Edmond Grindelwald followed the ghost back.
The Great Elder ghost asked as she led the way, "Is the person you want to save male or female?"
"A sixteen-year-old girl."
"Ohoho, I just love this plotline," the old ghost said. "Once, I saved that man, but he came to despise my appearance... So, are you sure you want to save this girl? It might not have a good outcome, you know."
Edmond shook his head but didn't reply.
Seeing him remain silent, the Great Elder didn't say more and just led the way.
The man and the ghost returned to the previous cave filled with crystals and coral.
"Go touch that largest crystal, child! Input your magic into it."
Edmond did as he was told.
An intense light flared up on the crystal. A large boulder on the side rock wall vanished into thin air, revealing a passageway.
"Come, come," the Veela Great Elder sounded somewhat excited. "Let's see what will happen."
Passing through the passage, what entered Edmond's eyes was a stone altar.
Mysterious runes were carved around the altar, glowing faintly with a sea-blue light. They were all strange characters he had never seen before.
"Stand on it, child," the Great Elder said. "This is one of the greatest secrets of our Veela ancestral land, the altar for pleading for the panacea."
She spoke with a chuckle, her tone full of pride. "For hundreds of years, wizards have thought themselves superior. But in ancient times, it wasn't wizards who ruled this world! Look at this altar. Which wizard could create such a masterpiece? Not even Nicolas Flamel could!"
After showing off for a moment, the Great Elder continued: "The panacea produced by the altar doesn't work by curing diseases. Rather, it erases the very concept of a 'negative status' at the rules level. Therefore, it can cure any illness or curse."
"Because it involves the rules of the world, the requirements to obtain the panacea are extremely harsh."
"First, you must have love for the person you want to save. This is the prerequisite. Second, as I've been telling you, you need to pay a price."
Edmond stood before the altar, lost in thought.
'That little girl Hydrus... do I love her?'
Edmond asked himself honestly.
He was a little unsure.
Most of the time, he felt he was the same as Rick. Having spent five years together day and night, he probably just saw Hydrus as his own little sister.
'So, a brother's love for his sister is also love... Thinking of it that way, it should be fine, right?'
'If that's the case... yes, I love her.'
'As for paying a price...'
"Madam, will the price I have to pay be my life?"
"No," the Great Elder said. "This altar has never taken anyone's life."
'I see. As long as it's not my life.'
Edmond breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he was still alive, as long as he could live to see the day when wizards could freely cast magic on the streets, then there was no problem!
And Hydrus was the person his great-uncle prophesied would change the wizarding world. Nothing could be allowed to happen to her.
'A small price, what's there to be afraid of?'
'Therefore, I can do this.'
Edmond nodded, gave himself another boost of courage, and then stepped firmly onto the altar.
... ...
Astley Villa.
Nicolas Flamel carefully observed Hydrus's physical condition.
"It's bad. Her condition is very bad," Nicolas Flamel, who already looked like a candle flickering in the wind, shook his head tremblingly. "Her body is already extremely deeply fused with her magic. This is a peculiar situation I have never seen before."
Nicolas Flamel took the Philosopher's Stone from his pocket. "If magic cannot circulate smoothly within her, her body won't be able to hold on."
The blood-red Philosopher's Stone bloomed with a dazzling light. "I'll use the Stone to maintain this child's body, to preserve her life for now..."
"As for whether she can be saved, that's up to fate."
Grindelwald, his face stern, asked: "Is there no alchemical item that can absorb the Mentorui Metal powder from her body?"
Nicolas Flamel shook his head: "Mentorui naturally suppresses magic. No matter how miraculous an alchemical item is, it cannot escape the use of magic, so there's no way. As far as I know, this Mentorui metal was created by ancient wizards to fight against the 'Gods'. Only a wizard who uses true ancient magic can command it."
Dumbledore sighed. Where could they find a wizard who used true ancient magic now!
'Barty Crouch, how dare you use Mentorui Metal powder!'
The normal use of Mentorui metal was to fuse it with ordinary metal to create handcuffs and shackles, thereby restricting the movements of wizard criminals.
But the use of Mentorui powder had always been controversial because the stuff was too vicious.
An incident had once occurred:
An Auror used Mentorui powder to capture a wizard, but after the trial, it was discovered the wizard was innocent. As a result, after the wizard was released, he sued the Auror who captured him into bankruptcy.
From then on, the Ministry of Magic became extremely cautious about the use of Mentorui powder. After a few more incidents of friendly fire, it was finally added to the list of prohibited alchemical items.
Even during the fight against Voldemort, the Ministry didn't dare to easily use this stuff, terrified of harming their own people.
