Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 169 Ghost Castle Death Castle
The ghost castle can also be called the death castle.

At the beginning, Toby and Al found this place only based on folklore, and they just thought that there would be zombies, ghosts and the like at most, and they didn't pay much attention to it.As a result, it was not until later that Toby encountered the greatest crisis in the history of his archaeological career, which almost killed him completely, leaving him with only seven days left.

It is worth mentioning that the cursed armor also comes from the castle. Of course, it is no longer cursed. The black magic has been removed by Dumbledore himself, and it has become Toby's eyeliner in Hogwarts. Also stalked Lockhart several times.

The ghost castle has been shrouded in dense fog that can't go away all year round, and no matter what time it is, the area around here is covered with clouds, and no sunlight can penetrate.

From a distance, the castle's appearance is not as exquisite as that of Hogwarts, but more like a square building, the whole body is pitch black, like a strong prison.

Al took a deep breath, took out a small flying carpet from his belly pocket, jumped on it, then waved his paw and commanded: "Ah!"

So, the silver armor clenched the long ax in his hand, made the huge pharaoh's coffin on his shoulders more stable, took heavy steps, stepped on the wet ground one by one deep footprints, followed behind Al , getting farther and farther away from the Thestral carriage, and his figure was gradually engulfed by the mist.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, Al heard light footsteps coming from the direction of the castle. He immediately stopped the armor and saw a dim oil lamp floating out of the thick fog, as if it had been captured by some invisible person. Grabbed, but also left clearly visible footprints on the ground.

This invisible "person" has five legs.

The transparent visitors stopped not far in front of Al. The other party seemed to be confirming the number of visitors. The oil lamp moved a little closer to them, and Al immediately drifted back a short distance in disgust.

There was a muffled murmur in an unknown language from over ten feet overhead.Al looked up, although he knew the result a long time ago, but this time it was still the same as last time, and found nothing.

No matter what the method is, it is impossible to break the "Phantom Curse" of the oil lamp comer. This is what Al and Toby have tried a long time ago, and they don't know what is so weird about this invisible castle "steward" biology.

Just like the ghost castle itself, it is full of mystery.

The oil lamp turned around and gradually drifted towards the direction of the Ghost Castle. Then Al and the armor continued to move, following behind the oil lamp.

The closer you get to the castle, the more trees appear on both sides of the foggy road.

They walked among the trees, Al and the armor ignored the branches slightly leaning towards them, silently bearing the gaze of "them" in the mist.

Who "they" are, Al doesn't know, and Toby has never ventured to explore. He originally planned to come to archaeology later, or he may never come.

This time, if Toby's life was not in danger, and after losing consciousness, he might be completely controlled by the pharaoh's mask at any time, or even replace his original soul, Al would not have ventured to the ghost castle, and only called Armor is such a helper - at least it used to belong here.

Gradually, the castle was getting closer and closer, and it was only when he walked to the ground that he realized the oppressive momentum, which was as shocking as seeing Hogwarts Castle for the first time.

The transparent butler pushed open the ten-foot-high oak door. Behind the door was a dark hall, which looked as big as the Hogwarts auditorium, but it looked empty, with almost no decorations. , There are some burnt torches hanging on the walls on both sides of the hall, but they can't spread the light to a few steps away.

There is a table in the center of the hall. The transparent housekeeper walked to the table. Al saw a thick book on the table. The paper was turned page by page, and it was almost at the end before stopping. , and then showed the traces of being pressed on the paper, slid over line by line, selected a target, and there was another indistinct grunt from several feet above the head, and the oil lamp continued to float, towards the corner of the hall Float away.

As he passed the table, Al glanced at the book and saw a bright red eyeball emerge from the flipped paper.The eyeballs turned quickly, staring at Al for a while, then glanced at the armor, and finally on the pharaoh's coffin, and finally disappeared into the depths as if on the surface of the water, and disappeared.

Al shuddered all over. He took out a small shovel from his belly pocket and brought himself closer to the armor. It seemed that only in this way could he feel more secure.

The oil lamp led them to the stairs in the corner, and the heavy footsteps of the armor masked all the noises, including howling from nowhere, and the sound of biting and eating.

Al tried his best to restrain his curiosity, and walked upstairs without taking his eyes off it. Fortunately, this was a corridor leading directly to the roof, so there was no need for him to visit the entire castle.

Unfortunately, they are also getting closer and closer to the roof.

