Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Powerful magic, countless souls, and endless resentment ultimately formed the “Eye of Death.”

It was both the power Herpo the Foul had stolen from the Shadow Realm and the very source of strength that sustained him after he became an evil god.

Every seemingly ordinary red fragment scattered across the ground was, in fact, extremely dangerous. The trapped souls within wailed incessantly, and the chaotic power of death could instantly claim the life of anyone who came into contact with them. Yet to Dark wizards these fragments were precious treasures, especially to those skilled in manipulating souls, who could draw upon the power of souls and death contained within them.

Evan carefully avoided the fragments on the ground, circling the top of the temple.

He searched meticulously, his heart sinking; the situation was worse than he had imagined.

Only a few tiny fragments were scattered on the temple’s top, utterly disproportionate to the massive ruby that had once been there.

Furthermore, Evan found no trace of the statue of the evil god.

When he had shattered the “Eye of Death,” the statue had cracked as well, losing all its power and collapsing nearby. But now it was gone. The statue had been severely damaged back then; the aura of the evil god had completely vanished; it was impossible for it to have moved on its own.

That meant someone had come here before Evan returned and taken away most of the fragments, along with the statue of the evil god.

Could it have been Voldemort?

He didn’t know what point in time it was now, or what the situation was like outside.

Although Evan’s observations at the time suggested that the statue had been badly shattered and that the soul fragment Voldemort had hidden within it should not have survived, without final confirmation there was always the possibility of unforeseen changes. The “God of Devouring” was also a variable that could not be ignored.

Evan decided to obtain the key to Slytherin’s secret treasure as quickly as possible and return to reality to confirm the current situation.

“It’s about time to get to the bottom of all this.”

Evan walked around the runic sigil at the top of the temple again, making sure nothing was missed.

He then tried placing one of the plaques into the groove at the top of the runic sigil; the size and shape of the two matched perfectly. He placed the plaque in and pressed it down firmly with his right hand.

The next second, the entire temple began to shake violently.

He immediately sensed a strange magical power emanating from the plaque in the groove.

“Huh, this is…” It was a familiar magical aura to Evan; he had felt it somewhere before, a strange sense of familiarity stirring within him. “… It feels like the power of the Twin-Serpent Staff, but something’s not quite right.”

He couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong, but the magic emanating from the plaque was clearly mixed with the power of the Twin-Serpent Staff. He had seen both Dumbledore and Slytherin wield it before — there was no way he could be mistaken. It was just that the remaining magical power was something he had never felt before.

Under the influence of this strange power, the surrounding mist gathered again.

The mist grew thicker, and the light emitted by his wand was suppressed once more.

A faint, indescribable sense of melancholy rose in Evan’s heart. He dismissed these thoughts, quickened his pace, and went to the other end to place the second plaque…

Another brief, rapid tremor followed, but this time it did not stop.

The ancient temple beneath his feet — no, the entire space — was vibrating at a steady, rhythmic frequency.

The sensation was like a heart that had resumed its beating.

Cloudlike mist streamed in ceaselessly, rising and falling as if breathing. This space was about to come alive.

Evan hesitated for a moment, then approached the final recess. This was the last plaque.

“Come on,” he said softly. “Let me see what Salazar Slytherin really left behind.”

He took a deep breath, gripped his wand tightly in his left hand, and pressed the third plaque firmly into the recess with his right.

The next second, Evan’s vision blurred violently as powerful magic surged forth from the three plaques at once.

In contrast to the magic surging outward, the surrounding mist rushed inward in a frenzy. Amid the converging magic, a red glow spread from the three plaques on the ground, flooding the entire runic sigil like blood.

A massive beast had awakened; immense terror was about to descend.

The tremors grew increasingly intense, the temple beneath his feet began to collapse, everything was changing rapidly. Evan hurriedly waved his wand to levitate, narrowly avoiding the collapsing temple and rubble.

He floated high into the air, looking down at the world rapidly crumbling — a truly shocking sight.

The temple and all the buildings on the ground had collapsed, reduced to ruins, and then shattered into rubble. Seconds later, the ground, centered on the magical sigil atop the temple, began to collapse, sinking deeper and deeper until it formed a terrifying vortex.

Mist, heaven and earth, everything in this space swirled around this vortex, being swallowed by it. The magical sigil formed by the three plaques was at the center of the vortex; the red glow emanating from the plaques and runes grew stronger and stronger, exceptionally clear amidst the churning clouds.

There, the sigil seemed to have opened a gate to another world.

“What a spectacle! What did that Slytherin leave behind?” Evan’s heart pounded.

He tried to fly as high as possible to avoid being affected, but he immediately realized that it wasn’t just the ground collapsing; the entire space, the entire world, everything within sight was rapidly crumbling.

Yes, crumbling!

The sky was no longer filled with rolling clouds of mist. Beneath the pale blue-green firmament, the very boundaries of space became starkly visible.

This was the first time Evan had ever seen spatial barriers. They were like cracked eggshells, peeling away piece by piece. Beyond the flaking layers of space lay utter blackness — perhaps the legendary endless void, or perhaps a terrifying black hole.

Even though he had witnessed countless grand and terrifying scenes before, Evan felt an intense chill at this moment.

He immediately realized what he was seeing!

If nothing went wrong, he was about to witness the destruction of an entire world with his own eyes.

What kind of magic had Slytherin left behind? And what, exactly, was the key to his secret treasure?

There was no one to answer him. Evan floated aimlessly in mid-air, utterly alone in the world, as everything around him rapidly disintegrated. The scene possessed a beauty so profound it defied description.

This was the beauty of destruction!

“Collapsed spatial barriers, destruction, the Twin-Serpent Staff, only space itself can break through space…” A sudden realization dawned on Evan. The space created by Herpo the Foul was being devoured by another, even more powerful space.

The three plaques left behind by Slytherin were actually keys to another dimension. The magical sigil carved at the top of the temple was the gateway to that space. Could it be the Shadow Realm Slytherin had spoken of?

Evan remembered clearly that Slytherin had said the space created by Herpo lay between reality and the world of the dead, the “Shadow Realm.” The gate now opening was certainly not a return to reality. Was it instead leading to the legendary Shadow Realm itself?

That true world of the dead, the final destination of all who had passed on, the place where another great journey began.

Just as these thoughts were racing through Evan’s mind, he saw something at the very center of the vortex that was devouring the world. He hurriedly flew downwards.