Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

"Hogwarts: Regulus, Lord of the Stars" is full of classic quotes; come find resonance in them.

The masked man tapped his wand forward lightly, but the movement was heavy, like pushing open a locked iron gate.

Meanwhile, the two masked men fought their way back, reaching the edge of the cliff.

Without exchanging words, they retreated simultaneously, leaping off the cliff and disappearing into the darkness, followed by the sound of a heavy object hitting the water below.

They retreated, but the invisible attack remained and was surging toward Regulus and Freya.

It struck Regulus's mental barrier, spreading out instantly like a tide overflowing a dam, like mist seeping into a crevice.

Once it entered the barrier, its first action wasn't to attack; it probed first.

It spreads along the barrier surface as if it were alive, searching for any possible gaps, weak points, or vulnerabilities.

But no, Regulus's mental barrier was intact.

Then it launched a full-scale attack.

Contrary to the imagined violent impact, it chose infiltration.

It transformed itself into countless extremely fine tentacles, drilling into the barrier from every possible angle.

Every tentacle carries the same information: what's the point of fighting? What's the point of resisting? What's the point of surviving?

These thoughts surged up like a tide, trying to overwhelm his will.

Regulus could sense that his surface consciousness was being altered.

The will to fight, the desire for victory, and the impulse to prove oneself all became blurred.

The perception of the necessity of fighting was replaced by indifference, and the perception of the value of survival was replaced by meaninglessness.

What is he doing standing here?

What does it matter whether those two masked men are killed or not?

What Freya is hiding, and what does it matter?

It doesn't matter, nothing matters.

He experienced the feeling Freya described, the feeling that makes you forget why you're resisting.

But Regulus's sense of self remained strong.

He sat in the center of his spiritual world, watching the erosion spread. The labyrinth constructed by the Brain Sealing Technique firmly trapped it, preventing the erosion from reaching its core.

Instead of rushing to dispel it, he deliberately opened a small gap, allowing a small portion of the attack to seep into the deeper layers of consciousness, but without letting it touch the most fundamental area of ​​self-awareness.

He wanted to experience what this attack would look like at a deeper level.

In a deeper level of consciousness, the operation of star trail meditation becomes more intense, with the light of the four and a half stars of Orion weaving into a net that wraps the most fundamental self-awareness at its center.

The attack struck the starlight; the corrosive tentacles touched the net and were blocked, but they were unwilling to give up.

Tentacles coiled around the orbits of the stars, attempting to penetrate into the more central regions.

They continuously output the information they carry, like countless voices whispering in your ear: Give up, it's meaningless, nothing matters.

A more direct feeling came over me: a chill, this time from the cognitive level.

Like the bottom of the deep sea, where there is no light or sound, no life, only eternal pressure and darkness.

That environment itself conveys a message that the existence of an individual is meaningless, the will of an individual is worthless, and the struggle of an individual is futile.

This chill attempted to obscure the starlight, trying to implant the concept of the deep sea into the core of consciousness.

But the operation of Star Trail Meditation firmly blocked it.

Starlight and chill collide, annihilating and consuming each other.

Just then, Regulus noticed that Betelgeuse, the guardian star of Orion, which had been half-bright and half-dim, was now gradually brightening.

Although the change is small, it is indeed getting brighter.

Manipulating consciousness to protect oneself?

guard?

Regulus's heart stirred slightly.

Betelgeuse corresponds to the image of protection, and at this moment, it is fighting against an attack that attempts to distort its self-perception.

Would you consider this a form of protection?

Protect your consciousness from being eroded, protect your cognition from being overwritten, and protect the fundamental definition of who I am.

This discovery gave him new insights, but Regulus stopped there and did not allow the attack to continue.

The mental barrier tightened abruptly, instantly severing the infiltrating tentacles and trapping them inside.

He mobilized all the power of his Star Orbit Meditation, and the light of the four and a half stars shone brightly. The magical circulation accelerated, crushing and dispelling the chill bit by bit.

He used the orderliness of starlight to cover the emptiness of the deep sea, and the cognition of meaningful existence to cover all the indifferent cognition.

Everything that happens in consciousness happens extremely quickly, from the arrival of the attack to the experience to its dissipation, taking no more than three seconds.

