#772 - Horror (asking for monthly ticket recommendation ticket)

"It seems you've realized the crux of the matter."

Noticing the change in Anduin's expression, Nick smiled leisurely, "Indeed, the establishment of magic schools was essentially to counter the Holy See. It was initially spearheaded by individual pioneers, and later supported by more wizarding families. The relationship between wizards and Muggles also became complicated due to the intervention of the Holy See."

"On one side, the Holy See constantly incited believers to hate wizards. On the other side, wizards, while enduring suppression from the Holy See and Muggles, had to absorb and teach those with talent to become wizards."

"This awkward mode of interaction has led to differences in the attitudes of wizards in different regions towards Muggles and Muggle-born wizards, which has even affected the magic schools themselves."

"You should know that the earliest Durmstrang Institute also accepted Muggle-born students. Unfortunately, after the decline of the Holy See, they started engaging in bloodline antagonism. In fact, the atmosphere in the Nordic wizarding world now is very similar to the scene back then."

After recounting these past events, Nick couldn't help but sigh softly, "I apologize for boring you for so long. Old people inevitably talk a lot."

"You're joking. I should actually thank you for allowing me to understand this world more deeply. I didn't expect so many truths to be hidden in the sealed history," Anduin nodded slightly, signaling to the old man in front of him.

"Although these truths can be summarized in a few sentences, they actually hide a lot of bloodshed and hatred. Therefore, both the wizarding world and the Holy See have tacitly concealed that period of history. Even in most countries' Ministry of Magic, except for the International Confederation of Wizards, there is no corresponding information."

"No one wants to see the conflict erupt again, so I hope you don't spread what you've heard from me. This is crucial," Nick looked at Anduin with a sincere expression.

"Please rest assured, I'm not the kind of person who likes to gossip. I'm also very clear about how hard-won peace is," Anduin nodded immediately without hesitation. In fact, even if he told the history he just heard, not everyone would believe it.

"Mm," Nick nodded with satisfaction. "Let's go back to the witch hunt led by the Holy See back then. Because the Black Death was a plague specifically targeting Muggles, and it was extremely rapid once it broke out, it quickly attracted the attention of the Holy See."

"From the beginning, they suspected that this was the work of wizards. They even believed that this was a signal from the wizarding world to declare war on the Muggle world, with the aim of drastically reducing the Muggle population in order to suppress Muggle development."

"The Muggle world is the Holy See's base, so how could they sit idly by?" Nick snorted coldly. "So at that time, the Holy See incited the public to launch a large-scale witch hunt, and also dispatched a large number of church personnel to assist Muggles in tracking and hunting down wizards."

"This behavior quickly attracted the attention of the Alchemy Society. Although at that time we were just a group established for the study of alchemy, most of the members were well-known wizards from various countries."

"When the news came from Europe, it immediately caused panic. Most of us believed that the Holy See wanted to take the opportunity to start another war against the wizarding world."

"Because at that time, the magic schools had gradually become effective, and the number of Muggle wizard disciples absorbed by the Holy See was slowing down, which also led to a gradual reduction in their power."

"So the Holy See's launch of the witch hunt was a sufficient motive to start a war, and most people held this view, including me at that time."

"You can't imagine how amazing the scene was at that time…"

Nick's eyebrows kept rising and falling as he spoke, as if recalling some unforgettable scene.

"Hundreds of owls came in and out of Egypt every day. The letters contacting families and schools were filled with words like mobilization, troops, support, Holy See, and cleansing."

"It can be said that we were only a little bit away from detonating a war that could sweep across Europe!"

"Fortunately, we didn't completely lose our minds. Just when a group of wizards were ready to rush to Europe and officially start a war with the Holy See,"

"Perenelle, I, and several respected elders of the Alchemy Society, prepared to make a final effort before the situation completely deteriorated."

Nick's expression froze at this point, "At that time, we were prepared to directly contact the higher-ups of the Holy See and have one last negotiation with them."

"In fact, the original intention of that negotiation was not entirely for peace."

"On the one hand, we wanted to find out the specific reasons for this dispute and see if there were any misunderstandings. If we could settle the matter peacefully, it would naturally be the best."

"But if the Holy See insisted on going its own way, we were also prepared to take the opportunity to explore the truth of the Holy See if the war was unavoidable. We even made plans to cause trouble on the spot and assassinate the higher-ups of the church during the negotiation."

Nick's expression was quite calm as he recounted without reservation that they were preparing to rush into the Vatican to assassinate the Pope. Anyone who didn't know would have thought he was just going out to kill a chicken.

But Anduin could still feel the changing situation and the dangers Nick and the others faced from his words.

At the same time, Anduin also realized that his initial suspicion was too superficial. Such a big thing happened back then, how could it not attract the attention of all parties.

Of course, this may also be related to the wizarding world hiding that period of history too well. If Nick hadn't said it, who would have thought that a European war almost broke out back then.

Moreover, the two sides of the war were European wizards and the Holy See, which did not recognize their wizarding identity.

After thinking about it, Anduin couldn't help but admire, "It seems that the war was finally stopped by you, wasn't it? No matter what the original intention was, at least the result was good."

"You don't have to comfort me, Anduin," Nick grinned. "In fact, the wizarding world and the Holy See did not completely start a war back then. In addition to us resolving the misunderstanding with the Holy See, there were also deeper considerations."

"Because neither we nor the Holy See could afford the consequences of defeat."

"At that time, wizards were basically gathered in families, and there were also a large number of wild wizards. Overall, we were like a plate of loose sand. It would be difficult to work together wholeheartedly if we really fought."

