Ding-dong!
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang like a clueless idiot, stubbornly making a racket at the entrance, forming a comical and sharp contrast with the deathly silence and killing intent inside the room.
The Slytherin male elf shot another look at the guard holding the staff.
The guard understood and tapped the staff on the ground again.
This time, the image formed by the emerald light on the door panel didn't just have a picture; it included the transmission of sound.
The slick-tongued wizard outside the door was pushing a creaking small trolley.
The cart was crammed with hundreds of small potion bottles. While enthusiastically pressing the doorbell, he shouted in a highly inflammatory, operatic voice:
"Does anyone need anything?
The latest arrival of 'Dragon's Might'!
Are you still troubled by intermittent magic output?
Are you still losing your partner's respect because of 'softness' at the critical moment?
Do not hesitate, do not waver!
With one bottle down your throat, I guarantee your wand will stay as stiff as the first day, with magic gushing out incessantly!"
His gaze swept over the eye-catching labels on the trolley, each written in sparkling fonts with explicit advertising slogans:
"Special Medicine for Re-establishing Majestic Wind! One drop to revive, say goodbye to impotence!"
"Enduring Permanent Essence! Make her look at you with new eyes!"
"Midnight Battle Booster (Concentrated Edition)! A must-have for wizards to fight until dawn!"
Inside, the room instantly fell into a dead silence.
This was a silence even weirder than the daggers-drawn tension of a moment ago.
The icy killing intent in the air was like a basin of cold water poured onto a red-hot iron—with a hiss, it evaporated, replaced by a nearly insulting sense of slapstick and absurdity.
The corner of the Slytherin male elf's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He looked at the salesman in the projection, who was still spitting while passionately pitching "potions for the alpha male," his expression changing from murderous intent to pure disgust.
Annie was even more dumbfounded.
She stood with her mouth slightly open, still clutching her wand tightly, but her mind had gone completely blank.
She had imagined countless possibilities! An Auror raid or even a surprise inspection by the Ministry of Magic, but in her wildest dreams, she never expected a salesman at the door hawking potions for impotence and premature ejaculation.
The surrounding elven guards holding bows and staves also looked at each other in confusion.
The fingers gripping the bows relaxed slightly, and the staves pressed against the back of heads seemed to lower a bit.
They looked at their leader, their eyes no longer filled with bloodlust but a mix of bewilderment and the inquiry of "What do we do now?"
"...Should we deal with him?"
An elven guard holding a longbow asked subconsciously in a whisper, his eyes still fixed dead on the oily figure on the door panel.
He had even notched an arrow on the string, but the direction the arrowhead was pointing made even him feel a surge of absurdity.
"Deal with him how?
A Silencing Charm and then an arrow through the throat?"
Another guard retorted expressionlessly, "For what reason?
Because he's ringing the doorbell to sell low-quality potions?"
The Slytherin male elf raised his hand to rub his temples, feeling a headache like never before.
The doorbell outside continued to ring, and the salesman projected onto the door through the spell was still delivering his tireless, slick-tongued speech.
"...Gentlemen, ladies!
Stop worrying about a temporary inability to do what you want!
Look at our 'Midnight Battle Booster'!
Pure natural herbal essence, brewed by the most senior Potions Masters for forty-nine days!
I guarantee it will make your wand... uh, I mean, make you like a vigorous Norwegian Ridgeback!"
Annie's face had turned from a flush to a deep, explosive red for another reason.
"Make him go away," the Slytherin male elf finally spoke, his voice sounding like it was fished out of an ice cellar, filled with extreme loathing. He looked at the guard casting the spell, "Use a Confundus Charm.
Make him think he's found the wrong place, make him think this building is actually a fish and chips shop, and let him go sell his junk somewhere else."
"Yes."
The guard casting the spell nodded immediately, just about to lift his heavy staff.
But just then, the salesman outside seemed to sense something, suddenly raising his volume and leaning his face closer to the door.
"Is anyone inside?
I know you're listening!
I just saw several people go in!
Don't be shy! It's normal to have problems in this area!
I'll give you twenty percent off! No! Thirty percent! How about it?
Open the door and talk; this is a major matter concerning a man's dignity and family happiness!"
This sentence made the elven guard about to cast the spell freeze.
The eyes of all the elves in the room instantly focused on the few wizards who had just been brought in and were still sitting dazed in the corner.
Clearly, this damn salesman had seen them entering the door.
He no longer hesitated and pointed at one of the controlled fifth-year Hufflepuff students. The student, not yet fully awake from the chaos, was pulled like a puppet by an invisible thread, walking stiffly toward the door.
The detection magic in the guard's hand was not deactivated; the door panel still clearly reflected the salesman outside with his face slightly distorted by excitement.
The Hufflepuff student walked expressionlessly to the door. There was no emotion on his originally kind and honest face as he raised his hand and, with a mechanically slow movement, slid the latch open.
With a slight creak, the heavy oak door swung inward, opening a gap.
The sunlight from outside, carrying the unique bustle of Hogsmeade Village and the secular scents of Butterbeer and grilled meat, instantly flooded into this quiet building disguised by magic.
The salesman's sharp eyes caught the movement of the door. The glint in his eyes flashed and vanished. Almost at the same time the gap opened, he nimbly squeezed the crate of various suspicious potions from his trolley into the opening.
