Chapter 911: The Repeating Rooms
Chapter 911: The Repeating Rooms
As soon as Ivan stepped through the door, he knew something was amiss. The room was completely different from what he had expected. It was a square room with walls and three doors, one on each of the three sides.
He had spent months in Nicolas Flamel's house and had never seen a room like this before.
Was this some kind of special defense mechanism?
Ivan wondered silently.
However, time was limited, and Ivan didn't dare to linger for too long. After a brief observation of about ten seconds, he tentatively opened the door on the right.
Ahead was a long corridor, and at the end of the corridor was another door. Ivan quickly walked through and opened the door, only to find another empty room with nothing but doors.
A sense of foreboding crept into Ivan's mind. He tried the same approach again, selecting another door, and, as expected, found himself facing a narrow corridor.
After a few minutes of this, Ivan's frown deepened. He realized that this seemed to be an endless loop, with no difference in the scenes he encountered no matter which door he opened.
If it weren't for the annoying magic traps and guardians in some of the rooms, Ivan would have suspected he was back at the starting point.
After a while of aimless wandering, Ivan forced himself to calm down. Panicking wouldn't help; it would only waste his efforts.
"What's the pattern?" Ivan scanned the roughly thirty-square-meter room, staring at the four doors for a long time, hoping to find some clue. But no matter how he looked, the doors all seemed identical.
Could it be that there was no pattern at all, and everything was random, relying solely on luck to find a way out?
Or did Nicolas Flamel, to ensure he wouldn't be disturbed after death, not set up an exit at all, intending to wear down his enemies in these endlessly repeating rooms?
Various thoughts raced through Ivan's mind. If that were the case, he might never find a way out.
Of course, there was an extreme solution: he could simply cast spells to destroy these rooms and see if it revealed an exit.
However, doing so might cause the independent space Nicolas Flamel created with magic to collapse entirely, burying everything with it.
"Every casting leaves a trace of magic..." Ivan murmured to himself, closing his eyes and trying to sense the magic. The magic flowed like tentacles, gradually covering the entire room.
Through his magical senses, Ivan realized that all the rooms were illusions created by magic and were interconnected by some force.
With this realization, Ivan entered the second, third, and fourth rooms, quickly noticing their subtle differences. These differences weren't visible on the surface but were present on a magical level.
To put it simply, the place he was in was like a massive maze, and magic had assigned a unique code to each room. If he could figure out the sequence these codes represented, he could find the exit!
With this in mind, Ivan revitalized his efforts and began exploring the countless rooms and corridors.
Due to his training in Legilimency and Occlumency, Ivan's memory far exceeded that of an ordinary person. He could clearly remember every door he had opened and used this information to construct a three-dimensional map of the "maze" in his mind.
When Ivan opened the forty-second door, the living room he had been looking for finally appeared before his eyes.
Ivan, who had been nearly driven to the brink by the maze, let out a slow, relieved breath.
However, at that moment, a sudden sense of danger surged in his heart. The knight statue, with only half its body remaining, unexpectedly swung its longsword.
The heavy stone sword slashed horizontally, moving with unimaginable speed. Ivan only heard a piercing whistle, and the sword was already right before his eyes, slicing through him from shoulder to shoulder, splitting him into two halves!
Strangely, no blood flowed from the severed wounds. Ivan's divided body quickly dispersed into flame and then reformed.
"Reducto!" Ivan, having dodged the attack, swung his wand, and a brilliant Spell Beam instantly shattered the knight statue into pieces.
"Master's Magic Guardian is really merciless..." Ivan remarked, glancing around. There were signs of intrusion everywhere, with broken statues and destroyed magic traps littering the area. Even the spiral staircase leading to the second floor was half-destroyed.
This meant Grindelwald had already passed through here. Ivan's heart raced as he prayed that Nicolas Flamel's Magic protection could hold up, even if just a little. He quickly ascended the stairs, searching for Grindelwald.
The second floor consisted of several empty rooms, with the bedroom and cabinets all vanished. It seemed Grindelwald had used some method to eliminate everything unrelated to finding the Resurrection Stone.
Ivan focused his attention on the room at the end of the corridor, which Nicolas Flamel had once instructed him not to open. But there was no time for such considerations now.
He gently pushed open the door. The room was dim, but the space was surprisingly spacious, resembling a solemn Great Hall.
Golden-red torches burned brightly on both sides, extending to the magic podium at the far end of the room. Two pure white coffins were placed there, and Ivan knew without a doubt that they contained Nicolas Flamel and his wife.
Grindelwald stood below the magic podium, his gaze fixed on a diamond-shaped crystal embedded in the opposite wall. However, he did not attempt to take it, as a cleverly set magical barrier stood before him, presenting a significant challenge even to him.
Sectumsempra...
Ivan had no intention of greeting him. Seizing the moment while Grindelwald was distracted, he cast a non-verbal spell, raising his hand to deliver a lethal strike!
Invisible Magic Blades sliced through the air, aiming straight for Grindelwald's head. Just as they were about to strike, Grindelwald sharply tilted his head, narrowly avoiding the attack.
The Magic Blades collided with the magical barrier behind him, but failed to cause even a ripple...
"Ivan Hals..." Grindelwald turned his head, looking at Ivan as he approached step by step, his tone indifferent. "I didn't expect you to come to France."
"Of course I'm here. Nicolas Flamel is my Master, and this is his tomb!" Ivan's tone was harsh, his anger more focused on Grindelwald disturbing Nicolas Flamel's rest than on the Resurrection Stone.
(End of Chapter)
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