Chapter 139. Forbidden Forest. Part 2. Acromantulas.
A few minutes later, a large boar was making its way through the dark, densely packed forest. On its back sat a man in robes, gazing to one side with mild interest. Something small was watching him from the lush green undergrowth, judging by the height of its eyes.
Severus couldn't make it out clearly through the thick vegetation. Even magic was no help. When he tried to focus on it, all he could sense was a thin thread of magic, which surprised him considerably, given his current strength, which could rival a Magister at the peak of his rank.
The creature's eyes were striking: one white, one black with a vertical pupil, which immediately reminded him of a cat's. If it truly was a cat, then most likely a kitten was watching him, one with a terrifying command of concealment for this world. No wonder it could survive in this forest.
Such a creature naturally caught his interest. Those eyes stirred a sense of familiarity, as though he had seen them once, a very long time ago. Strange as it was, he couldn't place where. Yet he felt no danger, no unease, which was highly unusual. The creature's danger level made that lack of wariness more alarming than reassuring. It even seemed to deliberately allow itself to be noticed. Even that thought did nothing to settle his nerves, and was beginning to unsettle him further.
He ran every diagnostic spell he knew on his own mind. He found no trace of interference. That left him bewildered. He simply couldn't explain what was happening to him or where these strange feelings were coming from, because he was certain he had never encountered this creature before in his life.
"What's wrong?" Nagini noticed the tension on his face and asked, curious. She looked in the same direction but saw nothing except swaying undergrowth. "Did you notice something over there?"
"No. Don't worry. I was just thinking." He sighed, smiled softly, and shook his head. The creature was gone. What was that?
"Are you certain?" She met his gaze directly, concern evident in her voice. His manner didn't suggest everything was truly fine. The Maledictus had noticed the tension in his gaze immediately.
"Calm down. There's nothing here I can't handle." He smirked and stroked her head, then dropped his gaze to the boar and tapped the spike in front of him. "A little to the right."
"Oink!" As if it understood him perfectly, the creature nodded quickly and obeyed.
His gaze drifted back to those same bushes, and a tired sigh escaped him.
More and more monsters are appearing. If this really is a youngling, it's terrifying to imagine what it might become.
A few hours later, the boar stopped suddenly. It tensed, raising its gaze to the man, and pointed a hoof at a thin, nearly invisible thread of web, then at a great number of small spiders all moving in the same direction.
"Oink! Oink, oink-oink!"
"I didn't understand a word of that." A fireball ignited on his fingertip. Right before the creature's frozen eyes, he flung it at the thread. It burned away instantly. The beast went pale. "Let's go." He patted its back. "Don't worry. They won't touch us." He smirked and looked ahead, where vast stretches of webbing were already visible between the trees.
At this, a large spider appeared on one of the trunks, the size of a dog, black, with eight eyes. A moment later, several more appeared on neighboring trees. With each passing second, their numbers grew.
The boar trembled like a leaf. It understood this was the end. There was no escaping a horde of Acromantulas, not with their speed and their venom.
"Oink..." It let out a mournful sound. It didn't even consider turning back. There was no point.
"I'm from Hagrid. Let me pass." At those words, the spiders, descending from the trees like rain, froze. After a few seconds, they began climbing swiftly back up and vanishing into the canopy. Two of them, however, landed in front of the boar, pointed forward with their forelegs, and then gestured to themselves. "Good. Follow them." He patted his mount on the back again. The beast shuddered at the touch.
"Oink..." It looked up at the man with tears in its eyes. Relieved as it was that its life was no longer under immediate threat, it had absolutely no desire to enter the lair of these creatures.
"I should have kept the bear. It seemed braver. Ah, well. I'll find another mount. You can be given to Aragog as a gift."
"OINK! OINK-OINK!" The boar rallied at once. The tears vanished. Its chest puffed out, it fell in behind the escort.
And people say only humans can be shameless.
"You're telling me." Nagini nodded in agreement, shifting her gaze to the spiders. "Still, let's not linger. I've never liked them, and ones this size make me genuinely uneasy."
"Fair enough." Her reaction amused him slightly, given that a basilisk's preferred prey happened to be Acromantulas.
