"The talent one second remembers provides splendid reading for you. The darkness gathers from all directions, reducing two small luminous spots to the tip of the wand's ray.
A strange magic power fluctuation flashes past. Evan hears something crawling nearby but doesn't emit a friendly presence's happy, fricative sound.
Crash-bang, crash-bang, some monster wriggles closer in the darkness, getting nearer and nearer...
"Sirius!" Evan shouted, but there was no response. In this endless web of intrigue, sound seemed to lose its function. Even the stars in the volcano and the sky outside the lighthouse lost their brilliance, and the growing sense of restless pressure intensified.
Evan tried to grasp Sirius's arm but couldn't find anything. Sirius had vanished! His vision blurred, and the surroundings became misty, enveloped by a fishy-smelling, damp black fog.
He heard a voice speaking to him in this darkness, but it wasn't Sirius's. It was a deep, hoarse, and eerie voice of a man. It told Evan that it was watching him...
Evan focused on the voice but started hearing more and more voices multiplying around him. They were calling his name, and some strange emotion seemed to be drawn from within him and absorbed by these voices. In the lighthouse's endless, solitary darkness, he felt like a lost soul awaiting the inevitable.
Flashing memories raced through Evan's mind, from distant childhood memories to more recent ones. He recalled arriving at Hogwarts, the Yule Ball, dancing with Hermione, and then the secret meeting in the dark garden...
These memories were all in black and white, like yellowing old photographs, evoking a sense of nostalgia.
In the fog-filled darkness, Evan suddenly saw a pair of eyes opening, one after another, as if they belonged to a creature with many eyes, speaking incomprehensible, mad words. Evan had experienced something similar in the Centaur's temple a year ago—the terrifying power of ancient gods in this room.
Evan knew what to do. He raised his wand high and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" A silver-white guardian emerged from the tip of his wand, casting its radiance in the dark.
It spun rapidly around the room, but Evan soon noticed a more astonishing development. The dark fog had disappeared from his surroundings. Sirius stood beside him, looking bewildered, with a black tentacle-like appendage on his shoulder.
Following the tentacle was a group of shadows behind Sirius. No, they were monsters! These monsters lacked physical form, appearing as translucent, shadowy shapes.
One had a gaping, vessel-like mouth with two thick tentacles below it. It clung to Sirius, seemingly extracting silver-white memories from him.
More such creatures were approaching them in the darkness, their movements growing sluggish as Evan's Patronus repelled them. They recoiled, staring at Evan with disdain, trying to retreat to the shadows of the lighthouse to hide.
But under the strength of the Patronus, they were quickly eliminated, dissipating into thin air. The unpleasant atmosphere and the pungent fishy smell also vanished along with their disappearance.
"What just happened?" Sirius asked, his breath steadying in the cold sea breeze, his expression gradually returning to normal. "I felt like I was back in Azkaban, witnessing horrifying things..."
"It's some ancient divine power, like shadow monsters. I haven't seen anything like them, but they're similar to Dementors. They can evoke unpleasant memories and drain something from within you," Evan described what he had witnessed, realizing that the ancient gods and the new evil gods worshipped by the Ravenclaw's Claw seemed to overlap.
No wonder the Muggle electricians who came to repair the circuits went mad; these monsters were behind it, sapping their sanity.
"It's all quite insane!" Sirius muttered. "Horrible memories and terrible feelings..."
Due to his past experiences, he was easily affected by creatures like Dementors and these dark monsters.
Evan instructed Sirius to stay put and approached a corner of the room where the battery case was. He attempted to flip the switch.
The next moment, the room was flooded with light, and the extinguished lighthouse was illuminated again.
Evan could finally see the entire room at the lighthouse's peak in the bright illumination. It was filled with various items, mostly of Muggle origin. A table near the door held a large nautical chart covered in markings.
Sirius, now recovered, noticed the giant nautical chart and examined it.
"Evan, look at this!" he said, tracing his finger on the chart. "This is the Strait of Messina, but it looks different from what we know. I've never seen so many creatures marked in this sea area."
Evan joined Sirius, and they both studied the yellowing nautical chart before them, obviously very ancient. It was filled with markings they couldn't decipher, including latitude and longitude, wind directions, ocean currents, aerial laser conditions, and more, meticulously detailing each reef.
But as Sirius had pointed out, the most surprising aspect of the chart was the depiction of various monsters, including three types of Sirens. These creatures temporarily inhabited the reefs near the Strait of Messina. Scylla, the terrifying dog-headed creature, was just one of them.
Towards the upper-left of the Italian Peninsula on the map was a giant vortex—Charybdis Whirlpool. The chart had a row of small red letters next to it, describing the mysterious remains below.
The Ravenclaw's Claw dark wizards seemed to believe that these remains held great significance, hiding important clues. Rowena Ravenclaw had ventured there, and the blessings of the goddess of war were said to still linger with the Ravenclaw family. But the specifics of these remains remained unknown, as neither they nor the Ministry of Magic wizards could access them.
The clues before Evan became much clearer in light of the information from the nautical chart. The Claw of the Raven dark wizards lacked the means to access the vestige directly. However, they had formed a pact with an ancient being residing in a nearby seabed city. As long as the Calamity Emissary released this entity and harnessed the energy of seven accumulated Cyclops strength stones, it could assist the Claw of the Raven open the seal on the great whirlpool.
