Chapter 361 An Indescribable Imagination
Evan clenched his wand and gazed intensely into the dark tunnel ahead of him.
He longed to see precisely what was approaching at the end, yet he struggled to find words to accurately and concretely describe the three monsters drawing near.
Evan could only describe them intuitively. Before him, stood three towering red crustaceans, each five feet tall.
In the classification of species, they might be closer to fungi.
To be precise, they appeared to be a fusion of crustaceans and fungi.
They buzzed, their slender bodies segmented into many insect-like knots, their exposed scales thin and uneven folds.
In front of their bodies, they had six pairs of spiky claws, coiled together, seemingly guarding something, moving intermittently.
Behind them, they sported a pair of huge fleshy wings of crimson red. The vast wing surfaces were decayed, and the flesh on them was slowly peeling off!
Soon, a large number of small beige worms emerged crawling from within their wounds, adhering to the mucus and pulling the falling flesh back to its original position.
The entire process was too revolting, and Evan couldn't help but swallow saliva.
Fear was like a sleek, venomous snake, coiled in the heavy air around him, flicking a crimson tongue, ready to suffocate him in that very spot.
Okegiga and Evan stood still.
He raised his wand forward, and by its light, he saw that the heads of the three monsters were exactly identical to the horrific statues he had seen before.
They had green swirling tumor-like growths attached to their heads, resembling a randomly pruned bush covered in holes of various sizes.
These creatures were the monsters Evan had seen in the murals along the way. They were not mere figments of centaur imagination as Evan had hoped. They had been summoned from the void or created by magic. In short, they now existed in reality.
"The creations of the malevolent deity!" murmured Okegiga softly, evident disdain in his voice.
Then, without warning, the mighty centaur surged forward.
He raised his sharp lance high, with an unparalleled zeal and power sufficient to rend a dragon.
Evan also hurried to follow. He waved his wand and cast several spells to aid Okegiga's attack.
The three monsters, with their huge wings flapping rapidly, easily dodged Evan's attack.
They buzzed, their dreadful heads twitching, subtle changes taking place.
Their muscles writhed, and the holes of varying sizes began to shift.
Evan sensed a faint, highly unusual magic, a magic he had never encountered before, too peculiar.
He wanted to warn Okegiga, but before he could shout, he saw the centaur, who was about to reach the monsters, abruptly halt.
His hands fell weakly to both sides of his body, he closed his eyes, his behavior extremely abnormal.
Evan was unsure of what had befallen this mighty centaur warrior. Clearly, the enemy's magic was at work, and Okegiga fell under an effect akin to hypnosis.
He was completely under their control. He had lost the will to resist and no longer thought of attacking.
Evan shouted loudly, yet the centaur seemed to hear nothing. He advanced with his hooves, drawing closer to the three monsters.
Their claws twisted and slowly opened outward, revealing what they guarded in the center.
This time, Evan clearly saw that in the center of their torsos, they had large round red-brown mouths with fangs and sharp teeth within.
The three mouths chewed and stretched constantly, mucous, innards, blood, and flesh blending, opening, closing, and opening continuously.
Under the control of the monsters, Okegiga bent down and nodded toward the nearest mouth to him, advancing step by step towards it...
If he were to put his head into that mouth full of sharp teeth, the scene would be chilling. Evan could already imagine what was about to happen, and just the thought of the sound scared him to the core!
"Curse it!" Evan quickly waved his wand and cast several spells in succession.
The spells surged forth, and upon touching the monster's body, the air around them seemed to instantly turn into a viscous oily substance. Correspondingly, the speed of the magical light emitted by Evan significantly diminished.
The monsters easily dodged Evan's attack. He didn't understand why the buzzing emitted from their bodies grew louder; were they expressing anger and dissatisfaction towards Evan, or were they mocking his ignorance?
Okegiga stopped in his tracks and stared straight ahead.
Following a brief and incomprehensible exchange, two monsters swooped towards Evan, the holes in their heads still twisting.
Strange magical waves passed swiftly, and Evan's eyes grew cloudy. The surrounding area was becoming increasingly misty. He didn't know how a yellow mist had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and enveloped him.
He was still in the Centaur Temple, but he felt lost, detached from his own body.
Within the faint yellow mist, Evan couldn't see his surroundings and was completely lost, his mind slowly drifting away, only hearing a voice speaking to him in front.
Evan couldn't grasp what the other person was saying. He walked forward slowly. Perhaps if he got close enough to listen carefully, he could understand why he was there!
Although deep down he felt remorse for this, Evan couldn't halt his body. He moved uncontrollably and slowly leaned in...
As he drew near, the original blurry voice became clearer.
It seemed to be calling out Evan's name, and all the emotion he had felt seemed to fade away. All that remained in him was endless fear and solitude!
Memories of Evan's past flashed before his mind like a slideshow...
He knew of a dark magic that acted upon the soul, but at that moment, it eluded his mind.
Evan recalled when he arrived at Hogwarts, created a newspaper, worked with Harry to defeat the Basilisk, traveled back to a thousand-year-old castle, assisted Sirius Black in capturing Peter Pettigrew, his first date with Hermione, and studying magic alone in the dead of night. As he reminisced, his memories became clearer.
He then remembered his conversation with Godric Gryffindor himself, and the enormous eyes he saw outside the Temple, also shrouded in mist. But now, his sense of loss was much more profound than before.
He recalled how he escaped. Without hesitation, Evan unconsciously raised his wand and shouted, "EXPECTO... PATRONUM!"
The sudden appearance of his Patronus dispelled all illusions, and Evan found himself still in the Centaur Temple, with all the surrounding mist vanished.
His shoulders were firmly grasped by the claws of a monster, and he was being pushed into the enormous mouth with fangs in the center of its body.
Under the influence of Evan's Patronus, the mouth remained kept from closing around his head by a white silver layer.
The actions of the three monsters slowed down. They seemed to instinctively want to escape, but before they could move, they were violently struck by Okegiga.
The long spear in the Centaur warrior's hands pierced through their bodies with great force, dismembering them and scattering much of their flesh and blood everywhere. The passage was filled with splatters of green blood.
"Thank you, human!" Okegiga finally stood beside Evan and exclaimed, "You saved me, I owe you my life!"