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Chapter 1: What is the significance of the upcoming Magnus Live show?
Hi there, Billy Hindle here, the voice of Alice Dyer in The Magnus Protocol. As part of the Magnus Archives' 10th anniversary, Rusty Quill is hosting a special Magnus Live show at the upcoming Crossed Wires Podcast Festival in Sheffield.
Join co-creators Jonathan Sims and Alexander J. Newell on the 5th of July for a new iteration of our live show, Statement Begins, where you can hear fan-favourite statements... such as Anglerfish, read live and gain exclusive insights into the creation and history of the show straight from the creators themselves.
You can buy your tickets now, including limited numbers of meet and greet tickets from crossedwires.live or the link in the description of this episode.
Hi there, Jonathan Sims here.
Chapter 2: What is 'From the Library of Jürgen Leitner' about?
And before today's episode, I wanted to tell you about From the Library of Jürgen Leitner, an upcoming The Magnus Archives prequel novel available for pre-order right now at www.rustyquill.com forward slash novel.
Return to the world of the Magnus Archives in From the Library of Jurgen Leitner, an official prequel novel written by Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora Award-winning author Premi Muhammad, with the help of yours truly.
From the Library of Jurgen Leitner explores an infamous organisation from the Magnusverse for the first time, the perilous private library of the enigmatic collector Jurgen Leitner. From the Library of Jurgen Leitner will be published on October www.rustyquill.com
Gigantomachia by Alucard Report of Lieutenant Woodsworth on the preliminary investigation into subject Atlas II. Personnel. Lieutenant Richard Woodsworth, Sergeant Annabel Goethe, Corporals Maximilian Edward Stevenson and Carlisle Howitzer. Actions. Recognizance and sampling of materials for further research. Conditions. Unexpected. Redetachment. Orders.
Access through the designated opening determined by the bioengineering squad. Utilise as few tools as possible to prevent loss of valuable instruments and ensure quick departure, committing only to a preliminary assessment. Summary. The squad fulfilled the preliminary investigation as ordered, finding expected setbacks as per the SITREP, recovering the necessary samples.
A full report in detail can be read in the attachment provided by Sergeant Goethe per request of Colonel Lewis Ryder. Attachment. This is the extended report of the mission into subject Atlas II, charged to the squadron led by Lieutenant Woodsworth. By request of Colonel Ryder, it shall be detailed and civilian-oriented, so I will spare military terminology unless necessary.
It is odd to be writing this way. I'm no journalist. I don't understand why Colonel Ryder wants it this way, but it is not on me to question such orders. As a short preface for those unaware, Atlas II, colloquially known as Devourer, is laying dead in the middle of a metropolitan area. Like its predecessor, it took a lot of resources, time, and lives to bring it down.
Unlike Atlas I, we had access to a carcass we can study. Command ordered an investigation into it, providing us with very little resources, and shipped us off. Once my eyes set on it, the word Titanic came to mind. My wife Elizabeth is a mythologist. She often tells me how we don't actually have any indication that the titans of Greek myth were any different in size from the gods.
I wonder if Zeus ever trembled like I did when fighting his own terrifying enemies. We entered through a cavity cut by the bioengineering squad on its abdomen. Both corporals stayed at the entrance. Stevenson reported from the outside, while Howitzer did so on the inside. Lieutenant Woodsworth and I went into the belly of the beast, so to speak. The first thing that hit me was the smell.
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Chapter 3: What is the premise of the horror story 'Gigantomachia'?
Here I was, crawling on all fours for a way out of a cavernous, fleshy building that performed who knows what function to the titanic being that was either fully asleep or still functioning after death. That word again. Titanic. But it wasn't the Titans that were gargantuan in size. That was the next set of enemies the gods faced. The giants, created specifically to kill the Olympians.
Colossal horrors that made the earth shake with each step, crushing mountains with their hands, powerful enough to kill the immortal gods of the sky, the seas, and the underworld. That place felt like the underworld, but without vast cities of shades or monsters guarding it. Instead, it had tall walls drooling with a red and brown substance.
I had no climbing equipment, but even with it, this sick slime would make it impossible. I looked up in desperation. I don't want to relay what I saw up there. I understand those are my orders, so I'll do it. But Colonel Ryder, just know I resent it. No one else should suffer it, even through text. Richard was right. There was no way to understand it.
An animal that size could not support its own circulatory system, could not feed on such a tiny amount of food, even if that was cities worth of humans. An animal did not digest its food from the top of its stomach to the floor. But there it was, the melting mass of millions of still-living people stuck to the ceiling of this colossal stomach.
