Chapter 305 Delighted To Devour You!
As soon as Evan got rid of the Acromantulas, Malfoy slowly regained consciousness.
He opened his eyes and weakly looked around, but all he could see was endless darkness. He had no idea where he was or what was happening.
The Acromantula that had dragged him there was gone, and there was an intense cold beneath Malfoy's body, as if he had been placed on a smooth stone.
He tried to sit up, but the effort caused him sharp pain. It felt like every bone in his body was crumbling.
Malfoy cried out in pain, his voice quickly swallowed by the silence. He had never been in such a situation before, clueless about what to do. His mind ceased to function, tears streaming down unconsciously, and soon he burst into tears.
He thought about his parents and contemplated death.
Fear and loneliness engulfed him, his mind filled with unsettling images.
"Lost sheep, you are disturbing my slumber!" A deep voice suddenly echoed in the darkness.
Malfoy immediately stopped and didn't dare to make a sound. Panic-stricken, he looked around with wide eyes, uncertain of the source of the sound.
The darkness still enveloped him, revealing nothing.
The longer the silence persisted, the more terrified Malfoy became. He whimpered and curled up, feeling no warmth whatsoever.
After a long time, he whispered, "You, who are you?"
"Poor boy, you ask for my name, yet you fail to realize that everyone has forsaken you," the low voice softly replied, "Look around you, everyone has betrayed you, screaming and fleeing into the dark forest."
"I don't understand what you mean," Malfoy said shakily, "Are you referring to Goyle, Crabbe, and Evan Mason? Did all three... abandon me?"
The darkness seemed to intensify, seeds of despair starting to sprout.
If Goyle, Crabbe, and Evan had indeed abandoned him in such a way, they could tell others that they hadn't even seen him, leaving no one to rescue him. The professors and his father wouldn't find him. Malfoy could scarcely fathom such a fate.
He would be alone there, slowly succumbing to hopelessness!
That was the worst scenario for him. Malfoy sobbed, his spirit on the brink of collapse.
"What... What should I do?" he muttered, as if talking to himself.
"Light and hope are being absorbed; only despair and death remain here," the voice began speaking in Malfoy's mind. "The bitter cold makes you shiver in the dark, for you know you will end up here alone forever."
"NO!" Malfoy cried out. "Please, help me, I don't want to die. Since you are here too, you can save me, can't you?!"
"Only a deep slumber can bring peace. When you are asleep, you will discover that there is no true line between reality and illusion, between fear and expectation," the voice increasingly lowered, almost whispering at the end, "Well, I am standing right by your side, don't move, just breathe..."
Malfoy felt like he was losing his mind. How could the voice suggest sleeping in such a place?!
How could that be possible? He just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
Though his spirit was shattered, he hadn't completely lost his reason. Malfoy reminded himself that the abrupt voice was not to be trusted.
He wanted to be more vigilant, but he was growing increasingly frightened.
"Everyone will abandon you, it's all your fault, even your followers despise you." The incessant whispers echoed in Malfoy's ear. "Fear is like a shadow, it's filling your heart. The void is sucking in your soul, slowly relishing it with satisfaction."
"No, don't do it!" gasped Malfoy.
He wanted the other person to stop, but it was in vain. This whisper seemed never-ending.
He did not know what to do. For a moment, he felt as if he had been driven mad by that voice. If not, it would only be a matter of time. Slowly, he was losing all sense, and just as the voice said, in the end, only fear remained in his heart.
He could feel nothing else. Since everyone had forsaken him, why not try to believe in that voice and do as it said?
For an unknown period, Malfoy's spirit became more and more blurred, simply sleeping...
"You are in a dream, where you will learn the meaning of calm." Seeing Malfoy gradually falling asleep, a hint of invisible weakness emerged in his relieved whisper. "Good, very good, you believe me, you offer your soul, and I will be delighted to devour you..."
...
Once more, Evan heard nothing, as the sound of the Acromantulas battling the Stone Man faded away gradually.
As he navigated his way through the cave, dense white cobwebs began to appear on the stone walls.
They were like dust, covering the walls layer upon layer.
Evan finally realized what it was like to walk through a dark pit of spiders. He kept looking back as if sensing something observing him in the darkness.
But there was nothing, and he was alone in the empty space.
The size of the cave was utterly beyond his imagination, and the passage was both wide and narrow.
A few minutes later, the ground sloped once more. Evan had no idea how many meters underground he had descended, and still, he did not see Aragog.
With the warm breeze, a milky white mist floated up from below.
"Show me the way!" Evan flattened his wand on his palm and spoke softly to it.
The wand twisted slightly and pointed in the direction Evan was headed, indicating he was on the right track.
He quickened his pace and calculated the time. Buckbeak should have already returned to the castle with Goyle and Crabbe, yet he had not even seen a glimpse of Malfoy.
Splash...
Evan seemed to hear something, about 50 meters away. After rounding a corner, the space in front of him suddenly lit up, revealing an underground area the size of a Quidditch field.
Near his left side, further ahead, was an underground hot spring gushing upwards, spouting out and intermittently spraying up a water column over fifty feet high, looking quite spectacular.
The water's temperature was very high, crashing against the cold rock wall to create a thick mist.
This hot spring was the source of the warm wind and milky mist, with countless dark passages on the edge of the wall where the springs flowed.
Evan took two steps forward. Under the light of his wand, he clearly saw that the warm water was not flowing outwards but pooling into a large pond in the center of the cave.
This oval pool was very large, its walls covered in white spider silk.
Most astonishing were the white spheres floating in it, resembling...