Yes, Lina.
Lina, who had been unconscious and firmly strapped to Karg's back, suddenly convulsed violently and made a sound clearer than ever before.
The sobs were even more painful than before.
The scales on her face gleamed ominously in the dim light, her eyeballs seemed to be rolling rapidly beneath her tightly closed eyelids, and her breathing became rapid and slippery.
It looked as if a drowning person was struggling desperately.
What happened!?
Karg and Saruman were both terrified.
Lina's transformation came too suddenly.
What's even more unsettling is that the black, writhing, polluted lines on her exposed skin seem to be under some kind of intense stimulation.
The patterns suddenly brightened, emitting a dark, unsettling purplish-black light, and began to spread at a visible speed toward her heart and brain!
" Lina!!" Karg snapped out of his daze, forgetting Ian in front of him, and hurriedly untied Lina from his back, holding her in his arms. Lina's face had turned from pale to an eerie bluish-gray, her lips were purple, her body was frighteningly hot, and her painful spasms were growing stronger with each wave. "She's being affected by a deeper level of influence!"
Saruman's expression changed drastically, and he immediately crouched down, attempting to cast soothing and healing spells. However, his magical light seemed to sink into nothingness when it touched Lina.
This even provoked a more violent reaction and backlash from the black patterns!
"The pollution has erupted! And... it's more intense than ever before!" Saruman's voice trembled, his eyes filled with helplessness. Although his millennia-old knowledge included research on combating this pollution...
But at this moment, in the core area of R'lyeh, facing the eruption in Lina that seemed to be directly triggered by the "Source," his knowledge and methods seemed so pale and powerless.
"Hmm?" Ian's gaze also fell on Lina, who was struggling in pain. He looked at the black patterns that were spreading wildly and emitting an ominous light, and then sensed the faint "resonance" emanating from the depths of darkness in this space, which seemed to be caused by the violent changes in "shared existence".
A knowing glint flashed in his cold eyes. It seemed that bringing such a "source of pollution" deep into this place was indeed an unwise choice for these two people.
"The 'environment' here is accelerating her transformation, and may even be... awakening the deep-sea power within her, or rather, transforming her into something... closer to the 'residents' of this place," Ian explained, his voice tinged with a heavy tone. The atmosphere tensed once again because of Lina's sudden critical condition. Saruman and Karg were extremely anxious but helpless. Therefore, they could only instinctively turn their pleading gaze to the only person in the room who might have a solution— Ian Prince. " Prince! Please! Save her! Save Lina!!" Karg, holding Lina who was convulsing in pain and whose breath was growing weaker and weaker, pleaded with Ian almost desperately, as if grasping at a last straw. His rough face was covered with sweat and blood. His resolute eyes were now filled with tears of despair. Karg didn't care that his swordsmanship had been learned, or that his warrior's dignity had been tarnished. He only wanted the Girl in his arms to live!
"I beg you, perhaps only Legend can help her!" Saruman pleaded from the side, his voice equally earnest, even more urgent. "Your Excellency! Please lend a hand! We are willing to pay any price to save Lina! My knowledge, my soul, even my life... whatever you need!"
Having inherited a thousand years of knowledge, he understood better than Karg how dire Lina's condition was—it wasn't just a physical mutation, but a soul being eroded and assimilated by the most primal, insane power of R'lyeh! Conventional methods were ineffective; perhaps only this mysterious and unpredictable being, seemingly from the age of mythology, offered a sliver of hope for reversal!
"Sigh." Ian looked at the two men in front of him who had been terrified just moments before, but were now pleading desperately for their companion. A barely perceptible tremor flickered in the depths of his cool eyes.
In essence, he was not one of those ancient beings who had lived for thousands of years, long since seen through life and death, and were indifferent to emotions. He was merely a Hogwarts student with extraordinary abilities, who retained deep within his heart the softness and impulsiveness unique to young people, though often concealed by his cold exterior. In other words, a soft-hearted god.
Ravenclaw students all share similar qualities.
