Hogwarts Raven

Chapter 447, Section 446: Oh my God!

A faint one.

But the "sense of light" does indeed exist.

It began to replace the previous despairing nothingness.

"Huh? What's going on?" Ian stopped, sensing the sudden change with wariness. It was as if he had passed through an invisible membrane, stepping from a malevolent realm into a new area... temporarily unknown, but at least free from the pollution that constantly tried to erode him.

As time passed, the suffocating absolute darkness receded like the tide, replaced by a lifeless gray hue that permeated every corner.

It wasn't that things became brighter; rather, it was more like a transition from extreme "darkness" to a kind of "eternal twilight." The twilight-like light seemed to come from nowhere, scattering evenly without any light source or shadow. Everything was shrouded in an oppressive and lifeless grayness.

"At least now I can stand on solid ground."

Ian looked down and felt his surroundings, realizing that he was finally "grounded" again. Beneath his feet was some kind of extremely cold, granular black rock, similar in texture to the bluestone slabs he had seen in that endless corridor, but darker in color, as if bearing the weight of endless years and death.

He tried to stomp on it, but the rock didn't budge; it remained hopelessly solid.

"So, this is some kind of sealed-off little world, or a period of time?" Ian looked up and saw no sky, no sun, moon, or stars, only an endless space, which was also a deathly gray "dome"—or perhaps it wasn't a dome at all.

Rather, it is the boundary of this special space.

The light seeped out from that dead ashes.

Here, the darkness no longer obstructed vision, but visibility was limited by the eerie gray light. Ian appeared to be standing on an extremely vast plain.

Look around.

The ground is undulating, seemingly composed of the same type of black rock, with jagged, distorted shapes, as if it were instantly shaped and solidified under some extreme force.

In addition, there was a faint smell in the air, like a mixture of dust and some kind of ancient mold, dry and cold, and in short, devoid of any life.

"Something strange."

Ian was certain he had found the location of the mysterious creature, but the situation was somewhat different from what he had expected. Most importantly, the insidious malice, the countless prying "gazes," and the insane whispers and hallucinations that tried to erode his mind had completely disappeared here.

Logically, shouldn't they be more concentrated?
After all, we've gotten close to their location.

It's not just that the constant, relentless attacks of the past are gone; the feeling that has taken its place can be seen as a kind of harmless but deeper, almost deathly stillness, as if it originated from the end of all things.

It's as if this is the end of all the noise and madness.

It is a place where even "pollution" itself eventually settles and returns to nothingness.

"Is that guy even here?" Ian remained vigilant. He gripped his elder wand tightly, extending his senses to their maximum.

A tentative expansion of mental power.

They cautiously began exploring this unknown land of ashes.

Some investigation.

The cause could not be determined.

He discovered that although his spiritual power was not affected by anything, it was about ten thousand times more difficult to spread out in this place than in the normal world.

Yes, that's right, ten thousand times. Perhaps it's related to the fact that this place doesn't belong to the normal world, or it may be related to other factors. In any case, it's very difficult for Ian's mental power to truly spread outside.

If you can only detect a few dozen meters around, what's the difference between that and not detecting anything at all?
"Damn it!"

Ian pursed his lips. He had no choice but to resort to the most primitive method of exploration. He headed in one direction, his footsteps echoing softly on the black rocky ground.

It was the only sound in this deathly silent space. Ian walked for a long time, the surrounding scenery remaining almost unchanged—endless black jagged rocks, a hazy gray light, and a deathly silent sky.

He did try to use magic to probe.

The "Magic Weasel" was released again, spreading outwards. As expected, like mental energy, these magical creatures, which are controlled by mental energy, also had limited mobility.

Although it's much better than simply using mental energy to probe, it only covers a distance of a few hundred meters, and the information returned from within a few hundred meters is still very monotonous.

It's nothing but rocks.

