Outside the Memory Magic,
Watching the young Saruman gradually succumb to corruption, the black-robed man looked stunned.
"Master... you were the only wizard who ever managed to purge that corruption, weren't you?"
He had never known that his teacher's corruption had once been this severe.
"Yes... and no." The Blind Wizard didn't answer directly. Instead, he simply gestured for his disciple to keep watching the Memory Magic.
At Blind Wizard Saruman's fingertips, a wisp of blue magical light flickered like a trembling firefly, sending ripples through the empty air before the black-robed student.
The flood of memories surged forth once more, sweeping its audience back into a forgotten era, to the adventure of a young Saruman, full of brilliance, determination, and fear.
---
Saruman had already been corrupted. There was no escaping that fact. Whether he accepted it or not, the longer anyone remained in this place, the deeper the corruption would spread. Until they found a way to escape alive... There was no cure.
An hour later, they once again found the color-changing magic marker. It showed that time had indeed passed... and that they had returned to the exact same spot.
"The Infinite Corridor..." Saruman murmured, finally understanding the true meaning of its name. "It's not just a figure of speech... This place really is an endlessly looping space..."
Kag slammed his fist against the wall in frustration. "Damn it! Then how are we supposed to get out?"
At that moment, Lina, who was strapped to Saruman's back, suddenly began convulsing violently.
Her body underwent another horrifying transformation. Her spine arched upward as her bones twisted with sickening cracks, and scales spread beneath her skin at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Lina! Hang in there!" Saruman hurried over and tried to ease her suffering with Soothing Magic. This time... the spell had no effect whatsoever.
Lina's eyes snapped open. Her pupils were completely black, devoid of any trace of human emotion. She let out a piercing shriek, and with unbelievable strength, she broke free of Kag's restraints and crashed onto the ground.
"Lina!" Both men cried out at once.
Lying on the floor, Lina frantically clawed at her own skin. Blood and scales flew everywhere in a horrifying scene. The mutation continued before their eyes; sharp spines burst through the skin along her back, forming fin-like structures.
Her fingers transformed completely into claws, and her mouth split open far beyond what should have been possible, revealing rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth.
"We have to knock her unconscious." The words tore at Saruman's heart, but he had no choice. He cast dark magic, since white magic could no longer calm her. The spell took effect, and Lina fell into a deep sleep.
"...We may end up just like Lina." Kag examined her condition.
Lina had once been as nimble as a deer, her laughter bright and carefree. Now she had become little more than a vessel for corruption. Fine scales spread from the back of her neck across her cheeks, glimmering ominously in the dim light.
Thin webbing had formed between her fingers, and every breath she took carried the damp, fishy scent of the deep sea. Sometimes she regained a flicker of awareness; sometimes she only muttered incomprehensible syllables, sounding like the prayers of someone drowning.
Even now, none of them had realized one crucial fact. The place they were trapped in was the legendary 'Infinite Corridor' within the Cthulhu Ruins.
The walls were made of a material as smooth as jade yet as cold as bone. Across their surface were carved patterns of impossible, non-Euclidean geometry that seemed to writhe ever so slowly. Stare at them for too long, and your sanity would drain away like sand slipping through an hourglass.
The corridor stretched infinitely in both directions. No matter how confidently they pressed forward, they would eventually find themselves back at a strangely familiar corner.
Even after defeating one powerful enemy after another, and despite Saruman's desperate search for an exit, they still couldn't stop themselves from looping back to the same area again and again.
The air was thick with ancient dust, the salty smell of seawater, and a low, endless hum that seemed to rise from the very core of the earth, unsettling the soul.
"We have to find the core. This corruption..." Saruman said, struggling to keep his anxiety under control. "Lina won't last much longer."
The crystal at the tip of his wand emitted a steady white glow, desperately trying to push back the maddening cycle of endless repetition.
"I don't think I can keep going much longer, either," Kag nodded silently. He still carried Lina on his back with steady steps, but the exhaustion and worry were plain on his face. The faint black markings on his exposed skin had grown darker during the Corridor's constant whispers and their relentless battles, clinging to him like parasites.
"Here it comes again!"
Before either of them had fully recovered from the battle against the Lava Tyrant, the air inside the corridor suddenly erupted into violent motion. Howling winds swept through like countless blades, carving deep gashes into the stone walls.
Then they saw her. A woman's figure, formed entirely from a raging storm, gradually materialized in midair. Her long hair was flowing lightning, her eyes were spinning cyclones, and her robes were woven from drifting clouds.
