Chapter 111: Chapter 111: The Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk (Edited)
Seeing that the only possible witness had also left, Tom assumed Occamy's form, wandered around the sink, and finally spotted a small, delicate snake on the side of a faucet.
"Open!" said Tom matter-of-factly, but the sound that came out of his mouth was no longer a human voice, but the characteristic hiss of a snake.
"Hiss!"
Instantly, there was the sound of a mechanism being activated under the sink, and the counter behind which the mirror had been placed gradually lifted to reveal a dark hole. Immediately afterwards, the sink extended in all directions. He watched as the sink slowly disappeared from view, revealing a deep water pipe, thick enough for a person to enter.
Tom grabbed the roosters and slid down the pipe.
The pipe twisted and turned, down a steep slope, and after sliding down for some time, Tom judged that he was in the deepest part of the school, deeper than the basement and the rooms where the Philosopher's Stone was hidden.
No one knew what lay beneath Hogwarts. Generations of brilliant wizards had left countless secrets here over the centuries.
Soon, the angle of the pipe became horizontal and Tom slipped through the opening, landing on the ground.
Outside the pipe was a wide tunnel, and when Tom pulled the cart a couple of steps, there was a crunching sound beneath his feet: the ground was littered with the bones of small animals. However, these small rodents were most likely not the food the basilisk had been feeding on all these years.
The basilisk can grow up to fifteen meters long, and being a giant of over ten meters, anything it ate like a rat would be digested with its bones, and no skeletons would remain. Snakes have an extremely strong digestion capacity and can often digest their prey from scales to bones in a matter of days, and all that may be left is the hair and feathers.
However, it is not surprising to find carcasses of small animals in the sewers.
"Lumos!"
Tom took a better look at his surroundings. The tunnel had been carefully constructed, judging by the traces left behind, but it had deteriorated, and being underground and extremely damp, making it look very dilapidated.
Tom passed through several circular arches and rounded a bend before a large object appeared before his eyes.
It was the basilisk's molt, curled up on the ground and dry and decaying, and it looked like it had been there for some years.
Looking at the basilisk's skin, which was full of scales, made Tom's stomach turn.
The basilisk's skin is green and shiny, although it had dried out, and the color of the basilisk's skin was still vivid. Based on the length of the basilisk's skin, Tom roughly calculated the length of the basilisk. The basilisk was at least thirty feet long, and he didn't know how big the basilisk had grown by eating what they had eaten all these years.
Tom rounded the skin and continued on, turning corner after corner, before finally coming upon a wall at the end of the tunnel with two intertwined snakes, whose eyes were four huge emeralds.
It was clear that Slytherin had put a lot of care and invested a lot of resources into the construction of the Chamber of Secrets.
Tom proceeded to open the door with the Parseltongue.
The entangled snakes parted, along with the wall behind them, and a huge room appeared before Tom's eyes.
The room was filled with snake statues, lined up in two rows on either side of the room. The room was very dimly lit, the only source of light being the statues' eyes, which glowed green. The ceiling was so high that Tom could not see the ceiling when he looked up.
An eerie greenish haze pervaded the room, and the various statues and pillars cast a treacherous shadow over the room.
"Lumos!"
A beam of light from the tip of Tom's wand dispersed the darkness a few steps ahead of him, making the atmosphere less eerie.
Tom used the glow from his wand to walk a little toward the end of the room,
There was a statue about the height of the room, blending in with the wall behind it, or perhaps the statue itself was carved into the wall behind it.
The statue showed an old, monkey-like face, with a long, thin beard that reached almost to the hem of the statue's robes: this is what Salazar Slytherin looks like.
The founder of Hogwarts was ugly. Tom thought it likely that he had abused the dark arts, which distort the mind, the soul, and ultimately the face.
Tom looked again at the Chamber of Secrets, which was magnificently constructed, and although it was poorly lit at the time, Tom was sure that there must have been some sort of mechanism to illuminate it.
The Chamber of Secrets was originally built to have a place to teach their students magic that the other three founders did not approve of. Slytherin and the other three founders had long been at odds, the other three were reluctant to teach dark magic to their students, but Slytherin was willing to do so.
This was the original function of the Chamber of Secrets: a place to chat.
