Hogwarts Raven (Harry Potter) Chapter 562 213 Tomb! The Place of Eternal Rest! Part 3

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The longer he looked, the more unsettling it beca. Sothing about this place tugged at his mory, filling him with an ominous dread.

And sure enough, The next mont, rlin led him before a sheer cliff face.

"This… isn't this the ancient site you ntioned before?"

Ian's heart lurched, his face twitching involuntarily. He rembered Morgan once guiding him through these cliffs in her mories.

But back then, she had never said this place was a tomb.

Was it intentional?

Or just a coincidence?

Ian's feelings were complicated. rlin, however, didn't notice his unease. He stood before the cliff face, scrutinizing the surface with a frown.

"There's a strong magical influence here," he murmured. "Seems to be guarded by so ancient seal. I'll need ti to break it."

From his robes he produced a bundle of strange tools and scrolls, imdiately setting to work before the rock wall. His hands moved with practiced precision, carving intricate runes while his lips whispered incantations under his breath.

Ian watched in silence for a while, then finally asked, his voice tight.

"How long will it take?"

His chest felt far from calm.

"A few hours." nrlin's reply carried the weight of certainty.

At that, Ian exhaled sharply, the corner of his lips twitching in exasperation. "A few hours? You're trying to kill with suspense."

He strode forward, standing right before the cliff, and in a low voice of ancient English, he invoked words he had no right to know.

"Pose your riddle, O King of Bronze and Fla."

Just as he had imagined, his voice reverberated through the gorge, triggering sothing hidden deep within the stone.

"Hm?"

rlin's head snapped up, shock flickering in his eyes. But before he could speak, a low, resonant rumble echoed from within the mountain itself.

Sothing was stirring.

The runes rlin had painstakingly etched onto the surface were abruptly erased. In their place, countless glowing lines crawled across the rock face, weaving together into an intricate and arcane sigil.

And then, A pair of piercing eyes opened within the cliff itself.

rlin stiffened, his body taut with caution as though facing a deadly foe. "An alchemical lifeform?" he muttered, recognizing the signature of its creation.

But the cliff spoke.

"In quantum chanics, the wave function describes the state of a particle. When that particle is observed, the wave function collapses into a definite state."

The voice, resonant and inhuman, posed its challenge: "Tell , how does this collapse occur, and why?"

A question utterly impossible for this era to answer.

Ian sighed softly. So it's her again, Mizuki Nana…

He glanced at rlin, whose brows were deeply furrowed as he wrestled with the incomprehensible.

"I don't know," Ian said flatly.

rlin turned toward him, startled.

But before he could scold him for giving up so easily, Ian's face flushed red. He clenched his fists, forcing the words out.

"But I do know this, I love you most of all."

He hated every syllable of it, but the looming sense of danger left him no choice. If he didn't offer an answer that pleased the entity, the warding chanisms here would surely annihilate them both in an instant.

No choice.

The little wizard had to spit out words he didn't an.

"Oh! That's absolutely correct!" the voice of "Mizuki Nana" cried out with giddy delight.

The ground shook, and the cliff face split open, revealing a yawning cavern of pitch blackness.

"..."

Ian didn't so much as glance at rlin's bewildered expression. Keeping his head down, he stepped straight into the darkness.

rlin lingered at the threshold for a mont, eyes following Ian's back with a strange, thoughtful light, before he too entered.

"You never fail to surprise ," rlin said at last, his voice layered with aning.

The little wizard gave no reply.

He simply kept his head down and walked deeper.

The cavern was pitch black, the winding stone steps stretching endlessly downward. On either side, ancient runes had been carved into the stone walls, glowing faintly in the darkness like fireflies.

Before long, a massive bronze gate lood before them.

Intricate, elaborate engravings sprawled across its surface, clear as day.

So kind of teleportation spell.

"Savior Who Eradicates Disasters"

"Sole Authority Across Eternity"

Eight familiar characters still burned brightly on the gate.

They were in Simplified Chinese but his mind automatically did the translation.

The little wizard let out a weary sigh.

"I know this one." rlin stepped forward before Ian could move, his eyes sweeping rapidly across the maze of interwoven sigils carved into the gate. With deft precision, he pulled forth shapes, lines, fragnts of letters, as though he already knew exactly what he was looking for.

Ian barely had ti to react before, in the span of a heartbeat, divh

The word had been assembled.

Too late to stop him.

A thunderous rumble tore through the earth as the bronze gate began to grind open.

"Damn it! There's a trap behind the door!" Ian panicked instantly. He rembered all too well how Morgan had died. His wand flashed into his hand as he frantically layered protective charms over himself, dozens in rapid succession.

"Don't be nervous."

rlin, by contrast, was calm. Almost unnervingly so.

He turned to Ian, and in that mont, his eyes glowed white. The sensation struck Ian like lightning, he had felt this before. Aurora. Grindelwald.

And indeed…

"The greatest prophet of this century is on your side. You have nothing to fear from traps." rlin's voice was certain, though a flicker of puzzlent passed through his gaze as he studied Ian.

But only for a mont.

His conviction never wavered. He trusted his foresight completely, and with that certainty, he gave his back to the grinding gate. Ian, however, instinctively gathered his magic, bracing for the eruption of dark energy he was sure would co.

"…?"

But the flood never ca. No searing torrent of sickly green fel-magic, no catastrophic surge.

Instead, what lay beyond the gate was only… fog.

Thick, rolling fog, white and endless, spilling out into the cavern like a living tide.

"What…?" Ian froze, confusion etched across his face.

"Co."

Without hesitation, rlin stepped through the fog. His figure vanished almost instantly, swallowed whole.

He was far too confident.

"…"

Ian lingered for a mont, waiting, listening for the snap of their contract, the signal of rlin's death. But it never ca. Only silence.

Reluctantly, warily, Ian stepped in after him. He knew divh better than anyone. He knew the danger. And yet…

The sight that greeted him was beyond anything he had expected.

"Where is this…?"

It felt as though he had crossed layer upon layer of overlapping space. Images, landscapes, whole fragnts of reality flickered past his vision like dissolving film reels, fading to monochro until, Solid ground.

The little wizard stood once more upon earth, but all around him stretched a world of black and white. The wind here was sharp and biting, cutting to the bone. rlin stood in the gale, his robes snapping wildly, his expression unreadable.

"If I'm not mistaken," rlin said evenly, turning to Ian, "this is Helheim. The Realm of the Dead. A divine dominion existing apart from the Underworld… perhaps one plundered by a god-eater."

He paused, his eyes aglow, the light almost unnatural against the bleak monochro.

"He chose it as his tomb."

rlin's voice was calm, but when his gaze fixed on Ian, it was like a blade.

"The laws of this place cannot be overstepped, even by gods. In my understanding, only souls should be able to tread here." His glowing eyes locked on his companion, unyielding.

"Then why…?" His voice lowered to a whisper, carrying the weight of judgnt.

"Why have your flesh and your magic power not been stripped away?"

The King of Wizards stared into the boy's eyes, and in those glowing pupils was the reflection of Ian himself, still glancing around curiously, his colors vivid and alive against this dead, monochro world.

A speck of color in the land of the dead.

So out of place.

(End of Chapter)