"Why don't we usually see him being this brave?" Moriarty rubbed his forehead. "He's really too excited. I'll go down and take a look."
"Decree of Sky Liberation, let the stars summon our bodies and souls, Dimoca!"
Moriarty chanted under his breath and flew into the pipe.
"Ahhh—ah!" Marcus's screams echoed through the pipe. It was as if Moriarty had put on headphones; the 3D surround sound made him vividly feel the pounding in both ears.
"Fly, Marcus!" Moriarty shouted ahead. "If you really can't do it, adjust your posture and slide down!"
After about two minutes, Moriarty heard Marcus's broken voice. "Sir... I... I'll... try..."
Moriarty laughed. Fortunately, though the pipe was steep, it twisted and turned, winding around again and again, and its interior was spacious enough. Marcus would not be in mortal danger, so Moriarty stopped worrying about him.
Marcus slid deep, deep beneath the school until the curved pipe became level. He emerged from the opening and landed on the damp ground with a splat.
Moriarty flew over at that moment as well. "Lumos!" He swept his wand around, examining the surroundings.
Marcus climbed to his feet and looked around at the pitch-black, slimy walls. He stammered, "Sir, th-this is the Chamber of Secrets?"
"Obviously not." Moriarty increased his Magic Power output. A patch of ghostly blue light flashed from the tip of his wand, illuminating the walls and casting their shadows.
Marcus then saw a dark stone tunnel. Rodent skeletons littered the ground, droplets clung to the walls, and a damp, chilling atmosphere surrounded them.
"Let's go." Moriarty started forward. "Remember to draw your Wand."
The two continued onward. The path grew increasingly winding, and a shadow suddenly appeared ahead. Instinctively, Marcus cast a Spell. "Expelliarmus!"
Crack! The red light seemed to pierce the shadow before striking the floor.
"No need to panic. I think that's the Basilisk's shed skin." Moriarty smiled faintly, putting Marcus at ease. He cast Lumos as well and cautiously approached it.
The light fell upon a gleaming green snakeskin. Even though he had been mentally prepared, Marcus was still startled. He forced his trembling legs under control and swallowed. "Sir, with a shed skin this large, that Basilisk must be at least twenty feet long."
"Size is certainly one of the Basilisk's frightening traits. Another is how long it has lived. For an ancient monster that has survived for a thousand years, the survival skills and combat instincts it possesses are far beyond ordinary imagination. So we'd better be careful."
Moriarty gave Marcus a small reminder. In truth, he thought Salazar's ancestral Basilisk had been raised into uselessness. Over the past thousand years, it had probably never once eaten its fill.
Marcus nodded obediently. After Moriarty collected the snakeskin, they continued onward. Passing bend after bend, they finally found a solid wall standing ahead.
Two intertwined snakes were carved into it, their eyes set with large, glittering emeralds.
Ding! Ding!
Moriarty tapped the emeralds with his wand in succession. He did not even need to speak Serpent Tongue. The two snakes separated, and the stone wall split down the middle, slid apart, and vanished.
"Let me walk in front of you, sir." After saying this, Marcus seemed to have all the strength drained from his body, but his eyes were full of determination.
He finally has a bit of a man's spirit. Moriarty was pleased, though he did not show it. Instead, he said, "Courage without wisdom is recklessness. Proving yourself requires true courage, not recklessness."
Marcus seemed to understand only part of it, but he kept his promise. Gripping his wand tightly, he slowly stepped through the stone wall.
They stood at one side of a long, dimly lit chamber. Many stone pillars carved with coiling, entwined serpents rose high, supporting a ceiling that disappeared into darkness overhead.
There was no sign of the Basilisk. Marcus breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at Moriarty, only to discover that his master had already walked toward the depths of the chamber.
"It is indeed Slytherin architecture, fitting our ancestor's style." Moriarty looked around at the scattered stone pillars. Structurally, they bore a striking resemblance to the twelve pillars in the Castle's Great Hall.
