Hogwarts and the Holy Grail War

“That adult is—UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!”

Witt Aiello's body began to swell rapidly, and a strong red light came out of his eyes and mouth.

"not good!"

Ethan quickly used his wand to cast an armor spell to protect himself and Cassandra.

BOOM!

A small scarlet mushroom cloud slowly rose up, and the light it emitted illuminated the entire grassland, the surrounding lakes, and the woods. Like the giant monster, Witt Aiello's body exploded into pieces in front of Ethan, with blood and flesh flying everywhere.

"Are you not splashed?" Ethan put away the invisible barrier, looked at the big hole that Witt Aiello had blasted on the grass, and several minions nearby who had been directly killed by the aftermath of the explosion, and sighed.

That was obviously a special restriction. Once it detected that key intelligence had been leaked, it would be automatically triggered and the person would be killed, leaving no chance for the enemy to torture the captive.

That adult is really a tough guy.

But he had revealed so much before and it was fine, but as soon as he mentioned that adult, the ban was triggered. Does that mean that adult thinks other information besides his identity is unimportant?

"I'm fine." Cassandra covered her nose and looked with disgust at the flying human remains in the air in front of her. "This is really some incredible black magic."

"Maybe even something worse."

Ethan thought of the exploding giant monster on Halloween night, twitched the corners of his mouth, and an ominous premonition came to his mind.

If this type of human bomb was not only used to block intelligence, but was also used directly for onboard assaults, it would probably be a terrible disaster.

"Then do you want to continue?" Cassandra pursed her lips and asked, "This matter is beyond your ability to handle. It's better to tell the professor and let them handle it. You already know so much, you should be satisfied."

"Miss Cassandra, are you concerned about me?" Ethan looked at Cassandra and asked seriously without the playfulness in his eyes when he usually teased her.

"Yes, that's right. I care about you." Cassandra gritted her teeth, "If something really happened to you, do you think Alanna would be better off? Don't always think about being a hero, think more about the feelings of those who care about you!"

"But that's based on my lack of ability. You may not believe it, but I'm more powerful than you can imagine." Ethan gave Cassandra a thumbs up and smiled confidently, "Okay, go find the professors. I'll go downstairs to meet the Fire Snakes."

This is the truth. If they have the technology to make ordinary magic ineffective, it would be useless even if the professors come. Only I can deal with them.

"No!" Cassandra almost yelled, enunciating each word, "You are not allowed to go! Just follow me and go find the professors!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ethan suddenly felt a flash of white light before his eyes, and the entire patch of grass under his feet suddenly emitted a faint white light.

The light spots seemed to sense Ethan's location and quickly gathered towards his feet. The light spots became denser and denser, and the light gradually changed from dim to bright, and finally formed a halo with a diameter of about one meter around him that was printed on the ground.

"What is this?" Cassandra looked at the inexplicable light and reached out to Ethan in the center of the halo, "Come out quickly, otherwise there might be some danger!"

"Don't be anxious, these should be..." Ethan had just said half of his words when he felt his feet go empty. The grass in the middle of the halo disappeared and turned into a black hole. He fell straight down and only had time to let out a scream.

“…Oh my god!”

"Ethan!" Cassandra stretched out her hand and quickly reached forward, but failed to catch Ethan who was falling in time. She stood there in a daze, watching the circle of light on the ground slowly shrink. She gritted her teeth, made up her mind, lifted her skirt and jumped in.

Does Chapter 127 sound good? What sounds good is a good start

The fall did not last long. Ethan soon felt a sinking sensation on his back and fell to the ground.

"Ouch~"

Ethan held his side, twitching constantly while lying on the ground, looking extremely painful.

Somehow, a hard stone appeared on the muddy ground, which should not have been hard, and it happened to hit one side of his lower back. He had hit that lower back once before on the low wall next to the greenhouse, and now he had a new injury before the old one healed, which was very painful.

After finally recovering from the shock, Ethan forced himself to sit up and slowly looked around.

