Orion: Is That All?

The fire in the fireplace had been burning for a while, occasionally popping and sending up a few Mars, the green flames leaping.

Orion sat behind his desk, a steaming teacup beside him, letters pushed aside to make room on the clean surface.

Regulus entered and sat down directly opposite him.

Orion looked at him, a slight smile playing on his lips, a hint of expectation in his eyes.

"How's it going in Cornwall?" He picked up his teacup, took a sip, and put it down.

His tone was casual, as if he were just asking offhand, but Regulus knew that Orion definitely knew something.

Agnes was a long-time employee of the family, having served the Black family for over twenty years. Reporting events on the Plantation to the Patriarch was standard procedure. She had never witnessed the Disintegration Charm being cast, but she knew that the granite island eight kilometers to the west, which had been marked on Cornwall charts for hundreds of years, Snell Rock, was gone.

The cause and effect is simple: Mr. Black came, performed Magic for a few days, and Snell Rock disappeared.

Orion did receive the news, but the footage he could piece together was limited.

The Whomping Willow had only been in Cornwall for a few days, and this kid had already used it to create Magic capable of sinking an island.

Powerful, of course powerful, it sounds pretty intimidating.

But to be honest, sinking an island isn't something irreplaceable in Orion's mind.

The Wizarding World has plenty of ways to destroy large targets.

Fiendfyre can burn everything, but Fiendfyre is a cursed creation that devours all matter it comes into contact with at the level of existence. The price is that it is extremely difficult to control, and the slightest carelessness will result in a backlash.

A well-trained strike squad, with three to five Auror working together, bombarding the island with alternating Exploding Charm, would only be a matter of time before they destroyed it. Several high-intensity Fire-Making Spell stacked together, burning the reefs and then cooling them with Freezing Spell, repeated several times, could also dismantle the island.

The Ministry of Magic's war archives also record several true War Magic, high-level spells designed to alter battlefield terrain, destroy enemy strongholds, and even dismantle large-scale defensive fortifications.

Most of these items originated from medieval Wizarding War. The spells themselves have been lost or are now classified as controlled substances, but their effects are undeniable. One ancient war spell, called the Dome Shatter, is said to be able to cause the stone walls of a Castle to crumble simultaneously from the inside, collapsing completely. The Spellcasting was a 14th-century France war wizard who carried out several major heists for the France court during the Hundred Years' War, before being secretly executed.

Judging from Agnes's report, the things Regulus created probably fall into this category in terms of function.

Large target destroyed.

It possesses wartime-level destructive power, causing large-scale damage to buildings, terrain, and fixed targets.

In the History of Magic, few wizards could achieve this level of skill. In the present day, Regulus's accomplishment is already remarkable. But if compared to the Severing Charm...

Orion weighed the implications in his mind; what truly shocked him about the Severing Charm was the concept itself.

It makes skin no longer skin, flesh no longer flesh, and existence lose its definition. That eerie quality of making the whole no longer whole is something that nothing else can replace.

Of course, these are all just speculations.

Agnes hadn't witnessed the spell being cast; her report only contained the result—third-hand information, not direct and unreliable. Orion pulled himself out of his thoughts, stopping his musings, and looked at Regulus, waiting for him to speak.

Regulus's lips curled up slightly as he leaned back in his chair, relaxing. "It's finished developing."

Then his smile widened, "Far beyond expectations."

Orion raised an eyebrow; he already knew the outcome: an island was gone.

Regulus is always restrained and never exaggerates his results, but he said they far exceeded expectations.

If sinking an island is only part of what's beyond expectations, then what else is on it?

Orion leaned forward, rested his arms on the table, interlaced his fingers, and looked at Regulus.

His expression was the same as before, with no obvious change, but his concentration was greater.

Regulus leaned back and held up three fingers. "This spell needs to be explained in several levels."

Orion's eyebrows rose again.

Can a spell be divided into levels?

He certainly understood that stratification meant that each stratum contained different things.

He didn't speak, but nodded slightly, signaling to continue.

"Let's start with the first level," Regulus said, extending his index finger and making a light tap in the air, "The most basic one."

"The spell is called Disintegration Charm Quassare, and the hand gesture is a reverse chop, with the wrist rotating half an inch at the lowest point."

He made a downward and rotating motion with his right wrist, his right hand loosely clenched. "The effect is direct; it hits the target, the Magic Power penetrates inside, shattering it from the inside out." Orion listened, his expression unchanged, but a thought flashed through his mind: That's it?

What's the difference between shattering from the inside and shattering from the outside?

Whether a stone is blasted into powder by Exploding Charm or shattered into fragments by this spell, the final result is still the same: it remains broken.

The feel of Spellcasting is different, and the feeling of being hit is different, but on the battlefield, once it's broken, it's broken.

He didn't voice these thoughts aloud, but simply nodded to indicate that he was listening.

Regulus continued, "The harder and denser the substance, the better the effect."

Orion's eyes flickered; to be honest, this was a bit counterintuitive.

