great-warnovel Chapter 1 A Message from Hogwarts
Chapter 1 A Message from Hogwarts
"Even though the guidance has long been broken, please become the King of Elden."
This was the witch's last message before she died. The spacetime at the border was so chaotic that she heard echoes of the future in her dying moments. Her faded one had not let her down.
"Is it a rebirth? This body... a girl named Hermione?"
She still remembered her past as a witch, and her Faded Ones were on their way. A fallen leaf brought news that she and her warriors would embark on a journey to seek blessings, forge new laws, and repair the ravaged world.
But the silent attack severely injured her; she didn't even see the attacker's face clearly. In her final moments before dying, she could only leave a final message for her Faded One.
"I hope that in the next life, it will be a fairytale world..."
The fierce wind howls like the ceaseless weeping of Storm Hill; fallen leaves, can you still bring us new news...?
With my eyes closed, all I could hear were noisy, terrified voices all around me, as if I were running away.
"What happened? It seems so chaotic?" The memories are still not clear, and it seems that this child's childhood has always been spent in a state of constant wandering.
The screams and the sounds of running away grew louder and louder. Hermione could feel that she was being held in someone's arms and staggering as they fled.
The scent of death was approaching. A bright light flashed by, and the crowd was filled with fear. Cries and screams rose and fell. Even with their eyes tightly closed, they were still blinded by the fleeting green light.
"It's magic, a kind of magic I've never seen before, carrying the scent of death, an unquestionable decree!" she thought to herself. Perhaps it's the Deathborn? Has the Calling Ship of Tibia arrived? Or is it the Bird of Death? Has the sun of this world lost its color?
She recalled the terror of being chased by the spirit fire in the darkness.
Suddenly, a bright green light shone, and the Grim Reaper's chariot sped up from behind.
The person who was holding him collapsed, and the warmth of life was rapidly draining away from him.
She was thrown heavily to the ground, and with the cold wind outside, her last warm breath lingered on her face.
"I can't lie down any longer! I need to wake up!" An inexplicable crisis was approaching, and Hermione quickened her pace in controlling her body.
Footsteps were approaching, accompanied by a wicked laugh and the panting of a broken bellows.
Finally, Hermione opened her eyes.
The sky was thick and dark, with heavy, inky clouds blocking out the sunlight. Interspersed among the clouds were unidentified fluorescent green spots, seemingly brewing malice towards the world.
Her gaze shifted downwards, and the place seemed to be a desolate wasteland. Scattered withered branches grew on the sandy ground, and corpses lay scattered around her, without wounds, their faces calm, as if life had quietly slipped away on its own.
She looked at the man who had held her until his death, a bearded man.
【Father】
"Such distant vocabulary." She had almost forgotten that warm little home in the borderlands, before the war, before she became the Finger Witch, when the eternal golden tree sheltered all of Queen Marika's people, and when she still had a father, a mother, and a brother...
But tears were already streaming down her face. The residual reaction of this body brought back memories of her parents in this life—the union of two battlefield doctors. Even in such dire circumstances, her family held a respected position. The Grangers had protected their child well. Cold and hunger had not afflicted Hermione's childhood. Even though the thick radioactive dust had long since obscured hope, there was still light in the child's eyes.
Until the earth trembled, the frost shattered, and then came a sudden, deafening roar.
The settlement was stormed by a man clad in black robes. The fierce security captain fell to the ground in a single encounter, followed by a series of explosions... The flashes of fire and the sounds of steam rifles rose and fell, but none of them could harm the black-robed demon.
Terrified people detonated the gunpowder, and the fire spread, engulfing the entire settlement in flames.
Her father carried her, along with her mother, and they mingled in the fleeing crowd. But the man in the black robe was too fast. With a crackling sound like clothes being wrung out, the neighbors they knew fell one after another, then her mother, and then her father.
Now, I'm the only one left.
The black-robed man's purpose was clear. Although Hermione remained lying down and motionless, the black-robed man continued to walk towards them with unwavering determination.
"He knows I'm still alive," Hermione calmly told herself, then slowly sat up.
She was wearing a thick cotton coat, which had been repaired many times; it was her mother's handiwork, hasty but warm.
"Ah~ the little witch can't escape now." Seeing Hermione sit up, the black-robed man who walked slowly over chuckled and played with a small dark green wooden stick.
He took off his hood, revealing a swollen half of his face. The left side of his skull was abnormally swollen, as if a tumor had grown in his brain, causing his entire left face to sag downwards. He couldn't close his mouth, and disgusting saliva dripped out as he spoke.
"Who are you?" Hermione asked.
"Death... Under the master's guidance, we will all transcend death!" The black-robed monster shouted madly, lost in his own world.
"What do you want?" Hermione asked again.
"Aren't you afraid? Such a talented child... Maybe we shouldn't take him back. Let me enjoy this death myself." As he said this, the tip of the wooden stick glowed with a chilling, ghastly green.
"Accept your fate, Avada Kedavra!"
A green light greeted us.
This is the one who killed everyone.
At this moment, Hermione still had time to let her mind wander, but her body reacted instinctively, reaching forward to push herself away: "Kalia-style return!"
