novelslam Chapter 492, Section 501: The Reignition of the World @
Chapter 492, Section 501: The Reignition of the World @
Chapter 492, Section 501: The Reignition of the World @
Yes, Lina.
Lina, who had been unconscious and firmly strapped to Kag's back, suddenly convulsed violently and made a sound clearer than ever before.
It was a more painful sob than before.
The scales on her face gleamed ominously in the dim light, her eyeballs seemed to be rolling rapidly beneath her tightly closed eyelids, and her breathing became rapid and slippery.
It looks as if the person is drowning and struggling desperately.
"What's going on!?"
Kag and Saruman were both shocked.
Lina's transformation came too suddenly.
What's even more unsettling is that the black, writhing, polluted lines on her exposed skin seem to be under some kind of intense stimulation.
The patterns suddenly brightened, emitting a dark, unsettling purplish-black light, and began to spread toward her heart and brain at a visible speed!
"Lina!!" Kager snapped out of his daze, ignoring Ian in front of him, and hurriedly untied Lina from his back, holding her in his arms. Lina's face had turned from pale to an eerie bluish-gray, her lips were purple, her body was frighteningly hot, and her painful spasms were getting stronger and stronger.
"She's being influenced on a deeper level!"
Saruman's expression changed drastically, and he immediately crouched down, attempting to cast soothing and healing spells. However, his magical light seemed to sink into nothingness when it touched Lina.
This even triggered a more violent reaction and backlash from those black lines!
"The pollution has erupted! And—it's more intense than ever before!" Saruman's voice trembled, his eyes filled with helplessness. Although his millennia-old knowledge included research on combating this pollution...
But at this moment, in the core area of R'lyeh, facing the eruption in Lina that seemed to be directly triggered by the "Source," his knowledge and methods seemed so pale and powerless.
"Hmm?" Ian's gaze also fell on Lina, who was struggling in pain. He looked at those things radiating an ominous light...
The black lines spread wildly, and I felt a faint "resonance" emanating from the depths of darkness in this space, seemingly caused by the violent changes in "shared existence".
A knowing glint flashed in his cold eyes. It seemed that bringing such a "source of pollution" deep into this place was indeed an unwise choice for these two people.
"The 'environment' here is accelerating her transformation, and may even be—awakening the power of the deep sea within her, or rather, transforming her into something—closer to the 'residents' of this place," Ian explained, his voice carrying a hint of solemnity.
The atmosphere tensed once again due to Lina's sudden critical situation. Saruman and Kag were extremely anxious but helpless. Therefore, they could only subconsciously cast their pleading gazes towards Ian Prince, the only person in the room who might have a solution.
"Lord Prince! Please! Save her! Save Lina!!" Kag held Lina, who was convulsing in pain and breathing weaker and weaker, in his arms, and pleaded with Ian in a near-collapsed manner as if grasping at a last straw. His rough face was covered with sweat and blood.
Those resolute eyes were now filled with tears of despair. Kag didn't care that his swordsmanship had been learned, nor did he care that a warrior's dignity had been trampled upon.
All he wanted was for the girl in his arms to live!
"Please, perhaps only a legend can help her!" Saruman pleaded from the side, his voice equally earnest, even more urgent. "Your Excellency! Please lend a hand! We are willing to pay any price to save Lina!"
My knowledge, my soul, even my life—whatever you need!
Because he had inherited thousands of years of knowledge, he understood better than Kag how bad Lina's current condition was—it wasn't just a physical mutation.
Furthermore, their souls have been eroded and assimilated by the most primal and insane power of R'lyeh! Conventional methods have proven ineffective; perhaps only this mysterious and unpredictable being, seemingly from the mythical era, offers a sliver of hope for reversal!
"Sigh." Ian looked at the two men in front of him who were just terrified but were now pleading desperately for their companion. A barely perceptible tremor flickered in the depths of his cool eyes.
In essence, he was not one of those ancient beings who had lived for thousands of years, long since become indifferent to life and death and disregarded emotions. He was merely a Hogwarts student with exceptional abilities, who still retained the softness and impulsiveness unique to young people, though often concealed by his cold exterior.
