Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 342 The Consequences of the Spread of Magic

The Flame Jar shattered the antenna base, but what the Phoenix Order didn't notice was that the base wasn't solid; it was filled with a large amount of fine, grayish-black iron powder.

The explosion scattered the magical metal powder, and amidst the raging flames, the gray-black powder rose with the smoke, shrouding the entire mountaintop in gloom.

The magical powder covering the area acted as a kind of signal shielding, rendering both Murphy's mental network and the communications established by the Order of the Phoenix through phoenix feathers ineffective.

Therefore, Dumbledore, who was sitting in front of Murphy, was not given any warning.

Even so, when he picked up the last bean from the table, a sense of unease still rose in his heart.

"Beef flavor."

The moment Dumbledore took the beans in his hand, Murphy spoke.

"You were distracted for a moment, Professor."

Dumbledore frowned, but at that moment, Grindelwald suddenly grabbed his arm. "Albus, we have to go."

He had a strong feeling that they had failed.

"You have one last question that you haven't answered."

"You're stalling for time," Grindelwald frowned. "You know our plans?"

It seemed the other party had realized this as well, so Murphy stopped hiding it.

"I have methods to prevent the leakage of critical information, so it will be difficult for you to obtain important information from me through ordinary means. Only the Holy Mother can break through my magical contract and provide you with the most valuable intelligence."

"Of course, this can cause some trouble sometimes, but as long as I know where the intelligence is leaking from, I can control the content of the leak and even provide the enemy with some false information."

"Now I can tell you, Professor. That antenna was a decoy; your men are being slaughtered right now."

Although it sounds simple, in reality, Murphy had to put in a lot of effort to deceive the Virgin Mary, who might be able to learn some of his thoughts through the mental coordinates. The fact that the antenna was a decoy was something even Murphy himself didn't know before Lucas trapped the Virgin Mary—it was entirely Lucas's arrangement, and he had to make sure Murphy was unaware of the plan.

Dumbledore stood up abruptly, but Murphy remained seated. "We've been sitting here for so long, I won't let you leave so easily. We can fight, but believe me, the Order of the Phoenix will be wiped out before you kill me."

"Perhaps you can answer my last question and get the answer, then I will naturally let you two leave."

"Ha, it's been many years since anyone threatened me like that." Grindelwald scoffed, drawing his wand, ready to fight the arrogant young man before him, when Dumbledore stopped him. "What else do you want to know?"

"After guessing that secret, I had many more questions," Murphy said. "For example, where did you learn about this secret? And who set up the Unwavering Loyalty Curse? How did they make it effective worldwide?"

"However, I am more concerned about its purpose."

"Why set up this spell?"

"What would happen if the spell were broken, allowing the magic to spread widely?"

"You're scared," Grindelwald suddenly sneered. "You should already have a guess about this, shouldn't you? How many Muggles are there? How many wizards are there? With the current number of wizards, the magical concentration is already quite high. If all Muggles knew about the existence of magic, and the scale of magic was expanded thousands or tens of thousands of times, what would happen?"

"Murphy, you want to become a god, but are you the only one who thinks this way?"

"How do you know that there were no gods in the past?"

……

Dumbledore and his companion left.

Murphy didn't stop them anymore. On the one hand, without a powerful item like the Holy Wall, he lacked the means to forcibly trap the two of them; at most, he could only delay them for a while.

On the other hand, he could not completely wipe out the Phoenix Society.

He didn't dislike those people emotionally; in fact, many of them were acquaintances of his. If possible, he wouldn't really want to kill them.

On the other hand, he also needed to leave Dumbledore with some ties.

The Order of the Phoenix is ​​both Dumbledore's wings and his shackles. If Murphy really wipes out the entire Order of the Phoenix, it would be equivalent to forcing Dumbledore to become a lone wolf.

However, such a skilled individual, if left unchecked as a disruptor, would pose an even greater threat to Murphy.

He took out a black notebook and wrote a line in it: "Lucas, come back."

The mind network was shielded by magical metal powder, but this notebook was Lucas's Horcrux, and her soul resided in it, giving it a much higher priority than ordinary telepathic communication.

A few seconds later, Lucas appeared beside Murphy through several apparitions. "Mr. Murphy."

Murphy looked at the girl in front of him and noticed that she seemed a little confused.

"What's wrong, Lucas? What happened?"

"I..." Lucas hesitated for a moment, but finally shook his head. "I'm fine. I just received a warning from the Magic Research Institute that the Holy Mother is escaping."

"Oh?"

……

The corridor of the underground server room in the magic research institute.

Murphy saw the pendant bound by countless laser beams through several layers of bulletproof glass.

"Its magical power is weakening, albeit very slowly, but extremely steadily," a researcher said.

"Isn't it because we're resisting the damage from these rays?" Murphy asked.

"That's a factor, but the decay rate is more than 50% faster than expected, and it won't stop decaying even if we stop the attack," the researcher said. "Therefore, we believe it is escaping."

"Have you detected any magical signals outside the blocked network?"

"No, its escape method is likely non-linear in space. We suspect it has some kind of long-distance channel connecting it to the outside world. Although our shielding network partially blocks this channel, it does not completely isolate it."

"Mental Imagery Space," Murphy said.

His shared perception with the raven, the mental network, and Dumbledore's phoenix feather are all connections at a distance, similar to the quantum entanglement effect, where no channel for transmitting signals can be detected in between. The same is true of the Madonna's mental space.

Murphy had reason to suspect that it was using this special ability to transfer itself.

"At the current speed, how long until it completely escapes?"

"It can transfer 65% of its energy in up to two hours, and we believe that this amount of magic should be sufficient to maintain the stability of its main body."

Murphy looked at Lucas. "Two hours. Is the antenna installed?"

The antenna destroyed by the Order of the Phoenix was just a Muggle satellite antenna mostly built with ordinary materials. He handed over the real antenna construction plan to Lucas, and even now he doesn't know its specific progress.

Lucas thought for a moment, "It's about 80% complete and usable, but the power is insufficient and the accuracy hasn't been adjusted."

"Activate it," Murphy said.

An antenna can be repaired if it's broken, but the chances of catching a Virgin Mary are slim, so you have to try anyway.

"Then I may have to say goodbye to you first, teacher," Lucas said. "I need to transfer my main body to Athena first."

But as soon as she finished speaking, a soft female voice came from inside the glass case, "Lucas... no, Tom Riddle."

Do you really trust this man?

(End of this chapter)