Mysterious Journey
Chapter 456: The Nun and the Spider (8,000-Word Chapter!)
"This tree... haven't I seen it before?"
"I thought there was supposed to be a forest path! How did it just disappear?!"
Aileen looked around at the seemingly identical dense forest, utterly lost. Aside from a slight downward slope in the ground, the trees were just as thick as before, showing no sign of nearing the edge of the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest.
That's right, she was lost, again, and again, and again.
Faced with this familiar feeling, Aileen's heart was utterly calm, even a little…
(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Who the hell can laugh when they're about to starve to death! Dammit!
At first, she had indeed chased after the direction the unicorns had disappeared in.
However, after only a minute or two of pursuit, Aileen instantly realized a problem. With her short little legs, trying to hunt down those lively [Scottish Unicorn White Sheep] in the dense forest was somewhat unrealistic.
Fortunately, just as she was about to turn back, she spotted a faint forest path.
Recalling the tip from Hogwarts' gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid:
"When you're walking in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest, as long as you don't stray from the path, it's usually difficult to get lost and you won't encounter any danger."
Therefore, Aileen decisively abandoned the unicorn plan and chose [Plan B] – listen to the elders' teachings and automatically find her way.
Any path that people walk on always has a beginning and an end.
At worst, she could walk a little in both directions. She could always successfully return to the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest entrance. If she was lucky, she'd succeed on the first try. If she was unlucky, she'd just have to try one more time at most.
However, the prerequisite for doing this was...
This path had to be a path that humans had walked on...
Looking at the piles of droppings from unknown magical creatures, and the scattered footprints, Aileen's lips twitched.
Only then did she suddenly realize an important issue – judging by the frequency of human wizards' activity in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest, most of the faint forest paths were usually not footprints left by human activity.
"Don't panic, no big deal, just return the way you came."
Aileen took a calm breath, narrowed her eyes slightly, and tried to distinguish her footprints on the ground illuminated by her wand. However, with her current size and weight, she couldn't leave any obvious traces in this dense primeval forest.
After she stopped and turned around a few times, she couldn't even tell which direction she had come from.
"So hungry → so hungry ↗ so hungry ↘ I'm really so hungry ↓…"
Aileen hummed softly, gradually calmed down, and thought carefully.
The Hogwarts Forbidden Forest is home to various magical creature populations, most of which have a certain level of intelligence. As long as she encountered any one of these creatures, she could mostly find a way to communicate properly and have them help guide her.
She might not be able to see the legendary Thestrals, but besides them, there were also unicorns, giants, and Hippogriffs that she could interact with. And the most ideal, of course, was the centaur tribe with a complete social system.
Just then, Aileen suddenly heard a rustling sound from about ten feet above the ground to her left, as if some creature was touching the branches and leaves of the forest, accompanied by a clicking sound.
In fact, these sounds were not obvious. Most of them were mixed in with the sound of the wind in the Forbidden Forest.
However, for some reason, they sounded particularly abrupt to Aileen, as if ripples suddenly appeared on a calm water surface. She even roughly outlined the other party's size in her mind in the first moment.
"Hi, good evening."
Before the other party could pounce down from the air, Aileen turned around first and said with a smile, raising her wand.
"Dear… Mr. Spider."
This was a giant spider that looked like a horse pulling a cart, with eight unusually long, hairy legs. The front two legs were a pair of shiny black pincers, which made a faint clicking sound as they opened and closed.
Without a doubt, this was a Hogwarts Forbidden Forest specialty, the Acromantula tribe.
Facing the wand that was so close at hand, the spider that had silently lurked above and to Aileen's left, preparing to pounce, suddenly froze. A trace of fear flashed in its eight terrifying black eyes.
As a magical creature living around Hogwarts Castle, it knew the power of these human wizards very well – even if this was a human child, when her wand was aimed at it, it was still a considerable threat.
Most importantly, it could vaguely feel the malice hidden in that little thing in front of it.
"Hello, do you know how to get to Hogwarts Castle…"
Aileen's eyes were locked firmly on the furry big spider in front of her, without a trace of fear. Any experienced hunter knew that when facing unknown creatures in the jungle, turning around and running away was always the worst option.
When you have a firearm in your hand, calmly locking onto the other party is the most correct option.
For wizards, wands have the same effect – powerful impact and lethality will repel all ignorant beasts in the first moment. Upright walking humans belong to behemoths in the perspective of most animals.
In fact, if the other party was a creature that had not eaten people, the result of this confrontation would usually be…
"Hey! Don't run! *Petrificus Totalus*!"
