Underground Base
POV of Domeric Bolton
"How are you doing today, Irontooth?" Domeric asked as he looked at the man inside the cage, who glared at him with nothing but pure hatred in his eyes.
"Are you really going to remain silent?" he asked.
Despite the greater strength, agility, and intelligence the man had gained from the ritual, it seemed like the man was still not intelligent enough.
Or maybe he was just stubborn.
"Very well then." He pointed the wand through the hole in the glass and sent a painful curse to the man, whose eyes widened in fear before the curse hit, and the man started writhing painfully on the ground.
It was not a Crucio. No, that curse was far too powerful and left… traces. Plus, he needed to use a lot of hate to use that curse, which was the main reason why he never really used the unforgivable.
This curse was one or two steps below the Cruciatus Curse in pain and took more magic from him to perform. But it was clean. Once the curse is lifted, it leaves no lasting effect on the victim, except for the psychological ones, of course. And he didn't have to channel any negative emotion to use this curse.
It was quite handy for an on-site interrogation when he was the Head Auror.
After half a minute, he removed the curse, and the man fell on his back pitifully, taking deep breaths to compensate for all the air he had expelled while shouting.
Jakka Irontooth. A pirate and a slaver. Someone with multiple counts of rape, murder, slavery, and torture. A sociopath who thought nothing of all the lives he has taken.
One of the many men that Muron captured and sent his way for his 'Experiments'.
He had already judged him as a lord and sentenced him to death. And… a little bit of public duty before death.
"Are you willing to talk now, Irontooth?" He asked patiently, and the man glared balefully at him, though there was more than a hint of fear in his eyes this time.
The man nodded, took out the notepad, opened the seventh page, and began asking questions.
Some might find his use of human beings as guinea pigs wrong, even criminal, but the people he used as guinea pigs in his experiments certainly did not deserve a peaceful death, given their past crimes.
Nevertheless, Domeric was not a ruthless man and would not proceed to human experiments until he was sure that the ritual was as safe as possible. He carried out all the dangerous experiments on animals and, once he was sure, used humans as guinea pigs.
In fact, human experiments were more of a safety and information-gathering phase for him in terms of the results of the ritual before he tried it on himself.
And no human guinea pig had ever died or suffered permanent damage as a result of the ritual. But that didn't change the fact that they were sentenced to death.
He reviewed the various reports he had gathered from all his experiments and deduced that there was truly no negative side effect of the experiment.
He had performed his fair share of brain scans before and after the ritual. He concluded that, aside from improving memory, reflexes, and observation skills, the brain showed no other changes, especially in the region responsible for emotions.
Yes, for all intents and purposes, the ritual was a success. Now, only one thing remained.
He looked at the 143 strong, agile, clever, fast, and many other specialized animals he had captured for this experiment. There were bears, shadowcats, wolves, eagles, and many more.
Some of them were strong, some of them were fast, some of them were far-sighted, some of them were nimble, some of them had endurance, some of them were cunning, some of them had sharp senses, and more importantly, all of them were healthy. Far more so than any random animal that could be found in the forests or mountains.
For this ritual, the stronger the sacrifice, the better the results would be. So, he captured and bred them carefully for this ritual.
And he had to thank Dobby for that most of all. It was Dobby who discovered and bred these animals.
He completed drawing the runes on the ground with ink made from the blood of Children of the Forest - willingly given, the sap from the eyes of the Heartwood Tree, dragon bone dust, moonstone, and a dozen other elements to make the ink more magically potent and keep it stable.
Once completed, he called Dobby, who was checking the animals.
"Dobby."
With a puff, Dobby disappeared from his location and reappeared in front of him. "Yes, Great Master Harry Potter, sir. What can Dobby do for you, sir?"
"Is everything all right with the animals, Dobby?"
"Yes, Dobby did as Master Harry Potter told him. All the animals are sleeping now."
"Good. Thank you, Dobby. Please help me carry them to the ritual circles."
"Great Master Harry Potter, sir, shouldn't thank Dobby, and Harry Potter, sir, doesn't need to ask anything from Dobby. Harry Potter, sir, should order Dobby, and Dobby will do it gladly for kind Master Harry Potter."
'Hah… I still haven't got Dobby out of that addressing habit.' Domeric sighed and thought
Then he and Dobby carried the unconscious animals and put them in the one hundred forty-three circles in the large runic matrix.
Man, he was really grateful that Dobby was with him at the moment. Otherwise, he had to perform menial tasks like these himself.
Once the sacrifices were put into their places, he took out a Petrified Dragon egg from the bottomless pouch and put it near the head of the Runic Matrix.
"Dobby, go to the magic source center of the underground base and make sure nothing goes wrong."
"Dobby will take care of it, Harry Potter, sir." And with a puff, Dobby disappeared.
Then he went to the center of the matrix, removed his clothes as well as any other possessions from his body, and lay down naked on the cold, hard floor.
Then, with a flick of his hand, the ritual started, and the whole world went white as a searing pain went through his body.
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Ch.127: Greatest Swordsman in Westeros
Ch.128: Let's Play a Game