?" Lori asked.

"This isn't the first time that I was wronged by her." He squeezed his hand through the bars. "Besides, I feel that this book is familiar to me."

Part 9
In the Severn Valley, there came a mighty shifting in the region. It started as a minor tremor around 1 in the afternoon but quickly evolved into an earthquake on a cataclysmic level. Buildings, houses, and vehicles disappeared down into the cracks. Some were even reported to have been asleep in their beds blissfully unaware that they were going to be engulfed with their houses. News about the apocalyptic earthquakes blared profusely.

"This is Ridley Prescott coming to you live," said the anchorman, "tremors have manifested in this region from early in the morning only to worsen."

The anchorman ceased speaking to touch his communication device on his ear. "I am now receiving word from our field investigators, and they are claiming that some…oddities are emerging right now."

Large, gelatinous blobs erupted from the crevices in waves. They were slimy and laced in multiple legs and incontrollable eyes. Crowds panicked from the onslaught. Fires began to spread from the destruction; what was initially just an ordinary day quickly disappeared into a wave of madness. In that devastation, Eihort emerged. Eihort towered over the city. It stood there without the slightest movement most likely allowing its surroundings to soak in. It was thousands of years since it was trapped in its underground labyrinth after all. A large mass arose from underneath Eihort and formed into a titanic fist. It stared down at the panicking crowds selecting random people.

Ten people were grabbed by Eihort's brood and presented before it. Eihort readied its fist further intimidating them. He singled out an obese woman. To their shock, it could speak English. "Will you accept my brood, or shall I crush you?"

The woman horrified glared at Eihort's brood fully understanding what it meant by its ultimatum. "I…I don't know." She clasped her hands together. "But please don't – "

Eihort's fist swung down on the woman sending blood and red meat raining down. This frightened the nine bystanders made to see the horrid spectacle. Eihort, reacting to its actions with indifference, turned its attention to the other victims. "Who shall accept my brood?"

The remaining nine responded that they would gladly accept its offer. Tentacles protruded from Eihort's body and infiltrated their mouths. They felt oblong, slimy shapes slide down their throats. Most assuredly it was Eihort's eggs. It was an unbearable experience made only worse when they sensed Eihort's offspring growing rapidly inside of their bodies. Eihort watched their bodies spasm and compress with utmost boredom. They violently hatched their way out of their human incubators and surrounded Eihort's spindly legs.

"B-but," a man sputtered out still in intense, excruciating pain, "I thought..."

He was cut off when Eihort's offspring emerged from the pit of his stomach in a rain of blood and meat. It crawled in an infantile matter looking at its parent in an odd show of affection.

"It is our time now, children," Eihort said with a slight hint of enthusiasm in its voice.

After waiting an untold amount of years, Eihort was more than happy to set about the end of mankind. It readied its fists and crushed more civilians in a careless waltz.

Patrick looked sternly at the Necronomicon. The fleshy texture of the book was as recognizable to him as its smell. The siblings gave him passing glances out of concern. "Be careful with that book, sir," Luan said, "it made Lana go crazy!"

Patrick nodded his head. "Yes, this book is nothing short of pure evil. It was written years ago by a mad Arab named Abdul Alhazred. He was...someone who worshiped beings called the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones. He wrote the Necronomicon as somewhat of an encyclopedia about the different races and gods that exist in our world."

Lori scratched her head. "That Maya girl was constantly going on and on about her being an Outer God whatever the heck that even meant."

"The Outer Gods work on a cosmological scale," Patrick explained, "Azathoth is the one who made this world and everything. We are nothing more than thoughts in his mind that'll fade into nonexistence when he wakes up. Maya, or as I call her Nyarlathotep, is his son and messenger."

Luna shuddered. "But why did she...or he...I don't even know decide to come here?"

He had a solemn expression on his face. "Nyarlathotep loves nothing more than to drive man to the brink of insanity. He had done this all his life. Every world he visited, he drove them to madness before feeding them to his father and the Outer Gods. He even..."

Patrick broke down and cried warm tears. "He even ate my family. Destroyed my city. Now he has me as his prisoner so I could be his servant for the rest of my life. The bastard had been eating away at my sanity for years and even goes around as my daughter Maya because he loves to kick me emotionally. Everything that he does he does because he is the Devil." He sluggishly regained composure and breathed deeply. "Heck, not even the Devil goes that far in his depravity."

He opened the Necronomicon and immediately sensed a malevolence behind the book. "I'm surprised that Lana only escaped with a little insanity."

"Why?" Lori asked.

"Because the book has a mind of its own and would've killed her the moment she looked into it for assistance."