After the transparent butler stopped, Al was quite sure that he had come to the top floor.At this moment, even the things in the pharaoh's coffin began to feel uneasy, and they kept knocking on the coffin lid, making bang bang noises.

"ah"

Al said something weakly, as if he was questioning whether he could change the floor below.

But it didn't get an answer, and the oil lamp was floating in the corridor on the top floor. This was a long corridor, pitch black, and there were no torches on either side of the wall.

On the left side of this corridor are different doors, not just in different colors.Some looked like rotten branches, and some seemed to be made up of a lot of masks, with dark lights emitting from their eye holes, staring straight at the "guest" who had finally seen them.

And on the right side of the corridor, under the dim light of the oil lamp, you can see a pair of weird portraits hanging opposite each door.They are not as active and enthusiastic as the portraits of Hogwarts. They can move and speak, but everything in the portraits is forcibly in a state of stillness. Occasionally, the portraits appear, but their gazes are stronger than that of the masked door. Be scary and deep.

Al was so focused on these portraits that he didn't even notice that the oil lamp had stopped, and he accidentally flew forward a short distance, and then he seemed to be stuck in some kind of greasy, disgusting It was like inside the jelly, and the movement became very slow, until the armor hooked it out with the long ax handle, panting heavily, and floated directly to the armor's head, and refused to take a step forward.

At this time, they finally arrived at their "residence".

On the left is a wooden door, with countless hands stretched out from the door, some of which are still moving slightly, and not all of them belong to wizards, there are also animal claws, Al was horrified to see that among them was Niuxi.

As for the right side, on the wall opposite to the "Hand Gate", there is also a portrait hanging, in the portrait is the background of a study room, and in the center is a gorgeous sofa chair, on which sits a lady dressed in bright red A woman in a long skirt, wearing a hat with a huge brim and a bunch of colorful feathers bristling on it.A thin red veil had been lowered under the brim of the hat, through which bright red eyes stared straight at the disturbed Al, the same ones that showed on the pages of the register.

The transparent butler left with an oil lamp.

Al looked at the "Hand Gate" on the left, and the woman in the red dress in the portrait on the right. It suddenly picked up a small shovel and yelled frantically at the portrait twice, as if to encourage itself.

The woman in the portrait didn't move at all, even though she could obviously move, only her eyes followed Al's body back and forth a few times, and her eyes were always fixed on it.

"Yeah! Yayah!"

Al suddenly began to spit out his mouth, and he cursed angrily for a while, not understanding why the other party thought he was the one to bully the most, otherwise the woman wouldn't have been staring at him after patrolling the hall.

It held a small shovel in one hand and a magic ball in the other, and then kicked the longest arm in the "Hand Gate" with one kick, kicking the "Hand Gate" open, revealing a black hole inside. s room.

"ah!"

Al began to command again, and the armor calmly moved forward, carrying the pharaoh's coffin into the darkness.

Then Al took one last look at the woman in the portrait, who stared at her in protest, and—

Al kicked the door shut, but it didn't enter the room, but turned around and ran away!
The closed door became an unknown switch, the woman could finally stand up from the table and chair, she roared wildly, the arms on the "hand door" stretched out one by one, as if they had endless lengths, entangled with each other Together, they kept chasing the fleeing Al!

"Ah - ah!"

Al triumphantly threw a drift with the flying carpet, flew downstairs at the top of the stairs, and flew to the corridor on the next floor.Then he walked through the weird doors of this corridor, facing the gazes of the portraits on the wall, and came to a door of a thick armor room, all of which were made of black armor.

Al controlled the magic ball, and quickly formed a magic circle on the armor gate, allowing it to push the gate open effortlessly, rushing into the darkness, and blocking the chasing arms outside the gate.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

Countless arms beat frantically on the door of the armor, but they couldn't knock it open no matter what.

There is also a portrait hanging on the wall opposite the armor gate. The background is a warehouse full of weapons and armor, stained with blood and scratches.

After a while, Al suddenly appeared in the portrait of the warehouse. It was sitting on a flying carpet and slowly floated in front of the portrait like a window. It looked contemptuously at the arms turning towards the portrait, and stretched out a clenched fist at them. , and then the middle finger slowly stood up.

This is the room where the armor used to stay, and the place where Toby was almost killed, but now it has become the only safe place in the ghost castle. It is impossible for these arms to cope with the weird rules in the castle, and forcefully drag Al If you come out, you can't even destroy this portrait.