But it was a big project, hidden from the other founders, so it took a long time, so long that Slytherin himself changed his mind, and when the Chamber of Secrets was finished, he became more ambitious, and his differences with the other three became even greater.
This statue was a reflection of his mentality: none of the other founders had built a large statue of themselves in the school. This statue, instead, was a statue that everyone who wanted to see its face had to look up, otherwise they could only see the backs of its feet.
Tom approached the statue, turned to Occamy, then looked at the face of the stone statue of Slytherin, hidden in the darkness, and opened his mouth, emitting a hiss.
"Speak to me, Slytherin, the greatest of the Hogwarts four."
Tom decided to summon the basilisk here and kill it. Ryddle wants to open the Chamber of Secrets, right? I'll leave a chamber without the basilisk for you to open.
And Tom was going to search the library for a unique spell, one that would activate if someone entered the room, so if he placed such a spell in the Chamber of Secrets, he could expect it: And Ryddle would fall into his trap.
The Slytherin's stone face twitched, his mouth slowly opened to form a black hole.
Tom took the opportunity to release the roosters from their cages.
At that moment a cracking sound was heard coming from the statue's mouth and Tom transformed into the form of a phoenix. Tom remembered very well that seeing the eyes of the basilisk would bring death.
But such a sight must be direct, if one looked indirectly, one would only be petrified. Wearing glasses did not solve the problem: Myrtle was wearing them when she died, but the lenses did not keep her alive. The key to survival is to see it through another medium: water, a mirror, the lens of a camera... The lethality of the basilisk's gaze conducted through a medium is reduced by one level, from instant death to permanent petrification.
Of course, if you are a ghost, the basilisk's gaze will only petrify you; after all, a basilisk cannot kill a dead creature.
But magical creatures, like a phoenix, are immune to the basilisk's deadly gaze.
So Tom decided to face the Slytherin basilisk first in its Fawkes form.
A huge dark green snake came out of the statue's mouth, and Tom saw its yellow, lantern-like eyes. The moment it came out of the statue, Tom released the roosters from their bonds, but by accident, the roosters, attracted by the sound coming out of the statue, were looking in that direction, and the moment the snake came out, they died looking directly at the basilisk before they had a chance to make a sound.
"I should have blindfolded the rooster!" Tom's plan was flawed, an accident, but he had a backup: his phoenix form.
He flew toward the basilisk quickly. He saw that the basilisk was green and glowing. It looked like some kind of highly venomous snake. Its body was as thick as the trunk of an oak tree, and its body length was over ten meters, it had crawled completely out of the statue, coiling its body in a circle on the ground.
When it saw Tom flying towards it, the basilisk raised its upper body and its huge head swung rapidly as it flew. The difference in size between Tom and the basilisk was like the difference between a man and a raven, but the basilisk did not have the nimble hands of a man and could only bare its dagger-like fangs at Tom's attack as it emitted a horrible hissing sound in an attempt to deter the phoenix.
But in Tom's eyes, this was a complete show of weakness. Although this was a basilisk, it had none of the amazing reflexes of its companions, and instead had the slower reflexes of any snake. From Tom's perspective as a phoenix, every movement of the basilisk was in slow motion.
"Bang!" The basilisk's upper and lower fangs collided with such force that even the heavy armor of a medieval European knight would have been penetrated, but the bite only rent the air.
Tom dodged the basilisk's lunge, and now the basilisk's upper body had extended, but when it missed, it stiffened involuntarily, and Tom saw the moment to pounce, its long golden beak stabbing the basilisk in the eye. Despite the basilisk's instinct to close its eyes, the phoenix's beak pierced its eyelid, blinding one eye.
A torrent of black blood spilled out, splattering the floor, and for a moment it was as if it had rained in the Chamber of Secrets.
The basilisk went into a frenzy, its tail swung wildly, striking the ground with such force that it left a crack in the marble floor. At the same time, its head swung even faster, but only to create more cracks. So in ten seconds or so, its second eye was pecked out.
The basilisk's black blood splattered on the floor, giving off a foul smell, and its once glowing yellow eyes had disappeared, leaving only two black, bloody holes.
Chapter 112: Chapter 112: The Secret of the Slytherin Chamber (Edited)
As the basilisk writhed in pain on the ground, Tom, transformed into a phoenix, attacked again and again, wounding one after another, but the difference in size between the two was so great that it was like stabbing someone with a toothpick. Maybe a toothpick could blind a man, but no one could die stabbed with a toothpick.