Aileen shouted anxiously, striding quickly after the fleeing big spider. Her wand occasionally emitted spells, trying to keep the Acromantula behind to ask for directions.
She had already lost a unicorn once. If she missed the big spider she had finally encountered with great difficulty, she didn't know when she would be lucky enough to encounter a living magical creature again. After all, the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest was too big.
Compared to the previous failed chase, this chase was obviously much easier.
Although the big spider still effortlessly shook Aileen off with the advantage of its eight long legs, the gradually changing environment around her became the most conspicuous road sign, guiding Aileen to continue forward.
As the girl advanced, the ground was gradually sloping downwards, and the surrounding trees were becoming more and more sparse. Many tree trunks had an unhealthy gray color, as if they had been corroded by some kind of pest. The branches were covered with white spiderwebs.
After chasing for about five or six minutes, Aileen came to the edge of a wide hollow.
The trees that were originally in the hollow had been cleared, and the ground covered with thick fallen leaves had a few spiders crawling over it from time to time. Stepping on it felt like walking on a thick carpet in the common room. In the center of the hollow under the starlight was a terrifying scene that would frighten most people.
Spiders.
Not like the common little spiders that scurried away, but each one was the size of a domestic pig, with eight eyes, eight legs, black and furry, waving their shiny black pincers and making a clicking sound – Acromantulas.
What a huge tribe…
Aileen narrowed her eyes, scanned the dense giant spiders in the hollow, and shook her head with emotion.
Biological invasion, even in the magical world, is indeed an issue that cannot be ignored.
According to *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*, Acromantulas are giant, ferocious spiders. Adult spiders can span fifteen feet when their legs are stretched out, and are highly dangerous carnivorous magical creatures with a certain level of intelligence.
Most importantly, female Acromantulas can lay up to a hundred eggs at a time, and the incubation time is less than three months – the Acromantula tribe in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest has been living for nearly fifty years. If it were replaced by an ordinary primeval forest, there might only be giant spiders plaguing the forest now.
The giant spider that had fled from Aileen was now a little lower on the steep slope, close to a misty, hemispherical giant spiderweb in the center of the hollow. Its companions surrounded it, moving around and making a clicking sound, as if whispering something.
Accompanied by the giant spider's "complaint" (Aileen guessed), one Acromantula after another turned around, their eight fierce black compound eyes looking up and down at the little human witch who appeared at the edge of the hollow, exuding an increasingly disturbing atmosphere. The only thing that stopped them from pouncing was…
"Human! Aragog! Human!"
Aileen vaguely heard such sounds from the noisy pincer opening and closing sounds not far away.
Obviously, as a magical animal colony with a strict hierarchy, they did need an elder to decide on this unexpected situation. And this also happened to coincide with Aileen's needs – she was just here to find a guide.
Soon, a giant Acromantula the size of a small elephant emerged from the misty hemispherical spiderweb. Its body and legs were blackish-gray, and each eye on its ugly head with pincers was covered with a layer of white opacity.
Without a doubt, this was Hagrid's pet, Aragog. He was blind.
"What's going on?" Aragog said, his pincers moving quickly.
Compared to those ordinary Acromantulas, its voice was much clearer and heavier than those of the small spiders.
"Human! Aragog! Human!"
The spiders gathered around Aragog waved their pincers excitedly, making a clicking sound, and pointed to the silver-haired little witch standing at the edge of the hollow.
"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog shook his pincers in confusion, his eight milky white eyes looking around blankly.
"No, it's a stranger."
"Then kill him!" Click, click, the giant Acromantula said impatiently.
"Don't bother me with this kind of thing, I'm sleeping…"
However, before Aragog could finish speaking, a clear spell sounded from the edge of the hollow.
"*Ex…plosion!*"
Boom!
Accompanied by a deafening roar, several trees around Aileen were uprooted, and fragments were thrown around. The shock wave formed by the explosion swept across the entire hollow, causing all the Acromantulas to subconsciously stop the sound of moving their pincers.
"I'm Hagrid's friend, don't be afraid, I come with friendship and peace."
Aileen looked at the silencing effect brought by the spell, and nodded with great satisfaction – bullying the weak and fearing the strong is the characteristic of most creatures. Showing strength appropriately before reasoning is the best way to communicate.
Click, click, click, click, click…
After a brief surprise, a series of spider pincer opening and closing sounds sounded again in the hollow. Obviously, this one attack alone could not make these guys with not-so-high intelligence understand Aileen's meaning.
