Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Of the Four Founders of Hogwarts, Evan’s relationship with Slytherin was arguably the most distant.

When they first met several years ago, Slytherin had made no attempt to conceal his disgust for Evan’s Muggle blood. At one point, Evan even believed that he would never obtain Slytherin’s key to the secret treasure, since he fundamentally failed to meet Slytherin’s criteria for selecting students.

The more outstanding Evan proved to be, the more likely it was to provoke Slytherin’s aversion, making it even less likely that he would hand over the treasure key.

On reflection, this made perfect sense. Acknowledging a Muggle-born Gryffindor as Hogwarts’ heir would probably be harder for Slytherin to accept than his own death. Doing so would be tantamount to indirectly admitting that the ideals he had upheld for so long were wrong — that his educational philosophy, his vision for Hogwarts’ development, his prejudice against Muggle-born students, and his conflicts with the other three Founders were all meaningless and devoid of value.

Under such circumstances, how could Slytherin possibly accept Evan?

The answer was already apparent from the nature of the tests left behind by the Four Founders.

Gryffindor’s trial was the most straightforward: as long as Evan could prove that he possessed courage, he would obtain Gryffindor’s treasure key.

Lady Ravenclaw, on the other hand, guided Evan to understand time and the significance of these legendary magical items to wizards. After witnessing the cycle involving her daughter Helena stealing the Diadem, she ultimately entrusted the treasure key to him.

The process was somewhat more winding, but overall not particularly difficult, and greatly helped Evan improve his abilities.

Almost all the legendary magical items he possessed had been acquired while passing Ravenclaw’s test.

Compared to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, Lady Hufflepuff’s trial was relatively more mysterious, with only the homeland of the house-elves as a clue so far. However, she had provided many hints, even proactively telling Evan when he returned to Hogwarts a thousand years ago that her help would come to him at the perfect time.

Of course, Evan had absolutely no interest in Lady Hufflepuff’s treasured recipes.

He had no desire to become a chef, so what would he need them for?

In contrast to the other three Founders, Slytherin’s trial was nothing short of a nightmare.

Leaving aside the lack of clear guidance, Slytherin seemed to have no intention of communicating with Evan at all. Those three terrifying parts of the evil god’s body had nearly killed him more than once; the slightest lapse could have cost him his life. In the end, he had relied on magic left behind by the Ravenclaw family to enter the space created by Herpo a thousand years earlier, where he fought two ancient evil gods to the death.

Now, to make matters worse, a magical accident had left him lost in time, his situation extraordinarily troublesome.

Whether he could even return was uncertain, and the whereabouts of Slytherin’s treasure key remained a mystery.

Furthermore, Evan had ample reason to suspect that Slytherin had been secretly increasing Voldemort’s power, turning what should have been simple matters into something far more complicated. The original Voldemort would certainly not have been this troublesome — let alone harbor ambitions of becoming an evil god.

If all of this truly was part of Slytherin’s plan, then he most definitely had a grudge against Evan.

But later on, his mind clearly wasn’t all that sound either. He actually went so far as to leave a basilisk behind in the school’s Chamber of Secrets for his heir to use to “purify” Hogwarts. And when this was discovered, he even tried to justify it. Was that something a mentally normal wizard would do?! …

That said, seeing Salazar Slytherin at this moment still made Evan genuinely happy.

From a timeline perspective, Slytherin at this point shouldn’t have known Evan yet — and even if he did, their relationship certainly wouldn’t have been good — but no matter what, they were at least on the same side. Seeing Evan in his current condition, Slytherin wouldn’t just ignore him… right?

Believe it or not, if Evan had been able to make a sound, he would have shouted for help at the top of his lungs.

Perhaps sensing Evan’s thoughts, or perhaps noticing something amiss, Slytherin raised his wand and pointed it at him.

A flash of silvery magic swept through the air, and countless clouds of energy surged and rolled.

Under the influence of the spell, the magic that had been surrounding Evan rapidly dissipated. He broke free from the void of time and returned to reality — and with that return came pain. Evan felt as though every part of his body hurt, as if he were about to fall apart.

He was falling from high in the air. Evan quickly drew his wand and cast a Levitation Charm on himself.

Just as he was wondering how he should explain all this to the Slytherin before him, a sudden change occurred.

A massive, purplish-gray tentacle erupted from the ground below, heading straight for Evan.

He hurriedly chanted a spell, blasting away the attacking tentacle.

What was happening?

Evan turned his head, and the previously quiet space suddenly came alive. Not far away, where Slytherin had been, the ground began to boil and churn, one terrifying tentacle after another emerging in rapid succession.

Amidst the violent tremors, Salazar Slytherin was swallowed by the surging, writhing tentacles.

Across the land, the evil god’s tentacles spread endlessly, like festering sores.

Along with them came frenzied whispers. The entire space had already been completely corrupted by the evil god Herpo had become. The Herpo Evan had not yet seen had already turned into the ruler of this world, incarnating as an unspeakable horror.

At last, Evan beheld the God of Death in his complete form.

“A mere insect dares to disturb my slumber? Prepare to face the wrath of the God of Death!”

As those dreadful words rang out, the red gem atop the temple emitted an eerie crimson glow.

The light grew brighter and brighter, until it transformed into the true Eye of the Evil God.

The enormous eye gazed downward without emotion, as though looking upon ants at its feet.

Driven by the terrifying body hidden within the temple, it rose continuously, its monstrous form reaching into the clouds, several times larger than anything Evan had seen before. It was entirely composed of morbid flesh, covered in grotesque, gaping maws lined with fangs. Below, in the abyss, tentacles and blood-flesh continued to surge upwards without end. This entire otherworldly space was nothing less than a part of the evil god’s body itself.

Just like the vision Evan had seen at the statue of the evil god, the complete form of the evil god was an entire planet.

Or perhaps even more terrifying, because humans are normally unable to perceive the evil god; what they see is only a part he chooses to reveal. The complete form of the evil god might very well be a colossal black hole, from which not even light could escape.

The end of corruption is the devouring of all things.

If this was an endless nightmare, then at this very moment, it had finally reached its climax.

This terrifying monster was simply not something humanity could oppose, nor something that should exist in this world at all.

In Evan’s understanding, this terrifying monster was utterly invincible. If he had faced such a terrifying monster before, the magical attacks created by the magic left behind by the Ravenclaw family might very well have been completely ineffective…