Zong Yan slept for a long time, so long that in his dream he seemed to have forgotten who he was.
“—!!!”
When he suddenly regained a bit of consciousness, Zong Yan immediately pushed himself up with his hands and sat upright.
Huh? Sat up?
The black-haired young man sat in his bed, staring blankly around him. The heavy blanket on his shoulders slipped down, exposing the bare skin of his back, and his beautifully shaped butterfly bones were distinctly outlined by the lighter and darker shadows.
He was in his bedroom.
Zong Yan’s room in the small villa was cold and austere. Everything was monochrome: the quilt on the bed was black, the carpet on the floor was gray, and the walls around him were white, but the lamp cast a warm yellow light. The combination was in line with Zong Yan’s straight male aesthetics, so he didn’t have any objections when he first moved in with his little school bag.
What just happened?
The last thing Zong Yan remembered, he was standing by the shore of Pohnpei Island. He was seriously injured and the collar of his shirt was soaked with shocking red blood.
He recalled reaching his hand inside the shimmering, multi-colored card-drawing dimension and seeing the edges of the space flow with light and color, expanding and swallowing up the world that Cthulhu had dragged into his dream, like a rainbow had been wrapped around a lollipop.
Before Zong Yan’s vision went dark, the gray-haired, white-robed evil god had lifted Zong Yan’s blood-stained face and gently kissed his forehead.
And now—
Zong Yan walked to the floor-to-ceiling mirror on the other side of the bed.
The black-haired young man in the mirror was tall and slender, with a pale, thin face.
His fingers gently brushed at the skin of his collarbone.
In Zong Yan’s opinion, his current condition was too good to be true. If someone asked him to run 1500 meters right now for a physical fitness test, he could do it with no problem.
It was beyond incredible.
“Strange—what in the world is going on?”
He remembered seeing Yog-Sothoth before he’d passed out. Zong Yan guessed that whatever was happening was related to the evil god.
He crossed the thick plush carpeting on his bare feet. Without hesitation he stepped over to the door and walked down the chilly wooden stairs to the lower level.
The first floor was deserted.
Everything in the house was just like Zong Yan remembered. Even the basket of strawberries he’d washed before he left was sitting on the kitchen table. The only difference was that the water droplets had dried, but the berries were still fresh. It was clear that not much time had passed.
“Yog?” Zong Yan hesitated for a moment, then finally said, “Lord of the Gate?”
He recalled what he’d read in the Necronomicon, specifically the summoning spell for the Lord of the Gate. In a hesitant voice he said, “Hear me, Lord of Time and Space. King of Infinite Space, the All-in-One, Planetmover, the Foundation of Fastness, the Vanquisher of Terror, the Creator of Panic, Destroyer, the Shining Victor, Son of Chaos and the Void, the Guardian of the Abyss, God of the Outermost Darkness, Lord of Dimensions, Riddle-knower, Guardian of the Secrets, Lord of the Labyrinth, Master of the Angles, the God of the Whippoorwills, Omegapoint, Lord of the Gate, Opener of the Way, Almighty Lord of the Primordial Beginning… “
""
Zong Yan reeled off words one by one, and his inner bemusement grew stronger and stronger.
This guy’s summoning ritual was a little too long, right? The whole thing was just a list of his titles…? How narcissistic was he to use such a big long list as his summoning spell ah!!!
What was even more frightening was that Zong Yan actually remembered it. Of course, after he found out his mentor was literally an evil god, Zong Yan checked out the other party’s details, but he never thought it would actually come in handy.
“That isn’t how my summoning ritual is used.”
Just as Zong Yan was dryly reciting a long list of names, the low voice of the evil god suddenly sounded in his ears, and the words seemed to contain a hint of a smile. “The Great All-in-One will not respond to a believer whose heart is not devout. Any ant who dares to meddle with an evil god will probably receive divine punishment from the void, to ensure they appreciate an evil god’s wrath…. Of course, if it’s you, just call out my name, hmm?”
