Anduin, with a polite but dismissive wave, hastened his departure from Vivian. The trivial curiosity of fashion trends was an absolute waste of the precious hours now available to him.
He had his Echo Place Monocle securely nestled under his collar, a constant sentinel granting him an unparalleled spatial awareness of Hogwarts, but his focus today was on a new frontier—a field of sonic magic that promised destruction rather than perception.
He strode toward the secluded hut in the Forbidden Forest, the afternoon sunlight filtering through the dense canopy. Today's work was the ultimate counterpoint to the Echo Charm: Infrasound Magic.
The Echo Charm employed high-frequency ultrasonic waves—tight, focused pulses that rebounded upon contact, allowing him to render the world as a clear, high-resolution topographical map. It was a magic of exploration and careful reconnaissance.
In stark contrast, Infrasound was a deeply low-frequency sound wave, existing below the threshold of human hearing. Its lethality stemmed not from its intensity but from its resonance. The wave's frequency was chillingly similar to the natural vibratory frequency of major internal organs and the human nervous system.
When unleashed, it didn't just make a noise; it vibrated the target from the inside out, directly interfering with the electrochemical signals of the brain and the involuntary rhythms of the body. High-intensity infrasound was, quite literally, a silent, internal catastrophe.
Anduin had already proven the concept of frequency modulation with the Echo Charm; increasing the frequency had been the challenge. Logically, the inverse—drastically lowering the frequency—should be entirely feasible. The hurdle now was not generation, but control and defense.
"Test 33: 'Infrasound Spell: Focused Resonator.' Runic combination: The Asymmetrical Triangle. Target Date: October 14th, 4:37 PM," Anduin carefully logged in his leather-bound grimoire.
He retrieved the subject: a small, quivering mouse housed in a specialized, thick-walled cage designed to contain the physical stress of the magical blast. He carried the cage a safe distance outside the hut, placing it on a cleared patch of ground.
Drawing his staff, Anduin channeled his focus. The finalized runic structure—the Asymmetrical Triangle—materialized in shimmering emerald light at the tip of his staff. He held the staff steady, aimed the glowing tip directly at the mouse cage, and, with a decisive flick of his core magic, activated the rune.
"Bzzzzzzzzzz..."
It wasn't a sound. It was a physical violation.
The air didn't move; it throbbed. A wave of silent, heavy pressure radiated outward from the staff, slamming into Anduin like an invisible shield of lead. He felt the frequency, a deep, pervasive vibration that seemed to bypass his ears entirely and travel straight through his skin, bone, and muscle, targeting the wet, soft interior of his body.
The initial shock was immediate and devastating. Anduin's world was instantly drowned in a horrific, internal ringing in his temporal lobes, a noise that existed only inside his skull.
It was immediately followed by an indescribable, crippling vertigo that dissolved his sense of balance. The magic was not merely external; it had successfully targeted the nervous system of the caster first, the closest living organism.
"Unacceptable… the feedback is unbearable…"
Anduin couldn't maintain his stance. He stumbled backward, his stomach clenching violently as a wave of intense, systemic nausea consumed him. He grabbed the rough, splintered wooden fence post of the garden enclosure, bending double as his body rejected the world.
He vomited violently, tears streaming from his eyes, his face contorted in pain and shock. He felt simultaneously paralyzed by the ringing and desperately ill.
It was a good five or six minutes before the immediate, crippling agony receded. Anduin lay on the grass, gasping, his head swimming in a disorienting soup of vertigo. He had to close his eyes and concentrate only on regulating his breathing, waiting for the profound dizziness to pass.
Finally, he pushed himself up, his limbs trembling slightly. He rushed inside to the small washbasin, splashing cold water on his pale, clammy face.
He stared at his reflection, shaken. "I am extraordinarily lucky. My pupils are slightly dilated, and my eyes are bloodshot, but my vision is clear. The ringing is slowly dissipating—my hearing is recovering. My motor skills feel almost normal, yet the sheer systemic shock was immense."
Anduin summarized the agonizing five minutes of research with a deep, frustrated frown. "The positive finding: we have isolated the fundamental destructive frequency and the runic structure for generation. Its destructive power is overwhelming.
The negative finding: the spell is fundamentally indiscriminate. It is an internal shockwave that strikes the caster first, effectively delivering a 1000-point blow to the enemy, but an 800-point crippling strike to the self. This is not a viable spell in its current state."
