It was obvious: Saruman truly lived up to his reputation as one of the most brilliant wizards of this era. With the aid of esoteric knowledge, he had successfully deciphered the 'stone door', just as everyone had hoped.
As magical power flowed into it, the once-dim symbols lit up one after another, radiating an eerie blue glow.
The entire 'stone door' began to tremble faintly. The twisted reliefs carved across its surface seemed to come alive, slowly writhing.
At its center, where the seams had once been perfectly sealed, space itself began to distort and fold. A tiny point of dark light flickered into existence, rapidly expanding until it became a stable, rotating 'portal' that seemed to be formed from darkness itself.
Beyond the doorway lay unfathomable depths. Nothing could be seen, only pure emptiness. The swirling darkness appeared to devour all light and sound, and even one's thoughts seemed on the verge of being dragged inside and erased without a trace.
It was less a doorway than a gaping maw waiting to consume everything. An abyss leading to an unknown end.
They had succeeded.
Saruman and Kag exchanged glances, each seeing in the other's eyes both uncontrollable excitement and a hint of unease. They had truly discovered the method to open the 'stone door'.
"I knew it. I knew you were the best," Kag said as he stood at the edge of the dark vortex with Lina on his back. His faith in Saruman had not been misplaced.
Even so, the bottomless 'portal' filled Kag with dread. His powerful warrior's physique kept him steady, but even he couldn't stop his pupils from shrinking at the sight of something so far beyond human understanding.
The aura emanating from that void was more terrifying than any battle he had ever fought or any temptation he had ever resisted. It wasn't a physical threat, it was the denial of existence itself. Instinctively, life recoiled from it.
"Hiss... Wait. Something doesn't feel right."
The initial exhilaration quickly faded, replaced by a numbness creeping across Kag's scalp. Turning his head, he looked toward Saruman.
The young wizard's face was deathly pale. Continuous high-intensity research, the tremendous drain on his magic, and prolonged exposure to forbidden knowledge had left him utterly exhausted.
Yet his silver eyes shone with astonishing brilliance as they remained fixed on the dark 'portal', as though he intended to dissect every law and every danger hidden within it.
"Saruman," Kag said quietly, his voice rough with barely concealed tension, "Are you sure... this leads to a way out? And not... another prison even worse than this... or simply... destruction itself?"
It wasn't cowardice. As a battle-hardened warrior, Kag had never feared blades or magic he could see. But this was beyond the limits of his understanding, the instinctive caution all living beings felt toward the unknown.
Saruman didn't answer immediately. His gaze left the 'portal' and settled on the unconscious Lina lying across Kag's back. Calling her a "young woman" hardly seemed appropriate anymore.
Lina's condition was horrifying. Scales had spread across more than half of her face, twisting her once-delicate features with inhuman traits. Her breathing was weak and ragged, accompanied by a disturbingly wet rasp.
From time to time, her body convulsed involuntarily while muffled, painful syllables escaped her throat, sounds so distorted they seemed to rise from the depths of the sea itself. Black corruption patterns, unnaturally beautiful in their darkness, writhed across her exposed skin like living curses.
"Lina..."
Images of her radiant smile, her nimble figure, and the countless adventures the three of them had shared flashed through Saruman's mind.
Those memories overlapped with the miserable sight before him, piercing his heart like countless sharp needles. It had been his decision to lead them into these cursed ruins. It had been his failure to protect her.
Then he looked at Kag. The face of his comrade was etched with exhaustion. Beneath his resolute expression lay grief and a crushing weight that refused to lift.
"You make the decision, Saruman."
The black markings covering Kag's arms and neck had deepened from resisting the corruption and sharing Lina's burden, coiling around him like chains.
Saruman knew Kag was bearing far more than physical pain; he was enduring the agony of watching the person he loved slowly transform into something inhuman, powerless to stop it.
"I don't know, Kag," Saruman finally said. His voice carried the calm that only came after utter exhaustion, yet it was filled with unwavering resolve.
"The only thing I know for certain is that, with the strength and methods we have now, we have absolutely no way to reverse the corruption consuming Lina. We can't even free her from her suffering. If we stay here, there is only one ending. All of us... we'll be worn down within these endless corridors, little by little. Madness will consume us, and in the end, we'll become part of this place... just like those things we encountered before."
He pointed toward the dark 'portal'.
"Whatever lies beyond it, whether it's a way out, an even deeper abyss, or total annihilation, it's a variable. It's our only chance to break this hopeless loop. It may lead to hell, but at least we won't be sitting here waiting to die."
