"Who are you?"
"Great Hastur!"
"Few people call themselves great."
"...Hastur."
"...Where is this?"
"A place blessed by great Hastur!"
"But you said earlier that this was my hell?"
"For greedy souls, this is a true hell. For those with steadfast faith, it is merely a wilderness. Only those who lack neither reason nor luck can escape the illusion here."
Zheng Qing stood beneath the enormous bronze doors, while the yellow-robed figure wearing a White Mask stood before him. The two exchanged questions and answers, looking very much like a scholar seeking knowledge and a teacher giving instruction.
If not for the writhing tentacles hidden behind the mist.
Zheng Qing caught sight of those squirming shadows from the corner of his eye, and pain immediately stabbed through his eyes, as though he had faced a biting winter wind head-on. He promptly looked away and focused on the being before him who called himself "Hastur."
Zheng Qing knew the name "Hastur." Ever since he had blown apart a Descendant of Sato Guya in the Silent River, then dealt in succession with Nikolas and the Hounds of Tindalos, the young scholarship student had crammed a great deal of forbidden knowledge about the depths of the Starry Sky and learned the names of many Outer Gods.
Hastur was one of them.
His more widely known titles were "King in Yellow" and "Lord of the Deep Space and Stars." It was said that Cthulhu was his brother and Shub-Niggurath his spouse. Any mortal who saw him would inevitably suffer evil consequences—either madness or death.
Zheng Qing remained skeptical of that last point, but he would never dismiss it.
He felt the few talismans hanging from his body again. Sensing the warmth they conveyed, he found a little comfort in his heart. "It sounds a