“Good luck to you both.”
Professor Fig looked at the tightly locked door and sighed.
“I didn’t expect this.”
“Professor, look!” Ethan tugged at Professor Fig’s sleeve, his voice trembling slightly.
“Lumos.” Professor Fig turned around, and a faint light appeared at the tip of his wand.
By its glow, he examined the inside of the Vault.
The inside of the Vault was a narrow tunnel enclosed by stone walls.
On both sides stood rows of doorless cabinets that reached the ceiling, leaving only a few square meters of space to move in, barely wider than the entrance itself.
Large amounts of Galleons were piled carelessly on the floor and inside the cabinets, reflecting a brilliant golden light.
Ethan looked around at the glittering coins, his eyes flashing green like a starving wolf’s.
Professor Fig did not know whether to laugh or sigh.
Pretending not to notice Ethan’s pauper-like behavior, he walked to the end of the tunnel and carefully inspected the smooth stone wall, which looked far too even to have been carved out by hand.
“Ethan, can you see anything?” Professor Fig asked without turning around.
“Huh?
Oh, Professor, let me check.” Ethan stopped his all-out gold-looting and walked over to the stone wall, lightly touching its surface.
“Hmm.
The wall itself doesn’t seem special…
But I get the feeling there’s something behind it.
Something like the key from earlier.”
“Aha, I see.
I knew it couldn’t be that simple.
Let me think…
Perhaps we could try the Revelio Charm.
It might reveal a clue.
Nox.” Professor Fig extinguished the light on his wand, then swept the wand in an arc from left to right.
“Revelio.”
The outline of a large door faintly appeared on the smooth stone wall, then vanished again in the blink of an eye.
“No good…
Perhaps you can do it.” Professor Fig sighed and turned to Ethan.
“Raise your wand, concentrate, and follow my movement.
‘Revelio.'”
Ethan drew his wand and copied Professor Fig’s motion as best he could.
“Revelio.”
As Ethan finished the spell, a metal door immediately appeared on the wall.
At its center was a symbol with the same pattern as the one on the box.
“Mm…
The same symbol as before.
If those lights only you can see are guiding us onward, then we must be close to the secret of this Vault.
This time, you’ll have to lead the way.
Try it, Ethan.”
Ethan tried touching the symbol on the door.
It gave off a dazzling pale blue light.
As the light faded, the door slowly opened to both sides, revealing a dim hall supported by several metal pillars.
The floor inside was as smooth as the stone wall of the Vault, clear enough to reflect their figures.
“Let’s go in.
There’s no way back anyway.” Professor Fig stepped through the door into the hall, raising his wand and using Lumos for light.
Ethan followed Professor Fig into the hall.
When he looked back, the entire doorway had disappeared.
“Well, now there really is no turning back.” Ethan grumbled and took out his wand, casting Lumos as well.
“Lumos.”
The two of them raised their wands and explored the hall without any clear direction.
When they reached one of the pillars, Ethan suddenly saw a blue light glowing on the floor not far ahead.
“Professor, something ahead is glowing.
It’s the same light as before…
but it’s on the floor,” Ethan warned.
“Come on.
Let’s take a look.”
Ethan led Professor Fig to the light.
It came from a swirling pattern on the floor.
The pattern kept rotating, giving off pale blue light along with several extremely fine threadlike rays.
Ethan crouched down and tried touching the vortex.
The instant he made contact, the vortex surged like boiling water and continued to expand until it covered the entire area where Ethan stood.
A sudden flash of insight came to Ethan.
He stood, extinguished the light from his wand, and waved it from bottom to top, following the path of the light.
The vortex on the ground and the rays it released flowed into the tip of his wand until they vanished completely.
They were plunged into total darkness.
Even the Lumos spell on Professor Fig’s wand had gone out.
“Lumos.”
Light shone once more from the tips of their wands, and the space around them had changed again.
The many metal pillars had vanished, and the floor beneath their feet had shrunk to a circular platform roughly ten meters across.
It had also become clearer.
Beneath the floor, Ethan could see the reflection of a metal statue kneeling on one knee with a sword in hand.
“Where is this now?” Professor Fig raised his wand and looked around.
As he waved it, the outline of the same statue faintly appeared above the reflection.
“Professor, please step back a little.” Ethan signaled for Professor Fig to move aside.
“Revelio.”
Just like when the door had appeared earlier, the hidden statue took shape.
“Is this the secret of this vault?” Professor Fig kept his distance, holding up his Lumos spell as he examined the statue.
The statue looked like some kind of humanoid creature in armor, fully sealed from head to toe.
Ethan stepped forward curiously and tapped it.
“Professor, do you think this statue can move…?”
Clang.
The statue slowly rose while bracing itself on its sword, then lifted the blade to cleave down at the top of Ethan’s head.
“Careful!”
“Protego!”
The greatsword struck an invisible barrier and was bounced back.
Ethan used the chance to put some distance between himself and the statue, letting out a breath.
“Good thing I reacted fast,” Ethan thought in relief.
The statue swung its sword at Ethan again.
Seeing the danger, Ethan quickly retreated to the side while raising his wand and casting a spell at the statue.
“Expelliarmus!”
The greatsword flew out of the statue’s hand and toward Ethan.
“Arresto Momentum!
Descendo!”
Two more spells struck the sword.
It stopped and hovered in midair, then dropped straight down onto the statue below.
Crash.
The statue shattered across the floor, turning into particles of light and vanishing.
“That was close.” Ethan patted his chest, then looked at Professor Fig, clearly fishing for praise.
“How was that, Professor?
My spellcasting wasn’t bad, right?”
“Very fine spellcasting, but I suggest you keep your distance from anything that has not been confirmed safe in the future,” Professor Fig said, still shaken.
As the statue fragments vanished, a path appeared in front of the circular platform.
At the end of it stood a metallic doorframe.
“Is that the exit?” The two of them followed the path toward the doorframe.
Once they drew closer, they could see that the floor before it had the same vortex pattern as before, only this one no longer gave off any light.
Ethan walked up to the vortex and waved his wand from bottom to top as he had before.
Following his movement, a pale blue light screen appeared in the doorframe, faint ripples moving across it like the surface of water.
Through the light screen, they could vaguely see a luxurious hall beyond, with a platform in the center and something floating above it.
“Mm, it looks like some kind of magical passageway.
Come on.
The end should be beyond this.” Professor Fig beckoned to Ethan and carefully passed through the light screen.