Chapter 157 Strange, what's so special about this forest?

"You two hurry up and stop!"

Just after saying that he was going to persuade the fight, Newt jumped inside the cave in a flash, blocking the middle of the two giant snakes with his small body.

Dracula couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth as he watched this scene.

"Are you really not afraid that these two snakes will start their temper and injure you by mistake?" He asked with a strange expression.

How to say that Newt was also considered an honored guest invited to Dracula's castle, and this snake monster that doesn't allow people to worry was also brought to him by himself ... Dracula, for the sake of his own face, he said that he couldn't allow Newt to be injured because of the snake monster.

Thus, a pair of black wings abruptly stretched out from behind Dracula.

With two wings flapping, Dracula flashed at the same level of the two giant snakes' heads raised high in almost an instant.

At the next moment, Dracula slapped the snake monster's brain door.

With a loud bang, the snake monster's head sank deep into the hard stone ground.

Dracula then turned around in the air, facing the Ruini snake.

In the blink of an eye, he kicked out three times in succession, one under each of the three large heads of the Ruini Snake, causing the snake with three heads to fall straight backward and hit the ground hard.

"That's much better." Dracula clapped his hands in satisfaction and landed beside Newt, "Well, no injuries, Mr. Scamander?"

"Well ... I am indeed unhurt." Newt looked at the two large snakes that fell to the ground, the corner of his eyes jumping, "But I guess Mr. Ruini Striped Snake and Snake Monster should be injured quite a bit ..."

He never expected that this Hogwarts' Black Magic Defense Arts professor didn't even bother to use his magic, and with just one slap and three kicks, he had knocked the two large snakes, which stood up as tall as a four or five-story building, to the ground.

"Injured is injured, it's also a way to make them learn a lesson. In the future, they will remember not to fight casually." Dracula said with disinterest.

"Eh, Professor Dracula ... not to hide it from you, I am willing to block in between them actually have my own measure." Newt cried and laughed as he explained, "The probability of these two snakes fighting is actually quite low, and can even be said to be infinitely close to zero."

"This is also the reason why I dared to physically stop between them ... I'm old now, and I'm no longer as reckless as I was when I was young and protecting magical animals!"

Dracula looked at Newt a little oddly, with a look of disbelief.

"What I said was true!" Newt defended, "If you had just looked more carefully, you would have noticed that the snake monster's eyes did not show the slightest sign of wanting to open ... while the snake monster's gift of gaze killing happens to be their strongest means of attack."

"This completely proves that Mr. Snake Monster is still under your intimidation and is unwilling to cause trouble."

After hearing Newt's introduction, Dracula couldn't help but look back and realized that the snake monster was still tightly closing its eyes even though it was smashed into the ground.

The expression on its serpentine face even humanely looked a bit aggrieved, as if it was still confused as to why it had suddenly been punched by Lord Earl.

"Ahem ..." Dracula dryly coughed twice in some embarrassment, but was still talking tough, "But there's still another problem, even if the snake monster is still intimidated by me and has no intention to make a move, but how can you make sure that the Ruini striped snake won't make a move as well?"

"This matter comes down to the habits of the Ruini striped snake, Professor Dracula." Newt said, "In earlier years there were some wizards who could use the old serpent's accent who specialized in the study of such magical animals as the Ruini Striped Snake, and thanks to them, I know quite a bit about the animal as well."

"According to the written records of the researchers' pioneers, the Ruini Striped Snake has three different brains growing from its three heads, and each of the three brains serves a different purpose-"

"The brain on the left is the planner, which decides where the Rudraksha will go and what it will do; the brain in the center is the fantasizer, and when this brain is dominant, the Rudraksha will often stay motionless in one place for days at a time, indulging in visions and fantasies ... "

Newt said as he walked over to the thirty plus foot long Ruini striped snake and pointed out the characteristics of the three heads to Dracula, "And the rightmost brain is the Critic and is the most aggressive, thus the right side of the mouth has long fangs with highly poisonous teeth."

