The monster's magic was bizarre and overwhelmingly powerful. It could manipulate shadows, summon corrosive black rain, and even distort the surrounding space for brief moments.
Saruman was forced to draw upon every bit of magical knowledge he possessed. "Wall of Light! Holy Shelter! Void Exile!" Powerful spells collided throughout the corridor, and the resulting shockwaves made the entire space tremble.
Meanwhile, Kag relied on a warrior's instincts and overwhelming physical strength to engage the monster at close range. Every swing of his battle-axe carried enough force to split mountains.
Yet every time, the monster blocked the attack at the last possible instant with its writhing tentacles. At this level of combat, a warrior could do little more than support the wizard.
"Stay..."
"Stay..."
"Stay..."
"Learn... true knowledge..."
The monster, or rather, the being that had once been Alanir the Star-Speaker, slowly raised its wand. Its movements were elegant and precise, nothing like the mindless frenzy of the other monsters. The wand traced graceful arcs through the air, leaving silver afterimages behind.
In an instant, a complex magic circle took shape before it. Countless motes of starlight burst from the array, each one transforming into a deadly arrow of energy that rained toward the two of them.
But they didn't fly in straight lines; instead, they curved through impossible trajectories, as though guided by an invisible gravitational field.
"Look out!" Saruman shouted. "Star Magic!"
He was warning the only teammate still capable of fighting, and Kag's expression tightened immediately. At the same time, Saruman moved to protect him. "Mirror Reflection! Starlight Barrier! Void Devour!"
Casting multiple spells at once was an extraordinarily advanced technique, but even at such a young age, Saruman had already mastered it. Just as before, his talent was so exceptional that ordinary standards simply couldn't measure him.
Three layers of defensive magic unfolded simultaneously.
The first, the Mirror Barrier, reflected part of the incoming starlight. The deflected bolts slammed into the corridor walls, carving deep scars into the stone with shrill hissing sounds.
The second layer, the Starlight Barrier, absorbed attacks of the same magical nature, its surface rippling continuously while emitting a piercing hum.
The third, the Void Barrier, swallowed whatever remained like a miniature black hole, though it trembled violently under the tremendous strain.
Still, the attack had been stopped, at least for now. But that wasn't the end. Not even close.
Alanir's assault continued. With a gentle flick of his wand, the starlight embedded in the corridor walls suddenly came alive, transforming into hundreds of silver serpents that lunged at them from every direction.
Each serpent had burning stars for eyes, and inside their open jaws, tiny galaxies spun endlessly.
"Flame Storm!" Kag refused to remain nothing more than support. With a furious roar, he ignited the power within his own bloodline, swinging his battle-axe to unleash a blazing tornado of fire centered on himself.
The silver serpents were burned to ashes. But to his horror, those ashes quickly reassembled, becoming even deadlier starlight hounds. Their claws could tear through magical barriers, and their eyes burned with an eternal fury.
"The way it fights..." Kag panted after another exchange. "It's disciplined... like a wizard who's gone through years of formal training..."
Saruman's heart sank as he finally understood. They weren't fighting an ordinary monster; they were fighting a former wizard who still retained its combat instincts and magical knowledge. That realization made the battle even more difficult. Every exchange of spells and every desperate dodge felt like fighting a fellow wizard to the death.
As if that weren't enough, Saruman broke out in a cold sweat while studying Alanir's magic. "This isn't ordinary Transfiguration... it's reconstructing things on a conceptual level. It's already touching the boundary of creation itself."
With his vast knowledge, Saruman understood just how terrifying that was. Such magic was the hallmark of someone approaching the Legendary realm.
He couldn't tell whether Alanir had already possessed such power before entering this place or whether these ruins had strengthened him. Either way, even standing at the threshold of the Legendary rank was terrifying enough.
Without him realizing it, Alanir's whisper echoed once more inside Saruman's mind.
"Stay..."
"Stay..."
"Stay..."
"Learn... true knowledge..."
Like a parasite clinging to his soul, the voice preyed upon his desire for greater power, trying to devour his reason from within.
Clearly, just as Lina had been unable to resist the curiosity that came with being a Seer, Saruman had also been influenced by this place from the very beginning.
