Black Mist and Flame
The Black Mist spread out from beneath Bellatrix's feet, flowing and carrying a substantial weight, creeping along the ground and extending outwards.
They scrambled over pebbles and went around broken stone pillars. The speed was slow, but the coverage was wide, ten meters, fifteen meters, and it was still expanding. The color of the fog was uneven; it was so thick near Bellatrix that it was almost black, while it was thinner and grayish-brown at the outer edges, clinging to the ground and reaching about knee height.
The surface of the floor tiles changed wherever it went.
The color of the stone slab changed from grayish-white to dark brown, the veins became blurred, the edges cracked, and the gravel turned into powder.
The remaining sawdust on the ground was dry, blackened, curled, and crumbled into dust.
The silver candlestick, half-embedded in a crack in the rubble, developed a layer of grayish-black rust that then spread upwards from the base; the metal was oxidizing and decaying.
Regulus raised his Shield Charm.
The silver barrier flashed in the Black Mist, its outline revealed. The Black Mist washed over the silver arc, like water crashing against a transparent rock, splitting to either side.
He stood inside the barrier, looking down as the Black Mist slid past the Shield Charm.
The Magic Power consumption spiked instantly.
The Black Mist was corrosive, repeatedly washing away the Silver Light. The areas touched by it dimmed briefly, only to be pushed back up by the continuous replenishment of Magic Power. Originally, maintaining the Shield Charm only required a small amount of continuous output, but now it had more than tripled.
There were dense, tiny cracking sounds on the surface of the barrier, and something in the Black Mist was tearing at the structure of the Shield Charm.
He didn't rush to retreat, but stood in the center of the Black Mist, sensing the Magic.
After the Black Mist had fully spread out, a new change occurred.
The shadows cast by the rubble and ruins on the ground began to deepen, and then black, thread-like substances emerged from the shadows, climbing upwards along the curved surface of the Shield Charm like tentacles.
First, they squeezed inwards, tightly constricting the entire Shield Charm, causing the barrier surface to concave inwards, and the Silver Light to become brighter as it was squeezed.
Then the squeezing force suddenly disappeared, and the Shadow Tentacles stretched outwards.
The shape of the Shield Charm was stretched out of shape, torn from a sphere into an irregular outline, and fine cracks were torn along the edges of the barrier. His Magic Perception was interfered with in the Black Mist, and its accuracy decreased significantly, turning his judgment of Bellatrix's Magic Power and status from precise to vague. Regulus stood in the center of the Black Mist, the surface of the Shield Charm being torn, corroded, and squeezed simultaneously by three forces.
The Black Mist itself is a complex form of Dark Arts, quite profound.
First comes the area-wide corruption: everything within the fog-covered area slowly decays, stones become brittle, metals rust, and wood rots. Then comes Magic Power corrosion: solidified Magic structures like the Shield Charm are continuously eroded within the fog, consuming far more Magic Power than normal. Finally, there's shadow Restraints: within the area covered by the Black Mist, all existing shadows become entities that can be manipulated by the Spellcasting, used to squeeze, tear, and entangle targets.
Corrosion, field control, restriction, and sensory interference all occur simultaneously; once released, it operates automatically without the need for additional Spellcasting.
And that's not all.
He turned his toes, instantly casting Sidestep Charm, and flashed out of the Black Mist, landing more than ten meters away, out of the coverage area.
The Shield Charm still covered his body; its surface was corroded with some dark marks, but it remained intact.
The moment their feet touched the ground, the Black Mist on the side closest to Bellatrix suddenly churned violently.
The dense, almost solidified fog seemed to be gripped from the inside by an invisible hand, suddenly contracting inwards and condensing into dozens of black arrows. The speed was extremely fast, with almost zero interval between formation and release.
The arrows hissed through the air, leaving trails of gray-black smoke at their tips, and covered nearly thirty meters in the blink of an eye. Regulus sidestepped the first volley.
The arrow grazed the spot where he had just stood and embedded itself in the ground, creating a gap the size of a washbasin where it struck. The floor and rubble instantly crumbled into powder upon contact with the Black Mist.
Dark gray powder drifted outwards from the edge of the impact crater, and the rocks at the bottom of the crater continued to crumble, spreading outwards like a spider web. He Sprint Charm to accelerate his horizontal slash, and the second round began, followed by the third.
Arrows continuously emerged from the Black Mist, chasing his movement and striking his next landing point with each volley.
He glanced at the Black Mist as he moved.
Despite firing so many arrows, their size, density, range, and thickness remain unchanged.
The power of this Dark Arts continues to grow, condensing into a physical form for ranged attacks.
Looking at Bellatrix, she stood in the center of the Black Mist, her feet never having moved since the battle began.
It should require the Spellcasting as the core anchor point, with the coverage area expanding outwards from the Spellcasting. Movement will disrupt the established Magic Power structure. The usage scenario for this Magic is clear: enclosed rooms, confined terrain, and stationary output.
Regulus raised his wand and pointed it above his head during the lull between the next volley of arrows.
At the same time, the metal objects scattered in the ruins of the Banquet Hall floated to the surface.
A broken silver candlestick, shattered Tableware, a crooked iron lamp stand, and a broken copper ornament on a long table.
Hundreds of large and small metal fragments floated up and gathered in mid-air at a position two meters above his head.
Transfiguration.
Silver wasn't hard enough, and copper had too low a melting point. He rearranged the internal structure of the metal fragments, increasing the density several times over, and raising the hardness from silver to near the level of Tungsten Alloy.
