No one felt jealous of Lina's unexpected transformation.
"A blessing in disguise!"
Kag was genuinely happy for his companion. Her new power sounded strange, but it was clearly extremely useful, especially in a bizarre place like this.
Saruman leaned against the stone wall and watched Lina with a trace of relief in his eyes.
So this was the power that being had granted her?
Premonition of danger and limited spatial interference... It seemed his lord's transformation had been an overwhelming success. Lina had received abilities with genuine potential, ones that reflected the very nature of that being.
This was far better than Saruman had originally expected. He had thought the best possible outcome would be cleansing the corruption and saving Lina's life. Just as Kag had said, this truly was a blessing in disguise.
That being...
If he really was what Saruman suspected, then,
His thoughts continued to race as Lina approached and crouched beside him.
"Saruman, how are you? You weren't hurt just now, were you?"
Saruman shook his head and forced a weak smile. "I'm fine. Thanks to you. Your timing was perfect."
He paused and glanced beyond the alcove at the dark, dangerous surroundings.
"But the commotion may attract other creatures. I won't be able to raise another protective barrier for a while."
Both his body and soul were in an extremely unstable state. Forcing himself to cast another spell would only worsen his injuries and might even cause the fusion to collapse.
Lina studied his pale face, then looked outside. Determination appeared on her young features.
"Let me try."
"You?" Kag asked worriedly. "You only just gained this power, and you must have used a lot of it just now."
"I still want to try."
Lina walked to the entrance of the alcove and closed her eyes. After taking a deep breath and calming herself, she once again sank her consciousness into the Raven brand deep within her soul.
This time, she wasn't trying to attack or interfere with anything. Instead, she attempted to understand and guide the aspects of her new power associated with protection and isolation.
The Raven was an existence that wandered along the boundaries of space and time. Its Seers shouldn't merely be capable of sensing danger, they should also be able to avoid it and find a safe haven for themselves and their companions.
She recalled how Saruman's barrier had felt. She also remembered the light that had sheltered her when Ian appeared in her dream.
Lina focused on her intense desire to protect this small space and merged it with the cold, orderly power contained within the Raven brand, a power that seemed capable of shutting out all outside disturbances.
"I think this might work."
She raised both hands, palms facing the empty space at the entrance, and began tracing something in the air with slow, inexperienced movements.
There were no complicated magic runes or formal incantations.
There was only her focused will and the dark silver radiance flowing from her palms, now slightly more substantial than before. Like living ink, the light followed her thoughts, drawing and connecting lines in the air until they formed a constantly rotating pattern, simple in structure, yet strangely beautiful.
It vaguely resembled the silhouette of a raven resting with its wings folded and its head tucked beneath them. At the same time, it looked like a simplified clock caught in an endless loop.
As the pattern took shape, a faint but unmistakable field began spreading outward from it.
The field was not powerful. It was nowhere near as sturdy as Saruman's barrier and couldn't completely block physical attacks or strong bursts of energy.
However, the unique sense of order, tranquility, and flowing time that it gave off stood in direct opposition to R'lyeh's omnipresent madness, chaos, and temporal stagnation.
The two forces subtly resisted and repelled one another.
It was like placing a tiny drop of clear, cold oil into a churning pool of filthy water. It couldn't purify the whole pool, but it could temporarily push the surrounding filth away.
"This seems pretty good!"
Lina could feel the crude Raven sanctuary formation constantly draining the small amount of power she had only just acquired. Maintaining it was extremely difficult.
Even so, she gritted her teeth and endured.
Gradually, the maddening whispers that filled the entrance of the alcove seemed to weaken. The polluted currents in the air bent slightly whenever they approached the formation. Most importantly, the suffocating sensation of being watched and crushed by omnipresent malice noticeably diminished.
The alcove was still far from safe, but it had become a relatively peaceful space where they could finally catch their breath. The mental pressure weighing constantly on Saruman and Kag eased considerably.