"Storm Witch Selene..." Saruman's voice was filled with profound exhaustion. "So even the ruler of the skies couldn't escape becoming corrupted by this prison..."
He was still shocked. But after so many shocking encounters in a row, even that feeling had grown numb. More than anything, the endless battles had simply worn him down.
Selene let out a piercing shriek, her voice mixed with rolling thunder. "Arrogant mortals! You have defiled this sacred domain! You have disturbed my pursuit of the world's truth!"
Just like the powerful figures before her, this witch, too, had been trapped here by forbidden knowledge. Perhaps they hadn't failed to find the exit; perhaps they simply couldn't bring themselves to reject the knowledge this place offered. Only wizards truly understood how far one would go in pursuit of greater power.
Just look at Hogwarts' greatest dark terrorist, Voldemort. Horcruxes were nowhere near as horrifying as Cthulhu's corruption, but once someone created one, there was no turning back.
Even so, countless wizards, like Voldemort, had been unable to resist their temptation. This witch was no different, and neither were the other wizards who had been trapped here and slowly assimilated.
She attacked. Countless blades of wind rained down like a storm. They were not only impossibly sharp, but each carried the power to tear at the soul, tracing bizarre paths through the air.
"Damn it! Do these things ever end?!"
The multiple protective barriers Saruman had raised trembled under the relentless assault. Ripples spread across their surfaces as they neared collapse. "My barriers won't hold much longer!" he shouted, his wand shaking violently in the raging wind.
Kag suddenly straightened, a look of determination flashing across his eyes. "I'll make an opening!"
He poured every last ounce of strength into his left arm and threw a punch powerful enough to crack space itself toward the center of the storm. The blow briefly disrupted Selene's rhythm, but the price was steep. Black markings spread across Kag's left arm as well, and cracks began appearing across his skin.
Seizing the opportunity, Saruman pushed himself beyond his limits once again. He no longer saw the fractures in his magic core as a weakness. Instead, he used them as channels, drawing in the violent energy raging all around him.
"Storm... heed my command! Become an extension of my will!"
He intended to defeat her in the very domain she ruled. Even more astonishingly, the storm under Selene's control actually began obeying Saruman instead. It was the result of an even deeper understanding of magic itself. Rather than opposing the storm, he became part of it, resonating with the elemental forces of heaven and earth.
Lightning danced across his fingertips, and hurricane winds swirled around him. For that brief moment, he seemed like the true master of the storm.
"You've... touched the Legendary realm..." Selene cried out in unwilling despair as her storm-forged body began to dissipate.
Yet in her final moments, there was also a trace of relief in her voice. "Even the free sky... could not escape this prison... Be careful... It's consuming the very essence... of all of us..."
The storm had barely died down when a black shadow silently appeared behind the two of them. His entire body was wrapped in flowing darkness, and only a pair of icy eyes shone within the shadows.
The Fallen Ones were appearing more and more frequently, and the intervals between them kept growing shorter. Perhaps the Corridor had sensed that Saruman was getting close to the exit. Or perhaps it was only creating that illusion to give him false hope. No one could know.
"The Faceless One... Jerome!" Saruman instantly readied himself for battle.
Jerome said nothing. The shadows around him transformed into blades that attacked from every direction.
Saruman reacted immediately. "Barrier of Light!"
But the shadow blades pierced straight through the barrier, leaving several bloody wounds across his body.
"I can't see him!" Kag shouted anxiously. The darkness had already begun devouring his vision.
Saruman slowly closed his eyes and extended his senses to their limit. Within his perception, shadow was no longer merely darkness; it was simply the other side of light.
"Shadow is nothing more than light's other face."
Saruman brought his own shadow to life. It met Jerome within the Shadow Plane, where the two shadows clashed in a furious battle. Sometimes they melted into the walls; sometimes they burst from the ceiling without warning.
Suddenly, Jerome split into dozens of shadow clones that attacked from every direction at once. Saruman remained perfectly calm, his wand tracing an intricate pattern through the air.
"Shadow Cage!"
Every clone froze where it stood. But Jerome's true body suddenly emerged from Saruman's own shadow, a blade thrusting straight toward his back.
At the critical moment, relying purely on a warrior's instincts, Kag hurled a stone. It struck Jerome's wrist with perfect accuracy.
Saruman seized the opening and unleashed his ultimate spell.