Kag listened in silence. Saruman's words struck him like heavy blows, shattering his hesitation.
"You're right."
How could he not know that staying here meant nothing but a slow death?
It was just that the unknown beyond that door stirred an instinctive fear within him. He lowered his head and looked at Lina on his back once more, feeling her faint breathing and the cold touch of the scales covering her skin. A surge of heartbreak, resentment, and a last flicker of hope welled up inside him.
He remembered Lina running freely beneath the sun. He remembered her clear, bright eyes. He remembered the trust she had shown when she had chosen, without hesitation, to follow them on this dangerous journey.
He couldn't allow her story to end in these lightless corridors, twisted into an unrecognizable monster, only to perish silently in endless agony.
"I'll say it again, Saruman. I trust you. You make the decision."
There was no longer any hesitation in Kag's voice. It had become as resolute as tempered steel, carrying the ruthless determination of someone with nothing left to lose.
"If we stay here, Lina will only suffer even more. We... have no way back."
He adjusted Lina on his back, settling her more securely against his broad shoulders, as though trying to pass all of his strength and conviction on to her.
"No matter what lies ahead," Saruman said, his gaze as sharp as a blade fresh from the forge as it fixed upon the endless darkness, "whether it's mountains of blades, seas of fire, the halls of the gods, or eternal nothingness... we have to go. For Lina. And for ourselves. Even if the end is destruction... the three of us will face it together."
Kag took a deep breath. "...Yes. Whatever lies beyond that door, we have no other choice."
Looking into the unwavering resolve that had reignited in his comrade's eyes, Saruman felt a flood of conflicting emotions, gratitude, guilt, and the profound bond forged through countless battles fought side by side. He nodded firmly and reached out, giving Kag's sturdy shoulder a powerful pat.
Kag returned the nod, secured the unconscious Lina more firmly on his back, and adjusted his footing to make sure she would not be jostled.
"Let's go, Saruman. Whether we live or die... we face it together."
"Agreed," Saruman said. "Together."
Drawing a deep breath, Saruman summoned the last remnants of his magical power, weaving a faint protective aura around himself.
He had no idea whether it would offer any protection against whatever kind of transportation awaited them, but at least it gave him a measure of psychological reassurance.
"Stay close, Kag. Once we're inside, no matter what happens, don't let go of Lina, and don't stray too far from me."
Kag tightened his grip around Lina. "Understood."
The two exchanged one final glance, finding the same unshakable determination reflected in each other's eyes. They cast one last look at the despair-inducing 'Infinite Corridor', then, without the slightest hesitation, stepped side by side into the swirling darkness of the 'portal'.
The next instant, Saruman, Kag, and the unconscious Lina draped across the warrior's back were swallowed completely by the rotating gateway of pure darkness.
The moment the last corner of their clothing disappeared, the glowing blue runes sustaining the 'portal' flickered several times violently. Then, like a candle burning out, they dimmed and went dark. The vortex at the center of the 'stone door' twisted violently, shrinking in upon itself.
At the very end, someone, or perhaps something, released a faint sound. It resembled a sigh, or perhaps merely a ripple passing through space itself. Then, the three of them, along with that mysterious sound, vanished completely.
The massive 'stone door' returned to its original state: cold, silent, and perfectly sealed, as though it had never moved since the beginning of time.
With the last trace of magical light extinguished, the twisted, blasphemous carvings upon its surface somehow appeared even deeper and more ominous, silently mocking the futility of all who dared trespass.
The empty stone chamber was once again swallowed by a silence deeper and more absolute than before. Even the maddening whispers and droning echoes of the 'Infinite Corridor' had mysteriously disappeared.
Only a vacuum-like stillness remained, pressing against eardrums that seemed no longer to belong to anything truly alive. The lingering arcane energy mixed with the icy aura of the 'stone door', creating an atmosphere so oppressive it felt suffocating.
With Saruman and the others gone, the tiny spark of hope that had endured for who knew how long, born from Saruman's brilliance and Kag's unwavering determination, finally guttered out like the last flame of a dying candle.
Only the ashes of despair remained, slowly cooling within that sealed space.
Yet the silence did not last long.
Outside the 'stone door', in the corridor that stretched into endless, uncanny infinity, the air began to ripple like the surface of water. One blurry figure after another slowly condensed out of nothingness, accompanied by deep, inhuman snickering.
