Chapter 487, Part 4: The Broken Cycle
Even with the vast knowledge, forbidden experiences, and profound understanding of Ian Prince's power and mystery accumulated over millennia by the elderly Saruman, his young face still uncontrollably displayed an extremely obvious blank expression, a mixture of astonishment and bewilderment.
A cold, turbulent void?
He understands.
The body's instinctive trembling caused by the impact of fusion and the tearing of spacetime?
He understood.
But—the "newcomers"? This batch? Has the "highest physical fitness"?
The combination of these words, along with Ian Prince's expressionless face and matter-of-fact tone, constituted a bizarre expression that completely exceeded Saruman's cognitive logic and linguistic comprehension, whether in his younger or millennia-merged form—truly incomprehensible.
Millennia of wisdom spun frantically, attempting to decipher the deeper meaning, metaphor, or some ancient code he didn't understand behind the words. Was it mockery? A test? Or some specific terminology involving the rules of space and time?
Nothing was gained.
The literal meaning of this sentence is so simple it's almost childish, but the context in which it appears and the speaker's identity make it seem utterly absurd and incomprehensible.
Saruman opened his mouth, wanting to respond, but found that any words seemed pale and powerless at this moment. He could only continue to maintain that slightly blank expression, in the cold, trembling void, engaging in a one-sided, misunderstanding-ridden "silent" stare with the young Legend above him who was looking down at him and speaking inexplicable words.
"Have I seen you somewhere before?"
Two people from different eras.
Two people who once crossed paths.
They meet again at this moment.
And the ancient stories that should belong only to history, to Saruman, are now strangely connected with the later stories represented by Ian.
This is the magic of the magical world.
Perhaps we need to shift our perspective at this moment.
Even time.
Perhaps we should go back to five minutes ago.
Let's return to the real protagonist.
Cough cough.
The moment Ian opened the magic circle and stepped inside—the one-sided "cleaning" in the center of R'lyeh City and the analysis of the magic circle—were merely necessary steps for Ian Prince to overcome some noisy obstacles in his path and a standard procedure for obtaining key information.
The moment the final rune, imbued with his will and Magic Power, was embedded into the array's core, and the ancient teleportation mechanism was forcibly activated, he knew he had found the right place.
The raging energy turbulence, the torn spatial rifts, and the spacetime storms powerful enough to crush ordinary matter into elementary particles—scenes that would be considered desperate for mortals and even most Legendary Wizard —were, in Ian's eyes, nothing more than a slightly bumpy "passage" leading to his destination.
Unlike Saruman and the other two, he was not helplessly drawn in and torn apart. In the instant that brilliant light erupted, the "domain" around him—that realm of absolute self, absolute order, seemingly independent of any external rules—like the hull of the most solid submarine, isolated all chaos and harm from the outside.
therefore.
Ian simply followed the "signposts" of the activated magic circle, descending steadily and at a constant speed into the depths of this bizarre space. Soon, he found himself "standing" in the crevice of this deep space, twisted by R'lyeh's madness and Ancient Magic.
This is not entirely nothingness; it is more like amber, solidified after reality and nightmare, order and chaos have been forcibly stirred together.
The field of vision was filled with distorted patches of color that defied geometric description; they slowly crawled, merged, and split, emitting a low-frequency hum that was utterly disorienting.
Occasionally, fragments of images, like shattered memories, flit by—the spire of a sunken city, the shadow of an unbelievably gigantic creature, stars arranged in blasphemous patterns.
There were many, but they were all blurry and fleeting.
If the concept of "air" even exists, then it's just space, permeated with an atmosphere of madness far more intense and primal than that of the R'lyeh City.
Those were fragments of dreams unconsciously released by the Great Old Ones Cthulhu as he slept, each one enough to drive an ordinary Wizard mad. But to Ian, these were merely "background noise" that needed to be filtered out, and could even serve as a reference point for analyzing Cthulhu's current state.
"It really is their hideout."
Ian narrowed his cold eyes slightly, his powerful Mental Power spreading and scanning silently in all directions from him like the most sophisticated radar.
