Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 237, Section 236: The Arrival of Demons and the Participation of Elemental Warfare

We have no choice but to withdraw, because Lockhart's behavior has become increasingly terrifying, the kind of terrifying that any discerning person can see is definitely not something a student can handle.

Along with Hermione, Neville, and several other shaman apprentices, Professor Flitwick rushed in. The agile old man swiftly waved his wand, and in an instant, fire, lightning, ice, and even pure wizarding spells were launched at Lockhart in turn.

Professor Flitwick was quickly testing Lockhart's protective powers to see which aspect they were more focused on, but he found that no matter what spell or damage he used, it seemed to have no effect on Lockhart at this moment.

In most places, it was not visible, but Lockhart's exposed skin was covered with broken cracks, as if his whole body had become a porcelain on the verge of breaking. However, no blood flowed from the cracks, but instead, there was a green light.

Something was lurking inside Lockhart's body, and Lockhart himself was unaware of it, as he lay on the ground constantly groping for magic runes and muttering to himself.

"This is impossible, this is impossible!"

There was no time to deal with Lockhart's problem anymore; Professor Flitwick planned to leave such an obviously difficult matter to Dumbledore or Harry Potter when they returned later. For now, all he needed to do was rescue these students who were tied up.

Lockhart was completely obsessed. He didn't even notice that the students he had painstakingly tied up were being rescued by having their ropes cut. His mind seemed to be stuck on that moment, unable to break free.

To others, Lockhart's condition appeared to be worsening.

"...Impossible, something must be wrong, I need to check, I need to check...This can't be, this—idiot!!"

Lockhart's voice grew increasingly strange, the sounds emanating from his throat becoming less and less human, more like the roar of a wild beast or some other bizarre creature—until he suddenly roared.

"Because you are the sacrifice! Mortal! You are the coordinates of this world offered up for me!"

The voice, which had been hidden within Lockhart's body, finally became independent of him.

As he roared, Lockhart's mind seemed to finally return to this body, and he stared in horror at his hands—hands that had been corrupted by fel energy, cracked and withered.

"This can't be!!" Lockhart screamed, frantically grabbing at his hair, which he was once so proud of, as it fell apart like withered leaves. "Why—this shouldn't be! I should be the next Dumbledore! Why! Why?!"

He couldn't care less about Lockhart's changes; Professor Flitwick had already led his students to escape. He had to warn the others in the castle as quickly as possible.

“Ah, a tempting fallen soul,” the voice within Lockhart’s body exclaimed with admiration. “If it weren’t for the need for a coordinate to open the passage between the Twisted Nether and the real world, I would love to savor its taste.”

As this sound appeared, Lockhart's voice, which had been distorted by pain, became weaker. The entire underground classroom was filled with green light, and amidst Lockhart's wails, a portal burning with green flames appeared in the center of the magic circle.

Soon, a creature with huge, sharp hooves, knees in reverse joints, and a pair of ferocious three-sectioned bone wings on its back stepped out of the portal. If Harry were here, he would recognize what this creature was in an instant—an Aranas.

This is a spider-like demon race whose homeworld was conquered by the Burning Legion long ago, and the race was completely transformed into a new kind of demon, which then spread throughout the Twisting Nether over countless years.

The Twisting Nether is the lair of all demons. When they die outside, unless they are intercepted and killed by special means, their souls will return to the Twisting Nether and be resurrected over time. As far as the Twisting Nether is concerned, the demons belonging to the Burning Legion are only a part of it.

“Hiss—what clean air!” The demon took a deep breath. “There’s no stench of holy light, no disgusting shadows—this will become the Spider Queen’s most wonderful lair.”

"Lannax! Don't forget what you promised me!" Suddenly, a male voice came from Lockhart.

“Ah, my little partner,” the female spider demon revealed a dangerous smile. Even though it looked like she was smiling, her mouthful of sharp teeth was anything but friendly. “Of course I remember our agreement, but—you’re just a fragment of a soul, aren’t you?”

Suddenly, it struck. The bone wings on Lannax's back pierced Lockhart's body, or more accurately, they pierced something he kept in his robes—a pitch-black diary.

"What are you trying to do?!" The male voice suddenly became furious. "Are you trying to break our contract?!"

"Breaking contracts is the nature of demons. Human, though you are just a fragment, when it comes to darkness and madness, you are no less than—hmm?" Lannax's words came to an abrupt halt as she watched in astonishment as the black diary vanished into thin air.

"I knew demons had no credibility, but it doesn't matter, as long as you're here, that's enough."

"This is... the magic of this world?" Lanax shook the bone wing still stuck to Lockhart's body as if he were shaking some rag. He didn't shake out anything else and then listlessly threw Lockhart to the ground.

“Interesting… but that’s all.” Lanax raised her hand, and with that movement, Lockhart’s corpse suddenly exploded into a cloud of yellowish-green liquid, along with countless translucent yellow spiderlings, each no bigger than a palm, that were ejected from the liquid.

"Go, my children... conquer this world for the Spider Queen."

Like a tidal wave, tiny spiders surged out of the underground classroom in the blink of an eye, upwards and outwards.

Hogwarts, a place fraught with misfortune.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that Hogwarts has been attacked by all sorts of people or things since last year, and the enemies that launch these attacks are getting more and more powerful, from Death Eaters to Basilisks and now these... demons!
Professor McGonagall was very grateful that because of the basilisk attack, the school had been equipped with a regular professor patrol team ever since. With the help of magic, the students were evacuated as quickly as possible, and the alarms issued by the amplification charm echoed in every corner of Hogwarts.

