A Wizard Bent on Revenge

Chapter 043

Inside a nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean.

Nicolas Flamel sat in a wheelchair, with a soldier under the Imperius Curse standing beside him.

He studied the World Map closely, marking it with Cross Skulls one after another. These were the places he had chosen to target with nuclear bombs. They included the Ministries of Magic in various countries, as well as the major cities built by Muggles. He wanted the entire world to be buried alongside him and his wife.

Although he admitted that he had gone after the Phoenix City Lord out of greed for Spark Energy, no matter what, the Phoenix City Lord should never have hurt the wife who had been by his side for hundreds of years.

She was innocent. Why had she been killed by a nuclear bomb?

If the Phoenix City Lord could use nuclear bombs, then, as the saying went in the East, he could use them too—tooth for tooth, blood for blood.

Unlike those other conservative wizards, he had never underestimated Muggle technology.

Alchemy was the Wizarding World's technology in its own right. Now, he intended to combine the technology of the Wizarding World with that of Muggles to make nuclear bombs that neither wizards nor Muggles could intercept. He would rather destroy the world than see the Phoenix City Lord rule it.

With Legilimency, he could easily learn the exact locations of all nuclear weapons from Muggle memories.

With the Imperius Curse, he could easily control the soldiers in charge of those weapons.

The nuclear bomb dropped on his home had already made the Muggle governments and the Wizarding World around the world tense with fear. He only needed to drop a few more bombs, and the Muggles would start a nuclear war and destroy everything themselves. His current headache was figuring out how to kill the Phoenix City Lord.

He had survived a nuclear bomb. The Phoenix City Lord would surely be able to as well.

Although Muggle nuclear bombs could destroy the surface and kill Muggles by the millions, they still weren't enough to wipe out wizards entirely.

As long as wizards could use Apparition to escape, they could find a way to survive deep underground.

The reason he had held off on launching the bombs was that he was preparing a trap to prevent the Phoenix City Lord from using Apparition.

Anti-Apparition wasn't difficult for him. The problem was that its range wouldn't be very large, and the Phoenix City Lord could fly. Even if he managed to lure the Phoenix City Lord into an Anti-Apparition trap, the Phoenix City Lord could simply fly straight up into the sky and escape.

So he needed to time the nuclear bomb's explosion precisely. Only by preventing flight could he ensure the Phoenix City Lord had nowhere to run.

As he considered where to set the trap, the ring on Nicolas Flamel's thumb began to grow warm.

It was a message ring, capable of transmitting a single sentence at a time. At present, the only people with matching rings were Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick. After they had escaped Hogwarts together, he had given them message rings so they could coordinate their efforts against the Phoenix City Lord.

He activated the ring and immediately heard Professor Flitwick's message.

A group of wizards loyal to Dumbledore had been captured and taken hostage. The Phoenix City Lord had let Professor Flitwick go, telling him to trade information about Nicolas Flamel for the captured wizards. He had even forced Professor Flitwick to kill Nicolas Flamel and seize the Philosopher's Stone to present to the Phoenix City Lord.

Although there were hostages, Professor Flitwick had no intention of betraying him.

That was why he had contacted Nicolas Flamel through the message ring, hoping he could make a fake Philosopher's Stone to fool the Phoenix City Lord.

"The Phoenix City Lord wants the Philosopher's Stone too?"

Nicolas Flamel wondered to himself.

It was no surprise that the Phoenix City Lord would be tempted by a Philosopher's Stone that could grant immortality.

If that was the case, could he tamper with the Philosopher's Stone?

The first thing that came to mind was a Portkey. A Portkey was essentially a trigger-activated transportation device.

All he had to do was turn the real Philosopher's Stone into a Portkey, then have Professor Flitwick deliver it to the Phoenix City Lord. The moment the Phoenix City Lord took the stone, the Portkey's power would transport him straight into the trap.

But for the plan to work, Professor Flitwick couldn't already be under the Imperius Curse.

If he was, then this might be a trap the Phoenix City Lord had prepared for Nicolas Flamel.

Nicolas Flamel pondered for a long time before beginning to discuss the plan with Professor Flitwick through the message ring: when and how to deliver the Philosopher's Stone. After some deliberation, they settled on seven days later.

He had planned to launch the nuclear bombs sooner, but now he had to postpone them until then.

Li Mu watched Professor Flitwick finish sending the message, then ordered Lucius to lock him up.

The message ring had also been taken away. Unless Nicolas Flamel sent a message, it wouldn't be returned to Professor Flitwick.

With Nicolas Flamel taken care of, Li Mu continued sorting through the collected magic books.

He kept at it until the next morning. He had sorted through less than half of them, and the magic knowledge he had uncovered included a great many obscure and Ancient Charms he had never learned. The most valuable of all were some of the Ancient Charms.

These Ancient Charms took a great deal of effort to cast and were difficult to master. Most of them dated back to the earliest generations of wizards.

There were thousands of spells among them, far beyond the few dozen seen in the movies. After all, this was a complete magical civilization that had lasted nearly two thousand years. Although many spells had become outdated and fallen out of use, they revealed the history of how magic had developed in this world.

If he mastered all this Magic Knowledge, creating new spells would be a piece of cake.

By now, Snape should have completed the task he had given him.

With Apparition, Li Mu returned to the basement of Borgin and Burkes.

Snape was pacing anxiously. The moment he saw Li Mu appear, he hurried over with a potion in hand.

Li Mu took the potion. He hadn't expected Snape to actually finish it in a single day.

Snape truly was exceptionally talented. He just needed a little push sometimes to bring out his full potential.

He infused the potion with HuoZhong Source Power, and the Anchor of Fantasy began its Fantasy Conversion.

[Dragonblood Potion Type I: Spark Potion]

[Quality: Earth Grade High-Rank]

[Effect: Permanently and greatly increases skin strength, resistance to magic, and self-healing ability, depending on the individual's constitution. Also increases the strength of flesh and bone to a certain degree. When combined with other types of Dragonblood Potion, their effects can stack and amplify one another.]

"Here, drink it."

After checking its properties, Li Mu happily tossed it to Snape.

Snape drank it without hesitation. His entire body immediately grew hot and red. Impurities steamed from the surface of his skin, and it took well over half an hour for the potion to finish strengthening it.

"Stupefy!"

Li Mu knocked Snape unconscious with a Sleeping Charm.

Several blades of magical force formed by Sectumsempra sliced along the edges of Snape's face. He followed the cuts with a Skinning Charm, peeling off the entire face. Then, using the Phoenix Mark on the forehead as a base, he inscribed two spells onto the face with an Enchanted Tattoo.

The first was the Imperius Curse; the second was Legilimency.

When the Enchanted Tattoo was complete, Fantasy Conversion transformed the skin into a special Fire Seed Human Skin Mask.

Li Mu infused the Human Skin Mask with Spark Energy. It immediately merged with the skin on Snape's face, which had not yet fully regenerated. Through the mask, Li Mu could use the Phoenix Mark to cast Legilimency and the Imperius Curse on Snape from thousands of miles away, whenever he wished.

Normally, even Li Mu could control only a dozen or so wizards with the Imperius Curse at once.

But with these Human Skin Masks, controlling the minds of hundreds or even thousands of wizards at once with the Imperius Curse wouldn't be a problem.

Of course, since HuoZhong Source Power was precious, only his elite followers would be given Human Skin Masks.

As long as this group couldn't be induced to betray him, they could help him control the rest of the wizards. He couldn't—and didn't need to—control every wizard in the world. He only needed to control the ruling class of the Wizarding World and make sure they wouldn't betray him after he left. That would be enough.