"The right brain of the Ruini striped snake is the most irritable one, and it will constantly comment on the practices of the two heads on the left and in the center, making impatient hissing noises. Because of this, it is often the case that the Ruini striped snake loses the right side of its head ..."

"I can't believe there's such a thing, interesting." Dracula murmured as he surveyed the three snake heads in front of him with interest.

"So why did the Ruini striped snake lose the right side of its head? Is it hard to believe that it was bitten off by the other two heads?"

After uttering this guess, Dracula himself laughed first, "If three heads on a snake can still start infighting, this magical animal can be too stupid."

"You guessed it right ... as the three heads of a nystagmus serpent can really start infighting." Newt nodded helplessly from the side.

"There really is such a stupid magical animal?" Dracula said in amazement, "The same three heads, but that three-headed dog Hagrid raised doesn't seem to be this stupid ... Well, even though it falls asleep when it hears music it's just as not very smart."

"Unlike the Ruini striped snake, the three-headed dog has three heads as well, but their minds are at least unified." Newt also shook his head out of laughter, "The other two heads of the Ruini Snake will often team up to bite off the right head when it keeps criticizing them."

"And because the three heads will attack each other from time to time, Ruini striped snakes don't usually live very long."

He compassionately stroked the large head on the right side of this Ruini Striped Snake on the ground and sighed softly, "This one is because I thought of many ways to induce his three heads to live in harmony, which allowed him to reach his current size."

"In addition to this one, I also raised another normal sized Ruini Striped Snake, but the right side of that one's head still needs to wear a headgear for a while."

"That seems kinda sad," Dracula also reached out and patted the head of the middle one of the Ruini striped snake, "I never used to be much interested in magical creatures. Otherwise it might have passed quite a bit of time just admiring all the silly things these stupid animals do."

"You won't regret the company of animals, Professor Dracula." Newt laughed, "Animals can be a lot more fun than wizards."

"I would agree with that, some wizards are downright boring." Dracula nodded approvingly, "But the most important thing you haven't told me yet - why won't this Ruini striped serpent attack the snake monster?"

"That's because before descending into the interior of the cave, I saw that the Ruini striped snake was the center head sticking out in the forefront." Newt explained, "The Ruini striped snake's aggressiveness is low when the fantasist in the center is the dominant one."

"If the snake monster didn't give him too much of a threat, I even doubt he'd suddenly launch into a daze."

"So that's how it is ..."

Dracula looked at the Ruini Striped Snake that was paralyzed on the ground and had been dazed for an unknown period of time, and then looked back at the Snake Monster that was full of aggression and was stuck in the ground and couldn't get out, and inexplicably felt a little bit of emptiness.

Thus, he silently snapped his fingers and used his Transformation spell to restore the ground that the snake monster had smashed down to its original state, freeing the snake monster from the ground.

Afterward, Dracula thought for a moment and cast two more healing magic spells, which acted on the body of the snake monster and the Ruini tattooed snake.

"I was indeed wrong about them just now." He said to Newt, "Now that I've healed them, there shouldn't be any major problems."

With that, Dracula turned his attention to the two large snakes in turn.

"Do you have any other questions?" He asked in a "gentle" tone.

Upon hearing Dracula's ice-cold tone, which was gentle on the surface but actually made the air drop a few degrees, the huge bodies of both the Ruini Striped Snake and the Snake Monster couldn't help but shiver for a moment, and then they began to shake their heads unceasingly.

The snake monster shaking its head was a bit better, but the three-headed Ruini Striped Snake was a bit comical.

Three heads have three different thoughts, and there is no tacit understanding at all, can only be messy and disorderly each shaking around, often the phenomenon of one head bumping into the other, and even the middle head and the right side of the neck behind the head almost tied into a knot ...

The peace that the three brains of the Ruini striped snake had maintained for decades in Newt's suitcase was almost broken today!

