Both of them knew it immediately: another enemy had arrived.
"Vengeful Spirits!" Saruman shouted. "They're incorporeal, pure spiritual entities!"
He recognized them at once. These were among the most troublesome enemies imaginable. Physical attacks were almost useless against them, and even ordinary magic lost much of its effectiveness.
Without hesitation, he began chanting.
"Holy Nova!"
A gentle white radiance spread outward from his body. Wherever the holy light reached, the shadows melted like snow beneath the sun, and the hateful whispers twisted into agonized shrieks.
But the Shadow Ghosts seemed endless.
The moment one group dispersed, fresh shadows seeped from cracks in the walls and floor, gathering into new spirits.
Wave after wave crashed against Saruman's mental defenses and holy barrier, steadily draining his magic.
"Oh, come on..." Kag muttered helplessly.
There was almost nothing he could do. All he could manage was to guard his own mind against the spirits' whispers while staying alert for physical threats. His head throbbed, feeling as though icy needles were probing deep into his brain.
"This isn't sustainable!" Saruman's face had gone pale. "Holy Nova is burning through my magic too quickly!"
The Vengeful Spirits simply kept coming.
Just as he was debating whether to resort to an even more dangerous forbidden spell, Kag suddenly pointed toward one corner of the mural.
"Saruman! Look over there!"
Saruman followed his finger. Carved into the corner of the mural depicting stars and tentacles was a small, spiral-shaped symbol. At its center sat a dull black gemstone that had long since lost its luster.
More importantly... the shadows around it were unusually thin. Hardly any Vengeful Spirits dared approach it.
"That symbol..." Saruman's eyes lit up. "It might repel them!"
He immediately changed tactics. Instead of maintaining Holy Nova, he condensed his magic into a focused beam and fired it directly into the spiral symbol.
Hummm...
The instant the magic entered, the black gemstone flickered with a faint, almost imperceptible dark glow, and an invisible force spread outward from the symbol.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
The Shadow Ghosts screamed in terror. Like a receding tide, they fled in every direction, desperately putting distance between themselves and the spiral.
Within seconds, they were gone.
Silence returned to the corridor, with only the faint black glow on the symbol lingering for another moment before fading once more.
"Looks like some predecessor left behind a spell to deal with these things," Kag said, finally letting out a long breath. "Good thing we noticed it."
Only then did they realize their backs were soaked in cold sweat.
"This city..." Kag panted, "there's something seriously wrong with it."
It felt like he'd just fought an invisible army.
Saruman walked over to the mural and carefully examined the spiral symbol, trying to decipher its meaning, but he found nothing. The symbol belonged to no magical system he recognized.
"This city doesn't contain only dangers," Saruman murmured. "It also contains things we might be able to use. But we know almost nothing about them. We're like blind men trying to describe an elephant."
Realizing that, they didn't dare linger to investigate further. After a brief rest, they continued onward.
But R'lyeh seemed determined to test them without end.
As they crossed a vast chamber filled with gigantic hollow fossils resembling ancient coelenterates, they accidentally disturbed something living inside.
Clack... clack... clack...
A grating sound like metal scraping against metal echoed from within the fossilized cavities.
The next instant, a black swarm burst out. Countless creatures the size of fists poured from the openings like a living tornado. They resembled oversized piranhas, except each possessed a pair of transparent dragonfly wings.
Buzzzz...
Their bodies were covered in dark purple chitin, and their compound eyes glowed blood red. Inside their mouths were concentric rings of razor-sharp spiral teeth.
They flew with astonishing speed, weaving through the air in unpredictable patterns as their shrill buzzing filled the chamber before charging straight at the two men.
"Wildfire!"
Saruman unleashed a sweeping wave of magical flames, but the flying creatures were incredibly agile. Most of them effortlessly dodged the wall of fire; only a handful were caught, bursting into flames before dropping to the ground in smoking heaps.
"If anyone ever tries making wine out of these things, it's going to taste awful!" Kag bellowed as he swung his greatsword.
The blade howled through the air, cleaving several of the monsters cleanly in half the instant they came within reach.
But there were simply too many of them. The insect-like creatures knew no fear, hurling themselves forward in endless waves. Their razor-sharp teeth actually chewed through Kag's magical energy coating and gnawed at Saruman's protective barriers.