"What?" Lisa inquired. "First these weird anomalies just come up out of nowhere and now you're saying that book is sentient?"

The book excreted dark energy. A shrill, vile drone emitted from the book's pages. "I am the spirit of that Mad Arab you so gracefully mentioned."

Patrick scowled. "Well, that isn't surprising. Someone who had dabbled with the darkness and unnatural would think to latch their soul into their life's work as a feeble attempt at a second lease of life would stoop that low."

A monotonous laugh bellowed from the Necronomicon. "What if I were to tell you why exactly your Master called for you to assist him in writing?"

Patrick's eyebrow peaked. "I'm all ears."

Several other old gods had already desecrated several other cities. The death toll was rising even from the old gods mundanely escaping their imprisonments. Cthulhu had finished his path of destruction in New York City observing as flatworm-like creatures called Yuggs shoot a dart into civilians to acquire genetic information from them. Cthulhu suddenly received a message telepathically. Lacking much of proper facial expression to make, he subconsciously rolled his tentacles before communicating.

"What is your bidding for me now, master?"

Maya was inching closer to Lincoln's soul as she made the call. "Hello, Octo-Daddy," she snickered in a hyena-like fashion.

"You know I hate being called that," Cthulhu groaned. "You never said that humans were more equipped than I gave them credit for."

"Okay, so I neglected to mention that since the last time you nearly woke up that man had created weapons of mass destruction," Cthulhu growled. "But rest be assured; by the time that I'm finished playing my games, humans will be a thing of the past and we shall rule once more. Think of it, Octo-Daddy."

Cthulhu was becoming more agitated by the second. "Destroying this city was more trouble than it was worth, mind you. Man's atomic weapons weakened my Yuggs, and worse yet, I've received word that Dagon and my brother Hastur were killed without little effort."

Maya rolled her single eye. "Well, I should probably mention that someone else is now reading the Necronomicon as we speak."

Cthulhu raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Maya laughed to herself. "I need you to go and squash that little issue for me?"

Cthulhu sighed. His master Nyarlathotep always annoyed him with his overconfidence, but now that he's fully devoting himself to playing up the role as a human girl, Cthulhu would love nothing more than to squeeze him until his head popped like a grape. "Very well, master if that is what you have envisioned me to do."

Cthulhu called in his army of Yuggs and walked into the sea leaving the city stripped and barren. In another major city, the Black Goat of the Woods, Shub-Niggurath, arrived with her offspring leaping out of her many mouths. Its Dark Young overturned cars knocked people off their feet to overcome and devour them completely.

Much like the other attacks, the army was signaled. From their helicopters, they rained down missiles. Shub-Niggurath glared at the men sending down the fire that was consuming her Dark Young. Before her eyes, her children were being torn apart so relentlessly and contemptuously, her motherly instincts kicked in at full maximum. Her plethora of writhing, black tentacles rampaged devastating buildings and burying humans under the rubble in thick sheets.

She gave a loud shriek a mixture of distraught and fury. Her tentacles swat at the helicopters as a swatter does to a fly. The passengers attempt to steer clear of the Black Goat of the Woods' swinging arms to no avail. Three were pitched at a building at full speed. Victims barely had the chance to panic as the helicopters collided with the buildings.

"Yes, this is Maurice Sterling," an anchorman reported gravely, "major destruction is being wrought on our humble city; about a 140 are reported to have died."

Mankind was being brought to its needs in a swift manner. After an untold millennium of constructing human civilization, the original rulers over the rock known as Earth have returned. After so many years being trapped away in sleep-like states dreaming of their return to reclaim what they saw was their due, it was now time. Mankind was over. Now began the reign of the cosmic gods.

Part 10
"You are my great-great-grandson."

Patrick's lower jaw hung agape. He had the idea of what Abdul was going to drop some cryptic knowledge on him, but that was something he was not expecting. The Mad Arab feared for his sorcery and otherworldly power was now making the assertion that he was related to him. Patrick only knew that his family tree stretched as far back as the 1800s, and yet, there weren't ant mentions of any Middle Eastern ancestors.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Lucy said, "I thought you were ripped apart by monsters."

Abdul laughed. "That's what they would want you to believe, my dear. But I actually became one with the Necronomicon in my pursuit of knowledge of the Old Ones and now I spend my years exposing more people to the knowledge of this book." After his explanation, he turned the discussion back to Patrick.

"You sensed it all along, Patrick," Abdul said, "my writings are familiar to you, aren't they?"

"I felt it I cannot hope to deny," Patrick replied.

"You fail to understand the knowledge that I have provided," Abdul laughed, "I sense that Eihort and Shub-Niggurath had made their walks through the towns. Many have died, but the toll will grow higher."

