As soon as he stepped through the door, Ivan realised that something was wrong, as the interior of the room was completely different from what he had expected. It was a square room with only three doors in three directions apart from the walls.
He had been in Nicolas Flamel's house for months and had never seen anything like it.
Was it some sort of special defence mechanism?
Yvonne thought about this in silence.
Time was of the essence, however, and Ivan did not want to delay. After ten seconds of observation, he tentatively opened the right door.
There was a long corridor leading to another door, which Yvonne hurried through and opened, only to find another empty room.
Ivan had a bad feeling about this, so he tried to open another door, and sure enough, there was a long, narrow corridor.
After several minutes of trial and error, Ivan's frown deepened as he realised that he was in an endless loop of space, and no matter which door he opened, it made no difference.
If it weren't for the annoying magical traps and guards in some of the rooms, Ivan would have wondered if he was back to square one.
After barging around for a while, Ivan forced himself to calm down. No matter how anxious he was now, it would be useless.
"What exactly is the pattern?" Yvonne asked, looking around the thirty-square-meter room. She stared at the four doors for a long time, trying to find a clue, but they all looked the same.
Could it be that there was no pattern at all, that everything was random, and that it all depended on luck to get out?
Or could it be that Nicolas Flamel did not set up the so-called exit in order to not be disturbed after his death, and intended to exhaust the enemy in a room that kept repeating itself?
Many thoughts flashed through Ivan's mind. If that was the case, then he would not be able to get out.
There is, of course, a more extreme solution, which is to simply cast spells and blow up the rooms to see if they can find an exit.
However, this would most likely lead to the collapse of the independent space created by Nicolas Flamel's magic, burying everything in it.
"Every time I cast a spell, there will be traces of magic…" Ivan muttered to himself. He tried to close his eyes and sense his surroundings. The drifting magic gradually covered the entire room like tentacles.
Using his magical senses, Ivan discovered that all the rooms were made of illusory magic, and were connected to each other by some sort of power.
Realising this, Ivan then tried to enter the second, third, and fourth rooms, and soon discovered their subtle differences, not in appearance but in magic.
In layman's terms, the place he was in was like a huge maze, and the magic gave each room a different number. If he could figure out the order in which these numbers represented, he could find the exit!
Realising this, Ivan regrouped and explored the countless rooms and aisles.
Due to her training in Legilimency and Occlumency, Ivan's memory was extraordinary, allowing her to remember every door she opened and create a three-dimensional image of the maze in her mind.
When Ivan opened the forty-second door, the living room finally came into view.
Ivan, tortured to the point of collapse by the maze, slowly relaxed.
However, at that moment, he felt a sudden sense of danger. The statue of the knight that was left with only half of its body on the ground slashed at him without warning.
The heavy stone sword slashed across, so fast that Ivan only heard a piercing whistle before the sword was right in front of him, slicing him in half from the shoulder!
However, the strange thing was that there was no blood flowing out of the cut. Ivan's separated body quickly collapsed into flames and gathered itself again.
"Reducto ~ (Shattered to pieces)" Ivan, having escaped the attack, swung his wand backwards, and a brilliant beam of magic instantly blasted the statue to pieces.
"The magical guards that the Master left behind were quite merciless…" Ivan said ruefully, looking around. There were also signs that the place had been invaded, with broken statues and ruined magical traps everywhere. Even the spiral staircase leading to the second floor had been blown in half.
This meant Grindelwald had passed through, and Ivan's heart lifted, praying that the magical barrier left behind by Nicolas Flamel would hold for a moment or two, as he climbed the stairs as fast as he could, looking for Grindelwald.
The rooms on the second floor were all empty, the beds and cupboards gone, presumably Grindelwald having somehow managed to erase everything unrelated to the Resurrection Stone.
Ivan had no choice but to focus his attention on the room at the end of the corridor. Nicolas Flamel had told him not to open it, but he couldn't care less now.
He gently pushed the door open. The room was very dark, but it was wider than he had expected. It looked like a solemn hall.
The golden-red torches on either side of the room burned brightly, reaching to the dais at the far end of the room, where two pure white coffins were placed, and Ivan knew without a doubt that they contained Nicolas Flamel and his wife.
Grindelwald was standing at the base of the dais, staring at the diamond-shaped crystal mounted on the opposite wall. He did not attempt to retrieve it, as there was a cleverly placed magical barrier in front of him that would be tricky even for him.
Shadowless Blade…
Ivan had no intention of greeting him. Taking advantage of Grindelwald's distraction, he cast a silent spell and raised his hand to kill!
An invisible blade of magic sliced through the air, heading straight for Grindelwald's brain… and just before it hit, Grindelwald tilted his head sharply, narrowly avoiding it.
The blade crashed into the magical barrier behind them, but it did not even make a ripple…
"Ivan Hals…" Grindelwald said coolly, turning to look at Ivan as he approached. "I didn't expect you to be in France."
"Of course I'm here. Nicolas Flamel was my teacher, and this is his graveyard!" Ivan's tone was hostile, more angry at being disturbed than the Resurrection Stone.
(PS: I can't finish two chapters today. I'll update tomorrow.)