Recaps

The Blind Wizard showed The Black Robed Woman memories of his first expedition into the Abyssal Corridor, revealing that he had opened the ruins beneath the Ministry of Magic. As young Saruman and his companions reached a stone door after a perilous journey, Lina suddenly screamed, leaving the truth of what she sensed unresolved.

• The Black Robed Woman realized the Ministry of Magic stood above the ruins where contaminated creatures had lingered, and the Blind Wizard confirmed the connection.
• Saruman, Lina, and Karg fought regenerative monsters in an underground swamp and continued toward an ancient presence they could barely sense.
• The three discovered the Infinite Corridor, and the Blind Wizard admitted to The Black Robed Woman that he had opened it and lost his eyes and companions in the ensuing explorations.
• Saruman, Lina, and Karg entered the corridor, endured mental contamination and attacks from aberrant creatures, and pressed onward despite their injuries.
• The three reached a massive stone door, but Lina suddenly screamed as Saruman rushed to support her and the Blind Wizard wept over the memory.

Lina’s encounter with the presence behind the stone door triggered a horrifying transformation, forcing Saruman and Karg to retreat through the Infinite Corridor. The memory left old Saruman overwhelmed with regret, while the creatures blocking their escape suggested the corridor’s monsters had once been wizards.

• Lina screamed and collapsed after her prophetic consciousness touched the presence behind the stone door, and Karg urged Saruman to abandon the expedition.
• Saruman examined Lina and tried purification, soothing magic, and Holy Water of Dawn, but each failed to stop her contamination and mutation.
• Lina transformed, delivered a fragmented message about a god awakening and R’lyeh rising, and collapsed after Saruman stunned her.
• Karg carried Lina as he and Saruman fled, fighting Malformed Creatures that organized themselves to block their retreat.
• Saruman noticed wizard belongings on the creatures, and he and Karg realized the monsters might once have been wizards.

Saruman and Karg realized the Infinite Corridor transformed lost adventurers into endlessly regenerating monsters and trapped them in a spatial loop. They faced the corrupted wizard Araniel the 'Star Speaker,' and Karg charged into battle as Saruman defended against his magic.

• Saruman and Karg recognized that the monsters, like Lina, had once been people corrupted by the corridor.
• Saruman found his magical marker and realized the pair had been moving in circles through the corridor.
• Karg and Saruman discovered that the monsters regenerated after being burned, suggesting the corridor reorganized them endlessly.
• A tentacled monster carrying Araniel the 'Star Speaker's' wand emerged, confirming that the missing master wizard had been assimilated.
• Saruman reflected Araniel's corrupted black lightning, and Karg charged at the monster to help him fight.

Saruman and Karg fought the corrupted former Star Speaker, whose magic and influence threatened both their lives and Saruman’s sanity. After Karg was gravely wounded, Saruman invoked the Ancient Covenant, allowing Karg to strike down the Star Speaker, whose eyes briefly showed clarity and relief before it vanished.

• Saruman used layered defenses while Karg fought the Star Speaker’s transformed creatures, and Saruman recognized its magic as nearing Legendary Status and its whispers as contamination.
• The Star Speaker tempted Saruman with the promise of cosmic knowledge, but Saruman refused and cast Time-Space Freeze to halt its Starlight Python.
• Karg shattered the Starlight Python, but the Star Speaker broke free and attacked Saruman with a Thread of Nothingness; Karg shielded him and was grievously wounded.
• Saruman invoked the Ancient Covenant, and the Torrent of Ten Thousand Souls struck the Star Speaker, which recognized a connection to Raven's Ruins.
• Karg poured his Life Force into his damaged axe and struck the Star Speaker’s core, destroying it as its eyes briefly showed pain, regret, and relief.

Saruman and Karg defeated the corrupted Star Speaker, then encountered Saladin the Sandstorm Sorcerer King while trying to escape the ruins. Saruman and Karg broke Saladin’s domain and began dissolving his body with purifying rain, but they remained trapped in the ruins.

• Saruman restrained the Star Speaker while Karg struck its chest with his battle axe, killing it and briefly restoring clarity to its eyes.
• Saruman and Karg continued down the corridor, wounded and exhausted, as Saruman warned that more powerful beings might be lurking nearby.
• Saladin the Sandstorm Sorcerer King appeared and attacked them with tracking sand blades and a quicksand domain.
• Saruman identified the sand pile beneath Saladin as the core of his domain, and Karg scattered it with a boulder while Saruman analyzed its magical structure.
• Saruman summoned purifying rain, which collapsed Saladin’s sandstorm domain and began dissolving his body.