This is a wide underground cave, although not as deep as the cave where Gringotts set up the vault, it is only about 20 to 30 meters high. The top of the cave is not surrounded by stones, but some kind of magic holds the lake water in the Forbidden Forest above the cave, and fish can be vaguely seen swimming in it through the barrier.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

A familiar scream came from above Ethan's head. He looked up and saw Cassandra holding the hem of her skirt at the base of her thighs with her hands and falling straight towards him.

"Oh, I C..."

Before Ethan could even sigh, his forehead came into close contact with Cassandra's forehead. The collision of their foreheads made a crisp knocking sound, and he fell into a peaceful sleep again.

After an unknown amount of time, Ethan woke up slowly and felt that his body was as heavy as if it was filled with lead. He wanted to stand up, but he couldn't move his body at all, as if something was pressing on him.

Fortunately, his neck was still movable. He raised his head and saw Cassandra lying unconscious on top of him.

"Cassandra? Are you okay? Wake up." Ethan propped up his wrist and used his still movable hand to push Cassandra's shoulder which was pressing on his arm, trying to wake her up.

Cassandra also moved now. She rubbed her head on Ethan's chest in a daze, then turned her head and changed her posture.

Perhaps she realized that the piece of meat under her was a little abnormal for use as a bed. Cassandra suddenly took out her hands and touched Ethan's chest muscles hard. She opened her eyes instantly and sat up to see her situation clearly.

"Hello, I'm the cushion. Was it comfortable just now?" Ethan, whose body position had changed from being pressed to being pushed against the wall, raised his eyebrows at Cassandra and gently broke free from his arms that were accidentally pressed down by her hands that she used to support her body.

"Won't you explain the current situation?" Cassandra asked unfriendlyly, still keeping Ethan under her.

"Why don't you take a closer look at the way we are standing now," Ethan complained, "Why do I feel like you're the one who should be explaining yourself?"

Cassandra looked around and finally came to her senses. Her face flushed and she quickly stood up, stepped back a distance and adjusted her clothes.

"Are you... okay?" Cassandra held her arm and asked Ethan, who was lying on the ground with a grimace and rubbing his waist.

"It would be strange if nothing happened." Ethan lay on the ground, throbbing non-stop, pretending to wail, "Oh, my big forehead~. Oh, my lumbar disc~. Oh, my ribs~..."

"Are you all hurt?" Cassandra immediately came forward and asked with concern.

"Everything is fine." Ethan grinned.

"You!" Cassandra was angry and annoyed, raising her leg to kick Ethan, "Can't you be serious at this time?"

Ethan quickly rolled to the side, avoiding Cassandra's kick. He gasped in pain from the sudden tug on his side. "It would have been fine if I had fallen to the ground, but the blow from you really hurt. It almost cost me my life."

"I didn't mean it!" Cassandra's face turned redder. She squatted down reluctantly and stretched out her hand to Ethan. "Come, I'll help you up."

"I know you didn't mean it." Ethan was helped to stand up by Cassandra. He covered his side, took out a bottle of invigorating potion from his coat pocket, opened the cap with one hand and drank it.

The green liquid went down his throat, and the discomfort in his waist disappeared almost immediately. Ethan let out a long breath, released Cassandra's arm, moved his stiff waist left and right, and rubbed his forehead, which was still red and swollen. "But I didn't expect you to fall down too. Didn't the light circle on the ground only include me?"

He originally thought that the passage was only open to people like him who could see traces of ancient magic, but Cassandra was clearly outside the circle of light around her, and there was no other circle of light gathering under her feet. Logically, she was not the target of the lock, so she should not have fallen.

It couldn't be that she jumped down by herself, right?

"Well... it was too sudden and I didn't have time to react. I made a mistake." Cassandra's eyes slightly tilted and she said evasively. She quickly turned around and looked at the surrounding environment, changing the subject, "Where is this place?"

