136: Leaving School and Soul Surgery
136: Leaving School and Soul Surgery
While the other students went off to Hogsmeade, John did not.
After arriving at Hogsmeade, he used Apparition to head to the Belby Manor.
With a sharp CRACK, John appeared outside the gates of Belby Manor.
Striding inside, John found Damocles Alex Belby casually mixing potions.
Seeing John approach, Damocles smiled.
"You've finally arrived. That big snake is about to wake up."
Damocles, who had just returned from the Ministry of Magic, couldn't hide his grin. Overthrowing a Minister of Magic had greatly satisfied his vanity!
The Blood Potion had gone through several new versions, and with John's suggestion, they had added mandrake leaves into the mix.
The crimson potion turned green, and then John pulled out a bottle.
Initially, Damocles didn't think much of it. But when he got a clear look at what was inside, he suddenly grabbed John's hand in shock, exclaiming, "What have you done?!"
His voice was filled with both accusation and a touch of fear.
It was a bottle containing a soul, glowing white. The soul was tattered and fragmented, with no consciousness at all.
But the mere presence of the soul was enough to make him tremble in terror.
"The soul is taboo. You've crossed a line," Damocles Alex stared at John.
John smiled calmly and said, "Relax, I didn't kill anyone."
Didn't kill anyone?
Damocles didn't believe it. But seeing the calm expression on John's face, he slowly released his grip.
"I'll explain it to you later, Damocles. Trust me, I'm not doing anything like that."
Understanding what the other was concerned about, John made a promise.
After a moment of silence, Damocles finally said, "Alright."
As John poured the soul into the mixture, the once-green potion turned black, and then shifted to white.
John was sure—this Blood Potion had finally succeeded.
The pure white potion glowed faintly in the dim dungeon.
Now, only the surgery remained. He turned to the sleeping snake.
John opened the cell door and walked in.
Using water-element magic, he manipulated the Blood Potion into a floating mass and guided it into the snake's mouth.
Silver threads began to emerge, and soon, the entire snake was surrounded by countless floating silver strands.
"It worked."
With enhanced insight, John could clearly see the serpent undergoing gradual changes.
Damocles Alex was also staring intently, afraid to miss even a single detail. His quill scratched quickly across the parchment, recording everything.
More and more silver threads appeared, and John heard Nagini's voice in his ear.
~"John?"~
"Yup, It's me."
A simple response, yet it seemed to bring boundless reassurance.
John stood at attention in front of the countless silver threads, his hand reaching out to grasp one of them.
In an instant, his consciousness traveled through numerous tunnels before landing in a blank space.
…
A hazy illusion.
This was the place where souls lingered between life and death, a realm with no fixed form.
Currently, John found himself in a pure white space, an endless expanse of white.
He saw a figure and walked toward it.
It was a woman in a blue dress, with the beautiful features of East Asian descent, long black hair, and clear, autumn-like eyes.
She was curled up in a corner, shrouded in an ominous aura of blood-green mist.
"Nagini?" John spoke softly.
The woman's body trembled slightly. She raised her head and stared blankly at the boy who had appeared here.
With disbelief in her eyes, she murmured, "You.. John..?"
Her face was delicate, her figure graceful, though it would have been better without the ever-present blood-green curse that was eating away at her.
She looked like a shattered porcelain doll, with horrifying cracks spreading densely across her body.
Nearly half of her body was missing, and an ominous blood-green aura seeped from the gaps.
In her hand, she carefully held a small silver figure.
That was the blood magic potion—or more precisely, the soul contained within the potion.
The tiny soul figure was desperately trying to piece together the fragments that were falling apart, while Nagini looked as if she was on the verge of shattering completely.
John walked toward Nagini, the ominous blood-green aura continually swirling around her, completely intertwined with her. It was as if they had fused together—part of her, and her part of it.
Seeing this, John took a deep breath. The situation was even more challenging than dealing with a Dementor.
His face grew serious as he said, "Nagini, I will heal you now."
He raised his hand, and outside, his physical body mirrored the gesture.
This process was happening in sync, allowing a direct view of the soul's changes.