The end of this sentence lifted gently, like a bow gliding across the lowest notes of a cello, inexplicably hinting at another, more bewitching meaning.
The black-haired young man felt a sudden jolt. The skin behind his ear seemed so hot it was on fire, and the flames burned all the way to his core.
Only then did Zong Yan notice that he’d recited a lot of Yog-Sothoth’s honorary titles, but he hadn’t properly called out the evil god’s great name.
Although Zong Yan had lost his identity as an evil god, he still remembered their language. He could use his human vocal cords to approximate the pronunciation of the name “Yog-Sothoth”. The names of evil gods were powerful in themselves. Some of the magic spells that had been passed down throughout the universe were little more than chants and recitations of their names…. So, just call out his name, and the evil god might respond. How had he forgotten something like that?
To be able to speak the name of an evil god and receive a response was an enormous honor, right?
Really… It was too unsettling.
Zong Yan didn’t dare turn his head. He felt too weird just now.
When he became an evil god, he knew clearly what was wrong with him. He knew he had to make a choice. But right now he had no idea what was going on or why his heart had suddenly fluttered just now.
“I, I see.”
Maybe because he was so confused, Zong Yan’s reply was a little short of breath, and his words were even weaker.
The evil god seemed to be laughing softly.
At that moment, Zong Yan sensed the god was aware of how distracted he was, so he took a few steps away and turned around. “What in the world is going on with this place—”
The moment he looked back, he saw the gray-haired evil god’s tightly knitted brow. His face seemed a little displeased.
“Get dressed.”
The Lord of the Gate casually grabbed a long, khaki-colored trench coat from his storage space and draped it over Zong Yan’s shoulders, motioning for him to lift his hands. It was the same style as the coat the god was wearing.
Only then did Zong Yan realize he was wearing a long, loose shirt and nothing else. The buttons over his chest were unfastened, revealing an expanse below his collarbone. He wasn’t wearing trousers or shoes, and his bare legs were exposed to the air. It was his usual sleepwear.
When Zong Yan thought of himself wandering around dressed like this, he felt extraordinarily self-conscious.
Wait, hold on, they were both men. Even if the other party was an evil god, his simulated biological sex was also male. They were all grown men. What was there to be so embarrassed about?!
Zong Yan decided he was overly influenced by the future fragment he’d seen and shouldn’t fuss over something so minor.
“Thanks.” The black-haired young man gathered up the trench coat with some hesitation and looked up. “By the way, what’s going on right now?”
The eyes of the Lord of Time and Space swept over Zong Yan’s naked legs, and his furrowed brow still didn’t relax. “Put on your pants, too.”
“… Oh.”
Zong Yan blinked, accepted the pair of trousers, and obediently went over to the sofa to put them on.
The young man’s legs were long and slender, without a trace of excess fat. They were so white they seemed to be transparent.
Too thin, Yog thought to himself.
The Lord of the Gate gave him a sweeping glance and knew the recommended weight of a youth this age and height. Zong Yan obviously fell short of the standard.
… And the bones of his hands might have some deformation from holding a pen with the wrong grip.
Zong Yan had no idea he’d just been reduced to white bones in Yog-Sothoth’s eyes. The other party rigorously examined his physical health and finally reached the conclusion that Zong Yan needed careful nurturing.
“I’m ready.”
The fully-dressed black-haired young man tucked his overly long white shirt into his pants and buttoned his trench coat. Then he stood up and looked over at the evil god standing to the side.
It was only then that Zong Yan realized the coats he and Yog were wearing were identical. Not only the color, but even the fabric and cut were the same.
When he noticed this, he began to tug at his clothes with obvious awkwardness.
“Let’s go.”
The gray-haired evil god narrowed his eyes, seemingly satisfied with Zong Yan’s appearance. Yog immediately grabbed his hand. Before Zong Yan could say a word, the space around them transformed from the interior of the small villa to a crowded street.
