chsdbacks Chapter 495 504: The Reignition of the World 5
Chapter 495 504: The Reignition of the World 5
Chapter 495 504: The Reignition of the World 5
Inside the mysterious space.
Before he could finish speaking...
The whispers of Cthulhu in the surrounding space suddenly intensified, transforming into countless sharp, alluring, and despairing mental spikes that shot towards the force field from all directions.
"The will of Cthulhu is ignoring us and trying to crush us."
Saruman narrowed his eyes slightly.
Because their target was aimed directly at his and Kag's souls!
of course.
There's nothing to be afraid of.
At least for Saruman, who had prepared for so many years, it was not scary. He simply made a gesture with his right hand in front of him, and a pale blue light screen that flowed like mercury and shimmered with starlight instantly unfolded.
"A silent curtain of starlight!"
He murmured.
This light screen seems to absorb, disperse, and even "dilute" the madness contained in those mental attacks, turning them into harmless, chaotic background noise.
Above the light screen, starlight flowed, as if simulating some pure and distant cosmic scene, which was completely out of place with the dreamlike atmosphere of Cthulhu, which was full of deep sea and blasphemy.
This creates a natural "pollution buffer zone".
"Roar roar roar!"
However, Cthulhu's will seemed to be provoked by these successive "trickery" and reacted even more strongly. The "malice concentration" in the entire crevice surged once again!
The colored blocks began to multiply and merge wildly, transforming into an even larger and more indescribable shadow, which pressed down on the small force field where they were like a tsunami!
The air, or rather the space, became as viscous as glue, and even the dark silver force field began to creak under the strain, with fine cracks appearing on its surface!
"trouble."
Saruman frowned.
Although he had already taken over the account, the power he borrowed was not yet complete, and being in the opponent's home field, he still struggled to resist this level of malicious enhancement.
He took a deep breath, clasped his hands together in front of his chest, and began to chant an extremely ancient incantation, with difficult syllables that seemed to carry the scent of rust and dust.
As he chanted, the magical energy around him became obscure and profound, and a sense of "sedimentation" and "solidification" seemed to originate from the depths of the earth and the beginning of time.
"Ancient Stone Skin — Time-Traveling Moss —"
The obscure syllables flowed out, and Saruman slowly pushed his hands outward.
A layer of seemingly thin, yet rock-like gray-white magical armor covered the original force field. This armor not only provided physical protection, but also exuded an aura of "ancient," "constant," and "unchanging" rules, greatly slowing down and weakening the rate at which the surrounding frenzied energy and malice eroded the force field.
At the same time, tiny, pale green "moss" phantoms, seemingly composed of dust from time, began to spread across the gray-white armor. They appeared to be slowly "absorbing" and "neutralizing" the most active and aggressive madness factors within the will of Cthulhu.
"Spatial Anchoring—'Raven's Perch'!"
That wasn't all. Saruman's eyes flashed with silver light, and he slammed his hands down!
A more refined, dark silver light, with clear raven wing patterns, flowed from his palm into his feet, as if planting an invisible "anchor".
This is clearly magic created from knowledge unearthed from the Raven's Relics.
The effect was indeed outstanding.
The chaotic spatial structure around them, which was constantly trying to distort and squeeze them, was temporarily "solidified" and "stabilized" in a small area! Although the area was extremely small, limited to a few meters around the force field, it gave them a precious and relatively stable foothold!
"very good."
A series of exquisite and highly targeted combination spells were unleashed, and the surging tsunami of malevolent shadows was actually temporarily blocked by this layered and diverse defensive system! Although the force field and armor were still flickering violently and under tremendous pressure, at least they did not collapse immediately!
"Wow! That's amazing! You're incredible! A legend is truly a wizard standing in the heavens!" Kag watched from the side, almost dumbfounded, and couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.
Is this... is this still the Saruman he knows?
That dear friend who, despite his exceptional talent and vast knowledge, has a fighting style more akin to a traditional wizard, specializing in elemental, summoning, and defensive magic?
It's not just about power levels.
There's also the spellcasting style.
The magic that Saruman used was all bizarre, unorthodox, and even carried a hint of "evil" aura, yet it was surprisingly effective in suppressing the terrifying environment of this area!
