The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 261 The Otherworldly Dimension Left Behind by Salazar

The Devouring Charm was not complicated; Moriarty learned it in an hour.

Leaving the castle, Moriarty went to the lake, gripped his Slytherin staff, and pointed it at the water. "Devour everything!"

Moriarty felt his magic flow smoothly like water, covering the lake surface with his staff.

Suddenly, the lake started making a "glug-glug" sound, as some of the water was pumped out and the water level dropped rapidly!

The lake water was indeed swallowed up, but where did that part of the lake water go?

It can't possibly end up inside Moriarty's stomach.

Moriarty moved his staff aside, pointed it at a swan swimming on the lake, and chanted, "Devour everything!"

The swan disappeared without a sound, and Moriarty still had no idea where it had gone.

With a slight frown, Moriarty's mind raced, and several ghostly snakes emerged from his sleeves, crawling down his staff to the ground.

The Spectral Serpent is a manifestation of Moriarty's magic and spiritual power, and wherever it is, the Spectral Serpent is Moriarty's "eye".

Using serpents for detection and reconnaissance was a consistent tactic of Moriarty.

"Devouring everything," Moriarty said, pointing his staff at the serpent.

As the serpent vanished, Moriarty immediately increased his mental output, switched his perspective, and found himself in a hazy state, as if he had passed through a layer of white mist and arrived in a peculiar alternate dimension.

With a "plop," water splashed onto the serpent's body, and Moriarty knew that the serpent had fallen into the water.

Water is Moriarty's domain. He used water elemental magic to explore and discovered that the water here was the lake he had just swallowed!

As if to prove this point, the serpent found the swan not far away, but the swan was already dead.

Moriarty pondered for a moment, and a guess came to mind.

To verify this, he moved his staff and swallowed a rock, a jellyfish, and a large tree in succession.

As Moriarty expected, the stones and trees that had disappeared from the ground reappeared in a hazy, otherworldly space, and then fell into the water.

The jellyfish also fell in, but it died along with the swan.

"It seems that the ancestor Salazar only created the prototype of the Devouring Curse, and did not perfect it."

Moriarty shook his head, his eyes deep in thought.

"The swallowed objects entered a hazy alternate dimension, but living things cannot enter it—the reason for this phenomenon may be related to the hazy alternate dimension..."

As the spellcaster, I did not gain the power of the lake.

Strictly speaking, it's less of a Devouring Curse and more of a Vanishing Curse or a Transfer Curse.

However, the ancestor Salazar had already solved the first core difficulty of the Devouring Curse: devouring.

I need to solve another core challenge: acquiring energy.

Moriarty paced across the lake, pondering how to perfect the Devouring Curse.

To overcome this challenge, Moriarty decided to raise the level of the wind element.

"System, exchange for three spells for me: Windmill Warrior, Doomsday Storm, and Breeze Waltz."

The system replied: "The above three spells total 19 points. Host, confirm the redemption?"

"Confirm redemption." Moriarty said without hesitation.

Exchanging for wind elemental magic will upgrade your wizard level.

Correspondingly, the magical effects of Wind Steal will also be enhanced.

"Ding-dong~ Exchange successful. Host now has 388800 points."

The magic has been cast; may the host soon become the mastermind behind the scenes.

Moriarty felt a cool breeze blow through his mind, and instantly his senses sharpened, his brain worked at high speed, and he learned the three new spells he had exchanged for.

"Ding~ Host level detected, now a level 35 high wizard."

Moriarty was overjoyed, having exchanged for three spells and leveled up by 6!

"The Taking of the Wind!"

Moriarty couldn't wait to unleash his wind elemental magic. The magic surged into the air, creating a strong wind and ripples on the lake's surface.

The wind element magic came into full contact with the lake water, and the magic transformed into countless invisible needles that pierced into the water molecules, absorbing the energy of each water molecule.

A gentle breeze blew by, and the energy returned to Moriarty's body. To his surprise, he discovered that the energy generated by countless water molecules had merged with the magic of the water element.

The water elemental magic increased slightly, though only slightly, but Moriarty still sensed it.

Given the success of the Wind Stealing technique, Moriarty decided to bypass the "Devouring Curse" and directly steal the Undying Phoenix Egg by chanting an incantation!

He returned to the underground chamber and carefully aimed his staff at the immortal phoenix egg.

