Hogwarts Raven

Chapter 452, Section 451: Echoes of the Past 2
What did the man in the black robe realize?

He certainly realized where the ruins his teacher had shown him were located!
The man in black robes stood at the edge of the fading light of time, his robes billowing slightly in the invisible wind. He had just witnessed those twisted, writhing, amorphous creatures—some of which had no eyes, yet seemed to see into souls; others had no mouths, yet uttered whispers that chilled to the bone.

They are not from hell, nor are they creations of the abyss, but rather... corrupted creatures! They are aberrations born from the decay of terrifying creatures' own magic within the time rift!
Yes!

The Ministry of Magic still doesn't understand what that terrifying creature is; all it knows is that it is far too evil, a remnant of something much older and more indescribable.

Their very existence is eroding the very boundaries of reality!
Let logic crumble, let reason collapse.

It can be said that this is beyond any existing understanding of magic, and this is not a degeneration of magic, but rather as if some kind of creature is trying to use magic to cover up some greater horror!
The man in the black robe felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

He abruptly turned to the blind wizard beside him, his voice hoarse like a torn parchment: "The ruins you found back then... the place that blinded you... this is it!?"

“The Ministry of Magic was built on this ruin, wasn’t it!” The air seemed to freeze. In the distance, the distorted shadows emitted silent shrieks, warping even time itself. The man in black felt his thoughts being slowly permeated by a viscous darkness—those creatures weren’t from the past, but had never left.

They have been lurking beneath the foundations of the Ministry of Magic, like parasites drawing upon the will and dreams of spellcasters, twisting order into madness as nourishment.

"There's a reason for that. The reason I didn't tell you before was because I knew that this matter itself is a kind of pollution. Yes, it's that unsolvable and terrifying."

The blind wizard nodded slowly, a kind of sorrowful calm appearing on his face.

His eyes had turned to ashes a century ago when he stared directly at the existence "behind the door," but that was not failure, but the only price he could pay to survive.

"Continue, until you understand what I've learned, and then I will answer your questions." The blind wizard looked at his memories again.

"Monsters! Monsters, die!"

In his memory, Kag threw his battle axe without hesitation. The axe spun in the air and cleaved precisely into the monster's head. But something even more terrifying happened—the monster did not die immediately. Countless tiny tentacles emerged from its cleaved head, attempting to heal the wound.

"They have powerful regenerative abilities!" Lina exclaimed, simultaneously unleashing a purifying aura. The holy light caused the tentacles to melt away like snow meeting the sun.

Saruman's eyes narrowed: "Use fire and holy light magic; they fear pure energy attacks!"

The three worked together seamlessly: Saruman and Lina controlled and weakened the enemy, while Kag used his enchanted battle axe to deliver the fatal blow. After a fierce battle, they finally eliminated the threat in the swamp temporarily.

“These creatures are too abnormal.” Saruman wiped the sweat from his brow. “Their life forms completely defy the laws of nature.”

Lina stared into the depths of the swamp, her voice trembling: "What puzzles me most is how these creatures have survived for so long in this enclosed environment? According to my perception, this burrow has existed for at least tens of thousands of years."

Kag kicked a monster's corpse on the ground: "Have you noticed that after they die, their bodies decompose rapidly and are then absorbed by the swamp? It's practically like a self-sufficient ecosystem."

Saruman nodded in agreement, but his expression grew more serious: “A meticulously designed, distorted ecosystem. I suspect we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.”

They bypassed the swamp and continued deeper into the cave. The passage began to slope downwards, the gradient becoming increasingly steep, and the walls on both sides gradually transformed into a smooth, unnatural material that felt warm and smooth to the touch, yet emitted unsettling energy fluctuations that made them feel very uneasy.

“We are heading towards the Earth’s core,” Saruman estimated the depth. “We’ve already surpassed the deepest known magical ruins, and this place is also strange.”

Lina suddenly stopped, her face pale: "Wait. I sense something ahead. Something very large, very ancient."

She couldn't help but activate her sensory abilities.

Kag gripped his battle axe tightly: "Friend or foe?"

