Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 502 Only magic can defeat magic

The massive warships cleaved through the waves, the pinnacle of human technology, the ultimate weapon capable of slaughtering their own kind with astonishing efficiency, now speeding towards the Mediterranean.

Their target is Mount Olympus, the highest peak in Greece, located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Selmay in the Aegean Sea.

They were meant to bring death and destruction to the gods there, to make them aware of the dignity of mortals through steel and gunpowder.

A thousand years later, mortals on earth once again launched an attack on the divine laws high in the heavens.

The higher-ups are optimistic.

According to intelligence, those evil spirits seem to be only slightly stronger and faster than ordinary people. Although they possess some ranged attack capabilities, they are rather comical.

It's almost the 21st century, and they're still making fireballs, water bullets, and ice blades! The power and accuracy of those things are about the same as a flintlock musket; it's laughable.

The only concern is the possession ability of some of these demons. However, if we choose to attack from a distance, these demons will be unable to harm us.

It seems that the so-called gods are outdated now; it is now the age of humankind!

With this in mind, the war began. Most people believed that this war would be a repeat of the Gulf War, and that the ancient Greek gods might not even perform as well as the Iraqi army.

While everyone was optimistic, Admiral Grady, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, was no longer smiling, because he had just received a series of messages.

"Commander, communications are jammed! We've lost contact with HMS Ranger!" "HMS Ark Royal is also out of contact!" "We can't contact HMS Saratoga!"

"Commander, radar malfunction!"

The situation was extremely complicated; their communication equipment seemed to have crashed instantly, catching General Grady completely off guard.

He frowned, realizing that it was highly likely that the Greek gods had intervened.

But how did they do it? Electromagnetic interference? But why would these ancient relic from thousands of years ago understand this? Wait…

Besides being called the "King of the Gods," what else was Zeus called again?

"The sky and the lightning, the god of clouds..." Admiral Grady murmured to himself, his voice filled with uncontrollable fear.

He quickly looked out the porthole.

As if in response to his gaze, a dark cloud suddenly rose in the previously clear sky. Like an ink bottle spilled on a blank sheet of paper, the cloud expanded with tremendous speed.

General Grady recalled the assurances the meteorologists had given him before he set off.

The Mediterranean Sea will remain cloudless for at least three days.

Then he glanced at the clouds that had already obscured half the sun over the sea, and Admiral Grady felt his temples throbbing.

Is this the power of Zeus? My God, is this the power of the gods? It has covered the entire Mediterranean Sea?!

Admiral Grady felt a sense of despair and at the same time realized that he and his fleet were in a slightly denser formation in order to cross the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean.

This would have been a small, insignificant mistake in the past, not even a mistake, since there was no force on Earth that could threaten a fleet of this size. But now, this vulnerability seems to have been magnified into a fatal flaw.

General Grady's hands were trembling uncontrollably. He looked at his messenger and almost roared, "Signal! Evacuate!"

late.

Time seemed to stand still.

Through the porthole, Admiral Grady saw a flash of light on the Normandy missile cruiser at the forefront of the fleet. Admiral Grady was an experienced naval commander, and he could even tell that it was the flash of a Tomahawk cruise missile exploding.

The most hellish thing is that the Normandy missile cruiser was a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. The most famous thing about this type of cruiser is that they are all equipped with a very famous system called "Aegis".

It now appears that the Aegis of Aegis cannot withstand Zeus.

The Normandy was the first to explode, followed by the ships alongside it: destroyers, frigates, and most importantly, the aircraft carrier…

The ships were exploding at an unimaginable speed. If you were to calculate the total cost of these ships and write the figure down, the ships would have already turned into fireballs before you even finished writing the numbers.

Admiral Grady closed his eyes and relinquished command.

With communications paralyzed and ships exploding, it made no difference whether he was giving orders or not.

All he could do was fulfill his duty.

On that day, endless dark clouds covered the sea, rendering all detection methods ineffective. No one knew what happened there; all they knew was the outcome.

