bookbashuk Chapter 164 The Gate of Turin
Chapter 164 The Gate of Turin
Chapter 164 The Gate of Turin
Even though they had already glimpsed part of the underwater surveillance personnel's appearance.
But when it was fully exposed to the public, everyone was still shocked by its enormous size.
The underwater watcher is 50 meters long, and its tentacles are several times longer than its body. If you include the length of its tentacles, it is even longer than the dragon Smaug, reaching about 150 meters!
In addition, the underwater watcher is covered with hard, scale-like bones.
The dwarves shot at it with sharp arrows, but they couldn't leave a single wound on it.
The underwater watcher, no longer concealed by the lake, became very uneasy, waving its tentacles menacingly in an attempt to scare the crowd away.
But at this moment, it is like a toothless tiger, its threat to everyone greatly reduced.
With a wave of his wand, Dui severed each of its tentacles.
The person monitoring the water looked terrified and immediately tried to flee upstream.
It is an evil creature of the water created by Morgoth, originally living in the underground waters of the Misty Mountains. When the dwarves of Kazar'dom kept digging down into the mithril mine, they awakened not only the Balrogs.
The underwater monitors were among them.
It came to the surface along the underground river dug by the dwarves and built a barrier lake there to sustain itself.
Now I just want to escape back to the underground waters of the Misty Mountains and wait for the future.
But Dui wouldn't give it a chance to escape.
"Smaug, burn it!" Dui shouted to the dragon.
Smaug, upon receiving the order, flew directly to the front of the underwater observer and unleashed a torrent of scorching dragonfire.
The dragon flames quickly spread across the monitor in the water, causing it to hiss in pain and frantically wave its tentacles to slap the flames off its body until it spewed out a stream of ink, finally extinguishing the fire.
But his body, especially his tentacles, was burned red by the flames, giving off a meaty aroma.
One of the dwarves, smelling the aroma of meat, even had his stomach rumble, drawing curious glances from his companions.
The dwarf chuckled, a little embarrassed, and said, "Isn't it mealtime yet? I'm actually a bit hungry."
……
Seeing that the dragon was blocking their way, the water watcher immediately turned around and rushed downstream.
Just when they thought they were about to escape, the basilisk monster Halbo, who had been lurking and waiting in the downstream waters, delivered a deadly attack.
The two large eyes of the underwater watcher unexpectedly met the basilisk's pair of yellow eyes.
The next second, the underwater observer froze, its massive body rapidly stiffening and turning into a dusty, gray stone.
It looks just like a lifelike giant octopus sculpture!
"Hmm?" Dui frowned, immediately flew over, and looked at the petrified underwater monitor with suspicion.
Shouldn't you die instantly if you make direct eye contact with a basilisk? Why did you turn to petrification?
It wasn't until he flew up to the giant eye of the underwater watcher that he discovered it was covered by a protective membrane.
Dui suddenly realized that he had been indirectly making eye contact with the basilisk through his eye membrane, which was why he hadn't died but had instead turned to stone.
Gandalf flew over on his broomstick and tapped the petrified Watcher in the water with his staff, as if he had hit a rock.
The dwarf Balin also ran over, looking at the statue-like behemoth, and asked in confusion, "Is it dead?"
"I don't think so," Gandalf answered first. "It's more like a petrifying curse, very profound and difficult to cure, am I right, Duir?"
Dui nodded.
"Gandalf is right. This water monster was lucky. It would have died instantly if it had looked directly into the basilisk's eyes, but it had a transparent membrane protecting its eyes, which prevented it from looking directly into the basilisk's eyes and thus it was petrified."
"However, this petrification is not much different from being dead. The petrification of the basilisk is very difficult to break. If there is no corresponding method, it is no different from a stone."
As far as he knew, even Dumbledore was helpless against the basilisk's petrification; only a powerful potion made from mandrake could break the petrification.
Dui looked at the massive underwater monitor and suddenly had an idea.
He hadn't considered anything else; all he wanted was to get rid of the octopus monster as quickly as possible.
But now that he had petrified it, he no longer had the idea of killing it.
In another world's Hogwarts, there is a giant octopus in the Black Lake.
However, the Black Lake at the foot of Fengyun Peak is still missing a guardian to prevent anyone from sneaking into the castle by water.
And the giant octopus in front of us, called the Aquatic Watcher, is just the right fit.
Dui admitted that he had fallen into his collecting trap.
If he could subdue the underwater watcher, he would gain another asset in the water.
In this way, he has collected all three powerful creatures: those from the sea, those from land, and those from the air.
So he used the Unseen Stretch Charm to expand the suitcase containing the basilisk once more, and then put the petrified giant octopus inside, letting the basilisk and her squeeze in for the time being.
Gandalf was not surprised by this, after all, Dui already had dragons, eagles, and basilisks, so it was not strange to have a giant octopus added to the mix.
Bahrain, however, looked at Dui with a relieved expression and said:
"We haven't even entered the Gates of Durin yet, and we've already encountered such a terrifying monster. If it weren't for you, Duir, and Gandalf, I can't even imagine what would have happened if we were on our own."
