Holy Spirit's Remains
The instant Susan opened her eyes, she seemed to transform into an ancient Giant as tall as a small mountain. An invisible force emanated from her, the air seemed to freeze, and a profound, ancient power enveloped her like a mountain.
Skylar frowned, a feeling of extreme unease rising within him.
Although the feeling wasn't obvious, his keen senses allowed him to clearly perceive an ancient and majestic power pressing down on him head-on. This power made him feel threatened, and... disgusted.
It was a very mysterious feeling, coming suddenly and inexplicably, as if it stemmed from an ancient grudge or entanglement. The power that Susan exuded was unusually repulsive to Skylar, and one could even say that it was full of hostility towards Skylar, as if the two were born to belong to opposing camps, and once they met, they would spontaneously launch an attack and create pressure on each other.
Skylar initially thought this was a conflict between white magic and Dark Arts. The power of the Bones family's bloodline was clearly some kind of ancient white magic inheritance, while he himself had practiced a lot of Dark Arts over the years and was tainted with the aura of Dark Arts. Therefore, it had a repulsive effect on the aura that Susan was currently displaying.
But upon closer reflection, it doesn't quite seem right.
Snape's mastery of Dark Arts far surpasses that of Dumbledore, and considering his ability to help Dumbledore suppress the curse planted by Voldemort himself in the original story, his mastery of Dark Arts is likely no less than that of Dumbledore. Yet, it's not necessarily true that there's such a antagonistic relationship between them.
Moreover, Skylar's forte isn't Dark Arts; his forte is... well, it seems there's no magic he's not good at.
His original forte was mental and soul magic, but after studying the Amphimagus, he switched to Transfiguration Magic. Then he studied elemental magic and successfully made the elements reveal their most primal forms. After that, he awakened the magic of Snake Eyes and Parseltongue. Any one of these magical domains, if mastered with sufficient time and effort, would be enough to make him a legendary wizard of the caliber of Dumbledore or Grindelwald.
But Skylar pursued progress in almost every field mentioned above, leaving none untouched.
He hasn't even given up his research and practice of spatial magic and ancient spellcasting.
That's not all. During his audience with "Destiny" in the mysterious space, "Destiny" seemed to grant him a strange power, allowing him to effortlessly Gnome to a higher level in the field of "Charms." If magic is divided into eight domains according to the volumes of Abatair, then Skylar has made significant achievements in Charms, Transfiguration, psychic magic, soul magic, and curse magic.
As for the remaining magic, spell seals, and barriers, while he wasn't exactly an expert, he wasn't completely ignorant either. At the very least, he was able to research and create the "Sleeping Dragon Mark" spell seal on his own.
Based on the two reasons mentioned above, Skylar believed that this was unlikely to be a problem between Dark Arts and white magic.
At that moment, the mark on the back of his neck warmed up, and the phantom of Aquila, who had not appeared for a long time, appeared above and to the left of Skylar. It gracefully circled and landed on Skylar's left shoulder.
"Tsk tsk," Aquila commented solemnly, "What have you come up with this time? Why such a big fuss?"
"Aquila," Skylar didn't answer Aquila's question, but instead directly voiced his doubts, "Do you know anything about Susan? What is the origin of this power?"
Aquila gave Skylar a scrutinizing look before slowly saying, "It's truly fate!"
"I'm not entirely sure what happened to this girl, but I suspect she awakened a talent within her bloodline, and a very ancient one at that. It's understandable that you don't know about it; after all, as far as I know, there are no records of this kind of bloodline talent in current literature... The name of this talent is—"
"The Holy Spirit's Remains," Aquila turned her gaze from Skylar to Susan, saying meaningfully, "The lineage of the Holy Spirit's Remains predates the founding of Hogwarts. The last person to display this talent was Andros, one of the four great warriors of the late ancient Greece. You should be familiar with that name, shouldn't you?"
"Yes, I know him," Skylar replied. "His nickname is 'Invincible Andros.' It's said that he was the first wizard to master the Patronus Charm without a staff, and his Patronus is said to be the same size as a Pure-blood Giant. Although the size of the Patronus doesn't affect its power, Patronus like his is a unique existence in history, clearly an evolved and powerful high-level Patronus."
"What you're talking about is recorded in history books, and everyone knows it," Aquila chuckled, then said, "But do you know Andros's most famous battle?"
"Uh... is it the famous Battle of Thermopylae in history? The battle between Andros and the ancient Ancient Persia sorcerer Jafar Yahya?"
"This duel can only be considered a minor one. Few people know that Andros already had quite a few hidden injuries at the time, and he could only exert less than 50% of his strength..."
"What!" Skylar exclaimed in surprise, "You managed to fight Jafar to a standstill with less than half your strength?"
Skylar was indeed very surprised. In his previous life, he was an adventurer and archaeologist with extensive knowledge of this famous Bohemian battle, which was of great historical and military significance.
The Battle of Thermopylae, also known as the Battle of the Champion, originated in 480 BC when the Persian Empire prepared a large army to invade ancient Greece in order to avenge the defeat at the Battle of Mara. Faced with this threat, the two major Greece city-states Athens and Sparta, put aside their past grievances and united to fight against Persia, forming a coalition army led by Sparta.
