The two of them retraced their steps, Kag following behind Saruman with a steadier footing than before. The life force Saruman had shared with him was still doing its job, keeping the ever-present black markings temporarily under control, but Kag could feel that the suppression was far from perfect.
The icy pulse deep within the markings had never truly disappeared. It was like a dormant volcano, one that could erupt again at any moment.
For now, though, it wasn't an immediate concern. Most of Kag's attention was focused on carrying Lina and resisting the corruption eating away at his own mind. The man was as silent as stone.
Compared to him, Lina's condition was far worse. Her mutation had progressed far too suddenly for Saruman to stop it in time, and even now, her body seemed to be undergoing an irreversible transformation. Scales covered more than half her skin.
Every so often, her joints produced faint, unnatural cracks, as though her bones were constantly slipping out of place. Even in her unconscious state, she was no longer peaceful. From time to time, muffled sobs escaped her lips, sounds that seemed to come from somewhere deep beneath the ocean, sending chills down anyone's spine.
They fought several more battles along the way. One was against a 'Shadow Walker', a creature that manipulated darkness and merged seamlessly with the shadows of the corridor.
Saruman was forced to unleash a large-scale light spell, nearly exhausting every magic crystal he had left before finally driving it away.
Another time, they were attacked by an endless swarm of grotesque gargoyle puppets that seemed to have been born from the corridor itself.
No matter how many they destroyed, more kept coming. In the end, Kag had no choice but to unleash all his remaining strength, smashing apart part of the passage with his greatsword and triggering a localized collapse to cut off the pursuit.
Every battle only strengthened Saruman's conviction. These obstacles and powerful guardians didn't seem to exist to stop intruders from reaching the depths of the ruins. Instead... they were herding them, misleading them. The maze used endless battles and an infinite loop to wear intruders down, driving them farther and farther away from a single point.
And that point was most likely where they had first entered.
Finally, after countless loops and countless battles, they once again stood before the enormous stone door.
It looked exactly as they remembered, towering massively before them. Its material resembled neither stone nor jade, yet it felt icy cold to the touch.
Its surface was carved with twisted, blasphemous reliefs, a gigantic being covered in countless tentacles, a sunken city, and inhuman creatures kneeling in worship. The carvings still radiated an aura of madness capable of shaking one's sanity.
The stone door remained tightly shut, without the slightest crack. It looked as though it had never been opened since the dawn of time, and none of their previous attempts to open it from the inside had left even the faintest mark.
An indescribable pressure radiated from the door, even heavier than when they had first encountered it, and the salty smell of seawater in the air was stronger here than anywhere else. It was almost tangible.
"What do we do now?" Kag carefully lowered the unconscious Lina against the wall. His movements were gentle, as though she were something precious and fragile.
But the instant he let go, Lina's body suddenly convulsed violently. A shrill, agonized scream burst from her throat, something no human should have been capable of making.
The sound resembled the mournful cry of some gigantic creature from the depths of the sea, mixed with the sickening noises of twisting bones and grinding scales. The fish-like growths covering her body suddenly seemed to come alive, writhing violently beneath her skin as thick, yellowish fluid seeped from their edges.
"Lina!" Kag cried out. He dropped to his knees beside her, reaching out to hold her still, only to stop halfway, afraid of causing her even more pain. His hands hovered helplessly in the air, his face filled with anguish.
"It's this place." Saruman hurried over, his silver robes fluttering as he knelt beside her. A mixture of brilliant arcane light and forbidden shadow gathered at his fingertips once more as he quietly chanted a spell meant to soothe the soul and stabilize the body.
A gentle yet resilient field of magic enveloped Lina. Gradually, her violent convulsions subsided. Her screams faded into broken, waterlogged moans, like someone drowning. Her breathing remained rapid and wet, but at least, for the moment, she was no longer trapped in that unbearable frenzy of agony.
"...Thank goodness," Saruman let out a slow breath. "At least I've grown strong enough."
If this had happened back when they first entered the ruins, he wouldn't have been able to suppress a violent outbreak like this at all.
Kag looked at Lina. Even under the effects of the Stunning Spell, her face was still twisted in pain. He clenched his fists so tightly his nails nearly dug into his palms. He raised his head and looked at Saruman, the last trace of hope still burning in his eyes, his voice hoarse and shaking. "Saruman... can she... can she still be saved?"
