"How is that possible?" Harris Raymons's eyes bulged with shock.
Silver-white magic was corroding his body, but Harris Raymons seemed oblivious to the pain. He could only stare blankly at Dis as she withdrew her hand.
That had been one of the strongest forms of ancient magic. Even a Dragon could be pierced through in a single strike.
And yet this woman had flicked it away with one finger.
No, not just flicked it away. She had clearly flicked it out of existence.
How had he never known this woman was that powerful?
Looking at the dazed Harris Raymons, Dis curled her lips into a smile, her rosy mouth almost intoxicating.
"You should feel honored," she said. "You have witnessed the descent of Odin, King of the Gods."
Holy light suddenly filled the room. Harris Raymons looked around, but could not find the source of that radiance. It was as though every object in the room, even the tiniest speck of dust in the air, was giving off light.
Nicolas Flamel's body rose into the air, and a life force too powerful to ignore suddenly burst from his aged frame.
His bones and muscles, shriveled by old age, swelled like sponges drinking in water, stretching his wrinkles taut.
His hunched body became broad and imposing. His pale hair turned into brilliant gold.
It looked as though Nicolas Flamel had regained his youth and turned back the clock.
But Harris Raymons felt no joy at all. The younger face of his teacher filled him with a strange sense of alienation.
It was not just that the appearance had become unfamiliar. The temperament, the essence within, had nothing at all to do with Nicolas Flamel, the elder he respected. Now he looked solemn and exalted, like a god seated high above.
He had become a completely different person...
No, not a person. A god.
"Nicolas Flamel" opened his eyes. The withered, yellowed membranes were now as clear as a child's, but the wisdom and age contained in those eyes shone like starlight.
Then, all at once, the pupils melted within the sockets. Those eyes, filled with star-like wisdom, were stained by ominous, filthy blackness, until at last they dissolved into two empty hollows.
Those eyes...
Harris Raymons's eyes widened. "You're the First Senator."
The First Senator, one of Raven's earliest founders, rarely showed himself in public. The most striking thing about him was his eyes.
They were two pitch-black hollows. No magic could restore them. Rumor had it that some vicious curse had left his eyes forever beyond healing.
"Hm? Dis, is someone else here?" "Nicolas Flamel" asked.
"It's Harris Raymons, Nicolas Flamel's student," Dis answered respectfully.
"Oh, that gifted child." "Nicolas Flamel" turned toward Harris Raymons, and Harris Raymons immediately felt the weight of that gaze.
"Harris Raymons," that familiar yet unfamiliar face said with a kindly expression, "there is no need to grieve. Your teacher's death was inevitable. I merely made use of it."
That figure was majestic and compassionate, like the sun high above, bestowing its light equally on mortals.
Harris Raymons looked dazed. He felt the First Senator's words were right, yet something deep in his heart trembled violently.
He stared at that familiar yet unfamiliar face, and gradually it overlapped with the image of his teacher in his memory.
It seemed to say, Be obedient, child. I am still your teacher. Be a good boy... and complete the task I gave you.
Then, suddenly, that face twisted into a hideous expression. It howled in agony, and the voice was terrifyingly familiar.
It was unmistakably his teacher's dying voice. That pain was no mere borrowing of a body. It was a violent seizure, a theft that denied his teacher peace even in his final moment.
That was his teacher's body. It should not be desecrated.
"No! Give me back my teacher's body!" Harris Raymons's eyes went bloodshot as he roared and charged at "Nicolas Flamel."
His body had already been badly damaged by the backlash of ancient magic. He could not use magic anymore.
And even if he could, the most offensively powerful Gungnir had been flicked away by Dis as casually as one would brush off dust. He had no means whatsoever of harming the First Senator.
But he still charged forward.
He charged toward an enemy he could not possibly defeat.
A look of surprise appeared on "Nicolas Flamel's" face. Beside him, Dis's expression turned icy with disgust.
"Insolence!"
With a wave of her hand, silver-white ancient magic blasted Harris Raymons away and slammed him hard into the corner of the wall.
Harris Raymons struggled back to his feet and, without the slightest hesitation, charged forward again.
Seeing that he still refused to give up, Dis glanced at "Nicolas Flamel." After receiving permission, a spear appeared out of nowhere, pierced straight through Harris Raymons's chest, and nailed him to the wall.
Harris Raymons coughed up blood. Staring unwillingly at the floating "Nicolas Flamel," he closed his eyes and lost all signs of life.
Outside Hogsmeade Village, a raven resting with its eyes closed on a tree suddenly began to shake violently, then fell headfirst from the branch.
Its whole body convulsed, its feathers standing on end as it let out a shrill, miserable cry.
No one knew how much time passed before the raven suddenly stopped struggling. It looked up at the sky, and intelligence far beyond that of a normal raven appeared in its eyes.
"Teacher..." Harris Raymons murmured.
He had never imagined that in the final moment, it would be the contingency his teacher had prepared that saved him.
He had placed part of his soul inside the raven, and at the instant his main body was on the verge of death, he transferred his soul over through Apparition.
Because only the soul had been transferred, the magical fluctuations had been faint and difficult to detect.
This had originally been something his teacher prepared in case the Third Senator, Cappadocia, made a move against him. Harris Raymons had never expected it to be triggered under these circumstances.
His heart was still full of lingering fear. The pain from the brink of death still clung to him, and in his dazed state, it almost felt as though he could still feel that agony...
Then a sharp pain stabbed through his chest, and Raven-Harris Raymons's eyes flew wide open.
It was not an illusion.
He really was feeling again the sensation of a spear piercing through his chest at the moment of death.
Almost at the same time, Harris Raymons sensed a faint but still majestic magic coming from his chest.
Damn it. That magic had actually followed the connection of his soul all the way to this body.
Harris Raymons hurriedly tried to get up and stop that magic from descending, but the power, appearing by some unknown principle, materialized out of thin air in his chest and pierced him through once again.
The little raven's body was instantly soaked in blood. Harris Raymons's eyes went dim, and a gray-white light rose from his body.
That was Harris Raymons's soul.
And once that soul completely dissipated, Harris Raymons would vanish from this world forever.