Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 488 Loki: I did it! Rowena Salazar: Really? That's great!

"Huff—ha!" Loki opened his mouth and gasped for breath.

He was now in a much worse state than when he had rushed into the underground seal with great enthusiasm.

His robes were tattered and stained with blood, and his left arm had been severed at the elbow.

However, he managed to leave Ravenclaw's corpse, which was right behind him, behind.

Loki felt a sense of lingering fear.

If that corpse had been any more intelligent, I probably would have lost my life here!

It would be truly ridiculous to perish here. After making so many preparations and plans, to be killed by the corpse of an old enemy at the last step, with the entire plan failing at the last hurdle, would be utterly laughable.

Loki was actually unlucky; the Ravenclaw corpse he encountered was one that Rowena himself had enhanced after possessing Aries, making it more powerful than the one Rice had encountered years ago. If Loki had encountered the version Rice had faced, he might not have been in such a sorry state.

After discovering that Ravenclaw's body had disappeared, Loki finally had time to tend to his wounds.

A thin flame, as fine as a thread, emerged from his severed hand.

He lifted his robe and hastily stitched up his wounds—these flames carried the power of a domain, which was necessary to stitch the wounds; otherwise, even the strongest stitches would be cut by the residual wind magic on the wounds.

After treating the relatively minor wounds on his torso, Loki pieced his severed forearm back together and then sewed it up with thread of fire.

After treating his injuries briefly, Loki used magic to conjure a brand new robe for himself.

Now, he at least looks much better, if you ignore his arms hanging at an odd angle by his side.

After doing all this, Loki continued deeper into the dungeon.

Along the way, he passed many seals left over from the era of the Four Greats. Some seals were very strong, while others were already on the verge of collapse.

Loki could easily have lingered there for a few minutes and then destroyed the seals if he wanted to. The escaped monsters would have been more than enough to give the Hogwarts students and teachers a run for their money—if they survived the battle. But he didn't. Loki merely glanced at the seals, suppressed his destructive urges, and continued deeper into the seals.

As for the fate of Hogwarts, Loki's initial idea was that the school founded by the four sinners would be uprooted and razed to the ground.

But now his opinion has changed. This has nothing to do with Voldemort; in Loki's eyes, Voldemort is nothing more than a lowly nobody, and his opinion is irrelevant.

Loki simply felt that wizards were a very important part of his conception; they could be punished to make them understand who was in charge, but they could not be exterminated.

Because gods are high above, at the top of the world. Gods need wizards as their servants, to serve them while managing and suppressing mortals on their behalf.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be too beneath the gods to descend to the mortal realm every day to collect offerings from mortals and suppress rebellions? These chores need to be done by someone!

For wizards who are clearly too powerful, Loki has a good solution—why not just elevate them to godhood? Like Albus Dumbledore, Loki wouldn't mind giving him his title of God of Hell.

Filled with anticipation for the future, Loki soon arrived at the deepest part of the Hogwarts seal.

This is the boundary between the mortal world and the underworld, the last remaining link after the four people severed the world of the living from the world of the dead.

Some might ask, why did the four founders deliberately leave such a connection? If they had completely severed the connection, wouldn't it have prevented others from finding an opportunity to exploit them?

That's because although the worlds of the living and the dead are opposites, they are like the human body and its shadow—two sides of the same coin, impossible to truly separate. Leaving behind a "link" was the limit of what Salazar and his companions could achieve.

In other words, when this link is broken, the last link disappears, and things reach their extremes and reverse, the two realms of life and death will actually be directly connected.

This is also the fundamental reason why Loki implemented his plan.

Standing before the link, Loki felt the fluctuations in space.

The scene before me was as if I were separated by a steaming wok, and the space itself seemed distorted.

Loki stretched out his hand, gathering all his magic in his palm, and then swung it down fiercely at the distorted space—

……

Quidditch pitch.

Realizing something was wrong, the dozen or so contestants followed the contestant passage to the ground, where they saw a chaotic arena and a dueling ground surrounded by a raging wall of fire.