That was why he had become so obsessively determined to reach its deepest secrets, and now, Alanir's power, combined with his words, only strengthened the ruin's hold over him. It was trying to ignite his desire to reach the Legendary realm.
"Damn it! Get out of my head! So the corruption started the moment we entered this place!" Saruman's face changed in alarm. Fortunately, he realized something was wrong in time and forcibly suppressed the temptation with sheer willpower.
Seeing this, Alanir let out a low chuckle. Surprisingly, there was intelligence in that laugh.
"Young colleague... my junior... you are quite knowledgeable. But knowledge... won't save you. Why not stay? Stay with me. Help me unravel the truths of the universe hidden within this place. You and I are the same. You, too, can reach that legendary realm. Don't resist. Don't struggle. It's meaningless. And you shouldn't think of this as corruption. You should see it as... a gift. Look at me. I'm evolving. I'm becoming something closer to a perfect lifeform."
Whether those words came from the ancient horror behind this place speaking through Alanir, or whether Alanir truly still retained enough of his own mind, no one knew. Perhaps his reason remained intact, and only his understanding of reality had been completely twisted beyond recognition.
"Never," Saruman answered without the slightest hesitation. He did long to become a Legendary Wizard and yearned for limitless knowledge, but the path he sought would never require abandoning his humanity.
"What a pity," Alanir sighed softly.
He raised his wand once more. This time, every mote of starlight within the corridor became restless.
The glowing moss peeled away from the walls, gathering in midair until it formed an enormous serpent of starlight. Its eyes were blazing stars, and inside its open jaws spun miniature galaxies. Its mere presence radiated an aura that threatened to consume everything.
"In the name of the Star God... devour these blasphemers." Alanir chanted an ancient incantation, and every syllable made the surrounding space tremble.
In a sense, he was still the Star-Speaker. But the stars he worshipped and studied were no longer the stars of the night sky; they were the ancient evils slumbering in the depths of the cosmos.
The Starlight Serpent let out a deafening roar and lunged toward them. Space itself warped wherever it passed, and the stone floor of the corridor split apart, exposing structures even older beneath. Its body was formed entirely from pure stellar energy, meaning physical attacks would do almost nothing against it.
"Damn..."
Saruman knew ordinary defensive magic couldn't withstand an attack of this level. Taking a deep breath, he began chanting an extremely dangerous forbidden spell, his wand tracing an intricate pattern through the air.
"In the name of the River of Time... by the Authority of the End of All Things... I command this place... Time-Space Freeze!"
Over years of exploring ancient ruins with his companions, Saruman hadn't returned empty-handed. He had gained countless fragments of lost knowledge, and among them were spells that manipulated time itself.
Silver-gray light burst from the tip of his wand, and everything it touched froze. The charging Starlight Serpent hung motionless in midair, its jaws still spread wide.
Alanir's wand remained raised, but even the simple act of swinging it slowed to an almost imperceptible crawl, as though he were moving through solid glue.
"...Hey," Kag frowned, "why is this hitting me too?" Even his thoughts felt sluggish, as though he were trapped in thick mud.
Clearly, Saruman's spell didn't distinguish between friend and foe. There was no helping it; he was still young, his understanding of time magic wasn't yet perfect, and the spell still had flaws.
Within this frozen world, only Saruman himself could move freely, but maintaining it consumed his life force at an astonishing rate.
"Attack!" Saruman shouted hoarsely, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he struggled to reduce the spell's effect on his companion. "I can't keep this up for long!"
Because all of his strength was devoted to maintaining the spell, he could neither move freely nor cast anything else. Everything now depended on Kag.
"Got it! I won't let you down!"
Fighting against the crushing effects of Time-Space Freeze, Kag poured every ounce of his strength into his battle-axe, making every rune on its blade blaze brilliantly.
"For Lina! Light of Dawn! Blade of the End!"
His battle-axe cleaved forward with enough force to tear through space itself. Within the frozen flow of time, the attack became several times more powerful than normal, and tiny cracks spread through space where the blade passed.
The Starlight Serpent let out a silent scream as its enormous body shattered piece by piece, dissolving into countless motes of fading starlight.
