[Title: Dragon Slayer. As the warrior who killed the Hungarian Horntail king, fire dragons are highly likely to be intimidated by your aura!]
This was the title reward Link received after killing the fire dragon in the first round of the Triwizard Tournament.
After testing it, Link discovered that the aura this title granted, aside from exerting overwhelming pressure on fire dragons, could only produce a minor oppressive effect on other creatures such as humans.
The reason he brought it out now to use on these two draconic lizards was purely because he had learned in advance that the bloodlines used to create them contained traces of fire-dragon ancestry.
And judging by the current result, the effect was outstanding.
These artificially-created sub-dragon creatures seemed even more afraid of the Dragon Slayer's aura than true fire dragons were.
"Phew."
Link exhaled softly and continued walking toward the two lizards.
A miraculous scene appeared.
With every step Link took forward, the two lizards shrank a little smaller.
And when Link actually reached them, those creatures that had once been as huge as small hills had already shrunk back to the size of geckos, lying flat on the ground, not daring even to look up at him.
Krell was beside himself with excitement.
He hurried to Link's side, staring at the two little lizards, practically drooling.
Without a doubt, these two lizards were among the most powerful magical creatures he had ever seen in his life.
Now that they had both been captured alive, if he could study them afterward, even if he couldn't reproduce them, it would still mean tremendous progress for the Flamel family's magical-creature research.
Compared to Krell's excitement, Link appeared much calmer.
He had already lost interest in the two lizards; after just one glance, his eyes turned toward Beckman, who was being helped up by the hunters not far away, "So, our transaction can be considered complete now, right?"
"Yes, from now on the Beckman family belongs to you," Beckman said earnestly, then pleaded, "But just as I asked before, could you go see Lord Grindelwald again? Think of it as… doing it for me…"
"Why don't you go yourself?"
Link cut him off directly, and at that, Beckman's expression turned bitter.
"To him, I'm just a shameful traitor. Even though I've tried to make amends, that feeling of guilt still torments me endlessly."
"I know how painful it is. I suspect Hartmann and the others agreed to assassinate Lord Grindelwald because they couldn't stand the torment any longer."
"After all, only when Grindelwald is dead can their guilt finally fade."
"I'm different. Killing Lord Grindelwald would only make my heart suffer even more. For me, only death can bring true release."
"If I were to appear before Lord Grindelwald again, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to resist killing myself right then and there."
Beckman raised his head, and only then did Link notice how bright his eyes were. Within them burned a light called hope.
"But I can't die yet, Link!"
"Do you remember what you once said about Hartmann and the others, and even about me?"
"You said that we hadn't even found a new ideal before throwing away our old one."
"And now, I've found my new ideal!"
Beckman's gaze grew even more fervent, but he didn't go on.
He knew that Link could already guess what he meant.
And indeed, Link understood everything.
But there are some things that mere words cannot prove.
Expressionless, Link gave a quiet hum of acknowledgment, then drew his wand and pressed its tip gently against Beckman's forehead.
It wasn't a familiar gesture.
Beckman felt an itchy, explosive tingling at his brow,
But even so, he pushed his head forward firmly, pressing his forehead completely against the wand tip.
A faint, thread-like glow began to shine from the wand.
It was the light of the Legilimency Spell activating.
"Will you always help me?"
Link asked in a calm, cold tone.
At that, Beckman took a deep breath and replied firmly, "I will always help you!"
"Will you always follow me?"
"I will always follow you!"
"You will never betray me?"
"I will never betray you!"
A satisfied smile appeared on Link's face as he slowly withdrew his wand.
That test had been the highest-level application of Legilimency, so refined that even Dumbledore and Voldemort themselves could not have passed it flawlessly.
Therefore, Beckman's words were credible.
"In that case," Link said, "I'll go see Grindelwald."
With that, Link smiled and walked toward the pitch-black path ahead.
The two trembling draconic lizards, upon seeing this, also hurried after him.
Before, Krell would never have let them go so easily. But now, he was busy fussing over Beckman, offering support and warm words.
To him, Beckman was already one of the Flamel family.
But what Krell didn't know was that the smile on Link's face vanished the instant he stepped completely into the dark passage.
Wrapped in silence and darkness, Link's expression became utterly cold.
He was meeting Grindelwald purely because he wanted to, Beckman had nothing to do with it.
That moving little scene earlier had merely been an act.
Men, or rather, humans, make countless oaths in their lives.
And it's true that at the moment those oaths are sworn, most are sincere, meant to be kept to the end.
But as time goes on, how many truly manage that?
Link believed that Beckman had once made the same kind of oath to Grindelwald.
And yet, what was the result?
When the reckoning came, Beckman still clung to life.
No matter how noble his explanations sounded, or how beautifully he staged his repentance, Link still found him untrustworthy.
Once unfaithful, never to be used again.
That was Link's thought now, and he planned to make it his creed in dealing with others for the rest of his life.
Thinking back, Link realized his personality had changed drastically since he'd first come here.
He didn't know whether it was because of his experiences in the wizarding world, or because he had been influenced by Mike.
But he didn't think it mattered, and in fact, he welcomed the change.
After all, he felt that his current self was far more comfortable, far happier than before.
