I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 356 The Truth About Giant Island

What followed was far beyond Irving's imagination.

After traversing a long, muddy road, he initially thought the darkness would continue indefinitely, but the distant glimmer of light dispelled that notion.

Suddenly, the roots of many branches spread out into the cave.

The thick, moisture-laden roots were glistening. When Owen got closer, he discovered that tiny crystals, about the size of a fingernail, grew on the surface of the roots.

No—it can't really be called crystal. Rather than a hard substance, it's closer to a gel-like substance, like resin.

The muddy land no longer revealed its clay, but was replaced by an endless expanse of moss.

Blue flowers grew on the moss, and a kind of ethereal winged creature danced gracefully in the firefly light, leaving behind a luminous afterimage.

"Magic makes people arrogant." Owen kicked a stone aside, letting it leap among the tangled tree roots. His waist was bulging with resin he had collected from the roots.

This thing actually contains subtle ancient magic; it's simply amazing.

"Whether it's Outer Gods, the gods, Death Eaters, or the Order of the Phoenix, all spellcasters seem to automatically ignore the existence of Muggles."

"What use are they?" Sirius asked dismissively.

"We are fighting against the gods. They are just a hindrance. I know about Muggle history and that they have launched several so-called divine wars."

Unfortunately, apart from killing each other, no one knew where their god was.

Perhaps it was just an old sorcerer's prank, and they took it seriously.

"The gods are nothing more than more powerful wizards. The ancient battles between wizards have been passed down to the present day and become something like a war of gods. It's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Wizards aren't much smarter than Muggles," Owen said, raising an eyebrow.

"You are the wizard," Sirius Black reminded him.

"So what? I'm just cleaning up after everyone else's messes, aren't I? Do you think I 'love' this job?" Owen said irritably.

Sirius didn't respond. Although he sometimes forgot that the young wizard beside him was only a fifteen-year-old boy, when the topic came up, he realized that Owen's burden was far greater than he had imagined.

After walking for five or six minutes, they found a platform.

Yes, the platform has everything: a waiting hall, a track-changing control hall, and even a passageway reserved for cargo handling.

However, they still did not find the carriage.

The tracks lead deeper into the station, and at the end of the platform stands a prominent old-fashioned gate.

It wasn't the kind that you push open, but a hanging door, an exceptionally grand gate with ancient reliefs carved on it.

At this moment, the door revealed a passageway through which the two could pass side by side. Judging from the dark walls and the highly curved door frame, some kind of battle must have taken place here.

Irving and Sirius exchanged a glance, then stepped forward to examine him closely.

Although the reliefs on the door are already dilapidated, some images can still be vaguely discerned: a volcano crater, with lava erupting, but what is erupting is not magma, but all sorts of deformed life forms—or rather, at least in the eyes of modern wizards, they are all deformed life forms.

The overall relief sculpture is terrifying and eerie, yet inexplicably imbued with a sense of sacredness.

"The Forge of Life?" The moment Owen saw the relief, he knew what story it told.

"What is that?" Sirius asked.

"A hypothesis of the origin of species, a legend, says that everything began in a life-giving furnace that contained everything. It was the world's first primordial soup. Under certain conditions, some substances in the furnace began to aggregate, and the first life was born."

"The Primal Soup?" Sirius Black naturally didn't understand these profound things; there was no place for such legends in his mind.

"This hypothesis is almost dominant in the Muggle world. They believe that the earliest life molecules, amino acids, and proteins originated in the warm seawater before the Earth completely cooled down. In short, it does make some sense, but these are all unproven hypotheses," Owen continued. "Fine, I know you don't understand. Wizards really are Muggles."

With that, he crossed the gate, Sirius Black following closely behind.

The journey that followed was extremely arduous.

They don't appear to be moving in a straight line downwards, but rather in a spiraling circle.

Moreover, there is a station at regular intervals.

There were signs of battle on the platforms, and each platform had a gate, which, unsurprisingly, was all destroyed.

Clearly, a rebellion once took place here.

Knowing that the Chosen Ones had also split was definitely good news for Irving.

However, compared to the initial soreness in her legs, this pleasure quickly vanished.

"I feel—" Irving took another breath, "I've lived the entire first half of my life in these two hours."

Sirius wiped the sweat from his brow, having already taken off his robe. "Your life was certainly short," he said, seizing the opportunity to deliver a sarcastic remark.

"And also, you're so frail. You've only been walking for two hours and you're already this tired?"

Back in the day, when I escaped from Azkaban, I swam in the sea for over ten hours with only a wooden stick. You know, I was so skinny back then that I was barely recognizable as a human. And look at you—tsk tsk.

I'm truly worried about your future happiness.

"Huh?" Owen, his anger rising, glared at Sirius.

