The further you go, the more...
Saruman became increasingly terrified.
It's hard to imagine just how evil and twisted the lives preserved in this city truly were.
"Damn it! Perhaps if we leave this place, we'll have to face those terrifying creatures head-on!" Saruman's face darkened as he realized what was happening.
In fact.
Even here, he was barely able to keep up and had to keep casting the " Mind Barrier " spell, a mental shield woven from ancient runes and willpower.
My Magic Power is being depleted at an alarming rate.
Saruman gripped his staff tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, veins throbbing on his forehead. With each whisper, the shield shimmered with a faint silver light, trembling like ripples on water. He knew that once his mana was depleted, even a moment's lapse in concentration would unleash a torrent of madness.
It completely consumed his reason.
And at that time...
Karg won't escape either.
"Hold on! I'm sharing my warrior's spirit with you!"
Karg's expression was not good either. He had no magic, no spells, only a body forged by war and suffering, and a heart that refused to yield.
Both of their foreheads were covered in a fine layer of cold sweat.
His lips were clenched so tightly that blood seeped through them, and his eyes were fixed on the road ahead—not to see the road clearly, but to prevent his gaze from getting lost in the writhing shadows.
"Go home! We must go home!" Karg repeatedly murmured the name of his hometown, the only anchor he could hold onto, the driftwood that kept him from sinking in the raging waves.
Even so, he began to hear his inner voice responding to those whispers.
"Perhaps—it really is time to stop—it's quiet here—it's warm—" Neither Karg nor Saruman knew this was a form of seduction.
The two could barely speak to each other. Any word could become a conduit for contamination, twisted into new seeds of madness. They could only communicate with their eyes—a weary but resolute nod, a brief but powerful pat on the shoulder. This silent alliance became the most primitive and precious weapon against this realm.
As night deepened, no stars shone in the sky, only a sickly moon, its colors shifting, hung on the distorted horizon, casting an ominous glow.
perhaps.
On this cursed land, the "end" is never a geographical coordinate, but whether the soul can still hold onto that glimmer of light called "self" in the midst of the raging torrent.
certainly.
There are also material-related issues that require distraction.
After traveling for about half an hour...
The material crisis has finally arrived.
As they passed through a portico-like structure made up of two twisted stone pillars, suddenly, a pool of seemingly still, viscous black liquid beside them began to boil violently!
The liquid rapidly swelled and coalesced into a shapeless, humanoid creature made of mucus and shadow. It emitted a "gurgling" sound like the gasping of a drowning person, brandishing tentacles made of mucus with gleaming cold edges, and suddenly coiled towards Karg's legs!
"Watch out!" Saruman reacted swiftly, pointing his staff.
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A blazing Fire Serpent roared out and struck the slimy creature. However, the expected burning did not occur. The flames seemed to have crashed into deep water, only causing the creature's body to tremble violently and emit an even more piercing hiss, while its forward momentum remained undiminished!
"Extremely high physical and elemental resistance!" Saruman immediately judged, and Switching Spell accordingly.
The powerful shockwave struck the slime creature, blasting parts of its body into countless fragments, but the remaining parts continued to writhe, rapidly absorbing the surrounding shadows and slime.
Attempting to reorganize!
At the same time, countless pale, pupil-less eyes suddenly opened on the walls covered with biological mucus on both sides! Invisible Mental Shock, like sharp needles, shot out!
The projectiles shot straight at their brains!
This is the retaliation of a monster that slipped through the net!
"Well!"
Karg grunted, feeling as if his head had been struck by a heavy hammer, a wave of dizziness washing over him, and his movements instantly slowed. Lina, who was on his back, also seemed to be affected.
He let out a low groan of pain.
"Hold fast to your mind!" Saruman roared, slamming his staff into the ground. A semi-transparent shield of spiritual light unfolded around him, barely managing to block most of the Mental Shock.
But his own face also paled slightly.
There was no way around it; resisting the pollution already consumed a lot of his mental energy, and now he had to be distracted by fighting, which naturally made him even more uncomfortable. He was already pushing himself to the limit. Just then, the slime creature had mostly reformed, and several tentacles attacked again like venomous snakes, with astonishing speed!
