Chapter 366 Evan's Triumph!
Evan gasped and made his way through the crowds of fallen Centaurs strewn on the ground.
Just like Okegiga, the fallen Centaurs were all motionless.
They stood there silently. Their faces were also still, displaying their final expressions of surprise, panic, joy, fear...
Apart from Evan and the malevolent god, it seemed like everyone else had frozen at that moment.
Evan's Patronus continued to whirl around his body, and the shield of white energy protected him from the whispers and negative emotions of the malevolent god.
In the sky, with the accumulation of monstrous amounts of flesh and blood, the enormous spherical body of the malevolent god had expanded beyond imagination, beginning to resemble a death moon descending upon the earth.
On his body, the swaying tentacles covered the sky.
At the foot of the Centaur statue in the center of the Temple, Evan looked up and saw nothing above his head except for the body of the malevolent god, still growing.
It was dark, but Evan's target was very clear.
He had just sensed that all the magic that had dissipated from the Philosopher's Stone was converging on the head of the giant Centaur statue, where the Wooden Statue of the malevolent god was hidden.
It seemed like the stone staircase specially prepared for him stood there silently, extending straight from the foot of the statue to the highest point of the cloud.
Following the stone staircase, Evan looked up and felt dizzy.
"Death here is not real!" He resolved to overcome his deep fear and ran towards the stone staircase.
The next moment, the change was sudden.
The bodies of the frozen Centaurs around him suddenly changed, their skin kept rolling, bulging up, or sagging, while their flesh and blood were torn apart.
Under the control of the malevolent god, all fallen Centaurs turned into hideous monsters.
Some parts of their bodies still retained their features, but others began to deform into horrible and strange shapes. Their eyes bulged out, and their bones began to warp.
Where they used to have faces, they now had enormous mouths, like gigantic open clams, with fangs on the edges and tiny teeth inside.
In the center of those huge mouths, they had massive blood-red tongues.
They grotesquely swung, licking the skin inside their mouths.
The fallen Centaurs turned monsters rushed quickly towards Evan. He tried to run forward with all his might. He gasped heavily, and the monsters behind him were much faster than he was.
That was not the way to go. He was not Okegiga. He couldn't confront these monsters head-on. He bit his lips hard, stopped, and quickly turned around.
Evan wiped the sweat from his forehead, and the wand in his hand continued to wave.
Golden flames burst from the end of his wand. It was the Curse of Wild Fire!
Evan had used this malevolent curse once in Aragog's Lair, burning almost the entire cave, including gushing springs.
Like last time, all the flames seemed alive, spinning and roaring, rushing towards the nearest mutated Centaur.
The malevolent fire devoured everything it touched. He faced off against the malevolent god in the sky and the wicked monsters he had created, as if both were competing to decide who was more malevolent!
After casting the Curse of Wild Fire, Evan did not look back and ran straight towards the stone staircase beside the statue.
With all his might, he ran up and made his way through the steps.
Below, the fire was morphing, forming a vast herd of fiery beasts: flaming serpents, chimeras, and dragons rising, falling, and rising again.
The entire platform atop the Temple had turned into a sea of flames.
Numerous fallen Centaurs were juggled by the flames. They tried to dodge them, seeming to escape, but soon they were engulfed by the fires of hell, turned to ashes, and carried away by the wind.
The fierce fire raged on, the fiery beasts writhing within the flames. Their claws, tentacles, and tails thrashed about, even the obsidian ground glowing red-hot.
With a pungent smell of burning, the smoke rose spiraling upward.
Curiously, the ground and walls of the buildings covered by the tentacles of the evil god remained unharmed. The fire ceased without harming the malevolent deity.
"Stupid human wizard, you dare challenge my might with your feeble spells, not realizing you are nearing death," the malevolent spirit said slowly.
The spherical body rolled slowly, its enormous eyes gazing downward. It fixed Evan with terribly cold eyes.
"Do you think you can endure death?" it asked calmly, "This death is unlike any other, human! It will make you beg for it, beg for the pain to end!"
Ignoring him, Evan gasped for air. The stairs flickered in layers before him.
He had no idea how long this would last, as the stone staircase seemed endless.
He tried not to look or imagine what lay beneath the statue, to avoid overwhelming himself. Inside his body was the huge, rough statue of the Centaur.
Outside was the larger, clearer body of the malevolent spirit.
Much muscle and blood had gathered and been engulfed by it, yet it remained unsatisfied. The trembling tentacles remained as shadows, the meat-like body covered in scars.
Each scar was so deep, from which oozed green mucus.
It continued to spout mad words at Evan, disturbing his mind, but lacking a unified tentacle, it lacked substantial attacking capability.
Evan climbed faster and faster, sweating like rain, even liquid beginning to leak from his eyes.
He felt like he should be exhausted by now, but his legs kept climbing.
It was an endless battle. Evan's physical strength was waning. He now just wanted to rest on the ground, but under the pressure of the evil god, he continued to push himself.
Perhaps that was what Gryffindor wanted; to test Evan's limits.
His fear of heights and the dread of the malevolent spirit were behind Evan now.
He was fearless, with only one thought in his mind; to ascend!
He wanted to reach the top, destroy the statue of the malevolent god, and prevent its completion.
He did not know how much time had passed, the dark sky growing darker still, the sun vanishing, and the stars hanging in the night sky unnoticed.
Finally, Evan reached the pinnacle of the statue.
He passed through the dense clouds like a whirlwind, and the enormous body of the evil god had vanished. Now he stood atop the clouds.
The scene before him opened up widely, the bright moonlight shining upon him.
Evan had never seen such a blue night sky! It was like something out of a fairy tale. There was nothing but him, countless clouds, and mists swirling beneath his feet.
On the circular platform before the clouds, Godric Gryffindor gazed at him with a smile and said, "Congratulations, you have overcome the challenge!"