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Chapter 164: Durin's Gate

Chapter 164: Durin's Gate
Even though he had already caught a glimpse of part of the appearance of the watcher in the water.

But when it was fully exposed to everyone, everyone was still shocked by its huge size.

The underwater watcher is 50 meters long, and its tentacles are several times longer than its body. If the length of the tentacles is included, it is even longer than the dragon Smaug, reaching about 150 meters!
In addition, the underwater watcher is covered with hard scale-like bones.

The dwarves shot at it with their sharp arrows, but they could not leave a single wound on it.

Without the cover of the lake, the underwater watcher was very uneasy, waving its tentacles and making threatening gestures in an attempt to scare away everyone.

But at this moment, it is like a toothless tiger, and its threat to everyone is greatly reduced.

Dui waved his wand and cut off its tentacles one by one.

The observer in the water showed fear on his face and immediately ran upstream.

It is an evil water creature created by Morgoth. It originally lived in the underground waters of the Misty Mountains. When the dwarves of Khazad-dûm kept digging for mithril mines, not only the Balrog was awakened.

The underwater watcher is one of them.

It came to the surface along the underground river dug by the dwarves and built a barrier lake there to survive.

Now I just want to escape back to the underground waters of the Misty Mountains and wait for the future.

But Dui would not give it a chance to escape.

"Smaug, burn it!" Dui shouted at the dragon.

Smaug received the order and flew directly in front of the underwater watcher, spraying out scorching dragon flames.

The dragon flame quickly fell on the underwater watcher and spread, causing it to scream in pain and frantically wave its tentacles to slap the flames on its body until it spurted out a stream of ink, extinguishing the flames.

But the body, especially the tentacles, were burned red by the flames, and they emitted the smell of meat.

One of the dwarves smelled the aroma of meat and his stomach made a rumbling sound, causing his companions to look at him strangely.

The dwarf chuckled and said a little embarrassedly: "Isn't it time for dinner? I'm a little hungry."

……

Seeing that the way forward was blocked by the dragon, the watcher in the water immediately turned around and rushed downstream.

Just when he thought he was about to escape, the snake monster Herpo, who had been lurking in the water downstream, gave him a wave of death eyes.

The two big eyes of the underwater watcher were caught off guard by the basilisk's pair of yellow eyes.

The next second, the body of the observer in the water froze, and his huge body quickly stiffened and turned into gray stone.

It looks like a giant octopus stone sculpture that comes to life!

"Huh?" Dui frowned and flew over immediately, looking at the petrified underwater watcher in confusion.

Shouldn't staring directly into the eyes of a basilisk kill him instantly? Why did he become petrified?

It was not until he flew to the huge eyes of the underwater watcher that he discovered that its eyes were covered with a layer of eye membrane to protect the eyes.

Dui suddenly realized that he was looking at the basilisk indirectly through the eye mask, which was why he was not killed but petrified.

Gandalf also flew over on his broom and hit the petrified water watcher with his staff. It felt like hitting a stone.

The dwarf Balin also ran over, looked at the statue-like behemoth, and asked in confusion: "Is it dead?"

"I think not," said Gandalf, "but it is more like a curse of petrification, a very profound one, am I not, Doir?"

Dui nodded.

"Gandalf was right. This water monster was very lucky. If it had looked directly into the basilisk's eyes, it would have been killed instantly. However, there was a transparent membrane protecting its eyes, which prevented it from looking directly into the basilisk's eyes. That's why it was petrified."

"But this kind of petrification is not much different from death. The petrification of the basilisk is very difficult to break. If there is no corresponding method, it will be no different from stone."

As far as he knew, even Dumbledore was helpless against the basilisk's petrification, and only a powerful potion made from mandrake could break the petrification.

Dui looked at the huge underwater watcher and suddenly had an idea.

He hadn't considered anything else before, he just wanted to get rid of the octopus monster as soon as possible.

But now that he had petrified it, he no longer had any intention of killing it.

In another world's Hogwarts, there is a giant octopus in the Black Lake.

And now he is in the Black Lake under Fengyunding Mountain, but he still lacks a guard to prevent anyone from sneaking into the castle by water.

And the giant octopus in front of him, called the Water Watcher, is just right.

Dui admitted that he had a collecting addiction.

If he could subdue the underwater watcher, he would have another form of underwater helper.

In this way, he has collected all three powerful creatures from the sea, land and air.

So he expanded the suitcase containing the basilisk with the Traceless Extension Charm again, and then put the petrified giant octopus in it, allowing the basilisk and her to squeeze in for a while.

Gandalf was not surprised to see this. After all, Dui already had dragons, giant eagles, and basilisks, so it was not surprising to have a giant octopus.

Balin looked at Dui with a look of relief and said:

"We haven't even entered Durin's Gate yet, and we've already encountered such a horrible monster. If it weren't for you, Duir, and Gandalf, I can't imagine what would have happened if we were alone."

