Chapter 482: Guard Dogs
Suddenly, the split cross on the ground emitted a different golden hue. A different power was cutting in. The chanting of the transmogrified Prof Armitage got interrupted. He said in a voice filled with pain, “No, ah, do not stop me...” His two strings of eyes were bleeding, “Father!” This was a temporary tug of war. The world around them trembled. The bookshelves disappeared and the empty books scattered to the ground. Necronomicon fell from the prof’s grasp. It dropped open to a page. This was undeniably a giant seduction for Gu Jun. His eyes almost wandered over to see what was inside the book...
But he knew that once he did, he’d be sucked into the dark energy and permanently lost his way home. The ritual was ongoing. Time and space were twisting. Yog-Sothoth was approaching. At that moment, Hannah who sat across from him suddenly revealed a familiar smile. She uttered in a familiar tone, “My dear brother, it’s time, the dimensional crack has appeared. It is time for big sister to leave.”
‘That’s Keziah Mason!’ Gu Jun had no idea Hannah had always been the witch or the ritual had awakened her. Regardless, at that moment Hannah Maruzewicz was indeed Keziah Mason. The ropes around her untangled themselves. The next second, she was already standing by one of the walls. Surprisingly Prof Armitage did not stop her. She waved her hands at the wall and an indescribable dimension appeared on the wall. Gu Jun then understood the prison guard’s statement from the Salem prison. Keziah Mason would still escape through a dimension portal if Dirty-minded Ju did not appear to intervene...
“Goodbye, my dear brother.” Keziah Mason chuckled, “The hold Nyarlathotep has on me is over. I’m free to find my own fun. I hope you’ll survive and leave this place too. That will be more interesting.” Then she walked into the wall and disappeared into the strange dimension. Keziah Mason left this world, this script and headed towards an unknown dimension. Therefore, only Prof Armitage and Gu Jun were left in that contorted reading room.
“Ah...” Prof Armitage roared in anger. The tendrils from his chest lashed forward to bind around Gu Jun. They raised the man along with the chair up into the air. “Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate...”
A tentacle twined around Gu Jun’s neck, cutting off his breathing. Gu Jun’s face turned red and purple. The smell of blood and stench suffocated his nostrils. He could not breathe or speak... The other tendrils bound themselves around his extremities, trying to pull him apart. Resisting the pain, Gu Jun continued to focus to channel the split cross. In his mind, even though he still had not confirmed the source of the split cross, it did not feel like a dark energy to him, if anything, it warmed his heart like a sun... ‘Is it really Nyarlathotep behind the symbols or it merely took over them to play with my mind...’
Gu Jun’s consciousness started to waver. Everything faded away. His body was stretched to their limits by the tentacles. Blood oozed. ‘Is this how I’m going to die...’
Strangely enough, Gu Jun could hear dogs barking again. As his consciousness faded, the stronger the barking became. Suddenly, Gu Jun saw from the corner of his eyes, the wooden door of the reading room being rammed down. Several large shadows lunged into the room and made Prof Armitage their target. It was 3 large black dogs! The barking was not his illusion. They were real. As they growled, they pounced at the half man half monster. They tore apart the tendrils and gnawed at the monster’s bloated throat, eyes, face...
“Ah!!” Prof Armitage cried for mercy. “No... Go away... Help, father, father... Yog-Sothoth!” These were the library’s guard dogs and they were normally so kind to the old professor but at that moment, they were tearing into his throat and tendrils. Perhaps they knew the actual Prof Armitage was already long dead.
Initially Gu Jun was stunned. Animals like lions and even humans would be frozen in fear facing supernatural creatures, but these 3 guard dogs at Miskatonic University, normal pets by all means, were so ferocious. They latched onto the monster and forced the power of the ritual back. Using this opening, Gu Jun channeled all of his power to peel off the bloody tentacles. The power of the ritual weakened while the split cross glowed harder. After so long, Gu Jun finally heard the mysterious voice again, “If you can hear us, we are... innocent....” Gu Jun’s brows creased. He answered, “I can hear you. I’m here, I’m Gu Jun. I’ve been trapped by Nyarlathotep!”
Prof Armitage emitted an echo of dying wail. It was filled with regret... At that moment, fear returned to the three beasts. After a fearful howl, they scurried away. Gu Jun’s mind was still under the ritual’s and the old prof’s influence. Because of that, he could see a similar event happening at this library in the past. This was a repetition of history. The victim in the past slowly cleared, it was Wilbur Whateley. That was how the half man half god creature died back then, being bitten to death by the library’s guard dogs. Ultimately, Prof Armitage became Wilber Whateley and shared the man’s fate.
At that moment, the old man still had a breath in him. He crawled on the ground, making blood splash everywhere. Gu Jun looked around, this was his chance to leave but he didn’t know how to open a dimensional rift like the witch. Suddenly the golden glow from the split cross washed away all the colors. It was like a cleansing. The stench and gore disappeared. The glow was so bright that Gu Jun had to narrow his eyes. Blurry images floated before him like he was watching a mirage. ‘Is that an illusion?’ He saw an ancient city bathed under the golden sun... A clean river flowed through the city. There were trees and well-constructed buildings. There were people standing on the streets. Gu Jun felt welcomed and comforted. He saw that those people were humans, there were so many of them.
“Gu Jun!” Someone standing on the paved street called his name. It was the voice from the mysterious signal, “This is the City of Dusk. We are members of the Randolph Carter Foundation. We came from different worlds but we are the good guys! We fight against Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth... And the Great Old Ones... We will bring you back to your world... The connection is cutting off so listen carefully, every single word is important...”
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