But at that very moment, Alanir broke free of the Time-Space Freeze by force. A horrifying smile spread across his twisted face, and with a light tap of his wand, the shattered starlight gathered together once more.
"An interesting trick... but you're still too young."
It was as if the indescribable evil lurking behind this place was gradually returning Alanir's reason to him. Compared to when he had first emerged, his speech was more coherent, there was more awareness in his eyes, and even his magical technique was becoming more refined.
Then, the servant of that unspeakable horror raised his extraordinary wand and pointed it directly at Saruman.
A thread of absolute nothingness shot toward him. It was a terrifying spell that erased existence itself, and where it passed, even space vanished, leaving behind a permanent trail of emptiness.
Alanir had once been an exceptionally powerful wizard, and although his wand couldn't compare to the Elder Wand, it was still an artifact of legendary craftsmanship, more than enough to amplify the terrifying power of his magic.
"Watch out!" Kag shoved Saruman aside and raised his battle-axe to intercept the attack.
The instant the Line of Nothingness struck the axe, he felt an impact unlike anything he had ever experienced. "Damn it!!"
His treasured enchanted battle-axe began to come apart at the most fundamental level, its very structure unraveling while the muscles in his arm tore apart fiber by fiber.
The runes engraved into the axe went dark one after another, each fading with a mournful cry. If not for the protective runes activating at the final moment and creating one last barrier, Kag himself would have been erased from existence.
"Kag!" Saruman's eyes widened in horror as he watched his companion collapse, gravely wounded. For a moment, it felt as though he were about to lose another lifelong friend, and the thought filled him with unbearable grief and overwhelming rage.
Alanir didn't seem disappointed that the attack had failed. Instead, he let out a satisfied chuckle. "An excellent weapon... but next time... you won't be so fortunate."
"I'll kill you!" Fury blazed in Saruman's eyes. He knew he could no longer hold anything back. Biting the tip of his finger, he used his own blood to draw an ancient rune across his wand, then began chanting an incantation so ancient that even Kag couldn't understand it.
"By blood as the covenant... by soul as the guide... I call upon the ancient power that slumbers!"
His wand became scorching hot, his silver hair floated without wind, and his eyes turned into pools of pure gold as an awe-inspiring aura erupted from his body.
Throughout the corridor, countless translucent spirits began to appear, the shades of legendary heroes from ages past. Their mournful cries merged into a vast gray torrent sweeping through the air.
"Oh?" For the first time, genuine interest appeared on Alanir's face. "An Ancient Covenant? Interesting. But the power you wield... is still far beneath the gift bestowed upon me by the Great Sleeper."
As he spoke, he swung his wand again, and three layers of defensive magic sprang into existence, each barrier possessing a different magical property.
The display was impressive, but it was useless. The Torrent of Ten Thousand Souls surged forward without slowing, piercing through every barrier before crashing directly into Alanir's soul.
The screams of the spirits became tangible shockwaves, causing the stone walls of the corridor to split apart as the air filled with the sharp smell of ozone.
"...No... Something's mixed into this! You've been to Raven's Ruins! One of 'His' Apostles was there!" Alanir screamed in agony, his body flickering violently as the crawling runes covering his skin began peeling away. He tried to fight back, but the soul-devouring magic was rapidly dismantling the very foundation of his existence.
"Now!" Saruman shouted, blood flowing from all seven of his facial orifices. The forbidden spell was consuming his own life.
Enduring unbearable pain, Kag slowly lifted his shattered battle-axe one last time. This time, he poured every drop of his remaining life force into it, making brilliant light as dazzling as the sun burst from the cracks running through the weapon.
"With my blood... I ignite my soul... Let this battle end!"
The battle-axe descended with all of Kag's will and every ounce of his strength. This strike went beyond the physical world, striking directly at the essence of Alanir's existence. The instant blade and body met, a blinding light erupted, illuminating the entire Infinite Corridor as though a newborn star had ignited within it.
"Damn you! You've been to Raven's Ruins!" Alanir let out one final roar of unwilling fury as his body began to collapse.
Just before he completely faded away, Saruman saw clarity return to Alanir's eyes for the briefest moment. For that instant, they were the eyes of a living, thinking person once more, filled with pain, filled with regret, and a trace of relief.
(End Of This Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 110 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395