Wong looked the most frantic. He was closest to Harry, the most loyal to the Ancient One, and also the kindest among the senior sorcerers.
Burning with anxiety, Wong was the first to lose patience. He hurried straight to Harry, and the moment he reached him, he blurted out:
"Harry, where's the Sorcerer Supreme? Why didn't she come back with you?"
Mordo and Kaecilius also stared at Harry, tense. Mordo respected the Ancient One deeply, and his worry was genuine.
Kaecilius, however, was the complete opposite.
He stood there looking calm on the surface, but if you looked closely, something lurked in the depths of his eyes, like a lion crouched in tall grass, ready to pounce. A twisted, vicious hunger he didn't bother to hide very well.
Clearly, Kaecilius had already started calculating.
If the Ancient One truly met with disaster, that buried ambition of his would push him to act immediately.
The Ancient One's passing wasn't something that needed to be hidden, nor could it be hidden.
Harry had grown up now. With his current strength, even in his normal state, he was more than capable of handling almost anything.
Including dealing with a few unstable elements hiding inside Kamar-Taj.
Harry's expression was heavy with grief, his face bleak, his voice thick with pain that refused to fade.
"She performed a soul-sacrifice ritual. After killing several dimensional demon gods' earthly avatars… her soul returned to Eternity."
"What?!"
The news hit like a depth charge, detonating under calm water and throwing up a towering wave.
Whether it was the senior sorcerers or the ordinary ones stationed on the outer ring, everyone who heard it froze in shock.
The Sorcerer Supreme had protected Earth for thousands of years.
Every new sorcerer who arrived at Kamar-Taj began their path under the Sorcerer Supreme's guidance. When they were lost or confused, it was the Sorcerer Supreme who answered their questions.
Time passed. Generations of sorcerers aged and withered away, yet the Sorcerer Supreme never seemed to change. Her face stayed the same, her presence always vigorous, as if time couldn't touch her.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say every sorcerer at Kamar-Taj had grown accustomed to living under the Sorcerer Supreme's shadow, trusting her from the bottom of their hearts, believing she could handle any crisis.
So what was this supposed to mean?
Had the Sorcerer Supreme… died?
So even the strongest Sorcerer Supreme could vanish?
Harry wasn't exactly thrilled that his teacher had ditched her body and dumped the 9-to-5 grind onto him, but he would still fulfill her final wish.
Until Doctor Strange took over the job, Harry would shoulder the responsibilities of Sorcerer Supreme properly.
Seeing the mood sinking, Harry forced a small smile and tried to lift them up.
"Why are you so crushed? Even if she's gone, a sorcerer at her level has a soul that endures. Who knows, maybe she'll come back to visit us someday."
The moment he said that, the gloom in the crowd eased, and a spark returned to their faces.
Then a young sorcerer, eyes bright with curiosity, couldn't help shouting:
"If the Ancient One's soul returned to Eternity, then who's the next Sorcerer Supreme?"
As Harry's closest friend and ally, Wong immediately stepped forward. He looked around, grabbed Harry's arm, and raised it high with a grin.
"The next Sorcerer Supreme is obviously Harry! He was personally chosen by the previous Sorcerer Supreme!"
Mordo and Harry had always been close too, so he had no objections at all. He nodded solemnly, voice steady.
"I agree."
Harry was wildly popular among the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. Almost everyone nodded along, no one voiced opposition, and the crowd broke into a chant:
"Harry!"
"Harry!"
"Harry!"
But then a voice cut through the excitement like a knife, cold enough to frost the air.
Everyone turned.
Kaecilius stepped out of the crowd and stopped opposite Harry. His eyes swept across them all, and wherever that gaze landed, the temperature in the courtyard seemed to drop.
He waited until the space had gone completely silent, until no one dared speak.
Then he said loudly:
"I disagree!"
All eyes locked onto Kaecilius. He met their stares head-on, expression sharp, chin tilted slightly upward, voice cold and unyielding.
"From ancient times to today, the Sorcerer Supreme bears the responsibility of protecting Earth. That position must be held by the strongest among us. If the Sorcerer Supreme makes a mistake, it's not one person who suffers. It's all of Earth.
So even if the Ancient One named Harry as her successor, it doesn't count."
Wong's face hardened.
"Kaecilius, what are you saying? Are you claiming the Ancient One's decision was wrong?"
Kaecilius put on a mask of righteous seriousness and shook his head slowly.
"No. I would never question the Ancient One's judgment. I simply question whether Harry has the ability to shoulder the burden of Sorcerer Supreme.
So I propose this: he and I duel here in the training courtyard. A fair duel.
If he defeats me, I will never again object to him becoming Sorcerer Supreme.
But if he loses… then the next Sorcerer Supreme candidate will have to be reconsidered."
"You—"
Wong was furious. The Ancient One had barely passed, and Kaecilius was already stepping out to publicly reject the decision she left behind.
Wong was about to argue again, but Harry caught his arm, smiled, and gave him a calm nod.
"Let's do it Kaecilius's way. Don't worry. It'll be fine."
