Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Hermes glanced at the strange-looking object in Regulus's hand, and thought it unimpressive.

He acknowledged the importance of basic magic, and also admitted that Regulus's foundation was terrifyingly solid.

But he stubbornly believed that the key to victory in a real battle lay in whether there was magic powerful enough to decide life and death in an instant.

The transfiguration and spell tricks taught in school are nothing more than fancy circus acts in the face of true dark magic.

He couldn't see the meaning behind Regulus's current practice, nor could he comprehend the terrifying potential on another level represented by the microscopic reconstruction of the essence of matter.

In his view, it was nothing more than making the stone harder or shinier; what practical use did it have?

Does that mean you have to use hardened stones to smash people during a duel?

absurd.

He ignored Avery's attempts to signal him to be quiet with his eyes and deliberately made his footsteps louder.

He walked to his bed and placed an old book with no writing on the cover heavily on the bedside table, making a dull thud.

The sound was particularly jarring in the quiet dormitory.

The muffled thud finally pulled Regulus completely out of his deep thinking and practice.

He slowly dissipated the magic around the graphite, and the stone returned to its original form and fell back onto the table.

He raised his head, his gray eyes calmly looking at Hermes, who was making the noise.

"What is it?" Regulus's voice was devoid of emotion.

Hermes turned around, leaning against his bedpost, his face bearing his usual gloom and a hint of provocation.

"It's nothing, I just think it's a shame that some people waste their time on... flashy but impractical tricks."

True power doesn't come from molding stones into various shapes.

His words were clearly pointed, and Avery frowned, while Alex lowered his head nervously.

Regulus looked at Hermes and said slowly, "Your understanding of power is too extreme and too narrow."

You only see the surface of destruction and suffering, but you cannot see the power inherent in the fundamental rules that constitute this world.

As for knowledge...

He shook his head: "You probably don't know, but Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in the magical world today, is a master of Transfiguration."

Hermes's expression stiffened slightly. He certainly knew Dumbledore's name, but he, a young wizard obsessed with dark magic, had never really delved into what Dumbledore was good at.

"And," Regulus stood up, his wand already slipping into his hand.

He needed an object to verify one of his ideas, and Hermes' appearance and attitude provided just that opportunity.

"You seem to think little of my magic. Well, I also think your magic isn't very good."

Before he finished speaking, his wand was already raised and pointed at Hermes.

Hermes instantly became alert and immediately tried to draw his wand to defend or counterattack.

But Regulus was faster, or rather, his magic worked in a way that defied convention.

There were no flashes or sound effects, nothing at all.

Hermes suddenly felt that his breathing had stopped.

The breath he was inhaling seemed to lose all its breathing properties the moment it entered his mouth and nose.

It's like inhaling something completely useless, unable to react with any function of the lungs, and unable to provide any oxygen.

His eyes widened, his mouth agape, and he tried to breathe more forcefully, but there was no sense of satisfaction from the rise and fall of his chest, only a growing sense of suffocating panic.

He wanted to speak, to question, but no sound came out. He wanted to raise his wand, but his brain began to spin due to lack of oxygen, and his arms became heavy.

Moreover, he cannot cast spells silently.

He stared in horror at Regulus, who simply held up his wand calmly, making no unnecessary movements, his eyes not looking at a living creature.

This is an extension of Regulus's previous thinking.

He did not perform complex elemental transformations, which would have been too slow for Regulus at his current level.

He took a simpler and more direct approach, not setting a specific goal, but simply providing a definition.

Regulus used non-directional transformation to instantly intervene with powerful magic, forcibly transforming the gas in that area into something unbreathable.

He simply cast the spell, leaving the rest to the magic.

This is more feasible at this stage than directly converting oxygen into poison, since he doesn't intend to kill anyone.

Avery watched with shining eyes. He didn't understand the intricacies of it, and wasn't even sure if it was dark magic, but that didn't stop his gaze towards Regulus from burning even more intensely.

