https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-868-Boundary-Between-Life-and-Death/13454794/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-870-Voldemort-This-Is-Impossible-Snape-s-Loyalty-to-Me-Is-as-Hard-as-Steel-/13454796/
Chapter 869: Dumbledore: I'm Waiting for Someone Here!
Chapter 869: Dumbledore: I’m Waiting for Someone Here!
"What exactly happened? Did Voldemort want to kill Professor Snape?" Harry asked.
He had been inexplicably brought before Voldemort by Snape and "died" under the Dark Lord's Killing Curse after only a few words. So, he had no idea about the current state of the outside world.
"I can't see anything more specific, but I believe this is related to the Horcruxes..." Dumbledore paused here, then went on to explain how he had once instructed Snape to kill Nagini.
"So, how should I destroy that Horcrux? With Fiendfyre? But I've never learned that spell", Harry said, feeling somewhat at a loss. He had heard from Ivan, Sirius Black, and others just how tenacious Horcruxes were; even ordinary magic couldn't leave a scratch on them.
"No, using Dark Magic to counter Dark Magic isn't a wise move", Dumbledore shook his head and then smiled, asking, "Do you remember how your mother resisted the Killing Curse?"
"With... love?" Harry said uncertainly.
"Or perhaps, the power of belief!" Dumbledore said slowly. "To protect you from harm, Lily willingly sacrificed herself, unleashing indescribable courage. She used an ancient form of magic to transform this unwavering belief into power, hiding it within you."
"If necessary, you can try using a similar power to combat the Horcrux..." Dumbledore added.
"I don't think I can do that, Master..." Harry's face turned red as he protested. He didn't even have a wand, let alone the powerful spell required to transform belief into power.
It couldn't be that just thinking about killing Nagini would make her explode, could it?
That would be too absurd...
"I believe you can do it, as long as you truly want to and your Will is strong enough..." Dumbledore said mysteriously, then, without waiting for Harry to respond, urged him, "Alright, it's time for you to go back, Harry. Move back!"
The surroundings began to shake violently, the towering hall cracking with countless fine fissures, as if it were about to collapse at any moment.
Harry, momentarily forgetting his many questions, shouted, "What about you, Professor Dumbledore? Aren't you coming back with me?"
"We are different. You are still alive and have hope, but I have already died. I must take a different path, embarking on a new, unknown adventure", Dumbledore said with a smile.
Harry opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. If moving forward led to the world of the dead and moving backward returned him to the world of the living, did that mean Dumbledore, by staying here, was between life and death, having made no choice?
"I remain here because I need to wait for someone..." Dumbledore's form was becoming increasingly transparent, as if shrouded in white mist, but his voice still reached Harry's ears clearly. "If he keeps his word, he should be arriving soon..."
Wait... for who? Harry didn't have time to ask, as the supporting pillars on either side collapsed, and Dumbledore's figure vanished completely from his sight. Everything around him seemed to be collapsing, even the ground cracking beneath his feet.
Harry quickly turned and started sprinting.
He ran for a long time, but all he saw ahead of him was white mist, with no end in sight.
What worried him even more was that the ground was collapsing at an increasingly rapid pace, even faster than his running speed. The ground was caving in all around him, and in endless despair, he fell into the bottomless abyss...
After an unknown amount of time, Harry suddenly felt something lash out and strike his body, slamming him hard against the rear wall.
The intense pain jolted Harry awake. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a writhing Serpent with its tongue flicking, seemingly poised to bite him.
The shocking scene startled Harry, but his dazed body left him unable to move.
In that split second, the sound of a sharp weapon slicing through the air reached his ears. The Serpent beside him was instantly cut in half, and the stench of its blood splattered onto his robes and face.
The nauseating odor kept wafting into Harry's nose, but he had no time to care. The experience of narrowly escaping death once again filled him with relief.
Harry propped himself up and looked around. All he saw was a sea of blood.
The spacious basement was piled high with snake corpses of various sizes, with crimson blood and flesh scattered everywhere. Harry even spotted a Serpent with only half its body, its form grotesquely twisted.
Snape, who had saved his life, was now leaning against the wall nearby, looking extremely pale. He must have been bitten by a venomous snake during the battle, and an empty vial lay beside his foot.
Although Harry didn't know the full story, he could guess what had happened. Voldemort had hidden Nagini in the basement, mixed among countless Serpents.
Relying on his familiarity with Nagini, Snape had been searching the dark, spacious basement and quickly located her position.
This wasn't because Snape's eyesight was poor; it was only from his semi-reclined position that he could spot Nagini—this cunning Serpent was coiled on a tall scaffold to the right, slowly crawling along the beam above Snape's head.
A chill ran through Harry's body, and he somehow found the strength to ignore his pain, jumping up from the ground and shouting, "Professor, watch out above!"
Snape instantly reacted, lifting his head and waving his wand. Invisible Magic Blades shot out, colliding with Nagini and producing a sharp, metallic sound.
Nagini's agonized hiss followed, and her thick, child-waist-sized body rolled and crashed to the ground. However, due to the special nature of a Horcrux, even after taking a direct hit from Sectumsempra, her massive body showed no visible wounds.
"Use Fiendfyre!" Harry reminded him.
"Do you think I don't know that? There's no way to use fire here!" Snape replied angrily, his legs giving way and nearly causing him to fall. A circular, hole-like wound on his right leg was oozing black blood—earlier, he had been bitten by Nagini, who had hidden among the snakes.
Fortunately, he had prepared a powerful antidote specifically to deal with this Serpent, which had neutralized some of the poison, allowing him to hold on this long.
(End of Chapter)
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