Old Core of Chu'ulel

Ancient Bulletin: "By the order of the Guardian of the Sacred FlameYajaw K'ahk', and the most benevolent and glorious Holy SovereignTi'sakhuun, His MajestyKalomte Och-Kan, the cursed land is hereby sealed off, effective immediately. All members of the alliance are strictly prohibited from entering."

Ancient Bulletin: "Those who enter without authorization will be officially recognized as enemies of the alliance. This is the joint declaration of (...) Nanatzcayan, Meztli, Huitztlan, and Teteocan."

Ancient Bulletin: "...Compatriots, family, brothers and sisters who have dedicated themselves to the alliance's inexorable triumph..."

Ancient Bulletin: "...The most benevolent... has allocated a batch of new mechanisms from (...) to support transportation, (...) and underwater salvage..."

Ancient Bulletin: "...Forward! Forward! Move forward at all costs... For the glorious future of the alliance, for our freedom and glory, for a homeland free from the evil dragons's [sic] oppression..."

Vaguely-Readable Writings: "...Without permission... it is forbidden to operate the control lever... Accidental falls... have already caused the deaths of three workers..."

Ancient Bulletin: "Glory forever unto to the Guardian of the Sacred FlameYajaw K'ahk', the Great PeacemakerQ'atal Tzij the most benevolent Holy SovereignTi'sakhuun Och-Kan."

Ancient Bulletin: "Given the slow overall progress of the drainage works in this area, minor adjustments are being made to the rotation system to ensure the alliance's inexorable triumph."

Ancient Bulletin: "Workers will be divided into three teams, each team working sixteen hours, rotating every two days. Teams with exceptional performance will receive extra grain provisions."

Ancient Bulletin: "The triumphant victory of draining the accumulated water is close at hand. Once the ditches are completed, the water pump can operate normally. Push a little harder!"

Barely-Legible Bulletin: "...May glory eternal be... Peacemaker... Most benevolent... Och-Kan..."

Barely-Legible Bulletin: ...Artisans Mahutzintl, Tlanalco, and... those responsible for the construction of the water pump... deliberately slowed down, causing delays... The benevolent... imposed no punishment... only suspended rations for three weeks...

Barely-Legible Bulletin: "...The stone key that activates the water pump mechanism... is kept at... no one is allowed to use it without permission... until other artisans are assigned..."

The deeper we dug, the stronger that indescribable, nauseating stench became. Perhaps it was due to the pervasive dampness and fungi, for those pale molds and indescribably strange mineral deposits all seemed to emit a toxic odor, but that was not the only source of unease here. To begin with, (...) felt that there was something "unlucky" about this place, but even she did not offer up any explanations even more far-fetched than that at the time. But as the work progressed, a craftsman from (...) suddenly lost his wits — screaming, laughing, crying, and all the while babbling incoherently about how he had seen an almost impossibly large, hideous, and swollen black silhouette in the watery depths; and of how it had shrieked a terrifying, profane song, commanding him to kneel down before the "Master." The supervisor took him away, but a sense of unease had already begun to spread among the workers. The surging foam and swirling of the foul water could be explained as regular elemental phenomena, but those intermittent sounds and whispers... even I could not find any reasonable explanation for those.

 

From behind those ancient walls — or perhaps from beneath them, though I could not say for sure — I could hear a sound, unmistakably clear yet at the same time faint, furtive, and muffled, as if something was scurrying through the walls. The laborers whispered among themselves, trembling with an incoherent, almost crazed terror as they mumbled obscurely of an unimaginable, profane curse that lurked beneath the water's depths. What we had been doing, they said, had awakened "it" from countless eons of slumber. No one would leave this ruin alive, and even if they did, they could never tell anyone about it — for listeners would just dismiss such claims as the ramblings of lunatics.

 

I could not find a rational explanation for this loathsome, frightful terror; for by all accounts, those damp, fungus-covered walls that supported the vaulted ceiling should have been built from solid rock, and the echoes they produced when tapped confirmed this. Yet those terrifying rustling sounds continued to reverberate through the dead of night, jarring me into the confusion of half-wakefulness from what was uneasy sleep to begin with.

 

Our supervisor reassured us that she herself had not heard anything unusual, attributing our hallucinations to lack of rest. She even applied for extra grain rations for us, out of sympathy for our plight. Yet the fear that had spread among the laborers was so intense that...

 

(The long segment that follows has been deliberately erased, and it cannot be read.)

Artisan's Memo (I): "...There's a small trail behind a stone wall to the north that leads to the top of the waterfall. It can be used as a storage area..."

Artisan's Memo (I): "...I left a few marks, just in case I forget the way later..."

Artisan's Memo (I): "...Sayani's injuries took a turn for the worse. The humidity's to blame... I told her to rest, but she laughed it off... saying it would slow the squad down, resulting in everyone missing out on extra provisions..."

Artisan's Memo (I): "...Once night falls, I'll sneak up to her with a torch to cauterize her wound while the others aren't watching, or her limbs will rot, too..."