It's more advanced if you can't understand it!

Alex, on the other hand, was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he covered his mouth tightly with both hands, afraid of making a sound.

He never imagined that the dormitory, where the atmosphere had just improved, would turn into such a terrifying scene in the blink of an eye.

They're only in first grade!

This wasn't just a minor squabble between classmates; it was practically... the prelude to murder.

He watched as Hermes' face turned from red to blue, his eyes bulged, and his body began to convulse involuntarily, filling him with terror.

Hermes's terror reached its peak.

He couldn't breathe, couldn't cast spells, and his magic struggled to coalesce amidst the suffocating pain and panic.

He felt he was about to die; the chilling shadow of death had never loomed over him so vividly.

He racked his brains trying to figure out what kind of magic this was.

Silent and stealthy, its mechanism of action is so bizarre that it directly strips away the very foundation of life!

This must be some kind of extremely evil and profound black magic!

He lost, completely and utterly, without even understanding what methods his opponent had used.

Time passed second by second. After about half a minute, Hermes' struggles began to weaken, and his eyes began to glaze over.

Even Avery, who was initially excited, was now sweating profusely.

Although he admires strength, he also knows his bottom line.

Killing a classmate at school, even one from the Muirseber family, would be a huge problem; it would destroy everything.

He opened his mouth, wanting to ask Regulus to stop, but seeing Regulus's absolutely calm eyes, which showed not even a trace of madness, he swallowed his words back.

He subconsciously felt that Regulus wouldn't do that.

A person who is so calm and rational, whose every step seems to be calculated, would not kill someone at school because of a quarrel.

Just before Hermes was about to completely lose consciousness, Regulus flicked his wrist and withdrew his magic.

"Holy crap!!!"

Hermes suddenly lunged forward, bracing himself on his hands, letting out a violent, greedy panting sound like a bellows, accompanied by violent coughing, tears and snot streaming down his face, looking utterly pathetic.

He gasped for breath for more than a minute before he could barely catch his breath. He raised his head and looked at Regulus with bloodshot eyes filled with fear and disbelief.

Regulus had already put away his wand, looking down at him with a calm expression, and asked, "Now, what do you think of Transfiguration?"

He didn't explain what method he used, leaving him to guess, to fear, and to ponder the underlying principles of this invisible yet deadly threat.

Hermes collapsed to the ground, his body still trembling slightly from the lingering fear.

His mind was in complete chaos.

Transfiguration?

How is this possible?!

Could Transfiguration make it impossible for him to breathe?

This completely overturned his understanding of transfiguration!

But if it's not Transfiguration, then what is it?

There was no evil aura of dark magic, no chilling feeling of a curse...

The unknown brings a deeper fear.

He found that he could not understand Regulus Black at all.

Not only was the opponent's basic strength overwhelming, but he also seemed to possess some magical techniques that he could not understand or even categorize.

This kind of tactic is impossible to guard against.

Avery breathed a sigh of relief, followed by an even stronger sense of pride and determination to follow.

Take a look!

This is the person I've chosen to follow! Powerful, clear-headed, and unpredictable!

Then he began to think about how he would deal with this move if he were facing it.

Should I cast a "bubble head spell" on myself beforehand?

Or should one maintain a protective spell at all times?

This is too passive!

Alex breathed a sigh of relief, but his legs were still weak.

Looking at Hermes sprawled on the floor and Regulus calmly, he realized with a deep understanding who the real danger in this dormitory truly was.

He silently resolved to be more careful with his words and actions in the future and never provoke Regulus.

Regulus ignored his roommates' various thoughts.

He walked back to his desk and sat down, his thoughts still swirling.

The experiment just now confirmed one of his assumptions: manipulating the ubiquitous basic substances in the environment is indeed a blind spot in the thinking of many wizards, and also a highly potential direction for attack.

But what if we go even further?