Hogwarts: Bloodline Legend

Crackling sounds echoed through the air.

"Well then... let me see your limits." Ririm's lips curled into a subtle smile, his eyes sparkling with curiosity. He was evidently eager to know how far he had come in this abandoned destiny.

In fact.

Even now.

He only dared to use a small portion of his power in this special space, and fortunately, it was in this space. Otherwise, he wouldn't even dare to use these ordinary spells.

As for the reason.

It's probably something only Ririm knows. In Ian's speculation, Ririm, or Merlin, had clearly experienced something very special in the years since his return to Hogwarts.

As a result, in a normal reality dimension, he couldn't cast spells freely like a normal wizard. Even releasing some minor spells seemed extraordinarily cautious and even beyond his capacity.

There must be something that instills fear or imposes constraints on Merlin. Of course, now in such a world, Ririm's chains were apparently slightly loosened. From his ability to cast spells on Snape and maintain the magic, this was evident.

"I am the King of All Worlds! I have no limits!"

The old wizard, perhaps unfamiliar with Ultraman, was arguably stealing lines from others. As his voice fell, the shield transformed into dozens of black snakes lunging at Ririm.

"At least I haven't fallen into the quagmire of Dark Arts, King of All Worlds? What a joke." Ririm snapped his fingers nonchalantly, and all the black snakes instantly froze into ice sculptures and then shattered into ice crystals on the ground.

"Frost Kiss?"

The old wizard's expression changed slightly.

"You actually mastered the Northern Witch's secret art..."

He looked incredibly incredulous.

"If you could also live in a world with ravens, you would know that to become stronger, sleeping with two witches is completely reasonable, but Dark Arts will only lead you to an end."

"Unfortunately, you're not that lucky. The surprise is yet to come." Ririm suddenly spread his arms, his robe fluttering. His eyes turned entirely silver white.

Countless tiny spatial cracks began to appear around him. The land within a hundred meters started to unnaturally rise, with a thunderous rumbling sound emanating from the depths.

The old wizard finally showed a look of horror, "Are you crazy? Summoning the Earth Vein Tide here? Don't you know this place isn't stable, and you might even implicate..."

His words were left unfinished.

The whole world seemed to wrinkle under the grip of an invisible hand. The ground rose and fell, trees were tossed into the air like building blocks, then torn into fragments by an invisible force.

"This is the Four Symbols Seal. It's clear you've never learned proper magic." Ririm sighed, biting his tongue fiercely, causing a mist of blood to coalesce into a complex array before him.

Light pillars rose simultaneously from the four cardinal points, forming a pyramid-shaped barrier. At nearly the same moment, the ground rose and fell like ocean waves, tens of tons of soil spewing into the air a hundred meters high.

More than two square kilometers of the Forbidden Forest turned to ash amidst the chaotic energy, yet this was merely a phenomenon; the real power targeting the old wizard was far more terrifying.

"Are you trying to seal me within your power!"

"Damn it!"

"You won't succeed!"

The old wizard seized the chance to break free from the chains, the tip of his bone staff condensing into a reflective surface.

"Taste your own masterpiece!"

He too wanted to reflect Ririm's attack.

However.

Ririm suddenly laughed. He advanced instead of retreating, folding his hands again.

"This is what you couldn't reach, the magic of the Raven—Entropy Reversal Technique." And so, the reflected sealing magic retreated crazily as if pressed by a rewind button.

And at the same time.

The old wizard's Reversal Spell also began to rewind directly.

"Impossible!" The old wizard's eyes nearly burst, his face filled with disbelief. Indeed, he could feel the meaning contained within this magic.

"This is... Time Law..."

He knew time magic, but this type of magic shouldn't be used so recklessly and easily; after all, it touches upon the very essence of this world's magic.

"Learning more can never go wrong. Unfortunately, you seem to have stopped learning, unable even to clearly discern my power." Ririm's surroundings shimmered with a pearlescent sheen, his hair moving without wind.

