Chapter 213

"Sacred Spring" was a small source of water that had incredible properties and was able to pull any person from the jaws of death, regardless of rank or specialisation, and in a couple of seconds get them back on their feet, even severed limbs were no exception for it.

But if everything were that simple, Severus would not have felt such a strong temptation at that moment to resurrect this old man and personally strangle him, and then resurrect him again and strangle him again, repeating until he could finally extinguish his anger.

The water from the sacred spring had another property, in addition to the one mentioned earlier, it weakened and completely destroyed weaker dark creatures below the sixth rank, and if used to create a sword, the manufactured cold weapon would be able to inflict damage on them that could not be healed, no matter what medicines they used.

And after that, gradually, the sacred aura would corrode these creatures until there was no trace left of them. But in addition to simple dark creatures, it also affected the Devils, no less than the former, because it was thanks to it that in that war that took place in his world and took the lives of five creators and tens of thousands of wizards, it was possible to reduce losses by tens of times.

These creatures in addition to enormous protection, also had regeneration, they were able to grow severed limbs from scratch in a minute, and if it was preserved, then a couple of seconds were enough to attach it back.

Although the Prince did not know exactly whether it was true or fiction, he always followed one wisdom: "hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

Perhaps such a terrifying regeneration was someone's fiction, but Severus did not doubt the "sacred water", because it was simply impossible to lie about such things in all the books that had survived from that era.

Therefore, when Snape remembered this story and saw the bottle, he experienced such conflicting feelings and Severus had no doubt that it was the sacred water because at auctions he had seen it more than once and even once bought himself one similar bottle, but a little diluted for the reason that by his millennium "Sacred Springs" remained only three in the whole world and only the "chosen ones" had access to them.

"Sacred Water" was much more valuable than the honey of solar bees, because it was able to almost raise one from the dead, while the second had a weaker healing effect, which is why it was often called "Second Chance".

For Snape, who was going to fight the devils in the future, it was something that could help to multiply the chances of survival and a positive outcome of his crazy goal, but because of one clumsy and greedy old man, this "chance" was shattered into pieces.

As if God decided to mock him in such a sophisticated way. At that moment, he felt an incredible sense of loss "It would be better if I did not know about its existence ..."

"Young man, are you okay?" Noticing the strange reaction of the wizard, the old man carefully inquired.

"... yes ... everything is fine …" taking a deep breath and trying to pull himself together, he looked down at the bottle and again Severus felt his fists itch.

"Okay… I'm sure that this will definitely help remove any curse," he added with some pride, watching the reaction of the young wizard, who still looked indifferent, which puzzled the elderly wizard, because he expected at least some kind of reaction, and not complete indifference, " Is something wrong?"

"It won't be able to help."

"It's impossible! Once my father was also cursed by a dark wizard and this…"

"It won't help" Severus interrupted him, looking at the ghost with an icy gaze, "This water can remove any curse, that's true, but only if it hasn't completely merged with the victim, and Nagini has been in this form for over forty years."

"No, even if...!"

"Her core has already been completely rebuilt for the new body, and the curse is unusual, one might say ancestral and much more terrible than any other," Severus interrupted him again, and then fell silent for a few seconds, after which he continued, "I can't say anything about the soul, but most likely it was also affected by it over such a long time," this was one of the reasons why the Prince took Qilin, he wanted to understand how much Nagini's soul was tainted by this curse, and then set up a ritual for it and prepare a potion.

"This…" hearing his words, the spirit simply did not know how to answer, because if he was telling the truth, then it was simply impossible to help the snake, "But then, how are you going to do it?"

"Use another curse…" and after these words, the old man's eyes widened in shock at the guest, but he understood that the young man in front of him was not stupid and would not harm his companion, especially after what he had seen earlier.

Therefore, the elderly wizard thought deeply, trying to understand what he wanted to achieve with this action and a few seconds later, when he was about to answer what he thought about such a "brilliant plan", he seemed to be overcome by inspiration and he froze for a while with a rather stupid expression on his face.

"What's wrong with him...?" Having calmed down a little, Nagini looked at him in bewilderment.

"Nothing special," stretching out his hand, Severus pulled out a vessel with "holy water" from the stone and calmly put it in his wallet. This action also served as a signal, thanks to which the old man came to his senses and looked in amazement at the young man standing in front of him, not even paying attention to the disappearance of the water.

"I ... am amazed! I could not even think of such a solution to this problem!" The spirit nodded excitedly, running his hand through his beard, "For some reason it reminded me of the "debts" in arithmetic …"

"Hm? Not bad, that's how it is, I want to do it," the Prince calmly nodded, gradually turning around, getting ready to leave this place, which, of course, did not escape the old man's gaze.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"I have nothing more to do here, I got everything I wanted, and after Nagini becomes human again, she simply will not be able to study light magic," he shrugged his shoulders indifferently, turning completely and heading towards the exit.

"Wait! Is there nothing else you want to ask me?" quickly catching up with the wizard, this suspicious old man began to circle around him, "At one time, I was considered one of the smartest people of my millennium! People stood in line for months to ask me a question... just stop already! Show some respect!"

