Hogwarts wizards who signed in to Middle-earth.

Chapter 196 Ghost
After leaving the Black Barbarian Shrine, Dui flew low along an ancient path, passing through the Dimholt Forest and entering a deep canyon.

The environment along the way is gloomy, with ancient boulders like saw teeth on both sides, and the faint remains of buildings once inhabited by the mountain people.

After passing Dimholt, Dui finally saw the entrance to the Path of the Dead—the Dark Gate.

The Dark Gate was carved into a steep stone wall. The stone path along the way was already dilapidated and rotten. One wrong step and you would fall straight off the cliff and be smashed into a bloody pulp.

Dui landed directly in front of the Dark Portal on his broom, put the broom away, and held a staff in one hand and a sword in the other, his expression becoming solemn.

The Dark Gate was inscribed with symbols and words, emanating a terrifying aura of death.

It was as if we had arrived at the gates of hell, and once inside, we would face endless death and danger.

Dui did not linger and stepped directly into the Dark Gate.

Behind the Dark Gate lay a bottomless, dark cave. The Crown of Wisdom on Dui's head emerged, its gems shining brightly in the darkness, illuminating his path.

However, when Dui saw the scene inside the cave, he couldn't help but gasp.

The cave was filled with skeletons, with skulls piled up like mountains. Dui was walking on all kinds of human bones, with no gaps to be found. Moreover, with each step he took, he could hear the sound of bones being crushed under his feet.

At first, Dui felt there was nowhere to step and could only walk quietly, but after walking a lot, he simply gave up.

After all, the difference between crushing one bone and crushing countless bones is only zero or countless.

Besides the countless skeletons, the cave was also filled with a sinister and deathly atmosphere.

The temperature was extremely cold, so cold that it felt like your blood and bones were about to freeze, and your heart felt like it was being tightly squeezed by an icy hand.

What alarmed Dui was that, after traveling for so long, he hadn't seen a single ghost along the way, except for mountains of skeletons.

This situation is completely abnormal!
Finally, he arrived at the center of the cave, where there was a stone door.

Pushing open the stone door, behind which lies a vast space filled with mountains of skulls.

Those empty skulls and eye sockets seemed to be staring coldly at Dui.

However, what Dui noticed first was a skeleton behind the door.

The skeleton was dressed in magnificent armor and wore a golden helmet, indicating its high status.

His finger bones were digging into the crack in the door, and beside him was a sword that had once been used to chop at the stone door and was now dull.

Clearly, he tried to escape before he died, but ultimately failed.

Dui knew the identity of the skeleton—it was the eldest son of Brego, the second king of Rohan.

In a way, this is a story of "if you don't court death, you won't die":
Bardo had accompanied his father, Brégo, up the Snow River in search of refuge for the Rohan people during times of war. They eventually discovered the Black Barbarian Shrine and arrived at the entrance to the Path of the Dead.

Just as they were about to go in, they were stopped by a very old man and were unable to enter.

But Baldo, young and impetuous, did not heed the old man's warning. After drinking heavily at a banquet, he rashly vowed to walk the path of the dead.

Oaths in Middle-earth cannot be made lightly, let alone sworn to the Valar.

Ultimately, this prince, who could have become the third King of Rohan, embarked on the path of the dead because of a rash vow, and never returned.

His remains were not discovered until later, when Aragorn led his Greys on the Path of the Dead.

He can be considered the number one person to court death.

Dui glanced at Baldo's remains and then paid no more attention to him.

He felt countless eyes fixed on him, filled with malice.

A look of wariness flashed in his eyes, and he moved slowly forward, his body tense.

The next second, the mountain of skulls began to collapse instantly, turning into a massive torrent that swept towards Dui, as if to engulf him.

A split second before the torrent of skulls struck, Dui used Apparition to instantly dodge and appeared on a high platform.

"Come out! Stop hiding, I know you're here!" Dui said coldly.

His voice echoed through the cave.

The cave was deathly silent.

After a while, translucent ghosts finally emerged from beneath the skulls. Their figures were blurry, as if composed of mist, and they emitted a faint, eerie glow, giving people a sinister and terrifying feeling.

The number of ghosts is increasing, and they are so numerous that they almost fill the entire cave. At a rough estimate, there are no fewer than hundreds of thousands!

Such a large number of ghosts originated from the mountain people breaking their oath and being cursed by Isildur, who would not find peace after death.

Therefore, whether they were the people of the mountains at that time or their descendants, once they died, their souls would wander in the mountains and could not go to the Temple of Mandos. Over time, this formed a huge army of ghosts.

These ghosts, because of the curse, cannot rest in peace after death and are filled with resentment towards the living.

Once a living person steps onto the Path of the Dead, they never return. This place gradually became a forbidden zone, with no one daring to enter; only terrifying rumors circulated in Gondor in the south and Rohan in the north.

