chapter 111
[Amazon jungle.]
A huge, four-legged, red-haired figure, with a snake's tail, and also a lush, but slightly burnt scarlet mane, was moving through the dense thicket of the forest.
A man in a robe sat on the creature's head between two blue horns, calmly observing the surroundings and stroking a small creature that looked very much like a giant.
"They grow in this placeā¦ " the beast drawled dejectedly, looking forward, straight towards the trees, the foliage and a small area around which were in purple tones, " Butā¦ I can't go further, even though this place is harmless to me and you, but for my cub, poison in the air can be truly deadly ā¦"
"Hmmā¦ well, don't, then I can handle it myself," finally patting the contented doe on the head, Severus jumped off the creature's head, and then turned towards it "Have you thought about my proposal? Beyond these barriers is a much larger world and you can safely raise your cub without worrying about his life."
"I can't just decide something like that, because not only my life depends on it, please give me some more time to thinkā¦" lowering its head, the magical beast said sullenly, looking into the eyes of a smiling person, after the battle with which he felt sincere respect, as a stronger being, because the wizard did not use dirty tricks, and although with that speed the wizard could have easily taken its cub hostage , but he didn't and won honestly, which proved his strength.
"I see, then think, I will stay in this place for a few more days."
"Yes, I'm grateful that you saved our lives and be careful, that flower is usually guarded by very dangerous monsters that even I wouldn't want to face.
"Thank you for the warning, I'll remember, then see you," and then he looked up at the cub, "And you baby."
"Raaaar! / Hiss!" the doe growled in response, and the snake (tail) hissed that they were being called "baby". Bowing silently, the Chimera King turned around and headed back to his hunting grounds.
As soon as they disappeared from sight, the wizard also entered the strange forest and calmly headed for the very place that the writer had told him about.
"You could have subdued him by force, then why did you decide to let him go?" sounded the bewildered voice of Nagini, whose head sank on his shoulder.
"I could, but if I installed the seal against his will, it would not be strong enough and one day, he could break it when his strength crosses a certain threshold and what if I am not around that day?"
"And ifā¦?"
"It is logical that then it will become much stronger, because the seal will be fueled not only by magic from the outside, but also by the very creature on which it will be imposed and it will gladly support it, and if someday the seal is destroyed, then the creature will not attack his master, but will continue to defend and carry out his orders without the seal," Severus calmly explained, examining the surroundings and referring to the map that he had memorized, studying the marks left by other people on the trees, for more convenient coordination in this purple area.
"Then why did you threaten them to accept the seal?" the snake asked another question, remembering those three monsters that Snape caught earlier in the inner part of the forest.
"They will never become a threat to us, their potential is limited, and earning the loyalty of those three is not such a difficult task," raising his palm, a small fireball appeared on it, sharply rushing into a small bush and after a moment, out of it to the right a palm-sized creature jumped out, resembling a scorpion with praying mantis paws, which abruptly changed its trajectory, pushing off a tree and flying onto Severus, while opening its mouth from which a purple liquid dripped, a fireball rushed after it and also changed direction.
A second later, a pitiful squeak sounded and a charred body fell to the ground. "Strong poison ..." Severus said looking down at the burnt little thing.
"There's the red rag that the man was talking about." Nagini pointed with her tail to one of the trees, on the branch of which a small cloth was tied.
"Which means we're getting close, but Brew didn't tell me that this place was full of these underscorpionsā¦" The bushes around the wizard rustled and hundreds of red eyes stared at themā¦
Breaking through this horde of scorpions was an easy task, Severus didn't destroy them one by one, but surrounded himself with a fiery dome, as in that time with the spiders.
Those creature, due to their stupidity, jumped on him, turned to dust in a second, and the poison simply dried up when it came into contact with fire.
These monsters did not pursue him for a long time, realizing that this was to no avail, so when the wizard went a sufficient distance from that place, they fell behind him, but the attacks did not end there.
