Chapter 489: The Dark Mark

The Slytherin Locket, which had been hanging on Ivan's chest, was still flashing a faint golden light.

Just like last time in the subway ruins of Aragog's Lair, the magic oozing from Ivan's body was constantly being absorbed by the Locket.

Dark golden streamers flowed over the old, intricate lines of the Reliquary, and emeralds, forming the capital letter S, flared in turn in the center.

The Slytherin house symbol looked like a curved snake, very real.

After the excess magic was extracted from his body, Ivan gradually regained consciousness and could feel the magical power flowing from the Philosopher's Stone gradually stopping.

The magical riot inside his body had ended, although he could still feel excruciating pain all over.

As he practiced slowly, Ivan could recover, and his strength could even go further.

He bowed his head and looked at the medallion on his chest in disbelief, amazed by its magic.

After the last time, Ivan knew that the locket was not a mere accessory. It held powerful and mysterious magic, but it was so hidden that even Voldemort hadn't noticed it.

He just thought it was a personal belonging of his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, with a special commemorative significance.

Therefore, he turned this locket into a Horcrux.

But it wasn't. All the objects left by Slytherin seemed to have a special significance.

Deep in the subway ruins, Ivan saw it in the last mural.

The four corners were the locket, the ring, the wand and the huge scepter surrounded by two giant green pythons.

This scepter appeared on the first page of the second part of the Book of Abraham, and was a key item left by the ancient sorcerers.

Ivan speculated that, like the Philosopher's Stone of the first part, they were the key to defeating evil spirits.

As one of the four items along with the scepter, the locket was certainly not simple.

Ivan had used it to defeat the eyeball monster and absorbed the magic of thousands of years of plankton underground.

He still remembered the scene of that moment, and the sensation was like a new magical door opening before his eyes.

This time, the Reliquary saved Ivan's life at a crucial moment.

Just like last time, the magic above him suddenly darted out, absorbing the magic of the Philosopher's Stone pouring into Ivan's body.

Ivan didn't know what was happening, and didn't realize how the magic of the Reliquary worked.

He had been studying for a long time and had no idea.

He originally thought that the complicated lines on the Reliquary would be the same as the ones on the board, and that only a mouth that knows Parseltongue would be able to recognize them.

But after Harry saw it, he was sure that wasn't the case.

After learning about the ancient magical characters, Ivan felt that these strange lines were like some kind of magic words, very, very ancient magic words.

Although he did not know what magic was in the medallion and what its specific use was, there was no doubt that this medallion had become one of Ivan's most treasured magical objects.

He could feel that the large amount of magic absorbed into it began to flow slowly as before.

The power of the Philosopher's Stone once again became calm and pure, repairing the damage inside Ivan's body.

Although most of the magic would eventually dissipate, a small part remained, becoming part of Ivan's own strength.

Tonight's incident was over, and Caresius and Voldemort's conspiracy had failed once again.

Ivan breathed a sigh of relief and felt unusually tired. Now he just wanted to fall down and sleep soundly.

But before that, he still had to comfort Hermione, who was frightened in his arms.

After this incident, Ivan clearly felt that his relationship with Hermione had taken a step forward.

They had both experienced this life-or-death situation, and had an unimaginable interaction based on their unreserved trust in each other.

Ivan gently patted the trembling Hermione's head.

Just when she thought it was all over, the accident happened again.

Tonight's incident wasn't over. The fear, it wasn't over.

Seemingly to shatter the wizards fragile nerves, something vast, green and glowing came out of the ruins of the building and flew into the sky.

The next second, a colossal skull appeared next to Ivan and Hermione.

It was composed of what appeared to be emerald stars, with a snake protruding from its mouth like a tongue.

Under Ivan's gaze, the skull rose higher and higher, burning in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation.

Like an eerie neon sign, it lit up most of the sky.

Ivan, Hermione, the stone giant standing silently below them, and the ruins reflected with the skull in the night sky, as if they were meant to be part of the scene.

Because this horrible skull represented the power of destruction and the deepest fear of the wizards, in the stadium, the crowds that had calmed down erupted in screams again.

They screamed loudly, and once again ran out of the stadium, fleeing as the panic returned.

This time, it was even more evident than the confusion caused by the vampires.

"God, this is the Dark Mark!" said Hermione, holding Ivan's arm tightly, "Voldemort's sign!"

Voldemort couldn't appear here. Ivan knew what it was all about.

At about the same time the Dark Mark was cast, he sensed Barty Crouch Jr. in the ruins.

Needless to say, Voldemort and the vampires failed in their plan to rescue him at Crouch's store.

No one would have thought that Barty Crouch Sr. would let a house elf take his son to the Quidditch match.

Considering Barty Crouch senior's character and Barty Crouch junior's fugitive status...this was unbelievable.

As the vampires were about to attack the box, Barty Crouch Jr. was led away by the tame elf Winky herself, but he didn't escape too far.

Winky's order was to stay in the box, he couldn't get very far, and he couldn't use his Apparition.

Prolonged imprisonment had made Bartemius Crouch Jr... and he had not yet recovered.

However, he did manage to get Harry's wand into the box.

This madman wasn't planning on running off with this wand at all.

After seeing Ivan in the limelight, he used it directly to proclaim his master's strength and provoke Ivan. He wanted everyone to realize who was the most powerful and horrible wizard in the world.

And his goal was achieved. Bartemius Crouch Jr. succeeded in causing panic and reminding everyone of Voldemort's terror.

All Ministry of Magic officials and Aurors quickly approached the ruins, and the red light of the impressive spell flashed everywhere.

Ivan saw clearly that Barty Crouch Sr... who had not been seen tonight, was in the vanguard.

The Ministry of Magic had lost face tonight, and they badly needed to show themselves.

Ivan didn't know how Crouch would feel when he saw that the enemy he was about to face was his own son.