great-warnovel Chapter 57 The Ambitious Ones Stop Here
Chapter 57 The Ambitious Ones Stop Here
"Demonic power descended from the heavens!"
Hermione stood within the magic circle, gripping her staff and thrusting it into the ground. A massive ball of radiant energy condensed in the air, unleashing a shower of light towards Lucius. This was magic that sorcerers were taught when they made an ancient oath with the Crystallizers.
Lucius was startled by Hermione's sudden outburst, but he no longer wanted to use magical items to directly block Hermione's attack. He needed to protect himself, so he instead swung his staff, deflecting the unavoidable rain of light while using an unseemly tactic of rolling to use the surrounding stone pillars and braziers to block the wide-range attack.
"Crystallization Barrage!"
The magnificent crystalline fragments surged like a torrent, destroying the brazier where Lucius was hiding, and he tumbled away in disarray, not expecting Hermione's magic to be so powerful so suddenly.
This is also a spell used by Crystallization School mages, and it is also enhanced by the Magic Realm.
With the near-limitless energy provided by the sapphire crystals, Hermione's pursuit did not stop. She stood in the center of the magic circle, her wand pointing straight ahead, like a stable cannon emplacement. Continuous sapphire crystals, like a storm of fragments, relentlessly bombarded Lucius.
Old Malfoy was now beginning to regret wasting so many magical items. He manipulated the Transfiguration Charm, lifting up the stone bricks on the ground to turn them into an iron wall to block Hermione's fire. At the same time, he kept shifting his position, turning the surrounding water and flames into snakes or fire hawks and throwing them out, but Hermione shot them all off.
The situation seemed to be the opposite of the actual combat lesson, where Lucius was the one bombarding everything, while Hermione could only hide in a sorry state and harass him with all her might.
However, it would be too naive to think that you could defeat the defense professor just like that.
Hermione suddenly felt a wriggling under her feet. She quickly stopped the spell, cast a levitation spell on herself, and leaped into the air. The next moment, sharp triangular iron spikes burst from the spot where she had just stood, and the magic circle was shredded to pieces.
The iron wall in front of Lucius collapsed, and he knelt on the ground, manipulating the earth with his cane. His hair was disheveled, and he was no longer the elegant man he once was.
"Too powerful." She praised inwardly, not for herself or Lucius, but for the Radiant Stone. With this aid, she could even suppress a mature academy dean in terms of firepower!
Hermione landed slowly, and seeing the fierce look in the other person's eyes, she was clearly enraged.
"You filthy, vile Mudbloods! Avada Kedavra!"
The tip of Lucius's staff flashed green light, and a green lightning bolt that would end everything shot out.
Hermione doesn't have Professor McGonagall's ability to conjure animals that are almost lifelike, but ever since she learned about this supposedly unbreakable killing curse, she has been pondering a solution.
The sudden death effect is not unique to this world. In the borderlands, death lightning and eclipse hooks can achieve the same effect. However, the killing curse has a fatal problem: it is useless if it does not hit a person. Using mice or other objects to confuse the target of the killing curse works on the same principle. Moreover, the killing curse can be blocked by obstacles, which is another method.
However, in general combat, the Death Curse is released very quickly, just a flash of green light, making it difficult to find suitable cover or construct it with Polymorph in a short time. Those who can use tactical rolls to dodge and bite are combat geniuses.
Hermione has no small animals at her disposal, and if she were to use tactical rolls, she would easily fall into Lucius's fighting rhythm and be toyed with by the fast and slow blades, just like when facing the Ominous King. This is why she has never been willing to use this divine skill too much.
But she also knows sudden death spells. If she uses a sudden death spell of the same attribute, can she deviate from Avada Kedavra's target?
Of course, she could try using the Kalia Retribution spell again, which she used to deflect the Death Curse the moment she arrived in this world.
Although she later learned that there was no evidence that a powerful wizard could use a reflective spell to deflect Avada Kedavra, and Professor McGonagall considered her the only isolated case, the magical outburst of a young wizard was strange and understandable, so she did not investigate further.
However, [Kalia's Retribution] is a spell that requires extreme precision and is very demanding in terms of timing. With her current abilities, she is not yet able to reliably reproduce this spell. This is a gamble, and the success rate of this move is not very high. She prefers to use sudden death magic to deflect the target of the death curse, which is the most feasible option.
