Seeing the pair of yellow vertical eyes, Spider Queen Senasa looked on in despair.
"No!" a sharp scream tearing from her. The Spider Queen instantly collapsed to the ground, her reluctance palpable. Her densely packed eyes, now covered with a dull film, grew dim. Her breath became shallow, her immense form weakening rapidly.
"Huh? Not dead yet!" Luke raised his eyebrows, surprised. The Spider Queen was still alive after looking into the Basilisk Herpo's deadly eyes! Could it be that because Herpo the Basilisk was still young, its Death Gaze's power wasn't strong enough? Luke could only speculate. Yet, it spoke volumes about the Spider Queen's formidable power. After all, other spiders would die instantly from the Basilisk's stare.
Seeing that the Spider Queen still clung to life, Luke had no intention of granting her a reprieve. He immediately summoned his divine spear, Aegros, and thrust it forcefully into the Spider Queen's head. The sharp spearhead effortlessly pierced her defenses, then erupted with a destructive force, shattering the Spider Queen's body into a pulpy mess. The Spider Queen died instantly, utterly vanquished.
Thranduil looked at the spear in Luke's hand, a hint of envy flashing in his eyes. "It is said that no one can withstand the spear of Gil-galad and the sword of Elendil," he mused. "Today I see that Aegros and Narsil are indeed worthy of such reputations!" The standing of the divine spear Aegros among the elves was akin to that of the holy sword Narsil among humans. It was no wonder Thranduil was envious of such a magical weapon, a testament to the supreme craftsmanship of the Noldor elves.
However, at this moment, Luke and the others had no time to dwell on Divine Spear Aegros. With the Spider Queen's death, the other giant spiders immediately became leaderless, falling into chaos and scattering in panic. Naturally, the elf warriors seized this opportunity, giving chase and cutting them down. As for some of the giant spiders that managed to flee back to the spider's nest, Luke simply instructed the Basilisk Herpo to hunt them down or force them out into the open.
Thranduil watched the giant spiders flee in terror as the Basilisk pursued them, and could not help but sigh to Luke: "I truly don't know how you managed to cultivate such a powerful and dangerous creature. It's so potent at such a young age. When it grows up, I'm afraid it will be a creature as formidable as a dragon!"
"Your Majesty Thranduil, thank you for the compliment!" Luke smiled and shook his head. He knew his own business. The Basilisk looked incredibly fearsome and dangerous, with its deadly eyes and unpredictable venom. But in reality, it possessed a very fatal weakness: the crowing of a rooster. A rooster's crow could make a Basilisk flee in panic, and prolonged crowing could inflict fatal damage upon it. Like the thousand-year-old Basilisk in Slytherin's Chamber, even after living for so long, it still feared the crowing of roosters, to the point of compelling Voldemort's soul, possessing Ginny Weasley, to kill the rooster raised by Hagrid.
Therefore, until the Basilisk's fatal flaw of fearing rooster crowing was resolved, it remained a vulnerable creature, no match for a true dragon. Luke truly wished he could consult Saruman on this point. He remembered that after Saruman's blatant betrayal, he had specifically bred orcs who were not afraid of sunlight. If Saruman were to come, he might be able to find a way to remedy the Basilisk's shortcomings. By then, a flawless Basilisk would indeed be a powerful weapon.
The elven warriors spent a day and a night relentlessly pursuing the fleeing giant spiders in the dark forest. Except for a few giant spiders that managed to escape beyond the forest's boundaries, all others were utterly annihilated. The giant spiders remaining in the spider's nest were either killed by the Basilisk Herpo or dealt with by the elves after being forced out of their lair. In this way, Mirkwood finally and completely belonged to the Woodland Kingdom once again. Thranduil was overjoyed by this victory and announced that he would hold a grand banquet to celebrate their triumph upon returning.
However, before the army's return, Thranduil, to express his gratitude for Luke and the Basilisk Herpo's assistance, specifically instructed the elven warriors to collect all the corpses of the giant spiders and hand them over to Luke. Under Herpo's guidance, Luke followed the intricate spider web passages into the spider's main lair.
He then placed the giant spider corpses scattered everywhere into his space bag. The spider's nest was vast, like an enormous maze. Luke navigated it for a long time, meticulously collecting all the giant spider corpses, until he finally arrived at the spider's hatching place.
In the room, the spider hatchery was a very large underground cave, completely covered in spider webs. Inside were huge, silk-woven egg sacs, each filled with tens of thousands of densely packed spider eggs. Luke couldn't help but gasp at such an enormous number. If these spider eggs had been allowed to hatch, the population of giant spiders would have exploded, which would undoubtedly have been a disaster for the entire Mirkwood!
However, these spider eggs had now been thoroughly poisoned by the venom of the Basilisk Herpo. Each egg sac had been bitten by Herpo, and a drop of venom injected. Although it was just a single drop, the venom's potency, once evaporated within the egg sac, directly killed all the spider eggs. Even Luke couldn't help but give a thumbs up to Herpo's ruthless efficiency. Truly poisonous! No wonder the Spider Queen was so furious and wanted to eliminate it.
Luke collected all the spider eggs, preserving them with a freezing spell, partly as a snack for Herpo, and partly to explore their potential for potion-making. By the time Luke had packed all the giant spider corpses, several space bags were already full. The giant spider's venom also filled dozens of barrels, most of which had been collected for him by the elves. The body of the Spider Queen, Senasa, was especially precious, and he placed it in a separate bag.