Well, the Lord of Space could do whatever he wanted.
Before Zong Yan had time to comment about the way Yog had suddenly grabbed his hand, the evil god interlaced their fingers as well, and Zong Yan was stunned by the scene in front of them.
It was the street that Zong Yan used to travel to school every day, part of a prosperous shopping area, one of the most popular in Jiangzhou. Many people came here on their days off. There were all kinds of stores here, from snack shops to restaurants, from video game superstores to KTV, and there were a lot of big name beauty stores. It might be called the perfect place to come for the day to enjoy food, drink, and fun, and it was an offline space designed for consumer enjoyment.
But now—
The glass-encased shopping mall, several stories high, had been inverted and was floating in the air. Every pane of glass glowed with a rosy, never-fading brilliance.
Not only that, the sky was tinted with the same brilliant light, and the ground shone like it was covered with lustrous enamel. There were no traces of pavement or dirt, only squares of glass that glowed with streaming, multi-colored light.
People came and went as if they hadn’t noticed a thing. They were still carrying out their daily lives.
White collar workers in high heels carried briefcases. Students wore bulging book bags on their backs. Their eyes were blank and dull, but all of them were following their daily routines.
None of them noticed how dramatically the world had changed.
As Zong Yan stood on the ground he could even look up to see a white sphere in the sky, magnified countless times over.
—That had to be the moon.
In this bizarre place, the laws of physics were turned upside down, and the distance between the Earth and the moon had been distorted to an unimaginable degree.
Far in the distance, large steam ships rose through the air, and their huge clockwork gears slowly rotated until they passed out of sight. And a city with a tall, mysterious black spire rose from the middle of the sea, standing like a monument to a lost city.
So far, Zong Yan had only seen this kind of spectacle in one place.
“Cthulhu wanted to drag the Earth into his dream, but you snatched it from him first. You pulled R’lyeh and the Earth here… into the Dreamlands.”
The evil god spoke idly, caressing the back of Zong Yan’s hand.
Zong Yan slept for a long time, so long that in his dream he seemed to have forgotten who he was.
“—!!!”
When he suddenly regained a bit of consciousness, Zong Yan immediately pushed himself up with his hands and sat upright.
Huh? Sat up?
The black-haired young man sat in his bed, staring blankly around him. The heavy blanket on his shoulders slipped down, exposing the bare skin of his back, and his beautifully shaped butterfly bones were distinctly outlined by the lighter and darker shadows.
He was in his bedroom.
Zong Yan’s room in the small villa was cold and austere. Everything was monochrome: the quilt on the bed was black, the carpet on the floor was gray, and the walls around him were white, but the lamp cast a warm yellow light. The combination was in line with Zong Yan’s straight male aesthetics, so he didn’t have any objections when he first moved in with his little school bag.
What just happened?
The last thing Zong Yan remembered, he was standing by the shore of Pohnpei Island. He was seriously injured and the collar of his shirt was soaked with shocking red blood.
He recalled reaching his hand inside the shimmering, multi-colored card-drawing dimension and seeing the edges of the space flow with light and color, expanding and swallowing up the world that Cthulhu had dragged into his dream, like a rainbow had been wrapped around a lollipop.
Before Zong Yan’s vision went dark, the gray-haired, white-robed evil god had lifted Zong Yan’s blood-stained face and gently kissed his forehead.
And now—
Zong Yan walked to the floor-to-ceiling mirror on the other side of the bed.
The black-haired young man in the mirror was tall and slender, with a pale, thin face.
His fingers gently brushed at the skin of his collarbone.
In Zong Yan’s opinion, his current condition was too good to be true. If someone asked him to run 1500 meters right now for a physical fitness test, he could do it with no problem.
It was beyond incredible.
“Strange—what in the world is going on?”
He remembered seeing Yog-Sothoth before he’d passed out. Zong Yan guessed that whatever was happening was related to the evil god.
