Chapter 360: Full of evil taboos

"Prepare for battle!" muttered Okegiga, drawing his spear.

Watching the stone door slowly open, Ivan concentrated on preparing for an all-out battle.

The next second, he sighed and put down his wand. There was nothing on the other side of the stone door.

At that moment, all the fallen centaurs were fighting outside, and they didn't expect someone to sneak in from the depths of the lake; the entire Temple of the Moon was empty.

"Very well, our plan was successful. No one noticed that we had entered the Temple." Without hesitation, Okegiga turned to the left side of the passage. "This way, human! We don't have much time to waste. We have to get to the top of the Temple before we are discovered. It is our destination, where the evil rituals take place."

Under the dim torchlight, the ancient temple was full of mystery.

The mottled walls left only traces of years of erosion. Many of the unique hieroglyphic centaur ornaments and giant stone carvings lay quietly in the corners, covered with dust.

In the empty passage, only the hurried footsteps of two people echoed.

It was like what Ivan saw when he first entered the Temple. Even after 800 years, the quiet temple had not changed.

However, he soon discovered a difference. Passing through a huge arched stone hall, Ivan noticed that the floor and surrounding walls were covered with dark red paint.

Questions arose in his mind: What the hell are these fallen centaurs doing? Why did they stain his sacred Temple with red paint? This is quite unusual." He said to himself

Then, he realized he was wrong. These dark red liquids were not pigments at all. They were all stains of coagulated blood. There was a massacre here!

There were no corpses, no debris; only dried blood clots remained, quietly recounting the crimes that had occurred in this room.

Ivan followed Okegiga, his feet glued to the floor, making a slight tearing sound as he lifted them.

Sis, sis, sis....

It sounded very disturbing, and the pungent smell of blood reached his face.

Ivan felt nauseous and refrained from vomiting.

"The fallen centaurs are completely insane. They think the evil god can lead them to glory!" Okegiga was also very uncomfortable. "Following their requirements, they captured a large number of creatures and carried out massacres here. The evil god and his followers needed a lot of flesh and blood as tribute."

"This is madness, let's get out of here!" Ivan waved his hand.

He tried to hold his breath and clench his rib cage, so as not to react to what he saw. He never expected to witness such a scene in the Temple of the Centaurs.

As Professor Trelawney had said, the Dark Temple was full of taboos.

They moved forward quickly, across the room. The stone door opened slowly, and Ivan took the lead. Then he stopped abruptly, staring in disbelief at the corridor before him.

On the floor, not far away, lay the corpse of an aquatic monster, a Grindylow.

It seemed to have been forgotten there by the fallen centaurs. Its highly decomposed face was in front of Ivan. That face resembled that of a human being, and its expression was painfully twisted. The missing muscles looked as if they had been devoured by unknown creatures. His naked eyes stared forward with hatred!

Ivan killed one of these creatures, but this was too brutal for him.

It was only to satisfy the murderer's momentary pleasure, or possibly more evil, to torture the soul of this Grindylow, so that it could never rest in peace.

This was the key to making Horcruxes. Through torture before death, the soul becomes extremely unstable and easier to split or absorb.

Ivan's nauseous feeling grew stronger, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on the wand.

A golden flame erupted from his wand, burning the Grindylow's body, in the hope that he could rest in peace.

"That's only part of it. The crime you are about to witness is beyond your imagination." Okegiga said coldly, with suppressed anger in his voice. "The evil god has caused the noble centaurs to degenerate into evil heresy, it can never be forgiven!"

Ivan nodded, and his mouth was full of bitterness.

He tried to calm himself, as if it was no big deal. He was determined to stop the evil god being summoned.

The circular room, all clotted with blood, seemed to be a sign. As Okegiga said, on the way back, Ivan saw many unimaginable scenes.

The walls at both ends of the corridor were painted with hideous monsters, swallowing flesh and blood with gaping fangs.

As far as Ivan knew, these fiendish creatures never appeared in any magical book, as if they were from the imagination of centaurs and never existed in the world.

He hoped it was true, that these monsters did not exist. Otherwise, he could not even imagine how to fight them. This was far beyond his knowledge and expectations.

What he saw and heard along the way gave him a new understanding of the centaur species.

In Dobby's own words, if Dobby himself became evil, then he would be evil and unrecoverable. This sentence was equally applicable to the centaurs.

Centaurs were not only fond of stargazing, fortune-telling and archery.

These seemingly ruffian magical creatures were full of unimaginable fanaticism.

Ivan and Okegiga moved forward. Although they did not communicate, they both unconsciously quickened their pace.

"Wait, that's very strange!" Okegiga frowned suddenly and said. "The Temple is too quiet. They would never leave it without a guard."

Even though it was a secret raid, it would be a big joke if they could run to the top of the Temple and destroy the ongoing summoning ceremony.

The fallen centaurs wouldn't be so stupid, and the extra challenge Gryffindor posed to Ivan wouldn't be so simple. There must be something else waiting for them.

"The fallen centaurs are fighting outside, if they can't be here, they must have other defensive measures." Ivan analyzed.

He thought of the hideous statues he had seen earlier in that room, worm-like monsters with holes all over their heads.

"Maybe we can..." Okegiga stopped suddenly.

He gripped his long spear and glanced nervously ahead, as if something was approaching.

Buzz, buzz, buzz....

Ivan was stunned and wondered how there could be bees here, but he soon saw what it was. What he saw, was as far away from the bees as possible....