To be fair, even if Kag didn't want to believe what had just happened, he had no choice but to admit it. Ian hadn't merely pointed out the flaws in his technique, he had provided solutions. And those solutions sounded damnably reasonable! They were even more refined than the insights Kag himself had spent years painstakingly developing.
"How... how can this be?"
Kag stood frozen in place, his mind completely blank, as though a bolt of divine lightning had struck his soul directly from the high heavens. Even his thoughts seemed to grind to a halt.
This man hadn't merely learned the swordsmanship Kag had spent decades mastering during their absurdly brief exchange. He had understood it, completely grasped it, and then, from a height Kag couldn't even begin to imagine, surpassed it.
Yes. Ian hadn't simply learned all of his techniques! He had seen through the principles behind every move, identified their hidden weaknesses, and understood how each one could be optimized. He could examine Kag's swordsmanship from a perspective Kag himself had never reached, annotating his lifelong achievements from above and upgrading them on the spot.
This could no longer be described with words like "gifted" or "combat genius." It was practically inhuman, a learning and analytical ability that operated on the level of fundamental rules themselves. It was the despair-inducing gulf between mortal intelligence and something truly transcendent.
A chill deeper than facing death, deeper even than being annihilated by Legendary magic, poured into Kag's heart like freezing poison before spreading throughout his entire body.
"I... I..."
The hand gripping his almost-numb greatsword began trembling uncontrollably. It wasn't from physical exhaustion; this trembling came from somewhere much deeper. His entire worldview had been crushed, his convictions torn out by the roots. What remained was an uncontrollable shudder of helplessness rising from the depths of his soul.
He had trained for decades. He had crawled through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, exchanging his life for every lesson he'd learned. His swordsmanship had been soaked in blood, sweat, and an unyielding will.
Yet in the eyes of this mysterious young man, perhaps it really was nothing more than a crude introductory textbook, something Ian could casually flip through, understand in moments, and then, with mild interest, correct, revise, and optimize.
The fundamental difference between them was so enormous that even the thought of catching up or challenging him suddenly seemed laughable. Absurd.
Kag opened his mouth. His throat felt as though it had been scraped raw with sandpaper, dry and hoarse. He could barely form a complete sound, squeezing out only a few broken syllables filled with shock and confusion.
"You... you..."
And then nothing. Kag genuinely had no idea what he was supposed to say.
Just as Kag fell into a speechless daze from the total collapse of everything he knew, his hand trembling around the greatsword that had accompanied him for half his life, Saruman finally reacted.
He had been standing frozen nearby, overwhelmed by shock, fear, and the violent storm of speculation raging through his mind. But now that the battle had stopped, Saruman immediately realized something: 'This might be our last chance!'
"Stop! Kag, stop!"
Saruman jolted awake as though struck by electricity. They couldn't allow Kag to continue provoking this terrifying existence who might very well be Merlin! Who knew what would happen next? Perhaps Ian would suddenly lose interest in "learning," decide he'd extracted everything useful from his "sample," and casually dispose of them.
"Kag! STOP!!"
Saruman screamed with everything he had, rushing forward without hesitation to place himself between the exhausted Kag and Ian. He spread both arms wide, shielding Kag behind him. His face was deathly pale, his legs were trembling, yet a desperate determination shone in his eyes.
Of course, that determination wasn't the intent to fight, quite the opposite.
Saruman immediately threw his high-quality wand onto the ground. Then he tore several bulging pouches of magical materials from his waist and placed them beside it. Several valuable storage rings followed. Finally, he reached into his robes and pulled out the precious notebook containing his research and interpretations concerning the Raven Ruins.
Saruman hesitated for only a moment before placing that on the ground too.
After doing all this, he drew a deep breath and forced himself to look into Ian's cold eyes, eyes that seemed capable of seeing through everything. Speaking as clearly and respectfully as he could, with a trace of humble pleading in his voice, Saruman said, "R-Respected Lord Prince! Please... please calm your anger! My companion acted only out of a momentary impulse. He had absolutely no intention of offending you! We... we are willing to surrender!"
Saruman swallowed hard. "We will offer you everything we possess, our wealth, our knowledge, and whatever insignificant loyalty we are capable of giving! We ask only..." His voice trembled. "We ask only that you forgive our ignorant offense. Please... please spare our lives!"
Cold sweat covered Saruman's forehead, his voice distorting from sheer panic. At this point, he no longer cared whether Ian actually wanted these "tributes," nor did he care about the pride of a wizard. In the face of absolute power and an intelligence he couldn't comprehend, survival came first.
Saruman had already gone even further in his mind. If these offerings weren't enough, he was prepared to surrender a fragment of his own soul as collateral for a magical contract. Whatever it took, as long as they could survive, as long as he could save Kag and Lina.
"Saruman! What are you doing?!" Kag finally snapped out of his daze.
