The underground curse-training chamber of Flamel Castle was as large as four full-sized indoor basketball courts.
Inside, not only were there a great number of alchemical targets made from the best anti-magic materials, but even the floors and walls were built from over a meter-thick slabs of obsidian.
Link stood at the very center of this vast, extravagant training hall, dressed in short hunting attire and holding his wand.
His eyes were closed, silent, as if deep in thought, or perhaps gathering power.
After a long while, a faint bluish-gray light began to shimmer at the tip of his wand.
Link's eyes suddenly snapped open. With a fierce motion of his right hand, he swung the wand, instantly, a massive blue-black drill shot out with violent force.
Although the targets in the training ground were already the pinnacle of both alchemy and material science, before this terrifying drill they were still utterly defenseless, shredded into dust in a split second.
Then the drill struck the obsidian wall, exploding into a storm of blue-black ice shards.
But that wasn't the end.
As Link lifted his wand again, those shards rapidly melted into pools of black water on the floor. The liquid possessed an extremely strong corrosive property, eating away at everything around it, leaving the area pitted and ruined.
Seeing this, Link nodded slightly. The bluish-gray light at his wand tip turned completely pitch black. He flicked it out again, and the light stretched with the wind, transforming into two long snakes made entirely of black fire.
The two snakes' eyes glimmered with a human-like, greedy hunger. They ravenously absorbed the lingering magical energy in the air, growing ever larger.
But when their bodies reached nearly two meters in length, Link's powerful mental energy crashed down upon them, forcefully cutting off their connection to external magic.
The next moment, their greedy gazes turned toward each other.
The twin serpents of black flame lunged, tangling and biting wildly.
Sparks flew, so intense that even the sturdy obsidian melted into molten rock.
Amid the chaos, many burning sparks flew toward Link. Yet instead of defending himself, he closed his eyes and let go of all perception, as though anticipating this.
As the sparks rained down, Link began to move within them, twisting his body in strange yet precise motions, each time dodging the deadly flames by the narrowest of margins.
After a long while, the serpents of fire perished together, collapsing into a raging sea of flame.
Unscathed, Link opened his eyes. A hint of joy gleamed within them, though his face remained solemn.
"Hoo!"
He drew in a deep, scorching breath. From his chest surged a wave of ominous, hell-like black magic that gradually enveloped his entire body.
Then, something eerie occurred.
The black magic, after a brief moment, transformed into beautiful, semi-transparent flames.
Now, Link no longer had the calm or elegance he once bore. A violent, bloodthirsty killing aura burst forth from him, almost tangible in its intensity.
"ROAR!"
With a sound more beast than human, Link dropped to all fours and began to attack everything around him madly.
BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions and translucent flames engulfed the entire chamber. The once-sturdy alchemical targets were pulverized to dust.
Even the black flames lingering near Link were consumed by an even fiercer, ghostly energy, disintegrating into pure magic that vanished into the air.
This terrifying scene continued for nearly three full minutes before finally subsiding.
All those violent, translucent flames returned into Link's body. His eyes gradually regained clarity.
He gasped heavily, sweat pouring down his neck and soaking his hunting clothes through.
Even so, amid the disheveled mess, excitement shone brightly in his eyes, and a faint smile curved his lips.
'Ten days!'
After ten long days, he had finally absorbed all the gains from that last battle, and turned them into real, combat-ready power.
The most crucial advancement was the fusion of his water-control power with his curse power.
This was the ability he had grasped during the fight with the fully armored Death Eater, a spell that took the form of a huge drill, water blades spinning inside, surrounded by countless cursed-energy edges on the outside.
Though this drill hadn't been able to pierce the golden barrier formed by that Death Eater's combined magic, in terms of pure, focused destructive force, it remained the strongest spell Link had ever wielded.
In a burst of chuunibyou inspiration, Link had wanted to name it "Drill That Pierces the Heavens."
Thankfully, he'd pulled himself back from the brink of humiliation just in time. Instead, he renamed it "Tengen Drill." Still somewhat anime-ish, yes, but far more acceptable.
After deeper study, Link also improved the initial, crude combination of water and curse magic into a more advanced semi-fusion model.
This granted him a new liquid-type power, one even more corrosive and vicious than curse energy itself.
He named this power "Cold Venom."
It was extremely versatile, usable on its own or layered atop other spells.
For instance, when combined with the Tengen Drill, even if an opponent blocked the drill's impact, they'd still be struck by Cold Venom's corrosion.
Truly insidious.
Ever since he'd witnessed Mike wielding those transparent flames to fight Voldemort, Link had also begun delving deeper into curse-based fire.
The result of that research was the pair of black flame serpents he'd just unleashed.
Those flames were essentially an enhanced, condensed version of Fiendfyre, their power, spread, and absorption rate were all about five times stronger.
Of course, control difficulty had also increased fivefold.
But that didn't matter, Link's mind-sealing technique had reached Level 6, granting him immense mental strength. Even if those Fiendfyres grew several times stronger, they could no longer escape his command.
And the boost in mental power brought even more benefits.
Back at Hogwarts, Link had suspected that his rising mental energy might be awakening some kind of sixth sense.
After days of experiments, he finally confirmed it, he'd gained an ability similar to Observation Haki. A weakened version, admittedly, unreliable at times, and effective only within a range of about three meters against incoming attacks.