After the dark clouds dispersed, the most powerful fleet in the world, or even in human history, consisting of nine aircraft carriers and 247 warships from three countries, vanished without a trace; even the submarines could not escape.

As long as there is electricity on the ship, Zeus's attack will arrive in an instant.

Zeus destroyed the entire combined fleet in a total of thirteen seconds.

The destruction of the combined fleet shocked the Allied forces.

Realizing that war had begun, they immediately decided to launch a counterattack. They sent out aircraft to bomb Mount Olympus, and in an overwhelming sense of fear, they launched all the missiles at their disposal, including their nuclear weapons.

In modern warfare, enemies can be eliminated beyond visual range.

They tried to comfort themselves with these words, but all of these methods were ineffective.

The missile exploded en route due to an unknown force, and the remaining fighters lost contact with the Combined Fleet after flying to the Olympus region.

As for close-range artillery fire, the coalition forces also made attempts, but the tanks, armored vehicles and artillery units they deployed were intercepted halfway. The same dark clouds covered the sun, and the same wreckage was left behind after the clouds dispersed.

The coalition forces collapsed as a result.

Five years ago, a US-led coalition swiftly and decisively eliminated Iraqi forces in Kuwait. Today, five years later, they are tasting the same fate that the Iraqi army suffered.

That was a power completely beyond imagination, an existence that overturned common sense.

The coalition's defeat swept the globe like a storm, spreading panic.

Only two days have passed since Godric was truly resurrected.

Rice, Rowena, Helga, Godric, and Dumbledore were not at Hogwarts at this time. Instead, they came to London, found an inconspicuous Muggle pub, and huddled in the pub watching the news like thousands of other ordinary Muggles.

At this moment, nothing is more important news than the battle between man and god; even football, basketball, and rugby games have been suspended.

People understood that this was a moment that would determine the fate of humanity.

Unfortunately, the scales tipped in favor of the gods.

Zeus, the king of the gods, successfully awakened humanity's fear of the gods.

"My God, how can they be so weak?" Godric stared wide-eyed, completely unable to understand why the Muggles were being beaten so badly by the gods.

"Because only magic can defeat magic." That was Rowena's answer.

"While reading the encyclopedia, I couldn't help but wonder," Rice said softly, "would a wizard with the power of lightning possess devastating power against modern Muggles...?"

"Zeus proved this conjecture for me."

After hearing Salazar's words, the group fell silent again.

Rice fell silent. He hadn't expected the Muggles to be so weak, utterly helpless against Zeus.

Zeus, resurrected and restored to power through massive human sacrifice, is strong, but surely not to this extent? Or is it that his lightning domain is too effective against Muggle technology?

In a one-on-one fight, an ordinary wizard can easily defeat a Muggle. However, if it is an army attacking in an organized manner, wizards without a domain wizard in charge will have a hard time resisting Muggles. But when they encounter a domain wizard, the Muggle army is no match for the wizard.

The interplay of mutual generation and mutual restraint is truly wondrous.

"If you go to fight Zeus, can you win?" This was Dumbledore's question.

"I can win," Godric replied confidently. "He's weaker than Odin was back then, after all, he's resurrected and has lost too much of his divinity. I feel that even if I'm alone, I can take him down."

Godric's words reassured Dumbledore.

Zeus's power terrified countless people, and whether or not to surrender to the gods became a hotly debated topic. The gods required lives as sacrifices, which was unacceptable to ordinary people.

Some Muggle leaders have begun seeking help from special "friends".

In the highest authorities of some countries, Muggle leaders and wizarding chiefs held secret meetings.

Although the Act of Secrecy exists, the Ministry of Magic of various countries, including the British Ministry of Magic, maintains a weak connection with the Muggle government to ensure that the wizarding world can remain hidden.

Of course, the Oblivion Charm is the key to this contact. If things go wrong, an Oblivion Charm can undo everything and start over.

Just then, the Daily Mail published an exclusive interview that attracted global attention.

The interview is titled "Homelander".

