r18novel Chapter 503, Section 512: Breaking Through the Dream
Chapter 503, Section 512: Breaking Through the Dream
Chapter 503, Section 512: Breaking Through the Dream (Part 5)
Yes.
If Ian had not been able to truly defeat Cthulhu.
Saruman, with his millennia-old memories, knew very well that the history that had now been altered would be like a mirage, existing only briefly and no longer possessing any meaning.
It is even possible that history will slide into an even worse direction.
of course.
Since a point in history has already been shaken, it is not unfounded to think that history could be completely changed.
Saruman understood.
According to the original "history," at this moment, he and Kag should be on the verge of collapse under the pressure of Cthulhu's will, and Lina's rescue should have failed due to the delay. But in reality, Lina was successfully rescued, and although they were in a sorry state, they were still alive and were moving away from the core area.
All of this is because of that mysterious Ian Prince.
And I also have some minor involvement of my own.
In fact.
The fact that the opponent was able to completely escape with him in the normal timeline after several of his teammates died proves that the opponent does indeed have the power to fight Cthulhu head-on.
That's enough.
"He is our only hope."
Saruman finally spoke, his voice trembling slightly from exhaustion and excitement, but his tone was incredibly firm: "The only thing we can do is trust him and not become a burden to him."
He glanced at Lina beside him again.
Although the girl was weak, her eyes had regained their clarity, and even gained a depth that she had never had before, as if she could see into the future.
The aura of the "Raven Prophet" emanating from her was very faint, but it did not escape Saruman's observation. Therefore, he became even more certain of his previous guess based on the memories he had inherited from a thousand years ago.
"And—he has accomplished what we thought was impossible."
Saruman added, a complex light flashing in his eyes—a mixture of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of mixed emotions) about changing the course of history and awe of the unfathomable power of that "Your Majesty."
"That's all we can do."
They traveled a little further and found a relatively intact crevice, made up of several huge, twisted green boulders, where they could temporarily take refuge.
Saruman signaled to stop; he could no longer hold on. The light of the force field flickered a few times before going out completely. He leaned against the cold stone wall, breathing heavily, sweat mixed with blood streaming down his forehead. The borrowed legendary power dissipated rapidly like the receding tide, and waves of intense weakness and instability of the fused soul body washed over him.
Borrowed power is, after all, borrowed power.
Even if it's power borrowed from your future self.
It's not easy to afford it.
This is a serious mismatch for Saruman at present, since his body has not been baptized by the proof of legend and cannot be considered the physical strength of a legendary wizard.
The fact that they've managed to hold on this long is due to the perfect harmony of their powers and their unwavering willpower. If it were someone else, their power would probably have overwhelmed an ordinary wizard.
That's the power of legends.
Sure enough, as the borrowed legendary power dissipated rapidly like the receding tide, a sense of weakness pierced Saruman's consciousness and soul like countless tiny needles.
Kag and Lina quickly helped him up and helped him sit down to rest.
"How are you?"
Lina asked worriedly, as she could sense that Saruman was in extremely poor condition, his soul fluctuations were disordered and weak.
"I'm alright, I won't die." Saruman leaned against the cold, rough green boulder, his face as pale as paper, his forehead covered in fine beads of cold sweat, and his body trembling slightly uncontrollably.
The forced fusion of a soul spanning a thousand years with a young body was already in an extremely unstable "adjustment period," and after undergoing a series of high-intensity spellcasting and willpower struggles, the backlash was particularly severe at this moment.
He felt his consciousness was like a fragment floating in icy seawater, sometimes pulled towards the abyss of wisdom accumulated over millennia, and sometimes dragged back to the sensory and emotional waves of his young body.
The two clashed violently, almost tearing his existence apart. However, of course, he couldn't let his teammates worry; after absorbing a thousand years of sedimentation, his soul had become much gentler.
"You don't look like it at all."
Kag and Lina stayed by his side anxiously.
"Have something to drink." Kag tore off a relatively clean lining, dampened it with the little water he carried with him, and carefully wiped the cold sweat from Saruman's forehead.
Lina knelt to one side, trying to use her newly acquired, still very weak, "Raven Prophet" power to sense Saruman's soul state.
however.
She felt only a chaotic vortex and an unfathomable weariness, leaving her at a loss and filled with anxiety.
