Yes. Lina.
Lina, who had remained unconscious despite repeated attempts to wake her and was strapped securely to Kag's back, suddenly convulsed violently.
For the first time, she made a sound clear enough for them to hear, the most agonized whimper she had made yet.
The scales on her face gleamed with an ominous, oily sheen in the dim light. Beneath her tightly shut eyelids, her eyes darted around rapidly. Her breathing became fast, wet, and labored, as though she were drowning and desperately fighting for air.
"What's happening?!"
Both Kag and Saruman went pale. Lina's sudden change had come without warning. Even more terrifying were the black corruption patterns crawling across her exposed skin. They twisted like living things, suddenly stimulated by something in the dark.
The markings abruptly lit up with a dark, unsettling purple-black glow, spreading toward her heart and brain at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Lina!"
Kag snapped out of his shock. No longer caring about Ian standing in front of them, he hurriedly unfastened Lina from his back and pulled her into his arms.
Her face had already changed from pale to a disturbing blue-gray. Her lips were turning purple, her body was burning hot, and the painful spasms wracking her grew stronger by the second.
"She's being affected on a much deeper level!"
Saruman's expression changed as well. He immediately crouched beside her and tried using calming and healing magic.
But the glow of his spells vanished into Lina's body without the slightest effect. Worse, it seemed to provoke an even more violent reaction from the black markings.
"The corruption is erupting! And it's stronger than ever before!" Saruman's voice trembled, helplessness filling his eyes.
Among the thousand years of knowledge he had inherited, there were indeed records about resisting this kind of corruption.
But here, in the heart of R'lyeh, Lina's condition seemed to be reacting directly to the very source of the corruption itself. All that knowledge, all those techniques, suddenly felt useless.
"Hm?"
Ian's gaze shifted toward the struggling Lina. He watched the ominous black patterns spreading wildly across her body, then sensed the faint resonance coming from the darkness around them, as if some existence of the same origin had reacted to the drastic changes within her.
A trace of understanding flashed through his cold eyes.
So bringing someone who was already deeply corrupted this far into R'lyeh really had been a terrible idea.
"The environment here is accelerating her transformation..."
Ian said, his tone unusually serious.
"It may even be awakening whatever power of the deep sea is inside her. Or rather… it's turning her into something closer to the inhabitants of this place."
Lina's sudden crisis plunged the atmosphere back into tension. Kag and Saruman were frantic, but there was nothing they could do.
So their eyes naturally turned toward the only person present who might actually have a solution: Ian Prince.
"Lord Prince! Please! Save her! Save Lina!"
Kag clutched the convulsing girl as her breathing grew weaker and weaker, looking at Ian as though he were the last hope left in the world.
His rough face was covered in sweat and blood, and the eyes that had always been so resolute were now filled with desperate tears. Kag no longer cared that Ian had copied his swordsmanship.
He no longer cared about a warrior's pride. He only wanted the girl in his arms to live.
"Please!" Saruman begged as well, sounding even more urgent.
"Perhaps only someone of Legendary rank can help her! Lord Prince, please lend us your aid! If you can save Lina, we'll pay any price! My knowledge, my soul, even my life, whatever you require!"
Having inherited a thousand years of knowledge, Saruman understood Lina's condition far better than Kag did. This was not merely a physical mutation; her soul itself was being corroded and assimilated by the primal madness of R'lyeh.
Conventional methods were already useless. Perhaps only this mysterious existence before them, someone who might have come from the age of myth itself, had even the slightest chance of reversing what was happening.
Ian sighed. He looked at the two men who had been scared half to death only moments ago, yet were now throwing aside everything to beg for their companion's life. Something almost imperceptible stirred behind his deliberately cold expression.
At the end of the day, Ian wasn't one of those ancient beings who had lived for thousands upon thousands of years, grown numb to life and death, and discarded ordinary emotions.
He was still, fundamentally, a ridiculously overpowered Hogwarts student. Deep down, he still had the softness and impulsiveness of a teenager, even if his icy exterior usually hid it.
In simpler terms, he was a softhearted god. Ravenclaws tended to have that problem: sharp tongue, soft heart.
Besides, as a Ravenclaw obsessed with knowledge and research, Ian was already extremely interested in Cthulhu corruption and how it might be studied or broken. And Lina was basically a ready-made case of severe infection.
