Chapter 75: Violent Breakthrough

Even if Quirrell was not killed by the Mk2 grenade, he had already fallen to the ground, barely breathing. 

Quirrell's body was covered with shrapnel, and the skin on his front was covered with burn marks, looking like charred coal.

"Fool! Fool!" 

Voldemort roared, constantly punishing Quirrell with magic, which made Quirrell dizzy with pain.

But soon, Quirrell's eyes rolled up, and his eyes looked much weirder.

Obviously, this was Voldemort taking full control of Quirrell's body again.

Voldemort made Quirrell wave his wand, casting several healing spells on himself in succession, and used a powerful Vanishing Spell to precisely remove the shrapnel from his body.

Until this moment, Quirrell successfully stood up again.

Fortunately, this is a wizarding world, and magic can heal all physical injuries. Otherwise, even if Quirrell didn't die, he would definitely be near death.

"Curse this weak body. Just a few powerful healing spells and vanishing spells have consumed 30% of my magic power," Voldemort inwardly cursed and returned control of the body to Quirrell.

At this time, Quirrell wanted to cry but had no tears. He had obviously done everything Voldemort demanded, but who knew there would be such a dangerous trap behind this enchanted mirror?!

"Keep thinking of a way, fool! If you cannot obtain the Philosopher's Stone, you will suffer greatly!" Voldemort said viciously in his usual cruel manner.

Hearing this, Quirrell shuddered violently. He still remembered the scene when he was punished by Voldemort with the Cruciatus Curse for failing a task. 

That was true torment! Thinking of this, Quirrell hurriedly circled around the Mirror of Erised, desperately looking for a way to bypass it.

...

On the other side, Irina and the other four fell onto a Devil's Snare, and the vines entangled their bodies.

"Incendio!" Harry yelled, having learned some fire spells from Irina. 

Sure enough, after encountering the bright warmth of fire, the Devil's Snare retreated, loosening its grip on the four of them, and they seized the opportunity to break free and came to a stone passageway.

Irina cast a spell to extinguish the flames, and then walked forward with Harry and the other two along the stone corridor.

This corridor was like the underground passages of Gringotts, constantly sloping downwards. Irina felt that the depth they were at might be lower than even the Slytherin common room.

After walking for a few minutes, they came to the end of the corridor, and in front of them was a brightly lit chamber, with countless winged keys as dazzling as gems fluttering in the air, and opposite the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

Irina looked closely and found that these were not "birds" at all, but keys one after another!

Obviously, one of these keys was the key to open this door.

"Immobulus!" Irina waved her wand, and a strange freezing wave spread from it.

Clang clang clang! 

Nearly one-third of the keys fell to the ground under the effect of this Freezing Charm, but the remaining keys seemed to be enchanted with a powerful spell, and they were not affected by Irina's magic.

However, after eliminating one-third of the distractions, the remaining flying keys also became clear at a glance.

"Look, it must be that one! Harry, it's up to you!" Hermione pointed excitedly to a silver key with bright blue wings among the flock.

Harry saw a row of broomsticks in the corner, and he mounted one without hesitation and chased after the key, putting his Seeker skills to use.

It was naturally not difficult for Harry to catch a simple flying key. In just a few breaths, Harry jumped off the broom holding the key in his hand.

"Hurry, Harry!" Ron shouted in typical Ron fashion.

Harry quickly came to the heavy door, inserted the key, and twisted it hard. 

With a "click" the heavy door was unlocked.

But at the same time, the group of remaining keys seemed to go berserk, one by one transfiguring into sharp blades shooting towards the group.

"Protego!" Irina flicked her wand, casting an invisible shield that blocked the flying keys, protecting them as they passed through the doorway.

In this way, the four of them successfully entered the next chamber.

When they entered this new room, they found themselves at the edge of a gigantic chessboard, with black chess pieces as tall as knights' armors in front of them. 

There were some white chess pieces at the other end of the room, and these terrifying giant chess pieces made Harry and Ron shudder.

"It means we have to play our way across the board as these chess pieces and win the game to get through, doesn't it?" said Ron, looking at the missing chess pieces in the black formation.

Harry was a little anxious, "But the intruder has passed this room already. I'm afraid we won't be able to finish this game of chess before he gets the Philosopher's Stone..."

"Ah," Irina sighed and stepped forward, "Then we'll just blast a path through these chess pieces blocking the way and rush directly to the next room!"

Hearing this, Hermione walked to Irina's side without hesitation, her wand at the ready.

But Harry and Ron were a little hesitant. Their current magic skill level was not strong enough to be sure of defeating these towering animated chess pieces.

"Bombarda!" Hermione took the lead, waving her wand to blast the black knight closest to them with a powerful explosive spell.

Boom!

The explosion sounded, and the black knight was instantly blown to rubble on the ground. 

After realizing that Irina's group did not intend to abide by the rules, the remaining chess pieces also began to move menacingly.

Sixteen black pawns and sixteen white pawns rushed to the front quickly, with a black knight and two white knights on both sides, and two black and two white bishops and castles behind them. The massive black and white kings and queens remained at the back of the formations.

These pawns formed battle lines and advanced on Irina and the others with deadly intent.

"Glacius!" Irina cast a freezing spell with her left hand, freezing a black pawn solid, then a Severing Charm, shattering the frozen pawn statue into shards of ice debris across the floor.

"Stupefy! Immobulus!" If Irina was using mostly damaging attack spells, then Hermione focused on disabling and restraining. 

Hermione's self-assessment was quite accurate. She knew that with her limited magic reserves, she might have to empty them before taking out all these animated pieces.

Therefore, she planned to do her best to delay and incapacitate as many of the chess pieces as possible, giving Irina time to blast them. Meanwhile Harry and Ron harassed the pieces from behind, occasionally setting fire spells and targeting the kings and queens, forcing some pawns to retreat and defend their monarchs.

(end of chapter)