In that case…
Aileen glanced at Aragog, who was hesitant and did not continue speaking for the time being, and the corners of her mouth turned up.
"*Explosion Maxima!*"
"*Explosion Maxima!*"
"*Explosion Maxima!*"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Art is always the best way to quell disputes. If once is not enough, then increase the dosage a few more times.
In less than a few seconds, almost all the trees around Aileen had fallen, and the mud had been blown up into large pits by the power of the spell. The entire hollow was filled with a faint earthy smell.
And just as Aileen had expected, the surrounding spiders finally quieted down.
Aileen would not naively think that Acromantulas are a friendly and harmless magical creature. Simple verbal communication could make them send her out of the Forbidden Forest – regarding this, Ron and Harry, who were almost fed to the spiders in the original story, made a very classic mistake.
"Enough! Human cub! What exactly do you want to do!"
Aragog waved his pincers angrily, making a low roar.
"As you can see, I'm lost."
Aileen spread her hands and said with a smile.
"So I hope that there can be a kind and reliable creature to send me out of the Forbidden Forest and back to Hogwarts Castle to enjoy the Halloween dinner – that's all. You know, I'm about to starve to death now."
"Lost? So, Hagrid didn't send you here…"
Aragog moved his pincers click-clack, and said slowly.
"Then in fact, can I understand that you are just an uninvited guest who has broken into our territory… right? You should know that this area belongs to the Acromantula tribe."
Huh?!
Aileen narrowed her eyes slightly. This old spider, why doesn't it have any reaction?!
According to common sense, after witnessing the destructive power she has shown, Aragog, who has intelligence close to that of a human, shouldn't make an unwise choice for a little flesh and blood, unless…
"You wouldn't think… that just making a loud noise can force the Acromantula tribe to submit, give up the fresh human meat that is actively delivered to their door, and even serve you wizards like slaves, would you?"
Just… loud noise?!
Aileen glanced around at the ground that was almost like a bombing site, and her cheeks twitched.
This old guy is probably blind?!
Isn't this level of magic enough to make him see reality clearly?!
While thinking this, Aileen's gaze slowly fell on the old spider's pale eyeballs…
Emmmmm…
Damn it!
I almost forgot, this old spider is blind now!
"Sorry, pitiful human cub, you can't go anywhere…"
Not far away, Aragog said slowly, his pincers making a dangerous clicking sound.
"Wizards are indeed terrible, but this is not Hogwarts Castle. You can deal with one or two alone, but you can never resist my hundreds and thousands of children. Stay here and become our holiday gift…"
With Aragog's voice, the clicking sound around gradually sounded again.
The rustling sound became more and more dense, and countless spiders seemed to be gathering from all directions.
Aileen sighed softly, and suddenly realized the failure of this communication.
Under Aragog's instigation, the Acromantulas gathered from all directions, moving slowly, inch by inch, towards her. Behind her, a few steps away, the spiders formed a solid, towering copper wall.
Countless black pincers opened and closed back and forth, clicking and clicking, and hundreds and thousands of fierce eyes shone on those ugly black heads. Every spider's eyes flickered with excitement and bloodlust.
Looking at the spider's bristling, hard black fluff, Aileen, who was getting hungrier and hungrier, felt a burst of irritability and nausea.
"*Explosion!*"
Aileen's face turned cold, and she waved her wand without hesitation.
Boom!
The powerful Explosion Curse effortlessly blasted the "spider wall" blocking Aileen into pieces. The spider's green, viscous blood splattered out, flying everywhere.
Thump, thump.
Several broken spider corpses fell heavily to the ground.
Compared to most high-risk magical creatures, the danger of Acromantulas is more reflected in their venom, as well as their powerful reproductive ability and intelligence, but in terms of pure physical and magical resistance, they have no advantage.
After all, in the end, they are just a large arthropod.
In order to obtain extraordinary perception ability, they even sacrificed the external carapace, and only covered a thick layer of black fluff on the shell. In terms of defense, they are even more vulnerable than many thick-skinned ordinary animals.
However, facing the good effect brought by the spell, Aileen's face became more and more dignified.
Strictly speaking, this was the first time she had faced a dangerous magical creature alone.
And after witnessing the Acromantulas with her own eyes, Aileen finally realized why Newt Scamander would define them as a five-star dangerous magical creature in *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*.
Although those Acromantulas had died at the moment their bodies were torn apart by the spell.
