"A legend?" the black-robed man asked curiously.
Something in his shattered memories seemed to stir.
"Yes." Instructor Lina turned to face him, her expression solemn. "A legend about the Raven walking among mortals. The details are classified at the highest level, part of the silence we are sworn to protect. All we know is that this door connects to an extraordinary place, or perhaps another time. Our duty is to wait."
"Wait?" The black-robed man grew even more confused. "For what?"
Lina turned back to the bronze door, her voice barely louder than a sigh. "For the day someone walks out of it."
As soon as she finished speaking, the enormous bronze door responded.
It had stood silent for countless years, dismissed as an ancient ruin or perhaps even a mere decoration. But without warning, the huge raven emblem at its center began to glow from within.
A tiny spark appeared in the raven's eye first. Then the light spread like flowing mercury along the emblem's intricate patterns, illuminating every engraved line. It was deep and pure, gentle rather than dazzling, yet possessed a tangible quality that seemed capable of piercing time and space.
"What's happening?" the black-robed man exclaimed.
"Is it finally happening?" Lina whispered, her eyes trembling.
The bronze door seemed to come alive. It began to vibrate, releasing a low, distant hum like an ancient beast awakening from a long slumber.
There was no glimpse of another room through the gap between the doors. Instead, a richer radiance spilled out, as though starlight and darkness had blended together. With it came a faint presence that had crossed immeasurable distances and ages, something both familiar and strange.
The air in the observation chamber seemed to freeze.
Lina stopped breathing. One hand pressed tightly against her chest as disbelief, shock, and wild joy flooded her eyes, along with the reverence of someone who had inherited a sacred duty across generations and was finally witnessing the first light of dawn.
Could their legendary vigil truly end today?
The black-robed wizard, still lost after the reconstruction of his memories, stared blankly at the glowing door and its illuminated raven emblem.
"What's happening to my head?"
Deep within his fragmented memories, something stirred inside a tightly sealed corner. He seemed to hear the distant cry of a raven, accompanied by a hazy image.
Amid endless darkness and green mist stood a tall figure, dark flames dancing above his fingertips.
The wizard blurted out in a hoarse, broken voice trembling with excitement, "Will someone... really walk out of there?"
The bronze door's hum grew louder, and its glow intensified. Soaked in that light, the tightly sealed doors no longer seemed quite so absolute. The radiance flowed toward the center and gathered along the seam.
Then, beneath their unblinking gazes, the bronze doors silently opened inward, leaving a narrow gap.
Light poured through like a solid tide.
It wasn't simply light. It felt more like the physical manifestation of concentrated possibility and selfhood. Though it wasn't blinding, everything in the observation chamber, the stone walls, the furniture, even the air itself, seemed to become transparent and weightless, immersed in a tranquil glow that transcended reality.
'Creak...'
Indescribable colors flowed within the radiance: the deep blue of a midnight galaxy, the dark gold of an ancient autumn forest, and the mottled green patina of old bronze, all shattered and fused together.
There was no room or corridor beyond the door. Instead, a deep, surging emptiness stretched behind it. Yet it was not true nothingness. It possessed an unimaginable sense of depth and distance, as though the door connected to an impossibly remote point in time and space where entirely different laws prevailed.
Tiny specks of light flickered within, resembling reflections of distant stars, or droplets thrown up by the river of time.
"It's true!" Lina cried. "He is going to walk among mortals again!"
She stood completely transfixed. As one of the Keepers of Silence, an order whose duty had been passed down through generations, she knew every recorded detail about the door and the legend of the Raven. But until now, they had been nothing more than texts, oral traditions, and an abstract responsibility.
Now that a fragment of the legend was unfolding before her eyes, the shock and excitement rising from the depths of her soul nearly robbed her of thought. Her hand remained pressed against her chest, where her heart pounded like a drum, strangely resonating with the bronze door's deep hum.
"Is that the person you told me about?" the black-robed wizard asked.
He was in an even worse state. He instinctively stepped back, not from fear, but from an almost primal sense of awe and vertigo.