Regulus turned his attention back to reality, and then he saw a fleeting blue flame in front of Freya.

It was very small, only covering the area in front of it, and appeared for less than half a second. It was like some kind of shield that was triggered and then immediately retracted, obviously blocking or destroying something.

That shape, that color, that function—

Something in Regulus's mind suddenly skipped a beat.

For some unknown reason, Regulus slightly raised his eyebrows, a small movement, but enough for her to see.

Freya quietly withdrew her gaze, turned her head, and looked towards the cliff where the masked man had jumped off, her lips slightly pursed.

The fierce battle that had just taken place fell silent.

The sound of waves crashing against the rocks has once again taken over, coming in waves, muffled yet rhythmic.

Each slap brought a slight tremor to the rocks beneath my feet. The seawater broke into white foam, shimmering faintly in the night, before receding to await its next surge.

Freya stood on the edge of the cliff, her back to him.

Her gaze fell on the distant sea, gradually drifting into a daze. She didn't turn around or look at the boy who was slowly walking towards her.

Her platinum blonde braids hung down her back, a few strands of hair blowing in the sea breeze, and she just stood there.

Regulus watched her retreating figure, his steps unwavering, drawing ever closer as thoughts raced through his mind.

He wondered if the blue flame he had just seen was deliberately shown to him.

Or perhaps she hadn't expected him to wake up so quickly, to end his battle against that mental erosion so soon?

Or perhaps she simply didn't expect him to be able to fight back?

It's all possible.

Regulus recalled the battle just now; Freya's performance seemed too deliberate.

She had told him beforehand that the Ironclad Curse couldn't stop it and that protecting his mind was the priority, which shows that she was very familiar with this type of attack.

Knowing this but not stopping it can only be explained as her doing it on purpose.

But if she did this on purpose, what about the blue flame?

Was it intentional?

Germany, the Blue Flame.

These two words together are too easy to evoke associations.

Is Freya really a member of the Eisenhardt family?

Regulus had thought of this problem, but it was his father who had introduced it to him personally.

Orion Black, the current head of the Black family, has been in charge of the family for decades. He has met countless people, handled countless matters, and maintained close ties with various other families.

The Eisenhardt and Black families have been on good terms for generations, and both families hold comparable positions in the European magical world, with frequent exchanges between them.

In this situation, Orion would not make such a simple mistake as mistaking someone for someone else.

Could anyone just come along, pretend to be someone from the Eisenhart family, and gain Orion's approval?

To be formally introduced to his heir in the drawing room at 12 Grimmauld Place?

Regulus shook his head inwardly, "Impossible."

Pure-blood families have very small, closed, and strict social circles.

Over the centuries of intermarriage, every family knows exactly how many children they have, what they look like, what their personalities are, and what magic they are good at.

Even if they had never met, they must have confirmed each other's identities through portraits, letters, magical projections, or other means.

Orion cannot be fooled.

unless...

Regulus considered another possibility.

Unless Freya von Eisenhardt's identity itself is real, at least on some level.

She is indeed a member of the Eisenhardt family, but she has another identity, another background, and another unknown bloodline.

Is this possibility real?

Regulus thought about it carefully and realized that it really did exist.

For hundreds of years, pure-blood families have intermarried, and their bloodlines have long been mixed together. It is perfectly normal for a person to have the blood of several families flowing in their veins at the same time.

If a family has ever intermarried with a particular person, it is possible for their descendants to inherit that person's bloodline and certain traits.

These are just guesses, even baseless speculations, but that blue flame was so unusual that Regulus couldn't help but think about it.

He walked over to Freya and stood beside her on the edge of the cliff, but did not intend to ask any further questions for the time being.

Whatever Freya's motives may be, judging from the current situation, she has no ill intentions towards him.

If they really wanted to trick him, they wouldn't have personally gone to Black's old house in England to bring him here, they wouldn't have cooperated with him in battle, and they wouldn't have told him those defensive points in advance.

She let the mental erosion continue, more like she wanted to see his reaction.

Test him, put him to the test, see if he can block it, how much he can block, and what his reaction will be after he blocks it.