That profound understanding of the nature of "Cthulhu" power, that effortless and highly targeted method of deciphering it, is almost like that of a scholar who specializes in studying how to fight against this existence.
Or rather, a hunter?
"You—you really are Saruman?"
Kag couldn't help but ask again, his voice filled with disbelief.
Upon hearing this, Saruman, maintaining multiple layers of protection, responded, his face slightly pale. He nodded slowly, his gaze returning to Kag.
The complex emotions in his eyes were almost overflowing, but he forcibly suppressed them and said in a deep voice, "It's me. There are some things—after we leave here."
"If you still want to know, I'll tell you." His gaze then passed over Kag and landed on the figure that was still in a connected position not far away.
Ian seemed completely oblivious to the dramatic changes happening around him.
The death of Kag, caused by the suppression of Cthulhu's will, was a success, but Saruman's heart was still in turmoil. Looking at Ian's focused and calm profile, the elderly Saruman sighed.
Based on his fused memories, his repeated deductions of that vague past a thousand years later, and the scattered revelations he gained from the power of the "Raven"—if he remembered correctly, according to the original "trajectory," this mysterious Ian Prince, while performing deep soul healing on Lina, would accidentally touch a hidden and more dangerous "fragment of consciousness" or "dream trap" because he went too deep into Lina's soul dream corrupted by Cthulhu.
That wasn't a defense actively set up by Cthulhu, but rather an instinctive reaction that naturally arose within his vast dream, targeting the "In-Depth Explorers."
The result was not very good.
Parts of Ian and Lina's consciousness will be temporarily trapped in that more bizarre and dangerous fragment of the deeper dream, although Ian will definitely be able to escape in the end with his strength.
But it will take time.
And this "time" that was delayed was fatal in the original history.
The pressure from the external Cthulhu will will continue to increase. At that time, being young and without memories of the future, he was simply unable to withstand it for long, and Kag would soon reach his limit.
Ultimately, before Ian and Lina can escape, the defenses will collapse. Ian and Kag will be the first to be consumed or crushed by the frenzy, and Lina's soul surgery will fail due to the drastic deterioration of the external environment and the loss of its stable anchor, potentially even triggering a worse backlash.
It was a complete and utter failure. It was also the beginning of Kag and Lina's ultimate demise, and his own narrow escape at a heavy price.
"This time—it's different."
The elderly Saruman clenched his fists, a resolute glint in his eyes. Now, he possessed legendary power sent from antiquity, and targeted knowledge.
He can hold out longer!
He needed to buy Ian enough time! So that this mysterious "Your Majesty" could successfully treat Lina and then—lead them away from this perilous place!
He stared intently at the point where Ian and Lina were joined, silently chanting in his mind, "Faster—Your Majesty—please be faster—"
He could sense that the strange fluctuations emanating from Ian, belonging to the "Raven," were becoming increasingly intense and profound. The surgery seemed to have reached its most critical moment.
But at the same time, he also vaguely sensed that something unusual was beginning to emerge in the area deep within Lina's soul that Ian's consciousness was exploring.
A darker and more dangerous ripple.
Ian's consciousness, like the most precise probe, burrowed deeper and into the core of Lina's soul through the "channels" eroded by Cthulhu corruption. He wanted to find the "node" where Lina's self-awareness was most deeply entangled with Cthulhu corruption, and there he would imprint the mark of the "Raven Prophet," completing the coverage and transformation of cognition.
The deeper one goes, the denser and more "organized" the mad fragments and blasphemous knowledge from the Cthulhu dream become. If the surface is a chaotic torrent of information explosion, then here, this information begins to spontaneously organize and coalesce, forming a dream world that, while still bizarre and absurd, gradually acquires a certain internal "logic."
Ian felt as if his "perspective" was passing through a viscous membrane made up of countless whispers and illusions. The scene before him suddenly changed!
No longer fragmented blocks of color and incomprehensible flashbacks.
He "stood" on a street.
A street that is utterly bizarre.
The surface beneath my feet was not stone slabs or mud, but a warm, dark green substance with fine, scaly textures, resembling the skin of some giant creature.
It has a strange elasticity when you step on it.