Nearly the entire territory they passed through was draped in web connecting the close-packed trees. Spiders lurked in the branches while others moved openly along the threads, watching the visitors, or perhaps sizing up their dinner.
To the naked eye, their numbers seemed manageable. Using detection magic, however, Severus counted exactly 2,702 large individuals within a kilometer radius. How many there were in total was a number he preferred not to think about. As for the smaller ones streaming along the ground in an unbroken current and covering every surface of the web, there was nothing more to be said. This was a waking nightmare for anyone with a fear of spiders.
After a few more minutes, they reached a large opening where smaller Acromantulas poured in like a river. The boar let out a miserable howl at the sight, but pressed on regardless.
The tunnel was not particularly wide, but it was more than spacious enough for Aragog to pass through. That same spider had fled into the forest on the day Hagrid was arrested. The creature stood roughly three and a half meters tall, and with its legs extended, no less than nine meters across. The female was slightly larger than the male.
They emerged from the tunnel into an open space. It was a vast area, shrouded in dense fog. Massive roots crisscrossed the ground, draped in thick webbing, from which enormous tree trunks rose straight upward. Among them, spiders considerably bigger than their escorts emerged unhurriedly from behind the largest roots. Their numbers grew steadily.
"Why did Hagrid send you here?" An indifferent, deep voice echoed through the space. From behind the root concealing the entrance, an Acromantula came slowly into view. Aragog. His eight eyes turned at once towards the figure in robes.
"I'm sorry, I lied. Hagrid didn't send me. I came on my own."
"You've come here for nothing, human."
"Not entirely for nothing. I expected more of you after thirty-odd years of breeding, but this will do." A large wooden barrel appeared beside him. "Be so kind as to fill this with venom for me."
"Are you out of your mind?" A note of genuine surprise entered the monster's voice. "My children leave Hagrid alone only on my orders. But I cannot deny them the pleasure of fresh human flesh."
"You're a rather confident insect." Severus bared his teeth in a contemptuous sneer as spiders rushed in from every direction. "But do you know what any insect fears above all else?" Flames began to kindle around the ashen boar. At the sight, the Acromantulas squealed as though scalded and scattered in panic. But with each passing second the fire grew wilder, the squealing shriller, until it became a true inferno with the man at its center. "Fire."
In the next instant, dozens of tendrils burst from the column and lashed outward at the fleeing spiders. The smell of smoke began to fill the air.
"STOP! HUMAN!" Aragog screamed, his voice cracking with panic. He couldn't bear to watch his children die in agony while he stood helpless. Fire was their undoing.
"Why should I stop after you threatened to feed me to your young?" Severus regarded him through the flames, his expression unreadable.
"We'll give you the venom! Stop killing my children!" Shooting web from his body, he barely managed to drag a small spider clear of a tendril of fire. The tendril, having lost its target, immediately darted toward another. "HUMAN!" At this cry, raw with pain and fury, the tendrils stilled.
"Two barrels. And one more each year after that. You are also forbidden from leaving your territory more than three kilometers in any direction. If I learn that any of your kind has been seen on the outskirts, I will return and destroy the colony entirely." The wizard's voice was ice. He dispersed the flames and looked directly into the great spider's eyes.
"Yes." The monster stared bitterly at the children lying on the ground, burned to death. Forcing down his fury, he looked at the robed figure.
"Good." At once, the cold oppressive weight hanging in the air lifted. A second barrel appeared beside Severus. "You have one hour to fill them. If you fail, we resume our game. And next time I will not leave anyone alive, including that spider hiding in the burrow behind you." At these words, all eight of the monster's eyes trembled. Swallowing his hatred, he shot webs at the barrels and drew them toward himself.
"Leave this place. My children will bring them to you."
"As you like. You have fifty-eight minutes." He patted the boar's back, and they headed toward the exit.
Aragog felt the pull of temptation: attack from behind, avenge his children, reclaim his dignity. He crushed it at once, reasoning that this was precisely what the stranger had been counting on. Only after the figure had left the lair did the Acromantula begin summoning his kin to fill the barrels with venom.
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