The young wizard fell silent for a moment. He looked at the fading light in his comrade's eyes, then at Lina as she struggled against the corruption.
Finally, he spoke with quiet certainty. "Don't give up hope, Kag. As long as we're still alive, as long as we can still think, there's still a chance. Whatever lies beyond this door... it might hold the answer to turning all of this around."
His words were like a shot of strength, pulling Kag back from the edge of despair. The warrior nodded heavily, burying that fragile hope deep inside himself once more.
Over the days that followed, time seemed to lose all meaning in front of the lonely stone door. Kag took responsibility for caring for Lina.
He moistened her cracked lips with clean water, wiped away the foul ooze seeping between her scales, and constantly watched for any sign that her condition was getting worse. He carried out the task in silence, never wavering.
Meanwhile, Saruman devoted himself completely to studying the stone door. He seemed tireless, examining every inch of the massive door from top to bottom. His fingers traced every carved line while he searched for the faint streams of magic flowing within it.
Again and again, he pulled ancient texts from his enchanted storage bag, scrolls made from dragon hide, thick books written in a long-lost Elvish language, even black stone tablets from the Forbidden Land that radiated an ominous aura.
Kneeling on the ground with only the glow of magic to light the pages, he read, compared, and worked through countless theories, desperately trying to piece together a key from fragments of knowledge that had survived for thousands of years.
But the ruins never stopped fighting back. At some point, the eternally dim corridor beyond the stone door began to change. Twisted light and shadow gathered at the far end of the passage, taking the shape of whatever they longed to see most.
Sometimes Kag would hear Lina's bright, familiar voice calling his name, seeing her standing unharmed in the corridor, smiling as she waved him over. Sometimes Saruman would see envoys from the Wizard Council appear out of thin air, declaring that he had passed their trial.
They would bestow upon him the title and authority of a Legendary Wizard, promising that Lina would be healed at once. Once, the illusion even conjured a pool of crystal-clear water glowing with pure life magic, claiming it was the Fountain of Life, capable of cleansing any corruption.
Each temptation struck straight at the heart. They felt utterly real, overflowing with hope and promise, as though they were only a few steps away.
The first time Kag saw the "healthy" Lina, he almost ran toward her. Saruman's sharp shout, empowered by magic, snapped him back to his senses. Kag watched the illusion burst like a bubble before his eyes.
Pain filled his face, but even stronger was the fury of realizing he had been deceived. Only after regaining his senses did he remember that the monster he had been caring for was the real Lina.
"What the hell is this place trying to do?!" Kag's voice was filled with grief and anger.
"They're afraid." Saruman kept his eyes on the stone door, wisdom shining in his gaze. "This cursed underground ruin doesn't want us studying this door. It's trying to lure us away with the things we most want to see."
Kag wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his resolve hardening once more. "The harder it tries, the more it proves we're on the right track. They're afraid we'll really find a way out!"
The two reached an unspoken agreement. No matter what appeared beyond the door, supreme glory, the voice of someone they loved, or the promise of salvation, they would guard their minds and refuse to be moved.
They began treating every temptation as a signpost pointing in the opposite direction. Instead of leaving, they became even more determined to remain before the stone door, pouring all their energy into unraveling its secrets.
Under the accelerated flow of Memory Magic, time rushed past in repeating cycles of persistence, research, and resisting temptation. The piles of ancient texts around Saruman grew, disappeared, and grew again.
His eyes became sunken from exhaustion, yet the silver light within them only shone brighter, as though his very soul were burning. Kag stood like an unyielding reef against the endless tides battering both his mind and his heart, protecting the stunned Lina and his friend as he immersed himself in his research.
Then, one day, Saruman suddenly looked up from the mountain of ancient records. In his hand, he tightly gripped a plain black stone fragment with scorched edges, an artifact he had risked everything to obtain years ago from a forbidden ruin known as the Grave of Raven.
His face was a mixture of utter exhaustion and barely contained excitement. When he spoke, his voice trembled so much that the words nearly came out distorted.
"I've figured it out!"
It was obvious all those endless days of effort had finally paid off. At last, he had found a way to break the deadlock.
