"A demon that infiltrated the clan and fed on our kin's life force?" Aragog's voice was filled with hesitation and confusion. "My children have not mentioned such a disturbance to me."
Daphne's lips curled into a mocking smile. "Maybe they enjoyed it, old spider? Just now, they seemed to be eating quite happily."
Aragog instantly fell silent. Even the clicking of the massive pincers on his head ceased.
After a long pause, he finally expressed agreement in a slow, heavy tone.
He was old. His control over the colony had been steadily declining. This vast brood had already begun slipping from his grasp. For now, he could still barely maintain order with the prestige he had built up over the years, but many things were already beyond his influence—like feeding on the corpses of their own kind.
Aragog believed that even he, once dead, would be devoured by the colony. Such was the nature of Acromantulas!
But this was different!
How could they turn a blind eye to such an anomaly? Just for a bite of their own kind's flesh?
Aragog suddenly spun around, his jointed limbs grabbing the nearest Acromantula and dragging it in front of him.
"Tell me—how many of our kin have died suddenly recently?" Aragog's voice erupted with an unprecedented force, sweeping away the frailty he had shown moments earlier.
The spider caught in Aragog's grip curled all its legs up tightly, shrinking into a ball. It looked absolutely terrified.
After a few seconds, seeing that Aragog showed no intent to punish it, the spider trembled as it replied. In the past few days, it said, one to three spiders had been dying each day, sometimes more. This had been going on for over a week.
Aragog felt a wave of suffocating frustration: Over a week?! Don't you have any sense of how often your kin should be dying? Don't you think this is way too frequent?
Acromantulas were magical creatures known for their long lifespans. Unless fatally injured while out hunting, they did not die for no reason. Daily deaths of this magnitude were far beyond normal.
Now, Aragog no longer doubted a word of what Daphne and the others had said.
He turned his head and asked, "That creature—it's parasitizing the back of one of my children, isn't it?"
After receiving a confirmed answer, Aragog gave an order to all the Acromantulas to vacate the nest.
The old patriarch's words still held sway. After a moment of clamor, the spiders began to withdraw from the nest. Soon, Daphne and her group spotted a spider with a tumor-like lump on its back—clearly the one that was being possessed.
Daphne raised her wand, ready to strike—but then paused and lowered it again, remembering what had happened the last time she blasted a spider apart.
"Are all the spiders out?" she asked softly.
Aragog tapped the ground with his limbs and soon gave his conclusion: "There's still one hiding deep within the web… heh."
It now understood clearly: that was the true culprit.
Without hesitation, Aragog gave the order for its children to drag the corrupted spider out of the nest and tear it to pieces. At the same time, it turned to face Daphne and the others, speaking in a humble tone: "Please extinguish the flames. The Acromantula are not enemies of the wizards."
While Aragog was negotiating with Daphne and the others, the fire had grown significantly. At this point, they didn't even need to do anything—the blaze alone could bring a devastating disaster to the Acromantulas.
Daphne couldn't help but lick her lips: she really didn't have a good solution. Starting a fire was easy; putting it out, not so much.
She glanced at the Nightmare standing beside her.
At Daphne's command, the Nightmare began to run along the edge of the fire wall, helping to contain the flames within a certain range.
Then the four young wizards took turns casting Freezing Charms on the roaring fire. After quite a bit of effort, they finally managed to extinguish the flames at the edge of the hollow.
With the fire put out, the battle within the spider nest had also ended. Outnumbered, the possessed spider was dragged from the nest by the other Acromantulas and torn to shreds.
"Looks like it's all over now," Aragog sighed with deep emotion. If not for these young wizards, who knew how many more of its children would have died?
Because of this, it decided to forgive the bloodshed the young wizards had caused at the start.
"It's not over yet," Daphne narrowed her eyes.
She had noticed that when the spider hidden deep within the nest was torn apart, a small black notebook fell from its body. She believed that was the true source of it all.
If that notebook wasn't destroyed, everything else was meaningless.
Right now, the notebook lay quietly among the fallen leaves and webbing, looking as harmless as could be. But clearly, once the chaos had settled, it would stir up another storm.
After listening to Daphne's explanation, Aragog let out a sigh. "I'm too old now, truly incapable of dealing with such a monster. Please, all of you, help me destroy it. I'll keep my children in line."
With Aragog's assurance, Daphne led the other three young wizards down into the hollow.
Sensing danger drawing near, the corrupted Riddle Diary no longer hesitated. It immediately manifested a form of Riddle from within its pages.
This version of Riddle was already tainted—his spiritual form emanated a nauseating black corruption, and his eyes were filled with an insatiable lust for blood and destruction.
Like a beast, he lunged at the four young wizards, moving at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of Astoria—only to be flung backward by the protective spell she'd instinctively cast.
Immediately after, Hermione's precisely aimed Impediment Jinx hit the creature dead-on, freezing it in place, and several attack spells rained down on it without hesitation.
Although the spells couldn't kill it outright, they continuously weakened it. Once the life force it had absorbed from the Acromantulas was depleted, it would be forced to shrink back into the diary.
Sensing its dire situation, the already maddened Riddle suddenly opened his mouth and let out a piercing screech filled with intense negative emotion.
The four standing nearby instantly felt dizzy and disoriented, and the spells they were casting were cut off.
Taking advantage of this opening, Riddle lunged at Harry—not the closest wizard to him, but instinctively, he still chose Harry over the nearer Daphne.
Caught off guard by the spirit's screech, the four were momentarily defenseless.
If nothing intervened, Riddle might have turned the tide in his favor in that desperate lunge.
But the nightmare beast, unaffected by the screech, suddenly charged forward and slammed into Riddle, knocking him back and simultaneously setting his spirit form ablaze.
Riddle, already at the end of his strength, let out a cry of agony before his entire spirit was consumed by black smoke and pulled straight back into the diary lying on the ground.
At last, it was all over.
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