Chapter 37

Outside, after surveying the area, a team of Aurors stood in front of the entrance to the cave and attacked the barrier with all sorts of spells. But the barrier was so strong that the Wizards could not even make it flinch. All they could leave on it was a couple of scratches.

"Commander …"

"Continue," the man said indifferently, because thanks to his eye he saw much more than the others and understood that the barrier would not last long, and the fact that from the outside it seemed safe and sound was only an "illusion". 

"The barrier was put up by a very experienced wizard in this matter: even with my magic eye, I can hardly see what is inside ... I must not lose my vigilance: this will be a difficult opponent ... "

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At the same time, in the cave, a creature already vaguely resembling a living person looked with a grin at his hand, on which the flesh was completely absent…

"A little more, and I would fully feel what it's like to be decomposed alive, like some kind of dead person…" Using telekinesis, Severus stretched out his bony hand and using the last bottle of golden liquid he drew the rune of absorption on his chest, through which his heart was visible.

And finally, throwing back his head with a crunch, he poured the liquid into his throat, and at the same second, a purple aura gushed out of huge crystals, rushing towards Snape.

'The last stage is rebirth… finally, I can relax a bit and let the magic itself work…' After this thought, the effect of the painkiller ended, but a moment before that, Severus had already lost consciousness, and wild flames engulfed his body, which slowly began to devour him…

At the same time, under the onslaught of thirty Wizards, the first barrier fell, but before they had time to go even ten metres, they were already met by the second one, which caused slight irritation in the commander, because he was almost no different from the first one, on which they spent about thirty minutes.

"Just let me get to you…" Squeezing his wand, he turned his gaze to the frozen Aurors.

"Why are you all frozen? Get back to work!"

"Yes!!!" 

"Everte Statum!"

"Descendo!"

"Diffindo!" 

"Bombarda!" 

"Expulso!" 

"Idiots…" watching the huge number of multi-coloured rays crashing into the barrier, the commander hit his forehead with his hand.

"Now I understand why Charlie called it a punishment, there are only idiots here …, attack at the same time at one point! Were you recruited from an ad? What the hell are you doing?! Attack the barrier! At the same time!"

Nagini, who was at the very bottom, with a twitching eye, listened to the cries of a man who even reached her. 

"Hmm… something tells me that they won't get to me for a very long time," shifting her gaze towards the barrier covering the entrance, she also felt strong anxiety, the only reason she still had a sense of peace was because of the slight connection she still had with Severus.

Behind the barrier behind her, a wild flame raged, devouring the energy from the crystals.

At the very epicentre, where Severus was supposed to stand, a round-shaped scarlet-coloured stone hovered, which absorbed this flame at an incredible speed,

***

Over the next few hours, a group of Aurors advanced through six more barriers, while almost half of them were weeded out due to traps, so the speed of their advance was half as fast, and the commander sent one of them to headquarters to call for reinforcements and help for the wounded. But even so, they passed most of the barriers, and there were only three barriers left till they reached Nagini.

She herself also didn't just lie down and wait for them to get to her, but, having regained her previous size, she began to prepare for battle, unless, of course, Severus came out earlier, which she really wanted.

At the same time, the previously raging flames were almost completely absorbed by the scarlet stone, the size of which was equal to the size of a ping-pong ball, and the crystals almost completely lost their colour ... 

While the group of Aurors crossed another barrier and lost two people, the flames,

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As soon as the wizards saw the raised palm of their commander, they abruptly froze with wands in their hands, while exchanging glances in bewilderment.

"We don't need to go further," the man commanded gloomily, "I feel real danger behind this barrier,"

Thanks to his magic eye, although with difficulty, he could see a massive shadow and a pair of yellow eyes, as if telling him: "Don't even try," and the Wizard was accustomed to trusting his feelings, which saved his life more than once.

Oddly enough, the wizards didn't ask questions at all, but only quickly lined up, because after this "campaign" they fully felt the reason why the "captain" who was transferred to their department yesterday was called "Mad Eye".

Why there was an "eye" in the nickname, they understood, and they felt terrible. This will be a nightmare for them for a long time to come.

"Set up a temporary camp until additional force arrive…" But before he could finish, he noticed a group of mages in Auror uniforms in the distance, and after he focused his eyes on who was leading them, his face twisted.

"One shouldn't have expected anything less from the famous "Mad-Eyed" Moody: on the very first mission, he lost more than half of the unit," sounded the mocking voice of the captain of another unit, which has a rather mediocre appearance, and if it weren't for a different outfit, then it could easily be was mistaken for an ordinary Auror.

"Travers, I thought you were kicked out of the Ministry of Magic a long time ago. What's it like being a dog in a pack of wolves?" Moody calmly answered him, while maintaining cold indifference, thereby slightly angering his opponent, who wanted to piss him off by putting pressure on him.

"How would I know? After all, I don't communicate with dogs like you." Walking past the Mad Eye with a grin, he approached the barrier. 

"I wouldn't recommend breaking it." The voice of Mad-eye sounded from behind.

"Do you think you have what one needs to teach me? I have served the ministry much more than you…" Travers looked at him contemptuously. 

"Apparently, you served very poorly, since we have the same ranks," turning around, Moody looked at the remnants of his fighters.

"All of you, come with me! Whoever is even a step behind will run a hundred laps around the training ground after returning!" he barked at them, and they, as if as one, briskly followed him. 