Moriarty focused his mind and held his breath, compressing the magic power within his body repeatedly before slowly releasing the pure wind elemental magic.

"The Taking of the Wind!"

A steady and powerful voice rang out, and wind elemental magic covered the surface of the immortal phoenix egg, like a mother's warm hands stroking it back and forth.

Two seconds later, Moriarty saw the egg wobble slightly, his eyes narrowed, and he thought, "Success?"

"Ding-dong~ Attempt to seize failed!"

Moriarty tried twice more, but without exception, both attempts failed.

The level of wind elemental magic is still a bit too low!

Moriarty had no choice but to continue perfecting the Devouring Spell. Through several experiments, Moriarty discovered that after an object entered the hazy alternate dimension, the energy stolen by the wind could not be returned to the body.

"It seems the root of the problem lies in another dimension!"

Moriarty clicked his tongue. Two years ago, when he took over the castle, he found no records or legends about other dimensions.

Unexpectedly, Salazar had hidden a secret within an unfinished spell.

Moriarty was determined to thoroughly examine the 17 potions and 34 spells left behind by Salazar.

But now, he must unravel the mysteries of the alternate dimension.

"System, do you have a solution?"

"No," the system replied curtly, "This system has not entered the alternate dimension and cannot make a judgment."

Moriarty nodded noncommittally, stared at the lake for a moment, and then exhaled as if making a decision.

His right hand, gripping the staff tightly, slowly moved upwards, aiming at his own face.

Moriarty activated the Alchemy Matrix and cast the three protective spells on himself, then chanted an incantation—

"Devouring everything!"

Moriarty cast the Devouring Curse on himself!

He was determined to personally enter the alternate dimension to find out what was going on.

A vast amount of magic enveloped Moriarty, and in an instant, Moriarty vanished without a trace.

"brush!"

In the alternate dimension, Moriarty seemed to have fallen from the sky, but his vision was blurred and he couldn't see anything clearly.

Using his senses, Moriarty noticed a thick white fog approaching, and he began to experience symptoms of nausea, weakness, dizziness, and blurred vision.

"Beep beep~ Beep beep~ Host's life force is being depleted. Please make adjustments as soon as possible."

For the first time, Moriarty heard the system issue a sharp alarm, the urgent sound assaulting his eardrums.

Moriarty knew that the loss of life force was mostly due to the magical effect of the white mist—living things entering another dimension and becoming dead things were mostly killed by the white mist!

Drive away the white fog and survive!

This has become Moriarty's top priority now.

"Windmill Fighters!"

Moriarty waved his staff, instantly summoning seven enormous windmills, each 70 meters tall!

The windmill lost its gravity in the air and plummeted down. But while it was in the air, the windmill spun and created a fierce gale that blew away all the white mist!

Immediately, the system alarm stopped, as if it had never sounded at all, and Moriarty gradually returned to normal.

He quickly used a flight spell to fly around the sky and get a clear view of the entire alternate dimension.

The sky was red, as if it were on fire.

There was no land, only water stretching as far as the eye could see, dark green water, a vast, dark mass.

The lake water, swans, and trees that had been swallowed up earlier are all floating on the water.

Several loud crashes were heard as seven windmills fell into the water, splashing up high waves.

Through the magic of the wind element, Moriarty witnessed a scene in the water that he would never forget, thanks to the help of a windmill:

The seabed is golden, with lush vegetation growing, but the plants are not very tall.

Occasionally a gentle breeze would blow by, though the wind was very light, it had a strange power: the vegetation that was touched by the wind would grow a little taller and a little bigger.

Moriarty's heart skipped a beat, and the entire picture of the alternate dimension flashed through his mind like a movie.

Fiery red sky, inky black water, golden seabed, and a strange breeze.

The four elements: fire, water, earth, and wind!

Fire element corresponds to Godric Gryffindor!

The element of water corresponds to Salazar Slytherin!

Earth element corresponds to Helga Hufflepuff!

The element of wind corresponds to Rowena Ravenclaw!

Could it be that this alternate dimension...?

Moriarty looked around, his eyes growing brighter.

"Ding-dong~"

The system emitted a pleasant notification sound: "The system has detected that the host has discovered a magical alternate dimension jointly constructed by the four leaders of Hogwarts. 10 exploration draws awarded!"

(End of this chapter)