[Ding! Mission issued!]
The sudden system prompt was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, sending ripples through Lynn's mind.
His movements paused slightly.
He could hardly remember the last time the system had issued a mission.
Was it in his third year?
Or his fourth?
Lynn quickly glanced at the system panel floating at the edge of his vision, where the mission details clearly emerged:
[Mission Objective: Make the fellow opposite you who desecrates magical creatures disappear from this world.]
[Mission Reward: Fusion Potion Recipe]
[Effect: When used, add the blood of a magical creature to the Potion to gain a certain ability of that creature. Side effects are extreme. Each person can drink it at most three times; after the third time, it has no effect.]
[Young man, which magical creature will you add to it?]
Lynn's gaze lingered on the line, desecrates magical creatures.
Then, he looked at Ellis, who hovered opposite him with his arms spread wide, black patterns crawling beneath his skin.
He lowered his gaze before raising his head again.
When he looked at Ellis this time, his expression had completely changed.
Even without the system reward, the fact that this man had dared to obstruct him from capturing the Obscurial meant that Lynn could not let him off easily.
With that thought, Lynn's eyes sharpened.
With a flick of his wrist, his wand traced a sharp arc through the air.
"Crack—!"
A blue-white bolt of lightning as thick as a bucket surged from the tip of his wand, tearing through the night sky as it struck directly toward Ellis.
The lightning moved at an astonishing speed.
It traveled from the tip of Lynn's wand to Ellis in the blink of an eye.
But Ellis simply hovered in midair on his broomstick, neither dodging nor avoiding the attack.
He did not even move.
The moment the lightning reached him, his right hand shot upward, fingers spread wide as he met the thunderbolt that was powerful enough to char an ordinary person to a crisp.
Crack—Sizzle—
Blinding blue-white electricity exploded in his palm, like countless venomous snakes writhing madly between his fingers.
But Ellis did not scream.
He did not recoil.
He did not even frown.
The instant the lightning struck, his entire right arm—from fingertips to shoulder—was covered in a dense layer of scales that shimmered with a cold metallic luster.
The scales were dark gray, sharp-edged, and perfectly aligned.
Each was about the size of a thumbnail, reflecting a piercing light beneath the lightning's glow.
Norwegian Ridgeback scales.
Within the Wizarding World, Norwegian Ridgeback scales were recognized as one of the hardest substances.
Ordinary Spells would not even leave a white mark on them.
And now, those scales were growing on a human arm.
"Hah—!"
Ellis gave a low growl and violently swung his arm outward.
The lightning that had been striking directly at him was forcibly redirected, shooting toward the sky on his left.
The bolt cut through the night before exploding into a ball of blinding white light among the clouds, then dissipating.
Ellis withdrew his arm and glanced down at his palm.
A shallow scorch mark had appeared across the scales, but it was fading at a visible rate.
The corners of his mouth curled upward slightly. He seemed quite satisfied with his "defensive power."
He looked up, turning back toward Lynn.
But Lynn was no longer where he had been standing.
"Whoosh—!"
A scorching wave of air attacked Ellis from the right.
Ellis's pupils suddenly constricted, and his body instinctively leaned left.
A massive blade condensed from golden-red flames sliced through the space where he had just been hovering.
Wherever the blade passed, the air was torn apart, leaving behind a distorted trail that radiated waves of heat.
If he had not dodged, that strike would have sliced him diagonally from shoulder to waist, cutting him in half.
Ellis snapped his head around.
Lynn stood less than three feet to his right, gripping a flame blade longer than Ellis's entire body with both hands.
Golden-red light flowed along the blade, reflecting fitfully across Lynn's face.
"Quick reactions," Lynn said calmly. "Again."
Before his voice had even faded, he gripped the blade with both hands and swung downward at Ellis's head!
The great blade tore through the air with a sharp whistle.
Golden-red flames surged along its edge, trailing a long tail of fire like a falling meteor.
Ellis did not dare take it head-on.
His body trembled violently for an instant, and then—he split into three.
Three identical Ellises, riding three identical broomsticks, flew outward in three separate directions.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized.
Even the tilt of their broomsticks was exactly the same.
Boom—!
The flame blade struck empty air, cutting through the void before exploding into a ball of blazing fire.