"Get out of my way!" Karg roared, his warrior's ferocity ignited, despite his headache. Instead of dodging, he channeled his Battle Qi into his greatsword and unleashed a fierce Cleansweep!
"Sizzle!"
The greatsword, imbued with Magic Breaking Battle Qi, finally worked this time. As the blade passed, the tentacles made of slime were severed at the root, falling to the ground where they writhed violently as if alive before slowly melting away. The creature let out a painful shriek, staggered back a few steps, and its body trembled even more violently.
"It's vulnerable to enchanted weapons and high-energy attacks!" Karg shouted immediately.
Saruman understood immediately and stopped using conventional elemental magic, instead beginning to chant a short, ancient incantation—" Holy Light Judgment!"
This is one of his most treasured light-based spells, extremely effective against negative energy and evil creatures.
He wouldn't have been able to use it if he hadn't made consecutive breakthroughs before.
A pure, scorching light, seemingly containing fragments of the sun, burst forth from the tip of the staff, surging like a sharp sword with unstoppable force as it pierced towards the slimy creature!
"Chirp--!!!"
The slimy creature let out a dying struggle and an extremely piercing howl. Under the holy light, its body churned and evaporated violently like boiling water, finally turning into wisps of foul-smelling black smoke and completely dissipating. The pale eyes on the wall also seemed to be frightened, instantly closing and disappearing.
"Finally, we've got this thing sorted out!"
The battle ended, and both of them were slightly out of breath.
On Karg's arm, the black lines seemed to have spread downwards a little further due to the recent outburst and the Mental Shock, causing a stinging pain.
Saruman's Magic Power power was also significantly depleted.
"These things—are even more troublesome than what we encountered in the corridor." Karg looked at the slowly disappearing black stain on the ground with lingering fear, and swallowed hard. "At least the monsters in the corridor had physical forms, but these things—they seem to be pure malice and pollution coalescing into form!"
In response to this...
Saruman nodded solemnly.
"That's right, and they seem to have become one with the city itself, able to draw strength from the environment at any time. We must be even more careful."
Saruman also realized the reason for the enemy's actions.
After a brief rest, suppressing the stinging pain from the lines on their arms and the lingering Mental Shock in their minds, Saruman and Karg had no choice but to continue down this perilous path.
I'll say it again.
There's no other way! Staying means giving this city more opportunities to erode their will with invisible whispers and to alienate their bodies with pervasive pollution.
The road ahead became even more treacherous.
But I had no choice but to go.
They felt as if they had entered the intestines of a giant beast made of living rock. The walls on both sides were no longer cold stone, but covered with a very thick, translucent, and slightly pulsating biological membrane.
Beneath the membrane, distorted, blood vessel-like patterns were faintly visible, slowly flowing, emitting a kind of spiritual pollution with a sweet, fishy smell that made Saruman feel dizzy.
The buzzing sound that filled the air became more tangible here.
It looked as if countless tiny insects were gnawing and wriggling beneath the membrane.
"Stay close to me and don't touch anything," Saruman warned in a low voice, deliberately dimming the light at the tip of his staff to avoid overstimulating these seemingly dormant "walls." His senses were heightened to their limit, like the most sophisticated radar, scanning every inch of the space ahead for energy fluctuations.
However, R'lyeh's malice always exceeded expectations.
As they passed through a particularly narrow corridor, with a dark green gelatinous substance hanging overhead like stalactites, danger silently descended.
"Tick-tock----"
A drop of thick, dark yellow liquid with a pungent, acidic smell dripped from above, landing just half a step in front of Karg's feet.
"Laugh--!"
With a sickening corrosive sound, a small pit was etched into the incredibly hard green stone ground, from which wisps of white smoke rose!
"Up!" Karg reacted quickly, leaping backward and pulling Lina even tighter on his back.
Almost the instant he finished speaking, the previously still, stalactite-like gelatinous substances above seemed to awaken simultaneously! Dozens of bulges rapidly rose and enlarged on the surface of the gelatinous substances, then "plop! plop! plop!"
Like a ripe abscess bursting open, large amounts of viscous, differently colored acidic fluid poured down like a torrential rain!
