Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 302 Cousin, you flatter me.

Bella reached for her waist with her left hand, and magic flowed through her fingertips. The hem of her dress shortened to just above her knees, the heels of her high heels became flat, the dress tightened around her body, and all the excess fabric disappeared.

She stood there, wearing a black short skirt and bare legs, wand in her right hand, her feet on the stone slab, her posture slightly lowered, her center of gravity reduced.

Something lit up in her face, different from her anger just now, and different from the fervor she displayed during her speech.

Pure excitement.

Her eyes were twitching, and her lips were twitching, as if her muscles couldn't hold up after she was extremely excited. Her eyes were even brighter than when she was giving her speech, and her pupils were dilating.

But not because of Regulus.

Regulus was hardly a match for him; a second-year wizard who had defeated a few students in the Hogwarts corridors and gained some fame in the pure-blood circle.

In her mind, the skills she learned at school, combined with the background of the Black family, meant that at best she was just a talented student.

She was excited because she could finally get started.

Bellatrix had a natural affinity for this: the sounds of fighting, destruction, and magic blasting flesh apart.

She can go without food, she can go without sleep, but she cannot live without this.

She didn't intend to use anything profound; there was no need. A regular spell would suffice.

She wasn't even prepared to end it all at once; she wanted to teach her arrogant younger cousin a lesson.

Let him understand that bullying a few students at Hogwarts is no skill; true wizards speak through magic.

She also wanted him to know that his self-proclaimed talent meant nothing in front of her.

Bella flicked her wand, and the first spell flew out.

The Shattering Spell, silent, shot out a yellow light from the tip of the staff at incredible speed, tearing the air apart with its muffled, piercing sound, heading straight for Regulus's chest.

Regulus didn't even raise his wand.

The spell struck a point a foot in front of him, and a burst of silver light erupted – the Iron Armor Spell.

The incantation struck the barrier with a dull thud, like a hammer hitting an iron plate, its echo reverberating throughout the banquet hall.

Bright yellow fragments of the spell scattered in all directions, hitting the nearest long table and shattering its surface.

Regulus's expression remained unchanged.

But he felt it; through the Iron Armor Curse, a shockwave bounced within the barrier—not a large one, but definitely present.

It can directly penetrate the iron armor that an adult wizard hasn't had time to reinforce.

She wasn't being serious; she was just giving a greeting.

Regulus took a step forward.

Bella's lips parted at the corners, she licked her upper lip with the tip of her tongue, her eyes burning brightly. She didn't speak, and the wand moved again.

Explosion Spell.

This attack was significantly more powerful than the previous shattering spell. The orange-red incantation struck the armored spell, causing ripples to spread outwards from the point of impact.

It wasn't very intense; the ripples disappeared after a couple of jumps, and the barrier returned to its original state.

But its power is indeed greater.

He recalled Orion's spell in the training room, its penetrating power capable of numbing an arm through an armored spell—Bella was far from matching that.

That's normal. Orion was originally the head of the Black family and had mastered the family's magical heritage.

Moreover, age is a factor; a wizard's magic and experience increase with age. Bella is only in her early twenties, and her output already demonstrates her talent.

But Orion is stronger, at least in terms of these two spells.

Bella's expression relaxed slightly, as if she had let go of something.

She was initially worried about accidentally breaking her cousin, but now that she realized he could hold his own, she could go all out.

"Regulus," she said with an exaggeratedly flamboyant smile, her eyebrows raised, her mouth stretched wide, and the wrinkles around her eyes crinkling, "you really do have some skill."

Regulus looked at her, his tone still low: "You flatter me, cousin."

Bella's right eye twitched.

Is that what I meant?

You think I'm praising you?

She ran her tongue over her teeth, swallowed the rest of her words, and raised her wand again.

Regulus continued walking forward, calmly, with small steps and steady breathing.

He finally raised his wand, swung it forward, and unleashed a cutting spell.

