Beyond the iron gate, reinforced with layers of protective enchantments and warding spells, lied an enormous underground chamber stretched as wide as the Great Hall of Hogwarts with a ceiling that was even higher.
The chamber's design was similar to the reception hall of the British Ministry of Magic. One entire wall of the room was embedded with a row of fireplaces. The majority of these remained dim and inactive, their hearths were cold and empty, waiting patiently for the next traveler to emerge from the Floo Network.
However, at irregular intervals, flashes of green fire would suddenly illuminate one of the fireplaces as robed figures would hurry forth from within the flames.
The opposite wall was fitted with multiple elevator shafts that extended up into the darkness above. These led to countless doorways that were densely packed across the wall's surface like honeycomb cells, each leading to unknown destinations within this vast underground complex.
The front wall of the chamber attracted attention through its centerpiece—a massive relief carving that had been sculpted with extraordinary skill and attention to detail.
Within a giant ring that represented the sun, stood the carved image of a magnificent and majestic castle.
The symbolism was quite unique, perhaps this underground facility was positioned as a hidden castle, the secret fortress from which their dark empire would one day emerge to claim dominion over both the wizarding and Muggle worlds.
Here, at long last, this underground fortress that remained completely unknown to the outside world finally revealed signs of vibrant life.
"It has been quite some time since our paths have crossed, Miss Vogel," came a voice tinged with both surprise and cautious respect.
A middle-aged wizard who had just emerged from one of the active fireplaces, his travel robes still smoking slightly from his journey through the Floo Network, had boarded the same elevator as Jasna just before the brass closed.
His expression showed genuine startlement upon seeing her. "Are you also here seeking an audience with Mr. Raman?"
"As far as I know, Mr. Raman is not currently within the 'Hive,'" Jasna replied, deliberately avoiding any direct answer to his question. Instead, she changed the conversation topic: "Tell me, Booker, how is the progress on establishing your new branch operation proceeding?"
"Not particularly smoothly at all," The middle-aged man replied with obvious frustration tinging his voice. His nose bridge wrinkled with distaste as he continued his explanation.
"Those vampires have grown soft and complacent, living lives of absolute luxury and debauchery in the Muggle world. They have completely lost touch with the greater struggle and don't care one bit about the circumstances facing our kind or the challenges that wizards must overcome.
Frankly speaking, I don't particularly agree with Mr. Raman's proposition to win them over to our cause. These blood-sucking scums don't deserve to be considered our companions or allies in any sense. I have returned to the Hive this time specifically hoping to try to persuade Mr. Raman to reconsider his approach and perhaps adopt more... direct methods of recruitment."
"You know as well as I do, Booker," Jasna responded calmly, "Mr. Raman is not a man who easily wavers or changes direction once he has made a decision and committed to a particular course of action."
The elevator came to a smooth stop and Jasna left this sobering observation behind as she quickly stepped out of the elevator car.
Another maze-like corridor stretched ahead of her, disappearing into shadows. However, this particular passage was different from the rough tunnels she had crossed earlier as both sides of this hallway were embedded with numerous wooden doors.
The vast majority of these chambers remained dark and uninhabited, with only darkness seeping through the thin cracks around their frames. However, a few rooms showed signs of active occupation, as from behind these lit doors came the occasional strange, unsettling sounds.
Familiar with the way, Jasna found a room with a green-painted door marked by numerous bloody handprints. Inside the room was more than one person—many people were discussing something.
Jasna navigated this underground maze very familiarly as she had walked these paths many times before. She walked until she located the specific room she sought—a room with a door painted in green color that had been marked by numerous bloody handprints.
The sound of multiple voices discussing came through the wooden door, indicating that more than one person was currently present inside the chamber.
Knock, knock, knock!
Jasna's knuckles knocked against the door. The sound echoed through the corridor and almost immediately, the voices within the room fell silent.
After several moments of tense silence, hurried footsteps could be heard approaching from behind the door.
Jasna waited a few seconds as locks clicked and security measures were detached. Finally, the door swung open to reveal a gray-haired wizard whose appearance immediately attracted attention for all the wrong reasons.
"Christopher," Jasna greeted him with cold formality, her voice revealing none of the disgust she felt as she looked up at the particularly sinister transformation that had overtaken the old wizard's face.
Dense, reptilian scales now covered the old man's cheeks in overlapping patterns. His eyes had undergone an even more disturbing metamorphosis—the pupils had elongated into vertical slits like those of a serpent, and they glowed with a sickly green light.
"Your aberrant transformation has worsened since our last meeting, Christopher, in my opinion, you probably won't survive to see Easter arrive."
"I don't need you to remind me of my mortality, you presumptuous little brat!" The old wizard snarled in response, his facial features twisting into an expression of rage that was made even more horrifying by his reptilian characteristics.
