great-warnovel Chapter 363 The Stars of the Scepter
Chapter 363 The Stars of the Scepter
Chapter 363 The Stars of the Scepter
Lucius crashed heavily to the ground, almost creating another crater in the already shattered earth.
Thanks to Hermione pushing him out early enough, he still retained some of his magic and wasn't killed instantly by the fall.
The hundred arms on its back had been severed, leaving only a shocking array of dense, bloody tumors.
He coughed up blood and struggled to his feet, where he saw Draco, Narcissa, and those repulsive little children.
"Why! You all can't understand me! You all want to oppose me!" Even now, he still vents his resentment on others.
His bloodshot eyes looked at his wife and children as if they were his enemies. Even though he had no hope of turning things around in his current predicament, he did not believe he was wrong.
"I sacrificed so much for this family, I suffered in the water dungeon for you all!"
"And you! You're enjoying yourselves at Hogwarts, neglecting the Malfoy family's legacy!"
Draco and Narcissa looked at the man as if he were a complete stranger; these were words that Lucius could never have uttered.
"You've really gone mad, Lucius." Narcissa's last shred of hope was shattered.
"Dad—this is the last time I'll call you Dad." Draco said, his head bowed.
"I don't know how they will judge you, but I think there's no better way for you to atone for your sins."
But Lucius remained unmoved. He raised his hand and pulled the fallen bone wand back into his grasp, still determined to put up a last-ditch resistance.
"I can see that you care about your companions, and Granger cares about you too. If we can capture you all..."
I still have room for negotiation!
He vomited a mouthful of blood. His body was on the verge of collapse, but some insane belief still supported him in casting the spell.
Transfiguration transformed the stone into a venomous snake with a triangular, pointed tip, and just as he had done in class years ago, he faced the students once more.
But today's children are nothing like the clueless first-graders they were back then.
Harry transformed back into human form and stood with his friends beside Draco, protecting Narcissa behind them.
Despite their ferocious appearance, the venomous snakes couldn't even get close to several people; in fact, Neville alone managed to cut them all in half.
"You vile thing! You disgusting idiot!" Lucius roared in a fit of rage, pushing his body to its limits as he unleashed a barrage of curses and explosive spells.
"We have to subdue him first!" Harry said, and the group swarmed forward, engaging in a fierce battle with the completely deranged Lucius.
In the sky, Hermione alone used her silver staff to control the dark celestial body, trying to lift it into the sky.
Unfortunately, she found herself seemingly drawn into the black sphere as well. During the time she was out of her control, the ancient darkness had consumed too much of Lucius's power and had now evolved into an independent magical entity, making it difficult for her to take control of it again.
Although the black sphere has not yet begun to devour her power, she is also unable to break free from the gravity of this celestial body on her own.
The dust cloud in the sky was churned up with a large hole. Fortunately, the celestial body is not currently consuming the material. The clouds and dust were simply dispersed, but the greenish radiation within them was completely absorbed.
Hermione, dragging the black ball, was almost at the edge of the atmosphere, where the air was thin and extremely cold. If she flew any higher, she might be forced to transform into the moon, the only form in which she could continue to survive.
"I was originally thinking of bringing it up and then throwing it out, as long as it doesn't affect the Earth no matter where it flies—" Hermione groaned inwardly.
This isn't a real black hole after all. After being thrown out of Earth, it will absorb cosmic energy for a while and eventually collapse and explode when it reaches its limit. But now this thing is stuck to it and she can't get rid of it no matter what she does, so she doesn't have any good solutions for the time being.
"What if we use sealing?" She didn't like this approach. Whether it was dangerous goods or dangerous people, sealing could only solve the immediate problem, postpone the issue, and leave the trouble for future generations.
Moreover, the eternal darkness devours magic, making it difficult for ordinary sealing methods to be effective against it.
Gravity magic is often used to seal borders, but that requires a support structure. When sealing criminals, a prison deep in the ground is needed, and when sealing the sky, the entire earth is used as a foundation.
Moreover, the eternal darkness is designed to mimic the existence of lightless celestial bodies in the universe, so it is unknown how effective gravity magic would be against it.
"Perhaps runes would be more effective?" she pondered, her left hand making a sweeping motion in the air, and strings of characters glowing white appeared.
The lessons I learned from Dumbledore during this period—the prohibition of magic, the isolation between the inside and outside, and the stabilization of the form—have come in handy. Although I can't yet cast them instantly like Dumbledore and form long chains of runes, the black orb won't resist, so taking it slow isn't a big problem.
She continued writing, and countless tiny runes began to spread across the surface of the black sphere. But this didn't last long. Now, the celestial body, which was as big as a small mountain, required her to spend a lot of effort to keep it in the air, and she also had to be constantly on guard against it going berserk.
She has less and less energy to spare for writing runes, as creating coherent and harmonious runes requires increasingly higher mental processing power.
Suddenly, another hand appeared beside her, and a vast amount of magic joined in, helping Hermione take over a large portion of the energy stabilizing the black orb.
It's Hilmi!
"Why are you here? Didn't I tell you to watch the house?" Hermione asked.
"If I hadn't come, wouldn't you have been taken to outer space by this thing?" the boy said irritably.
"If you die, I can't live on my own."
As Hermione's other half, he sensed the danger to his main body and immediately teleported to Hermione's side.
"Perfect! You help me control it, I'll seal it, and then throw it into space!" With another great wizard's help...
Her stress immediately lessened considerably.
The layers upon layers of runes were finally completed. The fine, pattern-like white light firmly enveloped the surface of the giant celestial body, completely isolating its suction force and allowing the two to escape safely.
"That's such a waste," Hilmi disagreed with the idea of throwing it away.
"We finally managed to capture it stably after a lot of effort—"
"I have a great idea!" he suddenly exclaimed.
"Come help!" The boy placed his hands on the surface of the giant sphere, activated gravity magic, and began to flash with a shimmering purple light. The inward compressive force began to act evenly on the sphere.
"Hey! Slow down! Don't break it!" The two were of one mind, and Hermione immediately knew what Hilmi was going to do.
While continuously replenishing the runes and reinforcing the seal, she also used the Unseen Stretch Charm in reverse, working with Hilmi to compress the sphere to its maximum size.
"Done!" The burst of electricity slowly dissipated, and Hilmi, as if to show off his achievement, moved the small ball, now only the size of a fist, in front of Hermione.
The dark sphere of light resembled a miniature black hole model, with tiny white runes swirling around it.
"Attach it to your staff, and with the runes you control, you can absorb any incoming magic!"
Hermione also thought Hilmi's idea was good. Hogwarts's Brilliant Stone Core couldn't be placed on the staff all the time, which often made her feel that it was empty. Now that it had this small magical black hole, it was a bit like taking the Supreme Distant Staff from the Mother of the Fingers.