Chapter 415: The Ruins of the Centaurs and the Destroyers

Ivan was in a cold sweat and felt his blood freezing in his veins!

His heart was beating so violently. The Banshee announced death, and its sudden appearance under his window meant it....

He was distraught and pulled out his wand. Without waiting for him to cast a spell, the Banshee below screamed and fled into the forest at astonishing speed.

Soon, it disappeared into the thick fog.

Only its red, swollen, terrifying eyes remained in Ivan's mind for a long time.

Affected by the sudden appearance of the evil god in the dream and the prediction of death, the Banshee, crying under the window in the morning, Ivan was in a bad mood and could not raise his spirits.

Up to the time of departure, he had not fully recovered.

After breakfast, Sirius and Ivan wandered off into the depths of the forest.

Nearby, they explored the edge of the Centaur monument site. Influenced by the ancient magic of the relics, no one could get too close and they could only walk.

Along the way, observing strange scenes in the forest, Ivan was careful.

Sirius couldn't help but persuade him to relax. There was no need for him to be so nervous.

"Look at the small, soft yellow flowers on those low bushes!" he pointed to a plant strangely, trying to divert Ivan's attention and not let him have any more depressing thoughts.

"You haven't seen this plant before. It's a specialty here. It only grows in countries near the Mediterranean. Its scientific name is..."

"Quercus coccifera!" Ivan looked up and continued, "I used this plant when I was making high-level interpretive potions. The market price per kilogram is three gold galleons, and five gold galleons if processed."

The kermes oak looks like a shrub or a small tree.

Its bark is grayish white with sharp thorns, and it is the national flower of Albania.

The rhizome of this flower is an essential material for the manufacture of advanced potions. It has a strong acidity and is difficult to handle. It can only be used in Potions classes above fifth year.

"It looks like you had a good preview of the Potions textbook ahead of time. With a student like you, Quejicus will be happy!" Sirius was a little embarrassed.

"He mostly ignores me and Hermione now!" said Ivan. "While he's still bullying other Gryffindors, he treats us like we don't exist."

"Now that I'm no longer a professor, I don't have to abide by Hogwarts rules." Sirius said angrily, "If Quejicus dares to bully you again, sooner or later I'll find the opportunity to teach him a good lesson."

Ivan doubted that Sirius had ever complied with the school rules.

Besides, judging by his strength, he was far from being Snape's opponent.

Thirteen years of imprisonment in Azkaban had a great impact on him. So far, his face has not fully recovered from the original decline.

After talking about Snape, there was a moment of silence between them.

"I know what you're thinking now!" Sirius took a deep breath. "In fact, many people have seen the omen of death from the Banshee. They have done nothing to hurt others, except for their evil voices. As for the death omen, I've seen too many, can't you really believe that tricky trick?!"

"Of course, I didn't take that banshee to heart!" Ivan replied absently. "I'm just thinking about something else..."

Many signs and traces indicated that his journey would not be too smooth.

The loss of contact with Dumbledore, Voldemort lurking in the darkness, the evil spirit slowly regaining its strength, and the sudden appearance of vampires and the banshee....

Faced with all this, Ivan prepared himself for the worst.

.....

Unexpectedly, nothing happened until they entered the centaur ruins.

The journey through the forest was very uneventful. After climbing a hillside, the ruins of the city left by the fallen centaurs 800 years ago appeared in front of them.

Unlike the centaur colony in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, this relic of the past was situated between two towering peaks, with clusters of stone buildings arranged one after the other. The narrow entrance to the ruins was a winding alleyway paved with green pebbles.

The alley continued upward along the steep, craggy mountain, leaning against the terrain as a form of natural defense.

Every few steps up, there was a solid fortress or the rubble of a checkpoint.

It was conceivable that fallen centaurs could hide behind these fortifications and use bows and arrows to attack intruders. Even the fiercest trolls could hide there.

In the upward direction, it was a huge circular platform, and the terrain was not so steep.

The living environment here was much better than below, with fewer houses and many temples and obsidian statues as decoration.

These statues were all kinds of centaur figures in different shapes.

No doubt they were all ancestors of the centaurs. It seemed that even though they believed in the evil god, the fallen centaurs still maintained their reverence for their ancestors.

At the highest point of the ruins, there was a magnificent Temple.

It was also the only building that remained intact in all the centaur ruins. It was made of the hardest obsidian, engraved with exaggerated carvings, and looked exactly like the Temple of the Moon in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, but on a much grander scale.

Ivan's gaze moved up from the entrance to the ruins and finally settled on the towering terraces on either side of the Central Temple.

Everything before him corresponded to his dreams of last night.

However, the remains of the centaurs in front of him were not the beautiful city he saw in his dream, shining beautifully with golden light. Time had mercilessly destroyed it all.

The adventurous sorcerers, newly arrived, had destroyed all that remained intact for the sake of treasure, leaving only a mess.

The river by the cobblestone alley had dried up and been replaced by a river of grass.

The stone huts with beautiful red roofs built by the centaurs were no longer there.

The beautiful tiles on the walls were scattered everywhere, telling of the glory of the past in silence.

To obtain the gold and gems embedded in the statues, the intruders destroyed all the statues of the centaurs, not caring at all about their artistic value.

As for the central temple, which was also where all the adventurers were most concentrated, although no change could be seen from the outside, when Ivan and Sirius entered the ruins, they could still vaguely hear the loud noises from time to time inside the temple.

Needless to say, most of the intruders were unaware of the mechanism designed by the centaurs according to the changes of the stars. But they had another way to enter the core area: destruction!

Regardless of the mechanism, as long as all the doors were destroyed with powerful spells, sooner or later they would enter the deepest part of the Temple.

Although this method was simple and crude, it was actually very useful.

The fallen centaurs that abruptly disappeared did not seem to have left any defensive measures such as curses to protect their sacred Temple.

Not only wizards, but also Muggles could easily enter.

That's why Sirius and Ivan didn't stay at the bar waiting for Dumbledore, but decided to come here before him.