Saruman and Karg defeated several corrupted Legendary Wizards in the Infinite Corridor, but their injuries and contamination worsened as they searched for an exit. After defeating Lava Tyrant Grum, Saruman sensed that the corridor was beginning to claim him.

• Saladin turned to sand after his defeat, leaving his staff behind, and Saruman realized the corridor was using corrupted powerhouses to weaken and contaminate them.
• Saruman and Karg defeated Shadow Moon High Priestess Nefeti by disrupting her nightmare and shattering the moonstone dagger that focused her power.
• Saruman and Karg found the corridor’s magical marker again and realized they had returned to their starting point, while Lina remained unconscious and increasingly mutated.
• Lava Tyrant Grum attacked them with molten lava, and Saruman transformed his ice magic into cold flames to solidify Grum into basalt.
• Saruman’s magic core briefly stabilized after the battle, but black patterns spread to his neck and his connection to the corridor deepened.

Saruman, Karg, and Lina struggled through the looping Infinite Corridor as pollution transformed Lina and successive fallen rulers attacked them. After defeating Selene, Jerome, and Orlando, they reached a circular hall where a faceless wizard attacked Saruman with a petrifying force.

• Saruman realized the Infinite Corridor looped back to its starting point as Lina's pollution worsened, forcing him to put her to sleep with dark magic.
• Selene the Storm Witch attacked, and Karg opened a breach that let Saruman master the storm and defeat her.
• Jerome of the Faceless Ones ambushed the group, but Karg distracted him and Saruman defeated him with a fusion of light and darkness.
• Orlando the Life Priest attacked with corrupted thorns, and Saruman combined life and death magic to destroy the gem on Orlando's staff; Orlando warned that someone was about to awaken.
• The corridor opened into a circular hall, where a faceless wizard used a petrifying gaze; Saruman defended Karg and Lina, then created numerous illusory copies of himself.

Saruman and Karg defeated the Tide Chanter, but the battle left Karg gravely wounded and the corruption spreading across his body. A thousand years later, Saruman resumed showing the Black Robed Woman his memories, revealing that Karg believed his soul was going home as he neared death.

• Saruman and Karg destroyed the Faceless Wizard's scepter eye, ending its petrifying field, but Karg's corruption worsened as they continued through the corridor with Lina.
• The Tide Chanter appeared in a black pool and attacked Saruman, Karg, and Lina with a nightmare hymn and seawater tentacles.
• Karg shielded Saruman while Saruman disintegrated the Tide Chanter's scale book, making the creature and pool vanish.
• Saruman's memory ended with Karg kneeling in pain as black markings writhed beneath his skin, and the Black Robed Woman asked whether Karg and Lina had died in the ruins.
• Saruman told the Black Robed Woman that neither had escaped, then resumed the memory, where Karg said his soul was going home as he neared death.

Saruman used forbidden life-sharing magic to stabilize Karg, and the battered companions continued fighting through the Infinite Corridor while Lina's pollution worsened. After realizing the corridor always returned them to the entrance, Saruman led Karg and Lina back toward the stone door, believing it might hold their only chance of escape.

• Saruman suppressed the black markings consuming Karg by using forbidden dark magic that shared his life force with him.
• Saruman, Karg, and the unconscious Lina fought their way through the Infinite Corridor, but its traps and enemies repeatedly sent them back to the starting point.
• As their supplies ran out and Lina and Karg's pollution worsened, Saruman analyzed their experiences and concluded that the stone door might conceal the way out.
• Karg agreed to follow Saruman's theory, and the three began retracing their steps toward the entrance to R'lyeh.
• Saruman watched for the corridor's attempts to stop them and searched his memories of the stone door for a way to open it.

Saruman and Karg endured the ruins’ traps and illusions while searching for a way to save Lina and open the stone door. After Saruman discovered how to activate its hidden symbols, the memory paused on the corrupted Black Robed Woman’s revelation before resuming as he began the spell.