But their chilling pincers were still madly tearing at the empty air with all their strength, as if they had pounced on Aileen… This is a terrifying gregarious carnivorous creature.
Compared with most magical creatures, although spiders do not have too strong melee abilities.
But the toxicity in their fangs is still a danger that cannot be ignored.
The rapidly acting venom of the Acromantulas could send most wizards to another world before they could get any effective medical treatment – being cautious is always no big problem.
Without any hesitation, Aileen took the initiative to activate the Deathly Hallows pendant that Grindelwald had given her.
The Shield Charm from the first Dark Lord emerged, covering Aileen's body. It was actually quite difficult for those big spiders' physical attacks alone to break through this layer of magical protection.
But without a doubt, there was one point that the old blind spider said was right.
The wizards' damage spells obviously did not have as good an effect when facing a large group of Acromantulas as they did when dealing with other magical creatures – there were simply too many of them.
Even if a gap was just blown out, in less than five or six seconds, the dark and dense spider group behind filled it up again. The endless spider group did not care about one or two unlucky spiders that died at all.
"When I get back, I must learn a few large-scale attack spells."
After continuously blasting dozens of spiders to death with Explosion Curses, Aileen sighed and put down her wand.
In this situation, the spells taught at Hogwarts in the lower grades were almost ineffective.
This was no longer a situation that a lower grade wizard could cope with.
But fortunately, besides being a wizard, she had another profession…
Aileen's mouth raised, and she silently took out the metal cross necklace that Father Benitez had asked a house-elf to give her for her birthday not long ago, and her eyes flashed with a look of eager anticipation.
As a novice nun, when magic cannot eliminate evil, she has another option.
Use the cross to save the undead!
"*Engorgio.*"
Aileen pointed the metal cross necklace in her hand with her wand and said softly.
As the spell was chanted, Aileen felt the magic in her body quickly rush towards the metal necklace in her hand.
In the next moment, a giant metal cross that was half a head taller than her appeared in the forest clearing.
And the originally slender necklace had now turned into a metal chain as thick as the girl's forearm, wrapped around Aileen's arm, shining with a layer of cold metallic luster in the starlight of the Forbidden Forest.
"Rua! Rua! Rua! Rua! Ruaaaaaaa…"
Aileen moved her wrist, glanced around at the dense Acromantulas around her, and a dangerous and pleasant expression appeared on the corners of her mouth. She pulled up the metal chains in her hand, making a series of pleasant metal friction sounds.
"No matter how many weaklings come, they are just trash… Now, it's time for the protagonist to appear."
Click, click!
An Acromantula moved its long legs, waved its giant pincers, and at the same time leaned forward its front half, aiming its deadly mouthparts at the silver-haired little witch who had stopped her spell attacks.
"Alas–!"
Aileen sighed and waved her arm easily.
The giant metal cross rose into the air, carrying a whistling sound and without hindrance, broke the attacking giant claw of the spider, and smashed the Acromantula into a puddle of mud.
[Three hundred and sixty degree dead angle attack] – someone once described the spider's movements with such words.
However, at this time, it might be more appropriate to use this sentence to describe Aileen.
"Dong boom!!!"
The giant metal cross carried an unstoppable momentum, carrying the bodies of several Acromantulas, and heavily hit the ground, smashing out deep pits, and at the same time, it also smashed several joints of more spiders around.
Between the flying gravel and soil, Aileen pulled the chain in her hand forcefully, her eyes fixed, and the cross rose again and swept across a semicircle, flattening all the heads of the dozen or so Acromantulas who were about to run away on the left side.
Bang!
Again, countless shells shattered, and then viscous spider body fluid overflowed.
The entire Acromantula hollow is now almost a spider cemetery. Countless half-dead spiders with severed limbs are huddled in every corner. The spider barrier that surrounded Aileen before has long since collapsed and turned into a full pile of wreckage.
Blunt weapons are always the top life harvesting tool in the primitive melee battlefield.
Click, click, click…
Click, click, click…
In the face of absolute power, even beasts will feel fear, let alone Acromantulas that already possess partial intelligence. Facing this one-sided, unskilful massacre, the Acromantula group began to retreat and flee.
"Want to run now? Then try your luck… Ha–"
Aileen glanced at Aragog, who had retreated to the depths of the spiderweb, put the chain in her hand to the longest, took a deep breath, and used all her strength to pull the giant metal cross across the hollow.
The taut iron chain was like a sharp blade, cutting off the bodies of most of the fleeing Acromantulas, and the Acromantulas who were directly hit by the cross at the very end were directly turned into a pool of black mud, twitching and falling in place.