"I don't know, I really don't know. It's beyond my comprehension, and I don't dare to truly perceive or observe it!" Lina's voice was almost inaudible.

It simply exists. Like a mountain, like a sea.

Saruman took a deep breath, and a resolute light shone from the tip of his wand: "No matter what, we must keep going. The truth lies ahead."

As they rounded a bend, the sight before them made all three hold their breath—the narrow passage ahead was no longer open, but a vast, boundless space.

At the center of this space, a stone corridor with no beginning or end twists and spirals in a geometrically unnatural way, forming a bizarre, infinitely looping structure. The walls of the corridor are covered with strange, moving characters that emanate unsettling energy fluctuations.

“The Infinite Corridor,” Saruman murmured, his eyes filled with both fear and excitement at discovering a momentous secret. “The legendary passage connecting the mortal world to the unspeakable realm.”

Lina's crystal ball suddenly burst into a blinding light, then dimmed completely. She collapsed to the ground, tears streaming silently down her face: "We shouldn't have come. This is the most forbidden place."

Kag slammed his battle axe heavily on the ground with a dull thud: "Now that we're here, there's no turning back. Saruman, what's next?"

Saruman gazed at the seemingly living, infinite corridor for a long time before slowly uttering a sentence: "We continue onward. But remember, from this moment on, every sight we see may overturn all our understanding. Do not believe, but hold fast to your own convictions."

"Remember! We wizards are the strongest! There is nothing a wizard cannot defeat!" He may have also grasped the truth that Ian had come to understand.

This is being put into practice now.

just.

The blind wizard's expression was very complicated upon seeing this.

Inside the cell, the illusion formed by the silver light rippled slightly. The man in the black robe stared at the endless corridor, his body visibly stiffening. Even through the hood, the shock he felt was palpable.

"This is it! The 'Abyss Corridor' recorded in the Ministry of Magic's top-secret files!"

The black-robed man's voice trembled with disbelief, "A legendary passage connecting to an indescribable place. The department spent hundreds of years and used all its resources to seal it!"

He abruptly turned to the blind wizard, his voice filled with complex emotions: "Teacher, are you the one who first opened this place? You were the one who discovered and opened it back then!?"

obviously.

This information had not been given to the blind wizard before, which is why it has now caused such a great shock to the man in black.

The blind wizard Saruman nodded bitterly.

Tears seemed to be streaming from his empty eye sockets: "Yes, my child. That reckless, ignorant fool who thought he could explore all mysteries, that was me."

His voice was filled with a thousand years of regret: "In the exploration that followed, I lost everything—my eyes, my companions, my future. Now I regret it too late, but everything is irreversible. I can only spend my whole life trying to make up for this mistake."

His body trembled slightly from the pain, and those long-buried memories were like the sharpest blades, tearing his soul apart time and time again.

The man in black robes instinctively took a step forward, seemingly wanting to help, but ultimately stopped in his tracks.

“Keep watching, keep watching, child.” The blind wizard’s voice was weak but firm. “You need to know the whole truth to understand what we are facing.”

The silver light stabilized once more, and the scenes of memory continued to unfold.

Before the endless corridor, the young Saruman took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock in his heart. He turned to his two companions, trying to make his voice sound confident.

“Kag, Lina, I know this is terrifying. But think of the original purpose of our ‘Eye of Dawn’—to explore the unknown and uncover the truth.” His blue eyes gleamed with determination. “This discovery before us, this mad ruin, could very well rewrite the entire history of magic.” “We cannot back down here.”

He might have something in common with Grindelwald.

Ambitious.

therefore.

A lifelong regret.

Kag snorted heavily, gripping his battle axe tightly: "We've come all this way, we can't leave empty-handed. But Saruman, let me make this clear: if things don't look good, we must retreat immediately."

Lina's face was still pale, but she nodded with difficulty: "My prophetic abilities have completely failed here, but since this is our choice, I will of course stick to it to the end."

To prevent inflation.

I regained my fighting spirit.

The three of them carefully stepped into the Infinite Corridor.

