Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 308 Black Mist and Flames

The black mist spread out from beneath Bella's feet, flowing and carrying a substantial weight, creeping along the ground and spreading outwards.

They would roll over any loose stones they encountered and go around any broken stone pillars. The speed was not fast, but the coverage area was very wide, ten meters, fifteen meters, and it was still expanding.

The fog was uneven in color, becoming so thick it was almost black near Bella, and thinning outwards at the edges, turning grayish-brown, and lying close to the ground, reaching about knee height.

Wherever it goes, the surface of the floor tiles changes.

The color of the stone slab changed from grayish-white to dark brown, the patterns became blurred, the edges cracked, and the pebbles turned into powder.

The remaining sawdust on the ground was dry, blackened, curled, and crumbled into dust.

The silver candlestick, half-embedded in the cracks of the rubble, developed a layer of grayish-black rust spots, which then spread and climbed up from the base; the metal was oxidizing and decaying.

Regulus raised the Iron Armor Spell.

The silver barrier flashed in the black mist, its outline revealed. The black mist washed over the silver arc, like water crashing against a transparent reef, splitting to both sides.

He stood inside the barrier, looking down as the black mist slid past the Ironclad Spell.

The mana consumption spiked instantly.

The black mist is corrosive, repeatedly washing away the silver light. The areas touched dimmed briefly, only to be pushed back by the continuous replenishment of magic.

Originally, maintaining the Ironclad Curse only required a small amount of continuous output, but now it has more than tripled.

There were dense, tiny cracking sounds on the surface of the barrier, and something in the black mist was tearing at the structure of the Ironclad Curse.

He didn't rush to retreat, but stood in the center of the black mist, sensing the magic.

After the black fog spread out completely, new changes occurred.

The shadows cast by the rubble and ruins on the ground began to deepen, and then black, thread-like substances emerged from the shadows, climbing up the arc of the Ironclad Curse like tentacles.

First, they squeezed inward, tightening the entire Ironclad Curse, causing the barrier surface to concave inward, and the silver light to become brighter as it was squeezed.

Then the squeezing force suddenly disappeared, and the shadow tentacles stretched outwards.

The shape of the Ironclad Curse was stretched out of shape, torn from a sphere into an irregular outline, and fine cracks were torn at the edges of the barrier.

His magical perception was interfered with in the black mist, and its accuracy decreased significantly. His judgment of Bella's magic and state went from precise to vague.

Regulus stood in the center of the black mist, his armored surface being torn, corroded, and squeezed by three forces acting simultaneously.

The black mist itself is a complex form of black magic, quite profound.

First, the area decays; everything within the fog-covered area slowly rots, stones become brittle, metals rust, and wood withers.

Then there's the magical corrosion. The solidified magical structure of the Ironclad Charm will be continuously worn away in the mist, and the magical consumption will far exceed the normal range.

There is also Shadow Binding, where all existing shadows within the area covered by black mist become entities that can be manipulated by the caster to squeeze, tear, and entangle the target.

Corrosion, field control, restriction, and sensory interference all occur simultaneously. Once released, it operates automatically without the need for additional incantations.

And that's not all.

He turned his toes, instantly casting a side-shift spell, and flashed out of the black mist, landing more than ten meters away, out of the coverage area.

The Iron Armor Curse was still on his body, its surface corroded with some dark marks, but it was still intact.

The moment their feet touched the ground, the black mist on the side closest to Bella suddenly churned violently.

The thick, almost solidified fog seemed to be gripped from the inside by an invisible hand, suddenly contracting inwards and condensing into dozens of black arrows.

It is extremely fast, with almost zero interval between molding and injection.

The arrow hissed through the air, leaving a trail of gray-black smoke at its tip, and covered nearly thirty meters in the blink of an eye.

Regulus sidestepped the first volley.

The arrow grazed the spot where he had just stood and embedded itself in the ground, creating a gap the size of a washbasin where it hit. The floor and rubble instantly rotted into powder upon contact with the black mist.

Dark gray powder drifted outwards from the edge of the impact crater, and the rocks at the bottom of the crater continued to crumble, spreading outwards like a spider web.

He used his Sprint Spell to accelerate his horizontal slash, and the second round began, followed by the third.

Arrows continuously emerged from the black mist, chasing his movement and striking his next landing point with each volley.

He glanced at the black mist as he moved.

Despite firing so many arrows, their size, density, range, and thickness remained unchanged.

The power of this dark magic continues to grow, condensing into a physical form for ranged attacks.

Looking at Bella, she stood in the center of the black mist, her feet never moving since the start of the battle.

It should require the caster as the core anchor point, with the coverage area expanding outward from the caster. Moving it will break the established magical structure.

The scenario for using this magic is very clear: in a closed room, in a confined space, and while stationary, you can use it to deal damage.

Regulus raised his wand and pointed it above his head during the lull between the next volley of arrows.

At the same time, the metal objects scattered in the ruins of the banquet hall floated up.

A broken silver candlestick, shattered tableware, a crooked iron lamp stand, and a broken copper ornament on a long table.

Hundreds of large and small metal fragments floated up and gathered in mid-air at a position two meters above his head.

Transfiguration.

Silver wasn't hard enough, and copper had too low a melting point. He rearranged the internal structure of the metal fragments, increasing the density several times over, and raising the hardness from silver to near the level of tungsten alloys.