The basilisk had lost its head after repeatedly suffering pain and losing its sight.
He wandered blindly through the Chamber of Secrets, spilling blood everywhere.
Tom hovered over him, shapeshifting into a three-headed dog.
"Boom!"
The huge three-headed dog swooped down from the sky and smashed into the basilisk's head with a thud, and Tom felt the head under its paws make an audible thud, a bit like cracking a cucumber.
Normally the basilisk was the natural enemy of a three-headed dog with many eyes, but now the basilisk was blind and to the three-headed dog it was just a ten-foot pole.
The snake and the dog fell hard to the ground, and in the spirit of taking advantage of their weakness, Tom added a few more claws until they were covered in white paste.
The basilisk stopped struggling and its vitality quickly faded.
Standing on its nearly crushed head, Tom transformed back into his human form and quickly placed his hand on the top of the basilisk's head, then engraved the basilisk's shape. Without hesitation, he turned into a phoenix and flew into the air, keeping a considerable distance from the basilisk.
Tom knew the life force of snakes, they are like cockroaches. Every year, some people are bitten by snakes whose heads are cut off and make the news. He had to be careful, as the basilisk is also known as the King of Snakes. So Tom stopped at the Slytherin's shoulder and watched as the basilisk below stopped making noise, finally letting only the basilisk's tail wag from time to time.
But Tom didn't go down either, instead looking carefully inside the Chamber of Secrets, trying to figure out if there was a light switch; there should be, after all, the Chamber of Secrets was originally meant to be a classroom, and it would be ridiculous for it to be with this light.
Tom's eyesight had improved since he became a phoenix, and he could see that the serpentine sculptures on the pillars appeared to be covered in a layer of black dirt. He had a vague idea, and then, combining it with the style of the camera, he turned into an Occamy and said, "Turn on the light!"
There was no response, and Tom changed the word.
"Light!"
This time the statue of Salazar Slytherin reacted, and a green flame erupted from his index finger. The flame floated down from his index finger and landed on the head of a snake carved in relief on a pillar.
Immediately, a flame emerged from the snake's open mouth and quickly rose up its body. Soon, the serpent coiled around the pillar became a serpent of fire: the pillar must have been saturated with oil between its scales. The serpentine reliefs of each pillar were hooked to the ceiling, so the tongues of flame spread rapidly, and within two minutes all the pillars in the room were alight, illuminating the entire Chamber of Secrets.
As if sensing the light and heat, the basilisk on the floor suddenly twisted again, raising its upper body reluctantly, its hammered head staring at the ceiling, its mouth wide open, a motion it held for a few seconds before falling hard on the floor, splattering flesh and blood.
This first-rate magical animal, were it not for Tom's ingenuity, would be a tyrant in the magical world, with almost no natural enemies. But because of his scant information, Tom had calculated from start to finish. If Tom had it to do over again, it would be even easier.
But the dangers involved are incalculable. If Tom had not recorded Fawkes' completed form, he would not have come alone.
The basilisk should be completely dead.
Tom looked around the Chamber of Secrets. The flames were burning, and the oil that Slytherin had prepared must have been of very high quality, because it didn't smell like oil or smoke as it burned, but smelled like scents. And with the flames, the temperature of the room was rising rapidly, and the feeling of unsettling dampness was completely gone; Slytherin thought he was the greatest of the founders, how could he make his Chamber of Secrets look like the villain's base of operations? He must have gone for the ultimate in extravagance and grandeur.
The brightness of the room before him was proof of this. Tom estimated that at least a hundred pounds of essential oil had been burned in this illumination, and as Tom smelled the delicious aroma, he sensed that it was not oil at all, but the scent of a golden galleon.
"The next step is to find out if Slytherin left anything here."
It was quite obvious, all the pillars were burning, only one wasn't on fire.
Tom landed in front of the pillar and stood for a few seconds before the floor tiles lit up, slowly rising and lifting Tom into the air, so he could see the ceiling.
About fifty meters above the floor, the walls of the Chamber of Secrets plunged into the wall below, forming a corridor about two meters wide, the edges of which were decorated with ornate balustrades, though most of them had deteriorated over the millennia, leaving only a few gold and silver carvings intact.