"Kekeke..."
The first to appear was the 'Faceless Wizard', the very one whose 'Eyeball' had been shattered earlier by Saruman's magical disintegration ray. He still wore the same robe, weathered by dust and countless ages.
His face remained smooth and featureless like polished jade. Yet now, upon that blank visage, a twisted smile seemed to emerge.
The broken staff he had once carried had somehow been restored completely. The shattered amber mounted at its tip was whole again, and within it, a dark liquid appeared to flow slowly, as though something inside it had awakened, as though he had never died at all.
"Kekekekeke..."
The next to appear was the 'Tide Singer', whose body had supposedly been vaporized by the 'Disintegration' spell.
He sat cross-legged in midair. Beneath him was not a pool of water, but a mass of rolling, formless shadows. His robe, woven from seaweed and coral, dripped black droplets of water, and the book bound in scales floated silently before him, its pages turning of their own accord as streams of maddening dark script flowed between them.
"They've gone in. They've gone in! Kekekeke..."
His eyeless, swirling sockets stared fixedly at the sealed 'stone door', while his laughter bubbled like air escaping beneath the sea.
"The Master will be freed! We shall exist forever alongside the Master!"
The figure of the 'Dream Weaver' drifted like wisps of mist, constantly dispersing and reforming. Fragments of dazzling nightmares bloomed around it before dissolving back into nothingness an instant later, leaving behind only laughter as delicate as silver bells, yet as cold as death itself.
"Heh heh heh... You're right."
The outline of the 'Abyss Fire Demon' burned within the air itself, radiating the stench of sulfur and molten rock. Its deep growl carried the unmistakable satisfaction of a scheme unfolding exactly as intended.
The 'Time-Space Weaver', the 'Shadow Walker'... one after another, the ancient beings Saruman and Kag had struggled to defeat, or narrowly avoided, appeared within the corridor outside the 'stone door'.
None of them possessed true physical bodies; they resembled projections of consciousness, echoes of beings that had existed since ancient times. It was as though Saruman had never truly killed any of them.
Which, in truth, made perfect sense.
By this point, none of them could be described as ordinary life-forms. After being assimilated by this place, they had become an entirely different kind of existence.
Their lives were intimately bound to the 'Ruins' themselves. As long as the 'Ruins' endured, how could they truly die?
It was much like the 'Life-Sharing' spell Saruman had cast upon Kag, so long as Saruman remained alive, Kag could not truly perish.
More and more familiar figures appeared. Among them were even those who, moments before their supposed deaths, had regained their sanity and sincerely thanked Saruman and Kag.
Clearly, that fleeting lucidity had been nothing but an act, and their deaths merely another performance. Now that Saruman had departed, they had all reappeared in this world once more.
Though each possessed a different form, they all radiated the same unmistakable aura, ancient, mad, and overflowing with the unrestrained delight of predators watching their prey finally step into the ultimate trap.
They neither spoke to one another nor exchanged greetings. They simply floated, or stood, in silent ranks throughout the corridor, every inhuman gaze fixed upon the 'stone door' that separated two different worlds.
It had to be said that once their forms had changed, even their laughter had become grotesque. At first, it was sparse and subdued, like the cries of night owls, but gradually, the laughter gathered together.
Voices intertwined into a chaotic, blasphemous chorus. It did not travel through the air; instead, it echoed directly within the deepest layers of consciousness itself, filled with endless malice and mockery.
Fortunately, there were no ordinary living beings left in this place. Had a normal person heard that chorus, the corruption would likely have been immediate and catastrophic. Every one of them wore the satisfaction of conspirators whose plan had finally succeeded.
Perhaps their scheme really had succeeded. Everything that had happened before, every encounter, every performance, had all been orchestrated solely to bring about this very moment.
The 'Faceless Wizard' slowly raised his staff and pointed it toward the 'stone door'. Ripples spread across his smooth, featureless face, as though silently saying, '"See? They went inside."'
"Kekekekeke..."
The 'Tide Singer's Scale Book' flipped through its pages even faster. Its bubbling laughter carried the unmistakable implication of '"Just as expected."'
Perhaps every obstacle they had faced, every temptation, every battle, had never truly been intended to kill the two insignificant intruders. The 'Infinite Corridor', the endless guardians, the illusions that laid bare the deepest corners of the heart, all of it seemed less like a series of trials, and more like an elaborate process of selection.
A long, cruel, meticulously staged performance.
(End Of This Chapter)
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