"I'm fine—just exhausted, and my soul—is a little unstable. I just need a rest," Saruman said, his voice hoarse. He knew his condition was terrible, but at least Lina had been rescued, and they were temporarily out of the core battlefield.
This is infinitely better than the original "history".
Kag and Lina were worried, but there was nothing they could do. They were also in poor condition. Kag had exhausted his fighting spirit and stamina, and he was still fatigued from his battle with Ian.
Although Lina's soul pollution was cleansed and she gained new power, her body was still weak and her use of the new power was extremely clumsy.
"Let's take a break and observe the situation."
The three of them hid in the crevice of the boulder, taking the time to recuperate.
All around them was the eternal twilight and deathly silence of R'lyeh, with only the faint, unsettling energy fluctuations and dark aura emanating from the direction of the core battlefield in the distance, reminding them that the crisis was not far away.
Of course, R'lyeh's malice is not limited to the core battlefield.
This land, which has been tainted by the power of the ancient rulers for countless years, has itself given birth to all sorts of twisted and dangerous "residents".
Although Ian had cleaned up almost all of them before, it doesn't mean there weren't any who escaped.
The legendary force field that Saruman had previously erected, and the terrifying pressure that Ian exuded when he transformed into Dark Tiga and confronted the will of Cthulhu, were like lighting torches and beating war drums in a dark forest. Although they intimidated most beings, they also attracted some more cunning or fearless "predators" driven by madness.
Attention.
Just as the three of them were relaxing and trying to recover—
"Sh ...
A very faint, yet chilling, scraping sound came from not far outside the crevice, as if something wet and sticky was slowly crawling on the rocky ground.
"What's going on!" Kag instantly snapped to attention. Despite his exhaustion, his warrior instincts kicked in and he immediately gripped the tattered greatsword beside him.
He lowered his voice: "Something's approaching!"
"It's those damn filthy things!" Saruman forced himself to concentrate, a glint of light flashing in his silver eyes as his senses extended outward, and he immediately "saw" the newcomers.
There were three strangely shaped creatures. They were about the size of wild dogs, with streamlined, dark green bodies covered in slippery, toad-skin-like bumps. They had no obvious limbs, but moved forward by wriggling through countless tiny, octopus-like suckers on their abdomens.
Their heads are flat, with only one mouthpart covered with spiral teeth that opens and closes constantly, and above the mouthpart several pairs of compound eyes that rotate constantly and emit a faint phosphorescence.
It is truly a disgusting and polluting organism.
They exude a polluted odor that is the same as that of R'lyeh, but more primitive and chaotic, clearly indicating that they are the "scavengers" or "carrion eaters" of this area.
Now they are drawn here by the previous energy fluctuations and the presence of living things.
"They're stealthy devourers," a common low-level derivative of R'lyeh, moving by suckers, fast, adept at ambushes, and their mouthparts contain strong acids and paralyzing toxins. Saruman recognized these creatures based on the remnants of his older self's knowledge, and he quickly whispered, alerting his teammates.
"Be careful of their spitting and close-range biting, and avoid their suckers, as they have a strong suction force." With the knowledge of the elderly, at least they are no longer completely ignorant when facing these monsters.
That's not bad.
The difficulty has been reduced.
Before the words were even finished, the three stealthy devourers seemed to realize they had been discovered. They stopped hiding and suddenly accelerated! The suckers on their bellies emitted a series of "poof" sounds, propelling their bodies like arrows released from a bow, rushing towards the three people in the crevice from three different directions!
The monster opened its mouth wide and spat out a dark green, pungent, sour-smelling slime!
"Protect Saruman!" Kag roared. Despite his exhaustion, he stepped forward, wielding his broken greatsword with unwavering determination, to meet the oncoming Saruman head-on!
The sword swept across, and although it lacked the power to cut the monster in two, it still struck the monster's side hard, sending it flying and crashing into a nearby boulder with a muffled thud.
The other two attacked Lina from the left, while the other cunningly tried to bypass Kag and pounce on Saruman, who was leaning against the stone wall from the side!
Lina's heart pounded. Fear gripped her as the monstrous creature lunged at her. But the next moment, the newly formed "Raven Prophet" mark deep within her soul warmed slightly, and a cold yet clear sense of premonition washed over her. She seemed to "see" the trajectory of the monster's attack!