"As for this statue..."
Moriarty raised his head and fixed his gaze on the black wall at the back, where a statue as tall as the chamber itself stood pressed against it.
"An aged, monkey-like face and a sparse, scraggly beard? This is what my ancestor really looked like?"
Moriarty stroked his chin with great interest. How amusing. It was not as though he had never seen Salazar's face, and even if Salazar had become so old that he was on his last legs, he would never have turned into something like this.
He had already confirmed that the Chamber of Secrets had been built by Salazar himself. It was impossible for someone to have forged it.
That made this statue rather thought-provoking.
Marcus made a fair point. "Unless Salazar deliberately made his own statue look hideous, I can't imagine how anyone could use your heroic appearance as a model and create such a thing!"
The enormous stone face suddenly moved. Its mouth opened wider and wider until it formed a huge black hole. A gigantic jet-black creature burst from the darkness and crashed heavily onto the floor.
The ground shook. Marcus, who had been so full of courage moments ago, deflated like a punctured balloon and collapsed onto the ground, with no idea where he had dropped his wand.
"The Basilisk is here! Don't look into its eyes—run!" Moriarty shouted. Marcus scrambled toward the other side, crying at the top of his lungs, "You go first, sir! I'll lure it away! Go!"
His loyalty was commendable. Moriarty nodded and continued reminding him, "Use the Levitation Charm! Fly behind it!"
"Unseal—no, liberate! Uh, sky... sk-sky..." Marcus's tongue seemed tied in knots. He mumbled without managing to form a complete sentence, his face turning as white as a ghost.
The Basilisk would not wait long for Marcus. It opened its blood-filled jaws and lunged to bite him!
"Ahhh—" Marcus screamed again. Then, gradually, he realized he was floating. He opened his eyes and looked around, only to find Moriarty beside him, watching with an amused smile.
"To become my follower, you must possess two most basic qualities: loyalty and courage." Moriarty said solemnly, "Congratulations, Marcus Flint. You have passed the test I set for you."
Marcus's pale face turned bright red. He said excitedly, "Sir, it is my greatest honor! I..."
Moriarty directly interrupted him. "From now on, just call me Young Master—my servants and subordinates all call me that. Starting today, I will invest a great deal of resources in you. You can write to your old father and tell him that the Flint family is about to rise again."
Loud hissing rose from beneath them. The Basilisk had discovered them. It reared up, its two golden eyes sweeping the air above like enormous headlights.
Moriarty pointed his wand at the ground. "Whispering Serpent!"
The hissing of Serpent Tongue mixed with Ancient Latin. The Basilisk seemed to recognize the Serpent Tongue, but Ghost Snakes coiled around its body one after another.
A Ghost Snake crawled onto the Basilisk's head. The Basilisk shot it an angry glare, and the Ghost Snake was petrified.
Moriarty knew the Basilisk's eyes could instantly kill any human or animal that met its gaze. Though the Ghost Snakes were not real snakes, they had been petrified rather than dispersed.
A flash of lightning crossed Moriarty's mind. Perhaps he could raise Whispering Serpent's level by focusing on its ability to "draw Magic Power from magical serpentine creatures"?
But this was clearly not the time to ponder it. Moriarty landed behind the Basilisk, avoiding eye contact, and spoke in low, slow Serpent Tongue. "My name is Moriarty Slytherin, a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin."
As the Serpent Tongue sounded, the Slytherin staff emitted a cluster of silver light and a cluster of green light. They intertwined in the air, outlining Salazar Slytherin's face.
The instant the Basilisk saw Salazar, its constantly writhing body stiffened as though struck by lightning, then relaxed. Moriarty withdrew the Ghost Snakes.
"Hiss, hiss!" The Basilisk's voice became much gentler.
"Hiss hiss hiss, hiss hiss?" Moriarty began conversing with it.
Marcus stared dumbfoundedly at the man and snake. At that moment, he dearly wished he were a Parseltongue too.
Before you continue