Trigger Warning: Temporal distortions, divine mutilation, insatiable hunger, psychological disintegration, fractured timelines, catastrophic collapse, Wendigo horrors, godly feasts, existential despair, annihilation imagery, paradoxical violence, mythic corruption, metaphysical dread, predatory indulgence, and the devouring of clarity, beauty, and ecstasy.
The Chronophage and the Wendigo: A Transmission from a Fractured Timeline
The shores of Iterative-14’s Chateaugay Lac were a haunted mirror of the prime timeline—a twisted reflection where the skeletal trees leaned inward, their blackened branches clawing at the fractured sky. The lake itself was still, a void of liquid night where time neither flowed nor stood still but wavered in a nauseating stutter. Here ruled Vartholox, the Wendigo incarnate, his gaunt frame towering, crowned with antlers that pierced the sky’s cracks. His maw, rimmed with jagged teeth, dripped with the essence of eternity: greed, gluttony, and unbound hunger.
For centuries, Vartholox had played the gracious host to the gods, not out of camaraderie but calculation. They came willingly, drawn by his whispered promises of unending revelry—libations distilled from the essence of time itself, feasts conjured from the remnants of forgotten epochs. They never suspected that the invitation was a trap, their divine essence the next course in an endless banquet.
A Call to Revelry
The summoning began with a tremor. From his skeletal fingers, Vartholox drew the Chronophage crystal, a shard of impossible light that resonated with a haunting hum. Its glow spread across the desolate lake, refracting into shapes that clawed their way into existence. Figures began to coalesce—fractured, shimmering outlines of the Olympian pantheon, reduced to tattered remnants by the distortions of Iterative-14.
Dionysus was the first to fully manifest, his once-vibrant eyes dulled, his movements sluggish as though weighed down by centuries of forgotten indulgence. Following him came Athena, her radiant helm cracked, her shield bearing scars from battles never fought. Aphrodite appeared last, her beauty intact but cold, like the sheen of a frozen rose.
“Drink!” Vartholox declared, his voice resonating through the broken timeline. His guests obeyed, lifting crystalline goblets filled with the distilled moments of ages. The liquid shimmered, each sip tearing at the threads of their godhood.
The Feast of Greed
As the revelry intensified, the Wendigo’s hunger grew palpable, a suffocating presence that pressed against the gods. Vartholox watched, his hollow eyes glinting with malice as the Olympians succumbed to the intoxicating effects of the Chronophage crystal.
First, he turned his attention to Dionysus, whose revelries had always been too alluring for his own good. The god of wine laughed drunkenly, his voice an echo of old hymns, as Vartholox approached. With a lurch, the Wendigo’s maw widened, and he bit into the god’s chest, tearing free the essence of his ecstasy. Dionysus’ laughter turned to screams, and then to silence, as the euphoria drained from his form. What remained was a husk—a figure of revelry now devoid of joy.
Next came Athena, whose wisdom Vartholox coveted. She rose to defend herself, her broken shield trembling in her grasp. The Wendigo’s antlers struck like spears, shattering her defenses. He loomed over her, his breath like the freezing winds of the netherworld. With a guttural growl, he consumed her clarity of thought, leaving behind a stumbling figure, confused and muttering the half-formed fragments of old strategies.
Finally, he turned to Aphrodite, whose beauty shone even in this broken place. She stood motionless, caught in the thrall of the Wendigo’s unrelenting gaze. Vartholox circled her, savoring the moment. His maw closed around her neck, but he did not drink her beauty all at once. Instead, he sipped it slowly, draining her radiance in measured gulps until she crumbled into an unrecognizable shadow.
Dissolution
As the feast reached its crescendo, the very fabric of Iterative-14 began to unravel. The gods’ essence, now bound to the Wendigo, rippled outward, twisting the already broken timeline. The trees along Chateaugay Lac bent backward, their forms dissolving into splinters of light. The lake churned, its surface erupting in temporal whirlpools that devoured the surrounding landscape.
Vartholox stood at the center, his monstrous form aglow with stolen divinity. The Chronophage crystal, embedded in his chest, pulsed violently. The power he had consumed was too great, even for a creature of insatiable hunger. His laughter echoed across the collapsing realm as cracks spread from his antlers to his feet.
“I feast, and I endure,” he bellowed, even as his body began to splinter. “This is but one thread of the weave.”
And then, with a final pulse, Iterative-14 folded inward, consumed by the Wendigo’s own greed.
The Warning
The transmission ended, its fragments etched into the Chronosynch Authority’s receivers. Though garbled and distorted, one truth rang clear: the Wendigo had not been defeated. Vartholox had escaped, his essence slipping through the cracks of the shattered timeline to seek new prey.
Far away, in the quiet depths of the prime Chateaugay Lac, the Chronophage crystal began to hum once more.
What mysteries of Chateaugay Lake haunt you?