Plague Doctor

Chapter 480: Gate, Key, Guardian

“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth.”

Reading these sentences, Gu Jun’s heart filled with apprehension. Yog-Sothoth... this was the first time Gu Jun heard this name. Names were powerful, certain names could impact its listeners. And it was definitely the case here. Is Yog-Sothoth an Old One? No, not according to the paragraph. There were many Great Old Ones and among them was the Great Cthulhu, who could only be spied at dimly... Beyond that were other existences.

Shub-Niggurath was a foulness; Yog-Sothoth was the key to the gate. These relationships were hard to understand but Gu Jun was certain that there were at least two different kinds of cosmic presences here. Suddenly a question entered Gu Jun’s mind, ‘Is Nyarlathotep one of the Great Old Ones? Probably not, it has already answered that question, it is the Crawling Chaos. Like Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath, it belongs to the other category.’

His forehead was covered in cold sweat. The fact that he was trapped inside this space, his exposure to Yog-Sothoth and interaction with its power... could this all be Nyarlothotep’s plan?

Gu Jun and humanity did summon the Black Goat and paid a heavy price for it but until now he had no idea what happened to that ball of flesh. And now what kind of price would he pay for interacting with the key and guard of the gate? What kind of tragedy awaited them? One thing was for sure, Earth would become even more chaotic. The King in Yellow really might not be the key, but Yog-Sothoth was...

“Yog-Sothoth, the master of time.” Suddenly Prof Armitage whispered, “Past, present, future are all one in Yog-Sothoth. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. It can draw the boundaries, it can eliminate the boundaries, it is the boundaries. The great father, Yog-Sothoth.”

Gu Jun immediately picked up the problem. There was a fanaticism in the old professor’s voice. He lifted his head and saw the muscles in the wrinkled face twitching. Gu Jun was not unfamiliar with this, he had seen this in many cultists. The strangeness that the professor radiated was now confirmed.

“Professor, how much have you found out?” Gu Jun asked casually. He had no weapon, he did try to bring one but it had been corrected.

“Hmm...” Hannah groaned as she pressed against her head. Her face blanched, “My head is spinning...”

“Don’t worry.” Prof Armitage explained, “That’s the effect of the drugs in the tea kicking in.”

Gu Jun’s vision flashed. There was another correction. He did not touch the tea for fear of exactly something like this. But now, he felt his world spinning as well. His breathing became difficult and his consciousness blurred... ‘Is this part of the script? No matter what we do, Prof Armitage will be able to drug the both of us. This old man... has already gone off the edge from reading the King in Yellow?’

“Jim, Hannah, don’t worry, I’m helping you break out from this trap. I’ve found the solution, the only solution.” The professor’s voice faded away. Gu Jun tried his best to stay conscious but it was to no avail. Suddenly, his world blackened like he was a machine and his power had just been pulled. Everything halted. After who knew how long, as the power returned, his consciousness roused again. Gu Jun’s breathing slowly recovered. He saw Hannah sitting across from him. And she was bound to a wooden chair. Her hands were tied at the back and her legs were tied to the front of the chair.

Gu Jun tried to move and he realized he too was trussed up in the same manner as the witch. Gu Jun looked around, they were inside a dim room. The space was not small nor was it too big. The floor was wooden like the corridor of the library’s third floor. There were some shelves against the wall so clearly they were still inside the library, perhaps one of the reading rooms. He noticed there were some strange white imprints underneath him and Hannah, they looked like some kind of rituals. The imprints overlapped over each other. There were circles, pentagons, hexagons and so on.

He and Hannah were placed 3 metres from each other and were set at the northern and southern sides of the room. Prof Armitage was standing near one of the bookshelves. He was flipping through a thick brown book, his black rimmed glasses covered most of his face.

“Before you try it.” Hannah sighed, “I’d advise you to save your breath. No one can hear us, we are supposed to be captured.”

Prof Armitage couldn’t be trusted and neither could this Hannah. Therefore, Gu Jun still raised his voice to shout, to try to attract the attention of any passing guard or students. But as Hannah said, it was pointless; he then tried to wiggle loose, it too was pointless; he tried to use spells, still pointless. That only made him even more tired. The drug was inside his body. Even though he had woken up, the anaesthetic effect still had not fully worn off.

Gu Jun glanced at the old prof and he could guess what the man was planning, “Professor, are you going to gain contact with Yog-Sothoth? That is part of the script?”

“Yes and no.” The prof answered without lifting up his head. “I will perform a ritual but not the one described in the book.”

“How would you know that?” Gu Jun’s heart sank. “The King in Yellow I read did not have this part at all.”

“We read the same book in the library but you read the King in Yellow that Jim read, and I read the King in Yellow where Jim Mazurewicz read the King in Yellow. I saw the chapter about you. And this was the only scenario where I have the freedom to make my move.” Prof Armitage explained slowly. The script would allow him to initiate the ritual because it was what he was supposed to do.

‘Saw the chapter about Jim?’ Gu Jun narrowed his eyes at Hannah. “Then what about you? Which version did you read?”

“Same like yours.” Hannah answered, not caring whether Gu Jun believed her or not. “But I’m not surprised that Prof Armitage would do something like this.”

The prof was in his 60s, he came from a proud lineage, well-read and was handsome when he was young. He radiated personal charm and it should be no problem for him to settle down but George Armitage never got married, he had no partner and no family. Because for George Armitage, the sea of knowledge was more attractive. He had missed many opportunities when he was young but the old professor did not feel any regret at all. These were just transient nature of the world, but there were certain things that the old man did fixate on, he was obsessed with them.

“It’s time.” Prof Armitage closed the book and finally Gu Jun saw the title Necronomicon written on the cover of the brown book. As the prof walked over, he said, “My friends, don’t worry, we will not only break through this barrier, we will ascend to another state.”