Kag stared in amazement at the rotating dark silver symbol, then took a moment to feel the change in their surroundings. He gave Lina a thumbs-up.
"Amazing! Lina, this new ability of yours is incredibly useful!"
"It certainly is," Saruman agreed.
Leaning against the stone wall, he could clearly sense the formation's faint but undeniable isolating effect.
It couldn't replace a true protective barrier, but it greatly reduced the strain of constantly resisting the environment's corruption. Saruman could now devote more of his remaining energy to stabilizing his chaotic soul.
He looked at Lina's focused and determined profile, his eyes filled with emotion.
She had not only survived but also gained a new power, one that allowed her to protect her companions even in a desperate situation.
This time, history had truly taken a completely different path, one filled with hope.
"Thank you, Lina," Saruman said softly. A genuine, much more relaxed smile appeared on his exhausted face. "This new ability is a tremendous help."
Lina relaxed when she heard his approval. Even the exhaustion of maintaining the formation seemed to lessen slightly.
"Then get some rest. Do you need me to heal you a little?"
She turned back and gave Saruman and Kag a weak but hopeful smile.
Within that small alcove, protected by the newly awakened power of the Raven, the three of them finally gained a precious chance to recover.
"I'm fine. I just need to rest for a while..."
Saruman waved her off, but his gaze drifted back toward Lina.
This time, he observed her more carefully.
Not with his eyes, but with the perception he had developed over a thousand years, along with the faint resonance he had only just established with the Raven's power.
He could clearly "see" the stable Raven Seer brand at the core of Lina's soul, radiating dark silver light and the aura of time. Like an exquisitely crafted talisman, it protected her soul from the madness outside while guiding her toward a new path filled with possibilities.
If Ian truly was the incarnation of the Raven, then there was still hope for them all.
The corruption in Lina's body had truly been eradicated.
It hadn't been suppressed or sealed away. It had been fundamentally transformed and replaced.
Nothing in Saruman's memories could have achieved such a thing. Even at the height of his power a thousand years later, the best he could have managed was a deep seal followed by gradual purification. He could never have removed it so thoroughly, let alone granted her a new power in the process.
Only the Raven, the embodiment of miracles, could perform such a feat.
"A miracle... This truly is a miracle..." Saruman murmured, overwhelmed by emotion.
A thousand years of obsession. His desperate plan to turn back the flow of history. Countless days and nights spent studying and praying for the Raven's power...
At this moment, it felt as though all of it had finally received the greatest possible reward.
He had changed it.
He had truly changed that tragic history, all with the help of the Raven's incarnation walking among mortals.
By now, Saruman no longer believed Ian was Merlin. He had realized that Ian was an existence far greater than Merlin.
The Raven.
The bird of the Underworld that moved through history itself.
"I thought we were all finished! Thank goodness we ran into that Legendary!" Kag didn't share Saruman's complicated feelings. He was far more concerned about Lina's physical condition.
He looked her up and down, then cautiously touched the arm that had previously been covered in scales. Beneath his fingers was warm, smooth human skin.
"You're really completely healed?" Kag asked, his voice filled with incredulous joy. "There isn't even a mark left! That Legendary... How did he do it?"
Lina lowered her gaze to her hands. She could feel the faint but distinct power newly awakened within her, as well as the subtle connection between her soul and Ian.
She remembered the giant of light fighting within the dream, the darkness being stripped away, and the cold power bestowed upon her.
It still felt like a strange and fantastical dream, but the undeniable changes within her proved that it had all been real.
"He... He's incredibly powerful," Lina finally said, her voice full of awe. "He used some kind of method I couldn't understand at all."
Only then did she realize that her companions didn't seem to know Ian very well. They had probably only encountered him by chance in the ruins.
Just then, Saruman suddenly opened his eyes. He had been meditating and doing his best to stabilize the fusion of his body and soul, but it wasn't a new threat that had disturbed him.
He had sensed something from the Raven Seer brand within Lina.
