Jormungandr

Skylar took a few steps back, easing the pressure on him, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

He most enjoys seeing relationships like "arch-rivals" or "natural enemies." The pressure from arch-rivals and natural enemies is often the key driving force for progress and advancement.

He opened his mouth and hissed. A green light flashed from the locket, and it floated into the air, lifting the lid to reveal the phantom of a Basilisk.

The power within Susan suddenly spiraled out of control.

An ivory-white skeleton suddenly appeared around her, enveloping her. The skeleton visibly grew larger until it reached the size of a Pure-blood Giant, twice the height of Hagrid. Susan gently lifted off the ground and floated up, standing roughly between the ribs where her heart was. (See chapter summary)

Suddenly, the skeleton emitted a soft hum, and purple flames burst forth across its entire surface, making it look ferocious and terrifying. Each of the two empty eye sockets on the skull's head also ignited a flickering purple flame, as if it had come to life, staring menacingly at the Basilisk phantom.

The Basilisk phantom in the pendant box was incomplete; it could only petrify creatures it saw by staring at them. This was only after Skylar sacrificed a large amount of the Basilisk's flesh and blood, as well as its pair of Basilisk eyes. Otherwise, the Basilisk's abilities would have been even weaker before that.

Under the intense gaze of the two purple flames, the Basilisk phantom let out mournful cries, as if it were suffering immense pain.

Skylar watched intently as the Basilisk and cried out incessantly. The phantom gradually faded, as if its power was rapidly dissipating. Once its power was completely gone, the Basilisk's phantom would cease to exist.

"What are you doing?" Aquila shouted coldly. It and the Basilisk phantom were, in some ways, of the same kind, and at this moment it could empathize with the latter's pain. "If this continues, the Basilisk will not be able to hold on and will vanish forever!"

"Don't worry, I have my own plans," Skylar said casually, seemingly unconcerned.

The biggest difference between the Basilisk phantom and Aquila is that the latter possesses sentience while the former does not. Don't underestimate this small difference; in Skylar's eyes, it represents a huge gap. The Basilisk phantom can at best be considered a weapon; it cannot understand Skylar's intentions like Aquila can, let alone become Skylar's ally and cooperate with him in a tacit understanding to fight the enemy.

Just as the Basilisk's phantom faded into a hazy shadow, Skylar shouted in Parseltongue, "Basilis, king of all serpents, are you willing to perish like this?!"

The Basilisk let out a final, mournful cry, long and agonizing, as if expressing its intense resentment and unwillingness to accept defeat.

"In that case, I'll lend you a hand!" Skylar drew his wand and loudly chanted the incantation. "Expecto Patronum!"

An ancient Dragon, its body radiating a seven-colored glow, descended before Skylar with the power of wind and thunder, unleashing a deafening roar. The ancient Dragon chanted in mysterious Ancient Dragon Language, its entire body enveloped in seven different colored halos, before swooping down towards the purple flame Giant.

The skeletal Giant and the seven-colored Dragon collided head-on.

The Giant punched the Dragon in the head, but at the same time, the Dragon's claws shattered the Giant's ribs.

With a gentle wave of Skylar left hand, the fragment of his rib, still burning with purple flames, floated before him. He began to chant in Parseltongue—

"Devour the bones of your nemesis, ignite your will, and be reborn!"

The Basilisk phantom leaped with all its might, opened its blood-red maw, and swallowed the entire fragment of the rib bone in one gulp!

Skylar used his wand to carve a bloody chunk of flesh from his right arm, tossed the flesh to the Basilisk phantom, and continued chanting—

"To merge with the host's flesh and blood, to mend your flaws, and to forge your consciousness!"

The moment Skylar's flesh and blood came into contact with the Basilisk phantom, they were instantly dissolved and absorbed, and the outline of the Basilisk phantom began to appear and disappear, sometimes bright and sometimes dark.

"I have done what I needed to do; the rest is up to your will!" Skylar roared. "King of the Serpents, if you survive, I will name you Jormungandr!"

With a whoosh, the Basilisk's phantom burst into blue flames, and then its body grew longer and larger at a visible speed, eventually becoming the same size as the purple flame Giant.

Skylar withdrew his Dragon Patronus and whispered in Parseltongue, "Go Jormungandr, this is your destined battle!"

Jormungandr glided to the Giant of purple flames and confronted it. Upon seeing the basilisk phantom, the Giant purple Basilisk became even more ferocious than before. Susan, floating in the center of the ribs, remained motionless, as if she had fallen into a deep sleep.

The purple flame Giant quickly engaged Jormungandr in a fierce battle. On the surface, the two were evenly matched, but Skylar could see that Jormungandr was fighting with its own will. Having just forged its consciousness with a powerful will, it became more and more eager to fight, growing stronger with each battle.

