Even though they had already glimpsed part of the Watcher in the Water's appearance before, when it was completely exposed before everyone, they were still shocked by its massive size.

The Watcher's body was fully 50 meters long, and its tentacles were several times longer than its body. Including the tentacles, it was even longer than the dragon Smaug, reaching about 150 meters!

Besides this, the Watcher's body was covered with hard, scale-like bone armor.

When dwarves shot it with sharp arrows, they couldn't leave even a scratch on its body.

Without the lake water's concealment, the Watcher was very uneasy, waving its tentacles threateningly to try to scare everyone away.

But now it was a toothless tiger, its threat to everyone greatly reduced.

With waves of Kael's wand, he severed its tentacles one by one.

The Watcher showed fear and immediately tried to flee upstream.

It was an evil aquatic creature created by Morgoth, originally living in the underground waters of the Misty Mountains. When Khazad-dûm's dwarves kept digging deeper for mithril, they awakened not only the Balrog.

The Watcher was also among them.

It had followed the underground rivers the dwarves dug through to reach the surface, building a barrier lake here for its survival.

Now it only wanted to escape back to the Misty Mountains' underground waters and wait for another time.

But Kael wouldn't give it a chance to escape.

"Smaug, burn it!" Kael shouted to the dragon.

Smaug obeyed and flew directly in front of the Watcher, breathing scorching dragonfire.

The dragonfire quickly fell on the Watcher and spread, making it emit painful screeches as it frantically waved tentacles to beat the flames on its body until it sprayed ink to extinguish the fire.

But its body, especially the tentacles, was burned red-hot by the flames, directly giving off the aroma of cooked meat.

Smelling this meat aroma, one dwarf's stomach even rumbled, drawing strange looks from surrounding companions.

The dwarf chuckled sheepishly. "Isn't it mealtime? I was getting a bit hungry."

Seeing the path blocked by the dragon, the Watcher immediately turned and rushed downstream.

Just as it thought it would escape, basilisk Herpo, who had been lurking in wait downstream, directly delivered a wave of death gaze.

The Watcher's two large eyes unexpectedly met the basilisk's pair of yellow eyes.

The next second, the Watcher's body stiffened, its massive form rapidly hardening into dull gray stone.

It looked just like a lifelike giant octopus stone sculpture!

"Hmm?" Kael frowned and immediately flew over, puzzledly examining the petrified Watcher.

Direct eye contact with a basilisk should cause immediate death, right? How was it petrified instead?

Only when he flew to the Watcher's huge eyes did he discover a protective membrane covering its eyes.

Kael understood. The membrane had blocked direct eye contact with the basilisk, causing petrification rather than death.

Gandalf also flew over on his broomstick, tapping the petrified Watcher with his staff. It felt like tapping stone.

Dwarf Balin also ran over, looking at the statue-like behemoth and asking puzzledly, "Is it dead?"

"I don't think so," Gandalf answered first. "It's more like it's under a petrification curse, very advanced and difficult to break. Am I right, Kael?"

Kael nodded.

"Gandalf is correct. This water monster was very lucky. Originally, looking at a basilisk would kill it instantly, but its eyes have a transparent protective membrane that avoided direct eye contact with the basilisk's eyes, causing petrification instead."

"However, this petrification isn't much different from death. Basilisk petrification is very hard to reverse. Without the corresponding method, it's no different from stone."

As far as he knew, even Dumbledore was helpless against basilisk petrification. Only powerful potions made from Mandrakes could reverse such petrification.

Looking at the massive Watcher, Kael suddenly had an idea.

He hadn't considered other options before, only wanting to quickly eliminate this octopus water monster.

But now that it was petrified, he no longer wanted to kill it.

In another world's Hogwarts, there was a giant squid in the Black Lake.

His Weathertop's Black Lake below the mountain lacked a guardian to prevent people from infiltrating the castle through waterways.

This giant octopus called the Watcher in the Water was perfect.

Kael admitted his collector's instinct was acting up.

If he could subdue the Watcher, he'd have another aquatic ally.

This way, he'd have collected powerful creatures from sea, land, and air.

So he used the Extension Charm to expand the basilisk's case again, then collected the petrified giant octopus inside, letting the basilisk and it squeeze together temporarily.

Gandalf wasn't surprised by this. After all, Kael already had a dragon, great eagle, and basilisk, so adding a giant octopus wasn't strange.

Balin looked at Kael with relief.

"We haven't even entered the Doors of Durin yet and have already encountered such a terrifying monster. Without you and Gandalf here, with just ourselves, I can't imagine what would have happened."

Hearing this, Kael could only think, "You got that right."

He remembered that in the original fate, Balin had also led 500 dwarves on the expedition to Moria.