Lynn stood in place, watching the three Ellises quickly pull away. His brow furrowed slightly.
All three were physical entities.
He could sense a slight threat coming from all three directions.
"This is a unique ability from a species of magical creature—the Metagot."
The Ellis on the far left spoke, his voice carrying irrepressible smugness.
"Didn't expect that, did you? I used a lot of its blood to refine this ability. Do you know how hard it is to catch a Metagot? They can split into more than a dozen clones in the blink of an eye, and every single one can attack, every single one can—"
"Idiot! Shut up!"
The Ellis in the middle snapped his head around and roared at the one on the left.
"Our secrets are all being exposed! What are you still showing off for?!"
A flash of embarrassment crossed the left Ellis's face, and he closed his mouth without saying another word.
The Ellis on the right did not speak at all.
He merely stared at Lynn.
Lynn looked at the three of them, the corners of his mouth rising slightly.
Metagot
"Interesting," he said.
Then, his figure suddenly shot upward, rushing straight into the sky.
The three Ellises looked up at the same time, watching that figure grow smaller and more distant. Their expressions varied.
The one on the left looked confused.
"He wants to run?"
The one in the middle frowned deeply.
"Doesn't look like it."
The one on the right remained silent.
High in the sky, Lynn hovered above the clouds.
Moonlight spilled down from overhead.
He glanced at the three small black dots below before raising his wand.
The tip of his wand pointed toward the heavens.
In the next second—
The clouds became like a pot of boiling water, bubbling and churning as they spread outward from the center, expanding wider and faster.
Then, rain began to fall.
As the raindrops descended from the clouds, they carried a faint dark-red glow.
They joined into a dense sheet, like a curtain hanging from the sky, enveloping the entire area where the three Ellises hovered.
Crash—!!!
A torrential downpour descended.
Raindrops landed on Ellis's cheek.
"Hiss—!"
He sucked in a sharp breath.
The power of the curse seeped into his skin wherever the rain fell, spreading through his blood vessels like countless red-hot iron wires.
It forced him to dismiss his clones so he would not have to enjoy triple the pain.
His face turned deathly pale in an instant.
Veins bulged across his forehead, and his lips began to turn purple.
"Ah—!"
He let out a short cry of pain, dropping several meters from his broomstick before barely managing to steady himself.
He looked up toward the sky.
There were no dark clouds.
No dark clouds?
His pupils suddenly constricted.
The rain was not falling from dark clouds.
It was falling from Lynn's wand.
By the time he realized this, the second wave of rain had already fallen across his shoulders.
"Ugh—!"
Another muffled groan escaped him.
His body began to tremble.
The curses rampaged within him, searing his blood vessels, nerves, and every single cell.
He reached out with a trembling hand, trying to retrieve the bottle of pain-relieving Potion from his pocket.
His fingers found the bottle, and he pulled out the stopper—
A hand reached in from the side and snatched the Potion away.
Ellis snapped his head around.
Lynn was standing right in front of him.
They were so close that Ellis could see his own reflection in Lynn's pupils.
"Sectumsempra."
Lynn's voice was soft, but the strike was anything but light.
Invisible blades shot from the tip of his wand.
They were too fast to be seen and too fast to be heard, leaving behind only an extremely faint sound, like cloth tearing.
Ellis felt his right arm suddenly become light.
He looked down.
From the shoulder down, his entire arm was gone.
The cut was so smooth that it looked as though the sharpest blade imaginable had made it.
Even the blood did not gush out immediately.
The cut was too clean—so clean that the blood vessels and muscles had not had time to react.
Then, the blood erupted.
Dark-red blood sprayed from the stump, shimmering with an eerie hue beneath the moonlight.
Ellis opened his mouth, wanting to scream.
But the sound caught in his throat, producing only a short, broken "Hehh."
"Aren't you able to dragonize?" Lynn asked from ahead, his tone carrying nonchalant curiosity. "Dragonize again for me to see."
Ellis gritted his teeth and took a deep breath.
His abdomen expanded at a visible rate, swelling like a balloon inflated to its limit.
His mouth opened, and something glowed deep within his throat.
Something gray.
He was about to release that stream of air.
At that moment, Ellis's eyes widened.