In contrast, the Purple Flame Giant was fighting against its host's will, and Susan's bloodline power was being slowly depleted over time. As a result, the Purple Flame Giant's momentum was gradually weakening, and its defeat was only a matter of time.

Just as Jormungandr finally managed to bind the Purple Flame Giant's arms and body with his long serpentine form, intending to crush it with overwhelming force, Skylar called for a halt.

"You large creature burning with purple flames, though I know not your origins," Skylar's voice, though not loud, resounded clearly throughout the Chamber of Secrets, "I want to tell you, times have changed—"

"We are not enemies." Skylar pointed to where Susan was, then to himself. "She and I, your host, are friends and comrades-in-arms."

"We share a common, great ideal, and for that we need all our strength. She and I both need your strength," Skylar said earnestly. "If you are willing to let go of your hatred, I promise you I will treat your host well, as if she were my own family. Otherwise—"

Skylar raised his wand, pointing the tip towards Susan. His eyes, glowing red, were filled with the darkest cruelty. In a cold, emotionless voice, he said, "Although I may suffer greatly afterward, you and she will both disappear from this world today. Believe me, I can do it. In your current state, you can't stop me."

The purple flame Giant's body was already bound by the enormous snake's body, leaving it no ability to struggle. It remained motionless for a long time before slowly nodding in Skylar's direction. Finally, the purple flames in its eye sockets extinguished, and its entire skeleton transformed into invisible magic and returned to Susan's body.

Aquila, who had witnessed the entire process, was now dumbfounded. "With just a few simple moves, you managed to make these two forces set aside their differences and work for you?"

Skylar gave a sly smile and replied, "Whether it's Jormungandr or the Purple Flame Giant, they both used my blood during their awakening. In terms of magical rituals, you could say they owe me a life."

"Most importantly," Skylar's voice took on a cold tinge, "No matter how sharp or powerful a weapon may be, it can be discarded if it cannot be used by me. I will not give it the chance to turn against me. They should understand this as well; their fate was sealed the moment they used my blood as a ritual sacrifice."

Skylar reached out and beckoned, Jormungandr transformed into a green streak and was captured into the locket.

At this moment, Susan rubbed her slightly blurry eyes, looked at the destroyed scene around her, and asked in confusion, "What just happened?"

"I must first congratulate you, Susan," Skylar said sincerely. "This pearwood wand is a perfect match for you. Using it to cast spells, especially defensive spells, will likely result in a terrifying amplification that you wouldn't expect. At the same time, have you noticed anything different about yourself?"

Susan carefully examined her body and exclaimed with delight, "My magic has increased! It's increased by at least ten percent!"

"That's right. Right now, your magical abilities are no less than Cho Chang's. In fact, you could say that you're one of the best among the young Auror in the Ministry of Magic." Skylar paused, then added, "You're already a powerful individual capable of standing on your own."

"You know what? I've seen all your hard work," Skylar said sincerely. "I'm so grateful that you believed in me so much and were willing to sacrifice so much for my unrealistic ideals. Now it's proven that I wasn't wrong about you; you're no less capable than anyone else in the Sleeping Dragon Society."

"Oh, really?" Susan's cheeks flushed slightly. She had always felt somewhat inferior. Although no one had ever said it, she was self-aware. Looking at the performance of the other core members of the Sleeping Dragon Society, she knew perfectly well that she was the weakest. This was the first time she had been singled out for praise by Skylar, and she immediately lowered her head shyly, fidgeting with her hands, unsure of what to do.

"You just fell into a deep sleep, and you don't know it yet—" Skylar looked at Susan and said seriously, "You've awakened a truly remarkable bloodline talent..."

"You mean me?" Susan immediately looked up, pointing to her face. "Bloodline talent? But I heard from my aunt that our Bones family doesn't have bloodline talent!"

"Yes, I won't lie to you, and Aunt Leah is right," Skylar explained. "The bloodline talent you've awakened is extremely rare. The last time it appeared was over two thousand years ago in ancient Greece, by a wizard named Invincible Andros..."

"I know him! I even have his Chocolate Frog Card." Susan's eyes gleamed with a strange light. "You mean, the power I awakened comes from him?" Susan knew that Andros was an invincible figure in his time, and if she inherited his bloodline power, it would represent her immense potential.

"Yes," Skylar explained, "This power is called 'Holy Spirit's Remains.' It's created by using magic to activate the power within one's bloodline, allowing a massive, Pure-blood Giant -like humanoid skeleton to materialize and protect oneself. Because the skeleton's defensive capabilities are astonishing, this ability also has another name: 'Absolute Defense.'"

"Once you master this profound technique, you will likely become the most powerful vanguard in the Sleeping Dragon Society," Skylar said. "You will be the Patronus of all of us!"