Ivan gasped and ran through the crowd of fallen centaurs prostrate on the ground.
Like Okegiga, the fallen centaurs were all motionless.
They lay there in silence. Their faces were also still, showing their last and varied expressions of surprise, panic, joy, fear....
Apart from Ivan and the evil god, the whole world seemed to be at a standstill at that moment.
Ivan's Patronus was still swirling around his body, and the shield of white energy protected him from the whispers and negative emotions of the evil god.
In the sky, with the gathering of monstrous amounts of flesh and bone, the huge spherical body of the evil god had expanded beyond imagination, beginning to resemble a moon of death falling to earth.
On its body, swaying tentacles covered the sky.
At the foot of the Centaur statue in the middle of the Temple, Ivan looked up and saw nothing above his head but the body of the evil god, which was still growing.
It was dark, but Ivan's aim was very clear.
He had just felt all the magic that had dissipated from the Philosopher's Stone converge on the head of the giant statue of the Centaur, where the Wooden Statue of the evil god was hidden.
It seemed that the stone staircase specially prepared for him was there silently, extending from the bottom of the statue to the highest point of the cloud.
Along the stone staircase, Ivan looked up and felt dizzy.
"Death here is not real!" he made up his mind to overcome his deep fear and ran up the stone staircase.
The next second, the change was sudden.
The bodies of the centaurs stagnating around him suddenly changed, their skin kept rolling, or bulging upward, or drooping downward, and their flesh and blood were torn.
Under the control of the evil god, the fallen centaurs became hideous monsters.
Some parts of their bodies still retained their characteristics, but others began to transform into hideous and bizarre shapes. Their eyes bulged outward and their bones began to deform.
Where they once had faces, they now had huge mouths, like giant open clams, with fangs on the edges and tiny teeth inside.
In the center of these gigantic mouths, they had huge blood-red tongues.
They swung disgustingly, licking the skin inside their mouths.
The fallen centaurs that had turned into monsters quickly ran towards Ivan.
He tried to run forward with all his might. He gasped loudly, and the monsters behind him were much faster than he was.
This was not the way forward. He was not Okegiga. He could not fight these monsters head on. He bit his lips hard, stopped and turned quickly.
Ivan wiped the sweat from his head, and the wand in his hand continued to wave.
Golden flames erupted from the end of his wand-it was the Evil Fire Curse!
Ivan had used this curse once before in Aragog's lair, burning almost the entire cave, including the gushing springs.
Like last time, all the flames seemed to be alive, spinning and roaring, racing towards the nearest Centaur.
The evil fire swallowed everything it touched. It confronted the evil god in the sky and the evil monsters it had created, as if the two were competing to decide who was the most evil.
After casting the Evil Fire Curse, Ivan didn't look at her and ran straight to the stone staircase next to the statue.
With all his might, he ran and swept down the steps.
Below, the fire was mutating, forming a giant herd of burning beasts: Flaming serpents, chimeras and dragons rose and fell and rose again.
The entire platform at the top of the Temple had become an ocean of flames.
Numerous fallen centaurs were being battered by the flames. They dodged and seemed to be able to escape, but were soon engulfed by the hellfire, turning to ash and drifting in the wind.
Their claws, tentacles and tails twitched, and even the obsidian floor was baked red.
With an unpleasant smell of burning, smoke billowed upward.
Strangely, the floor and walls of the building covered by the tentacles of the evil god remained intact. The fire stopped without harming the evil god.
"Stupid human mage, you are trying to challenge my strength with your own spells, but you don't know that you are approaching death." The evil spirit said slowly. The spherical body turned slowly, and the huge eyes turned to the bottom. It looked at Ivan with terrible coldness.
"Do you think you can endure death?" he asked quietly, "This death is like no other, human! I'll make you beg for it, beg for the pain to end!"
Ivan ignored him, and gasped loudly. The stairs glistened in layers in front of him.
He didn't know how long this would last, for the stone staircase seemed to never end.
He tried not to look or imagine what was underneath the statue, so he wouldn't get so dizzy. Inside his body was the huge, rough statue of the centaur.
On the outside was the larger, lighter body of the evil spirit.
Much flesh and blood was picked up and swallowed by it, but he was still unsatisfied. The quivering tentacles were still shadows, and the flesh-shaped body was covered with scars.
Each scar was so deep, green mucous came out of it.
It kept saying crazy words to Ivan, disturbing his mind, but because it did not form a single tentacle, it did not possess any substantial attack ability.
Ivan was climbing faster and faster, sweating like rain, and fluid was even pouring out of his eyes.
He felt he must be tired by now, but his legs kept moving upward.
It was a never-ending battle. Ivan's physical strength was exhausted. Now he just wanted to rest on the ground, but under the pressure of the evil god, he kept pushing himself up.
Maybe that was what Gryffindor wanted: to test Ivan's limits.
His phobia of heights and his fear of the evil god were left behind by Ivan.
Now he had no fear, and only one thought in his mind: climb!
He wanted to climb to the top, destroy the statue of the evil god and prevent its completion.
He did not know how much time had passed, the dark sky grew darker and darker, the sun disappeared and the stars hung in the night sky without noticing.
Finally, Ivan climbed to the top of the statue.
It passed straight through the dense clouds like a whirlpool, and the huge body of the evil god had disappeared. Now he was standing on top of the clouds.
The scene before him became wide open, and the bright moonlight shone down upon him.
Never had Ivan seen such a blue night sky! It was like being above the sky. There was nothing but him, countless clouds and mists surging beneath his feet.
On the circular platform in front of the clouds, Godric Gryffindor looked up at him with a smile and said, "Congratulations, you've met the challenge!"