HPDBC Chapter 461-460: The Revival of the Past 4
Chapter 461-460: The Revival of the Past 4
Chapter 461-460: The Revival of the Past 4
The two of them turned back.
Kag followed behind Saluma, his steps more steady than before. The life force he shared with Saruman was still at work, temporarily suppressing the ever-present black markings. But he could sense that the suppression was not perfect; the coldness and trembling emanating from the depths of the markings had never truly disappeared.
Like a dormant volcano, it could erupt again at any time.
Of course, for the time being, there should still be no problem. Kag didn't have time to worry about that. He focused most of his energy on carrying Lina and fighting against the erosion of his heart.
The man was as silent as a stone.
In fact, in comparison...
Lina's condition worsened.
Because the disease progressed so suddenly, Saruman was unable to stop her mutation, so her body still seems to be undergoing some kind of irreversible change. Scales cover more than half of her skin, and her joints occasionally make unnatural, bone-dislocation-like popping sounds.
Her coma was no longer peaceful; at times, she would emit suppressed sobs, as if from the depths of the sea, sounds that sent chills down the spines of those who heard them.
They went through several more battles. One was against a "Lightless Walker" who could manipulate shadows and blend into the darkness of the corridor.
Saruman had to use a massive amount of radiant magic, almost exhausting his reserves of magic gems, to dispel it.
On another occasion, they encountered a group of twisted gargoyle golems that seemed to have been born from the corridor itself. They were endless and impossible to kill. In the end, Kag had to unleash an astonishing power and use his greatsword to shatter a corner of the passage, causing a small-scale collapse to stop their pursuit.
Each battle reinforced Saruman's conviction in his judgment. These obstacles, these powerful guards, were less about preventing outsiders from entering the depths of the ruins and more about—driving them away and misleading them.
They are using combat and endless space to exhaust the intruders' energy, guiding them away from a certain core point.
And that core point is very likely the place they initially entered.
Finally, after countless detours and battles, they stood once again before that enormous stone gate.
Exactly as I remembered. The stone gate stood majestically, its material neither stone nor jade, its touch icy cold. The twisted, blasphemous patterns carved upon it—the enormous, tentacled form, the sunken city, the kneeling, inhuman creatures—still exuded an aura of madness that shook the mind.
The stone door was tightly shut, perfectly sealed, as if it had never been opened since time immemorial. Their previous attempts to open it from the inside had left no trace. An indescribable sense of oppression emanated from the stone door, heavier than when they first saw it.
The salty, fishy smell of the sea in the air was extremely strong here, almost solidified.
"What should we do now?" Kag carefully placed the unconscious Lina on his back in the corner, his movements gentle, as if she were a fragile treasure.
However, the moment he released her grip, Lina's body suddenly convulsed violently, and a piercing, agonizing wail escaped her throat—a sound no human could utter. The sound was like the mournful cry of a deep-sea monster, mixed with the teeth-grinding sounds of bones twisting and scales rubbing together.
The fish-scale-like mutated tissues on her body seemed to come alive, writhing violently under her skin, with dark yellow mucus oozing from their edges.
"Lina!" Kag exclaimed, kneeling down beside her, trying to hold her down, but afraid of aggravating her pain, his hands froze in mid-air, his face filled with helplessness and heartache.
"This is the place that causes her pain!" Saruman immediately stepped forward, his silver robes fluttering, and crouched down, his fingertips once again radiating the magic that blended arcane brilliance with forbidden shadows.
He chanted incantations softly to soothe her soul and stabilize her body, and a gentle yet resilient energy field enveloped Lina. Gradually, the violent convulsions subsided, and her screams turned into intermittent, drowning-like groans of pain. Her breathing remained rapid and wet, but at least she was temporarily freed from that extreme, maddening agony.
"Thank goodness, thank goodness I'm strong enough now." It's only because Saruman's strength has increased so much now, otherwise, if things were the same as before, he wouldn't be able to suppress this riot at all.
Kag looked at Lina's contorted and painful expression even in her unconscious state, his fists clenched so tightly that his nails almost dug into his palms. He raised his head, his eyes filled with the last glimmer of hope, and looked at Saruman, his voice hoarse and trembling: "Saruman—she—can she still be saved?"
