Capítulo 215: Chapter 212
The tunnel turned out to be not as long as Severus had initially assumed, but it was quite dark and gloomy, but what was most interesting was the illusions, a huge number of illusions affecting all six senses, but he was unable to experience them, since they simply did not break through the defence of his mind.
But if anyone else was in his place, he would hardly have guessed that this was just an illusion and most likely would have wandered along this short tunnel for eternity, or maybe would've just gone crazy. And Severus, unsurprisingly, was not the only wizard who "found" this place. This was indicated by a human skeleton in a purple robe, lying on the way with a large crack on his forehead, confirming his past thoughts.
It took him only one minute to go through the tunnel completely and come out to two, three-meter iron double-leaf doors, decorated with the sign of yin and yang, with handprints near the handles, seeing which, a slight nostalgia came over the wizard, Snape remembered the day when he went down into the sewers of Hogwarts for the Basilisk.
"You know, I don't like this …" and it was not only him who remembered the day when they almost died in that trap, Nagini also became very careful at this moment.
"There's nothing special here," gently patting her on the top of her head, he approached the doors, under the intense gaze of the snake and touched them, "Simple scanning charms, I assume that that passage was just a test, since I do not feel any runes or charms other than those imposed on the entrance." placing his palms on a special cutout for them and calmly blocking the attempt to scan himself, he lightly pressed on the doors and they calmly began to open, "blinding" him with a bright, but warm, dark green light.
Although the potion helped to see in the dark, such a sharp change of scenery, from impenetrable darkness to light, made even him squint his eyes.
Next, the Prince saw a small, amphitheater-shaped room with only four rows, in the centre of which there was a strange structure resembling an altar with a rhombus hovering above it, surrounded by crystal clear water and another row of square-shaped stone slabs, just above the water level.
Above the altar, illuminated by a pair of white crystals, very interesting creatures were hovering, resembling simple butterflies, but completely transparent, as if it were another illusion, but in fact they were real, and one of them, noticing the guests, fluttered away from the rest and flew up to them, or rather, to Nagini and without any fear of the "terrible reptile", sat on her muzzle.
This greatly surprised the maledictus, but she did not drive it away, instead studied the strange creature with interest, and the wizard in turn only smiled softly from what he saw, not very surprised by this.
These butterflies, like the Qilin, had the ability to see the souls of any creature. In his world, they were called quite simply - "White Butterflies", they always gathered only around light creatures, as well as graves where such people were buried.
"This simplifies things, but still, vigilance cannot be lost," going down the stairs, he stood on the water and taking two steps forward, stepping over the stone "fence", he stood in front of the altar, and the butterflies quickly flew to the side.
"Hm.…" kneeling, he began to study the structure, especially the runes on it and after a few seconds looked up at the rhombus, which was also covered with them, but in a font that was terribly small.
"Interesting ... worthy work, much better than the Horcrux and the Gryffindor locket, although it does not reach that crystal underground….."
"So you saw it …" A tired, but at the same time light and pleasant, old voice sounded.
"I saw it, a very interesting creature and dangerous," Severus nodded calmly, rising to his feet and taking a step back, stepping over the stone slabs. And a few seconds later, a thin old man with Asian features appeared near the altar.
He had a long beard almost to his stomach, a moustache almost falling into it and the tips of his eyebrows, which lacked a couple of centimetres from mixing into his beard, a slightly absentminded and saddened look could not hide the wisdom hidden in their depths.
He was wearing a nondescript outfit, reminiscent of traditional ancient Chinese clothing: a simple gray robe with a blue border along the edges, straw sandals and dark wide trousers.
His whole appearance showed simplicity, as if he were the most ordinary old man, but his eyes completely gave him away.
"I see... that's good, since you came back alive, it is still too weak to affect objects outside the crystal…" the spirit sighed with some relief, putting his hands behind his back, "... which means we still have time…"
"We?" Severus raised an eyebrow with a mocking smile, 'We don't have time to deal with that creature, and we have enough of our own problems."
"I know," the wizard answered with a completely calm face, looking good-naturedly at the snake, "I want to ask for her help, I see that you were once a human and although there are grey spots in your soul, it is hundreds of times brighter than most other people," such a turn of events shocked Nagini.