Without waiting for the old wizard's explicit permission or invitation, Jasna pushed her way past him into the room. Her bold intrusion clearly infuriated Christopher, who slammed the door shut behind her with a loud bang.
The room that Jasna entered was a space that could easily have accommodated several full-sized classrooms within it. The four walls surrounding the room had been carved with arcane runes and protective symbols, each one designed to contain any magical disturbances that might arise from the experiments conducted within.
Most of the room's floor space was filled by an enormous, structurally complex alchemical apparatus that resembled some nightmarish fusion of medieval torture device and cutting-edge muggle technology.
The remaining space around this apparatus was occupied by more than a dozen robed figures positioned at various control terminals and monitoring stations throughout the device.
Each operator's face was lit by the glow from their respective instruments, and their expressions were bright with anticipation and excitement, as if they were all looking forward to witnessing something magnificent that was about to unfold in front of their eyes.
At the very center of the alchemical apparatus was a spherical space surrounded by more than a dozen mechanical tentacles, each one equipped with specialized suction cups and electrical conductors.
Within this, a Muggle girl floated in mid-air, her body was held motionless by powerful restraining spells. She was looking at everyone in the room with an expression of absolute despair and terror.
Hovering beneath the chamber's ceiling was a churning mass of black substance that sometimes gathered itself into a dense, compact form that seemed almost solid, then would suddenly disperse into countless separate particles resembling waves of fine sand.
From deep within this mass of dark particles came occasional deep, hair raising roars accompanied by pulses of white light that emerged from the center of the darkness.
Looking up at this hovering mass of darkness, Jasna pursed her lips tightly together, and forcibly suppressed her anxious emotions.
"Don't you dare interfere with our work!" Christopher snarled at her, his scaly face twisting with hatred as he glared at Jasna with those unsettling vertical pupils.
Despite his anger at her uninvited presence, he could not entirely hide the excitement in his voice as he turned his attention toward the directing of this experiment. Looking up at the mass of black sand with obvious anticipation and barely contained eagerness, he called out:
"You may begin, Aeschylus!"
ROAR!
The sound that erupted from within the black substance was like the roar of a wild beast during the hunt. The black sand mist that had been permeating the laboratory's upper atmosphere suddenly became violently agitated.
The powerful surge of dark magic that accompanied this transformation caused the protective runes carved into the walls to light up in rapid succession.
The black sand mist began spinning violently, forming a miniature tornado of energy that stretched from ceiling to floor. The Muggle girl suspended below, witnessing this terrifying spectacle unfolding directly above her helpless body, began trembling uncontrollably despite the magical restraints that held her immobile.
Her terror reached new heights as she realized that whatever was about to happen, she would be the primary victim of this process. Tears streamed down her beautiful but utterly desperate face.
Whoosh—
At a certain moment determined by calculations that only the operators fully understood, an evil wind arose within the room. The black sand mist that had been swirling beneath the ceiling suddenly dove downward forming a concentrated stream of darkness that poured directly into the helpless Muggle girl through her nostrils and ears.
As the malicious substance began forcing its way into her body, the girl let out a piercing shriek filled with agony. Her figure began swelling at a rate visible to the naked eye, her body was expanding like a balloon being inflated by some terrible force.
As her body grew larger and more distorted, the endless magical light emanating from the apparatus made her skin and the bones beneath become transparently visible in horrifying detail.
Click!
Under the careful control of the operators stationed at various points around the apparatus, the alchemical machinery began to function. The suction cup tentacles that surrounded the girl's expanding body suddenly activated, shooting out streams of electrical light.
The fine electrical discharges created visible distortions in the space around them, desperately working to compress and contain the Muggle girl whose body was approaching the point about to explode.
"She has reached her limit!" Two minutes after all the black sand had poured into the girl's body, one of the researchers monitoring the girl's vital signs suddenly shouted over the noise of mechanical and magical energy.
As his urgent cry echoed through the chamber, the black sand, now much paler in color than it had been initially, as if the process had somehow drained it of its essential darkness, immediately began gushing out from the girl's body in a reverse flow.
Under Jasna's gaze, the expelled substance reformed itself in the air above the apparatus, merging and solidifying until it had taken on the recognizable form of Aeschylus.
Bang!
Though the parasitic black sand had completely evacuated her body, the tortured girl's size and shape did not return to their normal proportions.
Some lingering aspect of the dark magic continued to stretch and distort her body, maintaining her in a state of grotesque inflation. Her pale skin now had hideous black patterns that resembled a mixture of magical circuit and organic disease. These dark lines flowed along the pathways of her blood vessels and nervous system, rapidly spreading across her entire body like some form of magical infection.
Only under the continued suppression provided by the electrical discharges being released by the suction cup tentacles did the magical corruption stopped from erupting completely.
"How do you feel after the procedure, Aeschylus?" The old wizard with scales covering his face approached and asked with excitement.
