Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 114 Rice, who came prepared

"This...!" A hint of regret flashed in Daphne's eyes. She hadn't expected Rice to pull out such a crystal ball, completely shattering her chances of following him.

She didn't refuse to use the crystal ball or complain about the poor view from it, because that would be unreasonable. She knew very well that Rice had already done so much for her, to the point of being excessive. He himself might not have cared about his own sacrifices, but Daphne's upbringing prevented her from taking his gifts for granted, and she certainly couldn't take Rice's leniency and kindness for granted.

Sometimes, in the dead of night, Daphne would feel a little panicked: she didn't understand what Rice was trying to achieve by doing this.

Daphne even thought that if one day Rice asked her for the Greengrass family's assets, it would at least put her mind at ease—she wouldn't mind giving him half.

If Rice knew her thoughts, he would surely have suggested that Daphne learn from Professor McGonagall, which was exactly what he was after.

After Daphne received the crystal ball, Rice adjusted his monocle to make it fit more snugly. This lens would reflect what Rice saw back into the crystal ball, providing Daphne with a "live broadcast."

At the same time, the soil beneath his feet became soft, becoming both liquid and solid, just like the swamp that had appeared in the dungeon before.

Rice came prepared this time and wouldn't be as embarrassed as last time.

Having disguised himself, Rice, along with the swamp beneath his feet, silently entered the corridor around the corner—where Ravenclaw was.

After the corner is a downward passageway, at the end of which is a huge, open platform. Ravenclaw's ghost is driving her physical body, standing in the center of the platform fighting monsters.

The scene was almost identical to the last time I saw her, except that the monsters she fought were different.

It was a colossal, completely transparent dragon. Every now and then, a glint of silver would flash across its scales, confirming its presence. With each movement of the dragon, black cracks would appear in the air. With a breath of its breath, a narrow dimensional rift would instantly appear in front of Ravenclaw, forcing her to change position or use other spells to mend the spatial rift.

"A space dragon? How did this guy end up here?" Rice was very surprised to witness a space dragon, which only lives in legends, here.

They didn't seal this monster in the dungeon initially because sealing it was impractical. Space dragons are natural masters of spatial magic; they are similar to house-elves and can apparite almost anywhere.

Instead of trying to seal such a creature away, it would be more reliable to think about how to kill it.

The dragon may have been attracted by something, or it may have just happened to pass by and was caught red-handed by the patrolling Ravenclaws.

In the battle against Ravenclaw, the Space Dragon seemed to have the upper hand. Faced with Ravenclaw's attacks, it only needed to lightly slash a spatial rift in front of it to absorb all the attacking spells into the rift, and it could even open another spatial rift near Ravenclaw's body to return her attacks intact.

However, things soon changed: Ravenclaw raised and straightened the hand holding the wand, pointing it directly at the head of the Space Dragon, while his other hand drew a semicircle in front of him, creating a defensive shield to block all kinds of attacks from the Space Dragon.

As usual, the Space Dragon opened a spatial rift along the spell's trajectory, ready to absorb and redirect Ravenclaw's attacks at any moment.

This time, however, no visible spell appeared at the tip of Ravenclaw's wand. She raised the wand and then lowered it, as if she were intimidating a space dragon.

The space dragon was slightly confused, but the next second it let out a painful roar. Its scales shimmered with silver light. Just as it revealed an opening, Ravenclaw swung his wand, and dozens of spells blasted into its body, tearing its skin open and splattering silver blood and scales everywhere.

Rice's brow furrowed: this was Ravenclaw's unique attack targeting the soul, an attack that ordinary spatial rifts couldn't withstand. Having taken this hit, the space dragon's soul was likely torn apart.

This space dragon is really unlucky. It could have been invincible with its talent in space magic, but it just happened to run into Ravenclaw, who is extremely effective against it.

The severely injured space dragon did not hesitate at all. It tore open a huge spatial rift behind it and retreated into it, preparing to escape. Just as the rift was about to close, hundreds of wind blades rushed into it.

The crack closed, but the dragon's screams echoed through the air as large clumps of dragon blood mixed with scales and flesh fell to the ground.

While Ravenclaw was fighting the Space Dragon, Rice took out a set of potions he had specially made for Ravenclaw. Seeing that Ravenclaw had successfully driven away the Space Dragon, he was preparing to take the opportunity to ambush Ravenclaw. However, he found that Ravenclaw did not stop at all after defeating the Space Dragon, but looked up at the spot where he was standing.

Rice: ? ? ?

He didn't understand why he had been exposed, but his years of combat experience allowed him to think without much thought. Instead, he used the mud to create a mud wall for himself on the ground and then sank into the swamp.

The next moment, the wind blades bombarded the spot where he had just been standing. The mud wall that Rice had summoned held for a moment before being knocked back to its original form. The remaining wind blades slammed into the wall, leaving a large area of ​​residual Ravenclaw magic.

Ravenclaw seemed to have the upper hand, but the land near the platform had been completely turned into a swamp in this attack.

He popped his head out from the middle and threw a vial of potions at Ravenclaw's location.

These bottles certainly couldn't have injured Ravenclaw; they were shattered by wind blades halfway through their flight, and the liquid was spilled all over the ground.

Next, Rice and Ravenclaw seemed to be playing a game of "whack-a-mole." Rice would occasionally pop up from the mud and throw out a few potion bottles, which Ravenclaw would casually smash and then retaliate with wind blades.

Those wind blades, powerful enough to sever dragon scales and cut through iron and stone, could only splash up a few mud flowers when they landed on the mud, completely failing to unleash their power.

Even more astonishingly, after falling into the mud, the magic on the wind blade was rapidly assimilated by the mud, becoming nutrients for the swamp and causing it to grow even faster.

When they defeated the Space Dragon, Rice's swamp only occupied one corner of the platform, but after a short while, the mud pit had taken up nearly one-fifth of the platform's space, and the passageway outside had completely turned into a swamp.

The spilled medicine was quietly taking effect...

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Update here! The second update will be a bit later. The equipment I was responsible for had a problem today, so I worked very late. Everyone, please get up early to read it!

(End of this chapter)