Coincidentally, there is a spell that is very suitable for the current situation.
"Fia Smoke!"
The magic of Fia, the girl of the Dead Sleep, can create a mist that accumulates the sudden death status ailment. In the Borderlands, it's a spell specifically used against the Faded Ones of the Round Table Hall. Victims continuously accumulate this status ailment within the mist, and once it reaches its limit, it becomes impervious to all conditions. No matter how vigorous their life force, how thick their armor, or how strong their magic resistance, they will be pierced and killed by the terrifying black death roots that grow from their bodies.
The centipede ring, representing death, appeared at the top of the staff. An ominous black-gold mist rose up, forming a wall of fog. Green lightning, also representing death, crashed into the fog, but lost its target in the next moment, spreading into a magnificent lightning tree, turning the black-gold fog a ghastly green.
Two spells with the same rules but different forms collided. The gentle smoke was no match for the fierce lightning, but the lightning, having filled all the blind spots in the fog, still could not find its target and eventually dissipated without a trace due to its exhaustion.
"It worked!" Hermione thought to herself.
"What kind of magic is this!" Lucius exclaimed in shock, feeling the same terrifying chill of death emanating from the mist.
Hermione did not answer him, but continued to cast spells to spread the smoke toward Lucius.
"Damn it!" Old Malfoy dared not get close to the smoke. He didn't want to gamble on whether the Ironclad Charm could block the fog. He turned back into black smoke and rose into the air, reappearing on the towering Slytherin statue. He took out a flying broom from his bag and rode on it.
"Kid, I heard you did terribly in your flight class? Then experience the fear of being suppressed by air cavalry!" Lucius shouted, as curses rained down from the sky.
Hermione's lips curled up slightly. Following Lucius's example, she used her magic-infused staff to deflect the curse until Lucius flew above her head. Then she spread her fingers and pulled down sharply.
The invisible gravity suddenly intensified, and Lucius, caught off guard, slammed to the ground along with his broom.
Gravity magic, a subject Hermione had been determined to study since her first flight lesson, was bound to make some progress.
"Kalia's Swift Sword!"
She changed the direction of her staff, thrusting it straight at the falling Lucius, the bright blade of light surging.
Although Lucius was a little flustered when he was pulled down, he was less worried when he saw Hermione use the same trick again.
Beside him, the "Divine Armor" specifically designed to block cutting spells was still in operation, so the light blade spell couldn't harm him.
But how could Hermione possibly attack him with a spell that had been proven ineffective?
The sword magic of the Kalia royal family is not limited to Swift Sword!
The light from the pyroxene suddenly shone brightly, and an even more powerful flow of magic surged forth.
"Carria's Piercing Strike!"
The next moment, the light blade, originally the length of a single-handed sword, instantly swelled into a sharp greatsword as large as a spear, piercing through Lucius's several layers of protection with overwhelming force. It only stopped its momentum when it encountered the black Divine Armor. However, unlike when it encountered the Swift Sword of Kalia, the black barrier was now resisting with exceptional difficulty, and cracks spread from the barrier at the tip of the sword.
Lucius's broom was also cut off, but he reacted quickly and summoned a hurricane at the last moment to pull himself away.
He landed awkwardly on the ground, taking a few steps back with lingering fear. He looked down at the brass instrument that was flying around him like a bird; it was now teetering on the brink of collapse and probably wouldn't be able to withstand many more attacks.
Hermione shook her head regretfully. He had actually managed to block the attack. The level of magic in this world should not be underestimated.
What she didn't know was that this little gadget called the Divine Armor was already a very clever alchemical achievement of Beauxbatons. It was one of the few barrier gadgets that could block it after Snape invented the Divine Armor and it spread within the Green Flame Party.
Even in Malfoyburg, such a thing isn't something you can just buy whenever you want; Lucius spent a fortune to get one.
He was starting to feel a sense of defeat. Although losing to a first-year Mudblood again was a deep humiliation, his life was still more important.
He looked up at the tall Slytherin statue behind Hermione. The consequence of their failed broomstick attack was that they had switched places. Now, to escape through the tunnel in the statue's mouth, he had to get around this troublesome situation first, but the presence of gravity magic made him hesitant to take off.
"Surrender, you have no chance." Hermione said calmly, leaning on her staff. With the help of the Brilliant Stone, she was confident that she could continue to suppress Lucius.