The ground began to shake once again rapidly knocking the group off their feet. "Who is that now?!" Lori shouted.

The trees violently swayed in the wind and snapped like twigs. Low growls bubbled as a giant form walloped. A path of destruction was left in its wake. With a deep roar, the being towered over the group and wiggled its tentacles in different directions. It was vaguely humanoid in appearance, but its shape also morphed continually. The creature was having some difficulties with what form it should be in from the way the group saw it. The High Priest of the Great Old Ones had arrived onto the scene.

"Cthulhu," Abdul shrieked, "it's so marvelous to see you; what is thou bidding?"

Cthulhu ignored Abdul's wild, fanatical ravings by emitting a white glow from his mind. The siblings and Patrick picked up on it and conversed telepathically with the Great Old One.

"My master informed me that you were trying to thwart his plans."

"Master?" Patrick remarked.

"Are you working for Nyarlathotep?" Lori growled. Her anger manifested in the form of darts that were fired at Cthulhu.

"That is something that only I should know," Cthulhu calmly explains, "have to kill all of you; nothing personal."

With that, Cthulhu tossed a large tree at the group. It rocketed towards them in the form of a comet. "Get out of the way, guys!" screamed Lynn. They leap out of the direction of the tree and it forms a large, flaming crater. Cthulhu twitched his tentacles for a moment impressed before raising his colossal arms and gathering more trees with his mind. Ramming his hands together, Cthulhu wrapped the trees around each other crafting a wad and launched it at them.

"That's too big!" Lana shouted.

"What do we do, dudes?" Luna screamed in a panic.

Patrick flipped through the pages of the Necronomicon and shouted out different chants. Abdul couldn't help but laugh haughtily at his great grandson's desperation. "Careful there, there are some spells there that could literally cause you to explode."

"That doesn't help in the slightest," Patrick remarked. He kept shouting spells and other forbidden words until a red beam erupted from the book's pages and sliced through the ball of trees. The ball was now in two halves that fell to the sides of the woods.

"Well, that is something that is admirable," Cthulhu remarked. "You humans continue to impress me."

Cthulhu beat his large bat-like wings and raised his hand. The siblings were lifted off the ground their eyes to having a white glaze over them. Cthulhu snapped his webbed fingers. They were washed over a feeling of dread. From their screaming incessantly, Cthulhu emitted a low chuckle. They were being subjected to their worst fears.

Leni found herself falling into a puddle of brown mud. Being the type of girl, she was, this was already an unfortunate scenario. Before she could react, she sensed her body getting heavier. The mud began to rise, sinking her deeper. "Mmmf!" The brown, moistness was suffocating and up to her neck. The last thing she saw before she slid under was the glimpse of a future being overrun by eldritch monsters.

Lynn was in a football field. Before her, the football manifested into her hands. The ground rumbled as the team approached. Heavy footsteps rung in Lynn's ears. The opposing team was behemoths with red eyes shining eerily. "Oh…crap."

Luan was doing one of her latest comedy routines at a birthday party dressed up as a clown. The crowd attending the birthday party had unamused expressions across their face. Luan, with the microphone in hand, shook nervously at the thought of pleasing the audience. "So, airline food, am I right?" she laughed in anxiety. The crowd looked at each other and back to her and began to boo her and pelt her with produce despite her protests.

The other siblings had different encounters but were nevertheless horrific: Lucy and Lana were being tormented by their resurrected dog; Luna's concert ended in a disaster. They were muttering incoherent gibberish. Foam rolled out of their mouths as they were mental health lessened from the Great Old One's influence.

Patrick scrambled in his cage looking for the answer to the dilemma. The siblings were once again being tossed to insanity's edge and plagued by endless nightmares. Something that Cthulhu and the other gods are unleashing on mankind without concern. He firmly held the Necronomicon in his hands.

"You better tell me how I can stop Cthulhu!"

Abdul laughed. "Our lord has finally returned to reclaim his throne and you dare me to tell you how to defeat him?"

Abdul let another bellow of laughter erupt from the book's pages. That mocking laughter suddenly ceased when a wave of pain befell him. Patrick was rapidly tearing pages of the Necronomicon out and balling them up. They turned to dust in a blaze of fire. "Stop that!"

Patrick stopped momentarily. "Tell me how to defeat Cthulhu, and I will."

Abdul scowled. "Never!"

Rip. Another page was torn out and reduced to dust. "How about now?"

"No!" he spits.

The pain resumed with Patrick at that time ripping out three pages at once. Abdul was sobbing now. The pain was now becoming unimaginable. He wailed in excruciation the thought of betraying his gods still being far from his mind. "I can do this all day!" he muttered.