Page #1

...Sayani died. Maybe today, maybe yesterday — I'm not sure. In this dim light, it's hard to tell the living from the dead... People are lying all over the place, splayed out on the ground like alpacas in their pen, and there's a foul stench in the air...

 

...No one had the strength to bury her, so we just threw her into a ditch...

 

...They're all cursing and swearing... But who exactly should they direct their hatred at? Even they can't say...

 

...Just like they said, everyone's working for themselves, for their brothers and sisters in the alliance, not for the evil dragons that once enslaved us... But it's not like they can curse themselves...

 

...Just have to do it... If we can't finish digging this ditch in the next five days, we'll lose our rations... And then we'll all die, just like the ones who were in charge of the pumps...

 

...What even lies down there, under the water? Who knows...

Page #2

Whatever it is, it's not going to save us.

Page #3

...Excavation of the ditch and drainage wells is finally complete... Twenty-three of us came here. Now, only fifteen remain...

 

...As long as the pumps are started, it'll all have been worth it... Those who have given their all for the alliance will be remembered by it as heroes... Every one of us will become an Ahpub, an Ixquieh, even... a Yupanqui. At least... so they tell us.

Page #4

May the curse of (...) descend upon the bloodline of the usurper Och-Kan. May his people end up being buried in desecrated wasteland, may his grain rot like untreated corpses, that it releases a stench that even flowing water may not cleanse. May his name be burned in the fire, five times first, then five times more. This curse was inscribed by the craftsman Manqu from (...). May it not fade even after nineteen four hundred-year cycles have passed.

 

He dispatched us (...), then sealed off (...), intending for all the laborers who knew of the secrets of the Secret Source Automatons to be burned alive here, in order to conceal the path to (...).

 

Praise be to (...), for I did not die among the unholy flames. I...

 

(The long segment that follows has been deliberately erased, and it cannot be read.)

Page #5

This is the fifth time I have awoken since arriving here.

 

After applying (...), my burns have almost all healed, and the risk of infection is now negligible. I would hazard that I will be able to walk normally again after sleeping twice more, at most.

 

I do not know whether I should record all that I have seen, for neither words nor logic can explain the things I have experienced. Yet, unless there is a way to erase these memories, I do not have it in me to suppress the urge to write it all down. As I record it here, I pray to (...) that no one will ever read this.

 

Back when it happened, beneath that giant, grotesque statue, I met a young woman within Och-Kan's fire.

 

Slowly and calmly she walked towards me, as if the fire were nothing more than a gentle spring breeze. Her face... I have never seen anything like it. Even the purest of crystals could not be fashioned into the likeness of such skin, nor could the purest of turquoise be carved into such eyes. Yet for reasons I cannot

Page #6

explain, that face, which should have been the very picture of beauty, was... so nauseatingly repulsive.

 

I did not know who — nor even what — she was. I opened my mouth and wanted to beg her, beg her to save me, yet my lips... had been burned beyond all recognition, and I could not utter even a single word.

 

She smiled, a smile laced with a cruel and arrogant malice. She held my face in her hand, and from those turquoise eyes, golden tears fell into mine.

 

And then I saw it.

 

A colossal creation, far larger than the rolling mountains, shining with a brilliance more dazzling than obsidian, floating in the sky like a volcanic cloud. Around it circled countless giant metal birds, greedily sucking away at its dark blood. I saw shadows driven by flowing flames, climbing high from distant horizons to the moon up in the sky, from which tremors and sighs were sent out

Page #7

unimaginable distances via but a single string woven from gold and white copper. She sneered by my ear, as if all humanity had achieved up to this point was nothing more than child's play, as utterly inconsequential as the doings of ants, of beings capable only of crawling around beneath the heavens, trembling away while seeking their inglorious graves. And what they fought, what they were pitted up against, was an inveterate foe as formidable as an entire world. Through those turquoise eyes, those pupils whose beauty was almost terrifying, I saw naught but endless, unfathomable darkness and void; a space that no language could describe, unlike anything I have ever seen in the brief few decades of my transient life. So it was that I began to scream, stumbling as I crawled along that path, but even my blood-curdling screams were drowned out by her laughter, and dissipated without a trace.

 

When I next woke, I was lying here alone. I did not dare look back, lest those profane, forbidden things, those things that no person should ever know, might catch and tear me to pieces. The others must all have died, perishing in the flames of Och-Kan's fire.

Page #8

Perhaps those were not her tears. Perhaps they were simply drops of water that fell from that giant, grotesque stone statue behind her. Perhaps there was nothing in the fire, and that woman was just an illusion of my delirium, something I imagined as I stood on the precipice of death. But now, none of that matters; for I am still alive, and that is all that counts.

 

Och-Kan thinks that the secret passages of the ineffable city are now unbeknownst to all but him, and that his reign will last for a thousand years. He is mistaken; for at most, it will last a thousand weeks.

Page #9

...My burns have now completely healed. It's high time I got going...

