The air fell deathly silent. Combined with the constant feeling of being watched, a pressure so intense it felt like it could drive someone insane, the atmosphere became almost unbearable.
And mixed into it all were the sounds coming from their own companion. Lina's condition was steadily getting worse.
'Gurgle... Hoot... Hoot...'
Her body had become unnaturally heavy. Her breathing was harsher than before, uneven and labored. Every so often, those disturbing, skin-crawling gurgling noises echoed through the silent corridor. It sounded like a warning, as if something terrible was about to happen.
To be honest, the thought that had crossed both men's minds frightened them more than anything else. If it were true, it would challenge everything they believed as white wizards, their morality, their convictions, and the limits of what they could bear.
'Could it really be... No.'
The possibility was so horrifying that neither of them wanted to think about it. But the evidence was right in front of them. There was no avoiding it.
"Kag..." Saruman's voice trembled. Even the light at the tip of his wand flickered with his emotions. "Look at these creatures... They're carrying things that were made by people..."
He had already reached the conclusion; he simply couldn't bring himself to say it aloud.
"...Made by people..." Kag froze for a split second before swinging his battle-axe and cleaving apart a monster that had lunged at him. Its foul-smelling blood splattered across his face. He wiped it away, and then he understood what Saruman meant.
The color drained from his face. The hand gripping his axe began to shake. "You mean... they used to be... people?"
The truth was, Kag had already considered the possibility. But in the middle of fighting, he had forced himself to ignore it, convincing himself he was wrong. Now that illusion had been shattered.
He had no choice but to face the fact that the monsters they were killing had once been fellow human beings.
"Just like Lina," Saruman spoke bitterly as an Ice Spell froze three charging monsters into solid statues. "Maybe these aren't naturally occurring monsters... Maybe every one of them was once an adventurer corrupted by this place."
The realization sent chills down both their spines. Saruman suddenly remembered stories he'd read while studying at the Magic School, old records about expedition teams that had disappeared in forbidden lands, legendary wizards who had been declared dead after vanishing without a trace.
Now, he finally understood what had really happened to them. Every explorer who fell here eventually became part of this twisted ecosystem. They were transformed into monsters whose only purpose was to stop those who came after them, forever trapped within this hellish corridor.
"We have to get out!"
For the first time, unmistakable panic filled Kag's voice. His battle-axe swung even more fiercely than before.
"I don't want to become one of those things! I don't want to be trapped here forever!"
The two of them quickened their pace, but escaping proved far harder than they had imagined.
The Infinite Corridor itself seemed to have changed after they entered. The once-clear path had become a maze. The glowing moss covering the walls flickered erratically, casting twisted, shifting shadows that made it impossible to judge direction.
"Wait!"
Saruman suddenly came to a halt, his face turning grim as he pointed toward a mark on the wall. It was one of the magical direction markers he had carved earlier, a faintly glowing arrow.
"We passed this spot half an hour ago... Damn it. We've been walking in circles."
It was obvious now. They had left markers, magical markers, no less, yet even those couldn't overcome the bizarre nature of this place. Without realizing it, they had been crossing the same stretch of corridor over and over again.
Kag stared at the mark in disbelief.
"That's impossible! We've been walking straight this whole time! I swear we never made a single turn!"
To test the horrifying theory, Saruman carved another magical symbol into the wall. This one was a rune that would slowly change color as time passed. Then the two continued forward, paying close attention to every detail around them.
The attacks grew even fiercer. A flock of monsters with bat wings and human arms swooped down from the ceiling, unleashing ear-piercing shrieks.
Saruman immediately conjured multiple protective barriers.
"Immortal Protection! Eternal Steadfastness! Super Barrier!"
Magic a thousand years ago was far more elaborate than the spells used in the modern era. Three magical barriers of different colors sprang up at once, and the charging monsters slammed into them with heavy crashes.
Kag seized the opportunity. The runes carved into his battle-axe blazed with brilliant light as he unleashed his strongest technique.