He was sensing the "structure" of this space, searching for possible "weak points," "energy nodes," or—traces left by other "visitors."
"It's so obvious that Cthulhu's true form must be slumbering here." Ian's goal was clear—to find the true core of Cthulhu's slumber, and then, while the opponent's power was suppressed to its lowest point due to unfavorable astrological alignment, to complete what seemed like a predetermined task to him.
As for those few "little tails" behind them.
He had naturally noticed it long ago.
From their hiding like frightened rabbits R'lyeh City, to their supposedly concealed following of the aftermath of the battle, and finally to their spying from behind a pillar as he broke the magic circle—every single one of their actions was as clear as ink on a blank sheet of paper within the vast expanse of his spiritual perception.
Ian didn't even bother to look.
In the brief interval between analyzing the magic circle, he only needed a very slight mental fluctuation, and the " Legilimency, powerful enough to crush all mental defenses, silently swept over the three trembling souls.
Young Saruman's thirst for knowledge, anxiety, and hidden pride; the warrior Karg's loyalty, despair, and protectiveness of his comrades; and the pain and struggle within the soul of the Girl named Lina, slowly being eroded and twisted by the power of the deep sea—all memories, emotions, and intentions unfold like open pages of a book.
He casually "browsed" them.
"So they're an adventurer party that strayed into the ruins—trapped in the Infinite Corridor, their companions corrupted, trying to find a way out—and they saw me as a possible hope or a guide?" Ian understood, then lost interest. However, the fine virtues taught at Hogwarts prevented him from taking any action to stop them.
and.
He wouldn't even bother chasing them away unless they were in his way—just like he wouldn't deliberately step on ants on the road unless they crawled onto his shoes.
Therefore, when Ian sensed the magic circle activating again and the three people being swept into the temporal turbulence by the out-of-control aftershocks, Ian didn't pay any attention.
He even slightly adjusted the edges of his "domain".
To prevent them from being annihilated by the energy he unintentionally released—not because he considered it a meaningless killing or cleaning up of trash, but simply because he was merciful enough.
"They followed us in."
Now, Ian felt a slight disturbance on the teleportation coordinates he had left behind—meaning that something had entered through the passage he had opened.
Ian stopped exploring, turned slightly, and turned his "gaze" in the direction from which the fluctuations came. Sure enough, he saw the three familiar figures, tumbling and falling like drowning people in the chaotic energy flow: the young silver-robed Wizard, the robust warrior, and the faintly aura-depleted corruptor on his back.
Seeing their disheveled and terrified appearance, especially the young Wizard's face which showed a mixture of relief, pain, and undisguised horror at seeing him—a long-dormant, almost instinctive, wicked sense of amusement quietly surfaced in Ian's mind.
He recalled a line that seemed to have been popular long ago, in a long-forgotten fragment of life, completely different from his present. Using it here, seeing the other person's bewildered yet forced composure, it was surprisingly—somewhat fitting? After all, the Wizard named Saruman was indeed the first to awaken.
Harboring a childlike mischievousness, Ian calmly spoke as the silver-robed Wizard struggled to steady himself, his silver eyes seeming to mature and deepen in an instant. He imprinted his cold, mocking words directly into the wizard's perception.
"Cold, shivering—it seems you're the physically fittest of this batch of new recruits."
The results were surprisingly good.
Ian saw the silver-robed Wizard's face freeze in astonishment, the bewilderment flashing in his eyes, and the chaotic fluctuations emanating from his soul—a frantic attempt at analysis that yielded nothing. That dazed expression seemed to add a tiny, insignificant spark of "life" to this deathly, frenzied space.
Haha~
Having satisfied his perverse sense of humor, Ian no longer cared about the effect of the line that the other person couldn't understand at all.
His attention returned to the three, especially the young Wizard Saruman who had just completed a strange soul fusion.
In Ian's perception, the young man's soul state was very interesting. Although he was originally quite talented and had touched the threshold of Legend, he was still essentially in the category of "mortal". But in the short moment when he fell into the spacetime turbulence, his soul core seemed to have been forcibly "injected" with an extremely vast, ancient, and vicissitude-filled spiritual essence full of obsession.
