It followed me out!
That black-robed skeleton from the Mysterious High Tower had actually followed him out!
Ian had not even checked whether the black sand and other things he had brought had been "intercepted" in the Misty Illusion when he stiffly turned his neck and saw the thing that sent chills up his spine.
The mysterious skeleton, draped in black robes, stood silently behind him, as quiet as a ghost. Its eye sockets, burning with deep crimson Soul Fire, flickered with a profound light that made his heart pound in the darkness.
Although the strange runes covering its entire skeleton had gone dark, making its bones look far more normal, the intense pressure radiating from it had not diminished in the slightest. If anything, it had grown stronger. Ian had no idea whether that was because it had left the Misty Illusion or because all the chains on its body had snapped.
"Expelliarmus!"
Almost instinctively, Ian tried to blast the Black-Robed Skeleton away. However, the red light surging from his wand shattered bizarrely the moment it touched the Black-Robed Skeleton.
Like scattered starlight.
Gradually fading away.
The Black-Robed Skeleton was unaffected by the Disarming Charm. Its robes did not explode, nor did its arms fall off—Ian's increasingly refined Disarming Charm had failed to produce its intended effect.
"I don't believe this! Tongue-Cutting Throat-Slitting Charm! Bah! That's useless!"
"Sectumsempra!"
"Crucio!"
"Soul Separation!"
"Teeth Stuffed with Steel Pipes!"
Refusing to accept it, Ian swung his wand with the efficiency of an automated machine, firing four spells per second. Yet none of his magic had any effect on the Black-Robed Skeleton.
It was as though some mysterious force erased every spell just before it could strike its target. All they did was make the mysterious skeleton's black robes flutter amid motes