Her research value was enormous. Saving her would satisfy his curiosity while also helping out these unlucky idiots, who at least seemed genuinely loyal to one another.
So helping them didn't sound like such a bad idea.
'Tch. What a pain.'
Ian complained inwardly, though his expression barely changed. He raised a hand, signaling the two men to quiet down.
"I can… try."
His voice was calm and quiet, yet to Saruman and Kag it sounded like music from heaven itself. The two of them immediately fell silent as though hit by a Silencing Charm. Joy and hope exploded in their eyes, but they barely dared to breathe for fear of disturbing him.
Ian did not act immediately. Instead, he examined the rapidly spreading purple-black markings on Lina's body, along with the increasingly obvious inhuman features appearing on her face.
Then, sounding half like he was explaining things to them and half like he was thinking aloud, he said:
"To be precise, she didn't end up like this simply because she came into contact with ordinary corruption on the outskirts of R'lyeh. That stuff is troublesome, yes, but not enough to make her deteriorate this badly in such a short time."
His gaze seemed to pierce straight through Lina's body and into something deeper.
"The real problem is that she herself possesses some kind of unusual talent, or trait."
He paused.
"To put it in terms you'll understand, the problem is that she's a Seer. Her spiritual perception is too strong. She senses far too much. That gift allows her to see the future under normal circumstances, but in a place like this, it becomes a death sentence."
Saruman's heart jolted.
A Seer! That word struck directly at the truth. Ever since childhood, Lina had occasionally displayed instincts far beyond those of ordinary people, along with vague flashes of precognition.
That was one of the reasons she had insisted on joining them on this adventure. And now that Saruman thought about it, her corruption and mutation had seemed to begin around the same time her prophecies became more frequent.
As expected of a Legendary! He had identified the cause almost immediately!
"In a safe environment, that constitution might be considered a gift," Ian continued calmly. "But here, this close to Cthulhu, it becomes deadly poison."
He gestured toward the distorted space around them.
"An existence on the level of Cthulhu, an Old One, a ruler-class entity, is itself a source of corruption to conventional cosmic laws and ordinary forms of life. It doesn't need to deliberately cast spells or attack anyone. Its mere existence is enough. The information, concepts, fragments of dreams, and other things it unconsciously gives off can distort reality, erode the mind, and reshape living beings."
"For an ordinary person, exposure might only lead to madness, hallucinations, or gradual physical mutation. But for someone like a Seer, whose perception is abnormally sensitive…"
Ian looked down at Lina.
"It's basically the same as taking the antenna of your soul and plugging it directly into Cthulhu's dream broadcast, a channel filled with madness, blasphemy, and forbidden knowledge."
"What she hears, sees, and feels is countless times clearer and more intense than what an ordinary person experiences. That means the corruption isn't slowly seeping into her from the outside. It's resonating with her from the deepest part of her soul, erupting from within and forcibly assimilating her from the inside out."
People of this era really didn't know much about the Cthulhu Mythos.
"I see!" Cold sweat ran down Saruman's back.
He finally understood why Lina's mutation had been so violent and unusual. It wasn't because she was unlucky; quite the opposite, it was because she was exceptionally gifted. That damned gift had become the deadliest possible curse in a place like this.
"I warned her not to keep trying to make prophecies! Damn it!" Kag didn't understand all the complicated theory, but he understood the important part: Lina was in greater danger precisely because of her talent. His heart ached for her, and his anxiety only grew worse.
"Then… can she still be saved?" Saruman asked, his voice trembling.
"Well…" Ian glanced at him without answering immediately.
She could be saved. The problem was how.
Ordinary purification spells would obviously be useless; those were meant to deal with corruption coming from an outside source. Lina's corruption had already reached the level of her soul and cognition. To save her, he would have to correct, or isolate, the corruption from within.
Fortunately, Ian happened to have a few rather bold ideas he hadn't yet had the opportunity to test on a living person.
With that thought, he slowly raised one hand. His long, pale fingers began to glow, but this power was different from the deadly magic of his Avada series.
It was quieter, more restrained, yet filled with complex streams of information and immense mental force. Silver-white light gathered around his fingertips, a power derived from the Patronus Charm.
