I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 357 In the Cavern, the Son of Corruption (Bonus Chapter of 8,000 Words)

Sirius Black unleashed a black, flowing spell.

The spell struck the corpse, instantly turning it viscous, and then, like water freezing into ice, it froze most of the corpse in place.

Then he turned and ran away.

"What happened!" he asked.

"How should I know!" Irving ran as fast as he could.

Bakal's dragon breath cleared the way, burning the corpses that dared to block his path to pieces.

"The boss has entered the second phase, you know?" he rambled on. "The animation is playing right now, and the boss is invincible in this phase."

"?" A huge question mark flickered in the Dog Godfather's big eyes.

Owen, who was turning to check the flames, caught this look. "You know what a pick animation is, right? Like when Senior Tom is 'hehehe' laughing and telling his grand plan, he's invincible at that moment, and you can't interrupt him."

"???" A question mark appeared above Sirius's head.

"Why can't we interrupt?" he asked.

"Idiot! If you interrupt, how are you going to pad the runtime—I mean, how are you going to explain the whole story to the audience?"

Irving said matter-of-factly, raising his head high and staring at Sirius with a look of disdain, expressing concern about his intelligence.

"Hmph! You can tell he's never been a villainous big shot." He continued, "Villainous big shots always like to tell the protagonist about their grand plans in detail in the five minutes before they are killed, in order to show off their intellectual superiority."

Isn't this common sense?

"What kind of common sense is this? Why is your common sense so strange?"

The two stopped in their tracks.

They had just rushed several hundred feet away, which was enough distance, and the flames did not overflow.

"That's common sense, of course. Otherwise, your little godson would have been devoured by Voldemort long ago. If he hadn't been chattering away atop Azkaban, would he have been able to hold out until Dumbledore arrived? You probably wouldn't even have made it to collect his body!"

Irving confidently asserted that what he said were universal truths, applicable to any world.

Those characters who don't ramble on and instantly kill the protagonist—that's not a villain, that's an assassin.

"Alright, stop talking nonsense. What's the deal with that God Skin Messenger?" Sirius asked irritably. Talking to Owen was always exhausting. The kid often came up with something on a whim, and his thoughts jumped around too quickly. Sirius couldn't open his mouth or keep up. He really found the conversation difficult.

"What happened?" Owen raised an eyebrow. "What else could it be? It just suddenly absorbed ancient magic from the surrounding resin, and then—it evolved!"

"Don't panic! I'm very experienced in this. At this point, just smash its speakers and everything will be fine."

"Hmph—I choose you, Sirocco." With that, Owen tossed Sirocco, whom he was holding, high into the air.

Auspicious clouds appeared out of nowhere.

The kitten's long fur on its neck emitted a dazzling light.

Then its body suddenly grew larger, and when it landed, it was already the size of a normal tiger.

It has five colors of markings on its body, and its tail is longer than its body, fluffy like a fan blade.

What's rather peculiar is that it has two horns on the top of its head, which resemble deer antlers but are not as much differentiated and are straighter than ram horns.

The big cat held its head high with pride, its mane shimmering with iridescent light, looking incredibly handsome.

"You—your cat can grow big too?" Sirius stared in shock at the majestic giant cat, who was still waving his wand, smashing the resurrected corpses.

"Of course—it's just lazy." Owen shrugged. "A cat! Can you really expect a cat to work hard?"

And isn't there also a tool dragon?

During a breath attack, the tool dragon turned around and glared at Owen and Sirocco.

It sounded like a sigh, like a lament, but then he turned and vented his anger on the corpses.

As artificial life forms containing multiple bloodlines, neither Bakal nor Sirocco have fully developed their abilities.

Or rather, it is precisely because the two little creatures resemble a giant dragon and a Zouwu that their dragon and Zouwu bloodlines are more easily expressed than other bloodlines. But are they truly a dragon and a Zouwu? Perhaps, but certainly not entirely.

In the underground warehouse of Ionia, Owen found many records about artificial life alchemy.

The concepts of the Child of Ominous Signs and the Forge of Life during this period have led him to believe that the creators of Bakal and Sirocco may have used the technology of the Outer Gods—or rather, the technology of the gods, but which may now be known only to the Outer Gods.

