Nine prodigious young witches and wizards stood together. Though young, their magical power was no less than that of Aurors.
Astoria was the first to falter. Sweat drenched her as she gripped her wand tightly.
With John as the benchmark at level six magical power, none of the others could reach that height.
Astoria was the youngest, and even reaching level four was a struggle for her.
As the connection of magic broke, she was blasted backward by the force.
"Asto!" Malfoy roared, wand raised. "What is this thing, it won't fill no matter how much we give it!"
"According to John, we need to use immense magical power to imprint the anchor," Heinrich said. Though he had lost two years, Durmstrang, where he studied, specialized in the study of dark magic and forbidden arts.
"Our power is not enough to force it open. We need something stronger to intervene."
Percy swallowed a mouthful of blood. In terms of magical power, he was undoubtedly the strongest present, and the pressure on him was the greatest.
They roared as they poured more magic into it. The golden portal widened slightly.
But their reserves were running dry.
Malfoy pulled out a bottle of emerald potion from his pocket.
"All in!" He downed the entire bottle and crushed it in his hand.
With a roar, he shouted, "For John!"
Percy did the same. The emerald potion, once consumed, could temporarily boost magical power.
Everyone drank the potion, and their magic surged.
"One more push!" Heinrich commanded.
In perfect coordination, they swung their wands, sending an even stronger torrent of magic into the golden portal.
It was torn open by another third.
But the backlash grew just as terrifying.
They were trying to anchor it. The last person to do something like this had been Herpo.
Malfoy felt his magical connection weakening. He glanced around in frustration.
He was the first to show signs of exhaustion.
No.
At the very least, he had to last longer than Neville.
"I refuse to be the last one!"
Malfoy forced more magic out, his cheeks visibly thinning.
What he did not know was that Neville was already on the verge of collapse as well.
Seeing Malfoy push himself further, Neville forced out the last of his magic and poured it in as well.
The golden portal expanded, and the serpent coiled upon itself gradually loosened from the shape of an eight.
Just as it was about to form a complete circle, everyone was nearing total exhaustion.
The backlash from the forbidden force was so intense that Malfoy's recently cut hair began to grow out again.
"Is this the limit?" Heinrich said unwillingly. "Our king is still waiting for us."
Malfoy was finally about to collapse. Darkness filled his vision as his wand slowly lowered.
At the moment it was about to fall, a hand grasped it.
The scent of soil and flowers filled his nose. Malfoy snapped awake and looked back.
A gardener dressed in work clothes stood behind him. It was Barty Jr.
Through Malfoy's wand, that surge of magic poured into the golden portal.
With his addition, the portal was forced wider.
It was now almost a perfect circle.
Yet it was still lacking that final bit, like an insurmountable gap.
"Open!"
Neville roared as his wand flew from his hand.
He drew the sword he carried, muscles bulging in his arms, and struck toward the golden portal.
At the moment the blade made contact, it felt as though a hundred elephants were dancing on its tip.
Neville's entire body trembled, sweat pouring down and soaking his clothes.
"This sword, granted the power to slay evil by John, would be meaningless if it cannot be wielded for him!"
The pride of the Longbottom family, Neville Longbottom's round face was lined with bulging veins as the blade bent into an arc under the opposing forces.
Yet under that strain, the golden portal was torn open even wider.
Neville roared like a lion.
Just as the ouroboros was about to complete its circle, a force from the void descended upon him.
In that instant, Neville saw death.
"Neville!"
He was blasted away, at least half his bones broken.
The sword lodged within the golden portal trembled violently before being flung out as well.
Had they failed?
No.
The backlash was about to strike.
Then, at the doorway, a massive surge of magic, as thick as a barrel, flashed like lightning.
That final point, which could not be shaken no matter what, was torn open by the overwhelming surge of magic.
The ouroboros completed its loop, and the anchor was imprinted upon this space.
They looked over and saw the person who had arrived, and it took them by surprise.
Even without the Elder Wand, he remained the greatest wizard.
Dumbledore.
White smoke rose from his wand. It was merely the release of magic, yet it had nearly burned the wand itself.
Within that aged body was magical power close to level eight, perhaps even reaching it.
"Did we succeed?"
Watson stared uncertainly at the golden anchor.
The Silver Wick Sword began to tremble.