Evan's attention shifted to a row of dashed lines on the nautical chart, marking the ghost ship's trajectory. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had mentioned that this ship was the only means of entry to the submerged city. It circled around Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, passing through the Strait of Messina. The markings and information on the chart revealed that finding this elusive ghost ship would not be easy.
The ship was protected by a peculiar magic, rendering it invisible to Muggles and wizards under normal circumstances, only revealing itself in extremely fortuitous situations. This vast sea area made aimlessly searching for the fully laden ghost ship of the dead impossible.
The Claw of the Raven dark wizards had seemingly found a method through centuries of observation. They discovered that, after half a year, the ghost ship would be drawn to the singing of Scylla, the Siren, near a reef called "the crag of Siren." Even after millennia, sailors were still lured by the Siren's song, though they did not meet their demise.
Evan gestured on the nautical chart, measuring the distance rapidly. The crag of Siren was located directly opposite the lighthouse in the sea. Siren animal tender Grosso had mentioned that extinguishing the lighthouse's light would prompt these Sirens to sing and beguile passing ships. This was the primary reason the Claw of the Raven had extinguished the lighthouse – they needed to attract the ghost ship using Siren's song.
Evan realized that since the Calamity Emissary had left its core and set out for the city, the ghost ship's arrival was likely imminent. It explained why Tarry and the Claw of the Raven dark wizards hadn't been present; they had been waiting for the ghost ship. As for others, they might have ventured into the core's depths after witnessing the volcanic eruption.
With these thoughts in mind, Evan hurriedly rushed outside the lighthouse and, using the distant volcano's luminous eruption as a guide, spotted a massive black rock standing in the sea. Next to the rock stood a towering, green-glowing giant sailing ship.
"We must act quickly, Sirius, and get to that place. Apparate!" Evan urged.
In seconds, Evan and Sirius attempted to Apparate to the ghost ship. However, they didn't reach the ship; instead, they fell into the ice-cold seawater halfway there. Some strange magical force prevented them, thwarting wizards from approaching the ship using Apparition!
Evan's hands floated above the water's surface, chilled by the bone-piercing cold wind, causing him to shiver. The dense mist surrounded him, towering like thick fog and carrying strange magical fluctuations, effectively isolating them. However, along with the isolation came a sense of unease and restlessness. The visibility was less than three feet, with everything appearing as a white expanse.
This dense fog had peculiar properties. Evan felt that the magic within him was restricted, rendering some spells ineffective.
"Lumos!" he shouted, raising his wand, but it produced no response. He attempted another incantation, causing the wand's tip to emit a powerful green light.
"This fog..." Evan looked at Sirius, the green light fading into the dense mist. "It's dark magic."
At that moment, Sirius emerged from the seawater and surveyed their surroundings.
"I've never seen such a fog around the lighthouse," he said, frowning as he sensed the mist's interference with their magic. "This doesn't feel right; our magic seems malfunctioning."
"It's the magic from that ghost ship. It has a unique magical aura, creating a domain of the dead. It prevents Apparition and certain direct spells but enhances dark magic. We..."
Evan halted mid-sentence as he heard a beautiful yet eerie singing interspersed with the barking and panting of distressed puppies. It was a melody mixed with disconcerting elements, creating an otherworldly and unsettling ambiance.
It was the sound of Scylla, the Siren, which Evan had previously encountered in Ravenclaw's memories.
"Be cautious of the Sirens; we're close to them now. I've heard there are several hundred nearby," Evan cautioned, clutching his wand.
The image of these Sirens was unsettling—an upper body resembling that of a young girl, unclothed, and a lower body with a mermaid's fin and a fierce dog's head. Despite his years of exposure to the wizarding world, Evan found them eerie. Mr. Grosso had told him that Sirens favored young boys his age, and once captured, the boys were raised in their lair.
"What should we do now? Should we swim to that steamship?" Sirius inquired.
"It's too risky; I tried before. Disillusionment Charm and Invisibility Cloak didn't work, and we might not match these Sirens in the water. There's another way," Evan replied.
Evan summoned his owl, Schwella's Redemption, which landed on his wrist. Shamanic magic functioned similarly to dark magic in this dense fog and could be used.
"This magic hanging on me..." Evan looked at Sirius, his body gradually taking on the form of an owl. "I'll check the situation first, and you return to the lighthouse. I'll be back soon."
Evan circled above Sirius and flew deeper into the dense fog. Due to the influence of the ghost ship, this area had become a realm of the dead, enhancing the effects of dark magic. Hanging Shaman's magic was a form of soul-class magic, and it seemed to be amplified in this environment. Evan felt much stronger in his current owl form than the Owl Fortress he had summoned before.
Swiftly, he flew forward and soon spotted a large black reef ahead. Many Sirens were gathered on the reef, seemingly joyful, playing, and emitting enchanting songs. These Sirens, with the upper body of young girls, did not wear clothing.
The ghostly, green-glowing giant sailing ship lay anchored on the opposite side of the reef. Its crew, with pallid, rotting bodies covered in seaweed, lay silently on deck, observing the Sirens. They resembled the most terrifying Inferi, their bodies decaying, with bones exposed.
It was a strange sight—the seductive Siren monsters and the soulless sailors they had beguiled. Even in death, they could not resist the allure of beauty.