Dumbledore's scalp went numb from Grindelwald's series of actions, and the corner of his eye twitched.
He pressed his lips together, widened his eyes, and said, "You... you guard it like this?"
Grindelwald looked up at Dumbledore, still smiling indifferently, and said, "Don't worry, it's just a cowardly beast that bullies the weak and fears the strong! The more seriously you treat it, the more trouble it stirs up."
"On the other hand, if you act tough, it becomes perfectly obedient. That's a valuable lesson I've learned through many years of experience."
As he spoke, Grindelwald gave the trapdoor a few more vigorous kicks.
The sight almost made Dumbledore's heart stop.
No one knew better than he did how dangerous the thing beneath that trapdoor was. Back when it was first discovered and accidentally released, it caused a massive disaster across all of Europe, killing countless people.
In the end, it took the lives of many of Grindelwald's followers as well as numerous Aurors from the International Confederation of Wizards before it was finally sealed again.
Unfortunately, that entire incident was later classified by the International Confederation of Wizards, and those who had sacrificed themselves became nameless heroes who could not receive the glory they deserved.
"That's enough! Enough! I understand, please don't do that again!"
Dumbledore hurriedly raised his hand to stop him.
Hearing this, Grindelwald chuckled and sat back down on the bed.
"Some people are just like that thing, they only respond to strength, never to kindness. With people like that, you have to restrain that damn compassion of yours."
"You understand what I mean, don't you? I'm talking about that Link Flamel."
"He's not our only option, and lately, he's been showing signs of drifting away from our expectations. If one day something truly unexpected happens, you'll have to make a clean break, Dumbledore."
"Of course, if you can't bring yourself to do it, you can come tell me. I may be a little weak after years of guarding this place, but dealing with one little brat would still be easy enough."
Dumbledore didn't reply. He only lowered his head, deep in thought.
The air in the room turned heavy and awkward.
But Grindelwald didn't care in the slightest. He kept smiling, he didn't really care what he and Dumbledore talked about. Simply being together was enough to make him happy.
After a long while, Dumbledore finally raised his head.
He stared deeply into Grindelwald's eyes for a long time before slowly saying, "I must be going."
"Oh! Time really flies! Come, let me walk you out," Grindelwald said as he stood up. "But are you sure you don't want some water? As a host, you're making me feel a little embarrassed."
Dumbledore slowly but firmly shook his head.
Grindelwald sighed.
"All right, all right, what a rude old man."
As he spoke, Grindelwald opened the cell door for Dumbledore, just as he had done when Dumbledore arrived, graceful and natural.
Dumbledore walked slowly out of the cell. As he passed Grindelwald, the latter spoke again, "So, what will you do next? Stay in Germany? I think that would be quite a good choice. You know, your Link Flamel is currently stirring up a war. If you stay, you'll get to see quite the show."
Dumbledore's face showed no extra emotion. He shook his head and said, "I'm afraid not. The new term at Hogwarts is about to begin, and as headmaster, I must return to work."
"It was an honor to be your guest today. Farewell, my old friend."
As he finished speaking, Fawkes the phoenix suddenly appeared, bursting into brilliant red-gold flames that wrapped around Dumbledore before vanishing.
"Goodbye, old friend."
Grindelwald murmured the words so softly only he could hear them. Then he stood there for a long time, staring in the direction Dumbledore had disappeared, before silently pulling open his robe and lying back down on the trapdoor.
Compared with the elegance and vigor he had shown during his meeting with Dumbledore just moments before, Grindelwald now looked deathly pale, and his breathing grew rapidly weaker.
As he stroked the trapdoor beneath him, a bitter smile crossed his face.
Keeping the thing sealed inside this door was nowhere near as easy as he had just claimed.
The reason he had said all that, and had taken the trouble to tidy up his cell and his appearance, was the same, he simply didn't want Dumbledore to see him looking so pathetic. He had only been putting up a front.
In truth, what Link had guessed earlier was entirely right.
Years of guarding this place had almost completely drained Grindelwald's magical power.
For him now, maintaining the seal was growing harder and harder.
That "kick to reinforce the seal" he had just performed while acting tough had actually consumed part of his very life force.
The damage it caused would be permanent and irreversible.
And the same was true regarding the issue of Link.
Although Grindelwald had spoken lightly about him, boasting that if Dumbledore couldn't deal with him, he could, the truth was, in his current condition, even if he went all out, risking everything, he would be lucky to survive three exchanges against Link.
He really had been drained dry by this trapdoor.
And the biggest problem he faced wasn't even the trapdoor anymore, it was Link.
Just as Dumbledore had said, Link was absolutely a genius on par with them and Voldemort, perhaps even surpassing both.
The demon hidden within his body and his innate talent had fused perfectly, producing a kind of "chemical reaction" that allowed him, before even turning eighteen, to reach the level of a top Auror, or even a professor.
And that "reaction" was still continuing. If Link's power kept growing at this pace, reaching the legendary tier before he turned twenty wasn't impossible at all.
What's more, Grindelwald could tell that his earlier half-truths and manipulative talk hadn't changed Link's thinking one bit.
Link still harbored a burning intent to kill him.
The only reason the boy hadn't acted yet was because he wanted to squeeze more secrets out of him first.
If his guess was right, it wouldn't be long before Link came to find him again.
And when that time came, what could he possibly offer to satisfy Link?
Thinking of this, Grindelwald gave a helpless, bitter laugh, shaking his head with a sigh.
"Young people really are terrifying."
———
In a daze, Link felt something breathing against his face.
It was an utterly awful sensation, because the other's breath stank, like a sewer stuffed full of rotting meat.
"Ugh! Hiss hiss hiss! Hiss hiss!" (Damn it! Go brush your teeth, you stinking snake!)