"The underground space of the Forbidden Forest is right below the lake we passed by." Ethan pointed to the dark blue sky with ripples above, "It should be the place they are looking for."

"This place... feels familiar... wait a minute." Cassandra seemed to remember something. She took out two pieces of parchment with torn corners from the inside of her coat, carefully compared the contents of the paper, and exclaimed, "So this is it!"

“What are you holding in your hand…?” Ethan’s expression became solemn when he saw the parchment in Cassandra’s hand.

Ordinary parchments would not have surprised him so much, but the two pieces of parchment were flickering with a white light that was very familiar to him.

Ancient magic again?

"Oh, you mean this?" Cassandra raised the parchment in her hand. "I got this by chance recently. It should be a torn page from an ancient book. It looks like a treasure map pointing to a certain place. Tonight, I followed the map and found the place marked on it in the castle. There, I was accidentally teleported to the Forbidden Forest."

"Can I take a look?" Ethan moved closer to Cassandra and stretched his head to look at the contents on the torn page.

However, before he could read the content clearly, his attention was attracted by a symbol in the corner of the page.

The symbol was composed of three twisted lines intertwined, and it looked very familiar to Ethan.

This symbol had appeared on the box containing the key to Gringotts Vault No. 12, on the key handle of the vault key, on the frame of the portal below the Restricted Area, on the metal door leading to the Pensieve, and on the cover and corners of every page of the ancient book he had obtained.

Plus, the shape of the torn edge of the paper looks familiar.

It is basically certain that these two fragments are the two missing pages that were torn out of the ancient book that Ethan obtained in the restricted area before.

How did Cassandra get these two fragments?

Chapter 128: Europe Without Germans

"Here," Cassandra handed the two fragments to Ethan and leaned over to explain the contents of the fragments to him. "Look, I followed the marks on the map and walked all the way to the sleeping dragon statue at the bottom of the hall. Then I walked along the corridor in front of the statue and turned right at the fork in the road. At the end was a secret door. As soon as I touched the door, I was teleported to the Forbidden Forest."

Cassandra said this and glanced at Ethan with dissatisfaction: "So I told you, I am different from you."

"No, that's not right." Ethan frowned and shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Cassandra glared at Ethan, "Can't you just trust me for once?"

Does this guy still think I'm lying to him?

"Ah, no. I'm not saying you're lying." Ethan pointed to the map on the torn page, "I'm saying you're taking the wrong route."

The first fragment of the page showed the floor plan of the first basement floor of Hogwarts. Ethan clearly remembered that the map on the last few pages of the ancient book was missing the first basement floor.

In addition to the path indicated by the light spots of ancient magic that only he could see, there was also a path marked with ink. It seemed that Cassandra followed this path.

The second fragment of the page showed a topographic map of a cave, which corresponded to the underground cave they were currently in. Similarly, there was a path of light spots formed by traces of ancient magic, the end of the path was where they were, and the starting point was deep in the cave.

It looks like this should be some kind of backup escape route.

"Impossible, I clearly followed the instructions." Cassandra said firmly, with a confident look on her face, "Look how clearly the route is marked here."

Yes, the path marked in ink on the map was exactly the same as what Cassandra said. Go straight forward from the corridor opposite the sleeping dragon statue, and stop abruptly in front of a wall after turning right at the fork in the road. With the words "Map Secret Room" marked next to it, anyone who saw it would think that this was the end.

But in Ethan's eyes, the flickering light did not turn right after reaching the fork in the road, but extended to the left. There was an iron gate at the end, and the room inside the gate was the real destination.

The words "secret room on the map" actually marked the room inside the fence door. It's just that the font used for marking is a little big, and there is no arrow pointing. If you don't have your own vision, it's easy to mistake the marked location for the fake destination.

Rather than saying this is a coincidence, it would be better to say that the author of this book deliberately set it up this way, so that the real map secret room can only be discovered by people like himself who can see traces of ancient magic.

