In southern England, there is a river that cuts into the land from the Solent Strait, meandering from south to north until it passes through Winchester before turning east and gradually weakening.
This river is called Yiqin River.
To be honest, this river is actually not long, and it is not too famous. It is not even ranked highly in the UK where there are many rivers.
But this time, its existence brought great convenience to Hermione and her group's trip.
"Let's get in the water."
After re-entering the mist along the river, and encountering more and more living corpses, Hermione decided to start walking underwater.
The flowing river water will naturally hinder the movement of the living zombies, so there are not many enemies underwater. As long as the breathing problem is ensured, the safety will be greatly improved.
And when it comes to breathing underwater... for Hermione and the others nowadays, it is obviously just a trivial matter.
After everyone in the team, including Harry, had cast the Bubble Curse, everyone put away their brooms and sank into the water of the Itchen River.
The weather has actually been quite warm recently. Unfortunately, the UK has not seen sunshine for too long and the temperature has always been very low. Now everyone was soaked in water, and they couldn't help but shiver.
However, after experiencing the previous near-fatal crisis, instead of fighting with all his strength, he was worried about the terror of dying on the battlefield at any time. Being slightly frozen in the water seemed to be nothing at all.
"Prrr..."
Hermione, who had a big bubble wrapped around her head, turned to look at Harry. After confirming that there was nothing wrong, she made a "go" gesture to her friends.
The next moment, she suddenly waved her wand and pointed behind herself.
"Bang!"
As a ball of air exploded from the tip of her staff, she rushed forward suddenly. Although her speed was much slower than that of a broomstick, it was at least much better than swimming by herself.
Seeing this, everyone imitated her and followed her up, all the way along the river to Winchester in the north.
…
"Wow!"
When Hermione and the rest of the group surfaced for the unknown number of times and reapplied the Bubble Curse, the sky was gradually turning dark. Looking left and right in the middle of the river, the surrounding space became dim again, and it was impossible to see very far.
"You guys stay here for a while, and I'll go to the shore to take a look."
Hermione panted slightly and slowly paddled towards the river. As she gradually approached the river bank, the large shadowy figure in the shadow of the thick fog came into view again.
The density of living corpses here is already quite high, even higher than when they were besieged by a large group of living corpses at Downton. Going ashore here to look for recognizable road signs is never a good option.
Hermione didn't even dare to get too close to the shore, because those living corpses were very sensitive to the magic fluctuations of living people, and they might be noticed at any time once they got close.
Fortunately, she soon discovered that she was lucky this time, because there was a road along the river on the bank, and there was a road sign not far ahead.
"We're here! Winchester is ahead!"
When Hermione barely made out a few letters on the road sign, a look of joy suddenly appeared on her tired face - even though she relied on magic to travel underwater, in order to maintain balance in the water, it was so difficult to travel such a long distance. The journey still takes a lot of energy.
"Further forward, when we actually enter the area near the ancient city of Winchester, the number of living corpses will be greatly reduced." Neville, who also swam over, said, "It was like this last time when we came here - Maka has sent people to clear out all the living corpses in the ancient city, and there are wizards who can control black flames patrolling everywhere, and soon we will be completely safe."
"Um."
Hermione nodded, then followed Neville back to the middle of the river, beckoning everyone to move on.
However, when they emerged from the water again, Hermione discovered that the situation did not seem to be exactly what Neville said...
"Here... we should have reached the ancient city area, right?" Hermione held on to the stones on the riverside and glanced at the shore a few more times, but suddenly felt a chill, "What are those?"
Yes, there do seem to be many figures on the shore constantly walking and patrolling, but... Black Flame Wizard? No, no, no, although those guys who can use black flames to defend themselves look a little weird, Hermione heard from Harry that they usually behave like normal people except when fighting.
However, the figures on the shore all have humanoid postures, even if their specific appearances cannot be clearly seen through the fog. However, the very stiff and weird walking posture of those "figures" made Hermione look like no one.
To be honest, compared to the guys above, Hermione felt that the living corpses outside looked more like humans!
After hesitating by the river for a while, she quietly returned to her companions and told everyone what she saw.
"...Have you ever seen puppets? To be honest, after I saw those figures on the shore, the first thing I thought of was puppets controlled by strings held by a puppeteer."
Friends who have already faced too many terrible realities will naturally not be afraid of this scene.
However, when I think about it, this should be Maka's territory, and several of them have just been here not long ago. This time, there were such big and strange changes, which made everyone very uneasy.
"Oh! What the hell is Maka doing here!" Ron wiped the cold river water on his face and muttered in a low voice, "Last time, even though I came in 'lying down', I saw a lot. Thing... I think those Black Flames are actually scary enough - they all look like dead people. But this time... Hermione, what did you just say? Doll?"
However, Neville on the side shook his head and said:
"Actually! I think it shouldn't matter... Anyway, this must be Maka's territory. This will never change, right? When I came here before, I felt that he should be planning to stay here for a long time. —And as long as this is Maca’s place, we don’t have to worry too much.”
"Um… "
Hermione couldn't help but nodded when she heard this. After pondering for a moment, she said:
"Yes! Besides, we are all here, we have to go up and take a look - let's do this! Neville, you protect everyone here, I will go ashore to test it out first."
After that, when she saw that others were still talking, she immediately waved her hand to indicate that she didn't need to say anything more.
"give it to me."