At first, the Persia army advanced with unstoppable momentum, until King Leonidas I of Sparta, leading 298 elite Sparta warriors and 700 Thespians as the main force (along with some engineers and auxiliary troops, but this is not an archaeological novel, so we won't go into details), chose to establish their defensive stronghold at Thermopylae. Thermopylae was a narrow pass that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, with the sea on one side and steep mountain walls on the other.
Ultimately, the Greece coalition successfully used the terrain to hold off the Persia army, which outnumbered them, at Thermopylae for three days. Later, a Greece farmer Ephialtes, in exchange for a reward, secretly informed the Persians of a path Thermopylae Persia. This allowed the Persia army to use the mountain path to outflank the Greece coalition, resulting in the Greece coalition being surrounded and ultimately annihilated.
Skylar did not underestimate the ferocity of the ancient Greece warriors, but the sheer number of them, and the fact that they could fight to this extent in the era of cold weapons, was truly surprising. Moreover, at that time, the Persia royal family employed many renowned black magicians as royal advisors, holding positions similar to state strategists; Jafar was one of the most prominent among them. Terrain advantages were meaningless in the face of magic.
If Andros hadn't intervened and both he and Jafar hadn't been severely injured in their duel, the Champion Sparta n't have been able to hold their ground for three days without any magical intervention.
It's important to know that Jafar was no ordinary wizard; he was a renowned Parseltongue, claiming to be the mortal incarnation of the Cobra god, and had countless followers in the Persian Empire at the time. His reputation was so terrifying that children would stop crying at the mere mention of his name. Even today, his name frequently appears in Muggle World fairy tales and video games, always as a powerful villain.
This kind of person actually fought Andros, who was at less than half his strength, to a standstill? Skylar simply couldn't imagine how powerful Andros would have been in his prime.
Aquila was pleased with the surprised expression on Skylar's face. It continued, "Andros's reputation as invincible clearly stems from his numerous victories in duels. Jafar, among all the opponents he's faced in his life, can only be considered slightly above average, not even ranking in the top five..."
"What I want to talk about is his final battle with another famous sorcerer from the late ancient Greece..."
"Ah!" Skylar exclaimed, "You're not talking about that Vile Herpo, are you?"
"That's right, it's him," Aquila said. "Herpo, in his pursuit of immortality, dared to break the taboo and research the magic of sealing a part of the soul in a vessel, what we now call Horcrux. Back then, unlike now, the magic of Horcrux was only described in a few words. To develop this magic, he went on a mad spree, murdering many Muggle and wizards..."
"In the end Andros and Herpo agreed to a final battle on the Acropolis. This battle lasted for seven days and seven nights, leaving the Acropolis in its current state. The magical power that once bound it still prevents Muggle, who pride themselves on their advanced technology, from repairing it despite trying every possible method, even more than two thousand years later..."
"The battle ended with Herpo being severely wounded and forced to flee. But the victorious Andros also paid a heavy price. Ravenclaw took me to the ruined Acropolis to trace and investigate the events of that time. According to her deduction, Andros was entangled in at least ten powerful curses, enough to reduce his strength by at least half. Can you imagine how brutal this battle was?"
Skylar nodded at first, then suddenly shook his head. He already had a vague idea in his mind, but still needed to confirm it.
"Aquila, did Andros die because his old injuries and emotional wounds were aggravated during the final battle with Jafar, and he succumbed to his wounds after defeating Jafar?"
"Yes, why do you ask that?" Aquila asked, somewhat puzzled. It was familiar with Skylar's expression; it seemed this frighteningly clever boy had figured out something crucial again.
"There's something that seems too much of a coincidence to me. Jafar and Herpo, one in Persia and the other in Greece, both happened to inherit the legacy of the Parseltongue, and both of them fought a great battle with Andros..."
"You mean..." Aquila seemed to understand.
"Herpo created the Horcrux, so he should be immortal. Therefore, no matter how badly Andros beats him, he can't die," Skylar said confidently. "Another function of the Horcrux is that the remnant soul within can possess other Magical Creatures, or even other wizards, temporarily reviving itself through these bodies. This possession can also grant the vessel the remnant soul's innate abilities, such as Parseltongue..."
"I suspect that Jafar himself is Horcrux possessed by the remnant soul of Herpo. It's impossible for a dark wizard to resist the temptation of powerful strength and immortality; being seduced by Horcrux is perfectly normal."
"A brilliant deduction," Aquila exclaimed, then asked, "So? What does it have to do with what we're talking about now?"
"Don't you understand?" Skylar smiled confidently and said calmly, "Susan's power is repelling me, which means that this power originating from Andros has most likely encountered its nemesis. And you've been asleep for too long. You don't know that I've awakened the legacy of Parseltongue and Parseltongue magic in the Chamber of Secrets— "
"The current situation is actually a conflict between the Holy Spirit's Remains and the Parseltongue!"
"What?!" Aquila exclaimed in astonishment, "You've even inherited Slytherin's Parseltongue? Are you trying to accomplish the feat of combining the legacies of the Four Founders?"
Skylar smiled faintly, offering no comment.