Initially it went smoothly. They successfully drove Orcs from some areas and settled there.

Balin even proclaimed himself Lord of Moria and found treasures like Durin's Axe.

But soon after, Balin was killed by Orcs at Mirrormere, and then large numbers of Orcs flooded through the eastern gate along the Silverlode River, attacking Moria. The dwarf stronghold was overrun with almost total annihilation.

The surviving dwarves tried to escape through the western gate but were blocked by the Watcher in the Water. Óin was even dragged into the lake and died.

The other dwarves could only retreat into Moria, but facing numerous Orcs, they couldn't resist. In fighting retreats, dwarf numbers kept decreasing until the survivors, including Ori, all died in the Chamber of Mazarbul.

Throughout this process, they never even saw the Balrog, the main boss, before being completely wiped out. Only when the Fellowship came to Moria were their remains discovered.

But now with Kael's intervention, everything had changed.

Thorin Oakenshield, who should have died in the Battle of Five Armies, didn't die and became King under the Mountain of the Lonely Mountain, even fully supporting Balin's Moria reclamation this time.

Balin's Moria expedition was also advanced by decades, and the Watcher blocking the western gate was solved by Kael in advance.

So barring accidents, Balin and company wouldn't die in Moria. They might actually reclaim it.

Having dealt with the Watcher, everyone finally approached the Doors of Durin with confidence.

The Doors of Durin merged with the stone wall, making it very difficult to discern their true location.

But this didn't trouble Gandalf. He had been here before Khazad-dûm fell to the Balrog, even searching here when looking for the missing Thráin II, Thorin Oakenshield's father.

He came to a smooth stone wall between two tall holly trees, tapping the wall with his staff and recalling, "I remember it's here. The Doors of Durin are located between two holly trees."

Then he explained to Kael and the dwarves, "The Doors of Durin, also called the Elven-door, were created jointly by Eregion's Elven craftsman Celebrimbor and Durin's dwarf craftsman Narvi. The patterns and text on the door are drawn with mithril material called ithildin. The door only appears under moonlight or starlight."

"So we can only wait for nightfall when the moon or stars come out to find the door and enter?" Balin asked.

"I think so," Gandalf nodded.

Kael stepped forward, pressing his staff against the door's location and whispering, "Alohomora."

"How is it? Can you open it?" Gandalf asked.

Kael shook his head. "The door is protected by powerful magic. No magic can force it open except the correct password."

"Well, it looks like we really have to wait until evening."

"Not necessarily," Kael shook his head.

Gandalf looked at him with some surprise. "You have another way?"

Kael nodded.

"Didn't you say the text and patterns on the Doors of Durin appear under moonlight and starlight? Would Eärendil's light count as starlight?"

He smiled as he took out a crystal vial emanating starlight from his space pocket.

Seeing the crystal vial, Gandalf's eyes immediately brightened with a smile.

"Ha, I almost forgot you had this!"

"There's no purer starlight than this!"

Kael raised the crystal vial, illuminating the door's location.

Under Eärendil's light, the stone wall revealed a door outline and exquisite patterns drawn in silver-white lines.

The door's center had a many-pointed star and two trees bearing crescents, with Durin's emblems above: anvil, hammer, crown, and seven stars.

At the very top was an arch formed by Sindarin text.

Kael carefully examined the arch's text, slowly reading, "Speak, friend, and enter. The Lord of Moria, the Doors of Durin..."

"Oh, Kael, I didn't know you knew Sindarin?" Gandalf said in surprise.

Kael smiled and explained, "I learned from Arwen. After all, many books in Rivendell are recorded in Elvish. I need to understand them to know their contents."

Gandalf nodded approvingly. "Right, more knowledge is never wrong."

Then he focused mainly on the door, frowning. "The Lord of Moria, the Doors of Durin, speak, friend, and enter?"

"What does that mean?" Balin asked puzzledly.

"The meaning is obvious. If you're a friend, speak the password and the door will open," Gandalf explained.

"Then what's the password?" Balin asked again.

Gandalf shrugged helplessly. "If I knew, I wouldn't be standing here, Master Balin!"

"Mellon," Kael spoke, using the Sindarin word for friend.

"What?" Gandalf and Balin looked at Kael puzzledly.

Then the next second, they watched the door open automatically in surprise.

Balin was very astonished and confused.

But Gandalf quickly understood. "I see, I was thinking too complicated. The hint was already obvious. Elvish text should naturally be spoken in Elvish language."

Looking at the opened Doors of Durin, Balin and the dwarves were all very excited and expectant.

But Kael and Gandalf were more cautious.

They both knew a great enemy awaited them inside.