At first, the snake simply did not know how to react to this, but after a few seconds, having calmed down, she measured the old man with a wary look and shook her head. He reminded her very much of Dumbledore.
"He is too suspicious, and you said that one can't trust all good-natured looking old men…"
"Clever girl, apparently our lessons were not in vain," he stroked the satisfied reptile on the head again, from which it hissed contentedly, under the, to put it mildly, surprised look of the elderly wizard.
"Don't you want to become human again? I know how to help you!" But instead of the expected excitement or at least some kind of struggle on the muzzle, all the old man heard was a hiss, a very displeased hiss and a dangerously narrowed look.
"Allow me to translate: "just dare to try bribing me with something like that again, and I will rip out your beard even in spiritual form", something like that" Severus quoted Nagini, but added a little from himself, from which the old man's face fell, hearing such an answer.
"But... why…?" he asked, simply not understanding why she had reacted so sharply.
"You may have great wisdom, which can be said by this altar, thanks to which your soul has not yet dissipated and the spells still support the weather under this barrier, but you do not understand people at all," the spirit frowned at his words, he, one of the wisest wizards of his millennium, was told that he did not understand something, and that also by some boy who had never seen life.
"Watch your language or have you not been taught how to address elders?" hearing such disdain in the voice towards Severus, Nagini exuded a thirst for blood, which made the old man, feeling the tension hanging in the air, cursed under his breath and finally, it began to dawn on him what the young wizard meant.
"I apologise for my hot temper," with a crooked smile, he lowered his head, but this did not soften the snake's anger at all.
"You said that you knew a way to return her human form again." Snape did not care about the words of this old senile man, but his offer interested Severus, 'If you know a way to make her human again, then I will persuade her to help you and I myself will help destroy that creature in the crystal."
"Severus! I don't need anything from him! I am ready to…"
But, not letting her finish, he flicked her on the nose and, looking warmly into her eyes, calmly said "Do you think I don't see how much you want to become human again? And if it can be done, which I doubt, to put it mildly, and it's not about the high cost of the ingredients for that potion, but about the pain that you will feel during the ritual, then I will gladly use another method. Although I consider myself a pretty smart person, I am not omniscient and if there is something that can help you become human again, but without pain, then I will gladly find it, even if it means going through that monster in the crystal."
"Severus... I... I... thank you... I'm so happy that I met you…" she whispered, clinging to his chest, touched to the depths of her soul by his words, "I... I will never be able to fa…"
"If I hear about gratitude one more time, the next one will be a flick and even your scales will not save you," the Prince cut her off mid-sentence again, sternly sealed her, "And stop wetting my shirt already!"
The spirit watching this looked at them with undisguised surprise. For him, a wizard specialising in white magic and one able to perfectly see the souls of people, it was shocking to see how a person with a black soul, in which there were only a couple of specks of gray, treated someone with such tenderness.
What he was seeing now simply destroyed his worldview to hell and back. After all, he had to deal with many people with the same soul, but they were all real madmen and maniacs, but the young man standing in front of him simply did not look like such a person.
He even thought that because of old age, his own magic or eyes began to fail "Maybe he is pretending ...?"
"Old man, how can you rid her of the curse?" The elderly wizard shuddered with his whole body from his voice, but quickly pulled himself together under a pair of puzzled eyes and somehow unnaturally.
"When I was still very young, I loved to travel and one day I found myself in the ruins of some ancient city. I was very stupid then and did not understand many things... I gave in to temptation and took one thing that was not allowed to be touched, because of its lifting, the ruins began to collapse... That day, I lost my brother and received this thing…" the floor in the cave suddenly shook and a small stone rose from the water, in the center of which was a strange vessel with a shining transparent liquid, at the sight of which shock flashed in the Prince's eyes for a moment, which was replaced by anger and his fists itched.
And if the old man standing in front of him was not a ghost, he would have personally strangled him with his own hands. "Sacred spring... sacred spring... sacred spring... he destroyed the sacred spring... this idiot destroyed the sacred spring..."
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