Kettleburn

The Forbidden Forest remained as eerie and silent as ever.

As soon as Skylar entered the depths of the Forbidden Forest, his Divine Insight of Amaterasu were immediately activated in full force, and no movement within a radius of several miles could escape Skylar's perception.

Since most of the forces in the Forbidden Forest were unified by the Silver Fang wolves, those dangerous dark creatures seemed to have become much more docile. Skylar could hardly sense the presence of any Red Cap or Blood-sucking Bugbear, but there was a herd of sika deer foraging not far away.

Skylar frowned slightly; he sensed the aura of wizarding magic.

He concealed himself with Invisible Phantom Charm and cautiously explored his surroundings, and sure enough, he made a discovery.

With the very center of the Forbidden Forest as a point, each of the eight surrounding corners was equipped with a monitor similar to Moody's Alchemical Magic Eye.

That was close! If it weren't for Skylar's invisibility spell, which allowed him to evade the detection of this magical artifact, Skylar would have already been exposed.

Moody's Alchemical Magic Eye wasn't something commonplace. According to Skylar's understanding, only a few powerful Pure-blood families in all of Great Britain, besides the Ministry of Magic, possessed one, and its price was comparable to that of Firebolt —which shows just how much money Dumbledore had invested...

This is not surprising at all. Given Dumbledore's personality of always strategizing and controlling the overall situation, Hogwarts, as his headquarters, would certainly not allow any unexpected changes to occur near Hogwarts.

Skylar secretly released a giant two-headed snake from his Suitcase Space and commanded it in Parseltongue to hunt down the deer.

The two-headed snake is a variant of the Runespoor, a monster carefully bred in Skylar's Dark Laboratory. The loss of one head did not weaken the Runespoor's power; on the contrary, it made it even more insidious and cunning.

The two-headed snake did not recklessly attack the deer herd. Instead, it transformed its scales into the muddy color of its surroundings and approached the herd almost silently.

Approaching within three feet of the deer herd, several of the more alert male deer seemed to sense the approaching danger, their expressions becoming wary as they began to scan their surroundings, but unfortunately, they remained oblivious.

In the blink of an eye, the two-headed snake flashed past like lightning, and its two heads simultaneously pounced on and killed the two largest male deer.

The remaining deer panicked and scattered, creating chaos.

The two-headed snake seized the opportunity, its form flashing like a phantom, each flash mercilessly taking the life of a deer.

"Stop— Stupefy!" A furious shout rang out, and Skylar's lips curled into a slight smile. He knew that the prey he had been waiting for had finally taken the bait.

The visitor was none other than Silvanus Kettleburn, the former professor of the Care of Magical Creatures whom Dumbledore had specially invited.

Although the two-headed snake is engrossed in its hunt, its two heads and two pairs of eyes allow it to remain constantly alert to its surroundings.

The two-headed snake deftly dodged the first Stunning Spell that was about to strike.

Although this was the first time Kettleburn had ever seen such a ferocious beast, his extensive experience in dealing with Fantastic Beasts quickly led him to realize that this beast was likely a man-made variant of the Runespoor.

He calmly pulled a bag from his pocket, threw it forward with force, and the bag exploded in the air, spewing out a cloud of brownish-yellow powder.

Skylar sniffed it lightly and quickly recognized it as a secret snake-repelling powder, a formula known only to a handful of experts in Fantastic Beasts.

As expected, the appearance of the yellow powder mist noticeably slowed the two-headed snake's reactions, and its range of movement gradually shrank as it tried to avoid the mist.

Kettleburn did not let his guard down. He first took out a bottle of Potions from his pocket that would make the user immune to any snake venom and drank it. Then he took out an ointment and carefully applied it to his neck and hands, making his palms look shiny.

Skylar's eyes narrowed slightly. It seemed that, apart from the Defense Against the Dark Arts Hogwarts, almost none of them were easy to deal with.

The ointment applied to the neck and hands was a hardening ointment that could harden the skin like iron, making it impenetrable even to the sharp teeth of ordinary wild beasts.

Skylar had no doubt that the wizard's robes Professor Kettleburn wore, specifically for outdoor use, also had some kind of protective function for the wearer.

Professor Kettleburn first Avis to distract the two-headed snake, then slowly approached it step by step.

When he was about seven or eight steps away from the two-headed serpent, just as he raised his wand to deliver a crucial blow, a black Bowtruckle suddenly appeared on his shoulder, pointing in Skylar's direction and screaming loudly.

Damn, what kind of magical Bowtruckle is this? It can actually sense Skylar's presence!

Skylar was extremely surprised, mainly because his confident invisibility magic had been seen through, although he knew it wouldn't change anything—with his current strength, his fate was already sealed the moment Kettleburn appeared alone.

His dark soul magic erupted in an instant, and a terrifying pressure descended upon the arena. Behind him, a violent black phantom appeared and disappeared, like a demon god descending to destroy the world.

The remaining deer let out a mournful cry, trembling as they knelt on the ground, while the two-headed snake also bent its neck and lowered its proud two heads.

Kettleburn was momentarily stunned upon seeing a pair of crimson, snake-shaped eyes.

The Soul Control Ring Skylar had just put on his right ring finger emitted a sinister dark green light. With the sound of "Imperio," Kettleburn's body stiffened, and without even the slightest sign of resistance, he fell directly into Skylar's control.

The reason it went so smoothly was not only due to Skylar's own exceptional magical power, but also because the Soul Control Ring's amplification of the Imperius Curse was far more powerful than Skylar had anticipated.

The casting of Dark Arts requires malice as its foundation, so a powerful Dark Arts caster usually has varying degrees of psychological and spiritual distortion.

Although Skylar had conducted in-depth theoretical research on Dark Arts, in order to protect his mind and soul from being devoured Mahoutokoro it, his own mastery of Dark Arts could not be considered very profound.

Skylar had thought that his Imperius Curse would require a lot of effort, and that he would eventually rely on his Grand Sorcerer- level mental strength to forcibly control Kettleburn. Little did he know that Kettleburn would not even have the slightest power to resist his Imperius Curse.

No wonder that in the original world, Yaxley, who possessed this ring, was able to become a master of the Imperius Curse, successfully controlling Pius Thicknesse, the then -Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, with the Imperius Curse, which amazed the other Death Eaters at the time.

Looking back now, it's likely that this ring played a crucial role in Yaxley's success.