"Welcome to my domain... I am among the clouds, simulating the gods, so you may call me... King of All Forms." He indulged in some adolescent dramatics.

Indeed, such was the case.

Merlin was always a bit of an adolescent himself. He snapped his fingers gently, causing the old wizard's left arm to suddenly sever at the elbow, the wound smooth as if cut by space itself.

Strangely, not a single drop of blood flowed. The severed arm hovered in midair, suddenly transforming into countless glowing butterflies flying towards the Bronze Gate. The old wizard retreated dozens of meters, the stump of his left arm wriggling with sprouts of flesh.

In the blink of an eye, it regenerated completely.

Evidently.

He had undergone magical transformation processes that even Voldemort was unable to reach, bio-transformation.

"Did you think I wouldn't have a trump card?" The old wizard laughed sinisterly, suddenly yanking a strand of his white hair and tossing it into the air. The hair ignited into a ghastly green flame, casting the night sky in an eerie glow. Before his voice had faded, the entire sky split open with grotesque cracks, muddy Yellow Springs water pouring down like a waterfall.

Where it passed, space twisted and distorted.

A few splashes of water dug bottomless holes in the ground.

At this moment.

Ririm's brow finally furrowed.

"Nether River? I indeed underestimated you... underestimated your bottom line... so, are you me, or that... Merlin I always fantasized about?"

In muted murmurs.

Ririm raised his hand to cast a spell.

He summoned another side of himself, the one that had been forsaken.

The purpose.

Was indeed to overcome his inner demons. The battle continued, with the two ancient beings clashing fiercely in this twisted domain, each magical collision causing localized spatial collapses.

However, in the midst of this chaos, the Bronze Gate remained unmoved, its engravings flickering with eerie light, seemingly appreciating this unnoticed battle.

The fight was fierce.

Everything in this eerie Forbidden Forest had vanished.

Yet.

The outside world remained completely oblivious. Inside Hogwarts Castle, everything was calm and ordinary. In the Gryffindor Tower common room, a few younger students played Wizard Chess by the fireplace. In the kitchen, House-Elves busied themselves preparing the next day's breakfast, except for Professor Trelawney atop the Astronomy Tower, murmuring in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

"There is an ominous aura, a great omen." Even without anyone else present, if there were anyone there, they probably wouldn't believe what this Divination professor had to say.

Looking toward the Forbidden Forest from this angle.

The Forbidden Forest seemed peaceful.

As if nothing had happened at all.

No one knew of the terrifying battle unfolding deep within the Forbidden Forest. The moonlight continued to gently veil the castle, as if nothing abnormal had ever occurred in this world.

...

As Dumbledore passed through the whirlpool of the Bronze Gate, time elongated into threads. When his boots set on solid ground, the moist scent of dawn dew greeted him.

Upon entering the gate.

Not much time had passed for the old man. He stared blankly at the valley before him, his blue eyes behind half-moon glasses rippling with rare emotion.

The rising sun gilded the thatched roofs in gold, the creak of the mill waterwheel piercing through the mist. This was Godric's Hollow of 1899, every cobblestone in exact alignment with memory. In the distance, in front of the house with blue casements, sat a young man reading under an apple tree.

"It's me, yet this is not the past." The old man discerned clearly, though still unable to control his unconscious steps forward, finally forcing himself to stop.

His fingers pressed deeply into his palm, yet he felt no pain. A robin, red-breasted, alighted on his shoulder, its chirping voice seamlessly aligning with a distant memory of a morning.

The next moment.

The wild rose bushes outside the fence suddenly rustled, revealing a freckle-faced little girl.

"Albus!"

She held up a dandelion covered in soil, "Look what I found!"

Dumbledore felt as if struck by thunder. This voice—Ariana's tender tones—was a tune appearing in every one of his nightmares repeatedly. In a daze, Dumbledore saw his younger self raise a magic wand.

"Don't bother me!"

The voice was icy cold.