"Hoo, hoo…"
Aileen panted heavily, glanced around at the suddenly quiet surroundings, and the expression on her face relaxed.
After such a long battle, even she was already quite tired.
The Shield Charm that Grindelwald gave her had long since expired. Therefore, in the subsequent battle, her clothes were still inevitably scratched by some spiders' pincers or joints, revealing a large area of snow-white skin. (Image, there really is this time!)
But fortunately, since learning the Healing Rune [ur], this simple external injury is nothing more than a pain for her – as long as she is not killed on the spot, she can heal herself with magic.
This is also why she has the confidence to wander around in the Forbidden Forest alone.
Compared to Aileen, whose blood bar has no upper limit as long as the mana bar is not empty, almost all the creatures in the Hogwarts Forbidden Forest are almost not far from death as long as they are hit by her serious basic attack.
This…
It's finally over…
Then, there is one last target left…
Aileen dragged the giant cross covered in spider fluid and walked unhurriedly towards a misty, hemispherical giant spiderweb in the center of the hollow. The sound of the metal chain dragging on the ground was as cold as the Grim Reaper's sickle.
Aragog was only blind, but his hearing and sense of smell had not been lost. A full ten minutes of slaughter feast had been enough for him to understand what kind of terrible demon he was facing.
In his memory, even the being known as "Dark Lord" more than a decade ago was not more terrifying than this little witch in front of him – compared to dying from strange magic, this one-sided massacre chilled him more.
"Respected human wizard, wait! I'm Hagrid's friend."
Click, click, the old spider said anxiously. Aileen thought she seemed to hear a bit of helplessness and trembling from the clicking pincers.
Hearing such a funny line reversal made her feel a little emotional – wouldn't it be better to do this earlier?
Aileen shook her head and said leisurely in a soft voice.
"But, this can't cover up the fact that you eat people, right?"
"No! Absolutely not! You are the first! Hagrid is my good friend! Benefactor! Although I have the instinct to attack people, out of respect for Hagrid, we have not harmed anyone in so many years."
"Oh? Is that so…"
Aileen didn't really know what to do with this big spider that wasn't very good at talking.
Hogwarts has never had a student die in the Forbidden Forest in these decades.
If the spiders really ate people, Albus Dumbledore and the school's many professors would have uprooted them long ago.
Therefore, strictly speaking, it has indeed been adhering to its oath and has not actively harmed humans – but this is like the oath branded on the back of her hand, there are too many loopholes in it.
Although in the original story, this group of Acromantulas eventually joined Voldemort's camp and attacked Hogwarts together, but that all happened after Aragog's death.
Of course, the most important thing is that if she really killed this old spider, Hagrid would definitely turn red instantly, right?
After all, self-defense is one thing, breaking into a house and killing a spider is another.
"What you said seems to make sense…"
Aileen stopped, glanced around at the spider corpses around her, and nodded thoughtfully. This price seemed to be quite profound.
Hearing Aileen's footsteps stop, the old spider hiding behind the spiderweb mist calmed down a little, and the sound of clicking pincers was not as rapid as before.
"As you can see, I am already an old spider who can hardly move."
Aragog hesitated for a few seconds and then answered cautiously, "Binding my children from actively attacking Hagrid is all that I can do. Facing those younger and more powerful descendants, it is difficult for me to do more…"
"Don't worry, I am a reasonable person."
Aileen smiled slightly, while taking out her wand to restore the giant metal cross in her hand to its original size and cleaning off the spider mucus.
"As you can see, I was just defending myself… Although the methods may be a bit extreme, that was because I was hungry and wanted to go back quickly, so I started a bit heavy."
"No problem! I will send you back to Hogwarts right away!" Aragog said emotionally, the clicking sound almost forming a whole, "If you are worried, I can send you personally."
"Not in a hurry for now."
Aileen touched her empty stomach, glanced around at the spider cemetery, and those broken legs, and shook her head meaningfully.
"What I need now is some dry firewood. Can you have your children help collect some over here…"
"Dry firewood?" Aragog answered in confusion, "No problem, are you feeling a little cold…"
"Being cold is only one aspect."
The mixed-blood Little Veela shook her head, lightly licked her lips, and revealed a devilish smile.
"More importantly, after strenuous activity, I'm a little hungry…"
———
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Eight thousand word chapter!
Righteously asking for monthly tickets! Writing this section of the plot in one breath, without cliffhangers, I hope everyone likes it ~