It wasn't possession; it was more like a profound fusion and enlightenment, instantly increasing the young man's soul's capacity and "quality" by several orders of magnitude, even subtly imbuing it with a sense of depth—a feeling incongruous with his current era, as if it came from a distant future?
"The breath of time—and a trace—of 'Raven '?" A subtle ripple flickered in the depths of Ian's cold eyes. He was exceptionally sensitive to fluctuations in time and had some understanding of certain ancient concepts that lingered on the edge of spacetime. The changes in this young Wizard's soul clearly involved extremely high-level temporal interference.
This was somewhat unexpected for Ian.
It seems these "little tails" have some secrets he doesn't know about.
However, that's all.
Regardless of what extraordinary events Saruman had experienced or what he had merged with, in Ian's eyes, their intrusion into this area was an extremely foolish and dangerous act.
This is not a place for them.
Ian's gaze slowly swept over the three of them. Saruman's forced composure, Karg's wary yet desperate stance as he held Lina tightly on his back, and Lina's increasingly faint aura, a corruption that seemed to be consuming her last vestiges of humanity. His gaze finally settled on Saruman's face.
Ian noticed the unease and a faint hint of fear—as if the person had discovered a secret they shouldn't have—that the man was trying to hide in his silver eyes.
Then, Ian spoke. His voice remained calm and even, echoing clearly in the eerie crevice, directly reaching the three people's consciousness. "You," he paused, as if stating an obvious fact, "Shouldn't have come in."
These words, like a cold verdict, instantly shattered the semblance of composure Saruman had managed to maintain through the fusion of souls! In Saruman's understanding, this mysterious and terrifying young Legend first uttered strange words that he couldn't comprehend at all, and then laughed maniacally a few times.
It's completely unfathomable.
Now they've directly stated that they "shouldn't have come in." Combined with the overwhelming power and disregard for life they've previously displayed, this is practically tantamount to issuing a death sentence!
He believed that Ian found them in the way and that they had peeked into secrets they shouldn't have, and now he wanted to casually eliminate them, these "ants," in this unknown crack in time and space!
At this very moment...
The heavy memories brought by millennia of wisdom surged forth instantly—enemies casually erased by Legend, sacrifices utterly worthless before a higher level of existence.
Fear, like a cold, venomous snake, coiled tightly around his heart.
This was not the Saruman who had actually lived for a thousand years.
so.
Even if one retains memories.
It remains difficult to make an accurate judgment.
His face turned deathly pale in an instant, even more ashen than during the previous soul fusion.
His lips trembled slightly uncontrollably, as if he wanted to explain, to plead, or at least say something, but his throat felt as if it were being choked, and he couldn't utter a sound.
He could only stare helplessly into Ian's cold eyes, which seemed devoid of any human emotion, and felt the shadow of death looming over him.
"What's going on?!"
Karg also awoke at that moment.
Although Karg couldn't understand the possible meaning behind Ian's words, he could clearly feel Saruman's sudden outburst of fear, a tremor that came from the depths of his soul.
"Don't worry! Even if he's Legend! He'll have to kill me first before he can kill you! A warrior's oath!" He roared, desperately shielding Lina behind him, his broken greatsword held horizontally in front of him. Although he knew it might be meaningless against that Legend, his warrior's instincts compelled him to adopt a final defensive stance.
Um.
That's what he thinks.
For a moment, this twisted, crevice-like space was filled with a desperate silence. Only the indescribable patches of color in the distance continued to writhe silently.
And the pounding of Saruman's heart, which seemed to leap out of his chest.
"?????"
Ian looked at Saruman's deathly pale face, as if he were about to be crushed to death, and at Karg's futile yet resolute defensive stance.
I was completely bewildered.
What he just said was truly just a simple, fact-based warning. How come these people reacted as if he had killed their own mother?
To be honest...
Ian was somewhat puzzled by Saruman and the others' reactions. Well, it's just that people look at things differently from different perspectives.
Obviously.
Saruman and others have many misunderstandings about Ian.