Generally, destructive spells are more difficult to use on harder objects; granite is harder to blast than wood, and metal is harder to break than stone—this is common sense. He listened quietly, unmoved.

"A normal Spellcasting," Regulus continued, his tone unchanged. "One shot, the target shatters, then you stop."

The effect is directly linked to the Spellcasting's Magic Power; the more Magic Power poured in, the larger the object will be destroyed.

He spread his hands. "The effect of 100 Galleon of Magic Power against 100 Galleon, and the effect of 1000 Galleon of Magic Power against 1000 Galleon." Orion understood.

Single-shot output, the effect is directly proportional to the input, linearly.

This is the pattern of most attack spells: the amount of magic used is what you get; to achieve a greater effect, you need to put in more Magic Power. Nothing special, it's logical and straightforward.

But Regulus said this was only the first layer, meaning that what followed was not linear.

He looked at Regulus, his gaze sharpening for a moment.

Regulus noticed his father's expression, and a slight smile played on his lips as he continued.

"This is just the most basic form of the spell," he said, holding up his second finger. "Next is the second layer: the Oscillation Stacking."

Orion frowned slightly.

How do you stack them?

"Continuous output," Regulus continued, "The wand remains pointed at the target, the Magic Power flows continuously, and the vibrations repeatedly overlap within the target. Each layer of vibration is superimposed on the remnants of the previous layer, building up layer by layer."

He looked at Orion and uttered two words: "Exponential growth."

Orion's brow furrowed even deeper.

He wasn't familiar with the term "exponential increase," but it was a descriptive method Regulus often used, carrying Muggle mathematical flavor.

But he could understand the meaning: each hit doubled the power; one hit was one, two hits were four, three hits were sixteen, and the fourth hit was two hundred and fifty-six.

The numbers jump upwards, becoming increasingly absurd and outrageous as they go further.

Not only were the numbers outrageous, Orion felt that Regulus's claim was even more absurd; such a thing didn't exist in the Wizarding World.

But Regulus said that since that was the case, he believed him.

Orion was silent for a long while, then asked, "How long?"

"It depends on Magic Power, as long as the Spellcasting's Magic Power can keep up." Regulus saw his father's expression and the corners of his mouth turned up.

This is just the beginning; there's more to come.

Orion took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

With continuous output and exponential increases, given enough time, given his total Magic Power, what could he shatter if he unleashed this spell to its limit? He looked at Regulus, his tone somewhat grave. "What about the upper limit?"

Regulus didn't answer directly, but smiled and said, "Speaking of the upper limit, we have to talk about the threshold first."

Orion frowned.

There's a threshold to overcome. The last Severing Charm also had a threshold—understanding disintegration—which he still hasn't crossed.

"The first hurdle: Magic Manipulation."

Regulus raised his right hand, making a fist and then releasing it in the air.

"The instant the spell is released from the tip of the staff, the Magic Power must converge from a surface to a point. The diffused Magic Power, upon contact with the target surface, constricts to the size of a needle tip, thus penetrating."

He looked at Orion and made a chopping motion.

"The convergence window is less than one-hundredth of a second. After that window, the Magic Power explodes on the surface, unable to penetrate, and the vibration dissipates on the outside, rendering it useless."

Orion remained silent, his expression not relaxed.

The Magic Power converged in a fraction of a second, instantly compressing the diffused surface into a needle tip.

This is completely different from regular Spellcasting.

Most wizards will never need to use this level of precision in Magic Manipulation in their entire lives.

They learned the spells, pronounced the syllables correctly, waved their wands, and Magic Power shot out from the tip of the wand; hitting the target was all it took.

As for what form the Magic Power takes the moment it leaves the staff—whether it's a surface or a point, whether it gathers or disperses—they never even considered that.

Because there's no need to think, the spell is exactly what it is; it's not their place to adjust it.

Orion thought to himself, "Regulus always sets the standards in strange places."

But unlike most wizards, he was good at delicate work.

His Magic Manipulation is excellent, even superb, ranking among the top in his generation of Pure-bloods Patriarch.

However, Regulus's requirements Taiyi.

In daily Spellcasting, from initiation to release, there is a half-second to one-second adjustment window, enough for him to make any corrections in the middle. One-hundredth of a second, there is no room for correction; the spell must be executed correctly, otherwise it is all for naught.

He thought for a moment, then slowly nodded.

It's possible, but not easy. It requires dedicated practice. Once you reach the point where switching Magic Power becomes an instinctive reaction, without conscious thought or judgment, you simply twist your wrist and the Magic Power is automatically collected.

This won't be easy, but the goal is clear and the path is well-defined. Give him some time, and he can succeed.

Much better than last time.

The threshold for the Severing Charm cannot be mastered through practice alone; even practicing ten thousand times won't help. If you don't have that concept in your mind, your Magic Power won't possess that attribute. The Disintegration Charm is different; the precision of Magic Manipulation is at least a technical issue, and technical issues can be solved.

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

If the Disintegration Charm is just this...

Then he heard Regulus speak again.

"The second threshold," Regulus continued, "Cognitive Convergence."

Orion's teacup stopped in mid-air.