A chubby hand quickly pulled a potion bottle from the box—a green bottle labeled "Baby Maker: Song of the Elves"—and thrust it like lightning in front of the Hufflepuff student.
"Yo!
My dear student, you've finally opened the door!
I was just wondering if you had some unspeakable embarrassment?"
The salesman's face was piled with a fawning smile, yet he unceremoniously spat out explicit words.
He ignored the Hufflepuff student's hollow gaze completely, continuing in a slick-tongued tone as he pushed the potion further forward: "Come, come, try this!
The latest model, original price ten Galleons, but seeing as you're an old customer... er, I mean you look like a good person, I'll give you five percent off today!
Don't let the small bottle fool you; its efficacy is massive!"
The salesman's eyes darted around, seemingly trying to peek through the gap into the interior, and his words became even more explicit, hitting right at the core.
"This stuff, seriously, guaranteed satisfaction! It's incredibly effective, especially for long-lived races or those who are older and have trouble conceiving—it's a miracle drug!
All that talk about the low birth rate in elven tribes? That's ancient history!
One dose and I guarantee you'll be surrounded by children and grandchildren, with your lineage flourishing!
Think about it, even if it's the... Elven Queen, use this and it guarantees twins in one pregnancy. It's simply too good a deal!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of all the elves in the building, including Annie and the guards, turned exceptionally colorful, but soon every single one of them became dead serious.
However, the fat man outside suddenly stopped in the middle of his incessant chatter.
The smile on his face remained just as enthusiastic, even becoming more brilliant.
He acted as if he had just realized what he had said, exaggeratedly slapping his own forehead with his other hand.
"Oh dear," he said with a smirk, his tone relaxed as if talking about the weather, "I accidentally said what I was thinking out loud."
That sentence was the signal.
The moment the word "Oh" left his mouth, the salesman's friendly and easily bullied face suddenly contorted, his eyes exploding with a ferocity and savagery that completely defied his body shape.
He didn't even draw a wand; he just slammed his mouth open!
A concentrated bolt of emerald green lightning, carrying a foul stench, shot out from deep within his throat like a poisoned javelin!
The speed of this lightning was extreme—no thunder, only a sharp whistle as it tore through the air.
The Hufflepuff student standing at the door had just reflected this eerie green light in his hollow eyes, not even having time to make a single reaction.
Squish!
The green lightning passed precisely through his chest, the massive kinetic energy slamming his body backward.
A hole the size of a bowl with charred edges was left in his chest. Green electrical arcs still flickered restlessly around the wound like countless tiny venomous snakes, crazily eroding his life force.
His body was pinned to the doorframe by the force, then slid down slowly, making a dull thud, completely silent.
All of this happened in a flash. The elves inside had barely reacted from their shock when the stench of death hit them full in the face.
However, the attack was not over.
After killing the Hufflepuff student, the salesman's bloated body nimbly stepped back, and his other free hand thrust forward violently.
The air in front of his palm suddenly became scorched and distorted. The next second, a thick torrent of fire, like roaring lava, erupted from his palm, savagely pouring into the building through the open doorway!
This fire was no ordinary flame; its color was an eerie orange-red, mixed with wisps of black energy.
The high temperature instantly ignited the dust in the air, illuminating the interior of this already dilapidated building like a literal purgatory!
"Scatter!"
The Slytherin male elf roared, his wand already swinging out a barrier.
But the moment that torrent of flame rushed inside, it underwent an even more terrifying transformation.
It exploded in mid-air, but instead of scattering, it condensed and took shape!
In the blink of an eye, that single flame split into seven or eight smaller but more flexible and ferocious fire dragons!
These fire dragons were covered in orange-red flames, their scales clearly visible, their mouths wide open as they let out silent roars. Carrying a soul-scorching heat, they pounced like lightning toward every elf in the building from different angles!
The cramped space was instantly and completely filled with firelight and the breath of death.
The old wooden stairs, walls, and ceiling immediately began to curl and carbonize under the heat, making a tooth-grinding crackling sound.
Jerry, or rather, the version of him disguised as the greasy salesman, had no intention of stepping a single foot into that door of death.
After releasing those malicious fire dragons, his bloated body leaped backward with an agility completely at odds with his size, opening up a distance of over ten meters.
The smile on his face had vanished completely, replaced by pure focus.
His small eyes flickered with the light of destruction. His two chubby hands began to weave a web of death composed of countless spells at a speed nearly impossible for the naked eye to track.
Boom!
A massive sound came not from the fire, but from underground!
The earth beneath the building churned violently. Several rock spikes thicker than buckets, like claws reaching out from hell, suddenly burst through the floor of the first level!
They easily tore through the rotten wooden flooring, with unstoppable momentum, crashing through the first-floor ceiling and the second-floor floor, instantly shattering the building's internal structure into fragments.
An elven guard who was slightly slow to react was impaled directly from bottom to top by a rock spike, his body held high in the air, emerald blood flowing down the rough stone surface.
This was only the beginning.
Jerry's hand movements became a blurred afterimage, his mouth chanting different spell fragments at a non-human high speed.
The sky suddenly darkened, not because of clouds, but because dozens of ice-blue spears emitting bone-chilling frost had condensed in mid-air. Then, like a torrential rain, trailing long white wakes, they hissed down savagely through the torn roof!
Each ice spear contained a terrifying power enough to pierce through steel plates. They smashed through the roof tiles and pinned into the second-floor floor, forcing the elves trying to hide into a wretched state.