He spun around, suddenly remembering his captive audience. "The subject!"
He hurried back outside. The mouse cage lay on its side, the wire door slightly ajar from the force of the invisible wave. The small brown creature was utterly still. Anduin cautiously approached. The mouse was dead, killed not by physical impact, but by internal hemorrhage.
Dark blood trickled from its tiny nostrils, ears, and mouth—all seven orifices. The infrasound had likely caused its delicate brain and internal organs to simply shake themselves apart.
"The destructive potency is terrifying," Anduin murmured, looking at the tiny corpse, a cold shiver running down his spine. "That was dangerously reckless. Professor Burns was right to warn me; untamed magic is a suicidal enterprise."
The central dilemma remained: how to keep the power while eliminating the backlash? The basic structure was perfect, but using it meant immediate self-incapacitation. He refused to abandon the talisman after such a promising, albeit painful, proof of concept.
"Earplugs won't work," he reasoned, pacing the small clearing. "This isn't about blocking the sound waves from reaching the ear drum. Infrasound penetrates everything. It's a vibration that travels through the air, water, and solid objects, entering the body directly through the chest and abdomen. I need a defense that dampens the internal resonance."
He racked his brain, considering known defensive charms. Silence? Whisper? These were charms designed to prevent sound from escaping a defined area, not to neutralize a penetrating, biomechanical wave. Hear and Block was for external noise. Could they, perhaps, be layered together to create a dampening field? It was a desperate theory, but he had to try.
"I must attempt a countermeasure before developing a defensive spell entirely from scratch," he concluded, swallowing hard. "If I reduce the magical output by seventy percent, the backlash should be survivable, allowing me to gauge the effectiveness of a layered defense."
It was a massive risk. Anduin pointed his staff at himself and rapidly cast every sound-reducing, sound-blocking, and area-dampening spell he knew: Muffliato Maxima, Surdus Aeterna, and a complex, silent Quietus variant.
He aimed to create an immediate, dense magical barrier around his head and chest. He wanted to know if any of the existing spells had a collateral effect against the penetrative waves.
Taking a deep, unsteady breath, he channeled his energy, reduced the power output by an estimated three-quarters, and activated the Infrasound Resonator once more.
"Uuugh!"
The result was a violent, involuntary lean against the hut's weathered railing, followed by a second, less intense session of dry heaving and vomiting. The self-inflicted blow was weaker, but still debilitating.
Anduin recovered much faster this time, mainly due to the drastically reduced power. He wiped his mouth, his thoughts clear despite the lingering physical distress.
"Conclusion: The complex layering of Muffliato, Surdus, and Quietus is essentially useless against the sympathetic organ resonance of the infrasound wave," he summarized, frustration turning into determination. "The reaction was only less severe due to the power reduction, not the defense. The existing library of spells is insufficient."
A wave of tired disappointment washed over him. "This means I must first successfully engineer an entirely new type of spell—a Resonance Damping Charm—before I can safely develop the offensive infrasound talisman. What a monumental setback." He ran a hand through his hair, despairing at the sudden necessity of creating a counterspell just to safely test the primary spell.
"Never mind. This problem is beyond my immediate capacity. I'll take this question to Professor Burns tonight. He will undoubtedly have obscure runic or alchemical knowledge that addresses the issue of internal vibration defense."
Just as he was using a final Scourgify to banish the lingering sour smell and mess from the grass, Charles emerged from the forest's edge, sweating profusely and carrying a heavy, splintered branch that he had been using for practice.
"Anduin? What is that… awful, metallic, and sour smell out here? It smells like a combination of bile and old iron," Charles asked, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the now-clean patch of grass and the freshly vanished cage. "What exactly have you been working on? You've been sending me further and further away for my training lately."
Anduin forced a tired smile and activated the final cleansing spell, banishing the last vestiges of the experiment. "It's nothing to worry about, Charles. Just a failed alchemical experiment—a highly reactive solvent that caused a bit of an unpleasant gaseous byproduct. I'm just tidying up the residual trace." He deliberately omitted the vomiting and the dead mouse. "You've clearly been working hard. You look absolutely exhausted. Go wash up; dinner is soon."
Charles, still skeptical, sniffed the air one last time. "An alchemical solvent, huh? You're getting into some volatile stuff, Anduin. Don't blow up the hut." He shook his head and headed back towards the cabin, muttering about the bizarre hobbies of magical scholars.