Link frowned with his eyes still closed and cursed, then turned over in disgust, avoiding the source of the stench.
It had become pure instinct for him.
Almost every morning in the past, whenever Arkam woke before Link, it would coil around his neck, open its mouth, and stare at him unblinkingly.
It looked horrifying to outsiders, but for Link and Arkam, it was routine.
But today was a bit different.
After being scolded, Arkam didn't obediently clean its mouth or shrink back into Link's clothes like a frightened turtle. Instead, it pressed even closer to Link's face, hissing urgently.
That made Link fully wake up.
The memories, and waves of pain, came crashing back all at once. Link gasped sharply, gritting his teeth as he forced his eyes open.
What greeted him was a huge, ferocious serpent's head.
Arkam's golden pupils suddenly narrowed. The corners of its mouth curled up in a disturbingly human-like grin as it hissed, "Hiss hiss hiss hiss, hiss hiss hiss!" (You're finally awake. Sleeping through summer isn't a good habit, you know. From my experience, now's when you should be storing up fat, otherwise when winter comes, you'll freeze to death.)
"Hiss hiss hiss." (Yeah, it really was a bad decision.)
Link didn't bother explaining anything. The snake clearly didn't understand what had really happened to him. He just rubbed his temples as he spoke, while instinctively reaching into his pocket to take out the pocket watch Emily had given him.
He realized he had been unconscious for nearly three days.
The fact that his body hadn't suffered any serious issues despite that was practically a miracle, considering his physique was still within normal human limits.
The reaction from upgrading his skills this time had been far more intense than he'd expected.
This level of pain, he'd only experienced it back when he first came to the wizarding world, upgrading Refilling Charm and Super-Sensory Charm while knowing almost nothing about magic.
No, it was even worse than that.
Back then, when the pain overwhelmed him, he'd simply fainted and slept it off.
But this time was different.
The system had poured so much knowledge into him, and in such a violent way, that it was as if it were force-feeding him complete understanding.
The result was that, even in his coma, he kept dreaming about being in class, studying unbelievably complex theories, so advanced that even higher mathematics would feel ashamed in comparison, forcing his brain to run nonstop until it felt like it would explode.
But the rewards for such agony were astonishing.
Link couldn't wait to open his status panel, and the stream of history messages immediately flooded his vision again.
[Sectumsempra Lv7 obtained!]
[Avada Kedavra Lv4 obtained!]
[Fiendfyre Lv4 obtained!]
[Cruciatus Curse Lv3 obtained!]
———
It took Link nearly ten full minutes to scroll through all the messages.
Even though his head still throbbed painfully, he couldn't help but smile, those two golden skill points had been well spent.
He lightly flicked his wand forward, and at its tip appeared a flame that was mostly black but faintly translucent, almost gray.
That was the most direct manifestation of his newly upgraded Sectumsempra.
The purity and control of his cursed power had increased tremendously in this upgrade.
Thanks to that improvement, even attacks like Cold Venom, which relied on cursed power as their foundation, now hit almost fifty percent harder.
And the once-pure black Fiendfyre, which he'd never been able to refine further, now showed traces of translucence, beginning to evolve toward the kind of flame Mike had used against Voldemort back then.
Moreover, the further purification of his cursed power had boosted the levels of several of his other spells.
Dark magic spells, being wholly composed of curses, benefited the most, both Avada Kedavra and Fiendfyre had each risen by at least one level.
Other malicious spells, like his modified version of Densaugeo, had skyrocketed even more, hence the flood of notifications.
For Link, that was quite a pleasant surprise.
After drinking one pumpkin-flavored nutrient potion and a vial of stimulant, Link finally began to feel better.
Just then, Yoyo that had been guarding the training room door flew back inside, landing on his shoulder and affectionately rubbing its cheek against his.
Right behind it came Emily and Snape.
"Link! Are you all right? Merlin's beard!"
Emily cried as she rushed toward him.
She looked utterly exhausted, her eyes swollen as if she had just been crying.
Snape's expression was also dark and stormy. He stepped up, grabbed Link, and checked him over. Only after confirming he was fine did he exhale and say, "What happened exactly?"
"For the past three days, your basilisk and the Dementor have been guarding the door, refusing to let us in. When we asked them what was going on, they actually told us you were… hibernating?"
"Do you realize we even recalled all of Krell and Beckman's troops? If they hadn't stepped aside today, we were about to storm the place by force."
Link, who had been comforting Emily, froze for a moment and turned to Snape.
"I wasn't hibernating," he said. "I just ran into a problem while practicing spells and passed out."
"But how did you even understand what Arkam and Yoyo were saying?"
"Parseltongue isn't such a rare ability. There's even a Parseltongue dictionary at Hogwarts, though it's far from complete," Snape said with a frown, bending down again to double-check Link, still not fully at ease.
As for Emily, hearing Snape confirm that Link was fine seemed to lift her spirits. She helped Link stand up from the floor.
Suddenly, Link thought of something and turned to Emily.
"Wait, you said Krell and the others came back?"
Emily rolled her eyes.
"I know what you're thinking. Krell and Beckman already finished looting the Hartmann and Schwartz family properties."
"Of course, they only got the cash and a small portion of the legal businesses. The rest, the illegal ones, were all snatched up by the German Ministry of Magic and the local petty nobles."
"Is that so?" Link nodded. "Then they've done pretty well."
Emily continued, "You should give them some credit. They've hardly slept these past few days because of it, and the moment they got back and heard you were in trouble, they fully armed themselves and are waiting outside right now."
Snape frowned and cut in, "No, that can wait. Dumbledore sent word yesterday, we must return to England immediately."
At that, Link raised an eyebrow.
He was extremely sensitive to that name now. Just as he was about to ask why, Snape added, "It's Harry. Something's happened to Harry!"
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