Chapter 87

"Horcrux?"

Selica didn't understand.

"It's a kind of dark magic item. That thing can make people very difficult to be killed. I suspect Joachim made a Horcrux."

Joachim's state reminded Murphy of Tom Riddle's diary. In the original work, the state after it used Ginny to resurrect was not a complete entity, and it was more like a ghost.

Although it is not certain whether the resurrected Tom had some characteristics of a ghost, Murphy could only think of this possibility for the time being.

"As long as you find that Horcrux and then destroy it, Joachim should be able to be defeated."

"But, where should we go to find it?"

"Go to his house to find clues first." Murphy said, "Maybe it's in his house, who knows."

"How about this, you go to Joachim's house to find the Horcrux, and I will lure him away." Murphy said.

"Remember, a Horcrux can be anything. Diaries, rings, gems, necklaces, etc., are all possible. It probably has special significance to him. After all, it is something related to his own life, so it is unlikely that anyone would just pick up a stone on the side of the road to do it."

"It might be inconspicuous, but it usually contains very strong dark magic. As long as you get close, you should be able to discover it. However, be careful, he might set some traps for his Horcrux."

Murphy finished ordering in one breath, but Selica was still a bit confused. So many possibilities, eight out of ten, maybe, perhaps...

She felt this plan was not reliable at all.

"Will you be in danger?" Selica asked.

"Nonsense! Of course! So you must find the Horcrux or other clues to kill him as soon as possible. If it drags on for too long, I'll definitely be finished."

"Okay, okay..." Selica felt that she had a heavy responsibility.

"Are you ready?"

"Eh? Are we leaving now?"

"Your symptoms can't wait." Murphy said, and after finishing, he grabbed Selica's hand, "Close your eyes and just think about following me."

"Apparition."

The next moment, the two suddenly appeared on a roof. Murphy glanced into the distance, found the house under the oak tree that Selica had mentioned, and Apparated again, arriving at Joachim's cabin.

"Ding-a-ling..." A harsh ringing sound suddenly rang out.

Murphy glanced at the bells on several small wooden stakes around the cabin and waved his wand to smash them.

"An alarm spell for intruders. It will be here soon. You hide inside and don't let it see you." After Murphy finished speaking, he flew into the sky.

Sure enough, a transparent figure in the distance flashed suddenly and appeared in front of Murphy.

Murphy didn't hold back, "Expelliarmus!"

This was the only spell Murphy had tried that might have an effect on Joachim's ghost.

The Disarming Curse was blocked, and Murphy didn't stop, turned into black smoke and turned to run.

He couldn't use Apparition. In order to keep the opponent's attention on himself, he needed to let himself be seen.

The ghost seemed to be angered, suddenly let out a roar, and spells hit Murphy one after another.

And he himself, as a ghost, could float. Although the speed was slow, combined with Apparition, the mobility was not much worse than Murphy's flying.

The two chased and fled, soon moving away from the cabin.

On the other side, Selica broke a magic trap at the entrance and used Revelio to look for possible clues in the cabin.

Soon, she found a hidden secret door.

Behind the secret door was a cellar, and a terrible stench came out of it.

Selica threw two Lumos light balls in, but still couldn't illuminate the cellar. She had to summon the courage to walk down the stairs.

The cellar seemed to have been cast with an Undetectable Extension Charm, appearing very spacious.

The ground was wet, covered with spider webs. Selica walked inside and soon saw some unusual things.

Those were iron cages, I don't know how many years they had been placed, covered with rust.

In several cages, Selica also saw human bones.

Continuing forward, there were more and more cages, and occasionally one or two hospital beds would appear, covered in blood.

Everywhere were blood-stained bandages, unknown filth, and occasionally skeletons, either complete or scattered, some even smashed into pieces.

Moving forward, Selica suddenly heard some sounds, as if someone was crying, or struggling.

Selica was already shivering all over, but thinking that Murphy was still fighting the terrible ghost outside, she had to force herself to continue walking forward.

Soon, she arrived at the end of the cellar. A wall was scribbled with many symbols and characters, and two hospital beds were placed by the wall.

On each hospital bed, a semi-rotted person was tied.

They were still active, struggling to get up from the hospital bed. In their chest cavities and limbs that were almost rotten, one could see translucent ghost bodies.

This cellar was simply too terrible, so terrible that with Selica's imagination, she couldn't guess what had been done here.

But she could be sure that it was definitely something that could make her have nightmares for a whole month.

She didn't want to know at all.

But between the two hospital beds was a medicine stand piled with various utensils and bottles and jars, on which a notebook was placed.

Notebook!

However, there was no terrible feeling of dark magic on it. She hesitated and opened the notebook, finding that this was Joachim Herr's medical notebook, which recorded some of his attempts to treat the Black Death.

She opened a page.

"July 3rd, someone died in the village. Many people died outside, I know, the plague finally came here. I persuaded the villagers not to go out and used Dittany, Pepperup Potion, etc., to try to treat them, but it didn't seem very useful."

"July 7th, two more people died. Just digging out the rotten flesh didn't work. The villagers began to be afraid, but the Black Death outside was even more terrible. Where could they go?"

"July 9th. People have begun to go crazy. Once people become desperate, they may become unable to control themselves. I must give them some hope. I must make them believe that they can be cured. Perhaps, it is time to use that spell."

She opened the next page.

"July 13th. After treatment, people's moods have improved a lot. They believe that I will defeat the disease, and people have returned to a stable life."

"July 15th. People are still dying. I deceived them, I can't cure them at all!"

"Ganali died, she was only four years old, very cute, she... she died. I am powerless. Maybe father is right, I shouldn't be too close to Muggles, I care about them too much..."

"July 17th, Gaolang died."

"July 18th, Antoine and Faluja died."

"July 20th, the corpses of Faldo's family were found."

Selica opened another page.

There was only one line of text on it, twisted and scribbled, like the babble written by a drunk person.

"This is hell."

"August 10th. I locked myself in the room, didn't go out for a month, more people are dying, someone is crying for my help, but what can I do? What else can I do?"

"Don't force me! Don't force me anymore!"

"September 2nd, I must cheer up, they still need me."

"I want to persist, I decided to use the Soul Seed on myself."

(End of chapter)