As for how his grandfather created these two little guys, Owen still doesn't know, but one thing is certain: he or one of them must have been guided by an Outer God.

Because if this technology were inherited or unearthed from ancient wizarding relics, it would at least leave some trace in the past. But even Nicolas Flamel had never seen such a technology, which means that the probability of this technology coming from relics unearthed in the mountains for at least six or seven hundred years is extremely low.

Every coincidence may have a hidden conspiracy or scheme behind it.

He had not forgotten that his own body also possessed the qualities of a life furnace.

Inside the cave, when Owen saw the messenger of the gods again...

It has grown to be over ten feet tall.

It can no longer become invisible.

Its cape shrank due to its sudden increase in height.

The messenger stood on the ground with his bare, pale feet.

In addition to the full moon blade, he now wielded a broken sword made of black crystals, as thin as a cicada's wing and adorned with scale-like patterns.

Through the hood, Irving could see a handsome face.

It was a young woman with her face covered in twisted tattoos, and her eyes had no pupils, only milky white irises.

His lips were slightly parted, exhaling icy breath.

"Sirocco - Use the Mud Swamp Spell."

As soon as Owen finished speaking, Sirocco stretched out its chubby paws, and then a wonderful rhythm spread across the earth.

Then, very quickly, the ground began to become sticky, and almost in the blink of an eye, the originally hard stone turned into silt.

The ground began to sink, and the monster raised its sword and launched an attack.

A glint of cold light flashed by.

It resembled lightning, releasing a multitude of ghostly heads into the air, all radiating terrifying white and black flames.

Concealing itself within the flames, it slowly and deliberately attacked Owen.

"Sirocco - Use Binding!"

The next second, many bright green vines suddenly sprouted from the muddy ground, overlapping each other as if forming an impenetrable wall.

The black flames burned through the green wall with ease.

But that's not what Irving values.

The creeping plants on the ground are like traps, waiting for their prey to take the bait.

And that is the prey.

Unless it can fly.

"Good, caught it."

"Bakal - Wielding the Ancient Dragon: Blade of Sanchez".

Crackling lightning flashed from behind Irving; this time, it wasn't a longsword, but a spear.

A streak of red lightning flashed past, rushing by.

It was inserted directly into the body of the divine messenger, who was bound by vines and mud.

"Origin: The Torrent of Souls"

The crystal wand in Owen's hand also emitted a bright blue light.

At the same time, Sirocco unleashed Thorns and Pierce, causing countless rock spikes to suddenly spring from the ground, and vines to grow sharp, malevolent thorns that pierced the God-Skin Messenger to the core.

Two beasts and one person, three deadly attacks.

Even if the gods were present, they probably couldn't save them.

A tremendous roar resounded, and towering waves of air surged from the ground.

The wind stirred Sirocco's soft fur.

Irving hid behind it.

"Your cat can use magic too?" After the shockwave subsided, Sirius Black threw off the cloak that had been covering his face and asked Owen.

"Sirocco has the bloodlines of several magical creatures," Owen explained, but the petty cat had already shrunk back to the size of his palm and snuggled back into his arms.

"Zouwu, Qilin, Jumang."

"Just like Bakal has the blood of the Thunderbird, which allows him to command thunder and lightning."

Owen drew his wand and cautiously moved forward. "Back then! Those enemies were too weak; we didn't need Pokémon to help."

"Tsk—is it dead or not? Should I cast a Killing Curse?"

Inside the cavity, a huge, deep pit was revealed.

The liquid in the pool slowly flowed into the deep pit, and soon it was swallowed up.

The surface of the water shimmered, obscuring whether there was any life at the bottom.

"It's dead. It was shattered into ashes when you put the wand away."

"And could you please stop using the Killing Curse?" Sirius said, frowning. He still had a huge aversion to the Unforgivable Curse.

"Wow! Not even a corpse was left? What a sin! So the Killing Curse is really effective. At least it leaves a complete corpse. Besides, you know I'm immune to the mental effects of dark magic."

"I know, but others don't!" Sirius seemed angry, and he cast several more restraining spells behind him.

