Chapter 367: Fear never ends

Ivan fell to the ground breathing and Gryffindor looked down at him with a smile.

"What about the evil god?" he looked around and saw nothing.

Around the platform, countless clouds rolled, covering everything in the Temple of the Moon.

A dark cloud drifted across Ivan and Gryffindor's bodies, and their shadows loomed like dreams. The fog made everything surreal.

"He's gone!" Gryffindor said quietly.

"But I didn't do anything. My magic had no effect on her. I didn't destroy the wooden statue that summoned it." Ivan said perplexed.

"There is no need to do anything. As long as you came here, you've already passed the challenge." Gryffindor smiled and picked up a glowing red stone and handed it to Ivan. "You are the best wizard I have ever seen. Take this Philosopher's Stone, it's yours now!"

Looking at the soft light of the Philosopher's Stone, a trace of longing appeared on Ivan's face.

He reached forward and stopped suddenly as his fingertips were about to touch the Philosopher's Stone.

A sudden warning rose in his heart, making him restrain himself.

Something seemed to be wrong. He remembered that Gryffindor had told him earlier that Voldemort had left a magic in this Philosopher's Stone.

But he didn't even mention it now, and why would he give him the Philosopher's Stone in the illusion instead of sending him back to the real world?

In front of him, the Gryffindor's face was always smiling, and it all seemed extremely unnatural.

That smile was not so much a kindly smile of an old man, but rather a smile of restrained mockery.

In the clouds and mists, the corners of his mouth rose exaggeratedly on both sides, becoming increasingly uncoordinated; as if they just exceeded a human's ability to smile!

Ivan felt a sudden shudder; he swallowed and swallowed, his right hand unconsciously clenching his wand.

"What are you waiting for? Catch this Philosopher's Stone and you will gain unimaginable power. It will help you become the most powerful wizard. Trust me..." Although it was close to him, the Gryffindor's voice seemed to come from a very remote place.

Ivan heard clearly, and the voice echoed in his mind.

As soon as he spoke, Ivan realized that this guy was a fake.

Gryffindor would never say that, he always emphasized that power was not the most important thing to have.

The challenge wasn't over yet. He had to destroy the wooden statue of the evil spirit.

The evil spirit that had become Gryffindor was still laughing, but the mood was becoming more and more oppressive.

Its laughter rang deep in Ivan's mind, getting louder and louder, along with the frequency of its heartbeat. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump....

Ivan felt like his heart was about to burst at this tormenting sound, and he couldn't help but break a little.

His magic began to wander, and all his powers were in conflict.

Ivan gasped, holding his wand tightly and raising his right hand diagonally upward. A pale green curse burst forth and pierced the Gryffindor's body in front of him.

It had no substance; it was nothing more than an illusion.

"Young human wizard, you rejected me and made the most foolish of decisions." Gryffindor took a step forward, his face contorted and his mouth opening wider and wider.

Numerous green fragments of mucus and flesh fell from within, his body was expanding rapidly, and rotting tentacles emerged, like the most terrifying nightmare.

The tentacles slowly moved forward, apparently trying to touch Ivan's skin.

"EXPECT PATRONUM!" shouted Ivan.

The silver Patronum spun around, and the glowing white mist blocked it.

"Young human wizard; you still don't understand the true meaning of magic. You have never suffered the collapse of all walks of life. You are just the lowliest existence in the world." The Gryffindor's face became completely devilish, his tentacles quivering and clapping on the light screen, his mouth speaking mad, meaningless words, "Sad ant, you are just a puppet in the hands of a puppeteer; struggling uselessly in the face of what you cannot understand...".

Ivan put more of his magic into the Patronus charm. Seconds, or perhaps centuries, before he realized he had to run!

Oblivious to the evil god before him, he no longer cared about the environment around him, and continued down the narrow hollow stairs next to the platform, running forward.

Through the thick fog and light, the stout tentacles of the evil spirit continued to clap, and with mad power, it became more and more ruthless and cruel, as if trying to split Ivan's body in two.

Ivan gasped. On top of a small table, he saw an opaque wooden statue, which was a multiple reduction of the evil god, which looked more like the roots of a plant on that scale.

Without thinking, he waved his wand, and the red spell passed by.

Unexpectedly, the wooden statue shattered and scattered in the air like points of light from the stars.

The mad voice of the evil spirit gradually receded, but it was still very clear and terrifying; "Sad lamb, you have defeated me in illusion, but don't you know that you are entering a more frightful one! Fear is like a shadow; it never disappears, it never ends..."

The surroundings were growing quiet, and when Ivan looked up, he again saw Gryffindor standing in front of him with a smile.

Ivan took a step back, startled, and raised his wand vigilantly, but Gryffindor waved his hand carelessly, a tighter grin on his face.

"Don't do that, Ivan!" said Gryffindor with a grin. "That thing was gone. Now it's just the two of us here."

"How can you prove that you're really Gryffindor, not the evil god?" Ivan hesitated and asked, shaking to his core.

His heart was pounding so hard that he couldn't clearly distinguish between illusion and reality. He felt like he was about to go mad.

"I can't prove anything, because I don't really exist, it's just a part of this magical illusion, the consciousness of my body staying here." Gryffindor said with a smile, "You did a wonderful job and you got my approval, believe it or not, I want to tell you that you've risen to the challenge!"

This sentence was a surprise for the first time, and now it sounded downright terrifying.

Gryffindor didn't seem surprised by Ivan's performance. He waved his hand. "I know you have many doubts. In fact, the evil god you saw didn't exist in the real story. Okegiga had better luck than you. When he reached the top of the Temple, the evil ritual had not been completed, and he managed to stop everything."

"What happened now?" asked Ivan, taking a breath.

"As you can see, that is what I imagined and reasoned about this creature, and that is what I used my magic to create." Gryffindor said with a smile, as if explaining a trivial matter, "In the real world, the so-called evil god did not come into the world in the end. At the last moment, just out of anger, he exhausted his power to break the void, splitting the Philosopher's Stone I left into two halves, and doing nothing else."