That light... the presence coming through the door... It was far too familiar.
The distorted fragments buried and sealed within his soul began thrashing wildly, struggling to break free. Blurred images flashed before his mind: shattered boulders, green mist, a shadow that blotted out the sky, and the back of a figure standing where light met darkness, his face hidden but his stance unshakably firm.
"Ra... ven..."
The word slipped from his trembling lips so faintly that even he could barely hear it.
Both Lina and the black-robed wizard watched the bronze door in tense silence. Light surged through the narrow opening in waves, carrying a quality that made their souls tremble.
Within that profound emptiness, the silhouette was gradually becoming clearer. Like a star slowly rising from beneath the waters of an endless night, its unmistakable form emerged piece by piece, a tall figure, the hem of a dark, old-fashioned robe, a hand holding a wand with steady confidence, and the faint outline of a calm face.
"He's coming!"
Lina held her breath. For an instant, even her heart seemed to stop.
Generations of vigilance, the silent duty passed from one Keeper to the next, and every secret hope they had preserved through the years were about to become reality.
"Great God of Fate above..." the black-robed wizard murmured.
His entire body had gone rigid. Only his eyes, visible through the gaps between his scars, moved. They were stretched wide and fixed on the approaching figure beyond the door.
"Yes," Lina said with a nod.
Ian Prince.
The ender of legends. The Raven returning from beyond the shores of time.
He was about to cross the enormous gate separating legend from reality and step into the era he had personally reshaped.
His silhouette became completely clear.
He stood at the boundary between the light and the emptiness beyond the door. They could even make out the subtle signs of wear on his robes, as though the fabric itself had endured the passage of time and space. At the tip of his wand, the last traces of dark green and silver-white magic were slowly fading.
His head was slightly raised. His gaze seemed to pierce through the door and fall upon the observation chamber, and the two people waiting inside. His eyes were deep enough to hold the changing paths of countless stars.
Then he seemed to move, as if preparing to take that final step.
Lina's heart began pounding so violently that it threatened to burst from her chest. She instinctively straightened her back, ready to welcome this legendary being with all the solemnity the moment deserved.
The black-robed wizard also clenched his fists. Deep within his broken memories, ripples of indescribable excitement began to spread.
However, just as Ian's figure became fully solid, seemingly one step away from emerging from the light, the steady glow flowing through the raven emblem suddenly flickered like a faulty lamp.
For a brief instant, it went dark.
Then, instead of fading, the light abruptly collapsed inward. It was as though a stronger, unseen force had seized the radiance pouring from the door and dragged it back, along with the surging emptiness beyond it and Ian's perfectly clear figure.
"Huh?"
"What's happening?!"
Lina and the black-robed wizard stared in bewilderment.
The light shining through the gap immediately dimmed and receded like a retreating tide. Against the rapidly fading glow, Ian's once-solid outline became increasingly transparent and unreal.
He made no attempt to resist. Yet in the final instant, Lina thought she saw his calm gaze pause on her for the briefest moment.
Was there a hint of understanding in his eyes? Or was he simply confirming something?
No one knew.
Then the light vanished completely into the bronze door.
The emptiness beyond disappeared, leaving only unfathomable darkness behind the gap. A moment later, even that was replaced by the ordinary texture of a stone wall, as though everything they had witnessed had been nothing more than a fleeting illusion.
The enormous bronze door released one final, low hum that sounded almost like a sigh. The raven emblem went completely dark, returning to the dull finish of ancient metal.
The door stood there in silence, heavy, cold, and still. It looked nothing like the radiant gateway that, only minutes earlier, had seemed ready to usher in an entirely new era.
'Clunk.'
The black-robed wizard unconsciously took half a step back, his stiff muscles finally relaxing after the unbearable tension. His heel struck the floor.
Dead silence filled the observation chamber.
Only their slightly ragged breathing remained, along with the faint, strange scent of stardust and ancient parchment lingering in the air, proof that what they had witnessed had not been a dream.
That great being... hadn't come out?
