Chapter 36. Rebirth. Part 2. Horror
Outside, after surveying the area, a team of Aurors stood at the cave entrance and hammered the barrier with every spell they could think of. But it was so strong that the wizards could not even make it shudder. All they managed to leave on it were a few scratches.
"Commander."
"Go on," the commander said indifferently, because his eye let him see far more than the others, and he knew the barrier would not last long, and that its appearance from the outside was only an illusion. "The barrier was raised by a very experienced wizard. Even with my magical eye, I can barely make out what is inside. We must not let our guard down. This will be a difficult opponent."
At the same time, inside the cave, a creature that already vaguely resembled a living person grinned at its wrist, where there was a complete absence of flesh.
I did not expect to have to spend another half hour on the second stage, and the anesthetic's effect had almost worn off. A little more, and I would have fully experienced what it was like to decompose in real life, like some corpse. Severus extended his bony hand, which he controlled with telekinesis, toward the last vial of golden liquid. Looking up at the crystals, he drew an absorption rune on his decaying chest, through which his beating heart was plainly visible. Finally, throwing his head back with a crunch, he poured the liquid down his throat, and at that very moment, a purple aura gushed from the enormous crystals and rushed toward him. The final stage is rebirth. I can finally relax a little and let the magic work on its own. After that thought, the painkiller's effect wore off, but a moment before it did, he had already lost consciousness, and his body was engulfed in wild tongues of flame that slowly began to devour him.
At the same time, under the onslaught of thirty wizards, the first barrier fell, but they had not even managed to walk ten meters when they ran into a second one. That made the commander slightly irritated, since it was almost no different from the first, which had cost them about thirty minutes.
"Just let me get to you." He tightened his grip on his wand and turned his gaze on the frozen Aurors. "Why are you standing there?! Get to work!"
"Yes!!!"
"Everto Statum!"
"Descendo!"
"Diffindo!"
"Bombarda!"
"Expulso!"
Idiots. he muttered, slapping his forehead as he watched an enormous number of multicolored beams crash into the barrier. Now I understand why Charlie called this a punishment. There are nothing but idiots here. Hit the same spot! Did you all pick up a wand yesterday?! What are you staring at me for?! Attack the barrier!
At the same time, Nagini, deep at the very bottom, listened with an eye twitching to the commander's screams, which reached even her.
"Hmm. something tells me they will not get to me anytime soon," she said, looking toward the barrier sealing the entrance. She also felt a strong sense of unease, and only the still tangible connection gave her any peace at all.
Behind the barrier behind her, wild flames raged, devouring the energy from the crystals. At the very epicenter, where Severus should have stood, a crimson, round stone hovered, absorbing the flames at an incredible speed, its color growing more intense with each passing second.
Over the next few hours, the Auror group forced its way through six more barriers, with traps eliminating almost half of them and slowing their progress by half again. The commander even sent one of them back to headquarters to call for reinforcements and help for the wounded. Even so, they had cleared most of the barriers, and only three still stood between them and Nagini.
Nagini did not just lie there and wait for them to reach her. Returning to her previous size, she began to prepare for battle, unless, of course, Severus came out earlier, which she desperately wanted.
At the same time, the previously raging flame was almost completely consumed by a scarlet stone, now about the size of a ping-pong ball, and the crystals had almost entirely lost their color.
While the Aurors overcame another barrier and lost two more people, the flames around the stone suddenly flared up. If anyone had been near it at that moment, they would have been truly shocked, because it began to grow flesh quite quickly.
As soon as the wizards saw their commander raise his palm, they froze with their wands in their hands, looking at each other in bewilderment.
"We are not going any further," the commander said sullenly, sensing real danger beyond this barrier. With his magical eye, though only with difficulty, he could make out a massive shadow and a pair of yellow eyes, as if warning him: Do not even try. He was used to trusting his senses, and they had saved his life more than once.
Oddly enough, the wizards did not ask any questions at all, and simply formed a line quickly. After this campaign, they fully understood why the captain who transferred to their department yesterday was called Mad-Eye. They got the eye part of the nickname, and they felt the full force of mad almost all the way to the bottom of the tunnel. The screams, the creative insults, the kicks, and that single phrase, constant vigilance, all of it would haunt their worst nightmares for a long time to come.
"Set up a temporary camp until additional forces arrive."
Mad-Eye did not have time to finish. He noticed a group of wizards in Auror uniforms in the distance, and when he focused on the one leading them, his face twisted.
"You could not expect anything less from the renowned Mad-Eye Moody, losing more than half the squad on his very first mission," came the captain's mocking voice. He looked rather ordinary, and if it were not for his different outfit, he could easily have passed for just another Auror.
"Travers, I thought you had been kicked out of the Ministry of Magic a long time ago. What is it like being a dog in a pack of wolves?" Moody replied calmly, keeping a cool, indifferent air that only irritated Travers more, since he was trying to provoke him.
"How should I know that? The thoughts of dogs like you are unknown to me."
Travers walked past Moody with a grin and approached the barrier.
"I would not advise breaking it."
"You are the one who wants to teach me? I have served far longer than you." Travers looked at him with contempt.
"You must have served poorly, since we have the same rank," Moody said, turning to the remnants of his men. "Everyone, follow me! Anyone who falls even a step behind will run a hundred laps around the training grounds when we get back!" he barked, and as one, they briskly followed him.
