vncnus Chapter 479, Section 488: The Closed Loop of Fate
Chapter 479, Section 488: The Closed Loop of Fate
Chapter 479, Section 488: The Closed Loop of Fate (Part 7)
Yes.
A true genius can dominate any era.
Even in the future.
At this moment.
The proud and arrogant African geniuses have also realized this.
Kag was somewhat bewildered by what he heard.
He was, after all, a soldier.
You can become stronger through hard work.
It's still hard to understand this sense of despair among wizards. Thousands of years ahead of their time? This is beyond his understanding of "genius" as a warrior.
"Then... is this still a human being?" Kag couldn't help but ask, a question that fundamentally questioned the very existence of Ian Prince.
Saruman remained silent for a long time.
He looked at the excessively young figure in the distance, who seemed to possess a part of the truth of the universe, and finally responded with a slightly hesitant tone, almost like he was dreaming.
"Perhaps—when we talk about legends," we're no longer talking about people.
Saruman spoke in a low, eerie voice: "I once saw some vague inscriptions on an almost broken ancient stone slab deep within the Raven's Ruins."
"As mentioned above, in a long-lost era, there were powerful wizards who could roam the stars, wielding the laws of nature as weapons, and even—hunting those beings revered as gods by mortals." At the time, I thought it was just the arrogant fantasy of the ancients or an exaggerated myth—"
His voice trailed off, filled with the shock of self-doubt and a profound sense of cognitive upheaval, "But now—seeing 'him'—I suddenly can't believe it anymore."
Perhaps it's due to the fluctuations in thought within the Saruman mind link.
Perhaps it was the mention of the specific term "raven ruins" that triggered a barely perceptible thread of cause and effect, or perhaps it was just a coincidence.
Just as Saruman uttered the words "Raven's Relic" in a low voice, in the distance, Ian Prince was focused on analyzing the magic circle using starlight trails and three-dimensional runes.
The movement paused for an extremely slight moment.
He didn't turn around completely, but only slightly turned his head. His deep eyes, as if unintentionally, swept over the toppled pillar where Saruman and Kag were hiding once again.
This time, the two felt it even more clearly than before! It wasn't an unintentional glance; there seemed to be an extremely subtle and fleeting hint of surprise in that gaze?
It's like a scholar immersed in complex calculations.
Suddenly, he heard a few words of technical jargon from the ant nest next to him. Although they were insignificant, they were enough to surprise him.
Well, how should I put it?
That was certainly true for Ian.
The Raven's Relics have always been something Ian cared about.
of course.
Since there were more important matters to attend to, Ian didn't bother to question the two humans who had suddenly appeared—which Saruman and Kag saw in a different light.
With just a glance, and without lingering, Ian turned back to continue his analytical work, as if he had merely brushed away a tiny speck of dust.
But that one glance made Saruman and Kag's hearts nearly leap out of their throats!
"Oh my god! I feel like I'm dying!" Cold sweat instantly soaked their backs. They could even feel each other's stiffness and slight trembling.
"He—he really heard us?!" Kag's mental link was filled with fear.
"No—not necessarily—perhaps it's just a perception of mental fluctuations—" Saruman tried to reassure him, but his own voice trembled.
In the face of such a being, any wishful thinking seems pale and powerless.
Saruman actually knew that Ian had discovered them.
but.
It's easier to bury your head in the sand and act like an ostrich.
Fortunately, Ian genuinely seemed uninterested in them. After that one glance, he made no further comment. The two forced themselves to calm down again, still trembling with fear.
They continued to watch, holding their breath. However, the city of R'lyeh, or rather, the slumbering "Cthulhu," seemed not to have given up on stopping Ian. After the physical derivatives were ruthlessly wiped out, a more insidious, more vicious, and more existential attack quietly descended.
This is not a monster, not magic, but a change in "atmosphere".
The perpetually dim yellow light in the square began to distort and change color, taking on an indescribable, dark hue, like a deep-sea vortex.
The whispers filling the air were no longer merely chaotic, frantic babbling, but began to converge and weave, forming an extremely ancient, extremely blasphemous "hymn" that seemed to contain the ultimate mysteries and despair of the universe. This hymn was not heard through the ears, but acted directly on the depths of consciousness, filled with indescribable temptation and call, inviting the listener to abandon thought, abandon the self, and merge into that eternal, chaotic dream.