The young wizard was silent for a moment. He looked at the almost extinguished light in his comrade's eyes, then at Lina struggling in the pollution, and finally said in an unquestionable tone: "Don't give up hope, Kag."
As long as we are alive, as long as we can still think, there is still a chance.
"Behind this door, perhaps lies the answer to reversing all of this." His words were like a shot in the arm, injecting strength into Kag's spirit, which was on the verge of collapse.
The soldier nodded heavily, burying that heavy hope deep in his heart once more.
In the days that followed, time seemed to lose its meaning before that lonely stone gate. Kag took on the responsibility of caring for Lina, moistening her chapped lips with water, wiping away the grime seeping from her scales, and constantly watching for any deterioration in her condition. He carried out his care silently and steadfastly.
Saruman, on the other hand, was completely absorbed in his study of the Stone Gate.
He seemed tireless, exploring the massive stone gate from top to bottom, his fingers tracing every carving, sensing the faint energy flowing within.
He continuously retrieved various ancient documents from his magical storage pouch—scrolls tanned from dragon skin, heavy tomes written in the long-lost Elvish language, and even black stone tablets from forbidden lands, exuding an ominous aura. He lay prostrate on the ground, using the aura of magic to eagerly peruse, compare, and deduce, attempting to find the key to unlock this door of despair from these fragments of knowledge spanning millennia.
However, the ruins' malice did not cease. From some unknown time, the eternally dark corridor outside the stone gate began to change. Distorted light and shadow converged at the end of the passage, transforming into the illusions they most desperately desired to see deep within their hearts.
Sometimes, Kag would hear Lina's clear call and see her standing unharmed in the corridor, waving to him with a bright smile.
Sometimes, Saruman would see emissaries of the Magic Council appear out of nowhere, declaring that he had passed the test, granting him the glory and authority of a legendary wizard, and promising to heal Lina immediately. On one occasion, the vision even presented a pool of water radiating a pure, life-giving light, claiming it to be the "Fountain of Life" capable of purifying all impurities.
These temptations strike at the heart, are incredibly real, and are full of hope and beauty, seemingly within reach.
When Kag first saw Lina "intact," he almost rushed out, but Saruman's low shout, imbued with magic, startled him back to reality.
As the illusion shattered before his eyes like bubbles, Kag's eyes were filled with pain, but even more so with a furious sense of being fooled. Only after regaining his senses did he realize that the monster he had been taking care of was the real Lina.
"What the hell is this place trying to do?!"
Kag was filled with grief and indignation.
"They are afraid."
Saruman stared at the stone door, his eyes gleaming with wisdom. "This damned underground ruin doesn't want us to study this door. It wants to lure us away with what we want to see."
Kag wiped the cold sweat from his brow, his eyes hardening again: "The more this is the case, the more it proves we're on the right track! They're afraid we'll really leave!"
The two reached a consensus that no matter what temptations appeared outside the door—whether it be supreme glory, the call of a beloved, or the hope of redemption—they would remain steadfast and unmoved.
They saw this endless temptation as a signpost in the opposite direction, becoming even more determined to stay in front of the stone gate and devote all their energy to unraveling its mysteries.
The flow of memory magic accelerated here, displaying the daily cycle of perseverance, research, and resistance to temptation. Saruman's documents piled up and scattered around him, his eye sockets sunken, yet the silver light in his eyes grew ever brighter, as if burning with the flames of his soul. Kag, like a silent reef, withstood the dual tides of spirit and emotion, protecting the comatose Lina and his devoted friend engrossed in research.
Until one day—
Saruman abruptly looked up from a pile of ancient documents, clutching a seemingly inconspicuous black stone slab with charred edges. It was a fragment he had painstakingly obtained years ago from a forbidden site known as the "Raven's Tomb." His face was a mixture of extreme exhaustion and barely suppressed excitement, and his voice was distorted with emotion.
"I understand now!"
It is clear.
The emperor does not bear the painstaking people.
He finally found a way to break the deadlock.