He crossed the thick plush carpeting on his bare feet. Without hesitation he stepped over to the door and walked down the chilly wooden stairs to the lower level.
The first floor was deserted.
Everything in the house was just like Zong Yan remembered. Even the basket of strawberries he’d washed before he left was sitting on the kitchen table. The only difference was that the water droplets had dried, but the berries were still fresh. It was clear that not much time had passed.
“Yog?” Zong Yan hesitated for a moment, then finally said, “Lord of the Gate?”
He recalled what he’d read in the Necronomicon, specifically the summoning spell for the Lord of the Gate. In a hesitant voice he said, “Hear me, Lord of Time and Space. King of Infinite Space, the All-in-One, Planetmover, the Foundation of Fastness, the Vanquisher of Terror, the Creator of Panic, Destroyer, the Shining Victor, Son of Chaos and the Void, the Guardian of the Abyss, God of the Outermost Darkness, Lord of Dimensions, Riddle-knower, Guardian of the Secrets, Lord of the Labyrinth, Master of the Angles, the God of the Whippoorwills, Omegapoint, Lord of the Gate, Opener of the Way, Almighty Lord of the Primordial Beginning… “
""
Zong Yan reeled off words one by one, and his inner bemusement grew stronger and stronger.
This guy’s summoning ritual was a little too long, right? The whole thing was just a list of his titles…? How narcissistic was he to use such a big long list as his summoning spell ah!!!
What was even more frightening was that Zong Yan actually remembered it. Of course, after he found out his mentor was literally an evil god, Zong Yan checked out the other party’s details, but he never thought it would actually come in handy.
“That isn’t how my summoning ritual is used.”
Just as Zong Yan was dryly reciting a long list of names, the low voice of the evil god suddenly sounded in his ears, and the words seemed to contain a hint of a smile. “The Great All-in-One will not respond to a believer whose heart is not devout. Any ant who dares to meddle with an evil god will probably receive divine punishment from the void, to ensure they appreciate an evil god’s wrath…. Of course, if it’s you, just call out my name, hmm?”
The end of this sentence lifted gently, like a bow gliding across the lowest notes of a cello, inexplicably hinting at another, more bewitching meaning.
The black-haired young man felt a sudden jolt. The skin behind his ear seemed so hot it was on fire, and the flames burned all the way to his core.
Only then did Zong Yan notice that he’d recited a lot of Yog-Sothoth’s honorary titles, but he hadn’t properly called out the evil god’s great name.
Although Zong Yan had lost his identity as an evil god, he still remembered their language. He could use his human vocal cords to approximate the pronunciation of the name “Yog-Sothoth”. The names of evil gods were powerful in themselves. Some of the magic spells that had been passed down throughout the universe were little more than chants and recitations of their names…. So, just call out his name, and the evil god might respond. How had he forgotten something like that?
To be able to speak the name of an evil god and receive a response was an enormous honor, right?
Really… It was too unsettling.
Zong Yan didn’t dare turn his head. He felt too weird just now.
When he became an evil god, he knew clearly what was wrong with him. He knew he had to make a choice. But right now he had no idea what was going on or why his heart had suddenly fluttered just now.
“I, I see.”
Maybe because he was so confused, Zong Yan’s reply was a little short of breath, and his words were even weaker.
The evil god seemed to be laughing softly.
At that moment, Zong Yan sensed the god was aware of how distracted he was, so he took a few steps away and turned around. “What in the world is going on with this place—”
The moment he looked back, he saw the gray-haired evil god’s tightly knitted brow. His face seemed a little displeased.
“Get dressed.”
The Lord of the Gate casually grabbed a long, khaki-colored trench coat from his storage space and draped it over Zong Yan’s shoulders, motioning for him to lift his hands. It was the same style as the coat the god was wearing.
Only then did Zong Yan realize he was wearing a long, loose shirt and nothing else. The buttons over his chest were unfastened, revealing an expanse below his collarbone. He wasn’t wearing trousers or shoes, and his bare legs were exposed to the air. It was his usual sleepwear.