At the same time, a viscous, shimmering, iridescent mist began to seep from the twisted surfaces of those green megalithic structures. This mist drifted slowly, and wherever it passed, even space itself seemed to become viscous and distorted, emanating a strong, distorting spiritual pollution that corrupted reality and perception.
"Damn it! We're caught in the crossfire!"
Saruman and Kag only sensed the edge of this change in "atmosphere" before feeling waves of intense nausea and dizziness. Their consciousness began to blur, and all sorts of bizarre hallucinations appeared before their eyes: a huge shadow covering the starry sky, dancing, endless tentacles, and a magnificent city submerged in the deep sea.
They had to muster all their willpower to barely maintain a semblance of consciousness, but even then, their skin began to feel an unusual tingling and itching sensation.
It was as if something was trying to crawl out from inside.
"A hallucination! It's all a hallucination!"
Saruman loudly reminded Kag.
"Yes! Yes! Saruman! I believe you!"
Kag's voice was terrified, but he still chose to trust.
How to put it? They still can't adapt to this kind of danger, that kind of pollution, invisible and intangible, yet omnipresent, reaching the deepest part of their souls.
This is R'lyeh's most fundamental "welcome" and "assimilation" of intruders!
They wanted to resist.
It's harder than climbing to heaven.
At most, it will only delay the affected process.
"Damn it!"
Saruman once believed that no one could escape unscathed.
However, when Saruman strained to look toward the heart of the contamination—where Ian Prince was—he witnessed a scene he would never forget.
The distorted rays of light seemed to hit an absolutely transparent and insurmountable barrier when they came within about three feet of Ian.
They automatically deflected and bypassed it, unable to touch it in the slightest.
The blasphemous hymn that directly affected consciousness vanished without a trace when it touched Ian's area, like a clay ox sinking into the sea, without causing even the slightest change in his expression.
Yes.
According to Ian's research.
He even figured out the corruption of Cthulhu.
He unearthed knowledge that was absolutely forbidden and should not have been learned, so he accomplished what ordinary wizards could not, and now the pollution no longer affects him in the slightest.
The shimmering, iridescent, and distorting polluted mist seemed to encounter a natural enemy as it drifted toward Ian, automatically dissipating and retreating as if an absolutely "clean" realm existed there, impenetrable to any filth or madness.
"He can even block this???"
In Saruman's perception.
Ian Prince did not appear to be simply standing there.
The other party was more like a "special layer" independent of the madness of R'lyeh. His own existence and the force field around him constituted a "domain" of absolute self and absolute order. This "domain" was completely incompatible with the chaotic, insane, and polluted "domain" of R'lyeh.
It even created a kind of essential rejection and crushing.
For Saruman and Kag, who were still "mortals" and lived within R'lyeh's "domain," the pollution was a deadly erosion. But for Ian, who had elevated his own "domain" to a certain extreme, this pollution was like trying to coat adamantite with sewage.
Not only was it ineffective, it actually highlighted the purity and inviolability of refined gold.
The young legend stood quietly in the heart of the madness, his body a sanctuary of peace. Despite the distorted light and shadows, the booming hymns, and the pervasive mist, he remained unmoved, intently analyzing the magic circle beneath his feet, his icy expression showing no sign of being affected.
"Is there anything he can't do???" This absolute "isolation" and "immunity" brought Saruman a profound and far-reaching shock on a different level than the previous overwhelming battle scenes. It wasn't just about sheer power; it was a complete difference in the essence of life and the level of existence!
The corruption of R'lyeh can distort even time and space, yet it cannot shake this boy in the slightest.
"What exactly is he?"
As Saruman looked at the black figure standing alone amidst the frenzied encirclement, the last trace of contempt and wishful thinking he had felt because of the other's youth vanished completely.
All that remains is endless awe and confusion.
"Roar roar roar!"