• Karg carried the mutating Lina while he and Saruman fought their way back to the sealed stone door, which caused Lina to convulse in agony.
• Saruman studied the door and ancient texts as Karg cared for Lina, and both resisted illusions designed to lure them away.
• Saruman found a connection between runes from the Tomb of the Raven and patterns on the door, then announced he had discovered how to proceed.
• In the present, Saruman warned the Black Robed Woman that watching further could cause irreversible corruption, and she revealed her mutated face and admitted the Department of Mysteries staff were corrupted.
• The memory resumed, and Saruman channeled silver magic into the door’s hidden key symbols while Karg guarded him.

Saruman and Karg opened the sealed stone door and entered its dark portal with the corrupted, unconscious Lina, choosing the unknown over certain death in the Infinite Corridor. After they vanished, the ancient beings they had fought reappeared outside the door, revealing that their apparent deaths and the trials may have been part of a plan to lure the trio through.

• Saruman deciphered the stone door and opened a portal of darkness with his Magic Power.
• Saruman told Karg that staying would doom them and Lina, while the portal was their only chance to escape the ruins.
• Karg trusted Saruman's decision, and the two agreed to face whatever lay beyond the portal together while keeping Lina safe.
• Saruman and Karg stepped into the portal with Lina on Karg's back, and the door sealed itself after they disappeared.
• The Faceless Wizard, Tide Chanter, Dreamweaver, Abyssal Balrog, and other beings reappeared outside the door, celebrating that the trio had entered the trap.

Saruman revealed that the ancient beings had manipulated his group into opening the stone door, then explained to the Black Robed Woman the horror beyond it. Their conversation was interrupted by a disturbance in the prison, and the Black Robed Woman went to stop the escapees.

• The corrupted figures vanished after Saruman, Karg, and Lina entered the stone door, and Saruman's memory ended with them disappearing into darkness.
• The Black Robed Woman questioned Saruman about how his memory showed the ancient beings celebrating after the group entered, and Saruman blamed the detail on a hazy memory and his own deductions.
• The Black Robed Woman asked what lay beyond the door, and Saruman described it as a place that destroyed reason and corrupted existence.
• The Black Robed Woman admitted he was dying from corruption and wanted to know what he had guarded, but a crash and magical fighting erupted above them.
• Saruman ordered the Black Robed Woman to ensure no escapees survived or carried the site's secrets outside, and the Black Robed Woman hurried toward the prison.

The Black Robed Woman hunted down two groups of escaped prisoners as they tried to find a way out of the underground prison. He killed them all, insisting that none could be allowed to escape because they threatened the world.

• Grayson, Mora, Croft, and other prisoners failed to open the magically sealed Bronze Door at the surface checkpoint.
• The Black Robed Woman returned, killed Croft, and defeated the others as they attacked or tried to flee.
• The Black Robed Woman killed Grayson and the remaining prisoners in the first group.
• The Black Robed Woman found a second group of fugitives and killed them in a fierce battle.
• The Black Robed Woman surveyed the dead and warned that their escape would have caused an irredeemable catastrophe for the world.

The black-robed woman slaughtered the remaining prisoners in the African Ministry of Magic’s underground prison, then faced a group of powerful criminals who sacrificed themselves to summon abyssal magic. The abyss recoiled from her, and after the prisoners perished, she continued searching the prison, knowing it was being used for the last time and that this was the last day of her life.

• The black-robed woman killed the last two injured prisoners and discovered roughly thirty hardened criminals hiding in a side passage.
• The prisoners tried to bargain with the black-robed woman, then turned against her when she refused to let them leave.
• The one-eared Wizard rallied the others to cast the forbidden Abyssal Pact, sacrificing their lives and souls to attack her.
• The abyssal shadows stopped before reaching the black-robed woman, and her attackers’ magic failed as their sacrifice consumed them.
• The dying one-eared Wizard saw the woman’s scaled, inhuman face and called her nonhuman before he was annihilated.
• The black-robed woman reflected that part of her was still human, then began a final, thorough inspection of the underground prison.

The Black Robed Woman finished cleansing the prison and returned to Saruman, who resumed showing him the past through memory magic. Saruman, Karg, and the unconscious Lina escaped the Infinite Corridor into a dead world, but their teleportation failed, and they found a terrifying city before hearing Ian Prince cast a spell.

