Daily Disposable Persona - CH 114

Chapter 114 – Little Majesty 05

The boat slowly made its way along the river, throwing wave after wave of black ripples from its prow with quiet sounds of splashing water.

As the river wound its way ever closer to the center of the Dreamlands, the fog that shrouded it grew thicker and thicker.

Zong Yan frowned. On the surface of the river before them, a bloody head suddenly appeared.

Zong Yan: “…?”

He froze, his pupils shrank, and he almost jumped into the air.

That was like something straight out of a horror movie! Everyone knew Zong Yan wasn’t afraid of anything in the world, but he was still afraid of ghosts! Every time he used the Night Watchman card he felt anxious, afraid of hearing something he really didn’t want to.

Especially when he was in London. What Zong Yan heard at the tower almost gave him a heart attack.

Just when Zong Yan was about to have a post-traumatic stress reaction, a cold, slender hand reached over from the side and gently covered his eyes.

The coldness lasted for just a moment. After the slightly cool fingers left Zong Yan’s eyes, something lingered in the corners of his vision for a moment.

Zong Yan: ! ! !

He instinctively looked to the side and noticed something wasn’t right.

The river had suddenly become beautiful.

A moment ago it was black and gloomy. Occasionally, bloody heads would float to the surface, and there were unidentifiable piranha-like fish with terrible rows of fangs.

But now the river was crystal clear with gentle, lapping waves. If you looked closely, you could see colorful koi floating in the water. The whole river was like an ornamental stream meandering through a garden.

Zong Yan: “What did you do?”

“Just made it a little better looking.” The Lord of the Gate lowered his hand. His expression was calm, as if he’d done something totally ordinary.

Meanwhile, the throng of evil gods following the black ship and the Lord of the Undead who was poling the boat along were full of “…” inside.

Everyone knew the Lord of Time and Space had the ability to tamper with reality. Based on the personalities of the three pillars of the original gods, the Lord of the Gate was generally the worst one to mess with, but at least he was more of a lawful evil compared to the other two chaotic evil gods.

However, tampering with reality like this at the drop of a hat—not only did it demonstrate the power of the deeply reclusive Lord of the Gate, it put the gods of the Dreamlands on notice.

‘Why does His Majesty, the new sovereign, seem to be on such good terms with the Lord of the Gate?’

‘If His Majesty is about to succeed to the throne, where are the other two pillars of the original gods?

‘Is that legend about the Dreamlands true? But His Majesty Azathoth hasn’t awakened yet. Even if this person goes to Kadath, nothing will actually change, right?’

The gods were full of doubts, but the black-haired young man standing in the bow of the ship possessed an undeniable strength, the power of “change”.

They could sense very clearly that he carried with him the power of transformation, sufficient to truly manipulate the Dreamlands.

It left them all a bit bewildered.

This place, the Dreamlands, hadn’t had a master from its very beginning. No one had ever been able to truly take control of it.

Over the years, countless beings traveled to the central city of Kadath in a vain attempt to seize its power. Most were evil gods. It was said that Nyarlathotep went to the center of Kadath too. Unfortunately, everyone returned without success.

‘The All-In-One is the God of Omniscience and Omnipotence. Since he’s certain, I’m afraid there’s no chance of an error.’

‘But why did the Lord of the Gate decide to change reality? Could it be some kind of warning to us?’

They eyed the black ship as it slowly floated along the river.

There were a thousand and one speculations, but surprisingly none of them guessed the truth. The evil god just wanted to keep the Little Majesty from being frightened.

“Are we almost there?”

After the black river changed into a clear stream, Zong Yan felt a lot better, and the white fog didn’t look so eerie.

He didn’t see the boat pass through a field of bleached white bones, through the Martos Valley, past the Bnazic desert. Finally it sailed into the city of Kadath, which was full of ruins and relics.

This path had been trod by countless people. Randolph Carter once measured the fantastical countries of the Dreamlands with his own feet and leaped from the back of a Shatak bird…. And now many, many years later, another human came at the invitation of an evil god, but this time the evil god flanked him the entire way, until they reached the city at the center.

“Here we are.”

The Lord of the Gate was the first to disembark from the boat, helping Zong Yan jump from the prow to the flat ground.

The heavy fog seemed to be pushed away by an invisible hand, gradually revealing the reality behind it.

