HP:BSG - Chapter 687: The Mist

A strange golden mist shrouded the entire road. On the left was a dense forest packed with plants, while on the right lay a deep pit and the trees inside almost reached Clementine’s line of sight.

The girl bit her lip, hesitant.

The golden mist ahead looked bizarre—it was clearly a trap. She had already cast seven or eight spells in a row, but none of them managed to disperse the fog or reveal what it actually was.

Every spell simply passed straight through the mist, as though it were nothing more than a harmless, ordinary natural phenomenon. But Clementine was far too cautious to think that.

If she didn’t want to go through, she’d have to take a detour.

But if she turned back to find another path… without the compass, she would definitely lose her way.

The centaur had said that if she kept following this road forward, she would see the trophy.

—Should I take the risk? Or…

After thinking for a long while, the girl suddenly gritted her teeth, cast a Shield Charm on herself, raised her arm to shield her face, and charged straight in!

…

A gray mouse curled up beneath a thick cluster of wild garlic, hiding its presence behind the strong garlicky scent. Through the gaps between the leaves, its black eyes nervously watched the scene ahead.

A huge gorilla sat crouched in the clearing, making a low “grrr-grrr” rumbling sound, grumbling about the person who had escaped right under its nose. Even the little flower on its head drooped listlessly.

It was absurd, yet the mouse—Jabari—almost thought he was hallucinating: the gorilla looked like a sulking, pouting child.

From a nearby elderberry bush, a lizard’s triangular head slowly poked out. Its eyes rolled as it peeked toward its master, sneakily watching his expression.

A cheetah padded gracefully over to the gorilla, and let out a short, mocking snort. It straightened up and lightly patted the gorilla’s drooping head with its front paw.

The gorilla roared angrily, shoving it away. The cheetah rolled once on the ground, then quickly got up again and crouched by Wade’s side, lazily licking its paw as if nothing had happened.

Seeing this, Wade chuckled softly. He reached out and rubbed the gorilla’s rough head. “I see… you’ve all had a hard time.”

He casually plucked a flower bud from the ground. Without any noticeable movement, the flower bloomed in his hand—the pale purple petals unfurled and released a faint, delicate fragrance.

Wade tucked the flower behind the gorilla’s ear, then glanced at the dense, thorn-covered forest ahead.

“It doesn’t matter if she got away. As long as she still wants the trophy, we’ll meet again sooner or later.”

In his hand, the compass needle pointed toward the thick bramble ahead. In this forest, even ordinary creatures seemed to have turned dangerous. The thorns ahead formed a wall bristling with steel-like spikes—so dense that even a Bowtruckle couldn’t move freely within.

It was as if the forest itself were saying: “Contestants, this path is blocked. Take a detour—there are plenty more traps waiting for you.”

But Wade didn’t want to keep circling around the forest. He reached out to stroke the cheetah’s soft ear and said,

 “I’ll take care of the rest of the path myself. You go deal with that little mouse trailing behind us. Don’t let anyone through—except Harry.”

He paused for a moment, then sighed softly as he remembered the still-missing mantis.

And added quietly:

“...Do your best. If you really can’t hold them back, it’s fine to let them through—I can handle it.”

The three magic dolls fixed their gaze on him. After a brief moment, they lowered their heads slightly in acknowledgment.

Then, the gorilla turned its head and bared its teeth in a ferocious snarl; the lizard twisted around and flickered its tongue seemingly sensing the air; and the cheetah crouched low and its eyes gleamed faintly in the darkness.

Their gazes all shifted toward the direction where the mouse was hiding.

Jabari’s fur instantly bristled. He didn’t dare gamble on the chance that they hadn’t spotted him. Panicking, he bolted from his hiding spot and dove into a crack between tree roots with his tiny claws scraping up a trail of dust as he fled.

A rumbling roar echoed behind him as the magic dolls launched their pursuit, crushing everything in their path. The gorilla crashed through trees with brute force, the lizard sped across the forest floor like lightning, and each of the cheetah’s steps left deep claw marks in the earth.