What do you mean by that?

How could such cold words come out of Sirius's mouth?

Dude, with that small frame, you could wrestle against a giant without a problem!

He's just not used to the environment here!

Yes, the environment.

It must be because the road is uneven.

Or perhaps the moss was too slippery and didn't provide enough grip, causing him to exert extra force with each step.

Or it could be caused by the hot and humid air here.

Faced with Sirius's provocation, Irving had a thousand reasons to refute him, but now, his legs told him that it was best to say less, because if he wasted any more energy on words, he might not be able to lift either of his legs in a moment.

Irving then gave a soft hum and coldly uttered, "Then I'll lie flat. I like being passive."

This silenced Sirius Black.

This kid has a really thick skin.

However, he quickly stopped the conversation and didn't continue. After all, Irving was only a fifteen-year-old boy, so what experience could he have? He decided not to bully him anymore.

It took another ten minutes or so to walk.

Just as Irving was about to choke and run out of breath, the view suddenly opened up before him.

They walked into a flower bud.

In a hollow space filled with greenery and fluorescent light, where plants are intertwined.

A delicate stream flows out from the gaps in the branches and vines.

It flows into a huge pool of water in the center of the cavity.

In the center of the pool stand several ancient Greek stone columns.

It was forty or fifty feet tall, its top level with the top of the lava field. A hazy mist gathered above the stone pillar, weaving a net that, upon closer inspection, resembled a door floating in the air.

Water flowed past the foundations of these stone pillars. A soft light shone from the bottom of the pool, and a strange energy stirred within the two, causing their minds to buzz, as if it were speaking to their souls, ancient and powerful.

It seems to have existed in ancient times, before the rise of humankind.

Irving didn't know where this idea came from; it might be like the swaying water that occasionally flows out a few beautiful runes.

"Shh-"

Sirius made a shushing gesture, then pointed to an inconspicuous spot in the pool.

Because of the obstruction of the stone pillars, Irving could not see it completely.

He changed his position and looked in the direction Sirius was pointing.

It turned out that a divine messenger was wrapped inside the tree trunk.

"I suspect this might be the original Godskin Messenger from the legend of the giants," Owen said softly. From the stench of decay emanating from beneath the terrifying cloak of flesh and blood, he could tell that this 'corpse' was at least a hundred years old.

"He might not even be alive," Sirius said cautiously.

"But he might not be dead yet!" Owen interjected.

He drew his wand and aimed it at the pool. The stone pillars were interlocked, and the pale white mist they produced emanated a sense of malice.

It was an intuition, as if he were being watched constantly.

"Never mind, whether they're dead or not, just finish them off!"

With that, Owen rushed out, his wand brimming with powerful magic.

"Soul Torrent"

The blue-white meteor struck directly at the ancient divine messenger hidden at the tree roots.

"Buzz!"

A piercing sound, like the deafening noise of countless mechanical fragments colliding and crashing together, filled the air.

The moment that strange "howl" was emitted, Irving felt a sense of foreboding.

"Wait—that's—the dead have come back to life."

Just as Irving was wondering what kind of disaster would befall him, Sirius roared and gave him the answer.

In the passageway behind them.

Those mummified corpses, those who had been dead for a hundred years or even longer, suddenly staggered to their feet. A strange, dark green light flowed through their dry pupils, and their incomplete bodies exuded a black, sticky substance.

The sticky substance became their new limbs.

It could even become their weapon.

In the blink of an eye, the black matter transformed into the sharpest spears, blotting out the sky as it hurtled towards Sirius.

"Armor for protection!" he growled.

With a flick of the fingertip, it shatters into pieces.

The gray spell hurtled forward, instantly shattering the closest corpse into pieces.

Of course—as he expected—the corpse, now in pieces, did not die on the spot. The surrounding tree roots glowed with a strange, bright green light, and then the viscous crystals on the tree trunks, a liquid like resin, gathered on the corpse.

Soon, the dead men stood up again.

"These tree roots and the corpses are connected; we've stepped into a trap!" Sirius exclaimed urgently.

Such creatures, which cannot be killed and continuously resurrect within a certain range, exist elsewhere, but generally they are puppets or similar things, mostly found in wizards' graveyards, used to deliver a fatal blow to grave robbers. The manipulation of corpses as described here is absolutely unique.

These are not Shadow Corpses—Shadow Corpses do not revive after being defeated; they are just troublesome and extremely numerous.

"You take over, I'm in trouble too." The awakening speed of the God Skin Messenger was even faster than Owen believed. He originally thought that no matter whether he was dead or alive, he could just send a Soul Torrent over and finish him off even if he was alive and in a state of suspended animation.