There were no energy fluctuations, no signs of life, no spatial distortion, and even the previously dense, almost imperceptible, polluting aura was now so thin that it was almost imperceptible.

It was as if I had been assimilated and decomposed by the "dead silence" of this space.

"Damn it! Where is this place? Is it a small world?" Ian tried to fly again, his body rising to a height of a hundred meters. His field of vision opened up considerably, but all he could see was an endless, desolate expanse. The undulating black rocky plains stretched all the way to the gray horizon.

There was nothing else to be seen.

An unprecedented sense of loneliness crept in. Unlike the previous encounters with monsters and the encroachment of darkness, which were fierce battles that could be considered lively.

But this place is different; here is a slow, silent, ultimate decay. It's as if he's the only person left in the entire universe, and this eternal but meaningless deathly silence.

"There must be a way out, right? Is that guy trying to trap me here? It should be hiding here too; my intuition has never been wrong." Ian persisted, changing direction to continue exploring. Several hours passed, perhaps longer, in this space where the sense of time had vanished.

He had no way of knowing. The result remained the same.

Just when he was almost convinced that this land of ashes was the final destination.

The cage was unremarkable. But after Ian climbed over a particularly tall, black stone ridge that resembled the spine of a giant beast, the scene finally changed.

"This little world is really big, but I knew I hadn't entered a dead end."

At the horizon, the outline of a massive, unimaginably large complex of buildings slowly emerged.

That's a city.

A dead city.

"Ancient ruins? A history swallowed up?" Ian quickened his pace, flying towards the complex of buildings. As he drew closer, the details of the city gradually became clearer.

All the buildings were constructed from cold, black boulders, in an extremely ancient and bizarre style, completely unlike any civilization Ian knew.

They exhibit various structures that defy the common sense of physics and geometric logic—the tilting spires seem to be about to collapse at any moment, yet they are frozen in that instant.

The massive archway twists into a spiral. Countless angular, enormous stones are stacked together in a way that seems random yet subtly reveals a kind of frenzied rhythm, forming an indescribable, colossal structure.

There are no windows or obvious doorways in the city; only deep, dark cracks, like wounds, adorn the building surfaces.

Similar to the plains outside, the entire city was utterly silent, devoid of any sign of life, not even a breath of wind. It lay like the cold, stiff corpse of a giant god, sprawling across the ashes, exuding a suffocating sense of antiquity and death.

"Is that guy sealed inside?" Ian landed on the edge of the city. He stood before a wide "road," paved with black boulders, wide enough for dozens of carriages to pass side by side. The road led straight into the depths of the city, flanked by silent and strange black buildings.

They resemble two rows of silent tombstones.

"Da da da~ da da da`"

Ian walked along the main road into the city.

Footsteps echoed through the empty, deathly silent city, carrying far and wide, adding to the eeriness. He tried to enter some buildings, but those seemingly cracked entrances were actually shrouded in chaotic darkness, impenetrable even to his senses, as if sealed off by some force. He pounded on the walls with all his might.

"Bang bang bang~"

The result was the same as before; not even a scratch could be left. This city, like the rocks outside, was indestructible and refused to be explored.

no way.

Ian could only continue deeper along the main road.

The city's internal structure was even more complex, with countless similar megalithic avenues crisscrossing like a maze. He walked for a long time and saw more bizarre buildings—some like a giant beast crawling on the ground, covered in spikes; others like a giant stone ring that spiraled upwards but strangely folded back at the top.

Others are simply a jumble of enormous, mirror-smooth geometric shapes piled together haphazardly. But regardless of their form, they all maintain absolute silence and enclosure.

Finally, after seemingly traversing the entire city, or perhaps just a tiny corner of it, Ian arrived at a remarkably spacious "square." In the center of the square stood a building; it wasn't the tallest in the city, but it was certainly the most eye-catching.

It was an extremely magnificent building.

No, it's less of a building and more of a giant stone gate or the structure of a door frame.

