The group slowly walked through the maze, which felt endless. Meanwhile, Christian was trying his best to hide his panic. Everything looked the same to him, even after marking the places they'd been. He had no idea whether they were making progress or simply walking in circles in this terrible place. The doubts in his mind were maximized despite his best efforts to control his emotions and thoughts with his Occlumency.
"Christian, are you sure you're alright?" Xin'er asked after noticing his complexion was slightly pale.
"I'm fine," Christian swiftly replied.
"Your tone doesn't inspire confidence, does it?" Lucretia added as she turned around.
"I would not jeopardize the team, so I would have told you if something was wrong with me," Christian replied, trying to sound as normal as possible. Lucretia looked at him from head to toe: "If you say so." She continued leading the team, rapidly navigating through this maze.
She had an excellent memory, and with the marks on the maze, Lucretia could walk different paths, thus making great strides. The team continued in this manner for two hours, taking a brief break in the middle to eat the terrible ant meat. Finally, Christian's Vitalis Revelio Charm revealed signs of life in the distance.
"I found signs of life," he swiftly said. "Their aura resembles bees, and there are many of them."
"Bees? That could be many things," Xin'er said.
"Let's first see what these creatures are," Christian said. He led the group to the wall's corner and hunched down. They could see the creatures in the distance, but not clearly, as they seemed tiny in size. Christian wished he had a spell to see long distances and decided he would learn the spell used to make the Omnioculars when he returned home.
Luckily, his conjuration had made significant progress. He conjured a small brass pocket telescope and handed it to Xin'er. "What's this?" she asked, and Christian remembered that this was around 205 BCE. Although this place had many technologically advanced things that were out of place, the telescope was not one of them.
"It's a telescope," he explained before showing her how to use it. Xin'er was surprised but did not ask any questions. She observed the creatures more than 20 meters away.
"It's a nest of Homing Wasp," Xin'er revealed.
"Those speedy creatures?" Lucretia asked.
"Yes," Xin'er nodded.
"How fast are you talking about? And how potent is their venom?" Christian knew to be direct before Xin'er went on a tangent.
"They are one of the fastest creatures," Xin'er replied. "Unless you have super-reflexes or a spell with a similar effect, fighting them directly is pointless. The poison of one wasp is not severe, but this is an entire nest. Being stung by ten of these creatures is enough to kill all of us."
Christian grunted softly: "Any suggestions on how to deal with them?"
"Homing Wasps have extraordinary senses. They can detect the slightest sound or odor," Xin'er explained. "Under normal circumstances, we could try a Disillusionment Charm to get closer and release a knockout or killing gas."
"Under normal circumstances?" Christian detected what she was implying.
"This nest has a fully developed queen," Xin'er revealed as she pointed to one of the wasps. However, she was the only one with the telescope, so no one could see what she was pointing to.
"I'm guessing the queen is a problem," Christian sighed.
"A fully grown queen can detect magic, and not to belittle you, but I doubt your spell could go undetected under her watch. So, unless you can apparate and instantly take us next to the queen and swiftly deal with the nest, this path is a no-go."
"No problem," Christian replied. He would not risk his and the team's lives out of pride. "But now, we are back to the starting point: what should we do?"
"I suggest we put our best defense and run to the left or right," Xin'er suggested. "That way, we don't have to deal with all the wasps in the nest and the queen."
"But what if those two paths lead to dead ends?" Lucretia asked, but no one had an answer.
"I can lure a few wasps away," Menes suggested. "One of my spells can create a flower with an irresistible scent to bees and wasps."
"That may work," Lucretia nodded before looking at Christian: "What do you think?"
"We need a multiple approach," Christian said as he had a plan. "Can you allow me to use or carry your spell?"
"I can condense them into seeds, and you only need to throw them to activate the effect," Menes responded.
"Are you going alone?" Lucretia asked, having detected his intent.
"It's safer that way." Christian conjured a second small telescope while waiting for Menes. Once he had the seed, he looked at the nest. "Which one is the queen?"
"It's slightly bigger than the others, with small antennas in the form of a crown," Xin'er explained.
"Got it," Christian responded before turning invisible with a Disillusionment Charm and removing all sounds around him. Then, he slowly approached the nest. Christian approached carefully, his gaze never leaving the queen. The first step in his plan was to approach as slowly as possible while keeping track of her magical detection distance. Once he reached 20 meters from the nest, the queen's eyes shifted to him.
Christian acted swiftly: "Graphica Illusio! Geminio!" He used Lockhart's Illusion Charm to create himself before using the Geminio Curse to replicate the illusion endlessly. This was not the first time he had used this tactic since he tried it during his battle with Quirrel/the Dark Lord. However, things were slightly different this time around.
Previously, Christian's illusions were still and could not move. However, after more than half a year of perfecting the Duel Disk, he could now control them. He ordered these creations to rush toward the nest before dividing them into the left and right paths.
As soon as the illusions appeared, countless wasps rushed to attack. Christian realized his team was not underestimating these creatures when they talked about how fast they were. However, these wasps soon became confused because their attacks were useless—they would just pass through the illusions.
'It's working,' Christian thought. All the illusions overwhelmed the queen's senses, thus removing her sight or focus from him. He rapidly ran after the illusions, using them as cover. Once he reached the interception that led to the right and left paths, Christian did not hesitate to throw Menes' seeds in those paths, luring even more wasps away from the nest.
Christian did not hesitate to use the Acceleration Charm to travel toward the queen with immense speed. As soon as he approached her, he cast a potent Immobulus Charm that hit the queen and the remaining wasps, rendering them useless. Sadly for him, he also underestimated the queen's speed and reflexes. While his spell worked, she also sent her sting flying as an attack.
Christian may not have super-reflexes, but his natural reflexes were extraordinary. After more than a year of training, it became instinctive for him to evade things that flew toward him when in danger. So, his upper torso moved, allowing the sting to hit his shoulder instead of his head.
'Damn it,' he cursed due to the pain. Christian immediately cast a Stamina Charm, followed by Reparifors for the poisons. Christian then took two vitaseeds from his bag of holding. Such a swift action should have helped, but that was not the case. After taking one step, he felt dizzy and passed out. Xin'er failed to mention that the queen's venom was the deadliest. So, Christian's actions merely delay his inevitable death.