Chapter 115

 The next half hour after returning from the treasury, Snape, under the vigilant supervision of the King of Snakes, devoted himself to studying the crystal in order to accurately confirm his guesses about the sealed "something" in the center of the forest, but to his disappointment, among the huge number of plexuses of runes on the surface of the artifact, he managed to see two lines from it: one led towards the barrier, and the second, almost five times thicker than the first and consisting of more complex runes, on the contrary, was directed deep into the jungle.

And as much as Snape didn't want to be wrong, he realised that there were too many facts pointing to their existence, some infernal worms that could only appear under the influence of the aura of those creatures was already direct evidence. 

Snape's anxiety was not unfounded, because once, in the distant past, his world had to face these creatures, and only thanks to the five "Creators" who stood at the forefront, the "creatures" were miraculously defeated, at that time, even the "Masters" were only cannon fodder, and the "Archmages" struggled to cope with the weakest among the monsters. 

In that massacre, millions of wizards died and even four "Creators" left their lives in the battle with their leader, and the last of them disappeared with serious wounds and has not been seen since. 

Although according to Snape, he was most likely killed by other wizards, still, any item of the greatest wizard is a real treasure, and the greed of people has no limits, especially the "Great Archmages", who, to the point of madness, wanted to rise to the level of those five.

Therefore, Severus hoped that he was still mistaken and that some simple monster was simply sealed there, and these worms got there by accident, for example, they were brought by the one who left that very book in the treasury of the King of Snakes.

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Severus shook his head, tried to drive away bad thoughts, and he again concentrated his attention on the snake, which had been silently watching his actions all this time. 

"Listen, how many such crystals are there in this forest?"

"Why do you need this information, Human?" the monster asked, squinting unkindly, in a much more formidable voice. 

"Just curious," Severus replied with a smile, keeping his face calm, although inside he was a little surprised at such a reaction by the half-snake-half-dragon, "If you can't answer, then forget it," 'Why did he reacted like that, was he thinking that I want to destroy them Or does he still know something?'

"Hm!"

"Okay, then I won't annoy you anymore, thanks for all those things, I'll go…" When Severus was about to say goodbye and leave the cave, the Snake King suddenly said "I know this forest like my tail, tell me what you are looking for. Maybe I can help you?" the monster suggested with irritation in his voice, not forgetting the man's words that if he dies, then his child will follow him, therefore, he wanted to quickly get the wizard out of the forest and finally break this damn connection. 

Of course, the magical creature was grateful to him for the return of his son, but it was still very afraid for the crystal, from which the wizard did not take his eyes off for about half an hour, and his question about others made him very wary. 

"And I thought that you would no longer offer and I would have to go on my own," Snape drawled with a sigh of relief, from which the monster hissed angrily, but this did not frighten the wizard at all, but on the contrary, amused him, after all he loved to get sentient beings as his pets.

"If not for the contract signed between you and my son, then you would no longer be speaking, instead you would have been inside my stomach."

"Okay, okay, what I'm looking for should be somewhere in the centre of the forest, maybe some unknown structure or barrier, and if my memory serves me right, then black flowers should also grow near that place or a dark, destructive aura should hover…" bending one finger at a time, Severus  thoughtfully listed, and when he looked up at the silent Snake King, all that Snape saw was just a pair of bulging eyes directed in his direction, which is the answer that he most of all did not want to see. 

But still, the monster was able to recover quite quickly, having got rid of the shock, and after that, the fear that followed it, because for a moment, when he heard about black flowers, an image of blood-red eyes "flaming" with real madness arose in his head. 

In his youth, the half-serpent-half-dragon, loved to roam the jungle, at that time, he was not a king, but the most ordinary snake, therefore, nothing held him back. 

Thanks to his already considerable size, he could crawl anywhere and, disobeying his father's order, he decided to explore the centre of this forest. 

At first, everything was fine, no one attacked him, and the snake calmly admired the magnificent views that opened almost untouched by other animals, and the deeper he moved, the fewer animals, and when the snake drew attention to the disappearance of sounds, as if time itself had stopped, he noticed black flowers leading deeper and looking up, he saw those very eyes ... The next time the snake King woke up, he was already in his cave. 

Then, he thought that maybe it was just a terrible dream, but on that very day his father disappeared, and his mother brought him back and  from her he learned that his father stayed there and didn't let that thing chase after them.

Although the half-serpent-half-dragon had already surpassed his father, but even now, remembering those very eyes, he felt nothing but fear, because the snake king understood that he simply could not defeat that creature, it was on a completely different level. 

Since that day, the rebel and slob have disappeared. The Serpent, every day lived with a sense of guilt, and in order to somehow dull this pain, he vowed to become a worthy king, as his father always wanted to see ... 

By staying with Nagaina, Severus learned quite well to understand the mood of snakes by the expression of the muzzle, which usually does not change at all for those who do not know. 

"You will die if you go there. " The snake King's voice no longer sounded annoyed, it was grim and completely emotionless. 

"So it does exist in this world…" Only this reaction was enough for Severus to understand everything, but: "…I need to see it myself," 

Snape, have to known at least the approximate level of power and the number of these creatures in that place, and only after that will he finally be able to think of a way to destroy them, because Severus understood, like no one else, that the barrier is only a temporary measure, someday they will break out and this world will end.

"Human, if you want to die, I won't dissuade you, I'll even show you which way to go, but break the contract with my son." Staring at Severus with an unblinking gaze, the serpent slowly began to move its tail towards the exit, and of course, this did not escape Snape's gaze, the edges of whose lips turned up. "It won't help, even if you seal the exit, I can still leave." 

Although it sounded rather bold, the monster believed him, because the person standing in front of him was only slightly weaker than himself, and the half-serpent-half-dragon had no doubt that he would find a couple of ways to escape from him.

"Break the contract with my son and I will give you the memories of the exact location of that creature, I'm even ready to sign another one…" The Snake king said after a few seconds.

"Okay, I will prescribe the condition." Severus took out a pen with an inkwell, and the king, in turn, in order to quickly finish this business, through fear, began to transfer memories into the artefact, " I will have one more condition , but I think for you it will be trifling …"

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An hour later, Severus left the lair of snakes, having received the necessary information in his hands, but in addition to them, the snake king was also generous with mentioning some areas around the route to the centre of the jungle, but he flatly refused to go with Severus, which was not surprising, and even for Snape himself, the last thing in life he wanted to meet were definitely not those creatures, because even through the memories, during the transmission of which emotions are almost not felt, he fully felt all the madness of that creature and the fear of the Snake king itself. 

And it was much more terrible than described in the ancient books that he once read in his past life. On such a dangerous adventure, the wizard nevertheless decided to go alone, taking with him a minimum of things and leaving the house elf and Nagini with the rest of the animals in the cave of the King of Snakes, though that is only after adding a couple of dozen points to the contract,

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