• The Black Robed Woman suppressed the prison’s lingering contamination, ensured no threats remained, and descended to meet Saruman.
• Saruman told the Black Robed Woman that the final day was approaching and resumed the memory magic that revealed Saruman and Karg taking Lina through a portal.
• Saruman, Karg, and Lina emerged from the portal into a barren, lifeless world, and Saruman’s Location Teleportation Spell failed.
• Saruman and Karg carried Lina across the black wasteland toward a city that filled them with dread.
• Saruman approached a shattered stone stele to look for clues, but Ian Prince’s voice suddenly rang out with “Avada Kedavra!”

Saruman and Karg encountered a deadly green spell cast by a young-sounding wizard somewhere in R'lyeh. Saruman became convinced the caster’s extraordinary power might come from an ancient form of body seizure, rejuvenation, or alchemical life creation, but the caster’s identity remained unknown.

• A green Avada Kedavra streaked into the depths of R'lyeh, and Saruman and Karg realized it was not aimed at them.
• Karg welcomed the spell as evidence that another person was in the city and that escape might be possible.
• Saruman sensed that the spell’s caster was extraordinarily powerful and was startled that the voice sounded like a boy.
• Saruman considered whether the caster had seized a child’s body or used forbidden alchemy to rejuvenate himself.
• Saruman recalled the ancient pursuit of life alchemy and wondered whether the caster had been created through magic rather than born.

Saruman deciphered the tablet and learned that R'lyeh was a forbidden realm outside time, while Karg guarded the unconscious, mutating Lina. When a vast green spell erupted from the city, Saruman recognized the unknown fighter as a Legend.

• Saruman speculated that the unseen voice belonged to a creation of Life Alchemy, and Karg proposed following the powerful fighter through the dangerous area.
• Karg cared for Lina while Saruman studied the stone tablet and heard signs of an ongoing battle in R'lyeh.
• Saruman used references from Raven's Ruins to decipher the city's name as R'lyeh and translated warnings about a realm outside time and the Great Old Ones.
• Saruman realized that he and his companions had entered a far more dangerous prison than the one they had escaped.
• A flood of green magic surged from R'lyeh, and Saruman declared that the unknown Wizard was a Legend.

Saruman and Karg watched the battle in R'lyeh and concluded that the wizard unleashing a vast plague of death magic was a true Legend, though neither could explain who he was. As their theories failed, Lina's delirious muttering grew more urgent.

• A torrent of green magic erupted across R'lyeh, and Saruman recognized its power as the work of a Legend.
• Karg questioned Saruman's judgment, but Saruman explained that the spreading death magic had crossed from spells into the authority of a Legend.
• Karg suggested the wizard might have found a new Proof of Legend, but Saruman doubted that the world's waning magic could support one.
• Karg wondered whether the wizard was one of the Four Founders, but Saruman ruled this out after comparing the voice and circumstances with their records.
• Saruman dismissed the possibility that an ancient Legend had survived unnoticed, and the pair were left without an explanation as Lina muttered more urgently.

Saruman and Karg debated whether the Legend in R'lyeh came from another point in time, while the battle inside the city grew increasingly violent. The chapter left them watching from outside as Saruman sought clues on the tablet and tried to understand what powerful enemies the Legend was fighting.

• Saruman proposed that R'lyeh distorted spacetime and that the Legend might come from another era, and Karg struggled to grasp the idea.
• Saruman concluded the Legend must have come from the past and decided to keep observing him while deciphering the tablet for clues.
• The youthful voice from R'lyeh expressed impatience, making Saruman wonder whether the Legend was young rather than ancient.
• The battle inside the city intensified, with rapid Avada Kedavra spells and Avada Plague devastating the surrounding towers.
• Saruman sensed multiple formidable enemies fighting the Legend, while Karg guarded the unconscious Lina and both stayed outside the city.

Saruman and Karg waited outside R'lyeh after a legendary figure unleashed a devastating attack that temporarily silenced the city. Saruman deciphered warnings that R'lyeh was corrupting them and urged Karg to leave immediately, but the chapter ended with Karg realizing that he and Lina were already changing.