He stared at the thin yet unwavering figure standing protectively in front of him, then at the pile of items scattered across the ground, treasures representing half a lifetime of Saruman's research, exploration, and accumulated wealth. Complicated emotions surged through Kag's heart: shame, gratitude, but above all else, that lingering sense of helplessness whenever he looked at Ian.
Kag opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out.
"..."
Ian stared at Saruman's smooth and practiced surrender procedure, then glanced at the pile of junk on the ground that, in his eyes, wasn't particularly remarkable. Of course, anything related to the Raven still interested him considerably, but that didn't stop an extremely rare expression from appearing on his perpetually cold face: confusion.
Ian tilted his head slightly, seemingly trying to understand the logic behind Saruman's actions. Several seconds passed before he asked in a calm voice filled with unmistakable bewilderment, "What... exactly are you doing?"
Ian wasn't the kind of person who robbed others by force, at least not when things could still be settled through reason.
Saruman froze. He immediately assumed his sincerity wasn't enough, or perhaps Ian was mocking him, so he hurriedly spoke again, even more earnestly. "Lord Prince! We have no intention of becoming your enemies, nor would we dare pry into your secrets! We're only adventurers who accidentally became trapped here! All we want is to find a way out and save our companion! Kag, Kag is just a reckless warrior! If he's offended you, the responsibility is mine!"
Saruman gritted his teeth. "If someone must die, kill me! I only ask that you spare Kag and Lina!"
The words poured from his mouth rapidly, desperately, every syllable carrying the frantic desire to survive.
Ian listened, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly. He looked down at the pile of "tributes," then at Saruman, who looked ready to die while desperately trying to save his companions, and finally at Kag, who looked so devastated he could barely hold his weapon.
Ian could only sigh. "Of course I know what you're trying to do."
His tone sounded almost as if he were stating an obvious fact, yet there was also a faint trace of 'are you people mentally ill?'
"So what I was trying to tell you was simply, " Ian paused, searching for words simple enough that these people couldn't possibly misunderstand them again. "This place..." He pointed toward the distorted, writhing masses of color and chaotic energy currents surrounding them. "...is dangerous. Extremely dangerous. It's not somewhere people of your..." Ian hesitated briefly. "...mm, your level should be staying."
Saruman and Kag still had traces of fear and confusion written across their faces, so Ian continued. "As for all that stuff you imagined about me 'silencing witnesses,' 'cleaning you up,' or 'humiliating you'..." For the first time, an almost imperceptible trace of speechlessness entered Ian's voice. "You panicked and imagined all of that yourselves."
Obviously, Ian had used Psychic Blast again.
He spread his hands in a helpless gesture. Then, deciding that words alone weren't convincing enough, he actually turned around in a circle.
Yes. Right there, inside this bizarre and dangerous Space-Time Rift filled with the dreams of an Old Ones Dominator, the unfathomably powerful young Legendary slowly turned in place like a harmless little kid trying to prove he wasn't carrying anything dangerous.
Front. Side. Back. He displayed every angle of his plain black robe, as if to say: 'Look. See? I'm not hiding some terrifying weapon that I'm about to pull out and murder you with.'
After completing his little turn, Ian stopped. His eyes returned to their usual icy calm as he looked at the completely dumbfounded pair.
Then, in an almost perfectly reasonable tone, he asked, "Look at me. Do I look like a bad person?"
Saruman: "..."
Kag: "..."
Their expressions rapidly transformed: extreme fear, despair, desperate pleading, then blankness, confusion, and finally an overwhelming sense of absurdity as their worldview suffered a second catastrophic impact.
The atmosphere seemed to freeze. Only the indescribable masses of color in the distance continued silently writhing, producing incomprehensible low-frequency murmurs.
Saruman's mental CPU was practically overheating as he desperately tried to process Ian's words.
'Dangerous... Warning... We imagined it... Panic response... Not a bad person...'
So from the very beginning, Ian really had only been warning them that this place was dangerous? Kag had misunderstood Ian's warning, misinterpreted his gaze and words as a threat, and attacked first? While Ian had merely blocked the attack... and then, while he was at it, learned some swordsmanship?
Saruman's thoughts stalled again. That entire process, that utterly despair-inducing display of overwhelming learning ability that had nearly crushed Kag's lifelong confidence, might have been nothing more than an interesting, spontaneous little extracurricular activity in Ian's eyes? Some temporary entertainment he'd stumbled across along the way?
Somehow, that realization was even harder to accept than the idea that Ian was simply a cruel and merciless Legendary.
A complicated mixture of absurdity, lingering terror, and faint relief surged through Saruman and Kag simultaneously.
"Uh..." Saruman's throat felt dry as he cautiously ventured, "Lord Prince... do you mean... you aren't planning to... deal with us?"
"Deal with you?" Ian raised an eyebrow. "Why would I deal with you? You haven't blocked my path, and you haven't done anything that could actually threaten me. I was just passing by, saw a few people who had obviously wandered into the wrong place, and gave you a friendly warning."
