Chapter 538: Powerful Magic

In the darkness, Ivan continued down the tunnel behind the entrance.

Most of the ancient relics had been buried deep, and only the upper part was exposed.

That was a ventilation passage in the ruins, and he didn't know where it led. Nor did he know when it had been transformed into a huge entrance and exit to the lair by the Manticore.

After entering, Ivan and Buckbeak flew down what looked like a deep, dark shaft.

They were surrounded by old moss-white boulders, with no forks in the path.

This was certainly not the entrance that the centaurs' ancestor, Okegiga, had followed eight hundred years before. Centaurs could not fly like hippogriffs. However, judging by the size of the ruins, he should have entered them from other places.

Of course, it was also possible that the horrible evil god intentionally directed him to come here to look for the statue.

As the years passed, the magic left by the ancient sorcerers weakened, and the evil spirit gradually shed the power of the seals placed upon him. He became able to influence the surrounding creatures through the statue and make them degenerate into his own servants.

In addition to the Hogwarts wizards, the most obvious nearby intelligent creatures belonged to the most populous and powerful centaur colony in the Forbidden Forest.

It was only natural that the evil god would choose them as targets, to help him collect flesh and blood, and to complete his summoning magic.

Needless to say, the Philosopher's Stone, which had been preserved in the centaur colony, was the source of power he needed to come into the world.

Associated with various legends of evil gods and ancient sorcerers, Ivan dared not be careless and looked around carefully.

The end of his wand was glowing brightly, dispelling the darkness around him.

Buckbeak was falling fast, but they still flew downward for five minutes before they reached the bottom.

It was a huge square room, unsurprisingly, the lair of the Manticore. The floor of the room was buried by the bones of countless creatures, all of them prey of the Manticore. They were bones of all kinds of creatures, piled up like hills.

Fortunately, Ivan saw no human bones among them, which indirectly proved that these ruins had not yet been discovered by the outside world.

Due to its proximity to Hogwarts, very few foreign wizards visited this area.

This dangerous swamp in the depths of the Forbidden Forest was even more inaccessible, and it was not known since when anyone had been there.

As for the only visitor, Hagrid, there were probably only magical creatures in his eyes, and he didn't care about other things at all.

Ivan let Buckbeak land on the pile of bones, and as he did so, he heard the sound of countless bones being crushed.

Indeed, it was no good looking at the piles of bones under his feet and not knowing what kind of creatures they were.

It was purgatory, and if any other young wizard had come here, he might have passed out long ago.

Buckbeak bowed his head and pecked hard at the skull left behind by an unknown creature, emitting a dull sound that reverberated through the room.

Forced to contain his discomfort, Ivan climbed down from Buckbeak's back.

Now was not the time to sigh, he had to hurry to complete the exploration and get out of here before an hour.

It was no longer convenient to ride Buckbeak to move on, but it was up to him to do so.

A doorway half-buried by countless bones stood in the right-hand corner of the room.

The walk through the bones to that door was to be another unforgettable experience for Ivan.

He had barely taken two steps when he heard the sound of a cracking noise coming from below, as if something was about to come out.

Ivan stopped abruptly and pointed his wand at the spot.

Deep in the bones, a red glow flashed, and the heat wave came to light.

Ivan took half a step back and saw several large turtles with heavily bejeweled shells of different colors, sticking out of the bones.

They were red as fire, and waved a huge crab claw disproportionate to their body, and another somewhat smaller, but sharper one.

They stared at Ivan, and the crab claws clattered menacingly, constantly shooting flames from their rear ends.

These things were Fire Crabs, with which the Manticore mated to give Escregutos.

From where the Fire Crabs emerged, Ivan saw a pile of Escregutos, which were densely parasitized in the middle of the mountain of bones.

The Manticore seemed to have fed them and was raising their young.

Fortunately, these explosive-tailed Skinks did not grow very large, and the character of the Fire Crabs was relatively mild.

As long as Ivan did not provoke them, they would not take the initiative to attack.

Stepping over the Fire Crabs and the Escregutos, Ivan reached the buried door.

He gently waved his wand, and all the nearby bones flew through the air and landed elsewhere.

After opening a step to crouch down, Ivan walked down the gentle slope made of bones.

As soon as he stepped out, he felt a strong magical pressure coming from all directions. It was like the magic of the strange dome plants outside, but more intense and richer.

Ivan's magic was quickly suppressed and lost its effect.

The light at the end of his wand flickered and eventually disappeared.

In this area, all magic was not working - this was a magic-free field!

Ivan blinked and looked around in amazement.

After the light from his wand went out, he thought there would be darkness in front of him, but that was not the case. At that moment, in front of him was an ancient and huge cloister.

On the side near the inside was a white marble wall and on the other side was a hollow garden. It was filled with strange plants that Ivan had never seen before, and the ground was covered with mushrooms that glowed orange. The faint fluorescence converged on everything and illuminated everything here.

Even without the light from Ivan's wand, he could clearly see the scene around him.

Ivan stood in place for a while, and did not enter it immediately.

His body was tense, his mind was very focused and he was carefully observing the scene inside the ruins.

It was no wonder that this was the place where Okegiga had arrived that year.

Directly in front, Ivan's vision was blocked by countless unfamiliar plants in the central garden of the cloister, and he could not see the end.

The marble wall next to him was engraved with light blue magic symbols and ancient magic inscriptions.

A few minutes later, after repeatedly confirming that there was no danger, he began to think about walking down the corridor.

In this space filled with powerful and strange forces, magic had completely lost its function.

Ivan couldn't even feel the magic inside him. He was now like a Muggle.

Whatever happened, he had to find a way to solve it with his own hands and he could not rely on the help of magic.

Ivan took a few steps forward and recognized it at a glance. All the walls around him were ancient magical texts like the ones in the second part of The Book of Abraham.

He had not yet deciphered it. These mysterious ancient magical texts are more numerous and more complex than those in the book.

Ivan carefully observed that the countless ancient magical characters and the magical symbols surrounding them seemed to constitute a powerful spell.

Although he could not understand it, he could feel the powerful force it contained, which was the source of the strange force that suppressed the magic in his body.

They were left by ancient sorcerers throughout this huge building, forming a magic together with the whole relic.

Combined with the message as well as its magic suppressing effect, this should be a spell to seal the evil gods.

That was shocking. Ivan could not describe this feeling in words. He had never seen such powerful magic.