"Flame Slash!"
In this world, magic wasn't the only source of power. As mentioned before, a thousand years ago there were also martial disciplines for warriors, such as the Knight's Breathing Method.
A warrior who reached the pinnacle of their craft would awaken a unique power of their own. It was somewhat similar to the battle aura found in fantasy novels, though it wasn't called that; it was a miracle born from the fusion of willpower and spirit.
'Boom!'
A blazing arc of fire swept across the corridor, reducing several monsters to charred remains. But what happened next was even more horrifying. The blackened corpses began to writhe, and new limbs pushed their way out of the burned flesh.
"They won't die!" Kag staggered backward in horror. "This place is repairing them! Damn it! This is completely different from before! Maybe everything we encountered earlier was just this place luring us deeper inside! It's alive!"
Whether a warrior was clever had nothing to do with their profession. Kag clearly wasn't the type to solve every problem with brute force, and he immediately came up with the most reasonable explanation for why everything had suddenly changed.
"I think so too." Saruman watched the regeneration carefully, his expression growing darker. "This place really might be alive... a form of life beyond anything we understand. It's not repairing them... it's rebuilding them. Their very nature has been altered. They've become something... capable of regenerating forever."
That discovery revealed another horrifying truth. Once those adventurers had been assimilated by this place, they had become part of it, no longer something that could be killed on its own.
Of course, as for why Ian hadn't encountered these creatures a thousand years later, there were probably more secrets and untold stories hidden between those two eras. This memory alone couldn't answer that question.
Besides, Ian hadn't remained in this outer region; he had ventured into the deepest part of the ruins, a place from which almost no one had ever escaped.
What the Blind Wizard was showing the black-robed wizard was only the Infinite Corridor, the outermost layer of the ruins. Even so, its bizarre nature already exceeded everything wizards thought they knew.
The memory continued.
Just as Saruman and Kag were falling into despair after realizing they were trapped inside a spatial loop, an incredibly powerful surge of magic erupted from deeper within the corridor.
The foul stench hanging in the air was suddenly replaced by something even older, even more dangerous. The glowing moss covering the walls flickered nervously, and the shadows it cast twisted and stretched... as though they had come alive.
"Something's coming," Saruman lowered his voice. His wand immediately shifted into a combat stance, its tip gathering dazzling golden light. "This opponent... is different."
Kag carefully laid the unconscious Lina in a relatively safe corner. Holding his battle-axe before him, the muscles in his thick arms tensed. "I can feel it... The pressure is unbelievable. It's like standing in front of a volcano that's about to erupt."
Then, a deep, monstrous roar echoed through the corridor. An enormous creature emerged from the darkness.
Its upper body resembled that of a human, but its lower body was a mass of dozens of writhing tentacles. It still retained a vaguely humanoid shape, but stood nearly three meters tall. Its pale skin was covered in twisted runes that crawled slowly across its body as though alive.
Most unsettling of all, it held a warped wand. Though horribly deformed, it was still obvious that it had once been a beautifully crafted magical artifact. The star gemstone embedded in its handle still glowed with an ominous light.
That wand was famous among the wizarding communities of Africa; it was the kind of artifact many witches and wizards would recognize at a glance. And because of that, Saruman and Kag's worst suspicion was confirmed.
"...Merlin..." Saruman recognized the ornamentation on the wand. "That's the wand of Alanir, the Star-Speaker. He disappeared fifty years ago while exploring the Silent Canyon..."
The appearance of that wand shattered the last sliver of hope either of them had been holding onto.
They could no longer deny the cruel truth: this place truly devoured everyone who entered it, assimilating them and turning them into part of itself. Every monster wandering the Infinite Corridor had once been human.
They both knew exactly what it meant. Alanir the Star-Speaker's wand had no copies; it was one of a kind, a supreme magical artifact forged by the dwarves using craftsmanship that had long since been lost to history.