Immediately following were orbs of dark green acid.
These viscous liquids slammed into the building's outer walls like cannonballs. They didn't explode, but made a tooth-grinding sizzle sound. Under the erosion of the acid, the solid wooden walls melted away as quickly as butter under a hot knife, creating large holes emitting black smoke, leaving the building's interior completely exposed.
And that wasn't all!
Invisible wind blades tore through the air with deathly whistles, slicing through the building's load-bearing pillars.
Purple-black Shadow Bolts, like tracking vipers, precisely sought out every sign of life; golden light orbs containing holy power bombarded the defensive barriers the elves had just raised with pure energy, causing them to teeter and ripple wildly!
Under the terrifying boost of this world's high element concentration and one hundred percent spell crit rate, every basic spell was catalyzed into its ultimate form.
Rock spikes became mountain-piercing lances, ice spears became city-breaking ballista bolts, and even the simplest Fireball spell transformed into solar flares capable of melting steel, slamming one after another onto the building's already overwhelmed structure.
The entire two-story building was like a small boat in a hurricane amidst this dense, waterfall-like torrent of spells.
Walls were peeled away, the roof was blown off, and floors were collapsing.
Countless magical glows intertwined, painting this small space into a brilliant tapestry of an impending apocalypse.
Wood chips, rubble, and the light from broken elven shields mixed together, flying in the violent magic.
Jerry stood in the distance like a mad conductor, wantonly pouring out a symphony of destruction. In his eyes, there was only this building about to turn into dust and those... prey in his sight.
"Damn, you tried to pull a pig-butchering scam on me?"
Jerry stood on the messy street, watching the building disintegrate in the rain of magical light, the corner of his mouth hooking into a bloodthirsty sneer.
His disguised, fat body appeared incredibly stable now, like a mountain rooted in the earth.
"Today I'll let you long-eared bastards know what the fuck a 'spell turret' means."
Before his voice faded, Jerry's hands were raised again.
This time, it wasn't flashy multi-casting, but pure, overwhelming violence.
With him as the center, within a radius of dozens of meters, the magical elements in the air began to gather, compress, and boil at an unprecedented speed!
Inside the building, the surviving elves finally recovered from the initial ambush.
The Slytherin male elf was the first to react. He tapped his hand on the ground, and a barrier of dark green vines rose up, weaving and tangling like living things, forcibly blocking a wave of incoming ice spears. Ice and wood collided violently, ice chips spraying everywhere, and a thick layer of frost covered the vines.
"Fire! Suppress him!" he ordered sharply.
Three elven guards holding longbows nimbly found support points within the teetering building. Their movements were fluid: nocking, drawing, and firing in one continuous motion.
Three arrows flickering with a faint green light carved three tricky arcs at a speed hard to track, sealing all of Jerry's dodge routes in a triangular formation. These were not ordinary arrows, but elven secret arrows imbued with "tracking" and "mana-breaking" runes.
However, facing this sure-kill strike, Jerry didn't even lift an eyelid.
Just as the arrows were about to hit him, three high-speed rotating circular shields composed of pure magic materialized out of thin air in front of him.
These three small shields were like three miniature planets, orbiting him at an incredible speed, precisely meeting the three arrows.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three crisp sounds of metal clashing rang out. The mana-breaking arrows the elves were so proud of hit the high-speed magic shields as if striking the strongest alloy. Sparks flew from the tips, and then they were directly flung away by the powerful centrifugal force, uselessly plunging into the mud in the distance.
At the same time, Jerry's counterattack had already turned into a torrent of death.
"First Movement: Earth's Lament."
Jerry whispered, his right fingers spreading and then suddenly clutching toward the ground of the building.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The earth began to shake violently, and this time it wasn't just simple rock spikes.
The entire building, along with its foundation, was forcibly lifted off the ground by an irresistible, massive force!
Soil and stones flew, and the ground beneath the elves' feet bucked violently, causing them to lose their balance instantly.
Immediately after, from beneath the massive chunk of earth being lifted, over a hundred even thicker and sharper rock lances extended. Like a giant, inverted iron throne, they completely propped the building up in mid-air, rendering it motionless.
"Second Movement: Wind's Strangulation."
Jerry gave a light flick of his left hand.
All the wind elements in the air were mobilized, transforming into tens of thousands of translucent cyan wind blades.
These wind blades formed a terrifying storm, sweeping from all directions toward the building suspended in the air.
Crack-clack-bang!
Under the cutting of the dense wind blades, the wooden walls were instantly ground into sky-filling wood chips as if they were made of paper.
The elves inside had to raise their shields, but under the endless cutting of the wind blades, the light of the shields dimmed rapidly, emitting overburdened wails.
Annie waved her wand, growing tough living bark to wrap herself and her companions, but the bark was sliced away layer after layer by the storm of wind blades the moment it appeared.
"It's not over yet." Jerry grinned, revealing a row of white teeth.
"Third Movement: Symphony of Thunder and Fire!"
He clapped his hands together and then pulled them apart violently.
"Go."
Orbs of lightning and fire soared into the sky, meeting and merging above the building.
The next second, a true apocalypse descended.
The sky seemed to be torn apart as golden lightning and dark red fire merged into terrifying whips of thunder-fire, descending from the heavens to savagely lash the suspended building.
Every time a thunder-fire whip struck, it triggered a massive explosion.
