A Thunderbird carrying two humans and a goblin on its back flew rapidly over the hills of Somerset, England.
Somerset was adjacent to the eastern border of Devon, making it a relatively short flight from Damian's home in Ottery St. Catchpole. With Puff Puff's massive six-winged speed, the journey took barely any time at all.
"Whoa—this is incredible!" Eureka Asghar shouted over the rushing wind, looking exceptionally excited. "This beast is so much faster than a broomstick!"
"Are we heading the right way? We're about to fly out of Somerset entirely," Luna gently reminded them.
"Let me check." Eureka, still buzzing from the adrenaline of the flight, pulled out the slip of parchment containing the coordinates. He surveyed the ground below. "We flew slightly past it! It's right down there, inside that dried-up riverbed we just crossed."
Damian patted Puff Puff's thick neck and pointed toward the target. The highly intelligent Thunderbird immediately understood, banking sharply and flapping its wings to change course.
A moment later, they landed smoothly at their destination.
Centuries ago, a rushing river would have flowed through here. As time passed, the water had completely vanished, exposing a deep, rocky, and dried-up river channel.
Eureka jumped down and retrieved the Vault Coordinate Instrument he had borrowed from Lannock. This heavy black iron box acted as a localized radar to pinpoint the exact entrance to the concealed vault.
A moment later, an illusory magical indicator projected from the instrument, pointing directly into the center of the dried-up riverbed.
"It seems the ancient vault was originally built deep underwater," Eureka noted. "It was only exposed to the surface after the river completely dried up."
After walking a short distance along the rocky channel, they finally spotted traces of artificial construction. A half-meter-high circular stone platform sat in the dust, featuring a distinct, geometric groove carved into its center.
Eureka carefully took the goblin puzzle cube—the vault key—and pressed it into the groove.
With a heavy, echoing click, the key flared with a brilliant blue light. Deep mechanisms within the circular platform activated, and glowing runic lines rapidly extended from the stone pedestal directly into the surrounding earth.
In an instant, Damian felt the surrounding space violently warp and distort around them. When his vision finally cleared, the rocky riverbed had completely vanished.
"It wasn't a teleportation spell, nor is this a simple sensory illusion..." A hint of surprise flashed in Damian's eyes.
The sky above them remained exactly the same, but the terrain had been replaced by a massive courtyard filled with towering, menacing stone statues. These giant, serpentine statues looked exceptionally familiar to Damian.
"So many snakes," Luna murmured, curiously reaching out to touch one of the coiled stone scales.
"These aren't ordinary snakes, Luna. They're Basilisks," Damian warned, gently pulling her hand back.
Having personally dissected a Basilisk to harvest its magic-resistant skin, heart, and petrifying eyes, Damian was intimately familiar with their terrifying anatomy.
Because the surrounding statues were perfect replicas of Basilisks, Damian briefly had the illusion that he had stumbled back into the Chamber of Secrets beneath Hogwarts.
Eureka puffed out his chest proudly. "Goblin spatial magic is just that wonderful."
"Books and ancient records are incredibly difficult to preserve against the ravages of time. Therefore, this library was built into an independent, folded spatial pocket," the goblin explained. "Once this space is sealed, it enters a state of absolute stasis, as if time itself has stopped flowing."
"Of course, this isn't a true Time-Stop mechanic. Living creatures cannot survive inside while it is sealed off."
"But for preserving delicate parchment and books, it is absolutely perfect."
In the dead center of the Basilisk statues sat an empty stone pool. Suddenly, the jaws of a Basilisk carving looming over the pool unhinged. Like a fountain, crystal-clear water poured from the serpent's mouth, rapidly filling the basin.
A moment later, the pool was completely full. Looking down at the water's surface, it didn't reflect the sky above; instead, it displayed a completely different, dimly lit room inside.
"This pool is the true entrance to the library," Eureka said, pointing at the magical water.
"I'm going in first." Without a moment's hesitation, the bearded goblin pinched his nose and jumped straight into the pool.
