"Don't eat the one with the pale gold hair who fainted. The rest are fair game."
Cohen reminded Xisoko, as long as he didn't get carried away and swallow Lovegood along with the others, it was fine.
Xisoko began devouring the bodies one by one, leaving no trace—there wasn't even a drop of blood spilled because he swallowed them whole.
Unlike Norbert, who tore into his meals with blood splattering everywhere, Xisoko's method was much easier on Cohen's eyes.
Cohen delved into the memories he had just extracted from the lunatic leader's head.
Pay close attention—this man's name was Big Zhuang.
Or rather, Benjamin Hawk.
Hawk was an ordinary wizard of Muggle descent. He only passed three N.E.W.T. exams, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't salvage his increasingly unreliable magic, which suffered from his deep-seated insecurity.
In the end, the best job he could get was as a clerk at a dragon liver shop in Knockturn Alley. But it was precisely this job that led him to the Silver Key.
This secretive cult was hidden in a warehouse at 77 Knockturn Alley, led by a mysterious middle-aged wizard known only by the alias "Silver Key." No one had ever even seen his face.
They taught Hawk to worship an unspeakable god—a being said to be both the creator and destroyer of the world. And once it awakened…
"Doesn't anyone in the Silver Key cult realize this whole concept is just ripping off Mana-Yood-Sushai?"
Cohen scoffed,
"Figures they're all Irish. Every single one of them loves *The Gods of Pegāna*."
"What?" Xisoko asked with a muffled hiss, halfway through swallowing a body.
"I need the Count to banter with me," Cohen sighed. "He's the best at playing along. If he were here, he'd definitely say something like, 'That's just how the Irish are—always needing an audience, even for **, because God enjoys the spectacle. Otherwise, why else would no one in Eden be allowed to wear clothes?'"
"Wai-bi-ba-bu?" Xisoko made a garbled, meaningless hissing sound.
"We really need to sort out your vision problem," Cohen mused. "That way, when I bring you along, I can also bring the Count for some entertainment—can snakes wear sunglasses? Or maybe contact lenses…?"
For now, though, whether it was sunglasses or contact lenses, Cohen didn't have the materials to make either.
He continued sifting through Hawk's memories.
After gaining faith, Hawk's spellcasting abilities improved significantly. The leader of the Silver Key declared it to be a divine blessing.
Cohen understood the logic behind this. A wizard's magical ability partly came from their bloodline, but another crucial factor was confidence. Take Neville, for example—his magical ability wasn't actually weak, but his lack of self-confidence led to constant failures in practical classes.
Faith might be useless in most cases, but when it came to boosting morale, it was surprisingly effective. However, Hawk's memories revealed another issue.
The ten people who died in the cave tonight weren't the entire Silver Key cult—not even close. In fact, Hawk wasn't even following the cult's official plans.
Hawk was too fanatical. Upon learning that the god's ultimate goal was to awaken and bring about the world's collapse, he became impatient to speed up the process.
But the cult's higher-ups actually wanted to live longer. Their goal was to steal the god's power, not to wake it up entirely.
This led Hawk to see the leadership as corrupt, so he took matters into his own hands, rallying a few "loyal" followers and breaking away. As a parting gift, he even reported their previous location to the Ministry of Magic, forcing the entire Silver Key cult to relocate.
Imagine having that much determination and using it for world destruction of all things.
And in Hawk's memories, Cohen saw the next step of their plan—if they failed to awaken Cohen through this sacrifice, their next targets would be Cohen's parents.
Too devoted. He wanted to destroy the world more than the eldritch god itself.
Cohen wasn't sure if he would become an eldritch god if Edward and Rose were murdered, but he was certain that a Dementor Empire would be established immediately, since he wouldn't have any attachments to humanity anymore.
So giving Hawk a double-layered destruction ending was the right call. A lunatic like him deserved to have both his soul and body consumed, reduced to nothing more than waste expelled by Cohen and Xisoko.
For now, the most dangerous individual had been dealt with. The remaining members of the Silver Key were scattered, and their greedy leaders wouldn't dare provoke Cohen too much, so he wasn't in a rush to hunt them down.
But this did serve as a warning—Silver Key's teachings could easily turn its followers into zealots like Hawk, which posed a risk to Edward and Rose's safety.
Cohen needed to find a way to strengthen their protection.
**Crack—crack—**
The sound of an egg shell breaking grew louder. The toad, now free from the Imperius Curse, was desperately trying to escape the pit, but it couldn't jump high enough to get out.
Cohen, having finished scanning Hawk's memories, curiously peered into the bottom of the pit.
He had never seen a basilisk hatch before. He still didn't quite understand why a chicken's egg incubated by a toad would result in a snake, but magic was always full of mysteries—especially in a fairytale-like world such as this one.
**Snap—**
A few seconds later, the eggshell shattered completely, and a long, slender green snake slithered out.
Its bright yellow eyes darted around, searching its surroundings—it spotted the toad, and instinctively, it devoured the very creature that had incubated it.
Xisoko was already stuffed. His belly bulged slightly in multiple places, evidence of his gluttony. He lay on his back, stretching out lazily in satisfaction.
Noticing Cohen leaning over the edge of the pit and watching something with interest, Xisoko rolled over and wiggled toward the pit like an oversized worm.
"Is there something good? Food? Or something fun?" Xisoko asked.
"A mysterious surprise for you—your favorite kind," Cohen gestured toward the bottom of the pit.
The baby basilisk's first gaze had been given to the toad that incubated it. After the toad's final twitch, it opened its jaws wide and slowly swallowed its first meal.
Its digestion worked rapidly; its bloated belly visibly shrank as its body grew at an astonishing rate. In moments, it had already reached the size of a young wizard.
At last, Xisoko sluggishly dragged his head to the edge of the pit—because he was too full to move quickly.
"What kind of surprise requires this much—"
Xisoko flicked his tongue and glanced down.
At that exact moment, the baby basilisk, searching for the source of the light above, looked up.
This was the first time the little basilisk had seen another creature with green scales like its own—one that felt like its kin.
(End of Chapter)