He said it so matter-of-factly that he might as well have been commenting on the weather. Kag's attack clearly didn't count as a threat in Ian's eyes. Besides, Ian had benefited quite a bit from it.
Saruman and Kag exchanged glances, seeing the exact same emotion reflected in each other's eyes: 'Then what the hell were we so afraid of? And what exactly were we risking our lives for?!'
For a moment, the atmosphere became strangely awkward. There was embarrassment, and beneath it, the exhausted relief of people who had just realized they'd somehow survived a catastrophe that had never actually existed.
"So... it really was a misunderstanding."
Once Saruman confirmed that this mysterious Legendary truly didn't seem to harbor any hostility toward them, or rather, that they weren't even important enough to warrant hostility, his tightly wound nerves finally relaxed a little. But that only gave rise to even more questions.
What exactly was this place? What kind of place could make an ancient existence whom Saruman suspected might actually be Merlin describe it as 'extremely dangerous'? A place even Ian had to treat cautiously?
Gathering his courage, Saruman asked in a more respectful tone, though without quite as much fear as before, "Lord Prince, forgive my presumptuousness... You said this place is extremely dangerous. Then... where exactly are we? It seems that after passing through that magic array, we've entered a completely different... space?"
Saruman had absolutely no intention of asking whether Ian was Merlin. If the other party had chosen to walk the world under a different name, Saruman certainly wasn't stupid enough to expose him.
"Hm?" Ian glanced at him. "You actually came in here without even knowing what this place is?"
Ian thought for a moment, then decided there was no harm in explaining. Judging from their current condition, these three probably weren't getting out of here on their own anyway. Letting them know a little of the truth might at least convince them to stay put instead of running around and causing trouble.
And so, Ian raised his hand and pointed toward the deeper regions of this space. There, the darkness was thicker, deeper, almost as though an invisible gravitational force were pulling everything toward some incomprehensible abyss.
"This is the inner layer of R'lyeh," Ian said calmly. "Or, more accurately, it's the boundary where the sleeping one's 'dream' overlaps with 'reality.' We're still within R'lyeh, we've simply gone deeper. And we're much closer to that thing."
Ian had deliberately given them the simplest possible explanation.
"That... thing?" Saruman's heart skipped a beat. He immediately remembered the records on the stone tablet and the name Ian had previously muttered to himself.
"Cthulhu," Ian spoke the name directly, his voice unwavering, as though mentioning a neighbor. "An ultimate life-form that's existed since the birth of the universe. Maybe even before that."
Ian considered how to explain it in terms these people could understand. "Basically... think of something that can take a nap for several hundred million years. It's bigger than a mountain. As for what it looks like..." He paused to think. "Imagine the most disgusting deep-sea creature you can think of, something like an enormous octopus mixed with a rotting starfish. Then throw in some indescribable geometry and a few parts that make you lose your sanity if you stare at them for too long. That's roughly it."
Ian's explanation was concise and straightforward.
Saruman listened with a blank expression. An ultimate life-form? Existing since the birth of the universe? Bigger than a mountain? Some horrific mixture of deep-sea creatures? Why did this description sound so... terrifying?!
Yet strangely enough, it perfectly matched everything recorded on the stone tablet about the Old Ones Dominator, an existence beyond comprehension, ancient, blasphemous, something whose very nature violated the logic of ordinary life.
"So..." Saruman swallowed, his voice dry. "You... came here in order to..."
"Obviously, for world peace, love, and justice!" Ian declared with absolute righteousness. "While it's still asleep and in bad condition, I'm going to get rid of it."
His expression was solemn, his voice resolute. Ian, naturally, didn't mention the part where circumstances had essentially left him with little choice. Instead, he took the opportunity to polish his image a little.
"It's too dangerous. So I came. For the sake of this world, I had to come. Either I succeed or I fail, but if I succeed, it'll solve the problem once and for all. That way I won't have to worry about it waking up someday, or some cultist, servant, or whatever causing trouble in its name."
Ian's image suddenly became extremely heroic.
Saruman and Kag were once again rendered speechless. Get rid of it? He wanted to... 'kill an ultimate life-form?' Something potentially cosmic in scale? Something capable of distorting time and space merely by sleeping?
Yet when Ian said it, why did it sound like he was talking about going outside to kill a Pukwudgie? Just what kind of strength did someone need to possess to speak like that? More importantly, what kind of mentality did someone need?!
Saruman was still reeling from the sheer absurdity of Ian's objective. Kag, meanwhile, was still struggling to process the devastating realization that his decades of swordsmanship had essentially been learned and improved upon in a matter of minutes.
Then…
"Ugh..."
"Ah..."
A faint groan suddenly broke through the bizarre atmosphere. It was incredibly weak, yet the pain contained within it was unmistakable.
The sound came from behind Kag.
Everyone froze.
It was Lina!
(End Of This Chapter)
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