You damn one-eyed bastard, I hope they knock out your other one too. Travers muttered. No longer paying attention to Moody, who had stopped forty meters away, Travers turned to his own squad. "Destroy that barrier."
The Aurors did not need to be told twice. No, they did not attack the barrier haphazardly like the previous squad. They immediately began casting spells at a single point. They were far more effective and coordinated, showing a vast difference in the two squads' training.
It took them only eight minutes to cover the barrier in huge cracks that the illusion could no longer hide. Then, after a few seconds, it began to crumble, and its fragments, hitting the ground, stirred up the dust that had already settled.
At that very moment, a hissing sound echoed through the cave, followed by someone's scream.
"What is this?!"
"I saw a huge shadow!"
"Everyone keep in line!"
"Aaaah. save me, it grabbed my leg!" But a moment later there was a thud, and the voice abruptly fell silent.
The remaining wizards regrouped quickly, standing back to back and ready to repel the enemy's attack at any moment. But Nagini was extremely hard to stop. Despite her enormous size, she had incredible speed, and she maneuvered easily among them. Thanks to her constant movement, the dust never had time to settle, bursting into the air again and again.
"Damn it! Ventus!" Travers raised his wand and made a circular motion with his wrist. A stream of wind erupted from it, like a vacuum cleaner that sucked up all the dust and carried it toward the exit.
Finally, the Aurors could see the monster itself, an enormous snake nearly twelve meters long and as thick as a small column. Her coloring, however, brought a flicker of panic to some faces, because it immediately betrayed her venomous nature.
~ Hessssss. (Go away) Nagini hissed in their direction, standing in front of the barrier leading to Severus and pointing the tip of her tail toward the exit.
"It is just a huge snake!"
"You have to be careful with her. She is very poisonous."
"Surround her, we must catch such an interesting specimen alive," Travers ordered, a greedy gleam in his eyes.
"Be careful," Moody's voice rang out from afar. He scowled at the barrier behind Nagini, while an unpleasant pulsation throbbed in his head from the magical eye. Damn it. what is going on with that eye today.
And while Moody tried to figure out what was happening with the artifact, the Aurors had already surrounded Nagini. She had no real desire to fight, and even the ones she knocked aside into the dust were only lying unconscious, though she could have used her venom and killed them instantly.
Do I really have to do this? But. I cannot let them stop him. Her eyes lit up with determination, and she bared her fangs. Slowly, she began to give in to her animal side, but.
"Enough."
The next second, the barrier behind her shattered into pieces, and Severus stepped out of the room, wrapped in his robe.
"Who the hell are you?!" one of the Aurors growled at him, but the next moment he froze with his mouth hanging open when a huge snake joyfully rubbed her head against Severus's hand.
"This is my companion, so what makes you think you can take her away from me?"
That question knocked most of them off balance, with the exception of one.
"You have violated the Statute of Secrecy, so you are obligated to come with us whether you like it or not. We are taking the snake, and take off that hood," Travers said, his voice confident and arrogant.
"You are so kind, are not you? If I were you, I would kill them all and be done with it, or maybe. I should do it?" The next moment, a terrifying wave of bloodlust rolled off Severus, and every Auror froze and trembled. In an instant, he went from a simple vagabond to a real monster. "And you are an interesting specimen." Severus drawled mockingly, his gaze sliding to Travers's chalk-white face. "Choose: your life, or the lives of your men? You have three seconds. one."
"Mine! I do not want to die! Please!"
"And you are fast, well that is good."
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You saved." The next moment, Travers felt a sharp spike in temperature, and then he was engulfed in flames.
"AAAAAH HOT! DON'T!!! AAAAAAAAAAH!"
Right before the pale-faced wizards' eyes, Travers burned alive, screaming in agony. The stench of scorched flesh filled the air, making some of them vomit, but.
"I am in a good mood today, so I will not kill you," Severus said, looking over the rest of them. Then he turned to Nagini. "Let us go."
Since they had not managed to hurt her at all, he did not kill them. The only exception was Travers, because he truly did not like his words.
"Yes." Nagini exclaimed with a kind of puppy-like joy, and a warm smile appeared on Severus's face.
But as he was about to pass Moody's group, he stopped abruptly and looked their way with interest.
"The one with the magic eye, come here."
Sullen Moody, oddly enough, was not as vulnerable to fear as the others, and he could walk over quite normally.
"You must have a strong will, if even my bloodlust did not affect you much. I suppose I did not release it enough, but never mind. you can see what I really look like, right?" Moody's expression did not change at the question, though his insides went cold. "You have an interesting eye, indeed, if you were able to see through that barrier." Severus met his gaze, slipped easily through his mind defenses, and after rummaging through his head for a few seconds, erased his face from Moody's memories. Then, while Moody stood in a trance, he searched his pockets and pulled out a small vial filled with something that looked like liquid or gas. Constant vigilance, that is a good phrase, he added silently, looking at the Aurors, whose names he did not know. They were all shaking in fear, like naughty children. "Tell your superiors that I do not want a war and that I am leaving the country today. In the meantime. stay here for a couple of hours, and if you try to contact anyone."
The next moment, the entire tunnel was engulfed in flames, leaving only two untouched islands with the shocked wizards standing in the middle.
"I will burn you all."
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