Patrick smiled a toothy grin. "Good to know." He grabbed two more pages between his fingers and slowly ripped them apart. Abdul groaned and gritted his teeth. He was being ripped apart at the seams.

"Alright, alright," he groaned. "You need another omnipotent."

Patrick smiled. "Did I remember you saying something about Shub-Niggurath?"

Abdul's eyes widened in horror. "You're not suggesting that I- "

Patrick swiftly finished tearing the two pages out.

"Okay, okay I'll do it! Just no more!"

Cthulhu peaked one of his eyes. "What is the meaning of this, human?"

A purple wave rocketed out of the Necronomicon engulfing Cthulhu. "RAAHHH!" The great high priest disappeared in an explosion of purple light. When he vanished, the Loud siblings were released from his grip. "What. What happened?" Luna asked.

"Oh, Cthulhu's got a date coming his way," Patrick said reassuringly.

Cthulhu was knocked unconscious by the attack and regained consciousness in the flaming ruins of another city. "What?"

He felt the oddest sensation underneath him. It wasn't of any of the rubbish that was wrought. It was something…squishy. Millions of somethings that felt…alive. His eyes widened at the realization when he saw Shub-Niggurath towering over him with her reflecting her unbridled rage. He accidentally crushed millions of her offspring. Trying to make an explanation to the Mother Goddess would be a fruitless endeavor.

"Now, now Black Goat of the Woods," Cthulhu said in fear, "let me explain."

Shub-Niggurath's black tentacles shot out and wrapped around Cthulhu in a tight grip. Cthulhu's final glance was two tentacles getting jabbed into his eyes.

The gates opened wide, causing more unearthly creatures to crawl out of their confinements. Lincoln prepared himself as a stampede of creatures vacated their realms. Multiple-eyed beings of the unshapely visage propelled themselves forward. The flask was caught in the storm of rampaging beings forcing Lincoln to fly himself into the heart of the catastrophic rampage. Maya was on his tail. She growled deeply from her tired wings.

"Rotten child, dodging me like that." She telepathically tried to reconnect with Cthulhu hoping that at the least he got his job done. "Octo-Daddy? Octo-Dad, where are you?"

There was a deathly silence. Maya didn't think too much of it at first. After all, he was probably still peeved off that she neglected to mention mankind's atomic weapons. she waited around two seconds before trying to make contact again. "Cthulhu, I know you're mad at me for messing with you, but please report back."

There was still no response from Cthulhu's end. Maya's patience was already wearing thin, but after this insolence, she finally had enough of her servant "playing around." "That's it, you bastard, I'm gonna see what you're doing."

She shot her conscience out of the space-time tunnel in a projection. She saw that he wasn't in the woods and Patrick was now in possession of the book. "What? Did he really defeat him?"

She scanned the globe to find Cthulhu's whereabouts. The cities were still being conquered by the other gods, but one caught her attention. She saw the Black Goat munching on something. "Maybe on a few humans," she thought. It wasn't too surprising. But as she analyzed the scene further, she noticed a familiar-looking octopod head to the side. "Well, I'd be damned; she completely devoured him."

Maya's three-lobed eye pulsated. "Dammit! he was my trump card!" She glared at Lincoln who was now quickly catching up to the flask. She screeched in anger and sped at Lincoln. "When I get my hands on you accursed kid, I will rip you limb from limb!"

Lincoln turned around to see Maya furiously making a dive towards him. He tried to sail swifter to no avail. She was raking her way through the waves of monsters flying through the open gates. Lincoln hid behind one of the monsters' large frames but Maya swiftly clawed it in half. The flask was now in reach. Lincoln grabbed it at the last minute, but he was also simultaneously grabbed by her clawed foot. She started to tighten her grip around his neck. Her grin was yet to falter. "You damn human, do you really think you can trick me? I the Messenger of the Outer Gods and then leave like that!?"

Lincoln was choking from the lack of oxygen expanding to his astral projection's lungs. His eyes were becoming bloodshot, his grip on the flask lessening. Maya, or now just Nyarlathotep, wasn't merely bluffing. He was one of the most powerful beings in existence. Less so in comparison to his father, but to a mere mortal, Lincoln was just an ant. "Besides, even if you got the flask, the gods have arrived and are now in the process of bringing your precious humans to their knees!"

Lincoln grabbed a hold of Maya's foot and looked at her with determination. Even as blood leaked from his mouth. Maya laughed again at that time wrapping her talons around his face. He muttered and struggled underneath it. Her talons eclipsed his head and were being dropped onto Lincoln like a ton of bricks. "This is the end, Lincoln."