Upon hearing this, Dui just wanted to tell you the truth.

He remembered that in his original destiny, Balin also led 500 dwarves on an expedition to Moria.

At first, things went smoothly; they successfully drove the orcs out of some areas and settled there. Balin even proclaimed himself Lord of Moria and found treasures such as the Axe of Durin.

But not long after, Balin was shot dead by orcs in Mirror Lake. Then a large number of orcs poured into the east gate along the Silver Vein River and attacked Moria. The dwarf stronghold was broken and almost the entire army was wiped out.

The remaining surviving dwarves tried to escape through the west gate, but were stopped by the underwater watchers in the lake. Oin was even swept into the lake and died.

The other dwarves could only retreat to Moria, but faced with the large number of orcs, the dwarves could not resist at all. The number of dwarves continued to decrease as they retreated and fought. In the end, the surviving dwarves, including Ori, all died in the Mazarbul Chamber.

During the entire process, they didn't even see the big boss, the Balrog, before they were completely wiped out. Their remains were not discovered until the Fellowship of the Ring arrived in Moria.

But now, with the appearance of Dui, everything has changed.

Thorin Oakenshield, who was supposed to die in the Battle of Five Armies, did not die, but became the King under the Mountain of Lonely Mountain. This time, he even fully funded Balin to recapture Moria.

Balin's expedition to Moria was advanced by several decades, and the underwater watchers blocking the west gate were also dealt with by Dui in advance.

So if nothing unexpected happens, Balin and his men will not die in Moria, and they may even really recapture Moria.

After dealing with the watcher in the water, everyone finally arrived at the Gate of Durin with peace of mind.

Durin's Gate is integrated into the stone wall, making it difficult to tell its true location.

But this did not pose a problem for Gandalf. He had been here before Khazad-dûm fell to the Balrog, and he had even come here to look for the missing Thráin II, father of Thorin Oakenshield.

He came to a smooth stone wall between two tall holly trees, tapped the stone wall with his staff, and said in recollection: "I remember it was here. Durin's Gate was located between the two holly trees."

Then he introduced the gate to Dui and the dwarves: "The Gate of Durin, also known as the Elf Gate, was created by Celebrimbor, the Elf craftsman of Eregion, and Narvi, the Dwarf craftsman of Durin. The gate is inscribed with patterns and words in mithril, called Ithildin. The gate is only visible under moonlight or starlight."

"So we can only wait until night falls and the moon or stars come out to find the gate and enter?" Balin asked.

"I think so," Gandalf nodded.

Dui walked forward, tried to place his staff against the door, and whispered, "Alaho, open."

"How is it? Can you solve it?" Gandalf asked.

Dui shook his head. "The gate is under a powerful spell. Except for the correct password, no magic can force the gate open."

"Well, it looks like we really have to wait until evening."

"Not necessarily." Dui shook his head.

Gandalf looked at him in surprise, "Do you have any other ideas?"

Dui nodded.

"Didn't you say that the words and patterns on Durin's Gate would appear in moonlight and starlight? Does the Light of Earendil count as starlight?"

He smiled and took out a crystal bottle emitting starlight from his space pocket.

When Gandalf saw the crystal bottle, his eyes lit up and he smiled.

"Ha, I almost forgot you had this!"

"There's no starlight more pure than this!"

Dui raised the crystal bottle and shone it on the gate.

Under the light of Earendil, the outline of a gate and exquisite patterns outlined with silver-white lines appeared on the stone wall.

In the center of the gate is a multi-pointed star and two trees with crescent moons, and above the gate is the coat of arms representing Durin: iron felt, hammer, crown and seven stars.

And at the very top, there is a vault written in Sindarin.

Dui carefully examined the words on the vault and slowly deciphered them: "Lord of Moria, Gate of Durin, say friend, then enter..."

"Oh, Doir, I didn't know you knew Sindarin?" Gandalf asked in surprise.

Dui smiled and explained, "I learned it from Arwen. After all, many of the books in Rivendell are written in Elvish script, so I have to understand them to know their contents."

Gandalf nodded in appreciation: "Yes, it never hurts to read more."

Then he focused his main attention on the gate, frowning, "Lord of Moria, Gate of Durin, please say friend, and then enter?"

"What does that mean?" Balin asked in confusion.

"The meaning is clear. If you are a friend, say the password and the gate will open." Gandalf explained.

"What's the password?" Balin asked again.

Gandalf shrugged helplessly: "If I knew, I wouldn't be standing here, Master Balin!"

"Friend (Sindarin)" Dui said.

"What?" Gandalf and Balin looked at Dewi in confusion.

Then the next second, I was surprised to see the door open automatically.

Bahrain was very surprised and confused.

Gandalf, however, quickly realized, "I see. I was overthinking it. The clue is obvious. The elven text is of course spoken in the elven language."

Looking at the opened Durin's Gate, Balin and the dwarves were very excited and expectant.