The grayish-white metal darkens in color during Transfiguration, changing from silvery-white to lead gray, and its surface emits a cool, metallic sheen.
The fragments came together, stretched, narrowed, and their tips were shaved to an extremely fine point, forming a nearly two-meter-long Metal Spike on his head.
Unlike the Stone Spike that could be conjured at will before, this spike has a distinctly crafted feel.
The surface texture is left by rotation and stretching. It has three stabilizing tail fins at the tail end. The cross-section is gradually changing from head to tail, with the tip less than the thickness of a little finger and the tail as thick as an arm.
It started to turn.
As the rotation slows down and speeds up, the tip of the spinneret, where it rubs against the air, begins to glow red, spreading from the tip outwards.
Heat waves were pushed outward from the rotating spikes, stirring the surrounding air and twisting it into a translucent vortex.
A hot breeze swept through the Banquet Hall.
The buzzing sound changed from low to high-pitched, the rotation speed of the Metal Spike continued to increase, and the red tip turned orange, then incandescent white.
The entire Banquet Hall was vibrating and trembling, and the gravel on the ground was shaking.
Regulus swung his wand forward with a sudden, sharp swing.
The Metal Spike shot out.
The air along the way was blasted open, creating a thick white mist channel, and the Black Mist was instantly torn apart.
The wind pressure generated by the Metal Spike piercing through the air swept away the remaining mist, burning a bright white line across the Banquet Hall. A loud explosion rang out, shaking the entire hall. Shards of glass from the remaining narrow windows flew out simultaneously, and the barrier in front of Orion shook violently as several people staggered backward.
The Metal Spike through the Black Mist and arrived instantly, but a black barrier unfolded in front of Bellatrix.
The barrier appeared without warning, solidifying half a meter in front of Bellatrix. It was translucent, with patterns on its surface that were identical to the Black Mist. The white-hot metal tip struck it, and the point of contact exploded into a burst of fire and black Magic Power.
The impact spread outwards, scattering rubble and pushing away the Black Mist to reveal the rotten, blackened ground beneath.
The rotating kinetic energy of the Metal Spike was converted into heat and vibration on the barrier surface. The high temperature burned the air into a plasma state, emitting a blinding white light. But it couldn't penetrate it; the barrier held firm.
It's not over yet.
The portion of the explosion's flames closest to the barrier was being absorbed; the flames bent, the light bent, and energy seemed to be pulled and poured into the barrier. The surface patterns brightened sharply after absorbing energy, then dimmed again.
Regulus narrowed his eyes.
Behind the barrier, Bellatrix was jolted by the enormous impact, her body swaying, but she managed to stand firm, her feet firmly planted.
After the firelight dissipated, she looked at Regulus from behind the barrier, a slight smirk revealing a hint of her teeth.
There was a white impact mark on the Black Barrier, with red edges and still smoking, but the barrier itself was intact without any cracks.
Bellatrix tilted her head and gave Regulus a smile that was smug, contemptuous, and something else entirely.
Physical attacks don't seem capable of breaking through that barrier.
That last attack was the highest level of physical attack he could deliver within the scope of conventional Transfiguration.
The Metal Spike, made of Tungsten Alloy density and two meters long, spin at high speed until their tips become incandescent. The kinetic and thermal energy combine, and given the strength of Bellatrix's Shield Charm, they could shatter with a single blow.
It can not only shatter the Shield Charm, but also wipe out those behind it in one fell swoop.
But the Black Barrier caught it and even absorbed some of the energy.
Physical methods are limited to this point.
Then let's switch to Magic.
The Black Arrows caught up again, three more, from different angles.
His figure flashed continuously among the rubble, his Sidestep Charm followed by his Sprint Charm with almost no pause in between.
Running on foot is no longer enough to keep up with the speed of the arrows; Magic is necessary.
Bellatrix's combination is indeed tricky.
Black Mist controls the field, arrows pursue, and Black Barrier defends—three layers stacked together. An ordinary wizard would have no choice but to run.
The Black Mist has a defined area; Bellatrix hasn't moved, so she's safe once she leaves its coverage area.
But running away is not an option today; one of them must be completely suppressed, and no one can retreat first.
Moreover, he had other things to do.
Regulus vanished from the ground and reappeared three meters above the Black Mist.
The wand was raised above his head, and its tip burst forth with an incandescent light.
The Fire-Making Spell, infused with the imagery of Betelgeuse, caused the dark red star to expand within his consciousness, continuously extending outwards, its explosive Magic Power properties merging into the spell's structure.
The incandescent light at the tip of the staff began to change color, from white to an extremely bright orange-yellow. Further in, the core turned white, while the edges turned blue, approaching blue incandescence. The surrounding air was distorted by the high temperature into a semi-transparent curtain, and the temperature in the entire Banquet Hall jumped significantly.
With a very short charging motion, the wand swung down.
White and blue flames poured out and crashed into the Black Mist. The moment they made contact, they hissed and burned through the area covered by the Black Mist, revealing the charred ground underneath.
Regulus landed and stood in the center of the flames.
Unlike ordinary Fire-Making Spell that dissipate upon impact, it tumbled, coalesced, and swirled around him, forming a Flame Domain four or five meters in diameter.
The white and blue light illuminated the entire Banquet Hall, and heat waves radiated outwards from the edges of the flames.
Black Mist surged up from all directions, swirling and tumbling along with the flames. Grayish-black and white-blue hues collided at the boundary, hissing loudly.
The Black Mist was burned away in layers, only to be replaced by another; the flames were eroded in one ring, only to expand back again.
Two types of Magic are clashing.