Strangulation always brought pleasant thoughts and endless desires for carnage, forcing Su Ming to pause several times to calm down before continuing his work.
Monac watched as the monsters on Deathstroke devoured creatures hundreds times their size, causing him to vomit more severely.
As a mage, during astral projections, he had encountered numerous strange and bizarre creatures, many of whom were unknowingly possessed by these beings from alternate dimensions.
What appears to be ancient London streets to Deathstroke appear as a colorful jungle to Monac; humans are never alone.
If a mage uses 'astral vision' when going out, he can see many people on the streets, walking and living while topped with extrimensional creatures like giant centipedes or sea stars.
Various alternate dimensional plants cling to the surrounding buildings, material symbiotes from the third dimension, appearing as mottled as shipwrecks under the sea.
These extradimensional creatures feed on human emotions, while the plants accelerate the weathering of buildings, though most of them have no effect on health.
Only a few of them harm humans. The loss of some emotions is not a big deal; emotions are a renewable resource, and British people are known for their politeness.
In the past, when talking to acquaintances, they would start with the weather. After losing some emotions, they still talk about the weather; what's the difference?
Most of the time, mages ignore them.
This is a matter of dimension balance; mages will only expel those who harm humans.
The challenge lies in persuading ordinary people to accept exorcism rituals.
Not everyone believes in this. Monac was better off when he was younger. Before the Victorian Era, magic and sorcery had a market.
In recent years, with the development of science, more and more people disbelieve mysticism.
If he stops someone on the street and says they're parasitized by invisible extradimensional parasites, sucking their soul and blood, who will believe him? Not having the police called would be considered good.
For many, science and mysticism are opposed; in all mystic theories, they only believe in the existence of God, ironically the one thing that can't be proven.
Thus, for the past century, Monac has been doing business behind closed doors. If someone feels uncomfortable from being parasitized and specifically seeks him for an exorcism, he will charge for the rituals.
But if there are no such clients, he won't go out doing public service. After all, he can't use magic against the police; if caught, he could end up in the Tower of London.
However, even with the variety of extradimensional creatures he's dealt with in the past, none are like those in front of him, who directly affect a person's mind and will.
He vomits because even on horseback, he feels dizzy, as if something is dragging his brain into a wild spin.
Su Ming finds these monsters very quiet, but Monac's version of the world is different; for the safety of his actions, the mage always has his spiritual vision open.
The noise made by these monsters and their screams before death drill into the mage's soul like a drill.
When Strangulation stuffs chunks of tentacles into its mouth, the mage seems to see countless eyes and small mouths growing on the end segment, constantly screaming.
Monac remains lucid, knowing he is merely suffering a backlash from spiritual vision. He can endure, but once again deeply understands that ignorance is sometimes bliss.
............
Su Ming also took note of the mage's condition. Although Monac looked quite distressed, his complexion was rosy and shiny, suggesting not much of an issue.
Moreover, isn't it quite normal to vomit upon encountering monsters from the 'Cthulhu' system?
All investigators are the same; they get used to it while vomiting, perhaps suddenly gaining insight into the wisdom of ancient gods. Ancient gods have no concept of friend or foe; their power is still just power, isn't it?
Belasco encountered friend-enemy confusion too.
He kidnapped and raped Dante's girlfriend, causing her to die, so Dante came for revenge.
The ancient gods, bizarrely indifferent or perhaps lacking any thought, granted the power Belasco prayed for to Dante.
The once frail poet defeated the Lord of Hell in a few moves, with the ancient gods thoughtfully helping Dante seal the Demon King, only releasing Belasco decades after Dante's death...
Thinking about it feels suffocating; he can't settle scores with the ancient gods, only swallow the bitter pill.
This is purely bad luck. Ancient gods don't target anyone; they lack such concepts.
When dealing with other infernal lords' invasions, Belasco is quite lucky; whatever power he desires, the ancient gods will grant him.
But when facing heroes from Earth, he rolls poorly at critical moments, and the ancient gods backstab him, making his wishes manifest in opposing ways.
For example, surrounded by X-Men, he didn't wish to surrender.
Hence, he performed a ritual and prayed to the ancient gods, 'I don't want any enemies before me!', implying for them to help him kill all enemies.
The ancient gods granted this wish in a way—Belasco was manipulated to apologize and make peace with the heroes...
The X-Men have Saint Mother Syndrome, and Lord of Hell can't be killed; having achieved the goal of rescuing or saving the world, there's no need to further antagonize.
Thus, amid the infernal lord's farewell, the X-Men happily teleport back.
In this way, Belasco indeed had no enemies, his wish fulfilled.
Su Ming was actually somewhat interested in the power of the Ancient Gods, after all, they are the source of many Dark Magics. As long as one doesn't get overly obsessed with forbidden knowledge, this kind of power can be used to achieve many things that seem impossible.