R'lyeh's will, or rather, the subconscious of the sleeping god, clearly had not given up despite the previous crushing defeat and the ineffectiveness of the contamination. On the contrary, Ian Prince's absolute isolation and immunity seemed to have triggered some deeper conditioned stress, causing the Old God to exhibit ancestral anger and unease.
This blasphemous being dares to maintain such a pure and cold order in His realm, and even attempts to decipher the secrets that touch His core.
Thus began an even more ferocious and reckless counterattack.
This time, there was no longer that soul-stirring blasphemous howl as a prelude.
The attack brewed silently and erupted in the stillness.
The first thing to change was the plaza itself. The cold, hard, green boulders that formed the base of the magic circle suddenly softened and began to writhe.
It seemed to have transformed into some kind of living characteristic, still carrying a viscous, gelatinous substance. Countless extremely fine, dark red lines, like blood vessels or nerve bundles, emerged and spread from the depths of the stone. They pulsated, emitting a strong life force—but it was a twisted, frenzied life force, full of the sweet, pungent, and putrid scent of the deep sea.
Immediately afterwards, these writhing "grounds" began to rise, and the bulges rapidly grew larger and deformed. Some transformed into the same kind of carapace-covered behemoths as before, but larger in size, with eerie runes flowing with fluorescent light covering their shells; others coalesced into amorphous clumps of flesh composed entirely of translucent gel and constantly opening and closing eyeballs.
They have no fixed form, yet they can extend tentacles or spew strong acids at will. Some even "grow" directly from the ground, transforming into living plants like giant seaweed or coral, but their dancing branches are covered with suckers and barbs, secreting a viscous liquid with strong hallucinogenic effects.
At the same time, in the shadows of the buildings surrounding the plaza, the void twisted violently once more. This time, what emerged was no longer a single shadowy wraith or flying monstrous insect, but something far more bizarre. They were like aggregates of countless shattered souls and mad thoughts, their forms indistinct, sometimes like smoke, sometimes like flowing water.
It was just a constant stream of chaotic whispers that were driving people to the brink of sanity.
Its level of psychological pollution is several times higher than before.
They seem to have no physical form, yet they can directly interfere with reality, making the air viscous, causing light to refract strangely, and even attempting to directly distort Saruman and Kag's perception of distance and direction.
This is not finished.
The multicolored pollutant mist in the air grew denser, no longer merely drifting, but actively converging and swirling, forming small vortexes emanating an ominous suction force. These vortexes seemed to drain life force and magic from their surroundings; Saruman even felt his magical shield being slowly eroded.
peel off.
Fortunately, this wasn't directed at Saruman.
otherwise.
Saruman felt he was going to die very quickly.
The attacks on Ian came from all directions, from the sky and the ground, from matter and spirit, from the tangible and the intangible. R'lyeh seemed to have used every available "resource" in the region, attempting to completely overwhelm and wear down Ian Prince, this "alien," through sheer numbers and relentless attrition.
No matter how strong his "domain" is.
No matter how profound the magic.
Faced with this seemingly endless, mad tide originating from the entire city, or even possibly from the sleeping god himself, can it continue forever?
The plan is good.
"A legend should last a long time, right?"
Young Saruman and Kag watched in terror from afar.
They felt like a small boat tossed about in a storm, teetering on the brink of collapse from the aftershocks of the battle and the ever-increasing pollution.
Saruman had to continuously expend a large amount of magic to maintain his defenses and mental barrier, and Kag also felt the black lines on his arm becoming increasingly agitated.
It seemed as if it might break through some kind of boundary at any moment.
However, Ian Prince, who was at the center of the storm, showed no particular reaction to the attack wave that was ten times more ferocious and a hundred times more complex than before.
He didn't even stop analyzing the magic circle. Only when the first wave of activated ground behemoths burst from the earth, wielding their rune-studded claws and crashing down; when the first wave of amorphous lumps spewed forth torrents of corrosive acid; when the first wave of spiritual aggregates emitted soul-ripping shrieks; when the first wave of polluted vortexes began to absorb magic power—Ian finally seemed to find it a bit "noisy," and slightly raised his eyelids. Then, he did something that almost made Saruman scream. He continued analyzing the magic circle with his right hand, multitasking, while his free left hand seemingly casually waved to his side.
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