Anduin watched him go, then ran his hand across the monocle tucked into his shirt. The monocle represented the beauty of perception. The lingering pain in his stomach represented the brutal truth of power. He needed Burns's theoretical knowledge to bridge the gap between the two. The ultimate anti-detection weapon was now tantalizingly close, but first, he had to figure out how to keep his own heart from shaking itself into oblivion.
Anduin, with a polite but dismissive wave, hastened his departure from Vivian. The trivial curiosity of fashion trends was an absolute waste of the precious hours now available to him. He had his Echo Place Monocle securely nestled under his collar, a constant sentinel granting him an unparalleled spatial awareness of Hogwarts, but his focus today was on a new frontier—a field of sonic magic that promised destruction rather than perception.
He strode toward the secluded hut in the Forbidden Forest, the afternoon sunlight filtering through the dense canopy. Today's work was the ultimate counterpoint to the Echo Charm: Infrasound Magic.
The Echo Charm employed high-frequency ultrasonic waves—tight, focused pulses that rebounded upon contact, allowing him to render the world as a clear, high-resolution topographical map. It was a magic of exploration and careful reconnaissance.
In stark contrast, Infrasound was a deeply low-frequency sound wave, existing below the threshold of human hearing. Its lethality stemmed not from its intensity but from its resonance. The wave's frequency was chillingly similar to the natural vibratory frequency of major internal organs and the human nervous system. When unleashed, it didn't just make a noise; it vibrated the target from the inside out, directly interfering with the electrochemical signals of the brain and the involuntary rhythms of the body. High-intensity infrasound was, quite literally, a silent, internal catastrophe.
Anduin had already proven the concept of frequency modulation with the Echo Charm; increasing the frequency had been the challenge. Logically, the inverse—drastically lowering the frequency—should be entirely feasible. The hurdle now was not generation, but control and defense.
"Test 33: 'Infrasound Spell: Focused Resonator.' Runic combination: The Asymmetrical Triangle. Target Date: October 14th, 4:37 PM," Anduin carefully logged in his leather-bound grimoire.
He retrieved the subject: a small, quivering mouse housed in a specialized, thick-walled cage designed to contain the physical stress of the magical blast. He carried the cage a safe distance outside the hut, placing it on a cleared patch of ground.
Drawing his staff, Anduin channeled his focus. The finalized runic structure—the Asymmetrical Triangle—materialized in shimmering emerald light at the tip of his staff. He held the staff steady, aimed the glowing tip directly at the mouse cage, and, with a decisive flick of his core magic, activated the rune.
"Bzzzzzzzzzz..."
It wasn't a sound. It was a physical violation.
The air didn't move; it throbbed. A wave of silent, heavy pressure radiated outward from the staff, slamming into Anduin like an invisible shield of lead. He felt the frequency, a deep, pervasive vibration that seemed to bypass his ears entirely and travel straight through his skin, bone, and muscle, targeting the wet, soft interior of his body.
The initial shock was immediate and devastating. Anduin's world was instantly drowned in a horrific, internal ringing in his temporal lobes, a noise that existed only inside his skull. It was immediately followed by an indescribable, crippling vertigo that dissolved his sense of balance. The magic was not merely external; it had successfully targeted the nervous system of the caster first, the closest living organism.
"Unacceptable… the feedback is unbearable…"
Anduin couldn't maintain his stance. He stumbled backward, his stomach clenching violently as a wave of intense, systemic nausea consumed him. He grabbed the rough, splintered wooden fence post of the garden enclosure, bending double as his body rejected the world. He vomited violently, tears streaming from his eyes, his face contorted in pain and shock. He felt simultaneously paralyzed by the ringing and desperately ill.
It was a good five or six minutes before the immediate, crippling agony receded. Anduin lay on the grass, gasping, his head swimming in a disorienting soup of vertigo. He had to close his eyes and concentrate only on regulating his breathing, waiting for the profound dizziness to pass.
Finally, he pushed himself up, his limbs trembling slightly. He rushed inside to the small washbasin, splashing cold water on his pale, clammy face.
He stared at his reflection, shaken. "I am extraordinarily lucky. My pupils are slightly dilated, and my eyes are bloodshot, but my vision is clear. The ringing is slowly dissipating—my hearing is recovering. My motor skills feel almost normal, yet the sheer systemic shock was immense."
