The instant he entered the water, an icy sensation instantly wrapped around Avada's entire body. But it was quickly driven away by the Warming Charm he had cast in advance, replaced by a warm, comfortable feeling.
The shallow waters nearest the lake's surface did not seem to contain any traps. Avada could only see sunlight filtering down through the water, illuminating the area around him in bright clarity. In every direction there was only a faint blue haze, without even the smallest bit of floating debris in sight...
There's no hidden magic around me either... I can keep moving for now.
After using his magical senses to confirm the surrounding environment and finding no signs of danger, Avada leaned forward, kicked through the water, and used magic to manipulate the currents, sending himself rapidly toward the deeper parts of the lake.
As he descended farther and farther, the surrounding light grew scarcer and scarcer. His vision dimmed rapidly. Before long, he could barely make out his own arm.
And just then, the golden egg tucked beneath his arm began to emit a hazy glow, forming a clear path of light in the dark deep water and pointing straight toward some deeper location below...
"The golden egg in your hands,"
Back in the headmaster's office at Durmstrang, Barty continued explaining the third task to the champions, "will begin to glow after you dive underwater, guiding you to the ghost ship nearest your current location. And there is no need to worry about conflicts over the ships. You will each enter the water at three points very far apart, and we will place a ghost ship not far from each entry point, ensuring that your golden eggs will not lock onto the same ship."
"Actually, in our original design, the completeness of the golden egg was also supposed to affect the accuracy of the guidance. The more complete the egg, the more precise the path of light it would emit. Otherwise, it would only produce a vague and blurry cloud of light... But since all three champions managed to fully restore their golden eggs, that part of the design no longer has any significance..."
...
The environment beyond the Bubble-Head Charm had gradually shifted from light blue to a thick, ink-like dark blue, almost to the point where he could not see his hand in front of his face. There was not the slightest sound anywhere around him, making Avada feel as though he could hear his own heartbeat.
If not for the golden egg beside him still casting light over half his body, and the fingertips of his moving arms still feeling the flow of water, he might have suspected that he had somehow slipped into a spatial gap again.
What the hell? Does Durmstrang's lake not have even a slightly shallower lakebed? I've been swimming for this long, and there's still nothing around me except water...
Though I suppose that's not a bad thing. The environment is much simpler this way. Quite a few aquatic magical creatures that would normally be troublesome to deal with—Grindylows, for example—would originally have been able to use complex underwater terrain to cause some real problems. But now all of that has been spared. The only downside is probably that the audience will find it a bit boring...
He remembered it clearly: in the original story, Fleur Delacour—who had shown overwhelming strength in the fight against the dragon and used sheer firepower to pin a Ukrainian Ironbelly weighing over a hundred tons to the ground—had been eliminated by a mere swarm of ordinary aquatic magical creatures.
Though for a Veela, whose strengths lay in flight and fire, an underwater environment did drastically reduce her combat ability, that still showed from another angle just how difficult such aquatic creatures were for wizards who were not skilled at underwater combat.
Oh, finally ran into a trap.
Avada, who had just been lamenting the utter emptiness of the lakebed, suddenly paused. He sharply sensed subtle changes in the flow of water around him. Through the vision presented by his magical senses, he saw that in a patch of water not far away, a spell was stirring the currents there, forming a rather insidious invisible whirlpool.
The area is a bit large. Going around it would probably be troublesome... I'll just force my way through.
He made up his mind in silence, then waved the wand in his hand.
At once, a huge mass of ice crystals appeared out of thin air around him, rapidly expanding and extending forward, almost shooting straight into that zone of chaotic currents. The violent flow of water immediately made the entire ice mass tremble and sway, but as the volume of the ice grew larger and larger, that shaking noticeably weakened...
"Mr. Ken has directly frozen the surrounding water—Merlin's beard! He actually created such an enormous mass of ice in one go!"
By now, all three champions had already entered the water. The white mist above the lakeshore had split into three sections, each separately displaying the performance of one champion underwater. Like Avada, Fleur was advancing under the protection of a Bubble-Head Charm, while Krum had directly transfigured his head into that of a shark, giving himself the ability to breathe underwater. The two of them had only recently entered the lake and were still nowhere near the depth Avada had reached.
"He's probably planning to pass straight through the current field in front of him—look, he's melted a passage through that ice mass that already pierces the dangerous current zone! A clever approach!"
Barty was still commentating enthusiastically from the judges' platform, cheering on Avada's splendid performance in a way that gave no hint whatsoever that he was a Death Eater who would soon turn violent.
"He used that thick ice mass to block the raging currents, then directly opened a tunnel through it and passed through safely! If he had chosen to go around the area instead, it definitely would have taken several times as long!"
"Ah, Mr. Krum seems to have encountered an obstacle as well. His entry point was in a shoal, and now he has entered the territory of a group of Grindylows..."
The golden egg is getting brighter and brighter... The ghost ship should be close by.
Having just passed through one trap, Avada had no idea that Krum was currently being harassed to the point of fury by a swarm of Grindylows hiding in the water plants and launching sneak attacks, so much so that he was nearly on the verge of unleashing Fiendfyre in public.
I wonder where Fleur and Krum are by now... Should I wait for them? According to the plan, the interval between the activation of the three ghost ships should be as short as possible. That way it won't leave any obvious flaws...
He continued swimming downward, and a variety of bizarre traps followed one after another—a huge school of piranha-like man-eating fish that were probably magical creatures, an area of water that would suddenly freeze without warning and trap people inside, and even a large region mixed with potion ingredients that would cause intense itching upon contact with the skin. The antidote was hidden somewhere nearby, meaning one had to endure the itching while carefully sensing for it.
Who even was the bastard that designed such a vicious challenge?
After swiftly overcoming all of those obstacles, Avada finally saw the light of the golden egg fall upon an ancient wooden boat with an enclosed cabin.
That was presumably the ghost ship he was about to use.
And in front of that ship, a huge shadow lay silently dormant. Sensing the light now shining upon it, it slowly began to stir...
(End of Chapter)