'Being attacked by such a disgusting thing, I wonder how Hydrus plans to deal with Barty Crouch after she wakes up.'
"Look!" Grindelwald suddenly exclaimed. "Her body is reacting!"
Hydrus's body began to emit the same red light as the Philosopher's Stone, seeming to echo the Stone's breathing.
One breath, one pulse. One bright, one dim.
"Incredible! Truly incredible!" Nicolas Flamel's eyes widened, which was already a high-difficulty maneuver for a man several hundred years old.
"Her body is reacting with the Philosopher's Stone... No, it's resonance! This phenomenon has never been recorded!"
Nicolas Flamel released the Philosopher's Stone. Without support, the Stone just floated above Hydrus's forehead, a red pillar of magical light sinking into the space between her brows.
Under the red light's illumination, the girl's muscles all over her body seemed to writhe, much like the final moment of a caterpillar breaking out of its cocoon.
The three top wizards now surrounded Hydrus, waiting quietly.
"Her breathing has stabilized!"
"Her complexion seems to have returned!"
"What is the principle behind this?"
"How miraculous!"
"Oh, this is magic. Fascinating magic, mysterious magic!"
"We thought we had grasped the mysteries of magic, but in reality, we are still far from it!"
Hydrus opened her eyes. She looked curiously at the Philosopher's Stone floating in front of her.
A sharp pain came from her fingertip. She frowned and sat up.
Her gaze fell upon the three great wizards.
"Oh, professors, and... this old gentleman," she was a bit embarrassed. "Before we talk, I need to solve a small problem first."
She raised her left hand. There was a small bump on the tip of her ring finger.
It was this bump that was causing her unbearable pain.
'There's a foreign object in here,' judging this, Hydrus picked up the wand from her bedside.
"Diffindo!"
Under her precise control, the Severing Charm sliced open the raised skin on her fingertip, and blood immediately flowed out.
Ignoring that, she pressed down hard and squeezed out a metal pellet the size of a grain of rice.
"How splendid," Nicolas Flamel said happily. "That's Mentorui metal! How on earth did this child do it!"
Hydrus carefully examined the pellet. 'This was the thing that tormented me to the point of ecstasy and death?'
'To expel this thing, with the help of the Philosopher's Stone, I even opened up another magical circuit inside my body. That process was simply agonizing!'
But she had to admit, it was a very magical process.
That brand-new magical circuit, born from the combined effects of the Mentorui metal and the Philosopher's Stone, seemed to be inside her body, yet also in the void, elusive.
"Hydrus, let me introduce you," Dumbledore began. "This is Nicolas Flamel, the famous alchemist."
"Hello, Mr. Flamel," Hydrus very politely got off the bed and curtsied. "This red stone must be your Philosopher's Stone! What an extraordinary alchemical creation!"
Hydrus picked up the Philosopher's Stone that had fallen onto the bed. "What is this light on it? Is it the flow of magic?"
"Light?"
Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Flamel were all puzzled. "The Stone isn't glowing right now."
Hydrus moved her finger across the Philosopher's Stone in a peculiar path. "See, this light!"
Dumbledore and Grindelwald were clueless, but Nicolas Flamel was utterly shocked.
"The path your finger traced... is the rune line I carved in the final step of the Stone's formation!"
"Theoretically, these runes are already fused as one with the Stone. It's impossible for them to be discovered. How did you..."
Hydrus returned the Philosopher's Stone to Nicolas Flamel and looked at the half-empty bottle of sherry on the table—the one that cost over four hundred Galleons and was claimed to be made with ancient alchemy.
The surface of the bottle flickered with curving, cyan-colored halos of light.
She understood. This was "ancient magic echoes." It was the trace left behind after ancient magic had been cast.
Hydrus sighed. Originally, her enrolling at sixteen was just a coincidence.
But now, just like the protagonist of Hogwarts Legacy, she could really see the echoes of ancient magic... and Hogwarts itself was a product of ancient magic.
She didn't dare to imagine what would happen when she went to Hogwarts and saw the entire castle covered in ancient magic echoes. Would she be driven mad?
The birth of the second magical circuit had tied her fate deeply to ancient magic, as if this were her destiny...
She wanted to cry but had no tears. 'Don't add these weird settings for me!'
'I don't want to be a Guardian, I just want to be a salted fish!'
[Note: Since ancient times, there has been a group of wizards who use ancient magic. After the calamity of Isidora Morganach, they began to protect the power and knowledge of ancient magic, calling themselves Guardians. — Setting from Hogwarts Legacy]
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