The instant the young Saruman shouted the words, the flowing memories before the black-robed figure froze, as if an invisible hand had pressed pause. Every image, every sound, every emotion stopped, fixed on Saruman's face, a mix of overwhelming joy and utter exhaustion.
The real world returned.
A thousand years later, deep beneath the African Ministry of Magic, inside the underground chamber covered in ancient seals, everything came back into focus. The blind, elderly Saruman quietly "looked" at his student.
Though his eye sockets were empty, it felt as though he could see straight into the other man's soul. His voice was low and hoarse, carrying the weight of a lifetime.
"Do you still want to keep watching?" His tone was calm, but the warning behind it was impossible to ignore. "From this point on, simply witnessing what happens is enough to bring irreversible corruption. It's a madness so severe that even I could only keep it at bay by sacrificing my eyes. And even then... I had to rely on someone else's help."
The black-robed figure remained silent. His hood hid his expression, leaving only an unsettling stillness. After a long pause, he finally spoke, his voice devoid of emotion, as though he were stating a fact that had nothing to do with him.
"Master, I'm already beyond saving. The corruption has long since become irreversible. So... there's no need for you to ask, is there?"
He knew Saruman's Eye of the Heart had already seen through the secret he had tried so hard to hide. Slowly, he raised a hand to the edge of his hood... and pulled it back.
Beneath it was no normal human face. His skin had turned a sickly grayish green, glistening with the slimy sheen of some aquatic creature. Several hard scales jutted from both cheeks, their edges tinged dark red.
His eyes were even more horrifying; his pupils were no longer round but narrow vertical slits like those of a reptile, the whites threaded with twisted blood vessels, as though he endured unbearable pain and pressure every waking moment.
It was the face of someone who had been horribly warped by the power of the deep sea.
Yes. The reason he had always concealed his appearance... was because he had already been corrupted. Or rather, everyone in the Department of Mysteries had. After all, guarding the seal beneath this place was their primary duty, and year after year, corruption was inevitable.
The ordinary Ministry employees who knew nothing about it had been spared, perhaps because the Department of Mysteries had established some form of isolation beneath the Ministry.
The African Department of Mysteries was clearly different from those in other countries. They seemed to possess a method that allowed them to remain sane even after suffering corruption far beyond what should have been survivable. In a way... they were sacrificing themselves for everyone else.
The black-robed figure killed without hesitation, whether his targets deserved it or not, but that did nothing to change the fact that he, and his colleagues, were heroes.
The Department of Mysteries had always been like that. Every Department of Mysteries guarded a secret hidden from the rest of the world.
"I see." The elderly Saruman observed everything through the Eye of the Heart. There was no surprise on his face, though the lines of sorrow etched into his wrinkled features seemed to deepen.
He let out a long, weary sigh, filled with helplessness and the exhaustion of someone who had expected this all along. "I only wanted to be sure," the old wizard murmured, almost to himself.
He offered no further objections. Instead, he simply waved a hand weakly, and the frozen Memory Magic began flowing once more.
"Haha! It works! I knew it!" The young Saruman excitedly pointed at several twisted symbols on the black stone tablet before pointing to a few inconspicuous corners of the relief carved into the stone door.
"Here, and here! The spatial anchor calibration runes recorded in the Raven Ruins match these 'Eye of the Gate' patterns on the stone door perfectly! I kept treating these symbols as separate before, but they're connected. They're not decorations, they're keyholes! The people of the Raven Ruins may have explored this place too!"
Saruman could barely contain his excitement. Kag didn't understand any of the complicated magical terminology, but from Saruman's expression and tone alone, he saw a hope brighter than anything he'd seen before.
"I'll keep watch outside for you!" He immediately stood up, gripping his greatsword as he scanned the surroundings, ready for whatever retaliation might come now that Saruman had made a breakthrough.
Saruman wasted no more time. Standing before the stone door, he raised both hands and traced intricate patterns through the air while chanting an ancient spell in a language that was difficult even to pronounce.
"Mami Mami Hong!"
Unlike before, the incantation no longer carried the cold aura of forbidden magic. Instead, it was filled with precision, order, and immense arcane power. Silver light poured from his body like a living thing, flowing unerringly into the key symbols he had identified on the stone door's carvings.
The next moment, the stone door responded.
(End Of This Chapter)
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