"If you can't bear it, just say something," John said, more serious than ever before.
Hope flashed in Nagini's eyes, and she nodded firmly.
With the tiny soul figure temporarily protecting Nagini, John could focus on the treatment with more confidence.
He opened all the soul bottles from his bag, and the sacred white orbs of light began to swirl around him.
John thrust his wand into one of the orbs and recited an incantation.
"Anima reditus et sana."
The orb extended and transformed into a hundred soul scalpels, which then plunged into the body of the giant snake.
In the hazy realm, Nagini felt it too.
A hundred soul scalpels pierced her body, and the excruciating pain was evident on her delicate face.
John meticulously manipulated the soul scalpels, slowly pulling out the blood curse and dragging it away.
The blood curse took on the form of a snake, launching attacks against the soul scalpels. John's face remained cold, his hand moving steadily without pause.
When one soul was completely used up, John crafted another soul into scalpels.
Time passed slowly, second by second. Nagini's soul was tattered, and from the gaping holes in it, the soul scalpels reached in to pull out the blood curse.
John was already drenched in sweat. His focus was razor-sharp, switching into "scholar mode" to increase his precision.
Even the tiniest strands of blood curse, hidden in the smallest details, were carefully removed.
...
Outside.
Damocles stared intently in the direction of the giant snake. The snake was enveloped in a silver-white radiance, and its body was slowly undergoing a transformation.
"Can this really work?!"
He forcibly suppressed his anxious emotions, not daring to make even the slightest sound.
This was a miracle, an unprecedented one.
Even Merlin himself wouldn't dare claim he could achieve this.
John was like a conductor of a grand orchestra. With every wave of his wand, a piece of the blood curse was taken away.
Under Belby's intense gaze, the snake's body gradually began to take on more human characteristics.
The body of a snake, but now with human limbs.
Half-human, half-snake, the sight was grotesque and unsettling.
John remained completely unaffected, maintaining his unwavering focus. His eyes reflected the situation in the hazy realm.
The blood curse, most of which had already been removed, still refused to give up. It transformed into a massive serpent, with ominous blood-green energy surging into the sky.
The giant serpent opened its massive maw, lunging toward John to swallow him whole.
John's brow twitched, and his wand pierced into a cluster of souls with pinpoint accuracy, then he swiftly flung it out.
As soon as the soul left his hand, it transformed into a dazzling burst of white light that struck the blood curse.
Soul Shatter Curse!
The giant serpent was hit, becoming disoriented. In John's hand, the soul morphed into a large sword, and he slashed down hard on the serpent's head.
The blood curse let out a wail, its body swiftly retreating, trying to merge back into Nagini.
"Yeah, fuck off."
But John wasn't about to let it succeed. The tiny soul being inflated like a balloon, expanding to envelop Nagini.
The retreating blood curse slammed into the soul barrier, shaking it dangerously.
Seizing the opportunity, John swung the soul sword down at the root of the serpent.
The serpent's body erupted in white light, thrashing about as it tried in vain to escape.
"Trying to flee? Sorry, but its too late."
John let out a cold chuckle, grabbing another soul.
That soul ignited, transforming into white flames.
The flames became a dragon, which bit down on the giant serpent.
The blood curse serpent couldn't escape, and in the end, amidst endless echoes of its wailing, it was completely consumed by the soul fire.
John kept his eyes fixed on it, not relaxing until the very last trace of the blood curse vanished.
Turning to look at Nagini, the tiny soul figure protecting her could no longer hold on, quickly shrinking as if deflating.
Nagini's broken soul stared blankly at John, seemingly unable to believe that the blood curse had disappeared just like that.
"It's over now," John said with a soft smile. Though his face betrayed signs of exhaustion, his smile was sincere and full of joy.
He approached Nagini and used the last remaining soul to repair her damaged soul.
These souls, refined by the Dementors after devouring countless others over hundreds of years, began to merge into her body as soon as they touched her.
"Welcome back, Nagini," John said, offering her a gentlemanly hand.
Nagini looked at the boy, and slowly reached out her hand.
Suddenly!
Something unexpected happened!
__________
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