The chaotic movements of these three big brains made Newt's heart skip a beat as he rushed over to Ruini Striped Snake and painstakingly calmed them down.

It was hard to calm the three heads down, and as soon as Newt turned around he saw Dracula who was standing behind him watching with interest.

"Uh, Professor Dracula, otherwise you can go outside and admire the other magical animals."

Newt deliberated for half a day before coming up with words that could politely shoo Dracula away, "I can handle it here, don't bother helping out here."

Dracula, however, was rather un-self-aware, completely unaware that he was being disliked and still watching the show with great interest.

"Just looking at these two big guys, by the way where did Nagini go?" He asked Newt as he glanced around the cavern.

"I think it's on the other side of the cave?" Newt guessed, "The other normal sized Ruini striped snake is on that side, Nagini should be with her."

Dracula nodded softly and walked confidently towards the other end of the cave.

Within a few steps, he saw the twelve-foot-long viper spending time with a six or seven-foot-long Ruini snake, making occasional "hissing" noises and apparently communicating happily in the old snake's accent.

The other Rhinopithecus, as Newt said, was indeed normal-sized, with the right side of its head encased in a brown leather hood.

The right side of the mouth was securely sealed off by the hood, completely eliminating the possibility of "critics" commenting on the behavior of the middle and left side of the head.

Today, it is the center head that is communicating with Nagini, and the two snakes seem to be talking freely about the past and thinking about the future.

"These two snakes seem to be getting along quite happily, no adjustments needed." Dracula called back to Newt, "So is there anything else you need from me on your end, Mr. Scamander?"

"No, Professor Dracula, I can handle this alone!" Newt shouted in a huff, "Nagini and Mr. Snake Monster will be assigned two suitable areas to settle in here!"

"Well, you're the professional."

Dracula shrugged and flew away from the gloomy cavern with some bemusement.

He roamed aimlessly through various different environments, looking at the different gestures of each of the magical animals under different ecologies, his mind unconsciously drifting to a faraway place ...

Under a tall guardian tree on a lonely island, a few small, slender, green tree guardian rooibos curiously surveyed the silver-haired figure that had drifted in.

Dracula leaned against the tree, his burgundy-eyed child flickering slightly as a memory belonging to Nagini's past quietly surfaced in the middle of his vision-

He also remembered that the memories he had probed from the viper's eyes earlier had contained some other very interesting elements, besides the earlier years of the molded lakes.

After Nagini's consciousness, which belonged to Viper, had completely come full circle, he had spent an unknown number of years alone in the middle of the Albanian forests.

Until one day, a remnant of a soul stripped of its physical body, less than a ghost, more fragile than the humblest of wandering souls, appeared quietly, and the forest gained an unwelcome visitor.

It was Voldemort, who had perished under his own spell of sorcery!

Voldemort's state was so weak that he could only parasitize on various small animals, taking in the few life forces within them.

Until one day, Voldemort found Nagini.

Nagini, being Voldemort's favorite snake, also possessed an intelligence not unlike that of a human, which pleased him greatly. So instead of taking the life force from Nagini, Voldemort made friends with the viper.

In the forests of Albania, a remnant of a soul and a snake communicated in the old serpentine accent, keeping each other company for more than a decade until a pretentious young man named Quirinus Chilo appeared in the middle of the forests ...

When Voldemort returned to Albania once again, wanting to make Nagini his sixth Horcrux to accompany him, he did not realize that his originally close viper companion had already recognized Voldemort's true nature of brutality and insensitivity, and chose to leave him when the snake monster got in the way.

Nagini never saw Voldemort again after that.

...

Dracula slowly opened his eyes.

Among Nagini's past memories, the most valuable information would be the different states Voldemort was in when he came to Albania's forest several times.