In other words, a god who is soft-hearted.
Ravenclaw students all share similar qualities.
Knife mouth tofu heart.
Moreover, as a Ravenclaw who craves knowledge and research, he is inherently interested in researching and deciphering the "Cthulhu contamination."
It can be said that the girl named Lina in front of us is a ready-made, deeply infected case with extremely high research value.
Saving her would satisfy my research desires and also help these unlucky guys. They seemed quite loyal, so helping them out seemed like a good choice.
"Tsk, what a hassle," Ian muttered to himself, but his expression remained unchanged. He waved his hand, signaling the two to be quiet.
"I can try."
He spoke calmly, his voice not loud, yet it reached Saruman and Kag's ears like heavenly music.
The two were instantly silenced, their eyes blazing with joy and hope, but they held their breath, afraid of disturbing Ian.
Ian did not act immediately, but instead looked at the wildly spreading, purplish-black patterns on Lina's body, as well as the increasingly obvious inhuman features on her face.
He seemed to be explaining to the two of them, yet also analyzing to himself: "To be honest, the reason she became like this wasn't just because of contact with the ordinary pollution on the outskirts of R'lyeh. Those things are troublesome, but not enough to cause her to deteriorate to this extent in such a short time."
His own light seemed to penetrate Lina's body, revealing something deeper.
"The key is that she herself—should possess some special talent" or "trait." In simpler terms, the problem is that she's a prophet, so her "vision" is too high, and her "perception" too acute. This talent allows her to foresee events, but here it's a death sentence.
1
Saruman's heart skipped a beat! Prophet! The word struck him. Lina had indeed shown some unusual intuition and occasional vague precognitive abilities from a young age, which was one of the reasons she insisted on following them on their adventures. It seemed that she had been corrupted and mutated precisely from the time she began to make prophecies.
Truly a legend!
The cause was identified immediately!
"This kind of physique might be a gift in a safe environment."
Ian continued, his tone still calm, "But here, so close to Cthulhu, lies the deadly poison."
He pointed to the chaotic space around him: "Cthulhu, these Great Old Ones, their very existence is a source of pollution to the normal rules of the universe and life forms. They don't need to actively cast spells; simply existing here, the information, concepts, and dream fragments they unconsciously emit are enough to distort reality, erode minds, and transform life forms."
"For ordinary people, exposure to these things might only cause them to go mad, hallucinate, or experience slow physical changes. But for beings like the Prophet, whose perception is extremely acute—" Ian looked at Lina, "it's like inserting their soul antenna directly into Cthulhu's dream radio, filled with madness, blasphemy, and ultimate knowledge."
What she "heard," "saw," and "felt" was countless times clearer and more profound than what ordinary people experienced! This caused the pollution to not slowly seep in from the outside, but to erupt, resonate, and be forcibly assimilated from the deepest part of her soul! Ian explained the science again.
People of this era are indeed not very familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos.
"I see!"
Saruman broke out in a cold sweat upon hearing this.
He finally understood why Lina's transformation was so intense and unusual.
It wasn't because of bad luck, but precisely because of her extraordinary talent! This damned talent became the most deadly death warrant in this godforsaken place!
"I warned her not to keep trying to make prophecies, sigh!!" Although Kag didn't quite understand those complicated theories, he understood that Lina was more dangerous because of her "talent".
He felt both heartache and anxiety.
"Is there any hope left?"
Saruman asked the most crucial question in a trembling voice.
"Well, how should I put it?" Ian glanced at him, not answering immediately, but pondering for a moment. He could save him, but the method—conventional purification spells would definitely be useless, as those are for combating external pollution. This was pollution at the level of the soul's perception, requiring internal "correction" or "isolation."
However—he happened to have some bold ideas that he hadn't yet had time to test on living people. So, thinking of the power of integration, he slowly raised his hand, his fingers long and slender, and a more restrained power, different from the death magic of the "Avada Kedavra" series, began to flow from his fingertips.