That is to say, if someone gets this ancient book or fragments, and he does not have the ability to see the traces of ancient magic, then he can only follow the path marked by ink, come to the wall of the false destination, and be teleported directly to the thornback spider nest in the forbidden forest by the teleportation magic set on the wall.

As an insurance measure, it can only be said to be extremely and particularly unethical.

"The path marked here is fake. It's just to guide you to the wrong place." Ethan thought for a moment and explained to Cassandra truthfully, "There is actually another invisible route on this map. That is the route to the real destination."

"Oh? So you mean that you can see the real route that I can't see?" Cassandra squinted at Ethan and frowned. "Isn't that too much of a coincidence?"

"Although it sounds ridiculous, this is the truth." Ethan nodded and deliberately concealed the matter of ancient magic. He only explained some unrelated things to her. "I can see things that others can't see. It should be considered a special ability. The hidden route above happens to be what I can see."

"Oh, you don't think you can fool me with this kind of talk, do you?" Cassandra took two steps away from Ethan, looking at him with a little more vigilance. "How can I believe you when you are so vague? What is going on? You'd better explain it to me!"

The girl raised her voice out of vigilance, and her clear voice echoed in the cave.

"It's a long story, and now is not safe to explain." Ethan pointed to the cave map on another fragment, "But there is a similar route on this map. I can take you to the end point here. You should understand what I mean when you get there. How about it, do you want to come with me?"

Since my current location is the end of the route, then the starting point should be the location of the secret room on the map, at least not too far away.

What is the secret room on the map and what is inside it? As long as you go there yourself, you should be able to find out.

But before that, you still have to be careful of the enemies that may be in this cave.

According to that red-haired guy, what's his name? ...Yes, Kiri Elrod said that there are still a dozen or so remnants of the Fire Snake Party in this underground cave, and they may jump out and attack him at any time, so it's better to be careful.

This is also the reason why Ethan invited Cassandra to act together. With her by his side, he can at least keep an eye on her at all times, so that they won't act separately and cause her to be attacked and captured by the Fire Serpents, which is an unspeakable plot.

"...I don't think you dare to bluff me." Cassandra curled her lips, stood back beside Ethan, and crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Lead the way."

“Thank you Miss Cassandra for your trust.” Ethan smiled.

The two walked quietly in the cave, one in front of the other. Ethan led the way in front of Cassandra, tracing back to the source of the flickering light spots on the map.

"By the way, Miss Cassandra." Ethan suddenly asked, "Can you tell me how you got these two fragments?"

"It was Peeves," Cassandra said casually. "The page fell from him and I just happened to pass by and picked it up."

"Have you ever thought that this might be a prank? He deliberately dropped a fake treasure map to lure those unfortunate people who are too curious to the prank location he set up in advance?"

"I thought of this from the beginning. I went there with extreme caution, always on guard against possible pranks along the way, but I didn't expect to be teleported away by magic. You have to know that Peeves can't use magic, and I was careless in this regard."

Although Ethan didn't look back, he could tell that Cassandra must have a sad and deflated expression on her face.

It’s a pleasure to think about it.

"We're here." Ethan stopped suddenly and said.

Chapter 129 I'm going to kick your ass hard with my boot

"Is this where you want to take me?"

"Yes, the route points to here." Ethan raised his head and moved his eyes away from the torn pages and fell silent.

In front of the two was not the metal door that Ethan had imagined, but a wall made of stone bricks. The stone bricks on the wall were not arranged neatly like ordinary stone walls, but twisted into spirals, with a small round hole in the center of the spiral, and a dazzling white light could be seen flashing inside.

So they couldn't see what was inside the stone wall through the small hole.

"Well, my dear Mr. Ethan, can you use your unique supernatural ability to observe whether there is any secret door that I can't see?" Cassandra began to be sarcastic with a look of pleasure, and the corners of her mouth kept rising. "If you can't give me a reasonable explanation, I can only kick your ass with my boots."

"Be normal." Ethan rolled his eyes.

Is it my illusion? Why does she seem so naughty today?