In such an emergency evacuation, the fact that Hogwarts has so few students becomes a good thing. Professor McGonagall, for one, cannot imagine how the safety of the students would be protected in such a crisis if Hogwarts were like a Muggle school with thousands or even tens of thousands of students.

Some of the bolder students might have thought the professor was just playing a prank on them. After all, in the immediate period following the Basilisk attack, Hogwarts did conduct several emergency evacuation drills and hold several large lectures on how young wizards should protect themselves in the event of a dangerous emergency.

Originally, it was just a precaution against the possibility of another basilisk attacking students. After confirming that there was no second basilisk in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, it was stopped. Little did they expect that it would actually come in handy one day.

Those lively elements that are usually everywhere and have gradually become disliked by some people because of their large numbers also came in handy at this time. When Hermione and her shaman apprentices brought news of Ron's disappearance, and Luna divined that Ron was in Lockhart's hands, Professor McGonagall was already working on dealing with this incident of a professor attacking a student.

But when Professor Flitwick led a group of rescued students to the ground, shouting for them to evacuate, Hogwarts Castle revealed its long-unseen side in the face of war.

Especially after Filch used his vision spell to show Professor McGonagall what the underground classroom looked like now, Professor McGonagall no longer hesitated—in Dumbledore's absence, as the Vice-Headmaster of Hogwarts, she had the necessity and the obligation to protect the safety of every young wizard.

"The stone blocks are being deployed!!"

Standing atop the castle's astronomical tower, Professor McGonagall waved her wand and activated the castle's defensive system.

Therefore, the moment those shrieking spider demons rushed from the underground corridors into the castle hall, they were met with heavy stone or steel axes that cleaved several spider demons in two.

These were the numerous knightly armors or statues placed in the corridors and courtyards of the castle. At this moment, they all came to life, transforming into soldiers capable of holding back the battle lines and forcefully stopping the spider demons from charging out.

The fact that these monsters emerging from the bottom of the castle were neither untouchable ethereal entities nor undead creatures like Dementors relieved Professor McGonagall somewhat. At least this gave them the ability to fight back, and spells like Stun or Split in two could also work on these monsters. The only problem was that there were just too many of them.

Needless to say, the countless tiny spiders were a given; the statues could crush many of them with every move. The real troublesome ones were the large spiders that rushed out from the sea of ​​tiny spiders, as well as the monsters with spider lower bodies and human upper bodies.

These monsters can not only move freely through the castle ceiling with spider silk, but their bodies are also covered with hard armor. Sometimes, when armored soldiers swing their weapons at them, they even break their own sword hilts.

After all, it's not a puppet specifically designed for combat, and the weapons it uses aren't any divine weapons. Its only advantage is that it's worthless—and indeed it's worthless.

Because they can be transformed into materials for transformation at any time, even if they are cut or broken, the fragments will transform into soldiers wielding sharp knives, spears, and axes under the effect of transformation and continue to attack.

But even with such convenient consumable soldiers, the castle's defensive line crumbled at an extremely fast pace, because the spider demons possessed not only hard shells, but also their corrosive venom and—magic.

Green fel flames coiled around some of the humanoid spider demons, who laughed maniacally as they violently destroyed everything in their path with the fel fire. The statues engulfed by the fel flames were unable to stand up again, as if all life had been stripped away, and they were completely reduced to ashes.

"Minerva! The students have all been evacuated!!" A shattering spell tore a lunging spider demon to shreds as Professor Flitwick shouted, "No reinforcements yet? We can't hold on much longer!"

The spider demons were more powerful than the professors had anticipated. Even the stone statues or steel soldiers that were constantly being transformed by the shapeshifting spell initially had clear faces and detailed outlines, but as the battle progressed, they quickly became only vaguely shaped, as this was more economical with magic.

It wasn't just a simple feeling. As the Vice-Headmaster who held some authority at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall could clearly sense that the castle's magic was gradually decreasing—or more accurately, being devoured.

No one knows what those monsters did in the underground classrooms. They seemed to be aware of the existence of the Vision spell and took corresponding measures to block it. In short, no one knows what they did to the castle, but Hogwarts is indeed undergoing an invisible destruction.

“And Dumbledore!” Professor Sinister shouted. “We need Dumbledore! Or Professor Potter—anyone! And the Ministry?!”

"We've already called for help! Hang in there!" Professor McGonagall gritted her teeth and shouted, "Hold on! We can't lose Hogwarts!!"

This thousand-year-old magic school holds a unique significance for the British magical community. Professor McGonagall could hardly imagine how future generations would record Dumbledore, the headmaster, if Hogwarts were destroyed during her time there.

Just then, a huge cloud of wind elemental broke through the glass ceiling of the auditorium and flew in, with a student named Luna perched on top of it.

"Professor! We've come to help too!" Luna shouted. "The elementals hate these monsters! They're polluting the land of Hogwarts!!"

Along with Luna, there were not only wind elementals, but also a large number of earth and fire elementals. If viewed from the sky outside the castle, one could see many translucent water elementals leaping out of the Black Lake near the castle. They climbed up the cliff and reached Hogwarts at the top of the cliff in no time!

(End of this chapter)