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It looks like you have the message correct. Remember it's a cryptic clue: one of the words is an indicator of a certain type of clue. The answer, i.e. the 'instruction' referred to in the preamble, totals 20 letters. The 9-letter word is guessable from the context.

I assume the "indicator" is the 3rd word in the instruction, but still failing to see what to do. Mind you, my brain is currently destroyed.

Surely you are not talking about a 20 letter anagram.

The 'instruction' is 9,5,6, which totals 20.

Well, just wow.. what an amazing puzzle. I really enjoyed that (in case the setter is on here... Thank you!!) I would love to know how the puzzle was conceived and realised.

As someone said, the difficulty never let up... I felt i was on a rock face just looking for the next handhold or foothold. Took some time for me to get there but i ended up just determined to finish it which is a sign for me at least that it's a good puzzle...

Thank you so much!

And you other folks too.

I'll be sending a setter's blog in due course.

I'm glad I didn't have to retrieve the frozen carp (or the back-up sharp-spined hedgehog).

Are the initial letters of the instruction CTP?

You can ignore my last post. Got the instruction, found the relationship and finally completed the puzzle. How people can dream things like this up, and execute it is beyond my comprehension. A remarkable puzzle and achievement.

oeis.org has a list of numbers with the property required for the endgame: there are more of them in the range given than I would have guessed.

I don’t normally do the numbers one but I’ve decided to have a crack this time. I’m a bit unnerved by someone saying it’s the toughest one for a while 😂. Nonetheless, does the clue at 12ac mean that the grid answer is basically the value of O?