A thin, translucent, silvery-white line sliced ​​across the banquet hall, so fine that its trajectory was almost invisible, yet the air it passed through left a tremor that was visible to the naked eye.

Quick, precise, aiming straight for the wrist where she held the wand.

Bella flicked her wand upwards, the tip striking the trajectory of the cutting spell. Light splattered, the thin line veered off course, and flew out at an angle, slicing into a nearby stone pillar.

A groove, half an inch deep, was cut into the surface of the stone pillar. The cut was neat, and white smoke was rising from the edges.

Bella raised an eyebrow slightly.

The power is not small.

She glanced at Regulus, her expression changing slightly, from reprimanding the child to saying that the child had some ability.

But that's about it; this time, the level of sixth and seventh graders was at its peak.

She continued her attack while moving nimbly, taking two steps to the side and flicking her wand repeatedly.

An explosive spell came from the front, which Regulus's Ironclad Spell blocked, causing it to explode and scatter spell light.

Immediately following, a cutting spell flew in from the side, skimming the ground at a tricky angle, slicing towards the lower edge of the armored spell.

Regulus slightly turned his body to the side, and at the same time, the coverage area of ​​the Ironclad Curse shrank back a few inches, so it didn't block.

The cutting spell grazed the bottom of the barrier and sliced ​​through the long table leg behind him. The table leg broke, and the half of the table collapsed, scattering plates and glasses all over the floor.

Regulus began to fight back.

A shattering spell shot towards the ground beneath Bella's feet. Bella dodged it by sidestepping, and the stone slab exploded where she had just stood, sending shards of stone flying.

As she landed, she cast a fire spell, and a pillar of flame shot out, crashing into Regulus's armor spell and blasting open a wall of fire.

The heatwave pushed outwards, and the nearest few portraits were set ablaze, flames climbing up the wooden frames.

Regulus passed through the wall of fire, and the flames on the Ironclad Charm went out the instant he passed, leaving the silver barrier completely clean.

As he walked, he cast an Explosion Spell. Bella dodged to the side, and the spell landed on the wall behind her, creating a crater the size of a washbasin, spewing out rubble and dust.

Bella's spell power was increased to a higher level, skipping the junior wizard level.

A piercing spell shot out from the tip of her staff, an extremely thin, pale beam of light, swift in its strike with a short warning, almost invisible amidst the remnants of the flames and rubble.

The beam struck the armored spell, causing the silver barrier to ripple violently and emit a sharp, screeching sound, like glass being scraped by metal.

The barrier deformed briefly in one area, then bounced back.

Regulus blocked it, but it wasn't too difficult.

The long table in the center of the banquet hall has only a few intact pieces left.

The tabletop was sliced ​​open by a spell, shattered, and overturned by the impact, with wood chips and broken silver plates mixed together.

The picture frames on the wall were crooked, and several had fallen off their hooks and landed on the ground.

The candlesticks were leaning precariously, some extinguished, some still burning, their flames spilling onto the tablecloth, leaving a charred edge.

Walbuga's expression was very unpleasant.

As she watched Regulus and Bella make their move, the color drained from her face.

This was a development she had never imagined: her youngest son was fighting her niece in the banquet hall of Lestrange Manor, using real attack spells.

Orion kept pressing on her wrist; she didn't lash out, but her face was extremely pale.

The way she looked at Regulus was almost the same as how she looked at Sirius—warmth, pride, my Regulus—all gone in that instant, leaving only a sense of unfamiliarity she couldn't describe.

Then she saw Regulus walking among the firelight and rubble, wand in hand, exchanging blows with Bella, his face expressionless, as if nothing was bothering him.

The unpleasant expression on Volbuga's face changed.

The anger remained, but something else had also appeared, something she didn't know what to call it—perhaps shock, perhaps bewilderment.

This was the first time she had seen Regulus display his power.

When did her youngest son become like this?

How come she never knew?

What else is there that she doesn't know?