Some are dark yellow and highly corrosive; some are dark green and emit a sweet, fishy smell of neurotoxins; and some are even translucent.
These substances did not corrode upon landing, but instead spread rapidly to their ankles like living things, seemingly possessing strong adhesive and spiritual absorption properties!
"Damn it! These things love to ambush!" Saruman slammed his staff, instantly creating multiple layers of Magic Shield above and around the two of them.
A close call for myself.
The acid splattered against the shield, producing a dense hissing sound, and various colored smoke billowed up. The shield's light flickered and dimmed violently at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"We can't take this! Move!" Saruman roared, his Magic Power for maintaining the shield dwindling rapidly. He continued to inject Magic Power as he tried to advance.
Karg swung his greatsword, swatting away several clumps of viscous liquid that were trying to bypass the shield and attack from the side.
"Hiss hiss hiss~" A slight corrosive sound came from where the sword touched the liquid! He was startled; the corrosiveness of this acid was far greater than that of a strong acid!
"What the hell is this! It's even more disgusting than the slimes we encountered in the Raven Ruins!" The two struggled forward for more than ten meters under the torrential rain of acid. Just as they were about to break out of this "stalactite" area, the outermost shield that Saruman had set up finally gave way.
It shattered with a "bang"!
Several clumps of dark green acid slipped through the gap and shot straight into Karg's face!
It was another critical moment.
Karg displayed the reaction speed of a top-tier warrior. He suddenly sidestepped, using his shoulder, covered by arm armor, to forcefully knock away most of the acid.
Of course, even with a quick reaction, a few drops still splashed onto his unprotected areas of his chest armor and arms.
"Laugh--!"
Several charred spots instantly appeared on the breastplate, and a piercing burning pain, accompanied by a strong numbness, came from the area of the arm where the skin had been in contact with the charred breastplate!
The neurotoxin is starting to take effect!
" Karg!" Saruman exclaimed.
"It's alright! Let's go!"
Karg gritted his teeth, enduring the numbness and excruciating pain, and instead of slowing down, increased his speed, bursting out of the acid's reach. Saruman followed closely behind!
The last shield shattered behind them with a deafening roar.
"We can't even beat that Legend monster who casually wipes out a bunch of mobs!" The two leaned against a relatively clean wall, panting heavily.
Everyone was in a bad mood.
"Am I going to die again?" Karg quickly checked his injuries. The areas on his arm that had been splashed with splatter were red, swollen, and blistered, and the numbness was spreading outwards.
"Well, it seems there's still a chance to save him." Karg thought for a moment, then took the bottle of high-grade antidote that Saruman had taken out without hesitation and drank it down.
He then used a dagger to cut away the rotten flesh and sprinkled on some special healing powder. His movements were swift and efficient, but the cold sweat on his forehead showed that he was enduring immense pain.
"These damn things—" Karg looked at the still-sizzling acid pool on the ground, still feeling lingering fear.
"They are not simply traps!"
Saruman watched with a grave expression as the gelatinous "stalactites" slowly retracted and returned to their original state. "They're more like some kind of defensive symbiote, or perhaps the city's own immune system."
This conjecture weighed even heavier on their minds. What if the entire city was a living, terrifying entity, or something possessing a collective consciousness?
Their intrusion was tantamount to a virus invading the Giant's body.
"No matter what, I don't want to be digested."
After taking a quick look around, they dared not linger and continued on their way.
The following section was relatively peaceful, but the feeling of being watched lingered. The passageway was sometimes as wide as a plaza, filled with enormous fossil structures that resembled some kind of biological organ.
The terrain is highly varied.
At times, the passage is as narrow as a crack, requiring one to crawl through. The biofilm on the walls gradually disappears, replaced by older stone walls covered with blasphemous inscriptions.
They were passing a mural covered with distorted stars and tentacle patterns when...
Another anomaly occurs!
The surrounding shadows seemed to come alive, converging from all directions like viscous ink, causing the air temperature to plummet and a bone-chilling cold to permeate the air.
Hehehehe~
Countless subtle movements.
It was as if whispers of pure resentment were resounding directly in their minds, no longer an allure, but a vicious curse and a desperate wail!