Crunch... crunch...
The sound made their skin crawl.
For a time, the two were locked in a desperate battle. Saruman constantly switched between 'Frost Nova', 'Chain Lightning', and other area-control spells, trying to keep the swarm at bay, but it wasn't enough.
"Damn it!"
Kag's greatsword spun in an unbroken wall of steel, and the pile of insect corpses around his feet grew higher and higher. But his stamina was disappearing just as quickly.
The wound on his arm split open again under the strain, fresh blood soaking through the bandages.
Even worse, the constant buzzing of the creatures carried a psychic effect that dulled their thoughts, slowing their reactions ever so slightly.
"If this keeps up, they'll wear us down and kill us."
A trace of determination flashed across Saruman's face. He was on the verge of casting a large-scale annihilation spell.
It would wipe out the swarm, but the price was steep, using that much magic in his current state could shatter his concentration completely and leave his mind defenseless against the corruption.
For the first time in several minutes, Saruman hesitated.
Then Kag noticed something.
"Saruman! The light! They hate bright light!"
Saruman understood immediately. He abandoned the attack spell he had been preparing, and instead, the crystal atop his wand erupted with blinding brilliance, shining like a miniature sun.
"Radiant Flash!"
The entire hall exploded into dazzling white light, as though the midday sun had burst into R'lyeh.
The flying monsters shrieked in agony, their crimson compound eyes instantly blinded as their orderly swarm dissolved into chaos.
They crashed into one another like headless flies, many slamming into the walls or the giant fossils before tumbling helplessly to the ground.
"Now!" Kag roared as he charged forward.
His greatsword became a blur, carving through the disoriented swarm like a massive grinder. One creature after another fell, and Saruman followed with a series of precise, small-scale spells, eliminating every insect that managed to escape Kag's blade.
Several minutes later, silence finally returned. Only twitching insect corpses littered the floor, and the air reeked of blood and decay.
Standing back to back, the two men gasped for breath, sweat mixed with blood and dust leaving both of them filthy and exhausted.
They had survived yet another attack, but each battle only drove home one terrifying truth: the depths of R'lyeh were infinitely more dangerous than the outer corridors.
Its "residents" were not only powerful, but their methods of attack defied all common sense. They seemed to exist for one purpose alone: to kill, to destroy.
"We have to keep moving."
Neither dared remain any longer. Bruised, bleeding, and utterly exhausted, they dragged themselves onward toward the 'Gate' marked on the map. Every step felt like walking on the edge of a blade, and neither of them knew when, or how, the next attack would come.
And it did come, again and again. Several more ambushes awaited them along the road, every battle a nightmare.
The creatures, or perhaps offspring, of R'lyeh fought in bizarre, unpredictable ways.
Most possessed tremendous resistance to both conventional magic and physical attacks, mastering ambushes by exploiting the city itself while relentlessly assaulting their minds.
Saruman found himself cycling through increasingly obscure spells, some bordering on forbidden magic, while Kag nearly exhausted every enchanted potion and scroll he had brought with him.
During one brief lull, Saruman noticed that several relatively intact buildings were engraved with inscriptions.
They were written in the same script as the stone tablet outside the city, only far more intricate. Taking a considerable risk, he diverted part of his attention to decipher a few fragments.
"... Sacrifice... unto... the Gate... "
"... The path... neither living... nor dead... "
"... Shadow... follows... form... until... they become one... "
"... To gaze upon... the stars... is to fall... "
The inscriptions were incomplete and fragmentary, but every line carried the same ominous implication. They spoke of sacrifice, of a path existing between life and death, and of an inevitable end in which all things became one with the city.
The more Saruman understood, the heavier the dread in his heart became.
At long last, after enduring countless hardships, they finally emerged from the most dangerous part of the route. Ahead lay the broad plaza where the map marked the location of the 'Gate'.
Just as it came into view, a voice echoed through the silence, young, cold, and familiar. The same mysterious voice they had heard before.
It rang out once more, piercing the oppressive silence of R'lyeh with startling clarity. Like a stone dropped into a bottomless well, its words sent invisible ripples spreading through the city.
