Industrial Cthulhu! The All-Knowing Mage is Just That Awesome

Industrial Cthulhu! A Wizard of Boundless Wisdom Was Just That Badass

"The Fellowship of the Ring?"

"Human Knights of Gondor, an Elven prince of Mirkwood, the son of Glóin of the Lonely Mountain, a self-exiled Ranger, plus you, Gandalf, my old friend, and four Hobbits. That really is quite an interesting party—"

"Hm?"

"Who are these people? The power within them feels strange. I have never seen such strange power before, but they must be helpers Gandalf found elsewhere. Since Gandalf knows that Sauron and I have formed an alliance, he could not possibly have no new countermeasures. But even if this was a game of chess fated long ago, what use would it be for Gandalf to find a few more people?"

"Under the gaze of Sauron's Eye, beneath the magic of I, Saruman, they will meet only one end—"

"—Death!"

Saruman watched Gandalf's motley group from afar through a crystal ball of true sight. As a white-robed wizard from Aman, charged with guarding Middle-earth, both his status and strength stood at the very pinnacle of Middle-earth. He did not regard these people as worthy of notice at all. Thus, a faint smile rested upon the gaunt, lean face of Saruman, who remained in his distant wizard's tower in Isengard, as though he were watching an immersive film through the crystal ball.

So, after Saruman used magic to collapse the eternal ice atop the great snow mountain, triggering a massive Avalanche that directly sealed off the passage and forced Gandalf's party toward the deathtrap of Moria, Saruman felt refreshed and delighted.

In high spirits, he descended from the wizard's tower and entered the cavern that had long been excavated nearby.

Ever since the white-robed wizard Saruman had decided to join forces with the Dark Lord Sauron, Isengard—once the most