Lincoln had failed. Even though he successfully got the flask, he was still foolish enough to play this game against a being as powerful as Maya. The gates were now open, with the Ultimate Gate just now slowly beginning to open and Azathoth was now most surely going to awaken. Existence itself will be blown away with his arrival. At the least, Lincoln would die with his family.

He braced himself for the impact which never came. He looked at Maya in confusion. She too at first had little idea of what was going on until she looked down and saw that light was radiating from her dark body. "What? Not now. Not now!"

She firmly held Lincoln in her grasp and they both disappeared into a bright light. Lincoln held the flask tightly in his hands. Maya's eye widened in surprise as she was confronted by the Loud siblings and Patrick with the Necronomicon in his hands.

"I should've known you would become its master," Maya snarled, "why can't you just be my little plaything!?"

She was shot with a green beam, causing her avatar to shift around on the floor. "Damn you!"

Patrick stared at the blasphemous copy of his daughter with contempt. "You have no idea how long I waited for this moment you little monster."

Part 11
The Crawling Chaos grumbled in anger. He was robbed of his kill by his own servant who summoned him, and he was now the master of the Necronomicon. He was hoping that the influence of the book would bind him to his will and compel him to write more forbidden information to the book to further infect mankind, but it ended with Patrick being the victor. Before him, Nyarlathotep's plans were crumbling. Maya picked herself off the ground her eyes glowing that same hypnotic hue.

"How dare you, Daddy?" she growled, "after everything I've done for you, and this is how you repay me?"

Patrick scoffed. "Everything that you've done for me. Like killing my family and destroying my town?"

A red charge surged through Maya's fingertips shooting lightning at Patrick. The siblings jumped out of the way with Lincoln unwittingly shattering the flask containing Leni and Lola's souls. They swirled around Lincoln's head before merging back with their bodies. The colors returned to their bodies. Their eyes gently fluttered open.

"Uh, like what happened?" Leni asked.

"I feel like I'm going to be sick," groaned Lola. Her cheeks began to turn green.

As they were soaking in their surroundings, they were dogpiled on by Lincoln and their sisters. They neglected to realize that the two had just returned to their bodies when the two were complaining that they were squeezing them too tight.

"Sorry, guys," Lincoln joked.

"We're just so glad you're back," Luna added.

Maya growled again enraged at the reunion. Clutching her fists, she levitated into the air. Her humanoid form was beginning to crack and tear. "Oh, what a marvelous reunion," she sarcastically stated, "too bad it will end in tragedy."

Maya's body began to stretch in an inhumane fashion. Her back arched and inflated like a balloon. The group anticipated the immediate spread of blood and guts, but it never came. Instead, tentacles erupted as Maya's spine shattered into millions of pieces. Her legs bent in contortion and split apart. Like a butterfly hatching from its cocoon, three sharp legs took up a great portion of the forest. Rows of teeth lined what was once Maya's face accompanied by a hood.

Patrick's eyes widened encouraging a toothy grin from Maya. "You remember this form well, don't you, Daddy? Aw, yes; this was the form I took when I devoured your family. I think I can still feel your precious Maya's soul thrashing around in there."

Patrick struck Nyarlathotep with a purple beam originating from the book's pages. Nyarlathotep hissed in pain at the attack. He looked at his arm seeing that it was bleeding. "You'll pay for that!"

Nyarlathotep rained fire down from the heavens scorching the ground. It bubbled over Patrick and the Loud siblings, completely engulfing them. Nyarlathotep chuckled deeply. The fire died down revealing that Patrick created a barrier by holding the Necronomicon in the air.

"You are really making me angry, Daddy," Nyarlathotep complained. Patrick fired another purple beam further cutting into Nyarlathotep's eldritch flesh.

"I already told you already that I am not your damn Daddy."

Nyarlathotep's eyes flared. "This form does not scare you?"

Patrick shook his head. "You're nothing more than a conman with delusions of grandeur."

Nyarlathotep grit his teeth in anger. "You seem to have forgotten your place, mortal! I am the son of that Blind Idiot. I am the Messenger of the Outer Gods!" He lashed one of his legs at Patrick, but he jumped out of the direction of it.

"No, you're an all-powerful child mad at the world because your father didn't bother you give you a name. Well, what do you expect? He's the Ultimate Chaos after all. Do you really even think he would put any thought into naming you waste of existence?"

Nyarlathotep stopped his attack momentarily. Feelings of anger surged through his body overtaking his reasoning. "I am the Black Pharaoh!" He shapeshifted again, that time becoming a large man wearing attire worn by the royals in Ancient Egypt. He drew a scepter out of the thin air and lifted it over his head. "Have some nightmares!"