Upon hearing this, Dui could only say, "You've hit the nail on the head."
He remembered that in his original destiny, Balin also led five hundred dwarves on an expedition to Moria.
At first, things went smoothly; they successfully drove the orcs out of some areas and settled there.
Bahrain also called himself Lord Moria and even found treasures such as the Axe of Durin.
But not long after, Balin was shot dead by orcs at Mirror Lake. Then, a large number of orcs poured into the East Gate along the Silver Vein River and attacked Moria. The dwarf stronghold was breached and almost the entire army was wiped out.
The remaining surviving dwarves attempted to escape through the West Gate, but were blocked by the watchers in the lake, and Oin was swept into the lake and died.
The other dwarves could only retreat to Moria, but faced with a large number of orcs, the dwarves were no match for them. As they fought their way back, their numbers dwindled, and eventually, all the surviving dwarves, including Oren, died in the Mazabul Chamber.
Throughout the entire process, they were wiped out before they even saw the Balrog, the big boss, and their remains were not discovered until the Fellowship of the Ring arrived in Moria.
However, everything has changed now because of Dui's appearance.
Thorin Oakenshield, who was supposed to die in the Battle of the Five Armies, did not die. Instead, he became the king of the Lonely Mountain and even fully funded Bahrain's recapture of Moria.
Bahrain's expedition to Moria was also brought forward by several decades, and the underwater watchers blocking the West Gate were dealt with by Dui ahead of schedule.
So barring any unforeseen circumstances, Bahrain and his men will not die in Moria, and may even actually reclaim Moria.
Having dealt with the underwater watchers, the group finally arrived at the gates of Dulin with peace of mind.
The gate to Dulin blends seamlessly with the stone wall, making it extremely difficult to discern its true location.
However, this did not deter Gandalf. He had been here before Khazad-d'Um was captured by the Balrog, and he had even come here to search for the missing Thorin Oakenshield, father of Thorin.
He came to a smooth stone wall between two tall holly trees, tapped the wall with his staff, and said in recollection, "I remember this is it. The Gate of Dulin is located between the two holly trees."
Then he introduced it to Dui and the dwarves: "The Gate of Durin is also called the Elven Gate. It was jointly built by the elven craftsman Celebrimbor of Erigian and the dwarven craftsman Navi of Durin. The patterns and words on the gate are drawn with mithril material Ishildin, and the gate will only be visible under the light of moonlight or starlight."
"So we can only find the gate and enter when night falls and the moon or stars come out?" Bahrain asked.
"I think so," Gandalf nodded.
Dui stepped forward, tried to press his staff against the door, and whispered, "Open the Arahu."
"How is it? Can you solve it?" Gandalf asked.
Dui shook his head. "The door is under a powerful spell. No magic can force it open except with the correct password."
"Well, it seems we really will have to wait until evening."
"Not necessarily." Dui shook his head.
Gandalf looked at him with some surprise. "You have another way?"
Dui nodded.
"Didn't you say that the text and patterns on the Gate of Turin would appear under moonlight and starlight? Doesn't the light of Eyarendil count as starlight?"
He smiled and took out a crystal bottle that emitted starlight from his spatial pocket.
Gandalf's eyes lit up when he saw the crystal bottle, and he smiled.
"Ha, I almost forgot you had this!"
"There is no starlight purer than this!"
Dui raised the crystal bottle, illuminating the doorway.
Under the light of Eyarendil, the outline of a gate and exquisite patterns, drawn with silver-white lines, appeared on the stone wall.
In the center of the gate is a multi-pointed star and two trees laden with crescent moons, and above the gate are the emblems representing Turin: an anvil, a hammer, a crown, and seven stars.
At the very top is an archway in Sindarin.
Dui carefully examined the inscription on the vault and slowly deciphered it: "Lord of Moria, Gate of Durin, say 'friend,' and then enter..."
"Oh, Duir, I didn't know you knew Sindarin?" Gandalf exclaimed in surprise.
Dui smiled and explained, "I learned it from Alwen. After all, many of the books in the Valley are written in Elven script. I need to be able to understand them to know what's on them."
Gandalf nodded approvingly: "That's right, it's never a bad thing to read more."
Then he focused his attention on the gate, frowning: "Lord Moria, Gate of Durin, please say 'friend' before entering?"
"What does that mean?" Bahrain asked, puzzled.
"The meaning is obvious: if you are a friend, say the password and the door will open," Gandalf explained.
"What's the password?" Bahrain asked again.
Gandalf shrugged helplessly. "If I had known, I wouldn't be standing here, Lord Balin!"
"Friends (Sindarin)," Dui began.
"What?" Gandalf and Balin looked at Dui in confusion.
Then, in the next second, they were surprised to see the door open automatically.
Bahrain was very surprised and confused.
Gandalf, however, quickly realized, "I see. I was overthinking it. The hint is quite obvious: Elven writing is, of course, in Elven language."
Seeing the open gates of Dulin, both the Balin and the dwarves were filled with excitement and anticipation.
Dui and Gandalf, however, were more cautious.
They all knew that there was a formidable enemy to face inside.
(End of this chapter)