The black-robed wizard desperately wanted to ask, but didn't dare.
The dizzying plunge from overwhelming anticipation to sudden disappointment left him dazed. He stared blankly at the tightly closed bronze door, which now showed no sign that anything unusual had ever happened.
Then he looked at Lina beside him, opening and closing his mouth without speaking.
"Uh..."
Lina still stood where she was, leaning slightly forward in the welcoming posture she had prepared. The excitement and flush had faded from her face, replaced by a complicated mixture of disappointment, deeper reverence, and a peculiar sense of relief and understanding.
She slowly straightened and drew a deep breath, calming the turmoil in her heart. Then she turned toward the confused black-robed wizard, who looked ready to blurt out the question written all over his face.
"He... that great lord... didn't come out?" he finally asked, his dry voice filled with disbelief.
He simply couldn't hold the question back.
Curiosity might kill the cat, but a wizard's curiosity was even stronger. The more talented the wizard, the truer that became. Judging by his performance before the world was reset, he had once been an exceptionally gifted wizard. For someone like him, curiosity was almost impossible to suppress.
"That's right," Lina replied. Her voice had regained its usual gentle steadiness, though it now carried a faint sense of timelessness. "The Great One chose not to cross the threshold at this moment."
She had already regained her composure.
"But why?" the black-robed wizard asked urgently, unable to understand this sudden turn of events. "The door opened! He appeared! We both saw him! Did something go wrong with the door or the ritual? Were our preparations insufficient?"
His guesses grew increasingly uneasy.
"No, no. It was nothing like that." Lina gently shook her head and turned her gaze back toward the silent bronze door, her eyes deep with thought. "There was nothing wrong with the door, and perhaps there was never any fixed ritual in the first place," she said slowly, as if organizing her thoughts. "How could people like us presume to understand the will of such a being? The bronze door connects to an unimaginable point in time and space. Perhaps his appearance was only meant to confirm something."
Lina's imagination began filling in the gaps.
"Confirm what?" the black-robed wizard asked.
"To confirm that the correction of history was complete. To confirm that the vigil continued. To confirm..."
Lina unconsciously raised a hand to her chest. The mark she carried as the inheritor of the Ravenseer legacy was giving off a faint but unmistakably warm pulse. It resembled the resonance she had felt when the door opened, yet it was steadier now, and somehow everywhere at once.
That was probably why Lina had begun constructing this elaborate explanation. She already had complete faith in Ian. Naturally, no matter what happened, she could always find an interpretation that reflected well on him.
It was pure speculation on her part.
However, no one in the African Ministry of Magic was qualified to challenge Lina's interpretation. After all, she was a genuine Seer who had lived for a thousand years. She might never have entered the Legendary realm, but she was already a legend in her own right.
Lina closed her eyes and felt the connection carried by the mark, a bond that had crossed a thousand years yet remained as vivid and unwavering as ever.
"Yes... Of course. The Raven must have been confirming whether his anchor and representative were still here."
She opened her eyes, which now shone with clear understanding.
"I can feel it. He has already returned. At this very moment, in this very era, he has revealed himself to the mortal world once more."
"He's back? Where?" the black-robed wizard asked quickly, glancing around the chamber as though Ian might suddenly step out of some hidden corner.
He didn't know why he wanted to see the Raven so badly. Perhaps he believed that seeing him would restore some of his missing memories.
"We shouldn't be too curious about such things." Lina smiled with the serene contentment of a devout believer. "I don't know, and we don't need to know."
Her thousand years of wisdom allowed her to remain perfectly calm.
"We don't need to know?"
The black-robed wizard only grew more confused.
He was still young, after all. His desire to see the Raven was almost impossible to contain, and his imagination had already produced countless possibilities for what the Raven might look like.
An old man? A child? Something else entirely? Or perhaps an actual raven?
After the resetting of time, the black-robed wizard's thoughts were far more active than they had ever been while he was corrupted.
He even began to wonder whether the Raven might be a woman.
A beautiful woman.
(End Of This Chapter)
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