"The Holy See's situation was not good back then either. They were able to select fewer and fewer wizard disciples from the people, and the Renaissance movement that arose in Europe continued to destroy the church's control over the secular world. In addition, the prevalence of the plague made the foundation of the Holy See rooted in the Muggle world unstable."

"If a war really broke out at that time, the strength of both sides would suffer devastating blows."

"And this is actually the key to the matter. After all, the plague was just an excuse. If one of the parties really had the confidence, even if they knew that the origin of the Black Death was from Herpo, they would not stop the war."

"But no matter what the purpose was, after the wizarding delegation led by me visited the Holy See, the two sides finally eliminated the misunderstanding and reached a consensus."

"Then we and the Holy See decided to join forces temporarily to find the cause of the Black Death, because in the research reports shared by both sides, we both determined that this plague was unusual and must have been manipulated by a wizard behind it."

"To this end, the Holy See dispatched a team of 30 Knights Templar, 2 cardinals, and 4 archbishops, along with the 20 elite wizards from various European families I led, to form a search team to jointly study and track the origin of the plague."

Nick did not explain in detail what kind of agreement they had reached with the Holy See at that time. Presumably, the content was more confidential than this history itself.

"So you finally joined forces with the Holy See to find Herpo?" Anduin didn't expect that the two sides, who were still at odds with each other in the previous second, would form an alliance so quickly.

"Yes," Nick nodded. "There was no way, neither of us could absolutely trust the other, and it was even less possible to hand it over to one side to be solely responsible."

"Understood," Anduin nodded slightly. "Then how did you determine that the culprit was Herpo? This process must not have been easy."

"It was more than not easy, we almost wiped out the entire army." At this point, Nick gradually revealed a sad expression.

"At the beginning, although the progress of the search team was slow, it mainly wasted a lot of time in locking the source."

"We spent more than a year walking through various countries and cities where the plague broke out, trying to find clues of magical involvement."

"But the result was very frustrating. Although we had locked down several areas where the plague first originated, and determined the faint magical aura in them,"

"The culprit hid himself extremely well, and didn't leave any traces for us to track."

"For this reason, the search team fell into a stalemate, and then there were differences within the team.

Some people thought that more resources needed to be allocated to participate in the tracking, some people felt that there was a mole in the team, which allowed the target to escape easily, and some people felt that the task could not be completed at all, and even had the idea of giving up.

At first, it was just us and the Holy See arguing, and later different voices appeared in our respective camps. In short, it was extremely chaotic at that time."

Nick sighed helplessly, and then chuckled, "But that life was also very fulfilling. Can you believe it, I actually became good friends with those bishops."

Seeing that Nick was starting to stray again, Anduin couldn't help but remind him, "Then how did you finally lock down Herpo."

"Sorry…" Nick also knew that he was too long-winded, and quickly returned to the topic. "The reason why the search team was able to find Herpo was mainly because we finally determined the idea."

"After finding a large number of origin locations of the Black Death, the members of the Alchemy Society discovered from the map that there seemed to be some special connection between these locations."

"Especially after connecting those locations together, we got a complex spell pattern, which was the ritual spell belonging to life alchemy."

"After confirming this clue, everyone immediately found the state, and I and several alchemists in the team repeatedly studied and finally locked the magic gathering point of the spell."

"And that was the location where Herpo refined the Philosopher's Stone!" Nick's eyes gradually solidified as he said this.

"When we arrived at the target location, we found that it had been built into a solid fortress, filled with various curses and traps. Just to see Herpo, we lost several Knights Templar."

"Obviously, this plague was premeditated by Herpo. God knows how many years he had prepared for this." When recounting this past event, the gloom on Nick's face never dissipated.

"Then you fought with Herpo? What does he look like? What are his abilities?" Anduin was already preparing to collect information in advance on this enemy who didn't know if he was dead or not now.

"It's hard for me to describe his image to you," Nick looked ferocious, as if he didn't want to recall that past.

"In short, when the enemy appeared in front of everyone, he could no longer be called a human. At first, we didn't even know who the other party was, or what kind of creature it was, or some kind of magical construct."

Then Nick took a deep breath and slowly said to Anduin, "If you want to describe the other party in one word, it is terror, an indescribable terror!"

"Its body was huge and bloated, like a meatball covered with bumps, eyeballs, and tentacles, and the surface of that thing was constantly flowing with stinky and corrosive thick water."

"If you look closely, you can even see that its body is pieced together from corpses, and the tentacles on its body are essentially some human limbs."

"As long as you see it, you will have a sense of fear from the bottom of your heart, and at the same time, you will constantly have auditory hallucinations and whispers in your ears, those sounds are enough to drive people crazy."

"Then the battle broke out, but it was not initiated by Herpo, but from within us."

Nick lowered his head in pain, and even a thin layer of cold sweat oozed from his forehead.

"Several Knights Templar and wizards with insufficient willpower directly turned against each other and launched an attack on everyone. For this reason, we had to knock down and even kill them first."

"Believe me, the feeling of having your hands stained with the blood of your comrades is not good, especially close comrades who have been getting along day and night for more than a year."

Nick sighed again and again, "And after solving those teammates who were controlled by their minds, the real terror had just arrived."

"You can't imagine who can use dozens of wands to cast spells at the same time, but we saw it with our own eyes. Yes, each tentacle on that meatball can hold a wand and cast spells!"

"Powerful dark magic came at us like raindrops and waves. Almost in one face-to-face encounter, the search team was reduced by more than half, and everyone fell down one by one before they even had time to react."

Speaking of this, a rare look of fear appeared on Nick's face, and then he said with shame in his tone, as if he was arguing for something, "Anduin, sometimes it's not shameful to escape, especially when facing a desperate opponent."