Chapter 185: Unexpected Ancient Ruins
Chapter 185: Unexpected Ancient Ruins
Hermione felt as if she were in an endless darkness.
"Am I dead?" she began to recall the events of the day. Everything had become strange from the moment the Brazilian Ministry of Magic official arrived with a notice this morning, leading up to the moment she instinctively rushed to save someone when she saw a professor trying to kidnap someone, only to be choked and thrown into a hole by that professor.
Her last memory was of the professor casting a spell that hit her as she fell, plunging her into this endless darkness.
"Ugh, Dad, Mom, I have so much more to experience, so many more books to read. Sob, sob, sob—" Just as Hermione was grieving, she heard a familiar voice.
"My Wake-Up Charm spell should work fine, so why isn’t she waking up? She was only hit by a Stunning Spell." Hearing Liam’s words, Hermione felt embarrassed by her earlier thoughts and quickly opened her eyes.
"Ah, you’re finally awake." Liam let out a sigh of relief. "I thought I might have been mistaken. How are you feeling now?"
"Um, I’m okay." Hermione moved her eyes and saw Liam kneeling beside her, putting away his wand. "Where are we?"
"From what I know, this is an ancient ruin beneath Castrobrusso. The imposter professor and the attackers all came from here."
"Imposter professor?" Hermione exclaimed. "Where is he now? Is he hiding somewhere, ready to attack us?" She sat up and looked around warily.
"Don’t worry, he jumped into the water and escaped." Liam lied smoothly, as he couldn’t tell a 13-year-old girl that he had just decapitated the kidnapper, burned his head to ashes, and weighted down his body with stones before sinking it in the pool.
Hearing Liam’s words, Hermione let out a sigh of relief, then her face turned red. "I, I’m very sorry for getting you stuck here because of me. I’m really sorry."
"I just don’t understand why you would rush in when I had already warned you to be careful today. You were far enough away from that guy; he shouldn’t have been able to grab you. What made you suddenly rush in to save Alicia?"
"You told me to be careful today, so when you started talking, I noticed you and that man. When he suddenly lunged at Alicia with a menacing look, I just reacted instinctively and pushed her away. I tripped and that’s how he managed to grab me."
It turned out the warning had backfired. If he hadn’t warned her, Hermione might not have been so alert and wouldn’t have rushed in. However, her reaction was understandable. Many people who act heroically do so instinctively, without thinking.
"Alright, we need to get out of here quickly. Professor Sprout and the others are still fighting and won’t be able to help us soon. You said many of the enemies came from here. What if someone comes to check? I don’t think we can hold off a full-grown wizard." Hermione pushed herself up with her hands and said to Liam.
Indeed, they needed to move. The place was too small, and if Chimera Society or Blood God Cult members came, they would have nowhere to hide. Moreover, according to the kidnapper’s memories, these tunnels were alive and would periodically move, crushing anyone outside the safe zones. They were currently not in a safe zone.
With that thought in mind, Liam sprang into action. He pushed aside a cluster of glowing plants at the end of the shallow waters, revealing a black opening before them.
"Take this for protection", Liam said, pulling a wand from his pocket and handing it to Hermione. After all, her wand had been thrown away by that guy earlier.
"Where did you get this?" Hermione asked curiously.
"It’s that guy’s wand. I knocked it out of his hand when we were in the water, otherwise, do you think he would have run away?" Liam continued to spin his tale. In reality, he had picked up the wand habitually before disposing of the body.
It had to be said that Little Qing’s skills in searching bodies were getting better. Apart from the wand, he had also found a tin flask containing freshly brewed Polyjuice Potion and about seven or eight Galleons. Since he had no immediate use for these items, he casually stashed them in his emporium.
The two of them entered the cave and followed the winding path for about seven or eight minutes. Liam began to feel something was off. The knowledge he had inherited from Edward Kenway included many memories of high-altitude bungee jumping, so he was quite experienced in such matters. When he jumped down, he had roughly calculated the height and determined that he should be at the same level as the river.
However, they had traveled quite a distance in a mostly straight line, and if everything was normal, they should be walking under the high ground where the School was located, right above the river. But the path ahead was still pitch black, with only some bioluminescent fungi providing light.
Something was definitely wrong. As Liam was pondering this, he noticed a sharp turn ahead. According to the memories, the safe zone was just around the corner. When he turned the bend, he was stunned by what he saw.
The Magic world had countless methods of concealing spaces, like Diagon Alley, a bustling street that Muggles had never noticed despite being right under their noses. So, it was not surprising that an ancient ruin would be difficult to find, especially considering the Wizard world’s tradition: the older something was, the more powerful it tended to be.
After all, anything that had survived the test of time couldn’t be considered weak. Not to mention the extreme secrecy with which Wizards guarded their knowledge. It was entirely possible that this place was left by a Wizard lineage that had been lost to time and unknown to the outside world, containing Magic knowledge on par with the current mainstream Wizard lineages.
While Liam had some disdain for the Wizard world’s tendency to dig up and recover ancient knowledge, similar to a mechanical cult, he couldn’t deny that ancient Wizards had their strengths.
But what Liam saw now exceeded his expectations. Before him lay a vast space, dominated by a massive Mayan-style Pyramid Temple, towering over a thousand meters high.
Hermione, noticing that Liam had stopped, found it strange and turned the corner to stand behind him. She was about to tap him on the shoulder when she saw the giant pyramid, and like Liam, she was awestruck by its grandeur.
She had just spent her summer vacation in France, marveling at the height of the Eiffel Tower. Now, facing a structure far older and three times the height of the Eiffel Tower, she was equally amazed.
At this moment, Liam’s face turned grim. Upon seeing the temple, he realized that the memories indicated both the headquarters of the Blood God Cult and the path to the surface were inside this temple, and the temple’s location was the safe zone.
(End of Chapter)
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