• Saruman identified the attackers as ancient, alien forces and warned Karg that the battle might continue indefinitely unless they found its source.
• A voice within R'lyeh chanted in an unknown language, drawing on the world's power to unleash a torrent of death magic that halted the battle.
• Saruman and Karg stayed outside the silent city while Saruman resumed deciphering the stone tablet and Karg guarded Lina.
• Saruman deciphered warnings about a Sleeping God, the Eternal Dream, and the corruption of anyone who remained in R'lyeh too long.
• Saruman told Karg they had to leave immediately, and Karg saw that Lina's scales and the markings on his arm showed their corruption was already advancing.

Saruman and Karg decided they had to enter R'lyeh and used Mental Imprinting to copy a potentially dangerous map from the stele. They entered the city carrying Lina, wary that the map and everything within R'lyeh could be a trap.

• Saruman decided that he and Karg had to enter R'lyeh and search for Ian or a way out, since remaining outside would leave them to die or become monsters.
• Saruman used Mental Imprinting to read the stele and drew an abstract map of R'lyeh's spatial structure.
• Saruman identified a likely route and the suspected location of the Sleeping God, but warned Karg that the map could be a deliberate trap.
• Saruman prepared protective spells and concealment barriers while Karg secured Lina on his back and readied his greatsword.
• Saruman and Karg crossed into R'lyeh, where the air turned briny and the whispers of mental pollution grew clear again.

Saruman and Karg searched R'lyeh City for the vanished Legendary Wizard and found only the aftermath of his battle. Guided by a map, they chose a dangerous route toward the city's gate, where mental pollution intensified and hostile voices reached their minds.

• Saruman and Karg followed the battle's destruction through R'lyeh City but found no trace of the Legendary Wizard.
• Saruman examined the map and chose the first route toward the gate despite its marked danger.
• Saruman and Karg traveled through the city's distorted passages while Saruman used magic to protect their sanity and Lina remained on Karg's back.
• As they advanced, the city's pollution grew stronger and malicious voices began urging them to surrender.

Saruman and Karg struggled through R'lyeh’s corrupting passages, fighting a slime creature and surviving an acid ambush that poisoned Karg. As they continued, the city’s shadows gathered around them and hostile whispers began to fill their minds.

• Saruman and Karg resisted the city’s whispers until a slime creature attacked them and pale eyes unleashed mental shocks.
• Karg wounded the slime with his enchanted greatsword, and Saruman destroyed it with Holy Light Judgment.
• Saruman and Karg crossed a corridor where gelatinous growths rained corrosive and toxic acid on them.
• Karg was splashed with acid and neurotoxin, then treated his wounds with Saruman’s antidote and healing powder.
• As Saruman and Karg passed a mural of twisted stars and tentacles, shadows gathered and resentful whispers invaded their minds.

Saruman and Karg survived attacks by wraiths and monstrous flying insects as they fought through R'lyeh City toward the gate. They found Ian, who looked like a boy, studying a magic formation in the plaza and heard him say he had found Cthulhu.

• Saruman used a mural's vortex symbol to drive away the wraiths after Karg spotted it.
• Saruman and Karg fought a swarm of winged monsters until Saruman blinded them with a Dazzling Light Spell and Karg cut them down.
• The two men endured more attacks and Saruman deciphered ominous inscriptions about sacrifice, life and death, and assimilation.
• Saruman and Karg heard a mysterious voice say, "So you were here," and cautiously followed it toward the plaza.
• Saruman and Karg saw a boy in a black robe examining a magic formation, and Ian declared, "Got you! Cthulhu!"

Old Saruman explained that Ian’s appearance in R’lyeh a thousand years earlier and his return to the ruins formed a closed loop in time. He suggested he was seeking a variable that could break the cycle, then directed the Black Robed Woman to keep watching the memory.

• Young Saruman and Karg saw Ian turn toward their hiding place and felt the overwhelming pressure of his Legend power.
• The Black Robed Woman recognized Ian as the same young man who had recently entered the deepest part of the ruins.
• Saruman confirmed that he had met Ian in R’lyeh a thousand years earlier and explained how the ruins could create a closed loop in time.
• Saruman said Ian was a fifteen-year-old Legend and that age and ordinary rules did not constrain beings like him.
• The Black Robed Woman asked whether the Department of Mysteries existed only to preserve the loop, and Saruman replied that fate might be changed by a variable.
• Saruman told the Black Robed Woman to watch the rest of the memory to learn what role they had played and why he needed him.