As a result—the moment his magic touched the monster disguised as a god, it revived as if on cue, then pulled a jet-black crystalline longsword from the tree roots, transformed into a frolicking rabbit, and began to run around wildly.

The key point is that it disappeared after only a few steps.

"His true colors are revealed!"

With a flick of the wand, a golden light flashed, and in a daze, it outlined a shadow in the pool.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Owen immediately cast a spell, which struck the messenger in the human skin directly. The next second, as if life had been drained from it, the monster in human skin withered away. It had just stepped into the Land of the Dead when its cloak glowed with a gray light, as if a chain had pulled it back.

"Two," Irving silently murmured to himself.

This is the second time the monster has died.

His soul torrent also killed once.

"Multiple freezes!"

The chill spread wildly, and this time it wasn't just affecting the ground.

Under the influence of ancient magic, even the air began to condense.

White mist immediately formed.

Just as Irving was about to cast his next spell.

Suddenly, a white and black sword aura shot straight at his face.

Faced with this sudden magic, Owen did not choose to withstand it head-on, but instead rolled to the side to dodge it.

Then, a mournful howl echoed through the hall.

It was mixed with some kind of black and white magic, spreading outwards.

"Super-strong armor protects you! Ultimate protection! All protected!"

Irving unleashed the three protective spells almost instantly.

Taking advantage of the opponent's spellcasting animation, he once again swung his staff and cast the Killing Curse.

"three!"

The monster's sound magic seemed to encounter a filter; with each protective spell set up by Owen, it was weakened. After passing through three protective spells, its sound was still sharp and piercing, and it also caused many terrifying things to appear in Owen's mind.

It was as if it carried a spiritual curse.

Fighting this unknown creature requires utmost caution. Ever since learning that the creature's weapons could easily tear apart his protective spells, Owen has lost faith in the Ironclad Charm.

And just as he was lost in thought.

The figure in the mist was incredibly fast, arriving in front of him almost in the blink of an eye.

The strange weapon, shaped like a full moon and burning with white and black flames, was aimed at his head.

Irving reacted quickly, tilting his head back.

The flames almost grazed his eyebrows.

Just as he was relieved to have dodged the attack, he noticed that the messenger's left hand was burning with a fireball, which was coming towards him.

The next second, the crown on Irving's head came to life.

The dragon raised its head, and brilliant golden flames descended.

"Upside-down kick!"

He quickly cast a spell, and a flash of gray magic light repelled the monster.

"Phew!" I took a deep breath.

Irving tossed his hair with a hint of relief.

Well—thank goodness I wasn't burned.

Damn! I almost died here just now, this guy's attack speed is so fast!

Just in case, he took the sleeping Sirocco out of his backpack, woke it up, and held it in his arms.

"It's up to you two! The three of us combined, with six eyes, we refuse to believe we can't keep up with this monster's attack rhythm."

What worried Irving so much was that he couldn't see the other person's figure clearly.

Although a light mist floated around, making it possible to barely make out some traces, frankly, in the heat of battle, this thing was utterly useless.

One mistake could cost him his life.

He had no time to distinguish which monster was causing the fog to move, whether it was the wind, or a shockwave coming from Sirius.

"Don't get caught in those black and white flames," Owen warned the two Pokémon. "It doesn't seem like instant death, but it might be a curse."

After he finished speaking, the fog ahead rippled violently once again.

Black and white flames from all directions transformed into hideous ghostly heads, hurtling toward him at high speed.

"There's such a method of attack?"

Owen raised an eyebrow and continued, "Bakal, use the Ancient Dragon: Blade of Sanchez."

"Sirocco, prepare to use Apparition."

As soon as he finished speaking, the crown on his head suddenly flew high into the air.

A resounding dragon roar echoed through the hollow.

Countless crimson lightning bolts spread from the dragon's body.

Bakal did not regain its original size because the cavity was too small for it to spread its wings.

However, even in his slender state, the ancient dragon magic he cast did not diminish in the slightest.

With a dragon's roar, a massive crimson lightning blade slid slowly across the sky, then was casually swung forward.

Lightning struck all living things around them like meteors.

The black and white flame ghost's head was instantly swallowed by lightning. Then, the lightning still showed no power, and in the blink of an eye, it affected the entire cave.

"Found you!"

The lightning struck the hidden monster, stunning her.

Owen immediately waved his wand, "Origin - Earth Flame".

The wand streaked through the air like fireworks.

He wanted to see just how many lives a high-temperature, continuous spell could kill at once.

The lava instantly engulfed the entire body of the Divine Skin Messenger.

In Irving's view, the dark red lava flashed with gray light twice.

This indicates that it died at least twice.

"five!"

Not just five, but if Bakal's dragon breath and lightning could also kill it, then that might be its last life.

"cautious!"

Irving began to speak.