"A world constructed within a dream, because it's connected to the will of Cthulhu?"
Ian looked around.
Buildings stand on both sides of the street, but they defy all known architectural principles. They are made of twisted, melted, and forcibly solidified green stone, and their structures are full of paradoxes of non-Euclidean geometry, with some walls concave inward at impossible angles.
Some windows are located in places where they shouldn't exist at all.
The tower leans so high it seems it might collapse at any moment, yet it has stood for ages.
The building's surface is covered with a slippery, slightly pulsating, translucent membrane, upon which strange creatures resembling corals or giant anemones attach.
It opens and closes slowly, emitting a dim phosphorescent glow.
The sky was a perpetual, oppressive, dusky yellow.
There was no sun, only a huge, slowly rotating, luminous nebula that seemed to be made up of countless tiny tentacles, casting down cold and blasphemous light.
The air was thick with the salty, fishy smell of the sea, the musty smell of decay, and an indescribable, cloying sweetness, like the breath of a giant sleeping creature.
Even more bizarre are the "people" walking on the street.
They largely retained human features, wearing rough clothing that appeared to be made of some kind of seaweed or fish leather. But upon closer inspection, almost everyone possessed some degree of inhuman characteristics: some had small slits on their cheeks that opened and closed slightly as they breathed.
Some fingers are connected by translucent webs.
Some had eyes that were the pale white of fish or had compound eye structures, while others had sparse, differently colored scales covering their necks or arms—they seemed to take this for granted, talking to each other in a bubbly, obscure language, engaging in seemingly normal buying, selling, working, and walking.
The entire city was shrouded in a somber, oppressive, yet eerily harmonious atmosphere. Madness and blasphemy seemed to have become the norm and "normal" here.
"An interesting deep dream structure—" Ian calmly observed everything, his heart undisturbed. He even felt a slight urge to take out a small notebook and record the data. He processed the received Cthulhu information "into logic" and "into everyday life," forming a dream model of "a world under the influence of Cthulhu."
"This goes beyond ordinary pollution; it's more like a simulation based on pollution information, where Cthulhu uses a relatively stable subconscious world to calculate how he can corrupt the entire world." Yes, Ian quickly concluded, meaning that Lina's "prophetic" talent was indeed useful to Cthulhu.
Unconsciously, Lina not only received the information, but also, deep within her soul, used it as a blueprint to "build" a miniature, distorted "Cthulhu world model".
A portion of her self-awareness may have sunk to a core position within this model, playing a certain role, and gradually perceiving this distorted world as "real".
"If the world were truly corrupted by Cthulhu, this would probably be the case."
Ian wanders through this eerie city like an invisible ghost.
He saw strange fish emitting phosphorescence, wriggling irregular chunks of flesh, and bizarre minerals engraved with blasphemous symbols as "goods" traded in the market;
He overheard the residents' hushed conversations, a mix of vague prayers to the "Sleeping God," veiled expectations for the "return of the stars," and strange discussions about their own "evolution."
"How absurd!"
Ian even witnessed a small-scale conflict in which the two sides used "weapons" that were actually living biological organs that sprayed acid or emitted mental screams!
This clearly cannot be called human.
Everything was bizarre and fantastical, yet it operated "self-consistently" within the logic of the dream world. Of course, Ian's goal was clear: to find the "center" of this dream world.
Find the core of Lina's consciousness that has fallen into this state.
"It's not difficult. After all, all the deductions are based on Lina's prophetic talent. Her presence will be very conspicuous." Ian followed the densest and purest "pollution" and "connection" in the city towards the tallest, most twisted thing in the city center, which seemed to be made up of countless huge cavities.
We walked towards the "temple"-like building that emitted a dark green glow.
"There?"
The closer to the center.
The more Ian discovers...
The alienated characteristics of the "residents" on the streets became more and more obvious, and the whispers in the air became clearer and more fanatical.
They looked toward the temple, their gaze filled with a mixture of fear and dread.
There is also worship and longing.
For some unknown reason, Ian walked into the enormous temple, whose entrance resembled the gaping maw of some kind of behemoth, without any hindrance.
"This is still a bit beyond my expectations."
Ian was somewhat wary of this.
but.
That's all.
Just be cautious.