And the extremely brief charging motion it makes before its mouthparts spray mucus!
"My prophetic abilities have increased? No, I'm not predicting the future, I'm facing destiny head-on!" Without time to think, instinct drove her to roll sharply to the right!
"Sizzle!" The dark green acid grazed her clothes and shot into the air, landing on the ground where she had just stood, immediately corroding a small pit and emitting white smoke.
The monster that lunged at Saruman was about to succeed, but Saruman didn't even have the strength to lift a finger. He could only watch helplessly as the mouth full of sharp teeth rapidly enlarged before his eyes!
"don't want!"
At that critical moment, Lina, who had just rolled away to dodge the attack, felt as if a cold raven feather brushed through her mind. She didn't look in Saruman's direction, but she seemed to "sense" the danger there, and—the "weak points" and "guideability" of certain energy flows in that area.
The authority belonging to the "Raven Prophet," the ability to see fate and partially perceive space and time, is spontaneously activated in a life-or-death crisis!
"Go to hell!"
Before she could stand up, she knelt on the ground and slammed her hands down! It wasn't a spell she knew, but rather a response to the new power within her soul imprint.
She frantically "injected" the faint "Raven Power" within her body, along with her will, into a specific "node" in the spatial structure of that area that she perceived!
"Off-center!" she murmured to herself.
There were no incantations, no radiance.
But the lurking devourer that pounced on Saruman seemed to be gently "twisted" by an invisible, subtle force just before it was about to touch him!
Thus, the trajectory underwent an extremely subtle yet significant deflection that was enough to alter the outcome!
"puff!"
The monster's maw missed Saruman's neck, but grazed his shoulder and slammed into the stone wall behind him! The hard green rock was cracked with fine fissures!
"Roar roar roar roar!"
The monster itself was also disoriented.
"What's going on?!"
This sudden turn of events surprised both the monster and Saruman.
"Damn contaminated monster!"
At this moment, Kag had already dealt with the one he had knocked away. Seeing this, he roared and turned around, his greatsword leaving afterimages as he fiercely slashed at the monster that had crashed into the stone wall!
"Snap!"
This time, the force was immense, cleaving the monster in two! Dark purple blood and entrails splattered all over the ground.
"Awooooo!"
The last monster that had missed its attack on Lina seemed to be frightened when it saw its companion die instantly. It let out a sharp screech and turned to flee.
"Trying to run away?"
Lina had already stood up, her eyes still showing lingering fear, but more than that, she felt a sense of exhilaration and calm at having successfully used her new power.
She raised her right hand, pointing her index finger at the fleeing monster.
This time, she tried to actively guide that new power. With focused concentration, the raven imprint deep within her soul glowed faintly.
"Feather Fall - Stagnation!"
An extremely fine, almost invisible dark silver ray, like a raven's feather, shot out from her fingertip at an astonishing speed!
It caught up with the monster in an instant and disappeared into its body.
"Aaaaaah!"
The monster's fleeing movements suddenly froze, as if bound by invisible ropes, its speed instantly dropping several notches, and its movements becoming sluggish and clumsy.
The suction cups on its abdomen could barely grip the ground.
"Okay! Watch me!"
Kag wouldn't let this opportunity slip by. He darted forward, caught up, and with a swift stroke of his sword, ended the monster's life.
The battle began in the blink of an eye and ended just as quickly thanks to their seamless teamwork.
Silence returned to the crevice, broken only by the heavy breathing of the three people and the stench emanating from the three lifeless, melting corpses of monsters on the ground.
"What ability did you just use?" Kag leaned on his sword, looking at Lina in astonishment. Lina's two attacks just now—one an invisible spatial deflection, the other a strange stagnation of light—were completely beyond his understanding of Lina's original abilities! Those were not the water-based healing or support spells Lina used to know!
"Lina, what you just did was—"
Saruman couldn't help but ask as well.
Lina looked at her own hands, her face also showing surprise and a hint of excitement.
"I—I'm not entirely sure either. It was when Lord Prince saved me that he bestowed upon me new power—he said I am now his prophet."
She tried to explain.
"It seems—I can vaguely sense a hint of danger, and it can also slightly affect the flow of the surrounding space—that was used subconsciously just now."
Lina realized it too.
Ian's so-called Raven Prophet.
It could be some kind of priesthood.
She wasn't using magic, but divine power.