Unfortunately, his own hardware conditions are insufficient. He doesn't know Magic, his mind is protected by X Metal, which basically isolates him from the Ancient Gods. He cannot hear the whispers in his ears nor dream of R'lyeh beneath the sea, making him a lifelong outsider to investigators.
Besides, the Ancient Gods of Marvel are somewhat dubious, this isn't exactly an orthodox Cthulhu World.
Marvel introduced the concept of Cthulhu only as a backdrop. Nowadays, the active Outer Gods are few and far between. Aside from 'Great Demon Shadow' Sithorn becoming one of the Ancient Gods, which has some fame, the next more famous one is Doctor Strange's arch-enemy Shuma-Gorath, also known as the Eye Demon.
The Eye Demon is one of the Outer Dimensional Gods, capable of rendering Doctor Strange helpless, eventually forcing him to commit suicide to escape reality.
And as the pinnacle of Marvel's Outer God system, Azathoth is tightly bound to the background, impossible to pry out, blindly foolish as the foremost Outer God, forever enjoying rock music in an unknown corner.
.....
"What abilities did you gain? Did you learn any new skills?"
Su Ming only focused on the Mage for a brief moment, seeing Monac didn't go mad, he was at ease.
At this moment, he was standing in a clean and empty cave, taking off his helmet to rest with a cigarette. He had to admit these tentacles were both slippery and sticky. Weapons didn't grip well when cutting into them, every time he had to calculate the angles, totaling thousands of times within a few minutes, causing slight irritation.
He casually plunged his weapon into the ground and patted his chest asking Strangulation, if there was any gain, his mood would improve.
Strangulation didn't know how to describe the newly acquired ability, so it could only demonstrate it to the host.
First, it activated a local transformation ability, dressing one of Su Ming's hands in Odin-style Golden Armor, then secreted a mysterious viscous liquid on the surface of the armor...
"So, slightly enhanced some defense abilities... doesn't seem very useful, instead when the ability's activated, it feels even greasier."
Su Ming pouted, mocking it slightly.
Both Strangulation and he have self-healing abilities, now the Holy Statue Armor's purpose is mainly to prevent being pierced by bullets.
After all, Su Ming isn't Wade, he doesn't want to return from every mission looking all haggard. Even if he can self-heal, being riddled with bullet holes or bombed until scantily clad isn't good.
Strangulation's added defense power is purely so that when it uses tentacles to strangle people, it's harder for the opposite party to break free.
The symbiote conveyed some aggrieved emotions, disliked by the host for its new ability, it seemed indeed not great, so it immediately showcased the second one.
It picked up a stone from the ground, grew a mouth on its tentacle to hold the stone, and a few seconds later, it stuck out a long tongue to show Su Ming, the stone completely digested.
"Um, the ability to devour inorganic matter? If I encounter situations needing mountain excavation and road opening in the future, I won't have to rely on Godslayer myself."
Su Ming nodded, affirming this ability. It wasn't particularly useful, but at least better than the previous one, everything should be compared.
Strangulation's large, white eye narrowed with enthusiasm after the praise, but its demonstration wasn't yet complete.
It extended another tentacle, like performing magic, swaying in front of Su Ming a few times, suddenly transforming the tentacle into the shape of a stone, then tapping it against Su Ming's chest armor.
"Clang clang....."
"Oh? The ability to mimic atomic arrangements? This... becomes very useful."
Previously, Strangulation's imitation could change external shapes, like transforming into a suit or armor, but fundamentally, it's still it – cold, soft symbiote tissue, anyone touching it could sense the difference.
But now, after devouring the stone, when it mimics again, it can transform part of its limb into the elemental composition of the previous stone, thereby altering itself from the material aspect.
This is quite impressive.
Su Ming's first reaction was to feed it a piece of X Metal.
Unfortunately, although X Metal is named metal, its essence is energy, Strangulation couldn't consume it at all. It merely held a drop, later spit it out, a feeling of inability transmitted through the neural connection.
X Metal couldn't be eaten, making it needless to try those stones originally Lantern Rings, now gemstones.
Items containing energy won't work. Its ability is to mimic pure material compositions, while energy cannot be generated out of thin air.
Even so, Strangulation has gained substantial enhancement, after all, the growth of symbiotes is limitless, perhaps it will improve further in the future?
"Well done, after returning I'll take you to Chinatown for some chopped chili fish head."
Su Ming gently stroked Strangulation's tentacle, as if petting a cat, only the texture was slippery.
Strangulation transmitted a protesting emotion, wanting to eat raw fish head; the chopped chili fish head was what the host desired, wasn't it?
"Alright then, I discovered traces of the Demon Army near other connecting cave entrances here, let's catch up and let you have some demon heads, how about that?"
Su Ming pressed the tentacle back into his chest, speaking helplessly, also unsure whether demons had brains, if not, the symbiote certainly won't be satisfied.