Among the ghosts, one wearing an ancient crown, with a decaying face tinged with an eerie bluish-green hue and empty eyes, wielding a ghostly sword, swiftly floated over.

With a sinister smile, he spoke in a voice that seemed to come from hell: "This is the realm of the dead, where the living are forbidden to enter. Since you dare to come here, then stay here forever and keep us company!"

As he spoke, he raised the Ghost Sword and stabbed it directly at Dui.

Dui raised his hand to block with his flaming sword.

"Ding!"

The ethereal ghost sword and the blazing sword collided, producing a metallic clanging sound.

The Ghost King, whose attack was blocked by the flaming sword, looked astonished, clearly not expecting this turn of events.

"The weapons of the living are useless to us. What kind of sword is this? How can it block my attack?"

Dui did not answer him. After deflecting the Ghost King's sword, he swung his Flaming Sword at him with a backhand.

The Ghost King's head and body separated instantly.

But before Dui could even rejoice, the Ghost King's separated head and body reconnected.

The King of Ghosts laughed triumphantly and said, "Your sword is indeed extraordinary, able to touch me, but I am already a ghost. Can I die again?"

With that, he raised the Ghost Sword again and attacked Dui.

The two fought continuously. Although Dui was able to hit the Ghost King each time, it only temporarily interrupted the Ghost King's attack. Once the Ghost King recovered, it would attack again.

The ghost was different from the evil spirits and malevolent spirits he had encountered in Beigang.

Evil spirits and malevolent spirits are spiritual entities created using dark power. They can be restrained by the power of light and holiness. Once the dark power within them is broken, they will lose the ability to maintain their spiritual form and disappear completely.

These ghosts are essentially cursed undead; while the power of light can suppress them, it cannot destroy them.

"Call the gods to protect you!"

A dazzling white light shot out from Dui's wand, coalescing into an owl guardian.

The guardian rushed forward, knocking the Ghost King away and quickly transforming into a light shield to trap him.

The King of Ghosts swung his Ghost Sword, attempting to cleave through the guardian's protective shield, but the thin shield remained as solid as an impenetrable wall, impervious to any blows from the Ghost Sword.

“King of the Dead, I have no intention of being your enemy or any other undead. I have come here only to find a certain soul-related item,” Dui said, taking the initiative to make peace. “Once I find it, I will leave immediately and promise not to disturb your peace again.”

But the King of Ghosts clearly didn't share the same sentiment. His eerie, decaying, bluish-green face was full of mockery: "Rest? Ever since we were cursed and bound here, we've never had a day of rest! So that's why you dared to come here—you're a wizard!"

He stared intently at Dui with his empty eyes:

"I've heard rumors about wizards. They say you wizards possess all sorts of magical abilities. If you can break the curse on us, we can not only help you find what you want, but we can even give you the treasures in the mountains!"

Dui was naturally aware of the curse on these ghosts.

When the Kingdom of Gondor was first established, Isildur met with the King of the Mountains in Ereh.

The King of the Mountains, the Ghost King before us, once swore an oath before a mysterious black stone to pledge allegiance to Gondor and to come to its aid when it faced crisis.

However, when Sauron returned to Middle-earth to plan his invasion of Gondor, the people of the mountains refused to keep their promise.

So Isildur cursed the King of the Mountains at the Black Rock, so that he and his people would never find peace until the day his oath was fulfilled.

The mysterious black stone came from Númenor. Before Númenor was destroyed, it was rescued by the loyal Dúnedan and transported to Middle-earth. Its status was comparable to heirlooms such as the Crystal of Knowledge.

Elrond once spoke of this black stone, saying it possessed powerful magic, and that oaths made to it were unbreakable, no less so than the unbreakable oath of Dui.

So Dui shook his head at the Ghost King and said, "The oath of the Black Stone of Ereh is unbreakable. Unless you fulfill your original oath, it cannot be broken and you will not be able to find peace."

Upon hearing this, the King of Ghosts' face contorted into an even more ferocious expression, and his aura grew even colder and more terrifying.

“Oath! Oath… How long have we been bound by this oath! I have watched our corpses rot and be eaten by worms, our people grow weaker and die off generation after generation, we bear endless emptiness, our souls decay little by little, yet we find no rest!”

Then he looked at Dui with a sinister smile.

"Wizard, since you cannot break our curse, why should we, who are already entangled in this curse, grant your wish?"

“You can trap me, but I’m not the only undead here! You should thank Isildur of Gondor; his curse has gathered my people and descendants here, and given them even greater power.”

"How can you possibly withstand my ghost army all by yourself?"

The surrounding area was swarming with ghosts, each wielding a variety of weapons, their malice palpable as they approached from all directions.

(End of this chapter)