Forget replicating it, even studying how it had been made was impossible. If that wand was here, there could only be one explanation: the famous wizard everyone knew had come here to explore these ruins... and had never escaped.
Kag's expression turned grim, filled with disbelief and barely concealed panic.
"So even a wizard like him... couldn't defeat this place and make it out alive?"
The thought alone filled him with despair. He didn't even dare imagine what kind of fate awaited their own group. After all, everyone on this continent knew how powerful Alanir the Star-Speaker had been.
He might never have reached the rank of a Legend, but he had undoubtedly been a Master-class wizard. Even among Masters, he had stood near the very top. If someone like him couldn't escape this nightmare, how could any ordinary wizard or warrior hope to survive?
The realization shook Kag's resolve, and it was beginning to affect his fighting spirit.
"Pull yourself together!" Saruman shouted. "Alanir belonged to the past! He was incredibly proud and overconfident. Even someone like him could fall because of a single mistake! Don't let it get to you."
Those words weren't just born from Saruman's confidence as a genius; they also concealed the fear he refused to show.
He was terrified that Kag's spirit would collapse. Just as Lina had been invaded through a moment of weakness, Kag might also leave himself vulnerable to whatever lurked in this place. If that happened, their chances of escaping would disappear entirely.
So despite the shock, the fear, and the dread churning inside him, Saruman couldn't afford to show any of it. All he could do was encourage his companion. "You can do this."
Then…
"...Stay..."
"...Stay..."
"...Stay..."
This was why Alanir had once been a Master. Unlike the other twisted monsters, something of his mind still remained, and fragments of his ability to speak had survived. It was somewhat like the fallen evil gods Ian had encountered.
Not only that, Alanir's mutation wasn't nearly as severe as the others'. Whether that was because he hadn't been here long enough, or because his own strength had resisted the corruption, no one could say.
The most likely explanation, however, was that Alanir's abilities were still useful to this place, so it had allowed him to retain part of his original form and a fragment of his consciousness. In a way, perhaps that was a kind of mercy, but it certainly wasn't mercy as humans understood it.
The monster slowly raised its wand and cast a spell. A bolt of twisted black lightning shot toward them.
Although Alanir still possessed his magic, it had clearly been corrupted. Without a complete sense of self, he had also lost much of the finesse and technique he once possessed. Ironically, that was good news for the expedition.
A Master wasn't terrifying solely because of raw magical power; their true strength lay in magical skill and mastery far beyond ordinary wizards. Without that mastery, the pressure of facing a Master dropped by at least half.
Of course, even stripped of his mind, some things remained: muscle memory, instinct, reflex. Those lingering habits still gave the corrupted Alanir magical techniques far beyond those of an ordinary wizard.
The black lightning was terrifyingly powerful. Facing the attack, Saruman immediately cast a defensive spell.
"Mirror Reflection!"
The black lightning slammed into the magical mirror, and a violent shockwave erupted from the impact. The sheer force would have terrified any ordinary wizard.
Saruman truly had every reason to be proud of his talent. At such a young age, he had already surpassed countless other wizards.
Then again, he was someone who would survive all the way into Ian's era, someone who accomplished things even Voldemort never could. There was no way he could be anything less than an extraordinary genius.
Just as Dumbledore, in his youth, had been capable of battling Master-class wizards of his own time, Saruman might not have possessed Dumbledore's unparalleled talent, but he was exceptional in his own right. Against a Master from Africa, he could hold his own. It was difficult, but not impossible.
The reflected black lightning shot into the nearby wall, blasting a massive hole through the stone. Even so, the backlash from the collision forced Saruman to stagger several steps backward, his wand hand trembling violently.
"Its magic..." He panted for breath. "It's been corrupted. It's lost many of its advanced techniques... but its power hasn't weakened at all. If anything... it's become even more violent."
"I've got you!" Kag roared as he charged forward, his battle-axe cutting through the air with a deafening whistle. "I don't care who it used to be! Right now... it only wants to kill us!"
A brutal battle began.
(End Of This Chapter)
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