The Dementors that usually floated oppressively in mid-air were nowhere to be seen.
"Could it be—they knew I was coming, so they cleared them out in advance? Heh heh I'm quite important, aren't I"
Percy scratched his head, laughing with self-satisfaction.
But the further he walked, the more wrong it felt.
————It was too quiet.
The entirety of Azkaban was silent enough to hear a pin drop.
Percy looked through the bars at the prisoners' dull, glazed eyes.
A chill rose involuntarily in his heart.
He couldn't help but quicken his pace.
Not only that.
The walls on both sides seemed, at times, to transform into walls of flesh, blood and meat sticking together in his peripheral vision.
Terrifying eyeballs opened upon them.
But when Percy snapped his head to look, they were just normal walls again.
"This damn place is too evil..."
Percy muttered.
He made up his mind: the moment he caught Ethan, he would return to the Ministry of Magic immediately.
He made his way to the lowest level.
Percy spotted a massive hole in the ground at a glance and immediately screamed:
"Mer—Merlin! Did Ethan do this? Is he crazy?!"
He initially wanted to find an Auror, but suddenly stopped in his tracks.
A thought surfaced in his mind:
"...If I complete this mission alone and catch Ethan, I will surely receive a massive commendation."
Percy stared fixatedly at the pitch-black hole.
It was as if what lay inside wasn't unknown danger, but his path to promotion.
"As long as I can make a name for myself, my family, those Aurors, my colleagues... they will all look at me with new respect! They'll regret looking down on me in the beginning!"
In Percy's mind.
He fantasized about crowds surrounding him, expressing their regret.
The expression on his face gradually overlapped with that of his fantasy self.
The corners of his mouth crooked upward.
Thinking this.
Percy took a deep breath, then jumped in without looking back!
————What he didn't realize was.
Another major reason he could be so "brave" was that he instinctively believed: Ethan wouldn't attack him.
He was a Weasley, after all! Someone Ethan was prioritizing for support!
At this moment.
Percy had conveniently forgotten the fact that he had already cut ties with the Weasley family.
Below the hole.
Drip, drip.
Water droplets fell from the stalactites above.
Blocked outside Ethan's shield.
Ethan followed the path, spiraling downward for a long time.
Until the surroundings turned into a primitive cave.
Salty seawater seeped in from the outside, condensing on the stone walls to form a layer of damp white frost.
A tall, imposing door finally appeared before his eyes.
"I'm afraid I'm deep under the seabed," Ethan thought to himself, controlling a ball of light to look up and survey the massive double doors.
It was unknown what metal they were forged from.
The whole structure was bronze in color.
Despite the passage of years, there wasn't a spot of corrosion from the seawater.
It remained as smooth as new, engraved with lines of complex incantations integrated into the patterns, flickering with a dark golden glow.
"[Remember, latecomer...]"
Ethan narrowed his eyes, using his learned knowledge to translate the Ancient Runes above word by word:
"[Seal... ahead... lies the deepest path of blasphemy... the High One... the chaotic heart remains left behind... pollution... release...]"
Before his voice could fade.
Ethan's pupils suddenly contracted!
Ready to strike! Magic flowed through his body, golden brilliance hiding beneath his skin, accumulating power like a sharpened sword.
The next second.
In the reflection of the metal doors.
A deep, withered figure emerged beside Ethan!
The body was ethereal like a ghost, yet the black mist spilling from it sizzled as it corroded Ethan's magic.
White hair lay scattered, drifting in mid-air.
The face was like a skull; within the sunken sockets, only a single eyeball remained, staring dead at Ethan.
It was filled with undiluted malice and greed.
[Look who has come... For hundreds of years, you are my first visitor...!]
[Hiss————]
The undead took a deep breath, a look of incomparable intoxication appearing on its face.
Under the gaze of Ethan's cobalt-blue eyes.
It murmured, enjoying and obsessed:
[Oh... what a fresh and tantalizing scent. That rich fragrance steaming through the skin from the blood, that breath of life expelling from your respiration...!]
[Ah! Life!]
The undead suddenly raised its volume, holding its hands high, grieving as if someone had shot him with an arrow.
Ethan: ?
Why did we suddenly enter a cutscene?
The undead seemed to fall completely into a state of self-absorption, chanting like an opera singer:
[No matter how powerful, how astonishing the strength I possess. There are but two mighty enemies I have never been able to defeat...]
[That is "Time" and "Death".]
Saying this.
The undead stopped talking, quietly opened its eye, and glanced at Ethan.
As if waiting for his response.
Ethan: "..."
Good lord, he's engaging in interaction.
Adhering to the principle of not letting the conversation die, Ethan thought for a moment and asked thoughtfully:
"Do you have a histrionic personality disorder?"
The Undead: ?
Ethan reached out, pointing at the bewildered undead, and said sincerely:
"Did you stay dead-ass inside this fortress until you croaked because nobody loved you?"
"How pitiful. You must have lived a solitary life for hundreds of years to turn out like this, rambling to yourself non-stop like you haven't seen a living person before."
The Undead: [...]
You damn well better believe if you get out of this fortress alive today, I'll take your surname.
[Heh, heh heh... Young people these days, their little mouths are smeared with mermaid shit...]
The undead's mouth twitched, laughing out of extreme anger.
Then, he stopped performing.
Staring at Ethan with a cunning look, he slowly said:
[You are about to ascend to the next level of life, aren't you? I can feel it, the light within your body is like the sun... hmm? Why does there seem to be a trace of the aura of the underworld...]
The undead frowned, a look of confusion appearing in his eye.
[...Forget it, that's not important.]
[What is important is that you are here.]
He suddenly grinned with an evil and cruel smile.
Like a wolf that had been hungry for hundreds of years meeting a fresh lamb.
Suddenly, he shot up high into the air, spread his arms wide, and roared with a voice as hoarse as a wind tunnel:
[Allow me to introduce myself! I am the ancient wizard who seeks the truth of the world, 'Ekrizdis the Profane'!]
[Rather than 'Wizard', I would prefer you call me————]
['Researcher'.]
The undead bowed gracefully, evidently having received a decent education in life.
[I research life, uninvited guest. I research why a mere tiny heart can support the activity of a living creature...]
[Oh! That ceaseless drumbeat, like a dance following some rule; miss a single beat, and the fragrance fades, the jade perishes.]
[I study it, my friend. I study how to prolong its beating.]
[Even though certain ignorant fools consider this a blasphemous act.]
Dark Wizard Ekrizdis shrugged, revealing a trace of mockery and anger.
Ethan listened, noncommittal.
He recalled the descriptions of the cruel experiments this Dark Wizard had performed on innocent Muggles.
... "Blasphemy" probably didn't refer to the chosen field of research.
But rather, how the research itself was conducted.
But the corpse was talking.
He just had to go along with it.
Ethan had no intention of refuting him.
Ravenclaws were inclusive like that.
[It is a pity that my body died before my experiment was completed...]
[I was only a step away from ascending to immortality.]
[But now I understand, fate has not given up on me...]
As he spoke.
The single remaining eyeball of Ekrizdis stared dead at Ethan.
He waved his arm and spoke slowly:
[Rise, my precious experimental subjects... It is time to work.]
Subsequently.
A damp and fishy stench rapidly spread out from the cave!
--
Support me & read more advance & fast update chapter on my pa-treon:
pat reon .c-om/windkaze