Chapter 529

At the top of the ancient stone tower, the air seemed to have been frozen for a thousand years.

The cold glow of crystal was not enough to dispel the profound darkness in the corners, yet it sharply outlined the stone table, the ancient scrolls, and the figure draped in a dark gray cloak. Steam curled upward, intertwining with the faint radiance emanating from the books, as though it had risen from the dust of time itself. The cloaked figure—Gellert Grindelwald—even imprisoned, even bearing marks of age deeper than those of ordinary men, still possessed the distinctive presence of the former Dark Lord, the great seer.

Like an iceberg sunk beneath the deep sea, immense and restrained, it silently permeated the quiet space.

He wore no shackles. This tower was less a prison than an incomparably sturdy, isolated cage tailored specifically for him, built from some of his own "voluntary" promises back then, the fear of the International Confederation of Wizards, and the will of one particular person. The Grindelwald of this era had long grown accustomed to such absolute solitude. He had even tasted a kind of detached serenity within it, using it for reflection... and observation.

Observing the fragments of information that entered the tower through special means, after being screened.

And observing the world beyond the tower—the world he had once tried to reshape according to his own will, which now, after his "failure," seemed to be slipping into another abyss of chaos.

"This era... truly makes me nostalgic." Just as his fingertips absently brushed the wax-paper wrapping, feeling the warmth and fragrance that did not belong to the tower's chill, but to the mortal world.

Outside the stone door.

"Tap, tap, tap~"

Deliberately softened footsteps suddenly sounded, though they could not conceal the tension behind them.