She has a sharp tongue but a soft heart.
Moreover, as Ravenclaw craves knowledge and research, he is inherently interested in researching and deciphering the " Cthulhu Pollution."
"You could say that this Girl named Lina is a ready-made, deeply infected case, extremely valuable for research. Saving her would satisfy my research desires and also help these unfortunate guys—they seem quite loyal, so helping out seems... a good choice?" "Tsk, troublesome," Ian muttered to himself, but his expression remained unchanged. He waved his hand, signaling the two to be quiet. "I can... give it a try."
He spoke calmly, his voice not loud, yet it reached Saruman and Karg's ears like heavenly music.
The two were instantly Silencing Charm, their eyes bursting with ecstasy and hope, but they held their breath, afraid of disturbing Ian. Instead of acting immediately, they looked at the wildly spreading, purplish-black patterns on Lina's body and the increasingly obvious inhuman features on her face.
He seemed to be explaining to the two of them, yet also analyzing to himself. "To be honest, the reason she became like this wasn't just because of contact with the ordinary pollution on the outskirts of R'lyeh. Those things are troublesome, but not enough to cause her to deteriorate to this extent in such a short time." His gaze seemed to penetrate Lina's body, seeing something deeper.
"The key is that she herself... must possess some special 'talent' or 'trait.' In simpler terms, the problem is that she's a prophet, so her 'vision' is too high, her 'perception' too acute. This talent allows her to Prophecy, but here it's a death sentence..." Saruman's heart skipped a beat! Prophet! The word struck him. Lina had indeed shown some extraordinary intuition and occasional vague precognitive abilities from a young age, which was one of the reasons she insisted on following them on their adventure. It seemed that she had been corrupted and mutated precisely from constantly making Prophecy. Truly Legend!
The cause was identified immediately!
"This kind of physique might be a gift in a safe environment."
Ian continued, his tone still calm, "But here, so close to ' Cthulhu,' is a deadly poison." He pointed to the chaotic space around them. " Cthulhu, these Great Old Ones, their very existence is a 'source of contamination' against the normal Cosmic Rules and life forms. They don't need to actively cast spells; simply 'existing' here, the 'information,' 'concepts,' and 'dream fragments' they unconsciously emit are enough to distort reality, erode minds, and transform life forms."
"For ordinary people, contact with these things might only cause them to go mad, hallucinate, or experience slow physical changes. But for beings like 'prophets' with extremely keen senses..." Ian looked at Lina, "It's like inserting their soul antenna directly into Cthulhu's 'dream radio,' filled with madness, blasphemy, and ultimate knowledge."
What she heard, saw, and felt was countless times clearer and more profound than what ordinary people experienced! This caused the pollution to not slowly seep in from the outside, but to erupt, resonate, and be forcibly "assimilated" from the deepest part of her soul! Ian provided another explanation. People of this era are indeed not very familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos.
"I see!"
Saruman broke out in a cold sweat upon hearing this.
He finally understood why Lina's transformation was so intense and unusual.
It's not because of bad luck, it's precisely because of her extraordinary talent! This damned talent has become the most deadly death warrant in this godforsaken place! I warned her not to keep trying to make Prophecy, sigh!!" Although Karg didn't quite understand those complicated theories, he understood that Lina was more dangerous because of her "talent".
He felt both heartache and anxiety.
"Is there... is there any hope?"
Saruman, his voice trembling, asked the most crucial question.
"Well, how should I put it?" Ian glanced at him, not answering immediately, but pondering for a moment. He could save him, but the method... conventional purification spells would definitely be useless; those are for combating external pollution. This was pollution at the level of the soul's perception, requiring internal "correction" or "isolation."
However... he happened to have some bold ideas that he hadn't had time to test on living people yet... So, thinking of the power of integration, he slowly raised his hand, his fingers long and slender, and a more restrained power, different from the death Magic Power of the " Avada " series, began to flow from his fingertips. It was a silvery-white radiance that seemed to contain a complex flow of information and a powerful Mental Power.