The moment he submerged, Eureka vanished from the courtyard and instantly appeared within the room reflected on the water's surface.
Given the sheer number of Basilisk statues acting as guardians, Damian strongly suspected the original owner of this vault was a highly dangerous Dark Wizard.
Acting out of caution, Damian turned to his companion. "Luna, you stay out here and watch Puff Puff. I'll go inside with Eureka and make sure it's safe."
"Alright, I'll take Puff Puff over to that orchard we saw while landing to find him a snack," Luna agreed readily, completely unfazed by the sinister surroundings.
"Don't wander too far," Damian instructed. "If you encounter any Muggles, cast a Disillusionment Charm or just ride Puff Puff away. I'll handle any memory modifications when I come out."
Taking a deep breath, Damian stepped forward and jumped into the pool.
He didn't feel the chill of water at all. Instead, it felt as if gravity had instantly inverted, flipping the entire world upside down.
When Damian stabilized his footing, he found himself standing inside a massive, sealed underground chamber.
Rows upon rows of towering bookshelves filled the room. The sheer volume of ancient texts gathered here far exceeded the private libraries of most sacred Pure-Blood families.
Eureka, who had entered first, was already eagerly pulling books off the nearest shelf and flipping through the dusty pages.
Damian stepped forward and carefully pulled a heavy, leather-bound tome from a shelf. Instead of opening it immediately, he cautiously swept it with a Runic detection pulse.
Instantly, a horrific face formed from pure black mist erupted from the cover, letting out a piercing, soul-tearing shriek as it lunged at his face.
Damian's extreme caution was entirely justified. In ancient times, the transmission of magical knowledge existed almost exclusively between blood relatives or bound master-and-apprentice lineages. To protect their secrets, ancient wizards routinely embedded lethal jinxes and curses into their books to maim or kill unauthorized readers.
However, with the modern invention and standardization of the Finite Incantatem spell, this paranoid practice had gradually faded into history.
Unless a book had been forged into a true alchemical artifact, standard defensive jinxes placed centuries ago could be forcefully unraveled by a strong enough counter-spell.
"Finite Incantatem!" Damian commanded, slashing his wand downward. The black mist face let out a choked gasp and instantly dissipated into harmless smoke.
The fact that these books were rigged with standard, breakable jinxes indicated that this vault had likely been sealed roughly five to six hundred years ago, right around the time the general counter-spell was being popularized.
Damian glanced over at Eureka. The goblin seemed to possess his own innate racial magic to safely bypass the jinxes without using a wand.
Satisfied that it was safe, Damian opened the heavy tome. He had only intended to take a quick glance to determine the subject matter before moving on, but his eyes locked onto the title page.
Advanced Basilisk Breeding Methods.
Damian's eyebrows shot up. Such intense, highly illegal dark magic right off the bat confirmed his suspicions—the original owner of this library was absolutely a Dark Wizard.
Damian checked the author's signature at the bottom of the page and was genuinely stunned. It was authored by Herpo the Foul.
Herpo was a legendary, terrifying figure in magical history. He was an Ancient Greek Dark Wizard credited with breeding the world's very first Basilisk, and he was the first wizard known to have successfully created a Horcrux. His research into soul manipulation, the Dark Arts, and magical creatures was unparalleled.
Intrigued, Damian moved down the aisle and flipped through a dozen more books. He quickly realized that almost every single text on this massive shelf was authored by Herpo.
"Could this entire library actually belong to Herpo the Foul?" Damian wondered, his mind racing with the possibilities.
However, upon walking over to the next aisle, he found that the texts were authored by various other ancient wizards.
"It seems these materials are strictly arranged by category, not by author," Damian muttered.
The texts in his current aisle focused entirely on ancient spellcraft and curses. The previous aisle, heavily dominated by Herpo's work, was strictly dedicated to the anatomical modification and dark breeding of magical creatures.
This categorization perfectly aligned with Damian's own ambitions regarding complex anatomical Transfiguration and massive-scale creature modifications.
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