The corpses are still coming back to life.

Clearly, they were not controlled by the God Skin Messenger.

However—it seems their resurrection speed has slowed down considerably.

"Especially when you were outside, when you used the Killing Charm to kill the giants of the Volcano Clan in the Giant Camp, did you know that Madam Maxim had a lot of opinions about us? She thought we were the ones who corrupted you. And that's only if she knew a little bit about us. If wizards from other foreign countries saw this, they would definitely think that Hogwarts was a place that specifically trains dark wizards."

"Isn't that so?" Owen raised an eyebrow. "As everyone knows, all the dark wizards of Azkaban—"

"Those are all Slytherins," Sirius said, raising his voice.

"What, Slytherin isn't Hogwarts anymore? You can't just expel an entire house, can you?"

"Hmph!"

If he were the principal, he definitely would!

Let the slugs move their academy next to Azkaban; they'll all end up there anyway, so it'll save them the trouble of going the long way around.

However, Sirius would never say that out loud.

They had argued about this issue before, and the argument usually ended with the kid starting to ramble on about other things, bringing up Peter Pettigrew, that traitor, to prove that Gryffindor had also produced dark wizards. Then he would talk about Quirinus Quirrell and Gilderoy Lockhart, two Ravenclaw professors who had also sided with Voldemort.

Finally, citing numerous historical examples, he listed all the famous British dark wizards on his fingers and concluded that Hufflepuff was the only family that had never produced a dark wizard.

He could even hear Irving's proud laughter.

And they lavishly praise their Hufflepuff Academy, showering it with the utmost praise for the English language.

He can praise Hufflepuff for half an hour without repeating himself.

Professor Sprout blushed upon hearing this.

I don't want to go through that ordeal again.

As for Irving, he is unaffected by dark magic.

Everyone at Hogwarts knows this.

No wizard has ever been able to use the Killing Curse as a Levitation Curse without going mad.

Even Voldemort, look at his current mentally deranged state, and then think back to the gentle, refined young man with thick hair in Dumbledore's memories. The comparison should give you an idea of ​​how much influence dark magic has on ordinary wizards.

"A wondrous magic."

Irving arrived at the pool.

Unidentified pink flowers floated on the surface of the pool, and the ground on both sides was covered with pebbles, which must have been from the walls and had fallen here after the recent battle.

All around, countless tree roots were burned to ashes by the flames, revealing the sculptures on the side of the wall.

Directly opposite the pool is a life-sized male sculpture.

The statue had been eroded by countless years and was long since dilapidated, but Irving could still guess its identity based on the few remaining features.

The figure, wielding a long spear, wearing an eagle helmet and golden armor, with Dropnir gold rings on his hands, two fierce wolves at his feet, and two ravens on his shoulders, was a name that practically screamed out.

He is the God of War—the Raider—the Third Great God—the God of Storms—the God of Victory.

He is the king of the gods of Asgard.

He is the god-king—Odin.

"Odin!" Owen scooped up a stream of flowing water, which was quite peculiar because it would dodge when he touched it with his fingers.

Irving became interested.

He took a step and stepped into the pool, facing the direction of the Odin statue.

Sure enough, the pool water completely swung to both sides, avoiding him.

His robe remained completely dry from beginning to end.

"Strange, truly strange. This pool is clearly filled with ancient magic, yet I cannot manipulate it. The water is as heavy as a boulder to me, but it is so light, as if it were alive. It seems to have a self-awareness, avoiding the robes and shoes."

"Since you know it's so strange, why did you go down there? Come back up quickly." Sirius stood by the pool, took out a bottle from his pocket, and wanted to take a wisp of spring water with him.

But—as expected, the water flowed past his fingertips without a drop entering the bottle in his hand.

Seeing this, Sirius waved his wand, and a pebble was transformed into a rope. He then tied the rope to the bottle, and this time his hand did not touch the water's surface. He refused to believe that the pool water would avoid him.

Then—the pool water still avoided it.

The bottle seemed to have landed on some kind of membrane, and no matter what it did, it wouldn't sink.

"What's going on?" He looked at the water in confusion. It was so close, yet he couldn't reach it no matter what he did.