Still, despite its limits, Link was more than satisfied.
Because this was only the beginning.
He firmly believed that as his mental power continued to grow, this frightening ability would also become stronger.
The process might be long and arduous, but it was absolutely worth it.
Finally, Link's most thrilling achievement this time was gaining much greater control over Mike. He could now even let Mike out to fight, for up to three minutes.
After repeated testing, he'd confirmed this precise limit.
As long as it didn't exceed that time, Mike couldn't cause any real harm to Link's soul or mind, just a little mental exhaustion.
But if that time was surpassed, the consequences would be… unpredictable.
As a trump card, though, three minutes was plenty.
With Mike's current combat power, three minutes was already enough to defeat most wizards in the world.
If he couldn't win in three minutes, then thirty wouldn't make a difference.
Because of that peculiar time limit, Link dubbed it "Ultraman Time."
He'd even, much to his own later embarrassment, imitated the TV show's poses during transformation, shouting Mike's name as if summoning a hero.
Of course, no one had seen that. And Link certainly never planned to let anyone know the real name of that move. That would be far too humiliating.
After a short rest, still somewhat disheveled but in high spirits, Link pushed open the door and climbed the stairs up into the castle proper.
There he ran straight into Emily, who happened to be walking down the corridor in her nightgown.
Grinning, Link spread his arms wide and stepped toward her, he could hardly wait to share his joy.
But Emily gave him no chance.
Frowning, she grabbed his hand and half-dragged him at a run toward a second-floor dressing room.
Only during this chaotic rush did Link notice that Flamel Castle had undergone quite a transformation.
The most striking change, flowers.
White lilies.
An abundance of white lilies covered nearly the entire great hall, turning everything into a sea of white.
Tiny flower fairies, each no larger than a grown person's palm, fluttered among the blossoms, scattering fairy dust from the baskets they carried to keep the lilies fresh and radiant.
A red carpet wound through the floral field, across an open space, and up to a raised platform also surrounded by white lilies, elegant and splendid.
Unfortunately, Link had barely a moment to admire the beauty before two sharply dressed male stylists pushed him into a chair.
Working with two witch assistants, they began grooming and fitting Link and Emily for formal wear.
Only then did realization dawn on Link.
The white lily, like the rose, symbolized love. Though less passionate than the rose, its meanings of purity, grace, nobility, and solemnity made it the perfect choice for the engagement or wedding of pure-blood wizarding nobles like Link and Emily.
To keep such flowers fresh, they had to be both magically tended by flower fairies and delivered to the venue on the very day of the ceremony.
Which could mean only one thing.
Today, July 10th, was their engagement day.
Realizing this, Link felt a jolt of panic. He sneaked a glance toward Emily's dressing room, then breathed a sigh of relief.
From what he could tell, Emily hadn't noticed that he'd been so absorbed in spell training he'd forgotten this most important date.
Otherwise, she'd probably be pounding him by now.
In wizarding tradition, there actually wasn't such a thing as an engagement ceremony.
Even for cases like Link and Emily's, where the couple couldn't marry right away due to youth or special circumstances, it usually just involved the two families' parents agreeing on details and setting a wedding date.
The reason they were holding such a grand event this time was mainly to make Emily happy, and to show the entire British wizarding world the power and presence of the Flamel family.
Which, in these complicated times, was quite important indeed.
And since it was to be held, Mrs. Flamel naturally wouldn't allow it to be handled carelessly.
Thus she devised an elaborate engagement ritual, a blend of Muggle aristocratic custom and ancient wizard ceremony.
Though the actual ceremony itself was relatively simple (since it was only an engagement and couldn't outshine a wedding), the behind-the-scenes preparation and etiquette correspondence were insanely complicated.
At least ten full pages of parchment worth of rules, none of which Link had any interest in reading.
He'd always disliked those flashy formalities with little real meaning.
Emily and Mrs. Flamel, on the other hand, had thrown themselves into it with fiery enthusiasm.
Naturally, Link had happily taken the role of a hands-off fiancé, leaving everything to them while he buried himself in curse research. Aside from mandatory fittings for formalwear, he barely left the training chamber at all.
So it was perfectly understandable that he'd forgotten the engagement date, he'd never paid much attention from the start.
Feeling slightly guilty, Link endured the stylists' efforts until the afternoon arrived.
By then, he looked completely different.
Normally, a true noble's dress might not seem particularly striking at first glance, but you could feel the refinement and authority emanating from them.
That aura came not just from upbringing or status, but from details, tiny touches invisible to common eyes.
It might be the discreet designer's mark on tailored shoes, or the family crest engraved on solid-gold cufflinks…
When countless subtle details merged together, they formed a presence unmistakable to the discerning eye, an aura of elegance that even the untrained could sense.
Now, Link embodied that perfectly.
At first glance, his pure-black suit looked little different from those worn by the stylists. But when they stood side by side, even a child playing in the mud outside could tell, Link was the true noble among them.
The two male stylists stared at him with blazing admiration.
Through Legilimency, Link could sense they were merely admiring their own artistic handiwork, but remembering the rumor that many top stylists were gay, he still felt a chill of discomfort and quickly shooed them away.
Just then, the door of the neighboring dressing room opened at last.
Accompanied by two witch stylists, Emily stepped out with a smile.
The sight made Link, who a moment ago had been frowning with mild disgust, widen his eyes in shock and awe.
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