"What do you want?" already at the very exit, Severus finally stopped and frowned at the elderly man.

"Don't you want to ask me anything? You know, I know a lot…" the Asian drawled "mysteriously," with an enigmatic half-smile on his lips, which made the Prince's eye twitch.

"No," and his hand touched the right door.

"Stop!"

Taking a deep breath, he looked at him again with irritation, to which the old man awkwardly began to shift from foot to foot, looking away.

"Speak directly or I'll leave now."

"I… I… " The wizard's face showed a real struggle, but after a few seconds, gritting his teeth and sending everything to hell, judging by his look, he exclaimed, lowering his head in order to hide his embarrassment, "Please, stay a little longer! I haven't talked to people for a long time! When I built this place, I couldn't even imagine that over time, wizards would become so weakened and no one would be able to pass even this mediocre test!"

"So that's how it is... so... you want to talk…" slightly squinting, the Prince grinned contentedly, ignoring Nagini's disapproving look, "okay…"

"Really?!"

"Yes, really," putting on his brightest smile, he continued "But on one condition…"

"What...?" the elderly wizard asked much more cautiously, sensing something strange in the behaviour of the young man standing in front of him. "I want you to teach someone light magic."

"Huh?" the old man looked at the snake, and then at the young man, "Because of the curse, she does not …"

"Not her," he shook his head and a moment later, Qilin appeared next to him, who looked very surprised, because only recently he was playing with his brothers, and the next second he was standing in this strange cave, but when he turned his head and saw Severus, he squealed happily and began to rub against his leg, to which the Prince, with a much warmer smile, began to stroke the cub's head, "It's him."

"What ...?" stupidly blinking his eyes, the old wizard did not take his eyes off Qilin, simply not understanding how such a bright creature, capable of seeing the souls of people, could cuddle up to a wizard with such a dark soul.

"Are you sure? He is too suspicious, I'm afraid for Bambi, what if this old man will teach him something bad ..." Suspiciously looking at the ghost, Nagini hissed.

"What Bambi...?" Severus looked at the snake with a rather strange look, apparently she had already chosen a name for Qilin without him.

"Well, remember that cartoon we saw?" the Slytherin nodded, recalling something similar, "He's the spitting image of Bambi!"

"Okay... let it be Bambi, but then you'll have to explain to him when he grows up why you named him that, and about training, only this old man can help with this matter..." rubbing his temple on the left side, he let go of the previous topic, "They have the same specialisation, and white magic also includes light magic, so it would be nice to help him develop in this direction..." and then he added out loud, addressing the Asian, "You are the smartest wizard of your millennium and I'm sure that you can find an approach even to him, am I not right?"

"You're just trying to play on my pride... a cheap trick."

"I know, but you have no choice," the Prince shrugged indifferently, to which a tired chuckle escaped from the old man's lips in response.

"That's right," his hand fell on his beard again, and his eyes shone with a white light, "I'm surprised, such talents are rarely born among the Qilins…" examining the cub, he drawled with approval, "But if you want me to train him, then you'll have to leave…"

"No need," a pocket watch appeared in Snape's palm, at the sight of which the old man, with much greater interest than in the magical creature, began to study it.

"This… artifact, it can store a soul inside… I'm surprised that someone in this time was able to create such an amazing thing," he came even closer to them and stared at the numbers on the edges and the hands in bewilderment, "And this…?"

"A watch, it was created to measure and check time, thanks to it you can determine the time of day, for example, understand when it's morning or evening, in general, a very convenient thing," from his words, the spirit's eyes almost popped out of his forehead and he stared at the artifact with real awe.

"Simply amazing! But how did they…"

"First, get in here, then I'll tell someone to give you a tour of the world."

"I… I can't… I can't leave this place unattended…" he shook his head with a forced smile, although it was clear from his eyes that he wanted to really get out of this place.

"It is possible to split your soul, one part will go with me, and the other will stay here, but they will be connected to each other, that is, you will be able to be in two places at the same time."

"Is this... is something like this possible?" The spirit looked at him doubtfully, "I have seen how some wizards tried to do this, but in the end they destroyed their souls or both parts lost their connection with each other…"

"Almost anything is possible in the world of magic…" After his words, the old man thought about this proposal, because he had wanted to leave this place for a long time, it was already very difficult for him to live here alone, and at times it seemed to him that he was starting to go crazy.

But because of his duty to monitor the state of the barrier and the weather, as well as that creature underground, the spirit could not do this...

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And so, about five minutes passed, until finally he looked up at the young man again and said with a much more serious expression "I agree, but first explain to me how you are going to do this. Everything, down to the smallest detail, because my life will depend on it."

"Okay, in fact, it's very simple..." Severus nodded calmly and raised his finger, on the tip of which a white light shone and he began to write a certain ligature of runes in the air, and behind it a magic circle.

The elderly wizard, in turn, concentratedly studied each symbol and nodded at something, shuddered at times and bulged his eyes in surprise, and so it went on for the next hour and a half…

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