"Generally speaking, this only happens when the owner is unwilling to share their magic with us," Owen said calmly.

"The master?"

"Yes, Master." Owen smiled slightly, and slowly pressed the crystal wand against his left hand.

"The above is from 'The Sage's Song': 'Nine nights I hang from a tree swaying in the fierce wind, wounded by spears; I was offered as a sacrifice to Odin, a self-sacrifice, on a great tree unknown to anyone! No bread to fill my stomach, no water to quench my thirst. I look down, picking up runes, shouting as I do so, and fall from the tree.'"

He glanced back at Sirius, "It means that if you want to gain something, you have to give something up."

The tip of the cane sliced ​​open the palm, and scarlet blood flowed down.

Like the instant blood falls into a pool.

The water surface then began to surge as if it were boiling.

A wave crashed in and engulfed Irving.

He only felt a blinding light before his eyes, and by the time he realized it, he was no longer in the cave.

Before my eyes, everything was a pale purple.

He felt as if he had entered a crevice where space was pieced together.

Seawater, surrounded by water.

Thousands upon thousands of Void Remoras poured out from the jagged openings around him, and he saw what appeared to be a bustling metropolis underwater, but it had long since vanished into nothingness.

Now all that remains is a huge crater, shimmering faintly, with the fragments scattered across the ground rearranging themselves into unrecognizable, bizarre shapes—the structures constantly shifting and changing, as if trying to reassemble into the form of a living being, like a child assembling a city of building blocks.

Just as Irving was about to explore the depths of the sea.

A golden light cast faint patterns on his body, and when he looked up, a false sun was outlined on the sea of ​​emptiness on the horizon.

Like the halo of a dying world. Newborn bodies sway against a tide of nothingness, veins briefly glowing before detaching themselves from the sun's surface. Each vein, forming part of the sun's reflective surface, is alive. Millions of remoras from the void gather into a school surrounding the sun, like the corona of a star. The scene is breathtakingly beautiful.

Owen was utterly shocked by the terrifying, living sun before him; its deformed, grotesque, and bizarre appearance was breathtaking.

His first instinct was to run away.

The magic has gone out of control.

The magic friction against the seawater produced a hollow echo.

Like the low murmur of the gods, both whisper and roar. Space layered endlessly, boundless. A million voices blended into an aria.

"Stop!!!" Irving roared.

The surrounding space shattered instantly, and the surging magic transformed into an invisible whip, lashing wildly across the Greek column in the center of the pool.

The pale purple sea has disappeared.

"Whoosh—whoosh!"

The pool overflowed, and the waves gradually calmed down.

Along with the fragmented buildings, bizarre limbs, stitched-up remains, and various pearlescent structures in his mind, all fell silent.

"Irving!" Sirius screamed, trying to rush over.

But the pool water conjured a curtain of water, blocking his path.

Enraged, he unleashed several spells in succession.

But all those spells were submerged in the water, without a ripple, as if they were dead still.

"Owen!" Sirius tapped on the water curtain again, fearing that the boy was being controlled by something.

Such things have happened before in the magical world.

His worries were deepened by the extremely bizarre scene he was witnessing.

"I'm here!" Owen said, rubbing his forehead. Pool water flowed from his fingertips, wetting his silver hair.

I calmed myself down until the screams around me gradually stopped.

He let out a slow, gentle breath.

"Is this all you wanted to show me?" he said in a low voice.

Beneath the pool, a trickle of water flowed over his ankles.

A cool sensation came from my ankle, as if in some kind of response.

"Corruption spreads from the void; it is the ferry of the dead, with no ticket for the living. Child of Ionia, it is your destiny to fight corruption, even if you are a child of corruption."

In the pool, the flowing water forms runes, which float and appear.

"Even if you didn't say anything, I would still go." Owen's tone carried a domineering and resolute air.

"But what can you give me?"

The flowing water became calm.

Then ripples rose up, and a few leaves floated up from the bottom of the water.

Irving scooped up the leaf from the water and put it back into his bag.

Immediately, he turned and walked out of the pool.