"Damn one-eyed bastard,..." No longer paying attention to the Mad-eye that stopped forty metres away,  Travers turned his gaze to his squad. "Destroy this barrier."

The Aurors didn't need to be told twice. No, they didn't start randomly attacking the barrier like the previous squad, but immediately began to send spells to only one point, and they acted much more efficiently and harmoniously, which indicated a huge difference between the preparations of the two squads.

It took them only eight minutes to cause the barrier to become covered with huge cracks that the illusion could no longer hide, and now, after a few seconds, the barrier began to collapse, and its fragments that fell to the ground caused the previously settled dust to rise ... 

At the same moment, through the cave there was a hiss, and then a scream.

"What is it?! I saw a huge shadow!"

"Everyone keep in line!" 

"Aaaaah… save me, it grabbed my leg!" but after a moment there was a sound of a blow and the voice abruptly stopped.

The remaining Wizards quickly regrouped, standing back to back and preparing to repel the enemy attack at any moment. But Nagini was very difficult to stop like this, because, even after having such a huge size, she had incredible speed, with which she manoeuvred among enemies without much difficulty.

And thanks to constant movements, the dust did not have time to settle.

"Ventus!" Raising his wand, Travers made a circular motion with his brush, and a stream of wind escaped from it, like a vacuum cleaner absorbing all the dust and blowing it towards the exit.

Finally, the Aurors were able to figure  out the monster, which was a huge snake, the size of which was almost twelve metres in length, and as thick as a small column.

At the same time, its colour caused a slight panic on the faces of some wizards, because it immediately spoke of how poisonous it was. 

"~ Hessss… (leave)"Nagini hissed in their direction, standing in front of the barrier leading to Severus and pointing with the tip of her tail towards the exit. 

"It's just a huge snake! You have to be careful with her, she's very poisonous." 

"Surround her, we must catch such an interesting specimen alive," Travers commanded with a greedy gleam in his eyes.

"Be careful," Moody's voice sounded from a distance, he frowned at the barrier behind the snake's back, while he felt an unpleasant pulsation that gave off to his head from his magical eye. 

"Damn… what's going on with this eye today…" And while Mad-Eye was trying to figure out what was happening with the artefact, a group of wizards had already surrounded Nagini, who didn't have a strong desire to fight, and even those she got in dust, just lay unconscious, although she could use poison and instantly kill them.

Do I still have to do this…? But… I shouldn't let them interfere with him…'  Determination lit up in her eyes, and she let out her fangs… slowly, she began to yield her consciousness to the animal part, but… 

"That's enough." 

In the next second, the barrier behind her shattered into pieces, and then a man wrapped in a robe came out of the room. 

"Who are you?!" one of the Aurors growled menacingly in his direction, but the next moment he froze with his mouth open, seeing how the huge snake happily began to rub its head against the unknown's hand. 

"She's my companion, so what makes you think you can take her from me?" Such a question unsettled most of the Wizards, with the exception of one: 

"You violated the "Statute of Secrecy", therefore you must come with us, whether you like it or not, and we are taking the snake, now take off this hood," Travers said in a haughty voice.

"How good you are to me, If I were you, I would kill everyone, and that's the end of it, or maybe ... I should do this?" In the next moment, a terrifying wave of bloodlust erupted from his body, causing all the Aurors to "freeze" to the floor and tremble.

In an instant, from a simple tramp, he turned into a real monster.

"And you are an interesting specimen…" Snape drawled with a sneer, shifting his gaze to the pale white commander.

"Choose, your life, or the lives of your people? You've got three seconds... time…"

"Mine! I don't want to die! I beg you!"

"Well, well, You chose very quickly…"

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Saved …" but the next moment he felt a sharp increase in temperature, and after that he was engulfed in flames. 

"AAAAA HOT! NOOOOO! AAAGGGHHH!" before he could even react he was being burned alive, emitting painful screams, and the air was filled with the smell of burnt flesh, from which some of the wizards in his unit vomited.

"Today I'm in a good mood, so I won't kill you," he looked at the others, and then turned his gaze to Nagini. "Let's go."

Since they did not have time to cause her any harm, Snape did not kill them either, with the exception of the commander, whose words he really did not like. 

"Yes…" she exclaimed with a sort of puppy-like joy, bringing a warm smile to Snape's face. 

When Severus was about to pass by Moody's group, he stopped abruptly and looked in their direction with interest. "The one with the magic eye, come over."

Moody, oddly enough, was not as fear-prone as the others, and was quite able to walk normally. "You have a pretty strong will, since even my bloodlust didn't affect you much… I guess I didn't release it enough." there wasn't even a twitch on Mad-eye's face from this sentence, but everything inside him had turned cold. 

"You have an interesting eye, after all you were able to see through that barrier…," meeting his gaze, Severus easily broke through the defences of Mad-Eye's mind and, after rummaging around in his head for a few seconds, Severus erased his face from Mad-Eye's memories, and then, while Mad-Eye was in a trance, Severus rummaged through his pockets and took out a small vial filled with either liquid or gas.

' *Constant vigilance* is a good phrase, in my world, you would definitely survive…' he mentally added, looking at the Authors at side.

 They were all shaking with fear like kids who were caught doing something bad. 

"Tell your superiors that I don't want war and I'm leaving the country today, but for now… I'll stay here for a couple of hours…."

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