The elves' defensive spells were as fragile as bubbles against an attack that operated nearly on the level of universal laws.
One guard's vine shield was whipped into pieces, and he was swallowed by the thunder-fire. Before he could even scream, he was turned into charcoal in mid-air.
The Slytherin male elf's eyes were bloodshot. He poured all his magic into his staff, and a massive phantom tree emitting a soft white light appeared behind him, its branches extending in an attempt to shelter everyone.
This was a high-level guardian magic of the elven race.
However, Jerry only looked at the tree and let out a disdainful snort.
He lifted a finger and gave a light tap toward the phantom tree.
A thin, nearly invisible black ray pierced through the storm of thunder and fire, precisely hitting the root of the phantom tree.
No explosion, no loud noise. The guardian tree, which had condensed massive natural power, withered, rotted, and turned black at a speed visible to the naked eye as if injected with a lethal virus. Finally, with a bang, it dissolved into a sky of black dust.
With the protection broken, the Slytherin male elf felt as if he had been struck by a heavy weight, coughing up emerald-colored blood and falling to one knee.
Annie looked at the purgatory-like scene before her, feeling the continuous, seemingly infinite magic fluctuations. Her knuckles gripping her wand turned white from the force.
This wasn't a battle.
This was a one-sided, suspense-free... demolition.
The black dust drifted slowly like ominous flakes in the aftermath of the violent magic.
The storm of thunder-fire and wind blades gradually subsided, revealing the building suspended in mid-air, now only a skeletal wreck.
Annie sat dazed on the ground, the emerald light in her eyes reflecting everything before her.
The wizards they had brought, whether students or adults, were long gone.
Under that indiscriminate, high-intensity baptism of spells just now, their fragile bodies didn't even leave behind a single complete corpse; they had completely evaporated, turning into the dust that composed these ruins.
The end of the elven guards was equally tragic. One guard's body had been sliced in half by several wind blades, his upper body hanging from a broken crossbeam while his lower body was nowhere to be found.
Another guard had been impaled through the abdomen by a rock spike and pinned to a surviving section of the wall, his longbow lying on the ground with its string snapped.
There were very few survivors, and every one of them was wounded. Their originally elegant and noble faces were now written with the fear and bewilderment of surviving a disaster.
"Retreat..."
The Slytherin male elf struggled to crawl up from the ground, using his staff to support his body, emerald blood constantly leaking from the corner of his mouth.
He looked at the "salesman" in the distance who still looked leisurely as if he had only performed a warm-up exercise. For the first time, his eyes revealed a deep dread and... powerlessness.
"Back to the 'Sanctuary'! Fast!" he roared hoarsely with all his strength.
This command acted as a wake-up call to everyone's numbed nerves.
Annie shuddered and immediately scrambled up from the ground, rushing to the male elf to support him. The remaining two guards who could still move didn't even bother to handle their companions' corpses, staggering together.
The male elf, enduring his heavy injuries, slammed his staff heavily into the void beneath their feet.
Accompanied by an ancient and obscure incantation, a mass of green light appeared out of thin air in front of them, rapidly expanding into a constantly spinning portal emitting a rich natural aura—the entrance to the hidden realm was opened once again.
"Go!"
He shoved Annie, making her go in first.
The elves no longer hesitated, supporting and dragging each other as they fled into the green gate of light with maximum speed.
The moment the figure of the last elf disappeared behind the door, the light of the portal began to shrink rapidly, becoming dim, about to close.
Jerry just stood in the distance, watching all this coldly as if enjoying a poorly acted escape play.
He didn't pursue, nor did he stop them.
Only when the last sliver of light before the portal completely closed vanished from the air did he slowly raise his right hand.
He faced the ruins of the building suspended in mid-air, already riddled with holes, spread his five fingers, and then... gave a light squeeze.
There was no sound, and no light.
An invisible, irresistible gravitational field shrouded the entire area.
That massive chunk of earth, the shattered wooden and stone wreckage, the corpses of elves and humans... everything began to collapse inward and compress under the effect of this power.
Wood was ground into powder, stone was crushed into fine sand, and flesh and blood were squeezed into mud.
The entire process was silent, yet more heart-palpitating than any violent explosion.
Finally, the two-story building that had once existed, along with every trace of it, was compressed into a fist-sized ball of high-density matter shimmering with a dim light.
Jerry let go of his hand, and the ball of matter lost its constraint. With a pfft, it turned into a sky of the finest dust, and when the wind blew, it completely vanished without a trace.
On the spot, only a massive, smooth pit remained.
Only after finishing all this did Jerry start walking, unhurriedly approaching the spot where the portal to the hidden realm had just disappeared.
Jerry squatted down and extended a finger, giving a light tap in the air.
A weak, emerald-colored trace of spatial residue loomed at his fingertip.
"Releasing the tiger back to the mountain?"
Jerry muttered to himself in a low voice, his tone carrying undisguised mockery, "I don't do stupid things like that."
As soon as his voice fell, Jerry extended two fingers and, like pinching a fragile firefly, precisely pinched that dot of emerald spatial residue.
The light spot struggled slightly between Jerry's fingers, trying to dissipate, but was firmly imprisoned by an irresistible magic.
Jerry stood up, and his other hand covered it as well, both hands wrapping around that speck of light.
In the next moment, Jerry made a move that could only be described as barbaric.
Jerry didn't use any delicate spatial spells, nor did he chant any incantations.
