Dong... dong... dong.
Dong... dong... dong.
Dong... dong... dong.
It seemed to come from all directions, yet also from deep underground. Like a gigantic heart beating. The entire basement seemed to faintly tremble along with this rhythm. Yes, this sound made the whole space tremble slightly, Ian could feel the "ground" beneath his feet undulating with the beat.
This sound did not come from a single direction but permeated the entire space, as if he was inside the chamber of a giant living organism. A bizarre and terrifying thought exploded in Ian's mind: Could this, in fact, be the heart of the evil god? The entire basement had long been assimilated, becoming the organ that beats for it?
He attempted to use the vision of a Legendary Wizard—an extraordinary ability that could pierce through mist and see at night for a hundred paces. However, the darkness here seemed tangible, pure "nothingness" that had been polluted, his eyesight like a spotlight plunged into the deep sea, the beam consumed instantly, unable to see clearly even a meter ahead.
This darkness itself is a part of the evil god's power.
"Damn..."
Ian cursed under his breath, enduring the intense pain in his body and the dizziness of his consciousness, and with difficulty, climbed up from the ground.
"The buffer charm hasn't completely failed." Ian muttered to himself, checking if he was hurt. Apart from some scratches and bruises, there seemed to be no major issues.
The darkness here is unusual.
Even his extraordinary eyesight as a Legendary Wizard could not penetrate this thick darkness.
The air was filled with a sweet, cloying organic smell, like a mixture of blood and musk.
"I must see."
Ian thought briefly.
"Fluorescent Flickering."
Ian raised his magic wand and performed Hogwarts' most basic Lighting Spell. A soft and steady white light burst from the tip of the wand, finally dispelling the surrounding darkness.
This light, like a candle flame cast into an ink pool, stubbornly dispelled a small patch of darkness around him. It must be said that the light from the soul does indeed have a somewhat idealistic and unreasonable nature.
As the vision gradually cleared, Ian couldn't help but inhale sharply. Just as he half expected, he was no longer in the original basement.
But rather inside a gigantic heart chamber!
The walls all around were completely covered with thick muscular tissue, and this tissue contracted and relaxed rhythmically like it was alive. Large blood vessels twisted along the walls, transporting dark red liquid. The floor was covered with a layer of smooth, pericardium-like tissue, soft and elastic underfoot.
It's uncomfortable, carrying body temperature. Yes, he was not standing on a stone ground but rather on a pulsating, dark red, vascular and tendon-filled fleshy platform! This platform contracted and relaxed rhythmically like a living thing, each pulse accompanied by that deep heartbeat sound.
Looking up, the dome was a crawling, mucus-covered meat wall, with countless thick, tree-root-like purple blood vessels deeply embedded in it, like nutrient-delivering pipes.
The "walls" of the ceiling were no longer present.
Instead, there were layers upon layers, continuously squirming, like gigantic myocardial fibers of flesh, contracting and expanding with the heartbeat, emitting a nauseating "gurgle" sound.
"By Merlin's beard," Ian murmured, "Am I directly inside the evil god?"
"No wonder those Ghost Brides and the evil god's body are so afraid..." Ian muttered to himself, the voice sounding especially insignificant in the spacious, pulsating flesh space, "Here is not only the place of sealing but also one of the core power nodes for its strength! Any external force intrusion is like directly stabbing into its heart, no wonder the resistance is so great."
This guess was obviously just one of the reasons, not the entire reason, Ian still believed that aside from originally hatching the Evil God Embryo here becoming the heart of the evil god, there were other secrets hidden in this place where the evil god was born. Otherwise, those Ghost Brides wouldn't show signs of panic.
After all.
If it were merely the heart, it could only be considered a weakness of the evil god, relying on the evil god's immortality and adaptability, even the weak spot could not kill the evil god.
Pluton certainly knew this too, so, his sending Ian to this basement was definitely not just to let Ian sneak attack, the Legendary Wizard in front of the evil god's power was still somewhat inadequate.
"There's something else peculiar."
Ian needed to find the secret hidden here.
However.
Because now the original basement had been assimilated by the evil god, the surrounding space was far larger than when Ian first came here, before the Evil God Embryo had hatched.
"Even more exaggerated than the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, finding something here is like finding a needle in a haystack?" Ian glanced around this unexpectedly vast space and couldn't help but complain a bit. Of course, complaining was one thing, but the task couldn't be delayed. Ian raised his wand, letting that faint light be his only guide.
The Little Wizard began his arduous trek in this pulsating flesh maze. He cautiously avoided those overly thick, violently pulsating blood vessels, stepping shallowly on the slippery fleshy ground. At this moment, the entire heart chamber shook violently, with some viscous liquid dripping from above.
"The fight is pretty fierce."
Ian could clearly feel the battle fluctuations outside—the Power of Death from Pluton Osiris was as biting as an icy stream, Isis's Life Energy warm like a spring breeze, while the chaos energy from the evil god roared like thunder in a storm. These three forces were in fierce collision, even through the flesh barrier; one could feel the earth-shattering power.