"Wait a second! I think I've heard of this thing before!"
Roy's thoughts instantly flashed back to his previous life.
Back then, there was this super popular mythology setting online called the Cthulhu Mythos. It was created by a 19th-century fantasy novelist named Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Some folks might not know the name, but Lovecraft's ideas have seeped into tons of art and media.
A lot of people have probably watched movies or shows with a Cthulhu vibe without even realizing it.
Roy vaguely remembered that The Color Out of Space was part of Lovecraft's novel series. He hadn't read the original book, though—just knew the name.
"We wander the cosmos, and by chance, we arrived at this backward planet. Merge with us, and you'll unlock the mysteries of the universe! Come to us!"
This thing kept referring to itself as "we." Huh, maybe it's some kind of collective mind? Definitely not human.
"Quit yapping! You barge into someone else's home without even a hello? Time to die!"
No matter how much The Color Out of Space tried to pretty itself up, it was still an alien species from outer space, and it was seriously messing up Earth's ecosystem.
Roy's eyes began to glow with chaotic energy. Two gray beams shot toward the glowing, beautiful woman-like figure. In a blink, she was reduced to a puddle of vibrant, multicolored liquid.
The chaotic beams didn't stop there—they pierced right through the massive glowing entity.
The ground shook violently, and the entire oil field quaked.
Suddenly, the glowing entity sprayed a torrent of colorful foam at Roy, accompanied by a blinding white light.
The whole cave was engulfed in that white light. Roy's vision went blank—he couldn't see a thing. It felt like he was standing in a psychedelic, rainbow-colored world. Everywhere he looked, it was just… colors.
Am I back in some mental realm again?
Roy frowned, ready to transform into his angel form and bail out of this weird world. But then, a distorted, humanoid figure appeared in front of him. It looked a lot like Jennifer.
Ugh, it's turning into people I know to mess with me? Roy was not happy.
"Why won't you merge with us?"
"I'm doing just fine on my own. Why would I want to merge with you?"
As he spoke, Roy shifted into his angel form, staring coldly at the fake Jennifer.
Another distorted figure appeared, this one resembling Nidi.
"If you merge with us, we can share memories and knowledge. Isn't that a good deal?"
Roy crossed his arms.
"Nope. I think people deserve some privacy."
A third figure popped up, looking like Heather.
"But everyone else has accepted us. They willingly merged with us."
That got Roy heated.
"Willingly? They were tricked! Don't think I'm clueless!"
A fourth figure appeared—Penny.
"At least in that moment, their hearts were fulfilled. Isn't that enough?"
"So you feed them fake illusions to make them happy, then 'eat' them? Where I'm from, that's called shameful deception!"
A fifth figure showed up, this time Elizabeth.
"What's fake? What's real? Is it better to live in a miserable physical world or a blissful mental one?"
That… kinda made sense. Wait, hold up! Why was he even entertaining this?
Damn it! Trying to rope me into a philosophy debate?
Roy realized The Color Out of Space was pulling him into a mental trap. It probably knew it couldn't beat him in a fight, so it was trying to confuse him with deep thoughts.
Philosophy's the worst when you overthink it. You start spiraling, and it never ends. Since no one ever wins a philosophy debate, Roy decided to just shut it down and clear his mind.
"Get lost! Stop bugging me!"
Roy summoned a holy light sword and effortlessly sliced through the illusory figures The Color Out of Space had created.
But the mental world kept spawning new figures, each spouting more vague philosophical nonsense. Their voices were like an annoying buzz, drilling into Roy's head and driving him nuts.
"Enough already! Sword of Heaven!"
Channeling the Archangel Michael's ultimate move, Roy split the mental world in half.
In the next second, he was back in reality, just in time to see The Color Out of Space trying to wrap him up with rainbow-colored energy tentacles.
Wait a minute, why do these tentacles look so familiar?
It hit him—The Color Out of Space's tentacles were weirdly similar to his Dark Touch ability.
Dark Touch, activate!
Six pitch-black tentacles sprouted from Roy's back, stabbing into The Color Out of Space's body like syringes.
"How do you have that?!" it screamed.
The Dark Touch was like tapping into an artery. A flood of energy poured out, overwhelming Roy. It felt like he'd eaten way too much.
Even when he fought the Kraken, he hadn't felt this stuffed. The Color Out of Space's energy was on another level.
But if he kept draining it, Roy risked overloading his body and exploding.
Is there something that can hold this energy?
Then it clicked—the Eye of the Reaper, hanging around his neck. If it could absorb Samael's power, maybe it could handle The Color Out of Space's energy too.
Roy grabbed the Eye of the Reaper and channeled the excess energy into it.
The Eye of the Reaper was like a bottomless pit, greedily sucking up every bit of The Color Out of Space's energy like a kid who could never get full.
Now The Color Out of Space was the one in trouble. It had planned to overwhelm Roy, but he was holding his own.
It couldn't outfight him, and it couldn't outlast him. Only one option left.
Run!
Roy noticed cracks forming on the surface of the giant glowing entity, like an eggshell about to shatter.
Then, a vibrant energy pillar shot out from the top, piercing through the ocean floor and rocketing toward the sky.
Roy instantly knew The Color Out of Space was making a break for it. If it escaped, all his hard work would be for nothing.
Gotta take this thing down!