 

...Where to? I do not know. Today, even the Flower-Feather Clan cannot guarantee safety. Their First Speaker's successor is loyal to Och-Kan...

 

...Or perhaps I could seek the protection of Yupanqui... As ever, the old general leads a solitary life. Forget informants, he keeps not a single servant around him...

 

...As long as he remains interested in the underground road network created by the ancient dragon wrights, I can be sure that he will keep my secrets from Och-Kan...

 

...Regardless, let the name of Manqu the craftsman be forgotten, along with these accursed ruins...

...The Cuauhtli Scouts that were dispatched have returned. According to our preliminary investigation, there are ruins that extend to a considerable depth beneath the city... completely submerged... If what (...) said is true, deep within the ruins, there should still be...

 

...If Ixquieh were still alive, perhaps she could have created something to quickly drain away the water...

 

...We must find a way to drain the water away. Otherwise, we cannot continue...

...Laborers were requisitioned from each tribe, one from every ten households, in the name of waterworks construction...

...Aside from the First Speaker of the Flower-Feather Clan's refusal to recruit laborers, no other tribes objected...

...Storming out unauthorized not only constitutes a blatant abuse of power, but demonstrates utter disregard for our oaths of alliance...

 

...Whatever the cost, the accumulated water must be drained away before winter arrives...

...According to the supervisor's report, the laborers are highly motivated...

There have been a few instances of slacking off, but progress has not been affected...

...Any slacking is a betrayal of the alliance and those found guilty must be...

...The total number of people in the city exceeds... No potential threat can be ignored. We cannot afford to risk the lives of the tens of thousands he saved...

 

...If Uenuku had not left the alliance due to (...), and if the Oceanid who once followed him had not gone too, exploring this place would be much easier...

 

...Human laborers are too inefficient and lacking in strength...

...It is precisely because of this that they are powerless against the transcendent...

...And that is why all that is beyond human comprehension must be eradicated...

 

...The burning sensation that flows beneath my skin still lingers. Blood was let as usual, yet (...) has still not been alleviated...

...While I am still clear-headed, I must remember to order (...), have him reward hardworking laborers with extra grain rations...

...Evidently, as mentioned by (...), this statue is a construct from an older era. From its appearance, it seems that the dragon craftsmen never managed to complete its lower half. Perhaps they were interrupted by some kind of unexpected emergency...

 

...The Secret Source Automata have shown no hostility... It may be assumed that there must be at least one control center; otherwise, they would not be able to operate independently...

 

...With some slight modifications to the Phlogiston Engravings, we may be able to...

 

...According to the supervisor, the laborers' spirits remain high... Apparently, they cheered with great fervor during inspections...

 

...The report makes mention of superstitious rumors... Clearly a lack of understanding regarding Phlogiston Engravings... Dismiss most of the laborers and keep only a small team... to avoid...

"...The secret... necessary sacrifices... anything it takes..."

 

(Most of the rest of the content has been burned and is illegible.)

...She called me the fated Sovereign, speaking gently by my bedside of this so-called glory, the glory of vicious beasts. It was... nauseating...

 

...Her words were exactly the same as those of (...) ...Xbalanque, now he was someone who never appeared in any prophecy. Not even those ignorant, savage beasts foresaw his existence...

 

...In other words, he was a true "human," a Sovereign who belongs solely to "humanity"...

...And for that reason, he alone is the one that all should follow... No one but him deserves to be called a "god"...

 

...

 

...Without holding anything back, she showed me all there was to know about that ancient empire. That ladder that climbed up to the firmament, those weapons converted from (...), those cannons that could tear (...) to pieces, those (...) that fell from the three moons, the research about (...) and wishes...

...It sent chills down my spine... We must not give them any chance to regain their former glory, or humanity will be powerless to stand against them...

 

...Efforts to seek reconciliation are futile, unless they submit fully to humanity's chains, for otherwise...

...The memories she possesses... the energies by which the Source Mechanisms may be controlled... can still be harnessed by humans...

 

...Whilst ensuring that she does not perish before her energy has been fully depleted, we must find a way to completely strip her of her authority...

...We must no longer allow the various tribes to overstep their bounds and claim kingship, as they did before. There is no benefit in having too many rulers; it will lead only to endless internal strife, just as it did with the barbarians of the northern sea and the desert realms...

 

...Let there be but one ruler here, one sovereign, one god. Any dispersal of authority is an opportunity for humanity's enemies. Any possibility of revolt must be eliminated...

 

...If the history I read from her memories was true and accurate beyond any shadow of doubt, humanity could surely advance, even where those wicked beasts stumbled and fell... So long as we maintain our caution, this power can smash anything that would dare stand in the way of humanity seizing its own destiny...

 

...Before that, all offerings to (...) must be ceased... This is the sole variable involved. The souls of traitors must not be afforded the chance to entice the living — the dead should stay peacefully dead...

 

...That way, I shall not put his name to shame... Humans, only humans, those he saved, shall become the rulers of all. They will not bow to the Night, nor must they submit to the Flame...