Plague Doctor

Chapter 481: Professor Armitage

“Professor Armitage, you said your family has been fighting dark forces like Yog-Sothoth since your grandfather’s times, why do you think that is?” Gu Jun asked loudly. Honestly, he did not think that would change the old man’s mind, he just wanted to buy more time.

“A force is not naturally good or bad, a force is a force.” Prof Armitage approached them with Necronomicon. His wrinkled face lined with fervour. “Now that I am in a different state than my father and grandfather, naturally I’ll have to make a different choice.” The old man spread the white dust around the ritualistic circle and explained, “These are a combination of Dunwich soil and some alchemical product. They will help us connect to that incomplete ritual, to help us reach out to father’s power.”

Gu Jun tossed Hannah a questioning look. “Brother, actually I have no idea what is really happening here.” Hannah shrugged with difficulty. “But from the looks of it, we’re going to die.”

Die? Gu Jun glanced at Necronomicon. If the old man completed the ritual, dying would probably be the luckiest outcome. The two of them were sacrifices. If someone was going to walk away alive from this ritual, it would be George Armitage. Gu Jun looked around before his eyes landed on the ritualistic symbols again. Suddenly something jumped out at him, it was a split cross. It was mixed among the layers of symbols, if one did not scan through the imprints carefully, one would easily miss it. Split cross, mysterious signal...

Gu Jun’s feelings were complicated as he thought about that, the real transmitter behind the mysterious signal was still an unknown entity. It could be the Yith or Nyarlathotep. Gu Jun tried to not get overwhelmed by hatred and forced himself to calm down. When his eyes landed on the cross, his brain appeared to react to it. Ever since he woke up at the sanitorium, Gu Jun felt nothing even when he encountered supernatural events, it was as if such energy did not exist in this universe, but now...

Contact, accept. The split cross.

By then, Prof Armitage had finished scattering the dust. He walked to the centre of the ritual circle. He gave a long breath to relax himself.

“Jim, Hannah, I know a thing or two about history, languages, literature, philosophy, medicine...” The prof began, but Gu Jun knew the old man was just being humble. He was acknowledged as the pioneer in these fields in this world. “But I still cannot understand the Whateley brothers. They are the creation of the divine as my grandfather said.”

And then Prof Armitage started to chant, the dark gospel that was already imprinted in his mind. The lights in the room flickered. The prof’s voice morphed from his usual baritone to a shrill caw that was harsher than that of a vulture. The professor’s Adam’s Apple trembled violently. An inhuman voice escaped from his throat. “OGTHROD AI’F GEB’L-EE’H YOG-SOTHOTH ‘NGAH’NG AI’Y ZHRO”

The voice sounded both clear and blurry. The ritualistic imprint on the ground gradually glowed. The light reached out from the ground and began to consume the reading room. The dome was shaking. Suddenly, a horrible stench filled the air. Prof Armitage’s face expanded and his facial tissue morphed into something that looked like rotten jelly. It looked like wiggling ropes tangled together. His two eyes bulged and two more eyes appeared behind his ‘head’. Gu Jun had no idea whether this transformation was within the old man’s expectation or not. However, the ritual was effective, the old man had finally gained contact with the force that he yearned for. Madness and joy colored his face. It was also mixed with innate pain and terror. His whole head, neck and upper body was rapidly changing.

The filth and transformation were just the beginning. With a snap, the professor’s fitted suit exploded. Several grey tendrils lashed out from his chest. They dripped with blood. They were arranged in a symmetry that was inexplicable to the human mind. These tendrils appeared to be a mutation of the prof’s intestines. They extended in length as they waved about. If a student walked into the room now, they would not have believed this thing was their respected Professor Armitage.

“Y’AI’NG’NGAH, YOG-SOTHOTH H’EE-L’GEB F’AI THRODOG UAAAH...”

The greater the pain, the happier Armitage became. 10 more eyeballs dropped out from his eye sockets, enabling him to look into other dimensions that normal humans could not. Gu Jun and Hannah witnessed this horrid transformation. The space around them contorted. A cacophony of voices blasted against their eardrums. The ropes around their bodies appeared to dig into their skin, turning them into similar monsters. The prof’s chanting was now louder than thunder. It boomed, causing the duo’s hearts to shake. Blood, pus pooled on the ground, sticking to the ritualistic imprints.

Even for someone as experienced as Gu Jun, he was stunned by what he saw. He looked at Prof Armitage and saw the shadow of Wilber Whateley. The old man had clearly lost his mind, but did it happen when he read the King in Yellow or when he was researching the Dunwich horror. In that moment, the old professor’s thoughts injected fiercely into Gu Jun’s mind. The professor wanted to be a half-human, half-divine. He wanted that bloodline, the bloodline of the Great Yog-Sothoth. The more he studied Wilber Whateley, the more envious of Whateley twins he became....

Prof Armitage envied their lineage but despised their failure. They had the blood of God but died in the hands of humans. Why should he not be given similar chances? Why should the chance be wasted on those who do not deserve it?

The old professor wanted to be deified. He would bring the light of Yog-Sothoth into this world and all the other worlds. Gu Jun gritted his teeth. He could feel his mind turning chaotic, as he was dragged by Prof Armitage’s thoughts into the abyss.

‘This is a chapter in King in Yellow... where Prof Armitage is the main character... Now is the time to disrupt the ritual, if not now, then we’ll never have another chance.’

With no regard for Hannah, Gu Jun focused his full attention on the split cross to gain contact with the transmitter. No matter who was behind the transmission, Gu Jun was going to drag it down into this black hole with him.

“Come and have a taste of Yog-Sothoth’s power...”