Crumbled remnants of walls and structures were scattered throughout the ancient city.

The turquoise blue river ran through the city’s center. On both sides were ports for mooring, still bearing the traces of ancient, wind-scarred ropes. The ground was covered with dust and yellow sand. Fragments of broken tiles were scattered in the cracks of the road.

Because this place was long abandoned, all the city’s buildings had crumbled beyond recognition, just like the Mayan civilization on Earth. Once brilliant and glorious, what remained was just no more than a speck from a vast ocean.

A single, ancient set of stairs rose up from the ground, standing out against the ruins of an abandoned temple.

The staircase led high into the sky, and at the end was a huge black altar that looked mysterious and unsettling.

Yog took the black-haired young man by the hand and climbed step by step to the highest part of the temple.

With each step, the torches around them lit up one by one, and the flickering light covered the stairs like a layer of gold.

When they reached the top, Zong Yan realized an evil god was standing by the altar.

He wore a cloak as dark as night, and through the faint light of the torches, Zong Yan could see the sinister tentacles churning beneath his cloak. There were bat wings on both sides of his body, coated with some sort of disgusting, blood-like substance, which half-concealed the countless drooping black nipples inside.

Although his size didn’t quite match what was described in textbooks, this was clearly the true body of an evil god.

Humans were unable to gaze directly at the true form of an evil god, or they would fall into eternal madness. Even if they didn’t lose their sanity, they might be struck blind, like Zong Yan when he’d stared directly at the billions of brilliant spheres of Yog-Sothoth.

Zong Yan instinctively looked away, but a moment later he realized he’d already seen the evil god and hadn’t experienced any discomfort at all.

He was about to ask the Lord of the Gate for confirmation, but the latter spoke first.

“You arrived quickly.”

Yibb-Tstll’s face was expressionless. “I’ve heard much about you, All-in-One.”

Indeed, although the two evil gods were aware of each other’s existence, unfortunately, these two learned beings were both of a withdrawn and solitary disposition. For evil gods, as long as they didn’t have a direct conflict of interest, they would generally maintain a friendly atmosphere, at least on the surface.

The Outer God who resided in the Dreamlands returned his gaze to Zong Yan.

In terms of knowledge, he was second only to Yog-Sothoth. Whatever the Lord of the Gate knew, this god could discover a great deal of as well.

“Ah, I know you.” His voice resembled a thread of silk. It was like he hadn’t spoken, yet his voice seemed to pierce Zong Yan’s mind. “The nightgaunts once told me about you. An interesting human.”

In the end, that was how Yibb-Tstll knew him.

Nightgaunts?

Zong Yan was stunned for a moment, then he remembered his wild feats.

On the first day of school he’d fallen from the sky, immediately used the Child of the Wind persona card to transform, then beat up the nightgaunts who came to scare the new students, which from then on established his “famous” reputation among the nightgaunt clan. As a result, not a single nightgaunt was willing to fly Zong Yan into the sky during biology practice class.

Awkward… This was the nightgaunts’ boss, right?

Zong Yan awkwardly twitched the corner of his mouth, but the Lord of the Gate slightly tightened his grip on Zong Yan’s hand.

Yog gave Yibb a cold look. “Don’t cross the line.”

It was rare to see the Lord of the Gate so protective of anyone.

Yibb lifted his eyebrows in considerable surprise, but in the end he didn’t object. He even took the initiative to step back, edging closer to the side.

“In that case, let’s begin,” he said. “All of the Dreamlands are looking forward to the return of the monarch.”

This was the truth.

Far below the high altar, the city full of ruins was already surrounded by otherworldly creatures.

Not just ghouls but nightgaunts and Shatak birds crouching on pillars, giant worms burrowing out of the ground, and countless other strange and oddly-shaped species. Some of the gods of Earth stood to the side, like subjects awaiting the coronation of their monarch.

In the distance, a black, unholy city stood on the surface of the sea. Perhaps the Great Old One there was in a rage at being suddenly pulled into the Dreamlands for no reason.

Zong Yan glanced at it, then quickly averted his eyes.

The altar stood before him. Above it was a clear spring of water.

“Just put your hand in the water.”

The Lord of the Gate led him to the spring. Suddenly he reached out for the black-haired young man and cupped his face, gazing down at him.

