They skirted the tree and soon reached the center of the anomaly.
It was an enormous pit.
"If you want to get any closer, you'd better summon your guardian spirits," the wizard warned.
Azir summoned a silver wolf spirit, while the youth behind him summoned a silvery-white snow leopard.
The pit was nearly a hundred meters across, its bottom lost from sight. Its walls were covered in the same "Killing Curse" they had seen on the trees, and even the air was suffused with a terrifying energy of decay. That was why the wizard had told them to summon their guardian spirits.
The guardian spirits' silver radiance protected them from the corrosive forces of decay, allowing them to approach the pit.
Here, the leaking power of the Killing Curse had become unbearable. Even with their guardian spirits protecting them, they soon felt an overwhelming weakness.
"Your Ma—cough... we need to leave..." Azir said.
But the youth turned a deaf ear. His eyes suddenly turned silvery white, as though his gaze had pierced the physical world and reached into the hidden past and future.
"I see... darkness," the youth said. "Lightning, disease, storms, and death..."
"Black wings, two horns on his head, scales covering his body... Alexei called him the Horned God..."
"Ravens, thousands upon thousands of ravens..."
"Terrifying magic... even the ancestral giant spirit couldn't withstand a single blow..."
"Black hair... black eyes... I see his face..."
Suddenly, the youth cried out and snapped out of his trance.
"Your Majesty, what's wrong?!" Startled, Azir even forgot to conceal the youth's identity. "Are you hurt? The great shaman always said you mustn't commune with spirits too often. It consumes your life..."
"I saw it," the youth said. "I saw his face."
"What? Was it frightening?"
"No." The youth shook his head.