Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 347 Avalon (Part Two)

Ike sat cross-legged on the boat, but instead of a magic wand, he held a gleaming iron sword.

It wasn't some precious weapon crafted by a fairy; it was just an ordinary mortal object, at most sharpened.

He was also afraid, after all, Ravenclaw had said that in the manuscript, so wouldn't it be stupid not to prepare in advance?

However, such preparations were of no use, and nothing happened until the small boat carried Ike across the swamp.

Stepping onto solid ground, Ike instinctively cast a protective spell on himself, and surprisingly, it worked. A faint, soft light flashed by, and he felt much more at ease.

Losing the ability to cast spells makes me feel incredibly insecure.

Beyond the swamp lay a dense forest. Faintly, one could still see glimpses of its former lush greenery, though now, most of the plants had lost their vibrant green and were instead covered in an eerie black.

Walking forward a bit, you can only see a few scattered weeds that are still standing, and a few green leaves on the treetops of large trees. Apart from that, all you see are eerily twisted black branches and twigs.

It seemed as if it had been contaminated by something.

"When the four giants came a thousand years ago, this place wasn't like this... What exactly happened?"

Ike muttered to himself, casually casting a levitation spell to make his body float.

The four leaders traversed this dense forest on foot, with Godric Gryffindor even leading the way with his precious Gryffindor sword. Regardless of their reasons for choosing this method—whether the forest was as magic-free as the swamp at the time, or it was purely for recreation—Ike would never have let his guard down.

From the moment he entered Avalon, strange things began to happen one after another. The chaotic time, the magic-suppressing domain, and this jungle that seemed to have been contaminated by something—even without seeing it with his own eyes, from the moment he stepped onto that small black boat, Ike's hair had been standing on end.

He had a feeling that danger was watching him, and this feeling grew stronger as he entered the dense forest.

As a wizard, I often find that intuition is more reliable than what I see with my own eyes.

My body slowly floated forward. As I moved forward, the branches that had been blocking my way were gently pushed aside, revealing a smooth passage.

Ike didn't want to break these eerie branches, but it was clear that many would snap at the slightest touch. They were too fragile; they must have been dead for years, devoid of any moisture.

Upon landing on the ground, they scattered in all directions.

Ike's brow furrowed even more; the constant crackling of breaking branches around him intensified the sense of danger.

wrong!

Ike suddenly stopped, waved his wand lightly, and his body rose high into the air. Looking ahead, he saw several even uglier clearings suddenly appear in the seemingly endless dense forest.

It's not quite accurate to call it an open space; there is something on it, but it's too far away to see clearly. You can only vaguely sense that it's something like a pyramid.

He quickly moved to the nearest open space, and after seeing what was in the center of the space, Ike was completely stunned...

Those piles of bones were all black!

The bones were piled up in layers, some somewhat intact, but most were scattered fragments. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that they were all people who had turned into skeletons, and it was unknown how many there were.

Ike took off again and flew quickly to another bone mountain. After another inspection, he found that this place was quite different from the first one.

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Human remains are rare; more often, they are the remains of some unknown creature.

Their skulls were large and long, with slightly shorter lower jaws and high cheekbones, making them more like animals than humans. Moreover, without exception, all the bones were very thick and much darker than the previous one, as if that were their natural color.

One after another, Ike circled every bone mountain within his sight, his doubts growing ever stronger.

"What on earth happened here?!"

He stood before the last mountain of bones he had flown to, a place unlike any he had seen before. The mountain was much smaller, but incredibly, all the bones came from an unknown creature.

It's very intact; you can even tell how it looked when it died.

Then, following the direction behind the giant beast, there was a ravine full of gravel, stretching straight into the distance.

"So...it rushed out from further inside?"

"Is it about fleeing for your life, or... chasing after something?"

With a flick of his wand, Ike suddenly dashed toward the long ravine before him. He moved with incredible speed, even stirring up the fine sand and gravel in his wake.

His curiosity was boundless; he desperately wanted to know what had happened in Avalon, why it looked like a scene of carnage. Who were the Lake Nymph and the Green Knights fighting?

What could have transformed the lush forest that the four giants once saw into what it is today over a thousand years?

All of this makes me really want to find out more!

Ike sped along, the scenery on both sides rushing past him, but the ravine in front of him still seemed endless.

He didn't know how long he had flown; to maintain his magic, Ike had even stopped to rest three times before finally reaching the end of the ravine. Looking at the vast lake before him and the small islands faintly visible in its waters, Ike knew without any prompting that he had arrived at the center of Avalon:

Legend has it that this is the final resting place of King Arthur, the most mysterious place in Avalon, the abode of the Lady of the Lake—a true fantasy land far removed from the mortal world.

However, Ike didn't rush towards the island in the lake; instead, he stopped at the lakeside. The reason was simple: the lake water was far too eerie.

A thin mist, tinged with pale green, shrouded the lake's surface. Through the mist, the lake water was clearly visible as a chilling pale red. A faint, fishy odor emanated from it, almost like blood.

The lake was not calm; bubbles were constantly rising from the bottom. They burst on the surface, clearing away patches of the thin mist.

The magic wand pointed to the side, and a broken branch fell straight into the lake. The next second, the branch sank to the bottom, only creating a few ripples.

Ike instinctively took a few steps back. Just after the broken branch hit the water, the entire lake became eerily calm. Even the bubbles disappeared, and only the ripples continued to spread and swirl.

Then, gradually, the thin mist descended into the lake, and the water turned an eerie green. The fishy smell in the air grew stronger, as if something was brewing.

It remained calm for a long time, perhaps no more than ten minutes. Suddenly, the lake exploded, green water shooting into the sky and then scattering in all directions.

The next second, a lush green figure leaped out of the lake, wielding a long wooden stick in one hand and a gleaming sword in the other. In the blink of an eye, it was in front of Ike.

He then raised his sword high and brought it down fiercely on Ike's head!

(End of this chapter)