The grayish-white metal darkens in color during deformation, changing from silvery-white to lead gray, and its surface emits a cool sheen characteristic of metal.

The fragments came together, stretched, narrowed, and the tips were shaved to an extremely fine point, forming a nearly two-meter-long metal spike on his head.

Unlike the stone spikes that could be conjured up at will before, this spike has a distinctly crafted feel.

The surface texture is left by rotation and stretching. It has three stabilizing tail wings at the tail end. The cross-section is gradually changing from head to tail. The tip is less than the thickness of a little finger, while the tail end is as thick as an arm.

It started to spin.

As it spins from slow to fast, the tip of the spinneret, where it rubs against the air, begins to glow red, and the red color spreads from the tip outwards.

The heat wave was pushed outward from the rotating spikes, and the surrounding air was stirred up and twisted into a translucent vortex.

Hot air swept through the banquet hall.

The buzzing sound changed from low to high, the rotation speed of the metal spikes continued to increase, and the red tip turned orange, then incandescent white.

The entire banquet hall was buzzing and vibrating, and the gravel on the ground was shaking.

Regulus swung his wand forward with a sudden, sharp motion.

The metal spikes shot out.

The air along the way was blasted open, creating a thick white mist channel, and the black mist was instantly torn apart.

The wind pressure generated after the metal spike pierced through swept away all the remaining mist, burning a bright white straight line directly in the sky above the banquet hall.

A loud explosion shook the entire hall, sending shards of glass flying from the remaining narrow windows. The barrier in front of Orion trembled violently, and the group stumbled backward.

The metal spikes pierced through the black mist and arrived instantly, but a black barrier unfolded in front of Bella.

The barrier appeared without any warning, solidifying half a meter in front of Bella. It was semi-transparent, with patterns on its surface that were identical to those in the black mist.

The white-hot metal tip struck, and the point of contact exploded into a burst of fire and black magic.

The impact spread outwards, scattering rubble and pushing aside the black mist to reveal the decaying, blackened ground beneath.

The rotational kinetic energy of the metal spikes is converted into heat and vibration on the barrier surface. The high temperature burns the air into a plasma state, emitting a dazzling white light.

But it couldn't penetrate it; the barrier held.

Not finished yet.

The portion of the explosion's flames closest to the barrier was being absorbed; the flames bent, the light bent, and the energy seemed to be pulled and poured into the barrier.

The surface texture brightens dramatically after absorbing energy, then dims back down.

Regulus narrowed his eyes.

Behind the barrier, Bella was jolted by the enormous impact, her body swaying, but she managed to stand firm, her feet firmly planted.

After the firelight dissipated, she looked at Regulus from behind the barrier, a slight upturn of her lips revealing a hint of her teeth.

There was a white impact mark on the black barrier, with red edges and still smoking, but the barrier itself was intact without any cracks.

Bella tilted her head and gave Regulus a smile that was smug, contemptuous, and something else entirely.

Physical attacks don't seem to be able to break through that barrier.

That last attack was the highest level of physical attack he could deliver within the scope of regular transformation magic.

The metal spikes, made of tungsten alloy density and two meters long, spin at high speed until their tips become incandescent. The kinetic and thermal energy combine, and given the strength of Bella's Iron Armor Charm, they could be shattered with a single blow.

It can not only shatter the Iron Armor Curse, but also wipe out the people behind it in one fell swoop.

But the black barrier caught it and even absorbed some of the energy.

That concludes the discussion on physical methods.

Then let's switch to magic.

The black arrows caught up again, three of them, from different angles.

His figure flashed continuously among the rubble, his sidestep spell followed by his sprint spell with almost no pause in between.

Running on foot is no longer enough to keep up with the speed of the arrows; magic is necessary.

Bella's combination is indeed tricky.

Black mist controls the field, arrows pursue, and a black barrier defends—three layers stacked together, leaving an ordinary wizard with no choice but to run.

The black fog has a defined area, and Bella hasn't moved. Once she leaves the area covered, she'll be safe.

But running away is not an option today; one of them must be completely suppressed, and no one can retreat first.

Moreover, he had other things to do.

Regulus disappeared from the ground and reappeared three meters above the black mist.

The wand was raised above his head, and the tip of the wand burst out with incandescent light.

The Flame Spell, infused with the imagery of Betelgeuse, caused the dark red star to swell within his consciousness, continuously expanding outwards, its explosive magical properties merging into the spell's structure.

The incandescent light at the tip of the staff began to change color, from white to an extremely bright orange-yellow. Further in, the core turned white, the edges turned blue, and it approached blue incandescence.

The surrounding air was distorted by the high temperature into a semi-transparent curtain, and the temperature in the entire banquet hall jumped up significantly.

With a very short charge, the wand swung down.

White and blue flames poured out and crashed into the black mist. The moment they made contact, they hissed and burned through the area covered by the flames, revealing the charred ground underneath.

Regulus landed and stood in the center of the flames.

Unlike ordinary fire spells that dissipate upon impact, it tumbled, coalesced, and swirled around him, forming a fire domain four or five meters in diameter.

The white and blue light illuminated the entire banquet hall, and heat waves spread outward from the edge of the flames.

Black mist surged up from all directions, swirling and rolling alongside the flames. Grayish-black and white-blue hues collided at the boundary, hissing loudly.

The black mist was burned away in layers, then replaced by another layer; the flames were eroded in a circle, then expanded back.

Two kinds of magic are in conflict.

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