Archeology is not only always accompanied by danger, but also a job full of wisdom.

Toby and Al have used similar methods too many times.

At this moment, the arms suddenly twitched violently, as if they were covered with needles.

At the same time, in the corridor on the first floor, the portrait opposite the "Hand Door" suddenly rushed in carrying the armor of the pharaoh's coffin, and the woman in the portrait had completely changed, with fine details constantly appearing all over her body. His arms squirmed disgustingly like fine hairs, and his whole body turned into a monster lying on all fours, bending his body like a spider.

The first time the armor saw the woman, it swung its long ax vigorously, split the bookshelf with the axe, and then rushed towards her with the coffin on its shoulders.

Just when the two were about to touch each other, the armor slammed the coffin to the ground, lifted the lid with force, and desperately grabbed the woman's body and stuffed it into the coffin, even if it was covered with arms.

There were bursts of low growls from the woman's throat that didn't seem like a human would make, and "she" easily pulled the armor in, her body stuck tightly to the cold armor surface, almost about to burst out of her body His arms are entwined, and he is about to make the armor a new part of himself.

Just then, a pair of black eyes opened.

The woman's body stopped suddenly, she turned her neck stiffly, and saw the almost close-to-face golden face, like a mask, yet lifelike, the expression was so vivid that even the corners of her mouth were grinning abnormally , the opening is getting bigger and bigger, almost reaching the position of the ears.

"Shh!"

"Shh!"

"Shh!"

In an instant, countless rotting cloth strips extended from the edge of the mask. At this time, the cloth strips could no longer be dyed pitch black, and the person under the mask was no longer a black devil, but an unknown pharaoh.

The strip of cloth wrapped the woman's head tightly in the blink of an eye, and you could still see tiny arms protruding from the surface of the woman's face. Every time the strip of cloth was pierced hard, more cloth The strips are covered, just like those extended arms, endless.

The armor was finally able to get free, it fell backwards and fell on the ground, the non-existent gaze under the visor saw that the woman was quickly covered with cloth strips in a very short time, like a huge cicada pupa, sending out bones shattering sound.

The armor didn't even care about the long axe. It seized this opportunity to grab the lid of the coffin, lifted it up, quickly covered the surface of the coffin, and pressed it firmly with its body to prevent it from being knocked away by the struggling woman. The other party was locked together with the monster in the coffin.

After an unknown amount of time, the flapping sound disappeared little by little.

Al flew back to the corridor on the top floor and floated opposite the portrait, taking in all this scene.

"ah!"

Al yelled suddenly.

Even inside and outside the portrait, the armor immediately moved. It turned around suddenly, opened the lid of the coffin again, and saw the monster froze, and the girl with arms had long since disappeared, only the large top was left. His hat remained where it was, falling at the opponent's feet.

At the same time, the armor also saw something inexplicably floating opposite the monster—it was a feather, a black feather, exactly the same as the feather Toby used to make Pandora notebooks.

The armor didn't move the feather, it stretched out its arm, grabbed the monster's body with all its strength, pulled it hard amidst the crazy howl of the pharaoh's mask, moved backward with difficulty, and was hit by the struck cloth strips on the surface of the armor, It makes a drum-like sound that can only be heard on a heroic battlefield.

Finally, the monster moved.

It fell down little by little, the mask happened to hit the floating black feathers, and was soon forced to absorb it, falling to the ground together with the armor.

Al waited anxiously outside the portrait, turned his head back and forth, and saw all the doors in the corridor open in an instant.The portraits on the opposite side didn't keep quiet any longer, and there were many dull footsteps coming from the darkness inside the door, about to leave the room, punishing their restless "guests".

This is a punishment from the castle, and no one can avoid it unless they escape from the castle now.

"It's really rare."

Clear words came from the portrait opposite Al, and Toby slowly stood up, with the hood behind him, revealing his masked face.

Now, the mask is finally safe, only the expression has become much more fierce.

"I thought I was going to die. No, it was the mask that saved me. Otherwise, under the direct gaze of the basilisk, I would definitely die. It was the mask that protected my soul."

Toby lifted the armor up, revealing a body engraved with black magic circles under the broken witch robe, emitting a dim and ominous light.

He stared at Al, who was overjoyed outside the portrait, and said in a relaxed tone:
"There's no time to celebrate. Now, let's run for our lives."

This is an eternal drama in the archaeological process.

It is also the journey that Toby and Al have been on.

(End of this chapter)