That silvery-white radiance seemed to contain a complex flow of information and a powerful spiritual force.
This is derived from the power of divine intervention.
"Fortunately." Ian's lips curved upwards very slightly, a smile that could hardly be called a smile, but it carried an absolute confidence.
"You've met me."
His voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to carry an undeniable certainty.
"I'm not bragging, there may be dozens of legends, but I am definitely the only legend in the world who has a way to deal with this kind of level of contamination."
The words fell.
Before Saruman and Kag could process the astonishing meaning behind those words, Ian's silvery-white fingertips gently touched Lina's brow.
There were no incantations, no complicated rituals, only a vast, pure will and spiritual power, yet possessing a peculiar quality of "order" and "analysis," which, like the gentlest light, instantly established a direct connection with Lina's soul, which was sinking into madness and pain, through the point of contact!
"Whoosh whoosh~"
The moment the connection was established, beneath Ian's cold and calm exterior, his consciousness was like a probe plunged into the deep sea, instantly dragged into a bizarre, chaotic, and insane realm.
This is not a physical space, but a spiritual world, or rather, a nightmare abyss, constructed from the depths of Lina's soul by the corruption of Cthulhu and her own prophetic talents.
The first impact was an endless darkness and pressure. It wasn't pure nothingness, but rather a viscous, heavy...
It was filled with the salty, icy feeling of the deep sea, as if you were at the bottom of a bottomless trench, squeezed by the endless seawater and darkness.
The package. An indescribable, ancient, low hum and incomprehensible babbling echoed in my ears, every syllable filled with blasphemy and madness.
It is attempting to dismantle all rational thinking.
of course.
It doesn't affect Ian much.
Next came the visual shock. Countless broken, distorted, and geometrically indescribable scenes flashed by like a carousel: enormous green buildings covered in scales and slime stood silently in the deep sea and then collapsed; shadows as vast as mountains, whose specific forms could not be described, slowly crawled in the darkness.
The stars arranged themselves into blasphemous patterns, casting a cold and eerie light; countless bizarre creatures, seemingly hybrids of deep-sea creatures and nightmares, swam, danced, and roared silently at the edge of the field of vision—these scenes were not static, but rather intertwined, twisted, and deformed.
Watching it for too long is enough to completely break down any normal mind.
"Luckily, I'm not a normal person."
At the heart of this madness, Ian "saw" Lina. Her soul projection had become blurry and distorted, with a human outline still faintly discernible, but most of her body was covered by slippery scales, waving tiny tentacles, and constantly opening and closing gill-like organs.
If her eyes could still be called eyes, they had now become two pale, pupil-less orbs of light, staring blankly at the endless darkness and blasphemous starry sky above.
Her expression froze in extreme pain and confusion; her mouth was slightly open, as if she wanted to shout, but she could only exhale silent bubbles.
Even more terrifying, countless dark purple "data streams" composed of pure madness, forbidden knowledge, and "existential information" emanating from the unconscious of Cthulhu surged from all directions of this spiritual deep sea like living venomous snakes, frantically burrowing into Lina's soul projection.
These things, mixed with her own memories, emotions, and cognition, accelerated her transformation and "dissolution."
"If I hadn't come, she would have been enslaved." Ian could clearly "perceive" that Lina's remaining self-awareness was like a small boat in a storm, constantly being impacted, eroded, and covered by these surging, polluted torrents of information. The woman's childhood memories were stained with the bloody green of the deep sea.
Joyful emotions are twisted into frenzied eating language, and the perception of the world is being replaced by a Cthulhu-esque universe view that completely defies common sense.
"A typical case of deep-seated mental pollution and cognitive obstruction—" Ian analyzed calmly, "The prophetic talent has become a highly efficient information receiving antenna, but it is unable to process this far-overloaded forbidden knowledge, causing the soul structure to become overloaded, distorted, and begin to resemble the form of the information source."
This might be a bit gloomy.
But the truth is that Cthulhu is trying to convert Lina from a prophet.
They became prophets representing them. Although they were all prophets, those familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos understood how miserable the humans who served these ancient gods were.