He felt it.
An invisible force, like a hand, seized his upper and lower jaws, pressing his mouth tightly shut.
He struggled desperately.
Veins popped across his neck, and the muscles in his face twisted, but that invisible hand did not budge.
His abdomen continued expanding, and the gray airflow continued surging upward.
But the exit had been sealed.
The airflow rampaged through his throat like a beast trapped inside a cage, unable to find a way out and capable only of wreaking havoc within his body.
His throat began to burn.
He could feel his esophagus melting, his trachea deforming, and his vocal cords snapping.
"Still want to blow air?" Lynn tilted his head. "In your dreams."
He flicked his wand.
The invisible force shifted from Ellis's face to his chest.
Before Ellis could even catch his breath—
"Crucio."
A scarlet beam of light shot from Lynn's wand tip and sank into Ellis's chest.
"Ugh—AAAAHHHH—!!!"
This time, he screamed.
Not because the pain had been relieved, but because Lynn allowed him to scream.
His body convulsed violently in midair.
His eyes rolled back.
Foam spilled from his mouth.
His limbs twisted at angles that defied human anatomy.
But he was not dead yet.
Lynn did not want him to die so quickly.
"I said, what couldn't you have done instead?" Lynn's tone remained calm, as though chatting with an old friend.
"Why did you have to provoke me?"
"Crucio."
"AAAAHHH—!!!"
"Provoking me is one thing," Lynn continued. "But you also stole my Obscurial."
"Crucio."
"Ugh, AAAAHHH—!!!"
"Stealing my Obscurial is one thing," Lynn added. "But you dared to act all high and mighty in front of me."
"Crucio."
This time, Ellis did not scream.
Not because it did not hurt.
He was simply no longer capable of screaming.
All he could produce were raspy "he-he" sounds, like a dying engine making one final attempt to run.
Lynn looked at him in that state and fell silent for a second.
"That's about enough," he muttered to himself.
He raised his wand, pointing it toward the sky.
A beam of light descended from above the clouds, smashing directly into Ellis's chest.
Boom—!!!
The beam pierced through Ellis's body and exited through his back.
His body was pinned in midair by the beam of light.
A fist-sized hole appeared in his chest, its edges charred black, with no blood flowing from it.
And deep within that hole, something writhed.
Something black.
Viscous.
Like ink.
An Obscurial.
It could not escape this time.
In order to recover as quickly as possible, it had already become tightly intertwined with Ellis's magic.
Lynn reached out, spreading his fingers and aiming his palm at the hole in Ellis's chest.
"Come out."
His voice was not loud, yet it carried an unquestionable command.
The Obscurial did not move.
Lynn's fingers slowly closed.
He reached into Ellis's chest and grabbed the mass of Obscurial.
Then, he pulled outward with force.
Ellis's body began to tremble violently.
Dense black patterns emerged beneath his skin, spreading outward from his chest in every direction like a tightening net.
The patterns became deeper, denser, and brighter.
Then, they snapped.
One after another, like lute strings breaking, they made a series of boing, boing, boing sounds.
With every snap, Ellis's body twitched.
With every snap, the blackness beneath his skin faded a little more.
With every snap, he drew one step closer to death.
The moment the final trace of black pattern snapped, Ellis's body became completely still.
His limbs hung downward like those of a puppet suspended in the air.
Lynn withdrew his hand.
In his palm, a fist-sized black sphere slowly rotated.
Lynn pulled a small bottle from his pocket.
The bottle was silver-white, its surface covered in fine runes.
It was made of Goblin Metal, specifically designed to contain sinister things like this.
He removed the stopper, stuffed the black sphere inside, and sealed the bottle again.
Click.
The stopper and the mouth of the bottle fit perfectly.
The runes glowed for a moment before dimming.
Lynn stuffed the bottle back into his pocket, looked up, and glanced at Ellis, who still hung suspended in midair.
He no longer showed any signs of life.
Lynn yawned and flicked his wand.
A cluster of golden-red Fiendfyre surged from its tip and landed on Ellis's body.
The flames consumed him.
A few seconds later, the fire went out.
Ellis had disappeared.
Not even ashes remained.
[Ding! Mission complete. Reward has been issued.]
---
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