Anduin summarized the agonizing five minutes of research with a deep, frustrated frown. "The positive finding: we have isolated the fundamental destructive frequency and the runic structure for generation. Its destructive power is overwhelming. The negative finding: the spell is fundamentally indiscriminate. It is an internal shockwave that strikes the caster first, effectively delivering a 1000-point blow to the enemy, but an 800-point crippling strike to the self. This is not a viable spell in its current state."
He spun around, suddenly remembering his captive audience. "The subject!"
He hurried back outside. The mouse cage lay on its side, the wire door slightly ajar from the force of the invisible wave. The small brown creature was utterly still. Anduin cautiously approached. The mouse was dead, killed not by physical impact, but by internal hemorrhage. Dark blood trickled from its tiny nostrils, ears, and mouth—all seven orifices. The infrasound had likely caused its delicate brain and internal organs to simply shake themselves apart.
"The destructive potency is terrifying," Anduin murmured, looking at the tiny corpse, a cold shiver running down his spine. "That was dangerously reckless. Professor Burns was right to warn me; untamed magic is a suicidal enterprise."
The central dilemma remained: how to keep the power while eliminating the backlash? The basic structure was perfect, but using it meant immediate self-incapacitation. He refused to abandon the talisman after such a promising, albeit painful, proof of concept.
"Earplugs won't work," he reasoned, pacing the small clearing. "This isn't about blocking the sound waves from reaching the ear drum. Infrasound penetrates everything. It's a vibration that travels through the air, water, and solid objects, entering the body directly through the chest and abdomen. I need a defense that dampens the internal resonance."
He racked his brain, considering known defensive charms. Silence? Whisper? These were charms designed to prevent sound from escaping a defined area, not to neutralize a penetrating, biomechanical wave. Hear and Block was for external noise. Could they, perhaps, be layered together to create a dampening field? It was a desperate theory, but he had to try.
"I must attempt a countermeasure before developing a defensive spell entirely from scratch," he concluded, swallowing hard. "If I reduce the magical output by seventy percent, the backlash should be survivable, allowing me to gauge the effectiveness of a layered defense."
It was a massive risk. Anduin pointed his staff at himself and rapidly cast every sound-reducing, sound-blocking, and area-dampening spell he knew: Muffliato Maxima, Surdus Aeterna, and a complex, silent Quietus variant. He aimed to create an immediate, dense magical barrier around his head and chest. He wanted to know if any of the existing spells had a collateral effect against the penetrative waves.
Taking a deep, unsteady breath, he channeled his energy, reduced the power output by an estimated three-quarters, and activated the Infrasound Resonator once more.
"Uuugh!"
The result was a violent, involuntary lean against the hut's weathered railing, followed by a second, less intense session of dry heaving and vomiting. The self-inflicted blow was weaker, but still debilitating.
Anduin recovered much faster this time, mainly due to the drastically reduced power. He wiped his mouth, his thoughts clear despite the lingering physical distress.
"Conclusion: The complex layering of Muffliato, Surdus, and Quietus is essentially useless against the sympathetic organ resonance of the infrasound wave," he summarized, frustration turning into determination. "The reaction was only less severe due to the power reduction, not the defense. The existing library of spells is insufficient."
A wave of tired disappointment washed over him. "This means I must first successfully engineer an entirely new type of spell—a Resonance Damping Charm—before I can safely develop the offensive infrasound talisman. What a monumental setback." He ran a hand through his hair, despairing at the sudden necessity of creating a counterspell just to safely test the primary spell.
"Never mind. This problem is beyond my immediate capacity. I'll take this question to Professor Burns tonight. He will undoubtedly have obscure runic or alchemical knowledge that addresses the issue of internal vibration defense."
Just as he was using a final Scourgify to banish the lingering sour smell and mess from the grass, Charles emerged from the forest's edge, sweating profusely and carrying a heavy, splintered branch that he had been using for practice.
"Anduin? What is that… awful, metallic, and sour smell out here? It smells like a combination of bile and old iron," Charles asked, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the now-clean patch of grass and the freshly vanished cage. "What exactly have you been working on? You've been sending me further and further away for my training lately."
Anduin forced a tired smile and activated the final cleansing spell, banishing the last vestiges of the experiment. "It's nothing to worry about, Charles. Just a failed alchemical experiment—a highly reactive solvent that caused a bit of an unpleasant gaseous byproduct. I'm just tidying up the residual trace."