It consists of two black stone pillars, hundreds of meters high, carved with incomprehensible twisted reliefs, and a huge stone beam, also covered with bizarre carvings, spanning the top of the pillars.

Beneath this stone gate, there is no actual "door panel," but only an extremely deep, dark entrance that seems to lead to another dimension.

"Again? At the Stone Gate?"

Ian felt he might be destined to clash with all these messy, various kinds of doors. If the world were a novel, he thought the author would definitely have a grudge against doors.

Complaining in my heart.

Ian looked up and continued to observe. At the base of the stone pillar on the right side of this massive doorway was a relatively flat black stone slab, inscribed with enormous, strange characters that possessed an inhuman beauty—the first systematic and fairly clear written information Ian had seen since entering this ruin!

"Finally, we've found some information?" Ian's heart skipped a beat. He strode to the stone pillar and looked up at the inscriptions.

The form of the writing was unlike any other language system he knew. It was more like a living, slightly writhing hybrid of geometric patterns and biological organs, full of dynamic, unsettling beauty. Just looking at these words gave Ian a slight mental ache.

It's as if these words themselves are emitting a faint form of information pollution.

"It's similar to the text in the previous corridor, but it also contains some text that resembles a magical script system, like something written by a human."

“Perhaps I can use this difference to decipher it.” Ian took a deep breath, suppressing all discomfort, and concentrated all his energy, drawing upon his vast magical knowledge, linguistic expertise, and perception of the origins of rules, to begin analyzing the text with all his might.

This is not a simple translation.

It's more like a spiritual decryption and a resonance and forced interpretation at the level of rules.

His magic, like the finest carving knife, carefully probed into the structure of those characters, sensing the ideas, history, and concepts they contained. As long as the beings who wrote the words possessed thought, Ian's methods could connect them to the thoughts of those beings who wrote them.

In this way, he could obtain the deciphered information he wanted.

This is an extremely sophisticated form of mental magic, which even Dumbledore might find difficult to perform. It is one of the signature skills of the Dark Witch Morgana.

It's not hard to see from the cause of Morgan's death that the reason she created such magic was related to her love of exploring various ruins.

after all.

With such magic, exploring those ruins would be much easier. As Ms. Morgan's prized disciple, Ian has inherited Ms. Morgan's magical legacy quite well.

He analyzed it with all his might.

Time passed little by little.

"This is a bit difficult." Fine beads of sweat appeared on Ian's forehead, and his mental energy was being consumed at an alarming rate. The complexity of these characters far exceeded his imagination. Every stroke seemed to be connected to some ancient and crazy truth, and if he was not careful, he might be overwhelmed by the torrent of ideas contained within them.

The thoughts contained in the words.

He saw a churning, chaotic sea filled with enormous, terrifying figures… He sensed the distorted arrangement of the stars and their maddening rhythms… He touched whispers beyond time and slumbering, ancient malice… Finally, after countless attempts and breaking through countless layers of mental encryption, the name represented by those enormous, twisted, blasphemous characters was revealed, like the final unveiling of a forbidden veil.

It surfaced very clearly in the depths of his consciousness.

R'lyeh
R'lyeh.

Yes, that's the name of the place Ian is in now. It's the information he deciphered from those ancient texts, which immediately made the fearless little wizard's expression turn a little off.

Or rather, deathly pale.

"What the hell?! What kind of place have I been put in?!"

How could Ian not know what that name represents?
R'lyeh.

A fantasy legend that should be sleeping beneath the deep sea, existing outside the dimension of reality, is a dream city that only exists in some of the oldest, most obscure, and most unbelievable forbidden myths.

It is said to be the final resting place of Cthulhu, the Great Old One.

"Oh my God."

Ian stumbled back a step, his face turning deathly pale, a chill running from his feet to the top of his head. He finally understood just how terrifying a place he had stumbled into!

How could a place like this exist in the world of Harry Potter?!
(End of this chapter)