Chapter 227 - 226. The Necromancer Community. Part 2. The Book.

Chapter 226. The Necromancer Community. Part 2. The Book.

Only after applying the second layer of runes did Severus approach the altar. Lifting the black skull with magic, he focused his attention on the book.

"Such a terrible thing in such a magically weak world... if someone had enough magic to use it, this world would have ended much sooner."

"Will you destroy it?"

"No, I won’t destroy it," Severus replied calmly, a barely concealed sneer in his voice. "Something like this simply cannot be destroyed, but leaving it here... would be an insult to such a powerful artifact."

The answer, to put it mildly, shocked Nagini. For a moment, she even feared that the artifact had somehow influenced him, clouding his mind or bending him to its will.

But she quickly dismissed those foolish notions. It simply couldn’t be. Besides, his gaze seemed strange to her, yet familiar, as if he hadn’t changed at all and was merely pretending.

Severus himself, as if entranced, reached forward and took the book in hand.

"An artifact with a mind..." As soon as the words left his lips, the book was suddenly engulfed in black flame.

"KYAAAA!" An incredibly powerful shriek filled with pain and despair echoed throughout the room. After a few seconds, it fell silent, and no trace of the book remained.

"However, suggestion magic, especially such weak magic, won’t work on me." Brushing off his hands, he raised his gaze to the skull and began studying the runes inscribed upon it, as if nothing had happened moments before.

"And I actually believed you at first! You could have warned me!" Though she sounded slightly displeased, deep down she was excited. If this artifact was destroyed, that meant...

"This isn’t the end," Severus said calmly, as if reading her thoughts, though in reality he was simply interpreting her emotions.

"But you..."

"My naive friend, what made you think there could only be one such artifact?" He looked at her with a mocking smile. In response, she sent him an image of a girl with puffed cheeks and a very angry little face. "As my teacher said, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

Twirling the skull in his hand, he squinted slightly as he noticed a red crystal inside. "Interesting... they managed to create such a miniature core... even Godric couldn’t do that, although..."

He pulled a pocket watch from his pouch and tapped it twice. As it opened, a white cloud flew out, taking the form of a familiar old man of Chinese descent after a few seconds.

"Young man, why did you pull me out of the artifact, and in a place like this..."

"Look. What do you see?" Severus thrust the skull toward Li Er’s face.

Li Er was slightly confused, but nodded and examined the offered object. A flicker of surprise crossed his face.

"This... there’s a soul inside. A very evil one."

"So I wasn’t mistaken."

"Young man, where did you find this thing, and where are we?" Li Er asked, frowning as he examined the strange room. The walls were covered with symbols unknown to him, not to mention the death energy hovering in the air, but he had long ago learned to deal with it, even as a soul.

"A necromancers’ lair." Crouching down, Severus studied the runes on the bone altar. "Although... no, Godric outdid them. The rune patterns and types he chose for all of Hogwarts were far more interesting and superior. He also created a personality from scratch that currently controls the castle, whereas here they simply used a human soul, far easier, less durable, and very unreliable."

Unlike an artificial personality, a soul has an unpleasant tendency to dissipate, even in such a horcrux, albeit quite slowly.

At the same time, one shouldn’t forget human nature. Even after erasing all memories, a soul could still one day betray its master upon gaining self-awareness. Though unlikely, such an outcome couldn’t be ruled out.

Therefore, in his world, artificial personalities were often used for cores, or they went without them entirely, which was far more common.

Certain templates of runes that formed personalities capable of limited actions had long been invented for this purpose, and Severus had used them when creating his house.

The rune inspection was completed quite quickly, in just half an hour. He even managed to glean several interesting ideas that he intended to use for his house, though not now. Sometime in the future, when he found a free moment.

Besides this, Severus introduced a couple of his own innovations into the core. While no magic flowed into it, the soul simply slept, so he could do almost anything he wanted.