The person in the video easily defeated the powerful demon and uttered the classic quote: "With great power comes great responsibility."

At such a moment, it instantly gave a shot in the arm to those who were feeling lost.

Humanity is not alone; there is still hope.

The video was naturally seen by the five people in the tavern.

At the start of the interview, Rice realized something was wrong and tried to leave, but Godric forced him to stay.

Then they couldn't hold back anymore.

"You're really something!"

"Cover your face, or I'd think it was Gryffindor talking!"

"With great power comes great responsibility," Rowena said, mimicking Rice's voice perfectly.

Dumbledore couldn't hide the smile in his eyes.

"I'm just trying to salvage the image of wizards. This invasion of the underworld is a disaster, but it's also a great opportunity for the wizarding world to be accepted back by Muggles. We shouldn't miss this opportunity," Rhys kept explaining himself, but his friends, including Dumbledore, responded with smiles.

"I bet the Muggles are frantically looking for me right now—they're really grasping at straws." Rice knew that everything was under his control.

……

Cabinet Office next to 10 Downing Street

Percy knocked on the door of the Cabinet Secretary Sir Bernard's office.

"Oh, Mr. Weasley, you've come! Please have a seat!" Sir Bernard rubbed his temples and warmly invited Percy to sit down.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Bernard casually posed a question.

"Mr. Weasley, what is your opinion on the great battle that took place in the Mediterranean?"

Percy paused, not understanding why Sir Bernard wanted to talk to him about this.

In fact, there were serious problems with Sir Bernard's very desire to see him. His own rank was only that of a minor "under-minister," three ranks below Bernard's "cabinet secretary," and that was only after the Ministry of Magic helped him cheat.

Given the vast difference in their abilities, the fact that they're meeting alone is something he should seriously consider.

Percy was, of course, aware of the war that had broken out in the Mediterranean. After analyzing intelligence from both the magical and non-magical worlds, Percy was shocked by the Muggles' defeat, but he did not feel excessive fear or defeatism.

He felt that Zeus's attack methods were still within a reasonable range.

Zeus did use some rather powerful magic, which looked like a weather spell, but Percy chose to believe Dumbledore.

(Dumbledore: ???)

In Percy's view, Zeus, though extremely powerful, was like a larger version of a mysterious figure. Since they had defeated the mysterious figure, they could certainly defeat Zeus.

However, Percy didn't dare to delve too deeply into the situation of the other gods on Mount Olympus. He feared that if he understood, he would lose faith in the magical world.

"In terms of general reason..." Percy uttered a long and complex sentence. This was a new skill he had learned after joining the civil service.

That is the ability to make a very simple answer sound complicated.

Bernard lost patience halfway through the conversation and asked Percy bluntly, "So the wizarding world can fight these monsters?"

Percy: ?

He was a little confused, but the next second his hand touched his wand.

"Don't be nervous, I mean no harm!" Bernard quickly spoke up to calm Percy down and explained his source of information.

"Mr. Crouch told me," Bernard said, uttering a name that surprised Percy.

"When he first met me, he was the Director of the Department of Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, and later he became the Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. I'm sure you've heard of him. You can go and confirm with him."

Percy remained silent.

Mr. Crouch has certainly violated the secrecy law in a serious way, but it seems that Bernard hasn't been in contact with Crouch for a long time?

"How did you figure it out?" Percy tried to suppress his thoughts and asked why he had been discovered.

If Mr. Crouch had informed on him, his crime would have been even more serious.

"It's your file. You did try to cover it up, but your methods were clumsy and easily spotted. There are also some issues with the details. You're the first person to graduate from Oxford with such high academic achievements in literature who can't even speak complex sentences well."

Percy felt his face turn red.

Bernard did not delve deeper into this topic, but instead moved on to the main point.

"Mr. Weasley, I hope you can help me make a connection so I can meet with some of the important figures in your magical world. I think it's time for us to cooperate sincerely."

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~

Tomorrow's update will still be at midnight. If I finish writing it beforehand, I'll post it earlier.

(End of this chapter)