The sounds of the chase quickly faded into the distance. Wade didn’t look back to check on their battle, nor did he care how many competitors were still capable of catching up.

He waved his wand, and the thick wall of thorns ahead seemed to be pulled apart by invisible hands. The spiked branches twisted and curled to the sides, revealing a narrow passageway just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Wade stepped into the passage. A glowing orb hovered in front of him, and wherever its light reached, the thorns recoiled, opening up a straight path forward.

…

The gray mouse darted frantically through the forest. A boulder hurled by the gorilla grazed his tail before slamming into a tree, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

He made a sharp turn, narrowly avoiding the cheetah’s claws that gleamed with cold light.

But the most terrifying thing was that the lizard had vanished—he had no idea when it disappeared, only that it could leap out from any corner at any time.

Jabari’s whiskers trembled with fear. If not for his small size and ability to squeeze into narrow gaps, he would’ve been caught by those creatures five minutes ago.

Just as he was fleeing for his life, a figure suddenly appeared from behind a large tree ahead—Clementine. The girl’s face was pale, her expression tense. She quickly waved her arm, signaling the direction he should run.

Without hesitation, Jabari rushed toward her. Just as he was about to pass her by, Clementine shouted and swung her wand sharply. It was as if an invisible rope had lassoed the mouse, yanking him violently to the side!

The pursuing cheetah couldn’t stop in time. It burst out of the underbrush and straight into the seemingly harmless golden mist ahead. The moment it entered, its movements froze—its hind legs twitched, its tail stiffened, and its spine arched upward in a sudden spasm.

Jabari didn’t understand what had just happened to the cheetah, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one. He immediately transformed back into human form and raised his wand. Clementine, already prepared, shouted in a sharp voice:

“Incendio!” 

It seemed she had set up something on the ground beforehand—at the instant the spell struck, flames whooshed up with a roar, instantly engulfing the cheetah doll in a wall of fire.

“ROAR—!”

The gorilla bellowed furiously and charged forward, slamming into the cheetah and knocking it out of the golden mist’s range. It stopped short right at the edge, and for the first time, a very human expression of fear appeared on its face.

In that instant, the gorilla finally understood why the cheetah had suddenly frozen earlier:

The entire world seemed to flip upside down—the ground beneath its feet felt like a ceiling, and the sky above seemed like solid earth. It felt as if just one step forward would send it tumbling into the endless sky—or even into the pitch-black void of space itself.

The thoughts that had given it a trace of humanity… also made it capable of feeling fear.

At the moment when the gorilla’s whole body trembled and it could no longer move, the flames had already swallowed it completely. Jabari and Clementine’s spells struck one after another—

“Diffindo!” 

“Confringo!”

“Bombarda Maxima!” 

The gorilla stood within the mist. It finally understood— the golden mist hadn’t truly inverted heaven and earth. All it had to do was lift its foot, and it could free itself from the illusion.

But in the instant it lifted its foot, its remaining body cracked apart with a sharp crash, collapsing to the ground where it burned quietly, sending thin trails of black smoke curling into the air.

One of its yellow gemstone eyes rolled twice across the dirt. For a moment, a faint light flickered within it—then went completely dark.

Jabari let out a long breath of relief, only to realize that his heart was pounding wildly, every muscle in his body twitching with adrenaline.

The cheetah had been rolling on the ground, finally extinguishing the flames that had consumed its body. Standing beneath a beech tree, it witnessed the gorilla’s disintegration.

Then, it raised its head. Through the shimmering golden mist, its pair of glowing green eyes locked onto the two wizards across from it.

“All right, it won’t dare come closer for now,” Clementine said quickly. “Let’s move—get out of here!”

But before she could finish speaking, a strange whistling sound sliced through the air.

 She whipped her head around— just in time to see a long, slender tongue lash out like a venomous snake and coil tightly around Jabari’s neck!

Jabari’s expression still carried the traces of relief turning to dread. He instinctively reached up to scratch at his neck—but before he could even react, his entire body was yanked into the air, boots flying off as he kicked helplessly.

Thud!

Clementine’s gaze froze in shock.

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