The two faced each other on the long stone path, with dark and gloomy water on both sides.
"Hand over the bell, and your life will be decided by the professors. At least Draco can continue attending school here."
Lucius sneered, "Draco? I had him sent away a long time ago. He should be home by now."
Hermione was speechless: "He borrowed Harry's Invisibility Cloak, and now your people are probably still wandering around the school like headless flies."
Lucius, caught off guard by this unexpected turn of events, glared at him angrily: "That idiot!"
He glared angrily at the bell beside him: "Since you want it, then let's see if you're alive to take it!"
He grabbed the jingling bell and, using this powerful magical artifact, unleashed a chilling aura of death from his body, unleashing a barrage of deep black spells at Hermione.
"Although it looks incredibly powerful, your mind is already in turmoil." Hermione shook her head, dodging the spells that were clearly off-target, while exhaling thick white mist from her mouth and disappearing into the mist.
This is a large-scale medicinal mist created by her combining the perfumer's inducing spray with a cloud-like spell. It doesn't contain any deadly toxins, but rather some hallucinogenic ingredients such as belladonna.
A gentle mist enveloped Lucius; the non-lethal thick white fog couldn't trigger the Ironclad Charm's protection. As he continued to inhale, his already chaotic mind would become even more confused, which was Hermione's opportunity.
She vanished into the mist, tossing out a sparkling incense that struck Lucius's armored spell, before disappearing again, leaving behind only sticky white phosphorus pollen that continued to burn on the barrier, slowly eroding his defenses.
"You scoundrels, driven by the fires of foolish ambition, stop here."
Hermione stood in the mist, her hands raised high with her staff. The magic circle beneath her feet had somehow re-emerged, and intense blue light emanated from the radiant stone, slowly forming a massive blade of light.
Lucius stood frozen in fear. He could see the surrounding mist shrouded in blue by magic, but he couldn't pinpoint Hermione's location. He held the bell blankly, but the scene before him began to blur. The flames attached to the Ironclad Charm further obscured his vision. He fired spells haphazardly in all directions, but to no avail.
The humiliation of another failure, the regret of a failed conspiracy, and the possibility of Draco being in danger—all of this left him parched, restless, and still inhaling hallucinogenic fumes.
The spyglass in his pocket spun wildly as he frantically pulled out all his protective gear from his treasure pouch: necklaces, badges, rings, hats, brooches, tie clips, buttons, handkerchiefs... a wide variety of items, but none of them could give him a real sense of security at this moment. He frantically activated one item after another, his whole body shimmering with dazzling light, and he generously covered himself with layers of tortoise shells.
"She can't break through my defenses! Hold on! As long as we escape, there's still hope! No! I need to go back and save Draco! That idiot! I'll give him a good beating when we get back!"
"Savor this move! Magnificent, Kalia!" Hermione's resounding voice accompanied the booming greatsword as it slashed down.
The most powerful sword magic of the Kalia royal family, but often bestowed upon knights in the form of battle ash. It requires three stages of charging, during which the greatsword expands three times to an exaggerated degree. Although the long charging time makes the hit rate of this move questionable, once the terrifying magical greatsword is formed, it can cut everything in front of it in half with unstoppable force. It is a spell that is invincible in the face. Even the giant golden tree spirit or the dragon with thick armor cannot withstand its power, let alone the layers of iron armor barriers that do not even form a defensive matrix.
boom!
A blinding white light stirred up a gust of wind strong enough to blow a person away, dispelling Hermione's medicinal mist. Immediately afterwards, a huge cloud of dust rose up, accompanied by a deafening roar, and the entire stone path was cleaved in two by a single sword strike. All of Lucius's magical artifacts were reduced to dust in an instant.
He himself, however, passed out unharmed...
Hermione stopped at the crucial moment, knowing that keeping the nominal master of Malfoy Castle alive would be more valuable than his death, and that the professors could use him to bring greater benefits to Hogwarts.
She walked to Lucius's side and used magic to levitate the bell. Now that it had lost its controller, it had stopped ringing. Hermione could feel that the fluctuations that had caused the ghosts to lose control had disappeared, but the chilling aura of death still lingered in the bell. She carefully wrapped it in the fabric of Lucius's robe before putting it in her pocket.
After knocking old Malfoy down with two more stuns, Hermione used a levitation spell to lift him up and headed towards the sewer entrance.