A door suddenly appeared.
It blocked Ian's path.
There were no keyholes or handles on its surface. Instead, it was covered in countless twisted, grotesque reliefs—indescribable creatures. Some resembled giant serpents entwined with vines, some were distorted masses of flesh covered in eyes, while others were entirely abstract.
Geometric symbols that seemed to represent some primordial concept.
These reliefs were not lifeless. They slowly, agonizingly slowly, writhed and shifted, emitting a faint glow and deep hum that muddled the mind.
The massive door radiated an ancient, savage aura, brimming with chaos and primal power, as though it were itself a horrifying living entity merely slumbering.
Before the great door, several enormous figures lay crouched in the shadows along both sides of the passage.
Ian's gaze immediately locked onto them.
These were the "Ancient Spirits" the blind man had mentioned.
Their forms varied wildly, completely defying the shapes of ordinary lifeforms.
One of them looked like a constantly churning whirlwind made of sand and dry bones, with two scarlet points of light gleaming in its eye.
Another resembled a gigantic, translucent Swamp Worm, its body covered in suckers that constantly opened and closed. Within each sucker, a human face seemed to appear and vanish amid silent, agonized screams.
There was another whose form was the strangest of all.
It was like a pool of viscous black sludge with an oily sheen, its surface constantly producing twisted illusions—at times a bustling city, at others a battlefield carpeted with corpses.
The Magic Power Fluctuations they emitted were filled with savagery, chaos, and a primordial pressure rooted in the ancient continent itself. These Ancient Spirits truly clashed with the orderly magical system of wizards. They were more like terrifying manifestations born after the Spirit of Nature itself had undergone some unknown distortion.
The moment