It wasn't until Hagrid lifted a masked man high in the air and threw him down in front of them that they realized: Hogwarts had been invaded.

Daphne immediately cast a flight spell on herself and flew directly towards the stands. The other contestants also snapped out of their daze and quickly sprang into action, either finding safe spots to hide or joining the fray to help Hogwarts quell the unrest.

As everyone else sprang into action, Cedric abruptly grabbed Hermione's sleeve and said rapidly, "When you see Daphne fighting with someone, you take them both into your domain, understand?"

Hermione paused for a moment, not quite understanding Cedric's intention.

However, when she saw Daphne leap into the air and punch a person through the chest with her lava-flowing fist, she instantly understood Cedric's good intentions.

He was genuinely worried that Daphne would be transferred to Azkaban for further studies after the battle.

While accidentally killing one or two people during a fight with a dark wizard isn't a big deal, doing something like Daphne's carries significant risk.

Hermione immediately gave Cedric a knowing look, indicating that he could rest assured and that she would take care of everything.

Among the Secret Order members who infiltrated Hogwarts this time were several experts who possessed domains or had fused with divine remains. Although the Hogwarts professors, as well as the headmasters of various schools and officials of the Ministry of Magic who were on Hogwarts' side, were all highly skilled, they still found it extremely difficult to deal with these people and were all caught in a fierce battle.

If the battle hadn't been so short, they probably would have been defeated.

Fortunately, the reinforcements greatly reduced their burden, especially Cedric and others, each of whom was able to restrain a high-level cultivator who had fused with a divine remnant, allowing the situation to return to balance.

Just as everyone was in the heat of battle, they suddenly heard a cracking sound, as if something was being torn apart.

Everyone's movements slowed down by half a beat, but Voldemort, trapped in the wall of fire by Dumbledore, narrowed his eyes, making his already extremely narrow eyes look like slits.

He felt as if his domain had been strengthened, like a water domain fighting on the sea or a fire domain fighting on a volcano.

"That shattering sound just now... the symbolism behind it is probably extraordinary," Voldemort thought to himself.

He tentatively launched another attack, and was then pleasantly surprised to find that Dumbledore, who had been his equal, now seemed to be at a disadvantage.

Voldemort was overjoyed and immediately intensified his attack, trying to capture Dumbledore as soon as possible.

Unbeknownst to those fighting at Hogwarts, not only those at Hogwarts heard this strange sound, but every living being in every corner of the earth heard it—a sound like some kind of material being torn apart.

However, at the moment, everyone felt that this was just a minor detail, a trivial matter, and that the most important thing right now was the fight.

So everyone only paused for a moment before immediately engaging in a chaotic battle again.

But less than a minute after that sound rang out, both sides in the battle realized that something was wrong.

got windy.

call--

A strong gust of wind swept across the entire Quidditch pitch. The powerful wind caused the young wizards who were dozing in their seats to stagger from side to side. The wizards and monks who were awake and engaged in battle had their hair disheveled and their clothes in disarray.

In an instant, the strong wind stopped, and a man with an angry expression appeared on top of the Quidditch pitch.

The person who arrived was none other than Rowena Ravenclaw, who was using the alias Arius.

"Can anyone tell me what happened here? Why did Hogwarts turn into this mess just because I went to research a project?!" Rowena asked sharply, looking at the chaotic stadium.

Astoria casually shattered a gargoyle—whose appearance was unknown—into pieces with her blood sword, then shouted back, "The Secret Order has invaded!"

Rowena snorted, then raised her left hand, bringing her index and middle fingers together and curling the other three fingers into a fist.

Several of the esoteric monks present recognized Aries's face and knew she was a traitor to the organization, so they shouted and cast several spells at her.

However, these spells were cut off by pale blue wind blades that appeared out of nowhere as soon as they flew into the air.

Rowena didn't take these clumsy spells seriously at all; she didn't even move her feet, simply remaining in that position.