The most powerful magical civilization in the border region, the Kalia royal family and the Reyalukalia Academy under its command, have a disagreement over the path of the stars and the moon. The Kalia royal family is always on guard against the betrayal of the academy's mages, and has thus developed a magic specifically designed to deflect spells.
A complex magic circle appeared in her palm, emanating a fleeting, azure glow that deftly blocked the deadly green light. The intricate magical transformation was completed in an instant, the lethal power twisted and converted. The next moment, three green magic swords formed above Hermione's head.
"Even a warrior like the Faded Ones couldn't parry with such precision, could he?" A thought flashed through Hermione's mind.
A sharp sword pierces the sky, returning the decree of death.
"What..." Before the man in black robes could finish speaking, three magic swords shot out and pierced through him instantly.
The green power seemed to carry a deadly curse, and even when it transformed into a sword, it did not weaken in the slightest. The man in black died very quickly, without even having time to say a last word. Like the other corpses on the ground, he rapidly lost his body temperature. Hermione was also stunned in place.
"It's magic from the Kalia royal family, created to defend against the academy. I'd only ever heard of it before, so why am I hearing about it now..."
"A very exquisite Reflection Charm, Miss Granger. I'm sorry I'm late."
Hermione looked in the direction of the sound and saw a figure walking through the light frost.
It was a woman dressed in a dark green robe and wearing a wide-brimmed witch's hat. Her face was old and she looked tired. She held a long broom in one hand and a small wooden stick similar to the one in the black robe in the other.
"It's truly astonishing that the little wizard's magical outburst could create such exquisite magic!" The woman's expression was one of surprise; she had already prepared for the worst.
"Are you a witch?" Hermione asked, the only information she heard from the man in black.
"Yes, I am a witch." The woman in the green robe nodded. Her clothes were covered with cloth pockets that had been added later, and they were bulging inside, with no one knowing what they were stuffed with.
"Let me introduce myself. I am Minerva McGonagall, the Vice-Headmistress of Hogwarts, the Head of Gryffindor, and your future Transfiguration professor."
Hermione paused for a moment, then asked, "Is it a magic academy?"
The girl's confused memories began to clear, and the two souls merged together without distinction. Everything else also merged with them. In this world, there were wizards and Muggles. Their war destroyed the world. That happened a long time ago, and her parents had never seen the world before the war.
From the time she could remember, she lived in a settlement built of caves and shelters. Because her parents were doctors, she never lacked food or clothing. However, her daily food consisted only of roots and fungi from deep within the earth. As for meat, she could only see it once in a long while. Hunting ferocious mutant beasts would cost her life.
Magic, a fearsome concept, was ignited by evil wizards who set the world ablaze. Dark flames burned on the corpses of civilization, and desperate people conceived of nuclear bombs. With the help of monsters called fairies, they mass-produced them. These were not merely weapons for mortals; fairies added the sighs of winter to them.
And so—the world was destroyed.
Radioactive dust obscured the sky, Demeter pounded on Boreas, stealing warmth from the earth, and the sun became a mere legend among the survivors…
The sun has indeed lost its luster in this world.
"Yes, I've brought you here as quickly as possible." The old witch's face was weary and bitter. "But the Death Eaters are faster than me..."
"Am I a witch too? One of the ordinary people?"
"Didn't you just do that?"
Hermione watched as the old witch waved her small stick, and the earth naturally churned, swallowing up the dead one by one, including the black-robed man known as the Death Eater.
"That's my dad." Hermione looked at a bump on the ground.
"I'm sorry, but the deceased are gone. Staying here will only result in them being eaten by the mutant beasts."
Hermione watched her movements, at the small wooden stick that curved beautifully: "Is that a staff?"
McGonagall paused for a moment, then continued, "You mean this? This is a wand. You'll have one too."
"Would you accept a witch from among ordinary people?"
"Wizards are human, and it is unwise for them to isolate themselves from Muggles."
"The reflection spell you just mentioned?"
McGonagall forced a smile onto his serious face: "An advanced application of the Ironclad Charm. When young wizards are in life-or-death situations, they often experience magical outbursts. If they are lucky, it can create an effect similar to a spell."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. Although she didn't know why she had mastered Kalia's magic, it was clear that she was not connected to this world, and the professor in front of her had made a mistake.
"However, you can't control your magic freely right now. Once you enroll and get your wand, you'll gradually learn how to control it," Professor McGonagall explained.
At that moment, the earth shook again, just like when the black-robed man broke into the settlement in my memory.
Hermione's expression instantly turned serious.
"There are Death Eaters?" She wasn't sure if she could cast Kalia's Retribution again; that moment's memory had become hazy.
McGonagall shook her head: "That's Hogwarts, they're on their way here."
Hermione's gaze sharpened. Why were the Death Eaters and Hogwarts going one after the other?
The old woman's aged yet warm hand gently brushed across her eyes, as if granting permission or a right.
She stood up and looked into the distance. A castle with four giant stone legs suddenly appeared before her, swaying as it approached, like an old tortoise in its twilight years. The towering spire was shimmering with a reassuring, dim light.
Strolling through the mausoleum?