“Strictly speaking, the Monarch of the Dreamlands is Azathoth. You are Azathoth’s stream of consciousness, and so taking control of the Dreamlands will not be difficult for you to accomplish.” The golden eyes of the gray-haired evil god gazed at him quietly. “But there may also be some risk.

“—It’s possible that you’ll immediately return to the grand consciousness of the Lord of the Universe.”

The eyes of the One-in-All were deep. There wasn’t a single hint of falseness or mockery to be seen.

Zong Yan knew he wasn’t lying. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Is it possible that if I say this, I might possibly change your mind about saving all those humans?” The Lord of the Gate smiled. “I know very well that even if you know the consequences, you’ll do it without hesitation just the same.”

That was true.

Zong Yan knew he’d always been the kind of person who wouldn’t give up until he reached the Yellow River, who wouldn’t change course until he hit the south wall.

“If I return to the mind of the Lord of the Universe… What will happen to me?”

“No one knows,” Yog answered. “Maybe your consciousness will remain. Maybe you’ll be annihilated in the torrent.”

“Somehow it sounds like the second one is more likely.” Zong Yan smiled back. “How rare. There are actually things the God of Omniscience doesn’t know.”

“There are a lot of things I don’t know,” the Lord of the Gate said frankly, “especially about you.”

This statement was strange, so strange that Zong Yan felt stunned. After a moment he realized his face was burning.

Hey, hey, what the hell was this? The evil god with no emotions was suddenly reciting sentimental lines like a life-and-death parting scene in a TV drama?

“Look into my eyes,” Zong Yan said.

The evil god lowered his head. Wisps of his gray hair fell before Zong Yan’s face like strands of liquid mercury.

In that moment, Zong Yan stared directly into the evil god’s golden eyes. Behind them he saw the billions of radiant, dazzling spheres, the light that shone so brightly, the eternal wisdom, the endless chaos.

Zong Yan felt his heart beating frantically inside his chest like it was going to explode. His head was so dizzy it might have been full of mush.

Can he hear how loud my heart is beating now?

Zong Yan tightened his fingers, apprehensive, almost wanting to cover his pounding heart to muffle the sound.

“The Lord of the Gate wants to know everything about you, but not because you’re Azathoth’s stream of consciousness. Even if you were just a human being, a small and insignificant existence, Yog-Sothoth would still want to learn everything there is to know about you.”

Yog gazed directly into the eyes of the black-haired young man. His voice was low and serious, with an undeniable depth.

“I will always be watching over you from the end of time and space.

“An evil god will never understand what it means for a human to like or love someone. These are inferior emotions that evil gods discarded long ago. But if you’re willing—

“The Lord of Time will prove to you over a near-endless expanse of time that the feelings of an evil god will always be stronger, deeper, crazier, and far more intense than human love.”

—

The author has something to say:

Confession!!!!

TL Notes:

(✿｡ꈍ ▿ ꈍ｡) ｡.｡:∞♡* ♥ *♡

at the drop of a hat – 随时随地 – whenever and wherever possible; always and everywhere; any time and any place; at all times and places

put … on notice – 一个心眼 – have one’s heart set on sth; be all of one mind; devotedly; have only heart, keep an eye out, watch your back

His Majesty – 陛下 – bìxià

some kind of warning to us – 下马威 – severity shown by an official on assuming office; putting on airs right at the beginning of one’s office; severity and power displayed by an official upon taking office

until he reached the Yellow River – 不到黄河心不死 – until all is over ambition never dies; not stop until one reaches one’s goal; not to give up hope until one comes to one’s tether’s end; not to stop until one reaches the Huanghe River

wouldn’t change course until he hit the south wall – A common expression meaning a person who is stubborn or refuses to listen to other opinions. According to Baidu, buildings traditionally open to the south, and the homes of powerful people usually had a screen in front of the gate. When you exit, you’re forced to turn left or right. If you go straight, you’ll run into the south wall

crazier – 偏执 – more stubborn, paranoid, bigoted, monomaniacal

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

monarch, sovereign – 君主 – jūn zhǔ

valley of Narthos – 马尔托斯山谷 – Mǎ’ěrtuōsī shāngǔ

Bnazic desert – 布纳期克沙漠 – Bùnàqīkè shāmò