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Chapter 1212: Meet Hélène Again
🕑 Added 2024-08-23 21:19:48 +0000 UTCA makeshift camp was formed around the damaged city walls to temporarily house the wounded who escaped from the Ruins of Amun Ra.
They were waiting for a transfer, as the only way to leave this place was through a Portkey.
Due to the large number of injured people, there weren't enough Portkeys, and the Egyptian Ministry of Magic was poorly prepared.
As a result, many people were stranded here.
Next to the open space where the wounded were placed, in the shadow of the city wall, many uninjured adventurers stood there whispering among themselves.
They huddled in the shadows, looking furtive, unwilling to help, merely watching the place on the city wall where the Portkeys were being distributed. From time to time, they glanced back towards the Ruins of Amun Ra, then quickly lowered their heads, as if afraid to look too long.
Everyone looked terrified, as if some terrible demon was about to come.
Some, more dramatic, even knelt on the ground to pray, muttering something in a strange ritual.
This reminded Evan of the situation during the Quidditch World Cup. After the vampire attack, panicked people fled overnight and lined up to get the Portkeys, causing the Ministry of Magic to be in a state of disarray. However, the current situation was far more serious than that time.
At least, no one died then, and the atmosphere of panic was not as intense as it was now.
The closer he got to the city wall, the worse Evan felt.
"What's going on? What happened?"
Could it be that during his absence, the adventurers had broken the magic on the Obelisks and summoned the demon? What about the gods imprisoned in the cage? Did they escape?
And where was Rawya? Was she injured?
Evan had too many questions, and the closer he got, the more uneasy he felt about the situation.
He looked around for Rawya and soon noticed something unusual.
Neither the adventurers under the city wall nor the wounded on the stretchers were anyone he was familiar with.
In other words, there were no Alchemists or Gringotts excavation team members.
How could this be? To break the mechanism of the Obelisks, there were over two thousand wizards skilled in Alchemy in the Ruins of Amun Ra, and the Gringotts excavation teams, which numbered nearly a thousand.
But now, Evan couldn't see a single familiar face, not even anyone he vaguely recognized.
Had they already been safely transferred, or were they trapped inside the Ruins of Amun Ra?
He quickened his pace, struggling to move forward in the desert, running towards the open space under the city wall.
A few minutes later, two wizards patrolling nearby stopped him and pointed their wands at Evan vigilantly.
These two guys were probably Aurors from the Egyptian Ministry of Magic, and they weren't speaking English.
Evan didn't understand what they were saying. He guessed that they were asking who he was and why he was coming from the desert.
It made sense; under such circumstances, someone suddenly emerging from the uninhabited desert would naturally be suspicious.
He tried to explain a few things, and they seemed to realize the language barrier was an issue.
They murmured a few words and gestured for Evan to follow them, pointing their wands at him as they walked into the camp.
Evan was thinking about how to explain his sudden arrival in the desert.
Also, he thought he should ask them what had happened at the Ruins of Amun Ra. He still had the entrance identification issued by the organizers of the International Alchemical Conference, so he figured there shouldn't be too much of a problem, and he wouldn’t be regarded as a suspicious person. He just hoped things weren’t too bad...
In a makeshift tent, Evan met an unexpected acquaintance.
It was Hélène Lorraine, a short-haired, very capable witch.
She was an Auror at the French Ministry of Magic and a fan of Sirius Black.
Previously in the small town of Dijon, Evan, she, and Sirius had worked together to break the curse of the Owl Fortress.
He’d had no contact with her afterwards, but he’d heard that Sirius had correspondence with her and she asked him for advice from time to time.
From Sirius, Evan had heard the follow-up of the incident.
After catching the Owl Woman and solving a series of murder cases, Hélène had proved her abilities as she wished.
He heard that she was promoted to captain and even invited Evan and others to visit Paris during the summer holidays.
Of course, in Evan’s opinion, the invitation was mainly intended for Sirius, a matter he had discussed with Harry and Hermione...
He never expected to see her here, at the Ruins of Amun Ra, at this moment.
Hélène, two wizards, and three goblins were sitting in the tent, discussing the rescue efforts at the Ruins of Amun Ra.
When she saw Evan walk in, she let out a scream in disbelief and quickly stood up.
"Evan!" Hélène exclaimed, rushing over to hug him. "Oh my God, thank goodness you’re okay. I was just wondering about your whereabouts. Sirius asked me again and again to find you. He also sent a letter yesterday saying that he would come to Egypt in person..."
"What exactly is going on?" Evan asked, breaking free from her embrace. "Hélène, why are you here?"
In his mind, French girls were always this warm, and their hugs always felt so soft and comforting...
"What’s going on? Don’t you know?" Hélène exclaimed. "Something went wrong in the excavation of the Ruins of Amun Ra. I heard from the wizards who escaped that they originally thought they had cracked the mechanism of some obelisk, but actually summoned a powerful demon. Everyone there either died or got trapped in the Ruins of Amun Ra. By the way, I heard you were in there too. How did you get out?"
Evan’s heart sank. As he suspected, the demon altar had been activated!
The gods imprisoned in the cage had believed it was the key to opening the prison, but it was actually a trap.
Ramses II had deceived them and sealed a powerful demon there.
"Were you in the Ruins of Amun Ra earlier? Were you in Excavation Area No. 2? Is there a secret passage to get out?" Upon hearing Hélène say that Evan had come from the Ruins of Amun Ra, a goblin eagerly asked.
"He is Melos, Head of Gringotts in the Middle East," said Hélène. "In fact, we were just discussing how to enter the room with the Obelisks. It is now severely damaged and the original passage has collapsed. Also, considering the possible demon inside, no one knows its specific strength. The adventurers who escaped have no other information except that it is terrifying. The rescue team is short of manpower and cannot expect any reinforcements. The current situation is simply dreadful..."
"Okay, Miss Lorraine, we should now ask this young man about the situation inside the Ruins of Amun Ra," said the elderly wizard sitting in the middle of the tent. "Then, you can express your opinions."
"Actually, I wasn't inside the Ruins of Amun Ra. I don't know anything about what you’re talking about," said Evan, noticing that everyone was looking at him. "Er … I went to the desert for something and I just came back..."