When Nagini first met Voldemort, Voldemort was in the kind of weakened state after the death of a dark wizard who possessed a Horcrux, and his residual soul, which was even worse than ghosts and wandering souls, could only parasitize other creatures and rely on the plundering of life force to maintain his survival.

However, the curse of death by touch has a powerful effect that borders on the rule, and is actually capable of obliterating the soul within the wizard in an instant.

So how did the remnants of Voldemort's soul survive his own bouncing Sojourn Curse?

Dracula frowned slightly, once again recalling the scene when Voldemort's soul was annihilated in front of him twice-

The first time, he used a magic that could erode souls like the Scarlet Water Prison, crushing Voldemort's soul to the point where nothing was left. At that time, there was also no residual soul that flowed out from the middle of the water dungeon.

But Dracula could still feel that Voldemort was not completely dead.

The second time, in order to prevent himself from being captured and imprisoned by Dracula, Voldemort decisively chose to end himself and burned his own soul.

This time, Voldemort's soul was likewise not left in the slightest, and likewise no remnants of his soul escaped from it.

This time, however, Dracula did not feel it as clearly as he did the first time, and could not confirm the truth that Voldemort was still alive in an instant.

Was this proof that the more deaths there were, the weaker the soul power of the Horcrux holder became?

Dracula shook his head gently.

The vile Helpo was the best example.

In the confrontation with Andros, for more than two thousand years, Helpo did not know how many times his soul had been obliterated. Yet Dracula was still able to feel Helpo's clear signs of survival when he annihilated him in the secret realm at the top of Mount Olympus.

This would seem to prove that no matter how many times the holder of a Horcrux is resurrected, the power of the soul is never weakened to a perceptible degree.

So why was Voldemort's own perception so unclear when his soul was obliterated a second time?

Dracula compared the scene during the first obliteration of Voldemort's soul to the scene during the secret world at the top of Mount Olympus, and suddenly had a flash of light.

According to Andros, he had united with many ancient Greek sorcerers and managed to build a secret realm that confined Helpo's soul by utilizing the power of faith, cohesion, and other forces of Greece as a nation.

As a result, Helpo's every rebirth could only be resurrected in the secret realm, that is to say, his weak residual soul after death always stayed in the secret realm.

Perhaps this was the reason why Dracula was able to clearly sense Helpo's survival. Helpo's soul was close enough to him!

As for the first time when he obliterated Voldemort's soul, Dracula and Voldemort were not far away from Hogwarts Castle, not even out of the range of the Anti-Phantom Shift spell.

And Dracula now knew that there were two of Voldemort's Horcruxes present in Hogwarts Castle at that time - Tom Riddle's diary and the Ravenclaw's crown.

It was very likely that Voldemort's residual soul was resurrected at the location of the closest Horcrux. But in order to prevent being discovered by Dumbledore and Dracula, he fled out of the castle as soon as he appeared, without letting anyone know.

Because of this distance, Dracula's perception that Voldemort was still alive at that time was very clear.

As for the second time, the time when Voldemort had immolated himself in front of Dracula.

That bunker, built jointly by a number of pureblood families, was located in a very remote suburb for the sake of concealment, most likely quite far away from Voldemort's Horcruxes.

If Voldemort was bound to be reborn around his Horcruxes, then the excessive distance might indeed prevent Dracula from sensing the signs of Voldemort's survival very clearly.

Dracula once again recalled the scene when Nagini had first seen the remnants of Voldemort's soul - at that time, Voldemort had been so weak that he could barely maintain the stability of his own Horcrux.

That wasn't really normal.

Voldemort had probably been on a long road trip by then.

And Dracula likewise knew that Harry Potter had been inadvertently made into a Horcrux by Voldemort.

So Voldemort had probably just turned into a remnant of his soul around Harry on the spot, and then flown thousands of miles from Godric's Hollow, where the Potters lived, to the forests of Albania.

"So why did Voldemort have to come all the way to Albania?" Dracula mused somewhat perplexed.

"Strange, what is so special about this forest?"