Chapter 417: The Vampire Conspiracy

"Your most loyal servant?" Caresius said disdainfully. "As a reward for his loyalty, he can only get death."

"If that is the case, it would be an honor for him to die for the Dark Lord, an honor many of my followers are eager to obtain." Voldemort said coldly, "On the British side, how are your people?"

"They are ready; they are waiting for an opportunity. You can't expect a group of vampires to break into the home of a senior Ministry of Magic official in broad daylight to find a hidden Death Eater." Caresius said, "We have news that Britain will be hosting the Quidditch World Cup in the near future. At that time, wizards will be flocking to the country from all over the world. All the meddlesome members of the Ministry of Magic will be deployed and concentrated in one place, thinking of security, fearing discovery by Muggles and not having the energy to think of anything else. We are ready to start at that time."

"Don't make too much of a scene, Caresius, we can't attract the attention of Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic." Voldemort whispered, "I can wait, believe me, you and your people are very important. I don't want you to sacrifice yourselves in vain."

"It is truly an honor!" Caresius sneered.

There was another awkward silence, and neither said anything.

The deep distrust between the two sides was evident!

For Voldemort, he could even give up his most loyal servant. There was no reason to believe how important a group of uncooperative vampires would be to him.

"Give me a body." After a long time, Voldemort said in his icy, piercing voice, "I can sense that the last of this Temple's magic is about to lose its effect. I want to get that Philosopher's Stone and see in person the guy hiding underneath. I've heard so much about him. The power of this unknown creature of the void is unique and can be useful."

.....

Ivan entered the desolate Centaur ruins with Sirius, and they followed the winding path to the empty square in front of the central Temple.

The sight in front of him surprised him.

Compared to what he had imagined, it was much busier here.

There were hundreds of wizards huddled together, and there were endless hawkers everywhere.

It looked like Diagon Alley.

The stalls were full of potions and adventure supplies. In addition, many businessmen and even goblins were picking up loot that had just been found in the centaur ruins.

These trophies included tablets carved with ancient magical inscriptions, planetary trajectories, centaur sacrificial items, etc., but most of them were made of large amounts of gold, with a strange abstract style and bizarre seemingly meaningless decorations.

Ivan looked dubiously at a goblin under the Gringotts banner, and what he had just picked up from a scouting party.

He never knew that the fallen centaurs had collected so much gold.

These fallen centaurs did not seem to be the same as the centaurs he knew. At the Temple of the Moon in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, he saw only obsidian and relatively cheap granite.

This extinct centaur clan obviously cared more about luxury.

This was too suspicious. Seeing these gold ornaments, Ivan wondered if it was a deserted centaur colony or a subway vault in Gringotts.

It was true that, for a long time, centaurs had been out of the mainstream of the wizarding world.

As an arrogant creature of the jungle, if they didn't have to, they usually didn't contact humans or other creatures, be they wizards or goblins. They did not trust them.

They had their own areas of interest, magical healing, divination, herbology, archery and astronomy.

Ivan hadn't heard of it or seen it anywhere that centaurs were interested in gold, a precious metal that only humans and elves liked. They did not need to trade with the outside world, and were generally self-sufficient.

Only a few collectors or historians of magic interested in the centaur civilization would pay attention to a ruined relic left by a lost centaur civilization.

But because of this gold, it had attracted a large number of greedy adventurers in a short period of time.

In addition to the mages trading in the square, there were more people in the central Temple.

On the other side of the square, there were a large number of ramshackle stores of various shapes, run by special staff to be rented out to needy adventurers.

"It's so weird here!" Sirius said. "Where on earth did the centaurs get so much gold to make these decorations?"

"I can't see how they did it unless they transformed the Philosopher's Stone and could use it like Flamel."

Squatting in front of a booth, Ivan carefully examined a mask of pure gold.

"You only have to pay a hundred gallons of gold if you want it!" The owner of the booth shouted, "This mask has a high collector's value."

"Thanks, I don't need it!" said Ivan, "I think I'd better not touch it."

He stood up and pulled Sirius aside quickly.

"We'd better be careful. These things should have strange magical reactions." Ivan lowered his voice and said, "This feeling is very familiar, like..."

He closed his eyes and remembered carefully, recalling last night's detection magic.

And a long time ago, Elaine used an imprisonment spell on him.

"This is a magic that only vampires can use!" Ivan said with certainty. "A dangerous curse has been cast on it, but I don't know its specific use yet."

"Vampires and curses?!" Sirius repeated.

This was very interesting. There were traces of curses left by vampires on the decorations made by the ancient centaurs. There must be something terrible going on here.

They didn't know for what purpose, the vampires were scattering the cursed gold decorations around the remains of the centaurs, luring foolish adventurers to the ruins.

Ivan couldn't see how it would benefit them. Avoiding the sight of human mages and hiding in a dark corner was the way the vampires should prefer.

Too much noise would arouse the attention of the Ministries of Magic and the magical society of various countries. So the only thing that awaited these vampires was their extinction.

Even with such curses on the gold, it was impossible for them to eliminate all the wizards who would come to the site, and it didn't mean much to them.

As food, there were too many mages here. And looking at the strong and wild wizards around, Ivan wondered if the vampires' taste would be so unique. How could it be possible?

If they weren't food, then the sole purpose of gathering so many people together was....