This time, there was no impatience, no declaration of battle. Instead, the voice carried the faintest trace of surprise, as though it had finally found something it had been searching for.
"…So it's here."
The voice came from somewhere deep within the plaza ahead.
Saruman and Kag stopped in their tracks, exchanging a glance filled with the same mixture of shock and caution.
The Legendary... he was still inside the city. And judging by his words, he had found something.
Was it a way out?
A powerful relic?
Or something even more terrifying, a forbidden existence that had slumbered here since ancient times?
Their hearts pounded, the exhaustion from one desperate battle after another fading beneath this new surge of tension.
Without another word, they quickened their pace, moving even more cautiously toward the source of the voice.
They had little choice.
After seeing how horrifying even the city's lesser creatures were, both men understood the same thing: whatever the Legendary might be, however dangerous he was, he still felt safer than the city itself.
Their hearts hammered against their ribs, driven by equal parts relief at having survived and burning curiosity.
Saruman met Kag's eyes. No words were needed, they both reached the same conclusion. They had to find out what the Legendary had discovered.
Like two ghosts melting into the darkness, they slipped forward, following the direction of the voice. The stone beneath their feet was still the same cold green rock, though here the road had become much smoother.
Around the edge of the plaza stood even more colossal, twisted statues.
Some resembled deep-sea monsters frozen in the middle of agonized screams, while others were impossible constructions of warped geometry that seemed to challenge the limits of human sanity.
The chaotic magical currents filling the city grew noticeably calmer here, yet the whispers born from R'lyeh itself never weakened. They had become little more than background noise, an eternal murmur woven into the very fabric of this place.
"He's over there," Saruman whispered, having pinpointed the voice.
Neither dared approach too closely. When they were still some distance from the center of the plaza, they ducked behind a fallen pillar riddled with countless holes and carefully peered around its edge.
The plaza itself was surprisingly open. A massive and intricate magic circle was carved into the ground, glowing faintly with an eerie light.
At the edge of the formation, with his back turned toward them, knelt a small figure.
He wore a plain black robe whose fabric shimmered with subtle magical radiance, its hem trailing across the dust-covered ground.
His frame was small, his shoulders narrow, from behind, he looked unmistakably like a boy who hadn't even reached adulthood.
"Oh... gods..."
Kag's breathing stopped, his eyes widening until they looked ready to burst from their sockets. He almost cried out before instinctively clamping a hand over his own mouth.
He blinked several times, unable to believe what he was seeing.
The Legendary?
The being who had unleashed apocalyptic death magic, who had fought countless unimaginable horrors... was actually a child?
Saruman was just as shaken, but he recovered far more quickly. He grabbed Kag's shoulder before the warrior could lose his composure and projected his voice directly into Kag's mind.
"Stay calm. Don't let appearances fool you. A wizard, especially one who has reached the Legendary Realm, has countless ways to preserve a youthful appearance. Ancient rituals, rare potions, unique bloodlines... any of those could leave him looking like a boy."
"Don't forget our theory. He may have come from an age far older than ours."
Saruman was trying to find an explanation that made sense. He had expected the Legendary to be young, just not this young. Even if he were some peerless prodigy from antiquity, this was beyond absurd.
"Is... is that really possible?" Kag forced himself to take a slow breath.
For someone capable of commanding the power of heaven and earth, changing or preserving their appearance probably wasn't difficult.
He understood that. Even so, seeing someone who looked like an ordinary boy kneeling before that ominous magic circle created a contradiction so overwhelming that it filled him with unease... and a reverence he couldn't quite put into words.
Holding their breath, the two remained hidden in the pillar's shadow.
The "boy" reached out a slender, pale hand that somehow seemed to contain immeasurable power despite its youthful appearance.
His fingertips brushed gently across one of the engraved lines of the magic circle. Tiny sparks of magical energy danced across his skin as he carefully analyzed the formation's structure and the flow of its power.
His movements were calm and precise. Nothing about him resembled an impatient youth.
Then the boy spoke.
"I've found you... Cthulhu."
His name was Ian.
After crossing a thousand years of time, he had finally met the Saruman and Kag of a millennium earlier, here, in the heart of R'lyeh.
(End Of This Chapter)
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