The innovations related to his status as an official necromancer, granting him access to the community at any moment without resorting to methods like the one he had used to get there, as well as surveillance of everything happening in the community. He didn’t forget to erase all traces of his presence in the castle.

Lowering the skull onto the altar again, Severus shifted his gaze to Li Er, who was still thoughtfully studying the symbols on the walls.

"Found anything interesting?" Severus approached him.

Li Er pointed to a strange mark in the form of a star inside a square, carved in each corner.

"This sign was used in my time by a very powerful group of dark wizards." He turned toward the skull. "But I didn’t remember it immediately. When they were destroyed, I was about thirty. One thing I remember well, though: each of their skeletons was completely black. One even came into my possession back then."

"Hm. And you studied it?"

"Yes, but I was never able to understand how they did it. With such skeletons, magic passed through the body much better, allowing for much faster spellcasting. The spells were also more powerful. Many in my time tried to replicate this, but no one succeeded." He sighed with a hint of nostalgia, looking at Severus again. "I would recommend you take this skull with you and study it, because if you..."

"This method of strengthening doesn’t interest me." Severus calmly shook his head, then took out the pocket watch again. "All right, let’s get out of here. There’s nothing more to do. Later, I hope to hear more from you about these wizards."

The elderly wizard was somewhat surprised by such an answer—every mage craved power, after all—but didn’t comment. He assumed Severus was one of those who didn’t want to modify his body in such a way.

As soon as Li Er returned to the watch, Severus cast one last glance at the skull.

*Bone Tempering... though... something to think about.* And with those thoughts, he disappeared from the castle.

On the way back, he didn’t forget to stop by the preserve in Romania to purchase dragon meat. He returned to England, where he spent the rest of the day and the next adjusting the ritual. He also kept an eye on the dragon egg, which was supposed to hatch in a few days.

By Sunday evening he finally fulfilled his promise and treated all the inhabitants of his territory to dragon meat.

Though it was inferior in tenderness and taste to the dragon meat from his own world, it was definitely several levels above golden antelope.

On Monday he returned calmly to Hogwarts and resumed his studies and work, no longer thinking about foolishness like the founders’ hiding places and secret rooms. The other children no longer bothered him much.

But in the main Necromancer Community, a very tense atmosphere reigned. Only a Muggle would have failed to notice that the level of death energy had dropped by almost fifteen percent, and Xardos himself walked around gloomier than a storm cloud.

Only he knew, so far, that their greatest artifact had disappeared, and the castle core that should have guarded it had seen nothing. This angered him even more.

Even Robin tried not to draw attention to himself or catch his teacher’s eye. The last time he had come to ask a few questions, his backside still hurt badly. He even had to eat standing up and sleep on his stomach. What was most frightening was that not a single potion could heal those wounds.

Xardos simply didn’t know where to start searching for the thief. Severus hadn’t left a single clue. But what frightened Xardos even more was that the intruder had somehow managed to temporarily disable the castle core. That meant he could return at any moment, plant a couple of magical bombs, and calmly leave.

That scenario frightened him most of all. So to minimize the chances of such an outcome, he strengthened security several times over: adding constant patrols, replacing the guards at the castle entrance, and beheading the previous ones and turning them into undead after catching them chatting idly while Severus walked right past them. Additionally, he ordered the core to scan the community territory every half hour and send him a report, as well as record every wizard entering the castle in a separate list and send it to him once a day.

As for who it could be, he had one suspicion. But if it proved true, he still wouldn’t be able to do anything to Severus. The difference between them was too colossal.

Xardos was certain that even if the entire Necromancer Community gathered and attacked en masse, they wouldn’t be able to defeat him. Even if by some miracle they succeeded, the losses would be catastrophic. And in the end, they would be destroyed, if those who stood behind Severus didn’t come for them first.

So all that remained for him was to hope that his worst fears wouldn’t come true, and that the one who had taken the Grimoire wouldn’t turn out to be that monster.

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