"Huff—"
Aeschylus, who had emerged looking refreshed despite the horrific nature of what had just happened, stretched his arms above his head and let out a deeply satisfied sigh.
"The sensation is quite amazing—feels wonderfully good, actually. Much more relaxed and energized than I have felt in months," He replied with obvious satisfaction.
Aeschylus then turned his attention toward the disfigured girl who continued to float in mid-air within the apparatus. Looking at her with a smile that was as pleasant as it was completely lacking of empathy or remorse, he asked with casual interest: "How long do you estimate she will be able to last in this condition?"
"We have made significant improvements to our methodology since the last iteration of this procedure, Aeschylus,"
The old wizard replied with obvious pride in his work, smacking his lips with the satisfaction. "Based on our calculations and previous observations, this particular Muggle subject should be able to survive approximately three months in her current state, during which time she will serve as a living source for the magical corruption that would have been consuming your body and soul.
After that period has passed, the accumulated dark magic will have completely corroded her, and it will naturally return to your body as the vessel fails."
Christopher paused thoughtfully before adding with some lingering regret in his voice: "Of course, Muggle bodies and souls are disgracefully frail and inadequate for longer procedures of this nature. If we were able to use wizards as subjects instead, I believe we could provide you with relief and purification for much longer periods—"
"Every wizard represents precious and irreplaceable wealth for our cause, Christopher," Jasna interjected sharply, her voice cutting through the conversation.
She had been coldly observing the entire procedure and now she looked at Christopher with a warning glance and tone. "The only wizard you are authorized to use for experimental purposes is yourself."
"Oh, my dear Jasna!" Aeschylus exclaimed with obvious delight, turning toward her with a mischievous smile, as if he had only just noticed her presence in the chamber. "What an unexpected pleasure to see you here! What brings you away from your teaching position at that boring Muggle College? Have you been assigned another interesting mission?"
Jasna did not respond immediately to his question. Instead, she glanced meaningfully at Christopher, who was still basking in the success of his latest experimental procedure.
Only after the scaled wizard had finally taken the hint and moved away, grumbling under his breath as he went to check on the condition of the inflated 'balloon' collapsed on the experimental table, did Jasna move to a more private corner of the chamber to speak with Aeschylus.
"We've been exposed."
Jasna didn't beat around the bush, and said directly:
"Bryan Watson has discovered us,"
"Wow!" Aeschylus responded after being stunned into silence for several seconds, his expression transformed from casual amusement to something approaching genuine concern.
However, after the initial shock had passed, he managed to give a grin that said he found the situation more intriguing than terrifying. "This is certainly unexpected news! Where exactly did we slip up?"
"I am not entirely certain, but based on the evidence and circumstances of his approach, I believe he may have obtained critical information from the goblins at Gringotts,"
Jasna replied, her frosty expression carrying visible irritation and confusion.
"He appeared suddenly at the Muggle university where I have been maintaining my cover identity, He was accompanied by Kingsley Shacklebolt from the British Ministry's Auror Office and a Muggle woman. He arranged for a Muggle student to deliver a pocket watch to me, and this pocket watch came from —"
Jasna reached into the pocket of her robes and took out the golden pocket watch. She held it up for Aeschylus to examine, beginning to explain its origin. However, before she could complete her explanation—
Crack... BANG!
The sound of shattering glass suddenly rang through the air of the laboratory like a thunderclap, followed immediately by the distinctive sharp crack of Apparition that every wizard recognized.
The protective barriers that should have prevented such intrusions had apparently been bypassed or overcome through methods that none of the people in the chamber could immediately understand.
Bryan Watson appeared in the center of the laboratory as if he had simply stepped through an invisible doorway, his right hand was supportively holding the arm of Louise, who looked pale and shaken.
The sudden appearance of these two figures in what should have been an absolutely secure location sent shockwaves of disbelief and terror through everyone present.
Under the stunned and frightened gazes of more than a dozen dark wizards who had believed themselves to be completely safe in their underground fortress, Bryan Watson maintained an expression of calm amusement as he scanned each face in turn.
His gaze swept over the massive alchemical apparatus and when he spotted the transformed 'balloon' now collapsed on the experimental table his previously amused smile completely faded from his face. His eyes grew deeper and sharper, taking on the cold intensity of a blade being drawn from its sheath.
He stared deeply at the disfigured Muggle victim. Her skin, now translucent and marked with those pitch-black patterns continued to emit wisps of dark smoke from various points across her body surface.
For a long, tension-filled moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, the only sound in the chamber was the quiet humming of the alchemical apparatus.
Finally, after probably only thirty seconds of observation, Bryan Watson's gaze shifted to fix upon Jasna Rosier and Angus Aeschylus. The corners of his mouth curved into what could only be described as an infinitely cold smile.
"Quite the entertaining games you have been playing down here in the darkness,"
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