"What's going on? Is there someone under this pool?" Sirius stepped forward, his brows furrowed. Everything around him seemed too eerie.

A strange cave.

A bizarre living corpse.

The eerie messenger of the divine skin.

A strange pool of water in the center of a cave.

"Someone?" Owen's lips curled into a smile. "That's quite a 'person'!"

As he spoke, he pointed to the Greek columns in the pool and asked, "Do you know what those are?"

"What?"

"A type of manipulator."

"A controller?" Sirius looked up at the upright stone pillar.

But those are clearly just stone pillars!

"The curtain between the stone pillars connects to the great vortex," Owen suddenly said, dropping a bombshell. "The magic of the Outer Gods is transmitted here through the curtains and manipulates the original consciousness here through those stone pillars."

"What?" Sirius exclaimed in surprise, his eyes filled with terror, and he pulled Owen toward the cave entrance.

"Hey, hey—don't rush! He's here, but he can't interfere with us," Owen said dismissively. "Isn't he controlling those corpses right now? Too bad it's useless."

"And we must destroy the stone pillars and break the control of the Outer Gods."

"Destroy? What do you want to do?" The Dog Godfather stopped and looked at him.

"I need to do some research first." Irving released Sirius's hand.

It ran back to the pool in a flash.

The stone pillars are engraved with complex runes.

Exquisitely crafted, it resembles some kind of magical artifact.

Hmm—on second thought, it does indeed qualify as a magical artifact.

In addition, there is a magical connection between the stone pillars, which means that he cannot break one before breaking the other. He either has to break them all at once, or he cannot break any of them.

"Phew! It'll take some time." Owen pulled out his notebook, sat down by the pool, and began to do calculations.

The so-called "cracking" is nothing more than adaptively embedding third-party characters based on the arrangement and combination of runes, thereby activating the other functions that runes originally possess.

To give a simple example, since each rune has two or even more meanings, it's like a multifaceted lock that can be opened from any side. What Irving needs to do now is to enter from the other side of this lock, trigger the other meanings of the rune, and ideally make it self-collapse in a chain reaction.

Time passed little by little.

Aside from helping Bakal deal with the resurrected corpses, Sirius spent most of his time focusing on the upper part of the stone pillar, on that faint curtain.

"The Italian Ministry of Magic has sent many more spellbreakers to the Calibdis Maelstrom, just like the work you're doing now. They want to analyze the obelisk at the center of the vortex," he said, staring blankly at the curtain.

It seems that one can glimpse the vast and magnificent ocean through that spiritual realm.

"However, none of the uncursors have returned."

"A month ago, the Italian Ministry of Magic sent someone to London. You know Gringotts, right? The world's best spellbreakers are all in Gringotts."

"I know, Ron's brother helped Gringotts excavate the pyramids in Egypt," Owen said, calculating as he spoke.

"That's right. Excavating magical ruins is extremely difficult, especially the famous ones. They're full of magical traps, curses, magical creatures, and so on. Only the best students at Hogwarts can become spellbreakers." Sirius seemed to be deliberately changing the subject. He probably thought that if Owen didn't have these burdens, becoming a spellbreaker when he grew up wouldn't be bad.

"Tch—the best student is clearly trying to rule the world."

"What future can you have working for someone, especially for fairies!" Owen retorted, his eyes fixed on the parchment in his hand. He was about to find the key.

"."

However, what he said is very true.

Given the awkwardness of the situation, Sirius decided to change the subject.

"Can't we just blow up these stone pillars?" A dog godfather, who was simple-minded and not very strong, said something that lowered the overall IQ of the street.

Of course, this isn't Sirius's fault.

Ancient runes were simply a very uninteresting subject.

Aside from those who are certain from a young age that they will become anti-curse breakers, almost no young wizards study this subject in depth.

Even if they take this course in school, they will eventually forget all the knowledge of runes if they don't come into frequent contact with runes after graduation.

Even among professors, not everyone is proficient in this subject.

Only scholarly wizards like Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall would delve into runes.

Most wizards only scratch the surface of runes and never actually deal with them in their entire lives.

"Go ahead and destroy it. Just throw a wand and believe me, this sky city will collapse."

