I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 562 Baixiang

"Really? That's strange."

Koyatl responded.

She didn't know much about the "Child of Omens," and most of what she knew came from the newspapers.

Aside from that, I listened to Ron's story.

So she couldn't understand the difference Hermione was referring to at all.

On the other side, like vengeful ghosts in the dark night, many small creatures slowly emerged from the shadows of the hall, from places where the crystal chandelier could not reach.

They were all dressed in robes, concealing their bodies.

But a closer look reveals that beneath their robes are many tendrils-like things, as if cloth were draped over withered branches.

"Does it seem like we're on the verge of extinction?" Owen glanced around.

I didn't see many people who were in good health.

Fairies are a very large race, and they have a presence all over the world.

Gringotts has branches in various locations.

In addition, there are taverns, shops, and magical material stores run by fairies in various places—it's impossible for all the fairies in the world to be infected with the disease. At least the two who brought them here, as well as the fairies in Gringotts, are normal.

But for a race, if 70-80% of the population dies from disease at once, it's no different from genocide.

Without the Fairy Kingdom orchestrating things behind the scenes, fairies around the world would immediately fall apart. Maintaining their current ambiguous relationship with the wizarding world would be impossible.

It's certainly impossible for them to become house-elves, but it's very possible for them to become centaurs, sirens, or mermaids, completely isolated from wizards.

"Rozier—"

After remaining silent for a full two minutes on the throne, the fairy king finally spoke.

He stared at Irving with his only remaining cloudy eye.

The protruding eyeballs bore the exact likeness of that young wizard.

To be honest, he liked Kyrie Irving before he saw him.

The history of fairies is more complete than that of wizards.

They were also very clear about the inheritors of ancient magic.

As a race that has clashed with the heirs several times, and even killed one of them, the fairies know better than anyone the power the heirs possess.

But in his opinion, Irving is still too young.

Even if one possesses ancient magic, one can only use it superficially. It's like a primitive man holding a steel knife. Sure, the attack power is stronger, but asking a primitive man to make a steel knife himself would be as difficult as climbing to the heavens.

This doesn't mean that primitive people could never learn how to make steel knives, but rather that they needed time. They needed time to learn, time to research, and even more time to accumulate experience.

The boy in front of me was only sixteen or seventeen years old. No matter how outstanding he was, he could not possibly understand and master ancient magic.

"If you can save my people."

"Then I can tell you all the secrets of the fairy."

The weak voice of King Legnac XVII, the fairy king, reached the ears of the four.

That's all he could say.

Because Irving is their last hope, even if that hope seems extremely slim now, they have no other choice.

"Silver Renak, you will be in charge of receiving our distinguished guests."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

One of the fairies emerged from the shadows and knelt on the ground.

The king grunted, then fell silent, sitting quietly on his throne as if dead.

The fairy named Silver Renak rose and came to the front of the group. "Please follow me," he said.

He then led everyone out of the main hall through a side gate of the royal court.

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.

The fairy city is magnificent.

Decorations made of gold can be seen everywhere.

Along the way, the number of fairies increased.

They were all wrapped in long robes, and none of them were in good health.

The man who led them here, Gonuk, had long since disappeared.

Owen deduced that he must have left the city. If the Fairy King were even slightly sensible, he would know that he couldn't allow his people to mingle with the healthy ones anymore.

This way, at least they won't all be wiped out.

And besides the increasing number of fairies.

Another creature caught the attention of the four.

"This is—" Hermione frowned, staring at the creatures that existed on the walls, in the roads, and on the palace dome.

These creatures gave her a strong sense of déjà vu, as if she had seen them somewhere before.

But Hermione was certain that she had never seen it anywhere in reality.

It is a dark blue, even somewhat black, slug-like creature.

Its skin has a metallic sheen, and it moves forward by wriggling.

Upon observation, she discovered that these creatures appeared to be at work. She noticed a dilapidated road, likely breached by some heavy object.

These slugs wriggled to the opening, and then human-like hands stretched out from their active bodies, slowly cleaning the hole and constantly taking out various repair materials from their bodies. At a speed visible to the naked eye, the hole was filled.

Then, its body suddenly sank, as if compressed, forming a flat surface that covered the top of the pit. The slug wriggled again, as if retrieving something from the water, and spat out a whole piece of marble. It served as a paving stone, perfectly filling the pit.

Then, like a balloon, it suddenly inflated and recovered. Twisting its body, it devoured the damaged construction debris bit by bit, merging it into its own body before leaving the scene.

"What...what kind of creature is this?"

Hermione looked shocked.

"This is unbelievable! Irving, Koyatt, look!"

"I see it." Irving frowned. "I feel like I've seen it somewhere before?"

"Hmm?" Hermione turned to look at him. "You feel the same way? I feel like I've seen it somewhere before too."

As she spoke, she cautiously approached the slugs that were still diligently working, trying to observe them more closely without disturbing them. These creatures seemed oblivious to Hermione's presence, remaining focused on their restoration work as if it were their innate mission.

"Their movements are so coordinated and efficient, and... their bodies seem to be able to deform at will, even generate and manipulate matter..." Hermione murmured to herself, various possible explanations and guesses flashing through her mind. But there was nothing similar among the technologies possessed by wizards. Currently—the most famous wizards in advanced alchemy were Victor, Nicolas Flamel, and others.

Nicolas Flamel has not continued to delve into alchemy for many years.

He was old and wouldn't live much longer after destroying the Philosopher's Stone.

His life was originally going to end in the next few years.

However, thanks to the luminous potion invented by Victor, his body improved somewhat, but this did not extend his lifespan by much. Nick himself said that he would probably have difficulty living until the new century.

Victor, on the other hand, primarily focused on human alchemy, with his magical inventions being merely incidental.

