Bab 259: Rot.
After a few minutes of failing to find anything useful, Loki finally moved towards the burning tents. Rushing towards them by teleporting around to save any people trapped burning inside them.
Except as he examined the tents more closely his eyes widened.
'The people are underground?'
'Did they try saving themselves by burying themselves? What? How are they even alive!? Bubblehead charm or something? If they could cast a charm why didn't they just blow the tent up to escape!?'
With but a thought, Loki vanished from the spot where he was standing and reappeared inside one of the burning tents.
There wasn't anything particularly eye-catching around the area where he had appeared but exactly in the centre of it all, where the human was buried, Loki spotted a faint wisp of spirituality escaping the ground.
Loki flicked his wand while mumbling, "Diffindo".
*SCHWICK*
A soft explosion muffled by the tent sounded through the camp, sending dirt from the ground up into the air but Loki remained undisturbed as he flicked his wand again causing the separated part of the ground to levitate like a clump of grass before sending it to a random corner.
His eyes searched for the source of the faint wisp of spirituality that was escaping the ground and then they widened.
'This...'
The dust slowly settled and Loki's skin felt like a million ants had crawled under it.
'Wh- What is that!?'
'Is that even a human being?'
Loki's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets.
What appeared after the dust settled was a head, a simple human head.
But the head was rotting.
Loki didn't know how or why. But the head was fowl. Apart from the hair, everything else on the head had rotten away, no eyes, no nose, no lips, it was barely a skull, and yet-
'He's still alive...'
Loki used his wand to slowly carve the dirt around the 'dead' man and quickly searched for the source of the spirituality that was leaking from him.
Yet even after he freed up around a foot around the man's head by transfiguring the dirt into water Loki couldn't see a single mystical item on the man.
'It's coming from something inside his body?'
Loki closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, getting his blood pumping for what he was about to do next.
Bending low, Loki used his wand and cut up the skull using 'Diffindo'.
He cast the spell four times, making four incisions on the skull around the crown as he moved closer to pull it out by gripping the hair.
Except just when he was about to touch the hair Loki heard random murmurings all shouting the same thing, "STOP!!" "DON'T PICK IT UP!!!" "'SHE' IS WATCHING!!!" "DON'T TOUCH IT!!!" "RUN AWAY!!!!"
Loki's breathing hitched, his first thought was to run and teleport away. But knowing that nothing had happened yet he realised he was safe, for now at least.
Calming himself down Loki assessed the situation and the murmurings.
'A deity is watching?'
'No. I'd already be dead if that was the case.'
'There is something inside the skull that could cause a deity to take notice of me?'
His body chilled at the thought.
But seeing the tent burning around him, Loki knew he didn't have a long time.
He immediately created a small area blocked by a wall of spirituality around himself and transfigured a stout altar on which he placed three candles.
He lit the candles using his spirituality and started to speak.
"I"
"I pray for the power of darkness."
"I pray for the power of crimson."
"I pray for the God's loving grace."
"I pray for God's great powers to conceal me from the energies inside the skull."
"Night dew, a herb that belongs to the night, I pray for you to bestow powers to my incantation."
"Vanilla, a fragrance that belongs to the darkness, I pray for you to bestow powers to my incantation."
Loki stayed kneeling in prayer position for a few seconds and almost immediately he felt a serene presence wash over him.
Standing up, Loki drew a crimson moon on his chest and for the first time said, "Praise the Master of Darkness."
With the blessing obtained, Loki made his way towards the skull.
He bent low and used his fingers to wound the hair around them.
He waited to see if there would be any murmurings or whispers that would warn him against the act he was committing but he heard nothing.
Taking a deep breath, Loki pulled out the piece of skull he'd just detached from the skull a few minutes earlier.
The underside of the piece of skull Loki just pulled was pitch black.
'Is it dried blood?'
Loki conjured up a stream of water using his wand, cleansed the skull and turned it over to examine it once again.
A symbol was etched into the bone.
A symbol that Loki recognised and one that he did not like.
It was the symbol of an outer deity.
The symbol of the Mother Tree of Desire.
There was a soft pause when Nicholas spoke, neither the Death Eaters nor the people taking shelter behind Nicholas moved.
Harry was trembling in anger as he gripped his wand tight while looking at Hermione who had streaks of tears flowing down her cheeks much like the other hostages that had been captured.
But whenever he tried to do something he would always feel a strict sense of suppression that erupted from the man he had once helped, Nicolas Flamel.
Harry glared at him, as did Ron and the rest of the Weasleys who were standing there. But none of them moved carelessly.
Finally, after about a minute of tense silence, the leader of the small group of Death Eaters moved.
He took a step toward Nicholas and dragged with his wand a hostage behind him. The other death eaters followed.
They passed through the crowd that had gathered behind Nicholas without encountering any hindrance.
It was very easy for them, because each time anyone from the crowd, be it Harry, Ron or any of the other Weasleys, behind Nicholas tried to harm them or cast a spell on them, Nicholas and Prenelle simply suppressed them by releasing their godly aura almost giving them a blackout.
Everyone was forced to watch the Death Eaters walk away in silence, the faces of several people were marked with deep frowns while few others kept control over their emotions.
Eventually, they arrived at the sea of people that Sunny had frozen.
As they walked through the field of frozen people, everyone felt chills travel up their spines. Everyone felt a little shocked by the scale at which everyone was petrified. Wondering in their silence if the Death Eaters were responsible for this but they said nothing.
But ignoring all the people frozen stiff, the Death Eaters walked towards the entrance of the camp. If anything they seemed giddy about what had happened, as if their jobs had been made easier.
Suddenly one of the Death Eaters separated himself from the rest of them and used his wand, causing a small wound to appear on the neck of the hostages around him. He then pulled out a small vial and collected a few millilitres of blood from all of them.
A series of actions that all the other Death Eaters allowed to happen with their own hostages without putting up any sort of resistance against the man.
Once they were all done, the man walked broke off from the group and moved toward the entrance.
Once there he created a wall of spirituality around himself to isolate the area near him and set up an altar with candles.
He knelt in front of the altar and pulled out two golden bowls. One which already had blood in it and another in which he poured in the blood of the hostages, filling it to the brim.
Everyone's eyes trembled as the same thoughts passed through their minds, and Arthur spoke up once again, "They're going to sacrifice innocent people in front of your eyes!! And you're going to do nothing!? You people are just as bad as-"
"Oh, could you shut up? We're purebloods. We don't need to sacrifice our lives for filthy mudbloods." Malfoy sneered. "Aren't I right Mr. Flamel?"
Nicholas looked at Malfoy and with a soft smile nodded. "If anyone attempts to disturb what happens next, I don't mind passing you along to be sacrificed."
Nicholas said the last words with some of his presence leaking, sending everyone into a spiral of fear.
Yet Arthur stood strong.
"I don't care who you are anymore!! How can you do nothing in the face of such madness?!"
Arthur pulled out his wand and pointed it at Nicholas who looked positively annoyed.
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Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone