Chapter 133: Strategic Magic Revealed
Chapter 133: Strategic Magic Revealed
" Wake up, wake up." Liam felt someone shaking him in his dream, and a woman’s voice echoed in his ear.
He opened his eyes, and his vision slowly cleared. A young Black woman’s face appeared before him, and Liam finally came to his senses. He remembered asking this Railway Inspector to wake him up when it was time.
"Alright, I’m awake. Thank you for the reminder." Liam said as he crawled out of his sleeping bag and took a bottle of water to wash his face and clear his head.
Pulling out his pocket watch, Liam saw that the time was 3:00. It was time to begin.
After asking the inspector to wait in the middle of the tunnel, Liam walked up to the altar and pulled out his wand. Little Qing, who had been wrapped around his left arm like a bracelet, slithered down and dropped onto the altar. She then grew to the size of a python, coiled around the altar, and raised her upper body, stretching her head to the same height as Liam’s.
Once Little Qing was in position, Liam began to wave his wand and chant the incantation. Her body slowly began to circle the altar in rhythm with the words of the spell.
As the incantation continued, the runes embedded in the altar, made of gold and silver, began to glow, emitting a soft white light. The light grew brighter and brighter, eventually surpassing the brightness of the emergency lights on the walls.
At this point, the runes’ glow stopped intensifying. Under Liam’s spell, the runes, now made of white light, slowly detached from the altar and began to orbit it, forming a white light ribbon that danced in the air.
Unlike the Ritual Magic Liam had used to pacify the undead, the magic he was using now was Strategic Magic, a form of magic that had nearly been lost in the modern Wizarding World.
Strategic Magic required extensive preparation and a lengthy, stationary casting process. If this world were a Wizarding World, Liam would never use such magic. Once the casting began, the place would emit an abnormal magic power reaction. Without a large group to cover the caster, they would become a live target for concentrated attacks.
In the Harry Potter world, as Wizards isolated themselves from the Muggle world, this type of magic, used for large-scale warfare, gradually fell out of use. The Wizarding World’s population was not large, leading to most conflicts being small-scale. Thus, Strategic Magic, designed for wide-ranging effects, slowly faded from the Wizarding World.
Liam was fortunate that the Ancient Viking Wizard’s Legacy he had obtained contained a significant amount of Strategic Magic. However, compared to the large-scale spells like the Undead Army and the Restoration of Holy Ground, the Fog of Exhaustion Liam was using today was a weaker version of an original spell.
If it were the original version, casting it would either require a large amount of precious magical materials, a powerful Wizard as the caster, or a sufficient number of trained Wizards working together. To make it more practical, Wizards of the past developed many simplified versions of Strategic Magic for everyday use.
Naturally, these simplified versions were much less powerful. For instance, the original Fog of Exhaustion could create a magical fog covering a small city from several kilometers away, while the simplified version could only cover a base-sized area at close range.
Today, since it was Liam's first time using this magic, he cautiously employed the segmented casting technique from his inheritance. This technique allows the required magic power to be injected in segments without affecting the spell's potency. However, it results in a higher overall consumption of magic power and significantly extends the casting time.
For example, this spell would theoretically take only ten minutes to cast. But Liam was concerned that his magic power reserves might not be sufficient to complete it in one go, so he extended the casting time to thirty minutes. This way, Liam had ample time to recover his magic power as he cast the spell.
This technique is rarely used in wizard battles in the Harry Potter world because the extended casting time would give opponents ample opportunity to turn the caster into Swiss cheese.
Halfway through the time, Liam's casting reached its climax. As he chanted the spell, Little Qing opened its mouth and released wave after wave of pale green mist, which filled the basement.
Slowly, under the direction of the wand, the mist began to merge with the glowing white characters in the air. The characters transformed into the green light of the Omen of Misfortune.
Finally, the emerald light filled the entire basement. Little Qing stopped emitting the mist, looking exhausted. Liam's forehead was drenched in sweat, and his arms ached. His throat burned with pain.
But he gritted his teeth, for the magic was almost complete. In the sound of the incantation, one green light symbol after another rose through the ceiling and emerged on the ground. When these symbols appeared on the ground, they quickly lost their color, turning into a pale white mist that slowly drifted toward the airport.
If it were daytime, this unusual phenomenon would likely have been spotted by the sentinels. But it was night, and the sentinels were not as vigilant as they were during the day. Besides, the airport was by the sea, where fog was common at night.
Fortunately, it was a foggy night, so the magic-generated mist blended into the sea fog. No one noticed the unusual situation. As time passed, the magic mist completely enveloped the Steel Brotherhood's base. At the moment Liam's spell was fully released, the Steel Brotherhood members suddenly found themselves paralyzed and unable to move, followed by a blacking out and falling into unconsciousness.
After the ritual, Liam plopped down on the altar, feeling utterly exhausted from head to toe. Little Qing also collapsed beside the altar, too tired to move. But Liam knew there were still things to do, and now was not the time to rest.
So, Liam made Little Qing shrink to the size of a worm and placed it in a bottle filled with Sunlight Crystals in his jacket pocket. Then, he pulled the rope on the wall as agreed.
The other end of the rope was connected to a bell in the safehouse. Previously, Liam had told the others that if the bell rang, it meant his magic had succeeded, and anyone attacked by the magic within eight hours would be in an unresponsive, deep sleep. They only needed to deal with the Steel Brotherhood's automated weapons.
Sitting against the wall for a while, Liam tidied up everything in the basement and slowly made his way through the tunnel toward the safehouse.
Climbing out of the tunnel entrance with difficulty, Liam found everyone in the room sitting tensely, watching the door. Upon hearing the noise from the tunnel, a Militia member pulled Liam out.
"What's going on?" Liam asked in a low voice.
"We sent out a scout", Knight nodded. "We hope he brings us good news."
(End of Chapter)
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