In the next moment, a line extended from the golden beetle, connecting into the anchor.
The Silver Wick Sword burst into flames, transforming into a massive fire dragon that shot toward the sky.
It surged into the anchor and vanished.
…
Paris.
Through the space-time anchor, John used the power of time to summon the Silver Wick Sword.
A vast surge of magic descended through the anchor. John drew out the pure magic he had sealed away.
As the magic merged into his body, purple arcs of electricity flashed in his eyes.
He took a deep breath and stared at the raging blue Fiendfyre.
"This power is just right as a reserve to open the time flash."
Without hesitation, John transformed into a fire dragon and soared into the sky, throwing out an hourglass filled with sand of time.
A silvery-white, pure soul emerged, shaped like a sphere.
All his magic surged, combined with the Silver Wick Sword.
This strike surpassed even the explosion within the pyramid.
The terrifying clash of forces turned into a blinding white light, engulfing numerous graves, including the Lestrange Mausoleum.
The white light contracted into a speck no larger than dust, until it vanished completely.
Newt and the others stared at the massive crater that had been carved out, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Just as John had predicted, he successfully stepped into the time flash.
The scene before his eyes shifted rapidly, like a slideshow played at extreme speed, changing too fast to follow.
John grasped the golden beetle flying toward him, and the images froze in an instant.
"At last, it's time to go back."
Within the time flash, a single second stretched into infinity.
In that state, John saw Nagini weeping in grief, and he saw Credence closing his eyes.
John slowly closed his own eyes. "Send me back."
He pulled on the golden beetle. The marked time anchor caused everything to begin reversing.
His body rose higher and higher, until beneath him lay a blue planet.
But he did not stop.
"What is this?"
John gripped the golden beetle tightly, his brow furrowing.
In the next moment.
All around him were chaotic, overlapping scenes. Distance, space, and direction lost all meaning in this abstract landscape of shifting realities.
A terrifying force of magic began to erode his body. Dark energy surfaced on his face, his skin twitching.
"This is not the original dimension."
With his vast knowledge of magic, John realized the anomaly instantly.
A consciousness was invading his mind. John immediately activated Occlumency to block it out.
"A dimension of magic."
His thoughts settled at once as the Philosopher's Stone in the Silver Wick Sword glowed red.
John looked up. Frost had nearly covered the entire magical dimension.
Then the white wolf appeared.
"Unaffected by time, without spatial boundaries, filled with dark magic."
Cold sweat ran down John's back. What kind of place was this?
Seeing the white wolf, he used the same method as before.
His wand traced a Möbius loop in the air.
He had expected it to hold for only a moment, yet this time the Möbius loop was unprecedentedly powerful.
"A magical dimension… does that mean I can draw upon the magic here as well?"
John froze. A steady stream of magic was flowing into his body.
At that moment, he could feel his power rising rapidly. The magic he could unleash now might even surpass Dumbledore.
He looked up in disbelief, drawing the attention of the master of this place.
"Who are you?"
A pair of eyes, enormous beyond measure.
They radiated a twisted violet light.
Those eyes were filled with wariness.
A being larger than a planet, a master of a dimension unbound by time, revealed itself.
As the ruler of this realm, it had never seen anyone enter and absorb its magic.
John felt the power within him surge wildly. This place was a paradise for a wizard.
Though only for John.
He looked up as the dark power closed in around him.
His body died in an instant, then revived in the next.
John glanced at the time loop on his wrist. Without the limitation of magic, he was effectively unable to die.
"This place pulled me here," John said, looking around at the terrifying master of the dimension. "Then the next jump should return me to the original timeline."
For John, who could continuously absorb magic, this place was nothing short of a sanctuary.
His indifference enraged the master of the dimension.
John died nearly a hundred times.
Yet each time, he recovered instantly, leaving the dimension's master at a loss.
John glanced at the white wolf, then smiled faintly at the ruler of the dimension. "I'll leave this gift to you. It's too dark here for my taste."
With that, he tugged on the golden beetle.
His body vanished.
For some reason, the master of the dimension felt a trace of relief.
That wizard was too strange. If he had remained, even its position might have been threatened.
"Absorbing the power of the Dark Dimension… who is he?"
Suddenly, the white wolf broke free.
A calamity that marked the end of an era manifested within the dimension.
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