It should be Fred and George who truly embarked on the path of magical alchemy invention.

"Wait a minute." Just as Hermione was brainstorming, thinking about whether any past alchemists had created similar artifacts, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration and remembered that she had recently seen some information that included similar magical artifacts.

"They are all different."

"Owen! [The Hundred Faces]!" Hermione exclaimed cheerfully.

"【Hundred Faces】?" With Hermione's reminder, Owen suddenly remembered the description of 【Hundred Faces】 that he had seen on the bas-relief of the Tower of Divinity in Canada.

Legend has it that wizards created a multicellular protoplasmic colony known as the "Forge of Life" using ancient magic.

Creations in the furnace can transform body tissues into various temporary organs, or merge with other organisms, thus becoming ideal servants to perform arduous and repetitive physical labor.

These mucus-oozing invertebrate polymers were initially called "Hundred Omens," but later wizards preferred to call them "Ominous Signs."

"Indeed—these creatures are exactly as described in the Hundred Forms."

Owen looked at the fairy named Silver Renak.

"Do you fairies still retain such technology?"

Silver Renak – just from the name, you can tell his status among the fairies; he is a nobleman of the kingdom.

Irving believed he must know the inside story.

"Mr. Rocher, fairies do indeed retain ancient technologies," said the fairy named Silver Renak in a sharp, short voice. "The history of fairies is more complete than that of humans. Our civilization is ancient and has never been interrupted."

"Heh—" Owen sneered, sensing the smugness in the fairy's voice. "I wonder where you got this ancient magic. Did you steal it from someone else?" The hatred between the heir and the fairy had lasted for centuries. One of them was even dead. If the fairy had stolen the ancient magic from the previous heir, Owen would have no doubt.

"No—Mr. Rozier," Renak said hastily, "that was done by those traitors—the Fairy Brotherhood. The ancient magic in the kingdom wasn't stolen from anyone. It was something the fairies found over thousands of years."

"Searching? You dug up that divinely inspired tower?"

"No—it's not a divinely ordained tower either."

"Where else could ancient magic exist besides this?"

"Of course," Renak said. "You'll find out."

He then stopped talking and silently led the way.

Soon, the four of them followed him to a very magnificent building.

It was a huge Gothic cathedral.

Inside, there is a huge spiral staircase, like the branches of a tree, with openings in all directions leading to other floors.

There are even more fairies and slugs here. They're everywhere, like an academy of sciences, with everyone doing their work.

The staircase leads not only to the upper floor, but also to the lower floor.

Standing on a platform and looking down, the enormous complex of buildings, seemingly bottomless and like an abyss, is truly awe-inspiring.

Owen once again overturned his initial guess about the population of the fairy kingdom.

When he first started learning, he only estimated the area of ​​the two-dimensional building complex, forgetting that fairies are a race that is good at digging holes and likes three-dimensional architecture, and now it seems that there could be millions of them.

"Um?"

Irving was so focused on the architecture that he forgot about something far more important—magic. When he snapped out of his reverie, he immediately discovered that beneath the abyss lay a powerful and surging ancient magical energy.

Magic is like a colorful wind, surging upwards wave after wave.

How is that possible?

Irving's gaze froze, fixed intently on the ground.

The concentration of ancient magic here is no less than that of any divinely inspired tower.

This is something that cannot be accumulated simply by seizing the magic of the heir.

It should be noted that after Merlin, there were only four other heirs besides him.

Even if you squeeze these four heirs dry, you still won't get so much ancient magic.

Unless—this place is an ancient ruin, originally containing an astonishing amount of ancient magic.

"What's wrong, Owen?" Hermione asked, noticing him standing there in a daze, and tugged at his sleeve with concern.

"It's nothing—" Owen patted her hand, his gaze falling on the fairy named Renak. "Now I finally understand why fairies would build their kingdom here—underground."

"snort!"

This city was probably built to explore and study the ancient ruins beneath.

Even the tradition of fairies liking to dig holes may have originated from this.

"What?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"Let's talk about it downstairs."

This time, Irving didn't need Renak to lead the way; he knew where to go.

Next to the giant spiral staircase, there are also magical take-off and landing machines floating in mid-air.

These takeoff and landing aircraft allow them to reach the ground more quickly.

Renak did not stop them; in fact, he helped them start the takeoff and landing machine, which was goblin magic that wizards obviously could not trigger.

The takeoff and landing aircraft descended rapidly.

Then a huge and magnificent ancient site revealed its true face to everyone.

The layered ruins resemble a beehive.

Irving stood on the edge of the takeoff and landing plane, his eyes fixed intently on the ancient ruins that were gradually approaching below.

He saw many of the scenes depicted in the bas-reliefs of the Divinely Granted Tower in Canada.

These thoughts quickly led him to the truth.

"This ancient ruin was an alchemy factory used by ancient wizards to create the 'Hundred Faces'," Hermione concluded even faster than he did.

"That's why there's such a huge reserve of ancient magic," Owen said in a deep voice.

"You've been researching this all along?" he said to the fairy.

“Yes, Mr. Rozier,” Renak said curtly. “The fairies began studying how to create such creatures long ago. Now—”

"No—that's not right." Owen interrupted him. "How could it be that simple? Your goal is definitely not just to learn how to create the [Hundred Forms]!"

"Fairies don't need servants just to maintain their palaces and roads. It's unnecessary."

Irving began to carefully recall the records on the bas-relief.

【The Crucible of Life】

Multicellular protoplasmic organisms.

Life merges.

Invertebrate polymers.

All the vocabulary born from the life engineering of taboos began to surface in his mind.

Gradually, an idea popped up, then suddenly it appeared.

"You want to create an heir for the fairies?" Owen said quickly.

"You want to create Outer Gods?" Hermione exclaimed.

(End of this chapter)