Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 353 Underwater Mechanisms

The moment he entered the water, a cold sensation enveloped Avada's entire body, but it was quickly dispelled by the insulated spell he had cast beforehand, replaced by a warm and comfortable feeling.

There didn't seem to be any traps set in the shallow water closest to the lake's surface. Avada could only see the sunlight shining through the lake, illuminating the water around him. Everything was a pale blue, and not even a tiny speck of floating debris could be seen...

There's no hidden magic around... we can continue forward.

After using his magical senses to check his surroundings and finding no danger, Avada bent down and used magic to manipulate the water flow while kicking, quickly propelling himself deeper into the lake.

As he descended deeper and deeper, the light around him became increasingly scarce, and his vision quickly dimmed. Soon, he could hardly see his own arms anymore.

Just then, the golden egg that Avada had been holding in his arms began to emit a faint light, forming a clear path of light in the dark depths of the lake, pointing straight to a certain spot deeper in the lake...

"The golden eggs in your hands,"

In Durmstrang's principal's office, Barty continued explaining to the warriors: "After you dive underwater, it will emit light, guiding you to the ghost ship closest to your current location—and there's no need to worry about ship collisions. You will enter the water at three locations far apart during the competition, and we will place the ghost ship not far from each entry point to ensure that your golden egg will not be located on the same ship."

"Actually, in our initial design, the completeness of the golden egg would also affect the accuracy of the positioning. The more complete the golden egg, the more precise the light path it could emit; otherwise, it would just be a hazy mist of light... However, since the three warriors have already completely repaired the golden egg, this design is no longer relevant..."

……

The environment outside the Bubble Head Curse had gradually transitioned from light blue to a deep, inky blue, almost to the point of complete darkness. Moreover, there was absolutely no sound, allowing Vada to almost hear his own heartbeat. If it weren't for the golden egg beside him still radiating light, illuminating half of his body, and the still-flowing sensation of water on his fingertips as he moved his arms, he would have doubted whether he had entered another spatial interlayer.

"Damn it, does Lake Durmstrang not even have a slightly shallow bottom? I've been swimming for so long, and there's nothing around me except water..."

"But that's fine too. The environment has become much simpler. Many aquatic magical creatures that were originally a bit tricky to deal with—like Grindylo and the like—could have caused some trouble due to the complex underwater terrain. Now, those problems are eliminated. The only downside is that the audience might get a little bored..."

He vividly recalled how Fleur Delacour, who had displayed incredible prowess in the battle against the fire dragon, suppressing a hundred-ton Ukrainian iron-bellied creature with sheer firepower, was eliminated by a group of ordinary aquatic magical creatures in the original story. While the aquatic environment did indeed diminish the Veela's abilities, which were skilled in flight and fire, it also illustrated just how difficult it was to deal with aquatic animals for wizards who were not adept at underwater combat.

"Oh, we've finally run into a trap."

Just moments before, Avada was marveling at the emptiness beneath the water when he suddenly paused, keenly sensing a shift in the water around him. In the vision revealed by his magical senses, a spell was stirring the water in a body of water not far from him, creating a rather insidious, invisible whirlpool.

"The area is a bit large; going around it might be troublesome... Let's just go straight through."

He silently made up his mind, then waved his wand—instantly, a large patch of ice crystals appeared out of thin air beside him, rapidly expanding and spreading forward, almost vertically plunging into the undercurrent. The violent current immediately shook the entire ice crystal, but as the ice crystal grew larger, the shaking noticeably weakened…

"Mr. Ken froze the surrounding water—Merlin's beard! He actually managed to create such a massive ice crystal all at once!"

At this moment, on the lakeshore, all three warriors had entered the water, and the white mist had split into three sections, each representing a different aspect of their actions in the water. Fleur, like Avada, was advancing with the Bubble Head Curse, while Krum had transformed his head into a shark's head, granting him the ability to breathe underwater—the two of them had only recently entered the water and were far from reaching the depth Avada was currently at.

"He's probably trying to cross the undercurrent directly in front of him—look, he's melted a passage through that ice crystal that's already pierced the undercurrent! A clever move!"

Barty Jr. was still providing commentary from the stands, cheering for Avada's brilliant performance, showing no sign that he was a Death Eater who would soon launch an attack: "He used the thick ice crystals to block the surging undercurrents, then dug a tunnel through them, passing through safely—if he had chosen to bypass this area, it would have taken several times longer!"

"Ah, Mr. Krum seems to have encountered some trouble as well. He entered the water from a shallow spot, and now he's entered the territory of a group of Grindelwalds..."

The golden egg is getting brighter... the ghost ship should be nearby.

Having just escaped a trap, Avada had no idea that Krum was currently being overwhelmed by a group of Grindylos hiding in the seaweed, who were launching a sneak attack. He was so angry he almost unleashed his fury in public: "I wonder where Fleur and Krum are... Should I wait for them? The intervals between the activation of the three ghost ships should be as short as possible in the plan, so as not to give away any clues..."

He continued downstream, encountering all sorts of traps along the way—a large school of piranhas, probably magical creatures; waters that would freeze without warning, trapping people inside; and even a large area laced with a magical potion that would cause itching upon contact with the skin, with the antidote hidden somewhere nearby, requiring him to carefully locate it despite the itch—he wondered which bastard had designed such insidious obstacles…

After quickly overcoming these obstacles, Avada finally saw the golden egg shining on a quaint wooden boat with a closed cabin, which was probably the ghost ship he was about to use.

Ahead of the ship, a massive shadow lurked silently, and upon sensing the light, it began to slowly twist and turn…

(End of this chapter)