Orion glanced at her sideways, then looked away, his gaze returning to the center of the court.

This level of effort doesn't even qualify as a warm-up.

The pace has quickened.

Bella's spells became more frequent, and her attack speed was nearly twice as fast as before. Before one spell even landed, the next one had already shot out from the tip of her staff.

Explosion spell, fire spell, cutting spell, piercing spell, crushing spell, petrification spell, ice spike spell, all used alternately, with tricky angles and varied routes.

Some came from the front, some circled around along the ground or ceiling, and she began to move more frequently, her steps quick and fragmented, changing positions after each spell.

Regulus also started moving.

He used a side-shifting spell, moving his body three meters to the right. An explosive spell blasted past where he had just been standing, hitting the stone wall behind him and sending debris flying.

The moment he landed, he swung his wand in retaliation, unleashing a thunderous explosion that shot towards Bella's left, forcing her to move to the right.

Bella dodged to the right, landed, and unleashed a fire spell, compressing fireballs to the size of a fist, firing three in quick succession, covering a fan-shaped area.

Regulus used the Swiftness Spell to start, accelerated, and passed through the fireball's area of ​​effect. Three fireballs exploded behind him, illuminating half of the banquet hall.

As he accelerated, he flicked his wand repeatedly, sending out two cutting spells from different angles, one directly in front and the other bypassing from the side.

Bella blocked the attack from the front and deflected it with her wand, but the attack from the side forced her to take an extra step to dodge, cutting a deep groove in the stone slab beneath her feet.

Regulus gave her no time to catch her breath.

He unleashed a blasting spell, which shot towards the ground half a foot to Bella's left.

With a loud bang, the stone slab shattered, and fragments of stone flew into the air.

Bella dodged it; her reaction was indeed quick, and she had already moved sideways before the explosion had fully unfolded.

But that's exactly what Regulus wanted. She dodged it, but the rubble flew up.

The flying pebbles began to deform.

In less than half a second, a dozen fist-sized stones were transformed, elongated, narrowed, sharpened, and solidified into stone spikes. They spun at high speed, turning red from friction in the air and emitting a buzzing tremor.

The process is extremely short, from the explosion to the formation of the stone spikes, to the accelerated ejection, it takes no more than one second.

More than a dozen stone spikes shot at Bella simultaneously from different directions—above, from the left, from the right, and from below—covering most of the space around her.

The sound of the air being torn apart was sharp and piercing; the stone spikes were so red they shone; even the air hooks were rippled outwards, spreading far and wide.

Bella raised the Iron Armor Spell.

A colored barrier unfolded in front of her. The stone spikes struck it, and the first few were blocked and shattered into powder, but the barrier was no longer intact, and the last few passed through.

The scorching air from the stone spikes brushed past her face, arms, and waist, leaving several scorch marks on her robe.

One of the blades grazed her left arm, leaving a charred burn mark, and she could even smell the burning skin.

Bella held the burn on her arm, the scorched skin still emitting wisps of white smoke.

She gently touched the edge of the wound with her right index finger, held it up to her eyes, picked up the charred bits stuck to the tip, flicked them to her lips, and licked them.

Then she let out a hoarse laugh from her throat, which echoed.

A big smile spread across his face, a genuine and radiant smile that made his eyebrows fly up, his eyes widen, and his mouth stretch out in a grin.

"Not bad, little cousin," she said, her voice filled with genuine admiration. "Who taught you that?"

Regulus looked at her, still with that same expression: "Cousin, you flatter me."

Bella's smile was a little stiff, her jaw muscles bulged, and the corner of her eye twitched.

This is the table.

She shut up, losing all interest in speaking.

Regulus has been like this all night, repeating the same few words from beginning to end. No matter what she says, he acts the same way; no matter how she hits him, he acts the same way.

She finally understood: Regulus, confident in his power, didn't even acknowledge her.

But she wasn't so angry anymore.

She was completely engulfed in flames.