Morning.
The sun, brimming with infinite vitality, breaks through the barrier of yet another dark green leaf, leaving mottled light and shadows on the ground soaked with dew. This is the best moment of the day; even in the secluded primeval forest, the cool air carries a sense of vitality. The birds that occasionally skim over the treetops, with their crisp calls, do not disturb the tranquility of the forest; instead, they make it even more serene.
After a night of deep sleep, the fatigue from the long month at sea and the defense against the magical barrier of Azkaban all disappeared as gentle sunlight brushed over his face. The pair of eyes that had opened in the old forest once more regained their vitality.
After spending half an hour dealing with hygiene and breakfast, Amorastar packed up the tent and glanced around with a somewhat vigilant expression. He then tapped his forehead with his wand, feeling a cold trickle down as he began to fade from the rock hill.
Last night, during the first night, Amorastar wiped out the Albanian gathering place of black wizards with ruthless methods, and in the coming days, this event is sure to cause a stir in the underground world of Europe.
Black wizards in this area might be frightened and quickly flee, but later, they would gather forces to take revenge. This is almost certain. Every black wizard he killed had a teacher or friends, and they would not ignore this. Ruin someone's livelihood is a deep hatred, and wizards from this country would not let him go unpunished.
Black wizards are still wizards. After receiving the news, the International Wizarding Federation is unlikely to ignore it. It is likely that they will also send human investigators.
Amorastar is not afraid of these things, but in the coming period, this forest will undoubtedly become extremely bustling. He must investigate what he wants to know before the situation becomes tumultuous.
Tracking the tracks of wizards in the forest is much simpler than tracking magical creatures.
Magical creatures are an inherent part of the forest, which helps them conceal their tracks, whereas wizards leave conspicuous traces wherever they pass. Although experienced wizards know how to hide themselves, this hiding in the eyes of true experts is itself a form of exposure.
Two hours later, Amorastar appeared deep within the forest.
It is not enough to describe the isolation of this place with "rarely visited". The towering trees around all reach nearly a hundred feet in height, and the fallen leaves underfoot are equally thick. Centuries of decaying leaves can collapse with a single step, causing ripples in the area around the landing spot.
The air is filled with a noxious, poisonous mist and the sweet scent of alcohol. The scent of alcohol comes from a large area of fruit trees that Amorastar passed through previously. The fruits from those trees fell to the ground, accumulating over time to form a thick layer of fruit mud. Under natural fermentation, it unexpectedly brewed into fruit wine and formed a small area of strange fruit wine lake.
As a matter of course, the fruit wine lake around should be filled with all kinds of living beings in the forest, but strangely, on the viscous lake surface, besides the bones of some small animals, Amorastar did not find any living beings.
He was led to this place by some strange marks by the lake's edge.
There were many rough footprints on the soft, rotting ground, looking like those left by a python after it had passed through.
Compared with other places, the plants here are tall, but the density of their distribution is not very high and appears sparse. However, this is not an unusual phenomenon. The towering trees deprive the land of nutrients, making it impossible for grasses, vines, and other vegetation to survive.
The thick, poisonous fog in the air makes everything within sight seem sinister and terrifying, as if behind the hazy mist, a host of evil spirits are lurking and watching in the darkness.
Amorastar floats in mid-air, gazing down at the ground.
The tracks on the rotting leaves become chaotic and overlapping, indicating that he is approaching the old den of the python. However, Amorastar did not continue to delve further.
He floated in front of a tall redwood, tilted his head back, and gazed at the withered tips of its leaves.
The redwood did not suffer from any disease, but it had strangely withered during the season when everything was flourishing, completely deprived of life.
Such a situation is not uncommon here. Amorastar swept a glance over, and he saw that many trees in this area had withered similarly. As his finger brushed over the charred trunk, his eyes flickered with a strange light.
These trees did not die naturally, but were exhausted of their vitality by a force.
Wizards are not without the ability to do this, but such effects usually come from black magic, which is brutal, like a reservoir whose water is drained by blowing up a dam. The current situation is more akin to someone having opened a gate in the dam to drain the water gently.
Continuing forward, he found many animal skeletons along the way. These skeletons were mostly pitch black, indicating that they had been eroded by some kind of poisonous liquid in their lives. There were also some skeletons that were completely shattered, indicating that they were killed by giant snakes.
Everything in front of him was confirming a possibility.
Even though he had anticipated this possibility, Amorastar still couldn't figure out how it had happened.
Ahead of the path stood a huge ficus tree.
The tree canopy and the aerial roots that grow from it cover an area nearly half the size of a Quidditch pitch, and the root of the main trunk is a spacious cave.
With a slightly sharp gaze scanning his surroundings, Amorastar tightened his grip on the wand.
Someone had tried to hide their magical traces, but the abnormal magic sea still had obvious erosive marks, just like the giant python's footprints he found on the rotten leaves at the fruit wine lake.
This is an extremely poisonous magic, with a very strong eroding power and is extremely dangerous.
Upon stepping inside, the scene within the tree cave made Amorastar involuntarily furrow his brow.
The air inside is not as filled with thick, putrid smells as it is outside. The soft leaves on the ground are very dry, as if they had been cleaned up.
At the deepest part of the tree cave, there was a small area where the fallen leaves were piled thicker than in other regions. Amorastar floated over and stared at those leaves for a moment, then moved his fingers lightly, and a small thing shot into his hand with a whoosh.
It's a scale!
It should be left by the giant python that was active in this area.
After examining the scale for a moment, Amorastar pocketed it and continued his search with his gaze. Soon, he found a small sapling in the center of the tree cave.
This green sapling had not yet completely emerged from the pile of leaves stacked on top of each other, indicating that it had only recently broken through the soil blockade.
After a moment's thought, Amorastar moved his wand slightly, causing a gentle breeze to push aside the leaves covering the sapling.
The moment he saw the soil, Amorastar's brow furrowed involuntarily.
The soil near by is much darker than the outer layer, and the soil is wet and slippery, indicating that there are some strange stickiness.
Amorastar touched some soil with his finger and sniffed it near his nostrils. The putrid smell he smelled made his heart sink.
This is human flesh, and it seems to have been corroded and destroyed by magic.
Was it Veela Kroina or the British Ministry of Magic employee she took from the Soul-sucking House?
This question did not require much thought, and Amorastar already had the answer.
"Hu--"
Shaking off the dirt on his hands, Amorastar breathed out a long sigh, gazing at the light that lingered in the air, his brows and eyes slightly bleak and perplexed.
"You two. How did you two get involved?"
(Chapter complete)
