“I am merely stating facts, little tiny one,” he said. He turned to face me, seeming to strain with the effort. “Facts that I have, until now, kept to myself for your own protection: You are less than an ant, far less than insignificant. You are but a figment of a dream, nothing more.”

My lip quivered. “I don’t care!” I spat, surprising myself. “It doesn’t change anything! It doesn’t change the nature of existence! It doesn’t change the fact that I love you!”

“No, it doesn’t,” he said, averting his eyes from me coolly. “It doesn’t change your understanding of love. But through all of this, I have been reminded of one thing. You are temporal. You are but a speck, a passing fancy. We may have stopped one insignificant human’s plan, but it does not stop the inevitable; one day, Azathoth will wake, and Azathoth’s dream will end. And with it, all of this. The ocean, the land, the sky, the sea, the stars, all of creation. And most of all, so will you.”

I shook my head furiously, refusing to believe him. “But you said—”

“I said a great many things, puny one!” Riley bellowed, turning the full glare of his eyes back on me. Somehow, he seemed to me hundreds of feet tall, despite retaining his human form and size. I cowered before his might. “All of them,” he continued, “in the service of a greater purpose.”

I could feel my heart shattering. Did I still even have a heart? It felt broken, obliterated, evaporated, gone with the sanity of so many minds destroyed by the Great Cthulhu. And yet the thought of his callous disregard for the human mind, his power, only comforted me. No, I still wanted him. I still loved him, and I didn’t believe him.

“I don’t believe you!” I cried. “Why resist your call, then? Why resist your greater purpose, to summon your… your brethren or fellow doomsdayers or whatever? Why resist your call if you didn’t have some reason to stop the apocalypse?” My voice became small, meek, like the voice of a mouse. “You said the reason was me.”

“The reason, as I have stated before, is because I am The Towering Death and the Bringer of Doom. For epochs have I walked among the stars, devouring souls and destroying galaxies. Countless are the souls of those driven mad by the greatness of my true form, countless are the worshippers I have devoured to provide me with only the barest iota of nourishment. I am the Great Priest, and your ilk is naught but minor sustenance before me. Human souls are but snacks that feed the furnace of my burning rage. I am not, I repeat, not in the service of those who worship me, for those who worship me are beneath my notice, as it should be.”