Thin blue lines appeared on her index and middle fingers, slowly rotating around them to form a small coil about two fingers in diameter. Countless lines converged, eventually forming a miniature blue whirlwind at Rowena's fingertips.

"Let me help ease the pressure a bit," Rowena muttered to herself, then pointed her fingertips at the dueling ring.

She poked at it, and the whirlwind detached from her fingertip, whooshing towards the dueling platform.

Along the way, the whirlwind emitted sharp, piercing crackling sounds and rapidly expanded.

In the blink of an eye, it shot from the top of the stadium to the dueling arena, heading straight for Voldemort.

Voldemort didn't even have time to react. He only heard a loud bang, then felt a chill on his arm and half of his body, and then he felt an unstoppable storm swirling around him.

In an instant, the dead summoned by Voldemort through the Death Domain were torn to pieces by the storm, one of his own arms was severed and cleaved into pieces by the wind, and several penetrating wounds appeared on his torso that were almost enough to sever his body.

"Ah—" Voldemort couldn't help but let out a piercing scream.

However, since this guy also possessed a domain through the divine remains, this attack, which was enough to kill an ordinary person, only severely injured him and greatly delayed the time it took for him to recover from his injuries using his domain.

After doing Dumbledore a small favor, Rowena took out a crystal ball from her pocket, murmured a sentence to it, and then wisps of blue whirlwind appeared around her.

With a whirlwind, she vanished without a trace, incidentally killing several esoteric monks who were nearby.

While Hogwarts was in chaos, the Alchemist world remained calm and peaceful.

At Salazar's enthusiastic invitation, Helga stayed in the Alchemist world, essentially taking a vacation with her old friend. However, in hindsight, she seemed more like there to take care of him.

Rice made it clear to Helga that she wanted to stay there for a few more years so that her age would match when she disappeared.

Helga understood. She didn't stay idle either; even though it was only a short stay, she still planted some vegetables and fruits around the snake tree and used magic to accelerate their growth.

That way, Salazar could have a change of pace after she left. The food Salazar ate here was truly heartbreaking to see and hear; he ate exactly what snakes ate, maybe with some mushrooms and moss added on.

"I'm not trying to criticize you, but you should come out of your burrow more often. Don't just stay cooped up in your hole all the time like a snake," Helga said casually to Rice as she gutted a fish she had just caught from the river.

"Mmm." Rice didn't argue with her, but simply leaned against the big tree and closed her eyes to rest.

At that moment, the crystal ball in Helga's arms suddenly lit up.

"Royna messaged me, let's see what she's up to—"

After Helga took out the crystal ball, Rowena's voice came from it.

Helga, Salazar, Hogwarts has been invaded, and the seal deep within the dungeons has been broken.

"What!" Helga jumped up, scattering the crystal ball and raw fish all over the floor.

"Salazar, I have to go back." She turned to Rice and said, "The seal deep within the dungeon is of utmost importance and cannot be lost. I—"

"I'll go back with you." Rice's expression was also extremely solemn. He stepped forward and grasped Helga's arm.

"Okay." Helga didn't waste any words and directly activated the teleportation key that Rowena had given her, returning to Rowena's office with Rice.

As soon as they landed, the two of them ran towards the dungeon.

As soon as they entered the hall, they saw Rowena rush in like a gust of wind.

"Royna, what's going on?!" Helga asked immediately upon seeing Royna.

Rowena's expression was also not good.

"I was just doing research in the lab when I suddenly felt the seal being broken. It must have been that imposter!"

Helga gritted his teeth so hard they made a grinding sound.

"Royna, how could you be so careless?" Rice's lips curled slightly, but his voice was stern as he rebuked, "Knowing that guy was suspicious, why didn't you keep a closer eye on him?"

"I—" Just as Rowena was about to retort, Helga raised his hand, stopping the two from arguing.

"This is not the time to argue, get to the dungeon!"

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 delivered, goodnight everyone (=_=)

The update tomorrow night will still be at midnight~

(The holiday is over, I don't want to go back to work!)

(End of this chapter)