Chapter 222: Aragog's Domain
"Bloody hell, Dudley, something's crawling about in there..." Ron said, his voice shaking.
"Yeah, I can sense it too," Harry muttered, gripping his wand tighter.
Hermione held onto Dudley's clothes with one hand while gripping her wand tightly with the other, too nervous to speak.
Dudley looked around, his spirit vision already activated.
He could see much more than Harry and the others.
"Spiders..." Dudley had already identified those skittering creatures in the darkness. They were all spiders.
And they were very large, some even comparable to horses, moving extremely fast as they shuttled through the Forbidden Forest.
Even above Dudley's and the others' heads, numerous spiders hung from silk threads dangling from the tree branches.
"Is this what Hagrid wanted us to find?" Dudley frowned deeply.
He felt these spiders weren't as friendly as he'd imagined. In fact, they seemed filled with hostility.
Because Dudley sensed obvious dangerous auras from these spiders.
It was just that for some reason, they hadn't launched an attack on them yet.
Dudley stopped, took out the Solar Ring from the Mirror of Erised, put it on his hand, and channelled spiritual power into it.
"Solar Halo," he whispered.
Instantly, the cold atmosphere around them was completely dispelled, and the three felt as if they were bathing in summer sunlight, their entire bodies filled with warmth.
Their previous fear seemed to disappear like ice and snow under this warm aura, and they felt courage rising from the bottom of their hearts.
Even Ron didn't seem so afraid of spiders anymore.
"Dudley, what did you do? What an amazing feeling!" Harry asked in surprise.
He saw Dudley put a ring on his hand, and then they felt the warm aura. This was obviously the ring's effect.
"This is a magic ring that can dispel severe cold and evil auras within a twenty-meter radius, filling people with warmth while boosting our courage," Dudley explained simply.
"No matter what happens later, remember not to go more than twenty metres away from me, understand?"
"Understood," all three answered simultaneously.
They felt incredible now. Their previous fear had completely vanished, and it seemed like no matter what situation they faced, they were filled with courage and confidence to challenge it.
The originally dark and cold Forbidden Forest felt warm and bright to them now.
After the Solar Halo spread out, those spiders that had been lurking in the shadows quickly moved away from Dudley's vicinity, not daring to get too close.
But at the same time, more and more spiders gathered in areas beyond twenty metres from Dudley, and the rustling sounds around them obviously increased.
"What is that?" Harry looked toward the darkness, his wand's light shining in that direction, but only saw several darting black shadows on the ground.
"We should be almost there," Dudley didn't answer. In his perception, he had already detected an aura dozens of metres away from here.
That aura carried a hint of darkness and evil, seemingly some kind of dark magical creature.
Hearing Dudley say this, Harry and the others quickened their pace, no longer paying attention to those rapidly moving black shadows around them.
Gradually, they found that the surrounding trees had become much sparser, especially in the distance where there seemed to be an area with no trees growing at all, and the entire ground gradually sloped down into a depression.
"Dudley, Dudley..." Ron's voice was somewhat terrified. Even under the influence of the Solar Halo, he still couldn't resist this instinctive fear.
He looked up at the sky, his body slightly stiff.
Following Ron's gaze, everyone looked up.
They saw numerous white spiderwebshanging down above their heads, with huge black spiders suspended from them.
"Spiders, so many spiders..." Ron's face was pale. Even the Solar Halo couldn't dispel his deep-rooted fear of spiders.
Harry's and Hermione's expressions also became much more serious than before. While they weren't as afraid of spiders as Ron, seeing so many giant spiders gathered together, hanging right above their heads, they also felt their scalps tingling.
If it weren't for the Solar Halo boosting their courage, they might have already turned tail and run by now.
"Right, so what's the plan then?" Ron asked, trying to sound braver than he felt.
"We're almost there. Let's go over and ask," Dudley's gaze looked toward the clearing not far away. He felt there was a powerful presence over there. Perhaps these spiders hadn't attacked them because of that creature's influence.
"Follow me!" Dudley ignored those spiders and slowly led the three toward the clearing.
Those spiders followed around Dudley and the others but didn't dare enter the Solar Halo's range, only running back and forth anxiously around them, making clicking sounds with their pincers.
Before long, they walked out of the forest area. Moonlight fell from the sky, and combined with the light emanating from everyone's wands, they could finally see those spiders clearly.
Eight eyes, eight legs covered in black hair. Each one was a massive creature, with the largest being even bigger than a horse. They surrounded Dudley and the four, their eight dark legs quickly skimming across the ground as they constantly ran back and forth.
Their mouths were wide open, their two large pincers swaying back and forth, making clicking sounds as if they were communicating.
"Hagrid's mental if he thinks this is helping!" Ron whispered fiercely.
"It should be," Dudley's gaze passed over these spiders to look at the sunken valley below the slope.
There was a huge spider web there, and on top of the web lay an eight-eyed giant spider larger than all the others.
Its body was comparable to an elephant.
"Aragog! Aragog!" The surrounding spiders made sounds with their pincers, seemingly calling to that giant spider.
The next moment, everyone saw that giant spider move.
It opened its eight eyes, but each eye was covered with a layer of white mist.
It was blind.
"What's going on?" the giant spider asked in a deep, gravelly voice.
"Humans," a spider answered.
"Hagrid? He hasn't come for a long time," the spider said with what sounded like sadness.
"Strangers," a spider corrected.
Hearing this, the giant spider seemed somewhat displeased and said irritably, "Kill them."
"I'm sleeping; don't disturb me!"
Upon hearing this, everyone's expressions immediately changed with alarm.
"We are Hagrid's friends!" Harry couldn't help but shout loudly.