He slammed the end of the scepter on the ground. Tremors shook the ground as it opened and Eihort and his children existed in the hundreds. The Loud sisters hid behind Patrick. Lincoln looked on the ground for something to toss eyeing a large rock. Patrick recited a series of dark spells from the Necronomicon to which Abdul protested.

"Lincoln!"

Lucy was grabbed by one of Eihort's broods her foot being inside of its mouth. She clawed the ground in desperation only succeeding at clawing up some of the burnt grass. Lincoln pounced on the brood's back and brought the rock down on its crown. He bashed the rock again and again across the brood's face until an odd, green liquid seeped out of its head.

"Nice improvisation, mortal," Eihort said in a monotonous tone. "But I have many more children to throw on the chopping board."

Eihort's brood swarmed Lincoln and bit down on him. Lincoln made a grab for the rock only for it to be kicked aside in the onslaught of violence. The white-haired boy felt that he was being suffocated by the ravenous monsters.

"Yrff shrif!"

Lincoln opened his eyes seeing the brood combust and rapidly reduce to ashes. Patrick stood over the white-haired boy and smiled. The brood was boiling alive from the inside out. Eihort stood by solemnly as he too is reduced to ashes. Nyarlathotep shook angrily.

"You better stop killing all my pawns, Daddy!" he screamed.

He swung the scepter towards the group in a blind fury. Patrick swiftly took the book and held it up. When it contacted with the scepter, it shattered into pieces. Nyarlathotep looked at his prized possession shocked. He threw the pieces onto the ground. "I am still the Black Pharaoh regardless!"

Lana spoke up. "No, you are nothing!"

Nyarlathotep's form shifted again. He became a gigantic version of the Black Man the lounge owner encountered on his hunting trip. "Are you scared of me now?"

Lana responded by grabbing the rock Lincoln had and tosses it at Nyarlathotep's face. "That's for what you did to Charles!"

Nyarlathotep then took the form of an intense storm knocking the team off their feet. "Hang on, guys!" Lincoln shouted.

The winds kicked up with Nyarlathotep laughing in a manic fashion. "Now you are bearing witness to the extent of my godly powers!"

Survivors from various parts of the world caught glimpses of Yog-Sothoth's spheres and fell into bouts of fetal positions brought on by sudden bouts of insanity. The Earth was collapsing from the merging of the open gates. Odd, extraterrestrial geometries and anomalies combined in bizarre shapes. Monsters leaped out of the open gates and slaughtered their way through everything in their path.

Patrick tried to firmly hold onto the Necronomicon that was slowly loosening from his grip. He cupped a bunch of burnt grass between his fingers. He and the Loud siblings were being propelled into one of the large cracks in the ground. Nyarlathotep's shape changed once again. "It's a pity that you have to die, Patrick; I've had so much fun tormenting you and bringing up how I ate your favorite daughter!"

Patrick's eyes became bloodshot from the nerves. Gripping the book in his hand, he reopened the book. Abdul's face manifested from it a worried expression plastered on it. "You…you can't do this!"

Patrick spoke over the Mad Arab. He recited a chant over Nyarlathotep's storm. Nyarlathotep's laughter stopped when he realized what Patrick was really saying. The once prideful Outer God was now on the verge of panicking in a frenzy.

"No! No! Daddy, wait! I'll give you anything. I can bless you with good health…longevity! I'll be your personal servant if you just! -"

Patrick gritted his teeth. "I'm. Not. Your. FUCKING. DADDY!"

A yellow, all-consuming light bounced off the pages of the Necronomicon. It lit up the sky in a vibrant array of colors. Nyarlathotep tried to flee but he was caught in the crossfire. He screamed in pain from feeling his being getting torn apart from the seams. A sharp shrill escaped his nonexistent lips; his ancient skin was being incinerated and peeling back exposing his bizarre inner body. Nyarlathotep's mind broke down as flashes of his past deeds on Earth were projected to the group.

"Slavery in Egypt," Patrick said, "world wars."

All Nyarlathotep's involvements with human affairs were laid bare in front of the team. Each one was more disgusting than the last. Sicknesses. Genocides. Organized crimes. All of it could be laid at Nyarlathotep's feet. Nyarlathotep in desperation shifted back into his previous forms to alleviate the searing pain but they cracked away like shards of broken glass. One by one, his forms were vaporized. All thousand of them. He muttered some odd language, most likely some ancient alien one before collapsing. The last form he took was of Maya. He crawled over to Patrick extending his hand.

"Daddy…"

Patrick kicked Nyarlathotep in the face, flinging him backward. His skin was forming cracks all throughout each orifice. He weakly pulled himself up to look at Patrick in anger. As he was about to say something, he screamed his final death throe and burned away without much protest.