He simply took a deep breath, the muscles in his arms bulging slightly, and then used the purest, most arrogant strength against that spatial coordinate he had caught—and tore it violently to both sides!
Rrrr-rip!
A tooth-grinding sound, like silk being torn apart, rang out in the air.
But what was being torn open was nothing else—it was space itself!
With Jerry's hands as the center, a pitch-black rift appeared out of thin air, and under his violent tugging, it was forcibly expanded.
The edges of the rift flickered with unstable emerald electrical arcs, the sound of the secret realm's spatial barrier emitting a mournful wail.
Violent spatial turbulence spewed from the crack, making Jerry's robes flap wildly, yet he stood as firm as an eternal reef, motionless.
Soon, the rift was torn into an irregular circular entrance large enough for a person to pass through. Behind the door was no longer the street scene of Hogsmeade, but an entirely new world.
This secret realm was quite similar to Jerry's own Blackfeather Castle; both were independent small spaces forcibly carved out and anchored to a specific magical artifact.
Through that unstable entrance, one could glimpse the interior—the sky was an eternal, soft twilight, where shimmering mushrooms and exotic flora replaced trees, the air was thick with natural elements to the point of liquefaction, and a crystal-clear stream flowed quietly under the glow of fluorescent moss.
"A pity!"
Jerry whispered, his tone carrying a hint of regret.
He raised his hand, his thumb gently flicking open the cover of his pocket watch, the crisp click sounding exceptionally clear beside the hollowed pit.
On the watch face, the minute hand was steadily marching toward the next notch.
"I can only destroy it; I can't take it with me."
Jerry's gaze swept over the spatial rift he had forcibly torn open. Through that unstable gateway, he could feel the pure and dense natural energy of the small world on the other side.
It was a perfect, independent elemental cycle system—a natural source of mana.
For any mage, this was a wealth beyond measure.
Unfortunately, peeling away and taking an entire demi-plane required extremely complex preparations and a vast amount of time.
And time was exactly what he lacked most.
There were only twenty minutes left until the next round of the Wizard's Chess Championship.
In twenty minutes, Orion would take the stage.
According to the deduction and acceleration effects of the Wisdom Magic on the game, a high-level match would conclude in ten-odd minutes at most.
This meant that the time left for him to handle the "aftermath" here was less than twenty minutes, all told.
However, that was enough.
"Let's end this quickly."
Jerry snapped his pocket watch shut. The trace of regret on his face vanished without a trace, replaced by his usual coldness and efficiency.
He no longer hesitated for a single second, stepping forward and plunging his entire body directly into the spatial rift flickering with emerald arcs.
The moment his figure vanished, the violently torn opening seemed to lose its support, beginning to self-repair and seal at a speed visible to the naked eye until it completely disappeared, as if it had never existed.
Inside the secret realm, it was like an otherworldly paradise.
However, this tranquility was soon shattered.
The space distorted, and that emerald portal appeared out of thin air beneath the largest ancient tree.
Immediately after, the Slytherin male elf was the first to stumble out. The moment he landed, he could no longer support himself, falling to one knee and coughing violently, emerald-colored blood staining the green grass beneath him.
Anna followed closely. She and the other two surviving guards scrambled out of the portal, practically crawling.
Their armor was shattered, their elegant long hair was a mess of blood and dirt, and every face was etched with the lingering terror of a survivor.
"Adrian? What happened to you all..."
A crisp, ethereal voice rang out, as melodious as wind chimes.
Elania, the princess of the forest elves, descended once more from the treetops.
Seeing their wretched state, the serenity on her face was instantly replaced by shock.
"The... the enemy..." The male elf named Adrian struggled to look up, his eyes filled with a fear that had not yet dissipated. "It's a human wizard... a monster..."
Elania's brows furrowed slightly. She stepped forward quickly, a soft wave of life energy emanating from her hands to temporarily stabilize Adrian's injuries.
Elania was about to soothe them, to tell them that this was the elven "Sanctuary," an independent space built upon a fragment of the World Tree with indestructible defenses that no outsider could ever breach.
But at that moment, the words froze in her throat.
Elania snapped her head up toward the sky of the secret realm.
That eternal, soft twilight canopy was now gathering massive, leaden-heavy dark clouds from its center at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Within the clouds, purple-black lightning serpents danced wildly. A crushing, apocalyptic magic, filled with the scent of destruction, descended from the heavens like a mountain collapse or a tsunami, shrouding the entire realm.
The secret realm was being eroded from the outside!
On Elania's exquisite face, all composure and tranquility vanished instantly.
She didn't even have time to be shocked by how the opponent had found and forcibly torn the realm's barrier.
"Everyone, get to the Spring of Life to heal immediately!" Elania issued a short, clear command, then turned to face the ancient Tree of Life behind her—a core that required dozens of people to encircle.
Elania closed her eyes, her hands pressing gently against the rough bark of the ancient tree, which was covered in profound runes.
Elania's body began to turn transparent, like the purest crystal.
Then, under the stunned gazes of the crowd, her entire form slowly merged into the massive trunk without resistance, like water soaking into the earth, becoming one with the ancient tree.
The next second, the entire giant tree, along with the very land it was rooted in, began to shake violently.
Countless emerald light ribbons erupted from every corner of the trunk. A vast, ancient, and majestic power began to awaken from its slumber.
As that ancient power fully awakened, the entire secret realm began to respond to its monarch.