Tom landed softly in the hallway and walked down it to the left of the Slytherin statue, where he found a silver door.
He looked out and found a panoramic view of the Chamber of Secrets. He figured that after Slytherin had finished taking care of things in the room, he walked out of the room and stood there, gazing at the view of the lower level of the secret chamber like a god.
"Ants." Those were the words that came to his mind. Being so high up, it was easy to have the illusion that everyone in the world was ants.
Tom turned to look at the silver door, smooth and unmarked, with nothing like a doorknob.
He dared not enter, he remembered that there was a magic at Gringotts that only allowed certain people in, anyone else who did would be sucked in and trapped inside the door.
If Tom was absorbed now, it would be months before anyone could free him, and then he would probably have no recourse but to become a basilisk and choose to sleep.
Thinking about this, Tom raised his hand and looked at his ring, the fire dragon was gone, replaced by a snake.
In doing so, Tom also made serious considerations. Although the ring has six sides, there are only five vacant. He is about to transform into five magical creatures and inherit some of their powers.
He had engraved the Occamy, Phoenix, Fire Dragon, Unicorn and Three-Headed Dog before. The Occamy had to take one of those places if he wanted to explore the Chamber of Secrets, the unicorn had a strong purifying effect on the soul, Tom needed a spiritual defense, and the three-headed dog had too much of an advantage in close combat to be replaced, so that left the phoenix and the fire dragon.
The phoenix is capable of nirvana! Tom wouldn't have replaced it even if he removed everything else, God knows if the re-etched phoenix has nirvana capability, and given the nature of the system, probably not. What's the difference between a phoenix without Nirvana and a flying turkey? There is a big difference.
The fire dragon, on the other hand, has the same flying ability as the phoenix, the same magic resistance as the three-headed dog, and the fire-breathing ability is very weak because Norbert was a child at the time of registration.... On second thought, Tom substituted the fire-breathing dragon for the basilisk.
That's the problem he had: as he grew older, he encountered more and more powerful magical creatures, and he always had to learn to choose.
Just like a game team, there are four positions, usually a main attacker, a nurse or a tank, a support and a ranged attacker, no one will take the lineup of four main attackers, must consider the coordination problem.
Tom walked a bit away from the silver door, circled around in the other direction and came to the other side of the Slytherin statue, where he found the same silver door.
Exploring the Chamber of Secrets lead to a dead end.
No, there was another place, and Tom looked into the black hole at the mouth of the stone sculpture.
Tom had always had a question: what had the basilisk been eating for over a thousand years?
A magical creature like the basilisk, though long-lived and able to hibernate, is not immortal and cannot seclude itself for a thousand years in the world. In a thousand years of hibernation, it has to wake up a few times to shed its skin, right? And what does it eat when it wakes up?
A snake over ten meters can't eat rats! It can't be that Slytherin left a thousand years of food for the basilisk, can it?
So Tom decided to enter the statue's mouth and find out.
The mouth of the statue had been carefully repaired, and the floor was covered with neatly laid slabs of green stone, on which there was a lot of mucus from the basilisk's body. The walls were lined with small fluorescent stones, which provided a faint source of light.
After a few dozen steps down the path, Tom came to a slightly larger room with remnants of snakeskin strewn about, but mostly broken into pieces.
It was clear that this was the place where the basilisk had lived before.
The hall had one entrance and two exits. One exit seemed to lead to the surface, the other to the underground.
Tom entered the exit upwards.
This time, the path is slightly inclined. The tunnel ascends slowly, and there is a door in the tunnel, which must be opened in Parseltongue. After going through the door, Tom walked for ten minutes and could not see the end of the tunnel. It took him a few minutes to see the light at the exit and finally he flew out of the tunnel and found himself in the middle of a dense forest. Tom took a moment to get his bearings and felt like he was in the mountains surrounding Hogwarts.
Tom seemed to understand what the snake monster fed on.
When it woke up hungry, it would crawl out of the tunnels, go outside to feed, eat its fill and then follow the orders left by Slytherin, return to the Chamber and wait for the Slytherin heir to wake up; most likely the basilisk would go down another tunnel.
As for the descending tunnel, Tom made a guess that it would probably lead to the Black Lake.
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