"Look here." Owen pointed to the shimmering bottom of the pool. A badge was made of gold.

It was a series of nested arcs, the golden arcs shining regularly, together forming a striking logo.

"What is this?"

"This is the symbol of Yggdrasil," Owen explained. "Of course, we usually call it: the World Tree."

"The World Tree?" Sirius frowned. "The one from Norse mythology?"

"Obviously—yes."

But we all know that the myths that Muggles talk about were actually wizards in ancient times. I even met the ancestor of the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest before. He was a demigod in Greek mythology. The wizards' ability to overturn rivers and seas, move mountains and ascend to heaven, wasn't that the adjective used to describe gods in ancient times? Maybe Odin was an alchemist? The World Tree was actually his invention.

It's like medieval wizards inventing magic beans to go to the moon.

Perhaps the World Tree was an alien seed brought by a primordial meteor that fell from the sky ten thousand years ago.

It's true that Odin hung himself upside down from a tree for nine days to obtain runes!

In short, we can no longer find the truth about these things.

In short, who knows what happened a thousand years ago?

I've always found it strange that those magic beans could have such powerful abilities to support such a huge sky island.

Now it seems it really was fake.

"Fake?" Sirius said.

"It's not just fake, it's completely nonsensical. This isn't a magic bean's ability at all; it's just a vine—could a vine grow this big without a tree to support it climbing?"

"This is a seal! It's destruction, a tool used by the Outer Gods to manipulate the power of the World Tree, and it was only done with the help of certain wizards," Owen said sarcastically.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you understand?" Owen turned to look at him and said, "We're currently in a bubble of the World Tree, or if you really can't figure it out, you might think it's a fruit."

I don't know exactly what kind of power the World Tree possesses.

However, from the almost liquefied ancient magic in this pool of water, one can deduce that the World Tree has extremely important value to the outer gods.

Of course, this value may not only be the tree itself, but also the location where it is hidden, and the living creatures that live in the tree.

Wait a minute—time has passed, and the Outer Gods have restarted this place. Their purpose must be those giants. I deduced the truth from the female giant named Amin before.

As for how the Outer Gods will control the World Tree—that will be a long-term plan.

I think they must have first used the stone pillars to create chains and control the core of the World Tree, which is this place—the convergence point of its will.

Then they plotted step by step. At first, the Outer Gods certainly didn't want to drain the World Tree dry, but an accident happened a few decades ago.

The wizard drove the giants here and, along the way, planted magic beans under the influence of the Outer Gods. Only then did he intend to completely drain the World Tree.

I estimate that the World Tree will die in a few years.

"this"

Irving then pointed to the stone pillar in front of him.

"This stone pillar is built right on the core of the tree canopy, absorbing the last bit of nutrients from the canopy to sustain its existence. It's like a sword piercing a person's heart. Although the person can't live, as long as you don't pull the sword out directly, they can still linger for a few more minutes. But if we pull the sword out now, the person will die immediately. The same applies to the World Tree."

The whole truth is revealed.

It turns out that the "door key" they had been searching for would eventually lead them here.

"call--"

And this is far from the end of the journey.

The Calibdis Great Whirlpool.

Obelisk.

An even bigger conspiracy awaits him.

With a sigh, Owen waved his wand, and ancient magic within him conjured countless runes.

These words are interlocked and slowly woven together to form a gilded key.

He then inserted the fake, homemade key into the stone pillar.

In an instant, the stone pillar shone brightly, and countless runes on its surface resembled imprisoning seals. Then, these runes began to change shape in a regular pattern.

On the stone pillar, the curtain seemed to suddenly sink into a quagmire, its flow slowing down, then slower and slower, until it finally disappeared completely.

"Done!"

"Odin acquired the wisdom of the primordial runes (such as the ancient runes), and today it is my turn." Owen smiled faintly, gazing at the pool of spring water beneath him, his heart surging with turmoil. He had acquired the same runic knowledge as the gods Odin, but he had also glimpsed the true face of the Outer Gods in the void crevices of the Purple Sea.

Prizes and penalties are awarded simultaneously.

It's no wonder it's a World Tree that has existed for over ten thousand years!

(End of this chapter)