Upon entering, they immediately felt a suffocating sense of oppression. The words on the walls of the corridor seemed to come alive, wriggling slightly as their gaze swept over them.

It exudes a somber, spiritual pollution.

“Don’t stare at those words for too long!” Saruman warned immediately. “They will affect your mind!”

This group of people clearly did not possess Ian's powerful mental abilities, so they were not very resistant to the contamination of this kind of text, and appeared extremely cautious and terrified.

The interior of the corridor was even more eerie than it appeared from the outside. Although the group seemed to be walking forward, they often felt as if they were spinning in circles. Even more unsettling was the fact that time seemed to flow differently here; the hands of a pocket watch began to spin wildly, creating a strong sense of unease.

"This way!"

Kag suddenly roared and swung his battle axe into the shadows. A deformed creature lurking in the corner was cleaved in two—it had the shell of a beetle but arms resembling those of a human.

It was still crying like a baby.

It was absolutely terrifying.

"very scary!"

Lina immediately cast a purification spell, and the holy light dispelled the black mist emanating from the corpses: "These creatures... they are mutated beings produced by the energy here."

As they ventured deeper, they encountered even more bizarre creatures: mushroom-shaped monsters that spewed acid, slime clumps capable of splitting and regenerating, and even mimicry creatures that could imitate human voices to lure them. Each encounter was exceptionally dangerous, these creatures not only possessing bizarre forms...

They also possess various unique abilities that are difficult to defend against. Clearly, unlike when Ian arrived, the corridors at this time still harbor many mutated creatures.

“Their attack methods and body structure are completely contrary to the laws of nature! Nor do they conform to the sense of prediction that my anatomy studies can give me!” Kag said breathlessly after a battle, his arm scratched by the scales of a flying creature, the wound already turning black and rotting.

Saruman immediately cast a healing spell on him.

But the effect was minimal.

"The pollution here is too strong, and conventional magic is severely interfered with." He had to resort to an ancient white magic spell to barely stop the worsening of his injuries.

Lina's situation is even worse.

Although she had shielded herself from most of the mental pollution with a sealing spell, the pervasive whispers in the corridors continued to erode her will. Her gaze began to wander.

From time to time, I will suddenly fall into a dazed state.

"Lina, hold on!" Saruman supported his swaying companion, channeling pure magic into her body. "We're almost there. I can feel it; the exit of the corridor is just ahead!"

This is clearly just a form of comfort, but it can't be called deception. After all, in such a terrible place, a little comfort might be the best medicine to save someone's will.

This statement did seem to give Lina some strength.

She managed to steady herself and nodded.

After a particularly brutal battle—against a group of bizarre creatures capable of manipulating shadows—the three finally saw the end of the corridor. There stood a massive stone door, carved with incomprehensible patterns and radiating chilling energy fluctuations.

It is clear.

This is another place Ian has been to.

Although thousands of years have passed and had a great impact on the outside world, it seems that nothing has changed for this ruin.

This might be related to the different flow of time, but it could also be related to the permanent nature of this place that Ian noticed.

"That's it! We've arrived!" Saruman's eyes gleamed with excitement. "All the secrets, all the answers, must lie behind that door!"

Kag perked up, despite his multiple injuries: "We're almost there! I don't want to stay in this hellhole a second longer! Once we find what we need, we'll get out of here!"

The three quickened their pace and headed towards the stone gate.

As they drew closer, they could see the carvings on the door more clearly—distorted star charts, bizarre geometric shapes, and the silhouettes of creatures that seemed to be struggling in pain.

"These patterns are truly amazing."

Saruman studied them with fascination, “They seem to be describing some ancient prophecy!”

Just as they were about to reach the stone gate.

"Aaaaaah!!!" Lina suddenly let out a heart-wrenching scream. The fear and despair contained in that sound sent a chill down the spines of both Saruman and Kag.

"Lina? What's wrong?"

Saruman quickly helped his companion, who was almost collapsing to the ground.

He noticed something was wrong with his companion.

The blind wizard who cast this memory spell also shed tears of regret in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)