Echoes of the Past 2

What had the man in black realized?

Of course, he had realized where the ruin his teacher had shown him was located!

The man in black stood at the edge of the lingering shadows of time, his robes stirring slightly in an invisible wind. He had just witnessed those twisted, writhing, malformed creatures—some had no eyes, yet seemed able to peer into souls; others had no mouths, yet uttered whispers that chilled one to the marrow.

They were not from hell, nor were they creations of the abyss. They were... contaminated creatures! Aberrations that had bred after the magic carried by those horrific beings decayed within the cracks of time!

Yes!

Even now, the Ministry of Magic had not figured out what those horrific beings were. They only knew that they were too evil—echoes of something older and more indescribable.

Their very existence corroded the boundaries of reality!

They caused logic to collapse and reason to crumble.

They surpassed every existing understanding of magic. This was not magic's corruption, but rather as though some creature was trying to use magic to conceal something even more terrifying!

The man in black felt as if he had plunged into an ice cellar.

He suddenly turned toward the blind wizard beside him, his voice hoarse like tearing parchment. "The ruin you found back then... the place that blinded you... was here!?"

"The Ministry of Magic was built atop this ruin, wasn't it?" The air seemed to freeze. In the distance, the aberrant shadows let out silent shrieks, twisting even time itself. The man in black felt his thoughts slowly being infiltrated by some viscous darkness—those creatures had not come from the past. They had never left.

They had always lain dormant beneath the foundations of the Ministry of Magic, feeding like parasites on