Part 12
And there it was: the great and dreaded archfiend of mankind Nyarlathotep was brought to his knees by a lowly human. The same human that he enslaved to his power, no less. And yet, even though he was stripped down to his extraterrestrial foundations and torn down from his very atoms and those atoms were further divided, the other gods were still rampaging throughout the world bringing mankind to its knees as Nyarlathotep boasted before his demise.

"That bastard must be laughing his ass off from the grave," Lynn growled.

"Lynn, language!" Lincoln said, pointing to Lily to emphasize his point. Lynn rubbed her back in embarrassment.

Lisa turned to look at Patrick. "So, what exactly did you do?"

Patrick looked at the Necronomicon in his hands. "It was pretty simple; during my rapid succession of reading the book's contents, I discovered a method of using all of the dark magic from the book at once and mastered it into one projectile beam."

Lisa nodded her head as a means of pretending to understand what he was saying, but she was still perplexed by it. "Just know that it was enough to put that god down permanently."

She sighed in relief. "But what about all these other atrocities running amok?"

Luan spoke up. "Yeah, after all, Yog-Sothoth here now."

The spheres of Yog-Sothoth entered the earthly realm, driving the Earth to its final death throes. The spheres bounced around and merged with little rhyme nor reason. Tentacles manifested alongside the spherical orbs. From the looks of it, Yog-Sothoth nearly looked like a sentient wad of spaghetti. Reality began to ripple and fade in and out.

"For eons, I and my kin have waited to return to your realm to once again rule over you worthless insects," Yog-Sothoth said. He spoke in a whispery tone of voice which didn't indicate much. From what little the gang could perceive; he did sound slightly agitated.

The gates were now open. All except for the Ultimate Gate where Azathoth laid dormant. Yog-Sothoth saw through his many eyes that Patrick was holding the Necronomicon. "So, you defeated Nyarlathotep? Fascinating."

Patrick held the book firmly in front of the Outer God. "That's right, and I can use it to even destroy the likes of you."

Yog-Sothoth chuckled through his spheres. "I am the key and guardian of the gate; I see everything. Nothing is hidden from me!"

The Loud kids looked at each other, feeling queasy. "What is happening?" Lori asked.

They were phasing in and out with their energy depleting. They turned their attention to Lily. Lily was crying from the pain she was feeling. She was additionally trying to say something to the others but completely fades away in Leni's arms.

"LILY!" Lori screamed.

Patrick looked at Yog-Sothoth in anger. "What have you done to her?"

Yog-Sothoth answered in the same bland manner as before. "I have control over time itself, human: past, present, and future."

Patrick's eyes widened at the implication. He had control over all aspects of the past. That would even include the children's pasts. Yog-Sothoth was just going to erase them from existence. Him giving the answer in the same emotionless manner made it worse.

Lisa looked down at her hands realizing that she didn't have much time left. She collapsed to the ground in an act of acceptance. "My only regret is that one time I used Lori's driver license fo…" She disappeared before she could finish her sentence.

"Lisa, Lisa?" Lori wept, "what were you going to use my license for!? "

Lola and Lana were fading fast as time was rapidly moving forward. "No, this can't be happening!" Lana shouted. Lola wept bitterly. She had just got her body back, but it was meaningless now since she would be a thing of the past. The two twins clung onto each other as their bodies disintegrated and vanished into thin air.

Lucy was next. For a gothic girl who was obsessed with vampire shows and the macabre, fading into nonexistence was something she obviously wasn't keen with. "Sigh." Her final sigh was more depressing than all the other instances in her life.

Lincoln was pulsating in excruciating pain as he was rolling around on the ground. "Patrick, do something!"

Patrick skimmed through the Necronomicon. "Ah, here it is!"

He was suddenly silenced by Yog-Sothoth. "Not so fast."

Patrick's body began to disintegrate in a drastic rate. "I can't afford to have you undo the victory of my kin," Yog-Sothoth said plainly. Patrick's legs wobbled and grew weaker causing him to throw his weight onto the ground. He was in terrible anguish, but he kept trying to read the spell despite the displeasure. "Zazii, Zamaii, Puidmon the Powerful," he grunted.

Lincoln convulsed on the ground causing his older siblings to run to his side. "Lincoln don't…" Luna cried.

"It's alright, guys, it's…"

Lori clutched Lincoln in her arms to comfort him whilst simultaneously choking back tears. Lincoln weakly caressed her cheek before vanishing into nothingness. Lynn shouted in anger, going as far as to try to attack Yog-Sothoth with everything she had in an attempt of keeping herself together despite the pain searing through her body. It wasn't all too hard to believe considering her athletic activities, but she held herself long enough before succumbing to the unraveling of time.