Crr-ack! Snap!
Waves of tooth-grinding wooden contortions echoed from all directions.
It wasn't just the central Tree of Life; every giant tree in this secret realm began a startling transformation.
On their thick trunks, the hard bark bulged like muscles, tearing and snapping open to reveal two massive "arms" twisted from countless vines and roots.
Their roots buried underground burst through the soil, entangling into two "giant feet" capable of supporting their gait.
In a few short breaths, this peaceful woodland had transformed into a silent, majestic army of hundreds of Treants, each over ten meters tall.
In their hollow "faces," two points of emerald light, like ghost fires, ignited as they all turned toward the intruder standing at the entrance of the realm.
Meanwhile, Elania's ethereal yet authoritative voice echoed in every corner of the space, like the whispering wind and the resonance of mountains:
"Intruder, leave this place. This is your final warning."
Facing this miracle-like sight and the warning saturated with pressure, Jerry merely stood in place, calm.
He didn't even look up at the ancient war trees slowly closing in on him. He calmly fished a pigeon-egg-sized red gem from his bosom and held it in his palm.
The texture of this gem looked quite poor; the interior was cloudy and filled with impurities, and the surface was pitted, looking like cheap junk found by the roadside.
Jerry closed his eyes, completely ignoring the movements around him. His mouth began to chant complex and tongue-twisting incantations at an extremely high speed.
In his field of vision, the appearance of this gem was entirely different.
A layer of golden halo, invisible to others and composed of countless runes, wrapped around it.
And at the very core of the gem, a line of clear, dominant characters shimmering with dark golden light was branded upon it—[Meteorite Strike +9].
This was precisely a Magic Stone capable of storing spells.
Compared to the pure, strategic-grade item taken by Narcissa and the Death Eaters, the original quality of this one was absolute garbage.
Logically, such an inferior product could only store a few Fireballs at most, and would likely fail prematurely due to structural instability.
However, it had been synthesized by Jerry.
This was a one-time-use item that had cost him immense effort.
To obtain it, Jerry had consumed hundreds of similar low-quality Magic Stones from the market—a massive fortune worth over thirty thousand Galleons—before luckily synthesizing this one after countless failures.
This was an extremely expensive "cannonball."
Of course, compared to the purpose it served, it was all worth it.
Because the spell stored within it was a Forbidden Curse known as "Meteorite Strike."
Simply put, it summoned a meteorite from the outer heavens to slam into the ground.
This was a relatively common mass-effect Forbidden Curse on the battlefield, usually requiring three to four experienced adult wizards to guide together for a successful casting.
Jerry was alone at this moment.
But under the terrifying boost of 100% spell crit rate, 100% spell penetration, a spell power gain of several hundred points, and the simple, crude horror of the "Synthesized +9" affix... Jerry found it hard to imagine what this pretty-looking secret realm would use to survive this strike.
Jerry stopped his chanting and slowly opened his eyes. Looking at the ancient war trees that had already surrounded him, radiating massive life energy, he said softly: "It's a bit expensive, but since I've already made a move, I have no choice but to kill you all. I hope you're a bit durable..."
He glanced to his side.
There, an elven mage he had knocked out and captured alive in the previous battle lay quietly on the ground.
"Well, since I've already caught a live one, the rest can die."
The moment the words fell, Jerry didn't hesitate any longer.
Jerry's hand holding the red Magic Stone clenched its fingers abruptly.
Crunch.
The priceless gem was crushed directly and without hesitation by him.
At the instant the red gem turned to dust, the entire secret realm froze.
It wasn't that time had stopped, but rather an absolute suppression originating from a higher plane.
The wind died, the streams went silent, and even the light spores floating in the air froze mid-flight.
The movements of all the Treants halted, the emerald soul fires burning in their eyes flickering uneasily.
A pressure heavy to the extreme descended from the sky, slamming into every corner of this small world.
The eternal twilight canopy of the secret realm began to fade.
The soft light was replaced by an ominous dark red.
At the very peak of the sky, a tiny red dot, like the tip of a needle, appeared out of thin air.
At first, it was unremarkable.
But just one second later, that red dot began to expand and fall frantically at a speed that defied all physical laws!
It wasn't a simple meteorite.
It was a Demonic Star of the Abyss, burning with hellfire, forcibly dragged from the distant void with the most arrogant magic!
Its volume was so massive that it occupied the entire sky's field of vision as it fell.
Its entire body burned with dark red flames, its surface covered in a crisscross of lava canyons, and countless purple-black destructive energies hissed and slithered across its surface like venomous snakes.
Before it even truly arrived, the heatwave scorched the souls of all things, causing the exotic flowers and grasses on the ground to wither and curl. The clear stream began to boil, emitting rolling white steam.
"Roar!"
The largest ancient tree, controlled by Elania's will, let out a roar that shook the entire secret realm.
This roar didn't propagate through sound, but through the resonance of spirit and nature.
It represented the land's final and strongest resistance.
Elania raised two giant arms, twisted from millennial roots, high above her head. Countless emerald runes, saturated with massive life energy, lit up across the trunk.
The natural power of the entire secret realm was frantically being siphoned and gathered by it at this moment!
A massive canopy woven from the purest life energy, looking as if carved from emerald, propped up above its head in an attempt to withstand the falling doomsday star.
However, in the face of the absolute power of "Meteorite Strike +9," all of this was in vain.