"Luckily…" The corner of Ian's mouth lifted ever so slightly. It could barely be called a smile, but the absolute confidence behind it was unmistakable. "You ran into me."
His voice wasn't loud, yet there was an unquestionable certainty to it.
"I'm not bragging. There may be dozens of Legendary-level people in this world, but I'm definitely the only Legendary who can deal with corruption on this level."
Before Saruman and Kag could even process the implications of that statement, Ian touched his glowing fingertip lightly to the center of Lina's forehead.
There was no incantation, no elaborate ritual, only an enormous, pure force of will and mental power carrying a strange sense of order and analysis.
Like the gentlest beam of light, it flowed through the point of contact and instantly established a direct connection with Lina's soul as it sank deeper into madness and agony.
'Whoosh, '
The moment the connection formed, Ian's consciousness plunged beneath his calm, icy exterior like a probe dropped into the deepest ocean. In an instant, he was dragged into a bizarre and chaotic realm.
This wasn't physical space. It was a mental world formed in the depths of Lina's soul by the combination of Cthulhu's corruption and her own Seer talent. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a nightmare abyss.
The first thing that struck him was the endless darkness and pressure. It wasn't empty darkness; it was thick and heavy, carrying the salty stench and freezing cold of the deep sea.
It felt as though he had been dropped into the bottom of a bottomless ocean trench, crushed and surrounded by limitless water and darkness.
Ancient, indescribable humming echoed around him, mixed with incomprehensible whispers. Every syllable was steeped in blasphemy and madness, trying to tear rational thought apart.
Of course, it had little effect on Ian.
Then came the visual assault. Countless shattered, distorted scenes that no geometry could properly describe flashed past him like a broken slideshow. Enormous green structures covered in scales and slime stood silently beneath the sea before collapsing into ruin.
Mountain-sized shadows whose forms could not be properly understood writhed slowly through the darkness. The stars arranged themselves into blasphemous patterns, casting down a cold and unnatural light.
Countless bizarre entities, things that looked like some impossible cross between deep-sea creatures and nightmares, swam and danced at the edges of his vision, screaming without sound.
None of these scenes remained still. They merged into one another, twisted, warped, and changed constantly. Anyone with an ordinary mind would have gone completely insane after staring at them for long enough.
"Good thing I'm not normal."
At the center of all that madness, Ian finally "saw" Lina.
The projection of her soul had already become blurred and distorted. Her basic human outline was still barely recognizable, but most of her body had been covered in slick scales, tiny writhing tentacles, and gill-like organs that continuously opened and closed.
Her eyes, if those things could still be called eyes, had become two pale spheres of light without pupils, staring blankly upward into the endless darkness and the blasphemous stars above.
Her expression was frozen in a mixture of unbearable pain and confusion. Her mouth hung slightly open as if she wanted to scream, but only silent bubbles escaped.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
Streams of dark-purple "data," formed from pure madness, forbidden knowledge, and the information unconsciously radiated by Cthulhu's very existence, poured in from every direction.
Like living venomous snakes, they burrowed madly into Lina's soul, mixing with her memories, emotions, and understanding of reality, accelerating her mutation and the gradual dissolution of her identity.
"If I hadn't shown up, she would've ended up enslaved."
Ian could clearly sense that the remnants of Lina's self-awareness were like a tiny boat caught in a violent storm. The raging flood of corrupted information battered it again and again, eroding and overwriting everything that made Lina herself.
Memories of her childhood were stained with the sickly green of the deep sea. Happy emotions twisted into insane whispers. Her understanding of the world was being replaced piece by piece with Cthulhu's utterly irrational view of the universe.
"Typical deep mental corruption combined with cognitive overwrite…"
Ian calmly analyzed what he was seeing.
"Her Seer talent became an extremely efficient receiver for information, but her soul has no way to process forbidden knowledge this far beyond its capacity. The overload is deforming the structure of her soul and forcing it to gradually resemble the source of the information."
It sounded complicated, but the truth was simple. Cthulhu was trying to turn Lina from an ordinary Seer into a Seer who belonged to them.
A Cthulhu Mythos Seer.
Both might technically be called Seers, but anyone familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos knew exactly how miserable the humans who served those ancient gods tended to become.
(End Of This Chapter)
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