The problem was, The Color Out of Space was a pure energy being. Roy's only effective weapons were his Dark Touch and the chaotic beams from his Nephilim form. Those wouldn't be enough to finish it quickly.
Unless…
Roy gripped the Eye of the Reaper and muttered under his breath.
"Reaper, buddy, I've fed you a ton of energy. Help me take this thing out, and I'll store all the extra juice in this gem!"
As if answering, the Eye of the Reaper glowed faintly, and Roy's vision shifted to that familiar gray world.
By now, The Color Out of Space had broken through the ocean floor, causing seawater to flood the oil field.
Time was running out!
Did energy beings have a weak spot?
They sure did.
The Eye of the Reaper's ability to find a "death point" was more of a conceptual thing. As long as something existed in this dimension, it could be killed.
When Roy looked at the ascending Color Out of Space, he saw a moving death point.
Hitting it wouldn't be too hard. The real challenge was The Color Out of Space's speed. If it got out of the ocean before Roy could strike, he'd never catch up.
Chaotic energy gathered in his eyes again. This time, Roy cranked the chaotic beams to max power.
Two thick gray beams merged into one, blasting toward the rising Color Out of Space.
It was fast—crazy fast—but not light-speed fast. If it was, Roy wouldn't even bother chasing it.
Sensing the threat, The Color Out of Space started zigzagging, making it harder for Roy to hit the death point.
No big deal. Just a little extra work.
Roy slipped into bullet-time mode, slowing the world down and fine-tuning the beams' trajectory.
The Color Out of Space kept juking, but it couldn't shake the beams. They were locked on.
Finally, the beams pierced the death point, killing The Color Out of Space on a conceptual level.
[Ding! Obtained The Color Out of Space's Fate Chest! Open it now?]
The vibrant energy pillar exploded, lighting up the dark ocean floor like a massive firework show.
Roy shot out of the oil field, absorbing the loose energy. His Dark Touch was stretched to its limit, and he knew a lot of energy was going to waste.
But whatever—he had energy to burn now.
With The Color Out of Space's main body dead, the colorful, glowing substances started fading fast. Roy had to collect as much as he could before it all vanished.
The next morning, a naked man floated on the ocean's surface. It was Roy, who'd spent the whole night diving and surfacing to gather energy. He was exhausted.
Right now, he just wanted to float, soak up some sun, and chill.
But his peaceful moment didn't last long. Some dumb seagull decided to mess with him, pecking at him like he was lunch.
Roy wasn't having it. He grabbed the bird by the neck, roasted it with hellfire, and ate it as a snack.
After a night of nonstop work, Roy was starving. One seagull was barely an appetizer.
Then, he shifted into Nephilim form and flew off to find Jack's oil tanker.
On the tanker, nobody had slept. Everyone in the dining hall looked like pandas with dark circles under their eyes.
"Do you think Mr. Black's coming back?" someone asked.
It had been almost 12 hours since Roy left. The crew was starting to doubt.
Especially after last night's light show in the ocean—flashes and glows brighter than an Olympic closing ceremony. It was obvious a huge battle went down. If Roy had won, wouldn't he be back by now?
Even as dawn broke and the ocean went dark, there was no sign of Roy.
Some folks on the ship were already assuming he was dead.
Janice shot to her feet, glaring at the guy who spoke.
"No way! Roy's not dead!"
Her outburst made Jack's face darken. He tugged at her clothes, trying to get her to sit, but Janice stood her ground.
"Janice, sit down!" Jack barked, his tone sharper than ever.
Their age-gap marriage had always been gentle and loving, but today, Jack's attitude was different.
Janice stared defiantly at Jack, making him feel awkward. The crew in the dining hall pretended to mind their own business, desperate to leave but too scared to move and catch Jack's wrath.
The tension hung heavy until a voice broke the silence.
"Hey, got any food? I'm starving!"
Janice whipped around and saw Roy standing in the doorway.
"Roy!"
She rushed to him, throwing her arms around him in excitement.
Jack reached for her but missed.
As Roy and Janice hugged, the crew regretted being in the dining hall instead of their cabins.
Jack's face cycled through emotions, but in the end, he could only watch helplessly as his young, gorgeous wife embraced another man.
What could he do? Forgive her, of course.
---
That afternoon, after eating his fill, Roy was ready to crash and recover. But then Janice barged into his room.
"Janice? What're you doing here?"
Janice looked at him shyly.
"Sorry, Roy. I tried to hold back, but I can't. I feel like a volcano about to erupt. If I don't do something, I'm gonna explode!"
Roy smirked. All that poetic talk just to say you want to hook up?
"Does Jack know about this?"
To his surprise, Janice nodded.
"I talked to Jack. He's okay with forgiving me… just this once. Roy, can you make my wish come true?"
She gazed at him like a starstruck fan, leaving Roy a bit speechless.
But what really blew his mind was Jack. He actually agreed to this? Is this just how America works?
Sure, some elite Americans played around, but that was usually in political marriages. Janice was clearly dependent on Jack—she didn't have the leverage for this kind of arrangement.
After thinking it over, Roy figured it was probably his own intimidating presence that forced Jack to compromise.
Well, when a beautiful woman throws herself at you, you don't say no. Call it a fun fling.
With that sorted, Roy playfully lifted Janice's chin with his finger, looking into her eyes.
"Janice, you sure you're ready for this?"
"I'm sure!"
Janice (Kelly Brook)