In addition to them were: centipedes, snakes, spiders, lizards, frogs and even birds, and the size was not limited only to centimeters, the largest creature that he had to face was exactly a centipede, almost eighteen meters long, whose body was dotted with spikes, and the skin resembled that of a snake.
Against it, Severus even had to use the sword, because he did not want to use stronger magic spells and attract the attention of other similar creatures, and the rest of the way, he also had to wield a sword, because the closer he approached his goal, the monsters became larger, and poisons more deadly.
After more than an hour, having passed through the hordes of magical creatures, Severus finally reached the very place where the writer had once seen that very flower and he didn't have to look for it for a long time, almost immediately he stepped on a small hill and he smelled a sweetish smell that was simply impossible to describe or compare with anything, because any other sweetness simply faded against its background, and it had a particularly strong effect on the monsters.
"Wipe your drool," noticing how saliva dripped from Nagini's mouth on his shoulder, he looked displeasedly in the direction of the snake, who, with shining eyes and a protruding tongue, looked in one specific direction.
"I'm sorry, but it smells so deliciousā¦"
"Don't be fooled by this smell, in fact, this flower has a disgusting taste, probably even worse than those eyes," from the mention of the latter, Nagini shuddered, and then she stared at him offendedly, "And there is nothing to slobber my pauldrons."
By the reaction of the snake, Snape was able to determine the side in which the flower was located and after a few seconds, he reached the swamp, in the center of which three water lilies floated, on which a flower with purple petals grew, but the wizard was in no hurry to tear and take them away, after all, it was clear even to the fool that this was a trap, and he did not go ashore, but only watched them from a distance.
"It is a trap." nevertheless, overcoming the temptation and remembering that "magnificent" taste, the desire to eat them completely disappeared from her.
"This is understandable, and I'm not going to approach them either," a wooden box appeared in his hand, covered with various symbols, and after looking up at the flowers, he directed his second hand in their direction, "Accio: Umbra" in the next moment, the three ingredients disappeared from the center of the swamp, appearing right in front of him and almost immediately, under the "surprised" look of the snake, he stuffed them into the box and slammed it shut, "Now we're leaving, the smell will still remain for about ten minutes."
And without saying anything else, he just left ...
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Nine minutes after the disappearance of the flowers, the swamp began to seethe and a creature resembling a worm appeared from it, and as soon as it saw a void on the water lilies, a hole appeared on its "head" filled with a couple of hundred small teeth, and it emitted a furious roar, from which for the second time unrest began throughout the territory of the chimeras.
Although the monster tried to find the thief by smell and magic, but Severus had already completely cleaned up all the traces behind him, leaving nothing to cling to and find out at least the side where he went.
The magical creature had no choice but to swallow its "grief", limiting itself to the destruction of the shore and returning back to the swamp, waiting for the flowers to bloom againā¦
In this short time, Severus had already covered ten kilometers, at the same time, wiping all the traces behind him and the howl did not particularly impress him, because the wizard's thoughts were already in a completely different place.
"The blood of the first dragon, if it allows evolution to begin and after so much time, the magic in it has not yet dissipated, then there is a great chance that real dragons still existed in this world, but why then did it degrade so magically? Where did they go, because they can't just disappear, right? Plants, almost no different from those that grew in my world, and some living creaturesā¦ It's all too strangeā¦" Taking a deep breath and exhaling, he shook his head as if to drive away these thoughts,
"Even if I keep thinking about it, I still can't find an answer, and there will only be more questions, for starters, I need to deal with all these things, and after that I'll rack my brains with questions, and maybe I can find some answers in the very center of this forest. And if I am correct, that serpent said that he could not even overcome the first barrier ā¦ WAIT!"
Goosebumps went down Severus' back, and his eyes seemed to clear up, "what if these barriers were not only created to hold back monsters? Even if I am wrong and my worst fears do not come true ... "
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Thank you.