When Zong Yan thought of himself wandering around dressed like this, he felt extraordinarily self-conscious.
Wait, hold on, they were both men. Even if the other party was an evil god, his simulated biological sex was also male. They were all grown men. What was there to be so embarrassed about?!
Zong Yan decided he was overly influenced by the future fragment he’d seen and shouldn’t fuss over something so minor.
“Thanks.” The black-haired young man gathered up the trench coat with some hesitation and looked up. “By the way, what’s going on right now?”
The eyes of the Lord of Time and Space swept over Zong Yan’s naked legs, and his furrowed brow still didn’t relax. “Put on your pants, too.”
“… Oh.”
Zong Yan blinked, accepted the pair of trousers, and obediently went over to the sofa to put them on.
The young man’s legs were long and slender, without a trace of excess fat. They were so white they seemed to be transparent.
Too thin, Yog thought to himself.
The Lord of the Gate gave him a sweeping glance and knew the recommended weight of a youth this age and height. Zong Yan obviously fell short of the standard.
… And the bones of his hands might have some deformation from holding a pen with the wrong grip.
Zong Yan had no idea he’d just been reduced to white bones in Yog-Sothoth’s eyes. The other party rigorously examined his physical health and finally reached the conclusion that Zong Yan needed careful nurturing.
“I’m ready.”
The fully-dressed black-haired young man tucked his overly long white shirt into his pants and buttoned his trench coat. Then he stood up and looked over at the evil god standing to the side.
It was only then that Zong Yan realized the coats he and Yog were wearing were identical. Not only the color, but even the fabric and cut were the same.
When he noticed this, he began to tug at his clothes with obvious awkwardness.
“Let’s go.”
The gray-haired evil god narrowed his eyes, seemingly satisfied with Zong Yan’s appearance. Yog immediately grabbed his hand. Before Zong Yan could say a word, the space around them transformed from the interior of the small villa to a crowded street.
Well, the Lord of Space could do whatever he wanted.
Before Zong Yan had time to comment about the way Yog had suddenly grabbed his hand, the evil god interlaced their fingers as well, and Zong Yan was stunned by the scene in front of them.
It was the street that Zong Yan used to travel to school every day, part of a prosperous shopping area, one of the most popular in Jiangzhou. Many people came here on their days off. There were all kinds of stores here, from snack shops to restaurants, from video game superstores to KTV, and there were a lot of big name beauty stores. It might be called the perfect place to come for the day to enjoy food, drink, and fun, and it was an offline space designed for consumer enjoyment.
But now—
The glass-encased shopping mall, several stories high, had been inverted and was floating in the air. Every pane of glass glowed with a rosy, never-fading brilliance.
Not only that, the sky was tinted with the same brilliant light, and the ground shone like it was covered with lustrous enamel. There were no traces of pavement or dirt, only squares of glass that glowed with streaming, multi-colored light.
People came and went as if they hadn’t noticed a thing. They were still carrying out their daily lives.
White collar workers in high heels carried briefcases. Students wore bulging book bags on their backs. Their eyes were blank and dull, but all of them were following their daily routines.
None of them noticed how dramatically the world had changed.
As Zong Yan stood on the ground he could even look up to see a white sphere in the sky, magnified countless times over.
—That had to be the moon.
In this bizarre place, the laws of physics were turned upside down, and the distance between the Earth and the moon had been distorted to an unimaginable degree.
Far in the distance, large steam ships rose through the air, and their huge clockwork gears slowly rotated until they passed out of sight. And a city with a tall, mysterious black spire rose from the middle of the sea, standing like a monument to a lost city.
So far, Zong Yan had only seen this kind of spectacle in one place.
“Cthulhu wanted to drag the Earth into his dream, but you snatched it from him first. You pulled R’lyeh and the Earth here… into the Dreamlands.”
The evil god spoke idly, caressing the back of Zong Yan’s hand.