Clothes fused to liquefied flesh, bones indistinguishable from the marrow once inside them, skin mixed with plastic or metal, muscle and sinew stretched to its limit, forming knots of fibrous tissue, eyes with teeth inside, nails pierced by eyelashes, few things in there resembled human limbs. If you're reading this report, you're probably wondering how I could know they were still alive.
It's simple, really. Because they were begging for death. No, Colonel, I don't know how. By all rights, they should have been dead, their bodies barely holding because they were stuck together. Throats that shouldn't be able to make sounds. Eyes that should be blind awakened by my flashlight.
They spoke almost in unison, broken only by a painful individuality that took away any chance to lose consciousness. As I said, they begged for death. They didn't ask for help. They sang, like a Greek chorus begging the fates for release. Conscious enough to suffer, to know even if they were rescued, there was no way to survive this.
We all knew that their lives were supported by a horrifying mass of living tissue, keeping them in eternal torment. I could distinguish some of them. An old woman crying for someone to blow her head with a rifle. A policeman screaming in terror for his brother lost somewhere around that mass of flesh.
A tourist unlucky enough to be at the wrong beach and time, now mixed with dirty sand in his veins. I could tell which cities they'd lived in, even their neighbourhood. I could take a goddamn census of that monster's eating habits. The worst part was when I realized something else. I recognized these people. The sweet old man I bought flowers from. My high school math teacher.
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Chapter 4: What details emerge from the preliminary investigation report?
I hit my head so many times it was ringing after ten. My arm broke at around the twenty-minute mark. I know this because my comms came back. Max and Carlisle called desperately to know where I was. Richard was eager to learn what I had found. After thirty minutes of beating around those fleshy caverns, it spit me out. I broke a leg and some ribs on the concrete.
I definitely had a concussion, considering the blood dripping from my forehead. With whatever strength I had left, I called back, told the corporals to triangulate my location through my signal. I couldn't tell where I was as my eyes were covered in the liquefied remains of the people inside that hell.
The last thing I remember were the blades of a chopper coming down while my body finally collapsed on the floor. Carlisle was next to me when I woke up, that blessed boy, making sure I was alright. The doctors informed us I had no major injuries, but neither of us bought it. I'm sure there was some lasting brain damage, but that'll be a nightmare for later.
He told me I was ejected out of subject Atlas II ten blocks from the entrance through a previously unknown orifice in its throat. Regardless, I am out of that monster and am not coming back. Lizzie's taking care of me, and it'll be a while before I get back into action. If I ever do. That's alright. I'm thinking of changing careers. Maybe moving to a different country.
I know Lizzie would appreciate it. She wasn't as lucky as me. Now this land has memories we both would rather forget. I didn't tell her I saw her cousin there. What he said to me. That is something I will never forget, and she doesn't need to know. Richard contacted me a few days ago, telling me about the Colonel's orders.
I'm guessing he asked Ryder to make some arrangements, have me give an official report on the matter, to have all the gruesome details. Well, there you have it. I went into the meaty Avernus that holds millions of souls in pain, and I'm telling you I will not go back. Unless to blow it all the way to Kingdom Come, see its body turned to trillions of pieces scattered.
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Chapter 5: How does the protagonist describe the environment inside Atlas II?
I am not going back. Please, God, gods of Olympus, the Demiurge, or Satan himself, whatever being that's capable of creating such a thing, if there is any mercy in your heart, please take it back. And please, please, kill them all.
The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 international license. To subscribe, view associated materials, or join our Patreon, visit RustyQuill.com. Rate and review us online, tweet us at TheRustyQuill, visit us on Facebook, or email us via mail at RustyQuill.com. Thanks for listening. Hi.
Alex here, founder and CEO of Rusty Quill Limited. In case you haven't heard, there is now a Magnus Archives novel. The Library of Jurgen Leitner is set in the world of the Magnus Archives and written by Nebula award-winning author Premi Mohamed, with our very own Jonathan Sims.
The story follows Hugh, a university dropout, desperate to find somewhere to belong and his new job at an esoteric library. The books he must investigate for the enigmatic Jurgen Leitner are not normal, because the library is not a vault, sealed and silent, but a hive. alive, buzzing, and ready to sting.
The Library of Jurgen Leitner releases October 27th, 2026, but you can pre-order it right now in the US and UK from your local bookshop, or by using the link in the episode description. If you live outside of the UK or US, you may be able to make an international order for this first publication, but it depends on individual retailers' shipping policies.
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