The moment young Saruman shouted, "I understand!", the memories flowing before the man in black robes seemed to be abruptly paused by an invisible giant hand. All the images, sounds, and emotions froze on Saruman's face, a mixture of ecstasy and exhaustion.
A thousand years into the real world, the deep, anciently sealed underground chambers of the African Ministry of Magic, their real-world environment, become clear once again.
The blind, elderly Saruman silently "gazes" at his student, his empty eye sockets seemingly piercing his soul. His voice is low and hoarse, carrying a weight of experience: "Will you continue watching?"
He asked in a calm tone, yet his words carried a warning that could not be ignored.
"Further down, it's just about experiencing it." At that point, it's already irreversibly polluted. It's a madness that even I had to pay the price of my eyes to barely keep out.
"Moreover, in this process, the help of others was also involved."
The man in black remained silent in the face of the blind wizard's warning. His expression was hidden by the shadow of his hood, only a deathly stillness pervading his demeanor.
After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice devoid of any emotion, as if stating a fact unrelated to himself: "Teacher, I am already irreparably polluted. I suppose—you don't need to ask me any more questions."
He knew that Saruman, with his ability to see through things, had already seen through the secret he was trying so hard to hide. He slowly raised his hand, grasped the edge of the hood, and then suddenly flung it open.
All I saw was...
Beneath the hood was not a normal human face. His skin was an unhealthy grayish-green, covered with a slippery sheen resembling the slime of aquatic creatures. Several undisguised, hard scales grew on either side of his cheeks, their edges tinged with dark red.
His eyes were particularly terrifying—the pupils were no longer round, but vertical slits like those of a cold-blooded animal, and the whites of his eyes were covered with twisted blood vessels, as if he were constantly enduring immense pain and pressure. It was a face severely polluted and distorted by the power of the deep sea.
Yes.
She has always concealed her appearance.
It's because the man in black robes had already been corrupted, or rather, everyone in the Department of Mysteries had been corrupted, since their main responsibility was to guard the seal of this place.
Accumulated over time.
It was impossible to avoid contamination. Only ordinary members of the Ministry of Magic who were unaware of this escaped unharmed, perhaps because the Department of Mysteries had implemented some underground isolation measures.
This African secret service is clearly different from those in other countries; they may possess some means of maintaining sanity even before becoming severely contaminated.
Well, how should I put it?
You could say he was selfless. Although the man in black robes was ruthless when he killed, regardless of whether the victim deserved to die, that doesn't diminish the fact that he and his colleagues were heroes.
The Bureau of Mysteries has always been like this.
Every local secret affairs bureau is guarding a hidden secret.
"Hmm." The elderly Saruman "saw" all of this through his mind's eye. He showed no surprise, but the lines of sorrow on his wrinkled face seemed to deepen. He sighed heavily, a sigh filled with helplessness and a weariness he had long anticipated.
"It was just a confirmation," the old wizard said softly, as if whispering to himself. He didn't try to dissuade him further, but simply waved his hand weakly.
The suspended magic of memory began to flow again.
"Good, good, good! It really works!" The young Saruman excitedly pointed to several twisted symbols on the black stone slab, and then to several inconspicuous corners on the stone gate relief.
"Look here, and here too! The spatial anchor calibration runes recorded in the Raven's Relics documents correspond perfectly to the 'eyes of the door' patterns on the stone gate! I had previously overlooked the connection between these symbols; they are not decorations, but keyholes! Perhaps the Raven also explored this place!"
Saruman looked agitated.
Although Kag couldn't understand the complex magical terms, he saw an unprecedented glimmer of hope in Saruman's tone and expression.
"I'll guard the outside for you!" He immediately stood up, gripped his greatsword tightly, and looked around warily, on guard against a possible counterattack due to Saruman's discovery.
Saruman no longer hesitated.
He stood before the stone gate, his hands beginning to trace intricate patterns in the air, while he chanted ancient and difficult incantations.
"Mommy, Mommy, please!" The incantation, once uttered, no longer carried the forbidden chill, but was instead filled with precision...
Order and powerful arcane energy. Silver light surged from his body, flowing like a living thing, precisely infusing the key symbols he had identified on the stone relief.
The next moment.
The stone gate was activated.