Before the spear left his hand, a strange magic wrapped around Harris Raymons and held him lightly in the air. But the moment the spear left his grasp, that magic vanished, and Harris Raymons dropped from the sky.
At the same time, all the colorful magical effects layered over his body shattered and disappeared.
Ancient magic was just that tyrannical.
Fortunately, Star appeared in time and transformed into a pair of black-feathered wings attached to Harris Raymons's back. They could not make him fly, but they did slow his fall considerably.
Suspended in the air, Harris Raymons watched the spear shoot away, and a smile appeared on his face, now covered in silver patterns.
Gungnir, the wand of Odin, the ancient Eternal Wizard. In Muggle legend, that wizard was called the King of the Gods, and the Gungnir in his hand was known as the Spear of Destiny that never missed.
The spell Harris Raymons had just used was derived from that. It mimicked the spear forged from the branches of the World Tree and unleashed tremendous destructive force.
This was the strongest single-target spell mastered by Raven. Forget a Basilisk. Even a dozen fire dragons piled together would be pierced through in one strike.
But however overwhelming its power, for someone like Harris Raymons, who had no talent for ancient magic at all, it was still a self-destructive spell that dealt a thousand damage to the enemy and eight hundred to himself.
After throwing that devastating spear, Harris Raymons's whole body was corroded by silver magic, leaving behind countless silver-white markings.
Those markings were the result of ancient magic's erosion. The stronger the ancient magic, the longer the effect lasted.
For a spell on Gungnir's level, the corrosive effect would last at least half a month. And during that entire half-month, Harris Raymons could not use any magic at all. If he did, the lightest possible outcome would be dying on the spot.
If not for the support of a magical creature like Star, a magical creation made by a wizard, Harris Raymons would have dropped dead the instant he used that power.
Even now, though he had not died, the ancient magic eating through his body left him in torment, his whole body itching and aching as though countless ants were gnawing at him.
Another day of envying Leonard. Damn it, why couldn't he be the heir to ancient magic?
Still, even if using ancient magic as an ordinary wizard came with dreadful side effects, it was worth it.
The power of Gungnir far surpassed ordinary modern magic.
The moment the Basilisk's head poked out even a little, the lightning-like spear pinned it in place.
Then a large amount of silver-white magic poured from the spear into the Basilisk through the wound. The Basilisk convulsed and rolled, twisting in agony inside the pipe.
That magic ran across its surface like real lightning, continuously erasing scales and skin.
Ancient magic was incredibly corrosive. Even the caster, Harris Raymons, had been corroded until his entire body burned and itched. The target hit by it naturally had it far worse.
Even the Basilisk, whose whole body was made of plants, was on the verge of collapsing and coming apart under Gungnir's power.
"Oh? Now that's a pleasant surprise."
Inside the Chamber, the green glow in Leonard's eyes was suddenly overlaid with silver-white light.
As the Basilisk formed from Blood Grape roots thrashed, it devoured all of the silver-white magic. Through the roots connected back to the Chamber's main body, that power was transmitted straight to Leonard.
The ancient sprout did not even need to be called. It came out on its own, plunged into the Blood Grape's main body, and greedily absorbed every bit of the silver-white magic.
At the same time, a flood of information poured into Leonard's mind. Through that uniquely lightning-like form of magic, the ancient sprout reverse-engineered the spell and extracted all its information.
Up to now, every form of ancient magic Leonard had mastered had come from ancient magical ruins. Unfortunately, every single ruin had been destroyed by that predecessor, and only the inheritance left at each ruin's entrance remained.
So despite being the theoretical heir to ancient magic, Leonard actually knew fewer ancient spells than Raven, that secret organization.
But an heir was still an heir. Even if it was only a title to Leonard, with the help of the ancient sprout, he could record any form of ancient magic and turn it into his own power.
Being able to freeload new ancient magic without going through any test was an extremely comfortable arrangement.
Still, now was not the time to inspect his gains. If you were going to act, you had to see the performance through to the end. If he slipped halfway through, all the work he had done before would go to waste.
Leonard suppressed the memories of the new spell surging through his mind and made the Basilisk begin its proper exit from the stage.
With the ancient magic rampaging through its body suddenly drained away, the Basilisk, which should have remained lively, suddenly let out a scream and collapsed onto the surface of the underground lake.
After taking Harris Raymons's ultimate move head-on, it had to die. Otherwise, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was going to start doubting his entire life.
Of course, dead was dead, but how it died still had to be handled personally by Leonard.
This Basilisk was made by root mimicry. Its flesh, blood, everything, was really just roots in disguise. If it simply broke apart naturally, it would leave a floor full of exposed roots.
So to make it look like the Basilisk had truly died, Leonard maintained the mimicry and controlled its body so that it gradually blackened and charred before finally collapsing into ash.
There. That looked right.
Leonard nodded in satisfaction.
His original intention had just been to make some trouble for Harris Raymons and drive him out of the Chamber's connected pipes. Gaining an absurdly powerful ancient spell on top of that was an unexpected bonus.
As the Basilisk gradually disintegrated, the eyeballs in its head slipped loose. Hidden roots in the shadows caught them, ready to haul them away for recovery.
That was one of Leonard's biggest rewards. He was not about to casually throw it away.
But obviously, a pair of Basilisk eyes that large also caught the attention of Harris Raymons, who was present on the scene.
Floating in the air, Harris Raymons suddenly made a move Leonard had not expected. He actually glided toward the place where the Basilisk had disintegrated, flying straight for the eyeballs.
"What the hell?" Leonard was genuinely shocked. This bastard was actually trying to steal his loot.
Of course, Harris Raymons had no idea the Basilisk eyes were Leonard's spoils of war. All he knew was that after he had thrown Gungnir, the Basilisk, which should have been completely annihilated, had somehow still left behind a pair of eyes.
Those were arguably the most valuable magical materials on a Basilisk. Whether used to make dark magical tools or curse ingredients, they were top-tier.
Naturally, Harris Raymons had no intention of giving up something that had practically fallen into his lap. Basilisks were not exactly common.