Louis used a decoy spell to disguise himself returning to the dormitory, while he personally brought Hastur to the Room of Requirement.
Once inside, Louis set the orange cat down from his shoulder. Hastur looked listless, weakened somehow, though there wasn't a visible wound anywhere.
After a moment's thought, Louis activated the Rat Talisman's vitality charm and injected some life force into Hastur's body, much like reawakening a stone statue. Immediately, the cat perked up again, its eyes regaining their usual gleam.
"So it really was the basilisk, huh?" Louis murmured, understanding dawning on him.
A basilisk's indirect gaze petrified its victims, while direct eye contact killed them outright—clearly something related to vitality and life energy. In that case, infusing vitality had been the perfect antidote.
After ensuring Hastur was fine, Louis summoned Chuan.
"Chuan, report what you saw."
At his command, Chuan emerged from the floor—her voluptuous body taking shape as liquid shimmered and shifted, the transparent water outlining her curves before solidifying into the form of a violet-skinned beauty.
Louis couldn't help thinking she took a little longer to materialize this time.
"Master," Chuan began respectfully, "I saw that red-haired girl—the one you told me to watch closely—summon the basilisk in the abandoned bathroom. But just as she came out, she ran into Mrs. Norris, who'd been waiting there to play with Hastur."
"Wait, Filch's cat was waiting for Hastur?" Louis blinked.
"Yes, they often play together," Chuan nodded matter-of-factly.
Louis gave Hastur a strange look. Well, aren't you something, huh? You've got taste, I'll give you that.
"And then?" he asked.
"Then the basilisk petrified Mrs. Norris through the reflection in the puddle. The girl was about to hang the cat up when Hastur saw her." Chuan hesitated, glancing at the cat with a rather dazed expression.
"Hastur was furious," she continued. "He lunged at the basilisk, and during the fight accidentally made eye contact. He nearly died on the spot—but somehow, he turned it around and… ate the basilisk instead."
Louis fell silent, staring at the orange cat now calmly licking its paw.
"Ate it?" he repeated, just to make sure he'd heard correctly.
"Yes. Whole. Swallowed it in one go. The girl just stood there frozen, completely terrified. She didn't even think to run until the very end—and if she hadn't, Hastur might've swallowed her next."
Chuan's tone still carried a trace of disbelief. She had always thought herself one of Louis's most capable summons, yet now it seemed she wasn't even a match for a lazy orange cat whose only hobbies were eating and napping.
"Ate it…" Louis muttered, his face twitching as he grabbed Hastur by the chubby flaps of fur on either side of its face. "Spit it out! Spit the damn thing out right now!"
The basilisk wasn't just a monster—it was a mission-critical target tied to his quest reward. If Hastur had eaten it and accidentally killed it, that would be a disaster.
Thankfully, Hastur's stomach wasn't immediately lethal to what it swallowed—otherwise, Louis's challenge quest would already have failed.
The task specifically required Louis not to directly kill the basilisk; it had to be done indirectly.
"Direct" meant any deliberate action by him or his summons or pets that resulted in the basilisk's death. Even poisoning counted—if he tossed poison straight into its mouth, that was direct. Only tricking it into eating the poison on its own would qualify as "indirect."
The system truly went out of its way to steer Louis down the path of subtle scheming and manipulation.
But fine—he was good at that. He had plenty of underhanded methods ready.
The problem was, he still needed a target to use them on! Like a magic show without an audience—how could you perform if your cat went and swallowed the audience whole?
Hastur, annoyed by being grabbed, kicked him with its hind leg.
"Meow!"
Breaking free of Louis's grasp, the cat jumped onto the table and looked down at him with a haughty, imperious glare.
"Hastur," Louis said through clenched teeth, "be reasonable. Spit out the basilisk, and we can talk about this calmly."
"Meow?" Hastur tilted his head and looked at Louis, thinking hard.
After a moment of contemplation, the orange cat finally seemed to have figured something out. It let out a sharp "Meow!" and pointed a paw at itself.
Louis couldn't understand cat speech—but he could transform.
He turned around and shifted into a striped tabby cat, leaping in front of Hastur.
"Meow! (Alright, tell me—what do you want?)"
"Meow-woo! (Fafnir's dried mouse snacks!)"
"Meow! (Why would you want Fafnir's snacks? I'll buy you new ones—and some fish treats too.)"
"Meow-woo! (No! I want Fafnir's! )"
"Meow. (Pick something else.)"
"Meow-woo-woo! (Then I want the giant squid from the Black Lake!)"
"Meow! (Absolutely not! That old squid's basically a Hogwarts landmark now!)"
…
Half an hour of fierce haggling later, Louis and Hastur finally reached a deal.
Hastur would release the basilisk at a location Louis specified, and in exchange, Louis would "upgrade" it with a full enhancement set.
That was, of course, Hastur's true goal all along.
All that talk about dried mice and giant squids had just been a smokescreen for negotiation. The real issue was envy—its little buddy, Fafnir, had gone through multiple upgrades, and after the last one had even turned into an electric bird. Meanwhile, Hastur was still the same old orange cat.
Naturally, he felt a bit jealous.
"Alright, alright. I'll make sure you get your turn soon," Louis said helplessly, transforming back into human form and rubbing the cat's head. He hadn't expected his energy-devouring pet to get jealous.
Hastur purred contentedly and rubbed its head against Louis's palm.
But then Louis frowned.
Fafnir was a bird, so its enhancement path was simple enough. But what kind of upgrade could he give Hastur?
After all, it was a Devourer Beast—it only looked like a cat.
Should he enhance it like a feline? Or like… an octopus?
Were those tentacles in its mouth even octopus tentacles?
He couldn't exactly go and give it some eldritch "Outer God" type of enhancement, right?
Turn it into the "King in Yellow"? That'd be a bit much…
Hmm—wait. Speaking of enhancements…
Louis rummaged through his storage space and took out three injector guns filled with glowing green liquid.
The moment Hastur saw them, it perked up, meowing excitedly. Those were the very same syringes Fafnir had been injected with before every enhancement!
Was it finally its turn? Was its glorious day of evolution finally here?!
But instead of injecting Hastur, Louis opened a portal to his Reality Marble and stepped inside with the syringes.
Alarmed, Hastur dashed in after him.
Man and cat landed in a field of flowers—and were immediately greeted by a bizarre scene.
A gigantic fire dragon was crouched nervously beside the World Tree sapling, tail raised high, straining with intense concentration.
Then—PLOP!
A steaming, molten pile of dragon dung dropped squarely onto the tender green sapling, splattering down onto the roots with a sticky bounce.
Several other less-fresh piles were scattered around the tree's base.
"NORBERT!"
That day, for the very first time, Hastur witnessed Louis truly lose his temper—and saw the mighty fire dragon get kicked so hard it shot straight into the sky and didn't come down for a very long time.
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