Lori, Leni, Luna, and Luan were left. Luan as the rite of passage was, started to slip away as well. She tried to joke about her plight and put on a forced smile to hide her pain. Yog-Sothoth levitated in place with his spheres endlessly merging and pulling apart at random. "The Blind Idiot should be awake now. Just let it happen."

"Zazii, Zamaii, Puidmon the Powerful, Sedon the Strong, El, Yod, He, Vau, He,"

Yog-Sothoth's spheres lit up like Christmas lights. "What is this?"

He looked at Patrick in surprise. Even though his legs and pelvis were gone, he was still trying his hardest to banish Yog-Sothoth back outside space and time. Yog-Sothoth increased the rate of his disintegration, making it so that only his upper body and arms were left. Yet, Patrick continued onward.

"Humans really are interesting," Yog-Sothoth said. He chuckled to himself again.

Patrick's upper body and left arm ceased to exist; he now saw that he was about to fall unconscious. He could barely read the spell written in the Necronomicon from the physical pain. He finished the chant now with being reduced to a head and fainted.

"Hey, hey, Patrick?"

Patrick was assaulted by the light from the sun. He opened his eyes slowly and discovered Lincoln standing over him with a concerned glare. "Lincoln?"

He bounced upward to look around to process his surroundings. Not only was Lincoln back, but all his sisters were back unscathed. Patrick smiled in relief from it. "I thought I'd lost all of you guys."

Lincoln laughed. "By the time you passed out, Luan and Luna were gone. Lori said that you completed the chant to banish Yog-Sothoth before you faded out."

"Aw, I see," Patrick said. Sure enough, Yog-Sothoth was removed from the earthly realm and once he left, the gates slammed shut behind him. Some of the monsters that were spotted around the world were suddenly sent out, being cased back into the gates from where they escaped.

Lisa pulled up a report on the state of the world. "Looks like Shub-Niggurath and a few other of those gods got wiped out by the time that Yog-Sothoth was banished."

"That's lovely news," Leni said.

Patrick turned his attention towards Rita and Lynn Sr. They were slowly regaining their healthy mental states. But they still possessed a smidge of oddness that was caused by them being turned insane by Nyarlathotep. "Kids?" Lynn Sr. said, "where are we?"

The Loud siblings couldn't help but tackle their parents in one big family hug. Patrick looked on with a smile on his face, but he also felt a great sadness. Lincoln walked up to him when he noticed it. "Sorry about your family, Patrick."

Patrick sighed. "It's alright, Lincoln; with Nyarlathotep gone, I am free to take charge of my own life."

"Well, we just want you to know that we're grateful for your assistance," Lori said.

As she finished speaking, a round object landed on the ground. "What's that!?" Lana yelled.

"The sky had a baby!" Leni screamed. She began running in a circle before accidentally hitting her head on an upturned tree. Patrick walked towards the object and noticed that it was actually an organic coating of some kind. He bent down to touch it.

"Patrick, wait, don't!" Lincoln shouted.

Patrick lightly touched the object's outer shell and it rolled open. Inside was a baby. "A baby?!" the Loud siblings shouted in unison. Sure enough, it was a baby; human-like in appearance, but also possessing green eyes. Patrick scratched his chin deep in thought.

"Ah, no, we do not have time for this!" Lynn shouted. She grabbed a large rock and held it over the baby's head. Patrick grabbed her arm at the last minute.

"Why did you stop me?" Lynn pouted. "If it's Nyarlathotep, we have to-"

Patrick shushed her. "Yes, yes, I know what it looks like."

He collected the infant in his arms eliciting a coo from the baby. "I feel that it'd serve Nyarlathotep a greater disservice if I raised his daughter and made her good. It would wound him immensely if he were to see that his own flesh and blood would not carry his moniker of the Crawling Chaos."

He rubbed the infant's head in a reassuring manner. The Loud siblings looked at each other momentarily still not being completely on board with what he was suggesting, but at the very least, Patrick had a semblance of a family after everything he had gone through.

"So, what do we do now that Royal Woods was destroyed?" Lana asked.

Lisa shrugged her shoulders in a state of boredom. "I've heard that there are at least some people who managed to survive there."

The family's eyes lit up. "Guys, we have to go back!" Lincoln proclaimed, "after all, Clyde and his dads might be in those numbers!"

Lincoln started to run in a straight direction practically leaving his family in the dust. "Wait up, Linc!" Lynn shouted as she was pursuing him. The family also raced after them. While the cosmological threat that the gods represented was dealt with, for the time being, one could never be too careful.