And that was enough.
A strange smile unknowingly spread across Link's face. Uneasy energy rippled outward from him, spreading through the dark.
Within that darkness, something thicker than darkness itself began to stir.
Under its wash, the two draconic lizards ignored the Dragon Slayer's aura entirely and trotted happily behind him.
One of the more lively ones even darted to his feet, rubbing against his boot.
In contrast, the bat-like creature draped over Link's shoulder as a cloak had gone completely limp, a sign of total surrender.
Yoyo hanging from his neck quivered restlessly.
Only Arkham the serpent moved differently, it slid slowly out from Link's collar, licking his cheek with its forked tongue in worry.
Link, tickled by it, gently tapped its head but didn't tuck it back into his clothes. Instead, he simply continued forward.
The pitch-black passage, or rather, tunnel, he was walking through was far longer than he had imagined, extending well beyond what the structure of Nurmengard Prison should allow.
By his estimation, he had been walking at a normal pace for nearly half an hour before he finally saw the tunnel's end.
There stood a fan-shaped doorway.
A faint orange glow shone from beyond it, and the light made Link squint, his eyes not yet used to brightness.
The two lizards behind him were thrilled.
The moment they saw the exit, they squealed excitedly and dashed ahead, their gait funny and awkward, just like those "lizards running on water" videos from Link's previous life.
For ordinary people, after walking for so long in a pitch-dark, silent tunnel with only their footsteps for company, seeing a bright exit like that would make them just as eager to rush forward.
But not Link.
He truly enjoyed the feeling of being wrapped entirely in darkness.
At that moment, a strange sense of loss welled up in his heart, and he slowed his pace.
Unfortunately, that brief hesitation didn't gain him much time. Barely five minutes later, he stepped out of the tunnel and into the light.
Unlike the grand plaza earlier or the rough, mine-like tunnel before, what now entered Link's view was an utterly ordinary stone chamber. Inside, a single oil lamp provided weak light. The furniture was minimal, a table, a chair, and a bed, all old, shabby, and plain, like a dungeon room from Hogwarts' Room of Requirement. In short, it fit Nurmengard's prison décor perfectly.
But Link's attention didn't linger on any of that. Instead, his eyes locked onto a human-shaped figure in the corner.
He could only describe it as "human-shaped."
The filthy rags the man wore were so dirty that their original color had long vanished, blending almost perfectly with the prison walls.
His Western features were obvious from his thick hair and beard. What should have been pure golden hair had turned blackish gray, matted and tangled together with his beard and body hair, completely obscuring his face.
He lay motionless in the corner, blending into the stone like a corpse, so much so that an ordinary person might not notice him at first glance.
Even Link had only noticed him because the two lizards were rubbing themselves against him.
Without a doubt, this must be Grindelwald.
The moment Link reached that conclusion, his hand tightened instinctively around his wand.
So this is the legendary first Dark Lord… he thought, taking two cautious steps forward.
Nurmengard's designers hadn't been foolish enough to make the tunnel open straight into the top prisoner's cell, so the place where Link now stood was separated from the cell itself by a wall of iron bars.
But those bars hardly mattered anymore, they weren't even comforting to look at.
They were so rusted they could barely stand, and the door hung loosely, its latch so broken a child could have pushed it open.
Link stood before the barrier, looking down at Grindelwald from above, and spoke in a calm, emotionless tone,
"Good afternoon, Lord Grindelwald."
At his words, the figure in the corner twitched.
From within that mass of tangled hair and beard, one eye emerged, gleaming with a strange, unsettling light.
But it lasted only a moment before dimming into murkiness, old, cloudy, and frail.
The man didn't reply.
That was exactly as Link had expected.
He stepped forward, wand in hand, while Arkham, sensing the slight contempt directed at Link, opened its mouth to reveal two venomous fangs, hissing sharply.
Yoyo and the other bat weren't to be outdone, the former morphed into its full form, perched on Link's other shoulder with wings spread wide, the eerie patterns on them meant to intimidate; the latter fluttered behind him without any wind at all.
As for the two lizards near Grindelwald, they seemed to regain some courage under his presence, roaring at Link, their bodies glowing orange-red.
But when Link's Dragon Slayer aura descended, they immediately reverted to terror, frantically burrowing into Grindelwald's sleeve.
Soon after, Grindelwald's dirty hand flicked, sending them flying away.
That simple motion seemed to drain what little strength he had left, his arm collapsed weakly to the ground, trembling.
"Did Dumbledore send you?" Grindelwald finally spoke.
His voice was surprisingly clear, nothing like that of someone who had spent years in solitary confinement, deprived of speech.
But at those words, a flash of crimson passed over the tip of Link's wand, and even the Occlumency-sealed muscles of his face twitched slightly.
"I wasn't sent by Dumbledore," Link said slowly, voice still calm.
It was the second time he'd spoken those words today. The last person who'd heard him say them, the old witch inspector, had been blasted to ash, leaving not even a corpse.
Grindelwald likely didn't know that.
He seemed to regain a bit of strength, sitting up straighter against the wall.
"You've come to kill me," he said with absolute certainty.
At that, Link's lips curved upward in a slow, cold smile.
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