The brand seemed to be producing a faint but unmistakable resonance with the distant battlefield behind them. It was as though the source of the brand was engaged in some fierce action that drew upon the Raven's fundamental power.
Then an even more obvious change occurred.
Across Lina's recently restored skin, faint dark silver patterns briefly flickered where the mutations had once been. They resembled the delicate texture of a raven's feathers.
The light vanished so quickly that Kag didn't notice it, but Saruman had been watching Lina closely and caught it clearly.
This wasn't the corruption returning.
The Raven Seer's power was reacting to the intense activity of its source, briefly manifesting through Lina's body.
And that could only mean one thing.
Ian Prince, his lord, had not only healed Lina. He was still somewhere on the battlefield behind them, drawing upon the Raven's power in a fierce struggle.
He was fighting.
He was battling that terrifying existence, and the conflict had already reached a level involving the deeper mysteries of the Raven itself.
"He's... still fighting for us..." Saruman's voice caught in his throat.
His emotions were a mixture of gratitude, guilt, and sincere admiration for Ian's willingness to shoulder such a burden.
Ian could have simply walked away. With his strength, escaping R'lyeh after leaving the dream might not have been difficult. Instead, he had chosen to remain and confront the terrifying source that even the Saruman of a thousand years later had found almost impossible to deal with.
Such courage was nothing short of extraordinary.
"We should consider ourselves fortunate," Lina said quietly. She understood Ian's true status better than the others. "We encountered a merciful god."
Kag and Lina followed Saruman's gaze toward the area behind them, where warped structures and chaotic energy concealed the source of increasingly terrifying fluctuations.
They couldn't see what was happening, but the crushing pressure made it feel as if heaven and earth were about to collapse. It was enough to tell them that a battle far beyond their imagination was unfolding there.
All they could do was wait, pray, and believe that the young Legendary who had already created one miracle would create another.
Time crawled past in agonizing silence. Every minute felt unbearably long.
Then,
"Look, Lina!" Kag exclaimed, pointing at her arm.
The nearly invisible gray traces left behind by the stubborn black corruption were rapidly fading from Lina's skin. Within moments, they disappeared completely.
This was different from when the corruption had been stripped away before. It was as though the remaining traces were being erased from existence itself.
At the same time, color swiftly returned to Lina's pale face. The newly awakened Raven Seer power deep within her soul seemed to receive some powerful nourishment, growing more stable and beginning to circulate gently on its own.
Warm, soothing currents spread throughout her body, and her weakness rapidly faded.
"What is this?!" Lina stared at the changes in shock.
Saruman shot to his feet, his eyes fixed on her. At the same time, he sensed that the violent darkness emanating from the distant battlefield had reached some kind of peak.
Then it began to weaken and fall into chaos.
An unbelievable yet seemingly inevitable conclusion flashed through his mind.
Could it be that his lord wasn't merely fighting Cthulhu?
Was Ian somehow purifying or seizing Cthulhu's power, and then transferring a portion of that processed power to Lina through her connection as a Raven Seer, accelerating both her recovery and her growth?
The idea was almost too astonishing to accept. Yet Lina's rapid improvement and the shifting aura of the distant battlefield both seemed to confirm it.
"He succeeded... He may really have..." Saruman's voice trembled with emotion, and tears gathered in his eyes.
They weren't tears of sorrow. They were born from the indescribable joy and relief of witnessing a dear friend's fate finally being rewritten after a thousand years, of seeing hope drive away despair.
Kag didn't understand the deeper reason behind Lina's recovery, but watching her regain her health at an astonishing rate, and sensing that she had grown even stronger than before, filled him with wild joy.
"That Legendary really is that powerful!" Kag growled excitedly, thrusting his fist into the air as if releasing all the despair and frustration that had built up inside him.
Lina felt the abundant power filling her body, along with an absolute sense of purity. She looked toward the distant battlefield, her eyes brimming with endless gratitude and an almost religious reverence.
This was how faith was born.
(End Of This Chapter)
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