There was no earth-shattering sound of collision.
The moment the bottom of the falling star touched the emerald canopy, time seemed to slow down infinitely.
The life barrier, hailed as being able to withstand any evil erosion, was like thin ice under the sun—it couldn't even hold on for a single millisecond.
It silently and rapidly melted and vaporized from the point of contact.
Next was the body of the ancient war tree itself.
That massive frame, comparable to a mountain, along with Elania's will within it, couldn't even let out a single wail under the illumination of that dark red light. It was directly decomposed and evaporated in the extreme heat and destructive energy, turning completely into basic particles without even a trace of ash remaining.
Then, the star finally struck the earth.
The world lost its sound and its color.
A ball of blinding white light that devoured everything rose from the impact point, expanding instantly to shroud the entire secret realm.
Following it was a terrifying shockwave capable of tearing apart continental shelves.
The earth was flipped up like a soft carpet.
The solid ground was as fragile as paper before this force, easily torn and pulverized.
The giant glowing mushrooms, the peaceful streams, the ancient trees... all the beautiful scenery in this secret realm was wiped clean in that instant.
The very foundation of the secret realm was completely shaken by this one hit.
When the destructive white light finally dissipated slightly, what was revealed was a world that had completely died.
The sky no longer existed, and the earth had become a scorched wasteland of glassy terrain flowing with lava.
But this was not the end.
Having endured an energy impact far beyond its limit, the structure of this independent small space had completely collapsed.
Rrrr-ip...
Pitch-black rifts, like scars, began to appear out of thin air in every corner of the space.
Behind these rifts was not the void, but even more chaotic and dangerous dimensional turbulence.
In some rifts, a burning world of fire was reflected.
From others, a bone-chilling wind capable of freezing souls blew out.
And in still others, one could glimpse countless unspeakable, distorted shadows.
The entire secret realm was like a glass marble shattered by a heavy hammer, covered in a web of cracks, heading toward its final and irreversible collapse.
Jerry stood calmly in the center of this collapsing world, beneath his feet was the scorched earth that had already turned to glass and still held residual heat.
Beside him, a nearly invisible, thin-as-a-cicada-wing magical shield enveloped him and the unconscious elven wizard, forming an absolutely safe domain three meters in diameter.
Fierce winds ravaged out from a massive spatial rift, the wind mixed with fine ice crystals capable of freezing steel to powder instantly, howling as they slammed into the shield without even triggering a ripple before being silently annihilated.
Hellfire from some burning world spewed from another rift, slithering around the shield like living venomous snakes trying to intrude, only to be completely neutralized the moment they touched that thin membrane, turning into warm, dancing ash.
That dust was the remains of another world burned to nothing.
Jerry was indifferent to all of this.
He was like the eye of a storm, allowing the world around him to be torn, devoured, and churned into chaos while he remained unmoved.
Massive chunks of scorched earth floating in the air were sucked into the spatial rifts with dull thuds; the last material foundation of the secret realm was being thoroughly purged.
This process lasted for several minutes.
Finally, when the last piece of land had been devoured by the dimensional turbulence, all the spatial rifts began to flicker and shrink violently.
Accompanied by a final, low hum that sounded like the dawn of the universe, all the rifts closed, and all the chaos vanished.
The world returned to silence.
Only the sunlight shrouding the entire village and a gentle breeze remained, along with the massive, smooth pit that Jerry had created with his own hands.
After the destructive power subsided, the massive pit left behind and the deathly silence around it soon attracted daring wizards from Hogsmeade Village to investigate.
They gathered one after another at the edge of the pit, but not a single person dared to take another step closer.
Everything before them exceeded their scope of understanding.
The massive pit, smooth as a mirror, and the heart-palpitating magical echoes in the air that had not yet fully dispersed, all silently spoke of what a terrifying "disaster" had occurred here. They watched the "salesman" standing alone in the center of the pit from afar, their eyes filled with awe and terror.
Jerry snapped his pocket watch shut, ignoring the increasing number of onlookers around him.
Just as he was about to grab the elven wizard beside him and leave this place of trouble, his footsteps suddenly paused.
Jerry's gaze was drawn to a faint, nearly imperceptible green fluorescence in the center of the pit.
What was that?
Jerry released the elf in his hand and walked over unhurriedly.
On the scorched and glassified ground, one small area had not been completely destroyed.
A branch, only as thick as an arm and emerald green like jade as if it were still alive, was stuck in the ground. The soft light membrane it emitted formed a tiny, semi-circular sanctuary.
And beneath that light membrane lay a woman quietly.
An elven woman of breathtaking beauty.
Elania.
The elven princess had survived amidst the ruins of destruction.
She had fallen into a deep sleep, her silver hair spread across the scorched ground, forming a sharp contrast with her snowy, delicate skin.
Perhaps due to the energy impact when the Tree of Life was destroyed, she was currently stark naked, her perfect body curves exposed to the air without any concealment.
Fortunately, this was the center of the pit, and from the angle of the wizards around, nothing could be seen.
Jerry reached out and gently touched the glowing emerald branch.
The branch seemed to have a consciousness of its own; the moment Jerry's finger touched it, the light membrane flickered slightly as if trying to resist.
But in just an instant, it lost all its luster, turning from a vibrant emerald to a withered yellow and shriveling, and the green light membrane protecting Elania vanished with a pop.