"Light and Darkness Originate Together!"
Blinding white light and endless darkness erupted simultaneously. Instead of opposing each other, they merged into an entirely new kind of power. Before that power, Jerome had nowhere left to hide. He let out one final sigh.
"In the end... none can escape... the judgment... of the light."
With those whispered words, the Shadow Assassin vanished completely.
As the darkness dispersed, another figure stepped out from the void. He wore emerald-green robes, and black thorns coiled around the Life Wand in his hand, radiating an ominous aura.
"Life Priest Orlando..." Sorrow filled Saruman's voice.
Orlando raised his wand, and black thorny vines spread across the ground like venomous snakes. Saruman answered with healing magic, only to discover that the holy light actually caused the black thorns to grow even faster.
"Life... and death... are one and the same..." Orlando's voice was twisted with madness.
Saruman dodged the incoming vines while searching for an opening. He noticed that Orlando constantly protected the gemstone set at the tip of his wand. That was probably the core of the corruption.
"Kag, cover me!" Saruman shouted.
Kag immediately hurled more stones, drawing Orlando's attention. Taking advantage of the distraction, Saruman rushed forward. But the black vines suddenly split into countless new branches, surrounding him from every direction.
"It's useless... Accept the truth..." Orlando grinned savagely.
At that critical moment, Saruman broke through another limit. He stopped treating life and death as opposing forces; instead, he fused them together. His wand emitted a strange, chaotic radiance.
"Cycle of Life and Death!"
A brand-new power erupted from the spell, and the black thorns immediately began to wither. Orlando screamed in agony, frantically waving his wand. More vines burst from the ground, but Saruman had already found the rhythm of the battle.
He darted gracefully through the forest of thorns, every swing of his wand reducing great swaths of them to ash.
At last, he broke through the final barrier. His wand struck the gemstone at the tip of Orlando's wand with perfect precision.
Orlando let out one final cry, and for a brief moment, clarity returned to his eyes. "Go... Quickly... It's waking up..."
With that warning, the Life Priest dissolved into countless specks of green light.
This time, at least, no new Fallen Ones immediately appeared. Saruman and the others were finally given a chance to catch their breath. After breaking through his limits again and again, Saruman had come infinitely close to the Legendary realm.
Their situation improved somewhat, and he even gained enough control over his newfound power to temporarily suppress the corruption spreading through Kag.
After a short rest, they continued onward. As they once again passed a niche carved with an enormous octopus relief, the corridor suddenly changed. The space ahead opened into a vast circular chamber.
Standing in the center was a lone figure. He wore robes that seemed woven from dust and the passage of time itself. He was tall, but unnaturally rigid.
His face had no features whatsoever; it was nothing more than a smooth surface with the texture of polished jade. In his hand, he held a staff, and set into its tip was an enormous amber gem shaped like a giant eyeball.
There was no warning, no greeting. The Faceless Wizard simply raised his staff, and the amber "eye" suddenly lit up.
An indescribable force spread outward from him. Saruman immediately felt the air around him become thick and heavy. An immense, focused will descended upon him like an invisible giant hand, trying to seize him, crush him... and finally turn him to stone.
"Watch out! It's a Petrifying Gaze!" Saruman shouted, his wand flicking forward.
A 'Prismatic Barrier' instantly unfolded in front of his two companions. The invisible petrification field slammed into the barrier, and a painful grinding noise echoed through the chamber. The barrier's rainbow-colored light flickered violently, looking as though it could shatter at any moment.
Cold sweat formed on Saruman's forehead. He could feel the ancient, absolute power contained within that force; it surpassed every spell he had encountered before.
"Kag! Get Lina back!" Saruman growled as he poured everything he had into maintaining the barrier. He knew simple defense wouldn't last. His mind raced through the ancient texts he had studied. Magic like this usually depended on the caster's overwhelming will locking onto its target.
Without hesitation, the warrior retreated several steps. He placed Lina in a relatively safe corner, then raised his massive shield and fixed his eyes on the faceless being.
"I've already become the strongest wizard beneath the Legendary realm! I'll carve my way out of here!" Saruman took a deep breath. Instead of continuing to resist the attack head-on, he changed tactics. His wand traced an intricate pattern through the air as he chanted a short, forceful incantation.
In an instant, one Saruman became two. Two became four. Soon, countless phantoms of Saruman filled every corner of the chamber, each radiating the exact same magical aura.
(End Of This Chapter)
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