He also extracted and preserved the Spider Queen's nerves. This was an excellent material for making wand cores, particularly wands biased towards offensive and dark magic. Although he couldn't use it personally, it satisfied his collecting habit as a staff maker.
After all these matters were dealt with, Luke and the others returned triumphantly with the elven army. The elves held a grand celebration banquet. Luke, Elrohir, Elladan, and Arwen all became Thranduil's honored guests.
Luke, in particular, was seated at the same table with Thranduil himself. "Luke, today, thanks to you and your pet Basilisk, we were able to achieve such a great victory and reclaim all of Mirkwood. The Woodland Kingdom and I are deeply grateful for this!" Thranduil raised his glass and happily toasted Luke. "A toast to you! A toast to our greatest friend!" The other elves were also smiling, and they all toasted Luke from afar with respectful eyes.
Luke raised his glass and saluted, "Your Majesty Thranduil, you are too kind! Everyone present today, including the elven warriors, has made significant contributions! We should all salute you!" Hearing this, Thranduil looked even more appreciative.
The banquet lasted for a whole month. Finally, Luke politely declined Thranduil's repeated requests to stay and returned to Weathertop with Arwen, Elrohir, and Elladan. As for Legolas, he stayed in the Woodland Kingdom for the time being. Now that the giant spiders of Mirkwood had been destroyed and the southern forests reclaimed, the Woodland Kingdom needed to address many issues, such as the migration of forces to the south and the restoration of the southern forests.
As the heir to the Woodland Kingdom, Legolas needed to stay with Thranduil and handle things together, meaning he couldn't return to Weathertop in the short term.
Returning to Hogwarts Castle, Luke finally breathed a sigh of relief. Elves, with their eternal lives, saw no issue with holding a month-long banquet, but Luke felt a little exhausted. Arwen went to the treehouse in the garden to see the young eagle Thorondor, while Elrohir and Elladan headed to the library to read magic books.
After meeting the butler Edward, Luke went alone to the cellar where Smaug resided. Smelling Luke's scent, Smaug instantly woke from his slumber, looking at Luke warily. His massive body instinctively blocked most of his treasure, as if a robber had arrived. Just when he was about to lament his poverty, Luke interrupted the words that were about to come from his throat.
"Okay, I'm not here to ask for money this time!" Luke rolled his eyes at him. "On the contrary, I'm here to give you money this time!" Hearing Luke's words, Smaug immediately swallowed his complaints and looked at him suspiciously.
"Truly?"
"Indeed." As he said that, Luke took out a space bag and poured its contents out. In an instant, many dazzling gems and diamonds flowed out, piling up into a small hill as high as Luke himself. These were the gems given by Thranduil as a thank you for helping to reclaim Mirkwood.
Seeing so many jewels, Smaug's attitude changed instantly. He showered Luke with flattery, praising him to the skies, while subtly moving all the jewels towards his own hoard. Luke didn't concern himself with the behavior of this greedy dragon and turned to leave the cellar.
He first went to the potion room and refrigerated the giant spider venom and some spider eggs he had collected. Then, he went directly to the 30th floor in the middle of the tower and used the Traces Extension Spell to expand a room countless times, making it the size of several football fields. After some further arrangement, it transformed into a small giant spider's nest covered with spider webs.
Luke waved his wand, keeping the entire room dimly lit, with only the moonlight providing some light. He then placed a giant spider egg bag containing spider eggs into the nest and waited for them to hatch slowly. After doing all this, he left the room, locking the door with magic and concealing it. This place would serve as a breeding ground for giant spiders in the future, later becoming a food reserve for the Basilisk Herpo, as well as a collection site for giant spider venom.
Then, he went to the innermost wall of the second floor and spoke "open" in Parseltongue to the small silver snake pattern on the wall. The silver snake instantly came to life, bit its own tail, and transformed into a snake-shaped door knocker. Luke pulled the door knocker, and the entrance to a hidden room was revealed.
Opening the door, Luke walked inside, which was a space as large as a football field. Luke waved his wand and poured out all the giant spider corpses from several space bags. Soon, the corpses of the giant spiders piled up into a mountain. Luke used his wand to carve runes on the surrounding walls, and as magic power was injected, the entire space became cold. He then walked straight to the wall opposite the door and said "Open" again in Parseltongue to a larger silver snake pattern.
The silver snake coiled around the wall to form a circle and bit its own tail, then transformed into a circular stone door and opened automatically, revealing a huge pipe leading to the bottom. Luke did not continue down the pipe, as below was a secret room that Luke had opened specifically for the Basilisk, located deep inside the mountain. He took the suitcase containing the Basilisk Herpo out of the space bag and opened it. A somewhat bloated Basilisk crawled out of the box, its distended belly almost getting stuck in the exit.
"Master, it's so cold!" The Basilisk Herpo burped and shivered from the air conditioning in the room. Luke looked at the stuffed Herpo and was a little speechless. He pointed at the mountain of giant spider corpses around him and said, "When you're hungry in the future, just come to this room and get food. Okay?" The Basilisk looked at the mountain of delicious food and immediately slapped its tail on the ground in joy.
There was so much food, enough for it to eat for a long time. And as it ate more, it would shed its skin faster, growing bigger and stronger. After settling the Basilisk, Luke left the secret room. The door of the room disappeared again, leaving only a small, easily overlooked silver snake on the wall.