Jerry squatted down, feeling the rich and shocking life aura remaining in the branch, a spark of interest appearing in his eyes.
Jerry reached out and squeezed the elven princess's full, rounded snowy peaks; the soft and elastic texture felt quite good.
His gaze moved downward, and a somewhat peculiar sight made him raise an eyebrow.
Despite the elf having a head of brilliant silver hair, the sparse and soft hair in her private area was a vibrant emerald green.
Hidden beneath that green canopy was an incredibly pink and tender slit.
"Alive, high status, and a rare breed."
Jerry evaluated in a low voice.
Jerry fished a black metal collar from his pocket, which was cast with the Undetectable Extension Charm.
This was no low-quality junk like the one given to Cassandra that only served as a psychological deterrent; the collar was inscribed with complex and precise runes—a true mana-suppressing item capable of completely locking down all the magic within the wearer's body.
Skillfully, he opened the collar and snapped it around Elania's slender, fair neck.
With a crisp click, the collar automatically locked.
Having done this, Jerry pulled out a wide black robe and wrapped Elania's naked body tightly.
Jerry threw the sleeping elven princess over his shoulder and, with his other hand, unceremoniously grabbed the hair of the elven wizard on the ground, lifting him up.
The next moment, Jerry's figure blurred on the spot, turning into a phantom nearly impossible to track with the naked eye, disappearing rapidly into the brilliant noon sunlight with his two trophies.
Malfoy felt the back of his shirt completely soaked with cold sweat.
Inside the massive Wizard's Chess Championship arena, the cheers of the audience came wave after wave like a tide, but he could hear nothing except his own heart pounding like a drum.
Malfoy sat in an inconspicuous section of the stands, his hands clutching his knees so hard his knuckles turned white.
On the giant chessboard below, the battle had entered its fever pitch.
No, it wasn't a fever pitch—it was a one-sided massacre.
Orion's opponent was the defending champion, a middle-aged wizard known for his steady play and foolproof strategies.
Yet at this moment, the champion's face was as pale as paper, and the sweat on his forehead was even more than Malfoy's.
The tall stone pieces belonging to him on the board!
The King, Queen, Bishop, Knight—only a few remained, surrounded by Orion's pieces and struggling on their last legs.
Meanwhile, Orion's pieces—the black granite army—maintained a disciplined formation and an aggressive momentum.
His Knight statue had just used its stone axe to brutally smash the opponent's last castle into a sky of rubble, then dragged the axe back to its rank with heavy steps.
"It's... it's incredible!"
A spectator nearby marveled, "It's been less than ten minutes! Kuidi's defense line has been torn to shreds!"
"Who exactly is that Orion? His playstyle is too eerie; he doesn't follow logic at all, yet every move is like a knife plunged into Kuidi's heart!"
Every word of these discussions felt like a heavy blow to Malfoy.
He knew very well that once Orion won, the terrifyingly high odds of the underground betting pool would crush him and Jerry like a mountain of gold.
All their net worth would turn to nothing after this match.
"Cheating... Jerry said he was cheating..." Malfoy's lips moved silently.
This was Malfoy's only hope.
But where the hell was Jerry?
The incantation Jerry gave him—the one supposedly able to expose all magical disguises—would it really work?
A deep sense of doubt and fear seized Malfoy's heart. His eyes began to scan the stands uncontrollably, like a drowning man searching for a lifesaver, desperately wanting to find Jerry's familiar figure.
Malfoy's gaze swept over a corner where Katherine was gracefully crossing her legs, watching the game below with a composed posture.
But Katherine's attention was clearly not on the board, but on Cassandra, who was excitedly standing up and waving her arms for Orion not far from the board.
A playful smile played on Katherine's face.
Katherine's right hand hung at her side, and between her fingers, she was unhurriedly toying with a small pink object.
The thing rolled nimbly between her fingers like a piece of candy that had come to life.
Katherine had prepared everything.
Katherine was going to let that overreaching bitch taste what true, bone-deep despair felt like at her most triumphant and most watched moment.
Just then, as if by some beastly intuition, the excited Cassandra sensed that malicious gaze.
Cassandra snapped her head back, precisely locking onto Katherine's position.
Seeing the undisguised smile on Katherine's face, Cassandra's expression darkened.
Immediately, Cassandra also flashed a provocative smile and, without hesitation, thrust a slender middle finger in Katherine's direction.
Accompanied by a heavy sound of stone impact, the White King of the former champion was smashed in half by Orion's Black Queen in the center of the massive chessboard.
The final game concluded in a nearly humiliating fashion.
After a brief dead silence, the supporters of Orion in the stands erupted in mountain-shaking cheers.
Cassandra was so excited her face was flushed red. She leaped from her seat, screaming Orion's name toward the board, the joy of victory making her look radiant.
She even turned back to cast a contemptuous glance at Katherine in a victor's pose.
Beside the board, Orion had an irrepressible, smug smile on his face. He savored this moment of public attention, enjoying the thrill of stepping on the defending champion.
But at this very instant, an untimely roar, slightly trembling yet incredibly loud, echoed through the entire arena like a thunderclap on a sunny day.
"He cheated!"
Malfoy stood up abruptly from his seat with all his strength, pointing at Orion below.
All the cheers came to a screeching halt, and tens of thousands of gazes focused in unison on Malfoy's face, which was pale yet flushed with agitation.
"He has been bolstered by an Elven Wisdom spell!"