"But you never beat Kaecilius before," Wong tried to talk him out of it.
Before Harry returned fully to the wizarding world, he really hadn't won against Kaecilius in their past sparring.
And after Harry started traveling between worlds, he'd never sparred Kaecilius again.
So Wong only knew Harry was terrifying in a loss-of-control state. He didn't actually understand what Harry's normal combat strength looked like now.
And a contest for Sorcerer Supreme, against a fellow sorcerer, obviously couldn't involve a runaway magic state. So Wong truly believed Harry might not be Kaecilius's match.
Harry chuckled under his breath.
"That was then. This is now. Kaecilius isn't my opponent anymore."
Wong still wasn't sure, but out of trust in Harry, he agreed to the duel.
...
Everyone except the sorcerers who had to remain stationed at the three Sanctums was summoned back to Kamar-Taj to witness a contest that mattered immensely for their order.
In the training courtyard, only two stood within the ring, facing each other.
Kaecilius hadn't expected Harry to actually accept the challenge. He wore a smug look and sneered:
"Harry, I don't know where you're getting the confidence to fight me. You should remember this: in the past, you never won a single match against me.
But at least you know your place. With your current level, you're absolutely unfit to be Sorcerer Supreme."
Harry had no interest in wasting time with Kaecilius. He wanted this settled fast, then he wanted to deal with the transition issues and get some rest.
Unaffected by the taunts, Harry's expression remained calm.
"Start. Let's finish quickly. I'm planning to go grab dinner afterward."
Kaecilius's face darkened even more. He pushed harder, dripping sarcasm.
"Harry, when did you get so arrogant? You dare speak to me like this? That proves it. You're not suited to be Sorcerer Supreme. Let me teach you a lesson."
At that moment, Mordo, acting as referee, shouted:
"Three! Two! One! Duel begins!"
To be fair, Kaecilius really was powerful. As soon as Mordo's words fell, Kaecilius traced a towering circular sigil in the air in front of him.
The Shield of the Seraphim.
Then, in one hand, he summoned the Sacred Sword of Vishanti for offense. In the other, he conjured the Ruby Rings of Raggadorr for defense.
With that combination, even against one of the stronger high-ranking demons, he could fight and win.
Which made one thing obvious: even though Kaecilius kept talking down to Harry, he didn't dare be careless. He did acknowledge Harry's strength.
He was simply confident in himself.
In his eyes, decades of studying magic had given him deep mastery. He didn't believe he could lose this duel.
Once his setup was complete, Kaecilius drove the Shield of the Seraphim forward and charged straight at Harry.
Yes, Kaecilius was a genius among sorcerers, standing near the top.
But even among geniuses, there were worlds of difference.
No matter how exceptional his talent, he was still human, trapped by human perception and human limits.
He could never truly grasp the realm Harry had stepped into.
As Kaecilius rushed in, Harry remained calm. He drew his wand and gently tapped the air ahead of him.
Purple lightning flared.
A complete magnetic field formed in front of Harry in an instant, and at the center of it, a sword of lightning rapidly took shape.
Driven by that powerful magnetic field, the lightning sword accelerated past multiple times the speed of sound, turning into a streak of electric light as it shot toward Kaecilius.
The electromagnetic railgun struck the Shield of the Seraphim and paused for only the briefest moment.
Then the strongest defensive spell shattered explosively.
The railgun continued into the Ruby Rings of Raggadorr and crushed them as well, and in the next blink it pierced clean through Kaecilius's shoulder, tearing a vicious, terrifying wound.
To everyone watching, it happened in only a few seconds.
A flash of electric light.
And Kaecilius was blasted backward. He flew more than ten meters before he finally hit the ground, rolled several times in disgrace, and blacked out.
The courtyard was dead silent.
Only when Mordo declared Harry the winner did the crowd erupt into a roar.
"I knew it! Harry is the best among us!"
"That's right! Harry is the strongest sorcerer!"
"Unbelievable. How long has Harry even been learning magic? One hit and Kaecilius is down. Is this what real genius looks like?!"
Harry walked up to Kaecilius without any hurry. He pointed his wand at the wound and murmured softly:
"Reparo."
Kaecilius's torn flesh sealed as if time itself had reversed, healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Even the blood that had been evaporated by the electricity returned, flowing back and sinking into his body again.
A few minutes later, Kaecilius slowly woke up.
He jerked upright and instinctively clutched his chest and shoulder. Where the wound should have been, his skin was smooth and unbroken, not even the faintest scar.
Even his torn, battered sorcerer robes had been restored to perfect condition at some point, as if the brutal injury had never happened.
If he didn't remember the scene so clearly, Kaecilius might've thought the whole duel had been an illusion.
He sucked in air in ragged gasps, his chest heaving. After a long moment, he finally steadied himself, resentment burning in his eyes.
"Fine, Harry. This round… I'll count it as your win."
Harry looked down at him as Kaecilius climbed to his feet, smiling faintly.
"Kaecilius, you can't even bring yourself to call me Sorcerer Supreme."
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