This is derived from the power of Patronus Charm.
"Fortunately," Ian's lips curved upwards very slightly, almost a smile, but carrying an absolute confidence. "You've met me."
His voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to carry an undeniable certainty.
"I'm not bragging, there may be dozens of Legend, but I am absolutely the only Legend in the world who has a way to deal with this kind of level of contamination."
The words had barely left his mouth.
Before Saruman and Karg could process the astonishing meaning behind those words, Ian's silvery-white fingertips gently touched Lina's brow.
There were no incantations, no complicated rituals, only a vast, pure will and Mental Power, yet possessing a peculiar quality of "order" and "analysis," which, like the gentlest light, instantly established a direct link with Lina's soul, which was sinking into madness and pain, through the point of contact!
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh~"
The moment the link was established, beneath Ian's cold and calm exterior, his consciousness was like a probe plunged into the deep sea, instantly dragged into a bizarre, chaotic, and insane realm.
This is not a physical space, but a spiritual world, or rather, a nightmare abyss, constructed from the depths of Lina's soul by the Cthulhu Pollution and her own prophetic talents.
The first impact was an endless darkness and pressure. It wasn't pure nothingness, but a viscous, heavy feeling filled with the salty and icy sensation of the deep sea, as if one were at the bottom of a bottomless trench, squeezed and enveloped by endless seawater and darkness. Indescribable, ancient, low humming and incomprehensible murmurs echoed in one's ears, each syllable filled with blasphemy and madness.
It is attempting to dismantle all rational thinking.
certainly.
This has no impact on Ian.
Next came the visual shock. Countless broken, distorted, and geometrically indescribable scenes flashed by like a carousel: enormous green buildings covered in scales and slime stood silently in the deep sea and then collapsed; shadows of indescribable size, as large as mountains, slowly crawled in the darkness.
The stars arranged themselves into blasphemous patterns, casting a cold and eerie light; countless bizarre creatures, seemingly hybrids of deep-sea creatures and nightmares, swam, danced, and roared silently at the edge of the field of vision... These scenes were not static; they intertwined, twisted, and Transfiguration. To gaze upon them for too long would be enough to completely shatter any normal mind.
"Luckily, I'm not a normal person."
At the heart of this madness, Ian "saw" Lina. Her Soul Projection had become blurry and distorted, still vaguely recognizable as a human, but her body was mostly covered by slippery scales, waving tiny tentacles, and constantly opening and closing gill-like organs. Her eyes—if they could still be called eyes—had now become two pale, pupil-less orbs of light, staring blankly at the endless darkness and blasphemous starry sky above.
Her expression froze in extreme pain and confusion; her mouth was slightly open, as if she wanted to scream, but only silent bubbles escaped. Even more terrifying, countless dark purple "data streams" composed of pure madness, Forbidden Knowledge, and the "existential information" emanating from the unconscious of Cthulhu surged forth from all directions of this spiritual abyss like living venomous snakes, frantically burrowing into Lina's Soul Projection. These things mingled with her own memories, emotions, and cognition, accelerating her transformation and "dissolution."
"If I hadn't come, she would have been enslaved." Ian could clearly "perceive" that Lina's remaining self-awareness was like a small boat in a storm, constantly being impacted, eroded, and covered by these surging, polluted torrents of information. The woman's childhood memories were stained with the bloody green of the deep sea.
Joyful emotions were twisted into insane babbling, and the perception of the world was being replaced by Cthulhu worldview that completely defied common sense... "A typical case of deep mental pollution and cognitive obfuscation..." Ian analyzed calmly, "The prophetic talent became a highly efficient information receiving antenna, but it was unable to process this far-overloaded Forbidden Knowledge, causing the soul structure to become overloaded, distorted, and begin to resemble the form of the information source." This might sound somewhat ominous.
But the truth is that Cthulhu is trying to convert Lina from a prophet.
They became prophets representing the ancient gods. Although they were all prophets, those who knew the Cthulhu Mythos understood how miserable the humans who served these ancient gods were.