"A Fiendfyre-centered spell?" Slytherin finally began to take the teenage boy before him seriously.
Casting Fiendfyre was nothing unusual, but being able to control that wild, unruly fire with such ease was something only an exceptional wizard could do.
Slytherin finally realized that this boy was completely different from the clumsy so-called "Muggles" who pretended to know magic that he had seen in the castle when he left Hogwarts.
A twisted, serpentine wand appeared in Slytherin's right hand.
Boom!
A crimson flame shot out from the wand, swelling as it rode the wind and crashing straight into Wade's ring of Fiendfyre.
The cursed insects from before were instantly incinerated by the clash of the two completely different Fiendfyres.
Wade felt his wand jerk violently, as if it had struck something immensely heavy.
He knew exactly what that meant. The two Fiendfyres had collided head-on, and a direct contest of power had begun.
Wade had no clear idea how strong the other party's magic was, but considering this man was a legendary wizard from over a thousand years ago, his magical power was surely formidable.
If he tried to compete head-on in raw magical strength, he would likely lose.
With that in mind, Wade lifted his wand cautiously. A ribbon of red Gubraithian Fire looped in a wide arc and launched a direct attack from behind Slytherin.
Gubraithian Fire possessed the property of never being extinguished, and although its temperature was far lower than Fiendfyre, it was exceptionally troublesome to deal with.
Unless the caster deliberately relinquished control, no one else could extinguish it.
Otherwise, only the caster could put it out. If not, it would keep burning endlessly.
Because of this, Slytherin was forced to divert part of his attention, using some of his Fiendfyre to block the Gubraithian Fire.
The moment he did, Wade immediately felt the pressure on the frontal clash lessen.
That was exactly what Wade wanted.
Dupp!
Then, nightmare magic activated.
Somehow, Wade's figure appeared directly behind Slytherin.
Yet in Slytherin's eyes, Wade was still standing within the ring of deep blue flames.
This illusion could only last half a second in front of Slytherin.
But that was more than enough for Wade.
Countless spears formed from Fiendfyre shot straight toward Slytherin from the tip of Wade's wand.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh!
Slytherin's weakest point in his defense was immediately pierced, his Fiendfyre protection shattered through two layers.
But Slytherin was Slytherin. In the blink of an eye, he saw through Wade's nightmare magic.
By the time Wade used nightmare magic again to create illusions, Slytherin was already able to react in time.
He could even seize the gaps between Wade's attacks to launch sharper counterattacks.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Blazing flames collided wildly.
The buildings along the street had long since been set alight.
What had once been a calm London street was transformed in an instant into a hell of fire.
Perhaps because of his age, during one counterattack a tiny flaw appeared in Slytherin's Fiendfyre barrier.
Wade did not waste the opportunity. His figure vanished with a sudden Apparition and appeared exactly where he needed to be.
Clang!
A coldly gleaming two-handed greatsword was drawn from Wade's pocket.
The blade stabbed viciously toward Slytherin's back.
But the thrust struck nothing.
"Damn it!" Wade was shocked and immediately realized he had likely fallen into a trap.
"Ha! Your way of fighting feels very familiar to me!" Slytherin's voice rang out.
Along with his words came not only a storm of Fiendfyre, but also an incomparably sharp Killing Curse.
Crack!
The two-handed greatsword was struck by the Killing Curse and snapped in two.
Clang! Half of the blade tip fell to the ground.
Wade seized the opening and Apparated straight to what he thought was a safe position.
However, that was only safe in Wade's own mind.
The instant his figure reappeared, he saw a cane sweeping straight toward his forehead.
Wade hurriedly raised the broken sword in his hand to block.
Clang!
Raw strength was not Wade's forte, so the broken sword in his hand was knocked away at once.
"Hahaha! This fighting style of yours is far inferior to Godric's!" Slytherin mocked, his movements never slowing for a moment.
Fiendfyre instantly engulfed the spot where Wade had been standing.
Yet Slytherin quickly frowned.
"That's not right!"
Wade was no longer there, and Slytherin had not sensed him using Apparition.
So how had Wade disappeared?
In the instant of Slytherin's surprise, a mass of white mist gathered behind him, reforming into a human figure.
The figure held a halberd with both hands and thrust viciously toward Slytherin's backside.
"Ah! How dare you!"
Although the strike did not hit him, Slytherin sensed it at the critical moment and dodged aside.
However, Slytherin's robe was still torn open by the halberd, leaving a long slash across the back.
The damage was negligible, but the insult was immense.
Slytherin angrily drew back all of his Fiendfyre, and Wade also cautiously retracted his own.
If Wade was not mistaken, the old man intended to decide the battle in a single exchange.
Wade stared at Slytherin with a grave expression. Even though Slytherin had only slightly condensed his Fiendfyre, Wade could already feel a deadly threat.
He had never felt such danger, not even from Grindelwald.
Perhaps… from the very beginning, Slytherin had not been fighting at full strength, and only now was he becoming serious.
This time, Wade mobilized all of the power of ancient magic at his disposal.
If Slytherin was about to unleash his ultimate move, then Wade had no choice but to respond in kind.
Looking at the terrifying flow of magic coursing over Slytherin's body, Wade suddenly understood a simple truth.
A wizard's battle was ultimately a battle of magical power.
In a head-on confrontation, the side with stronger magic always had far greater room for error than the weaker one.
At that moment, a blazing Fiendfyre serpent lunged straight at Wade.
Wade drew a deep breath. The power of ancient magic throughout his body compressed violently, then burst forth from his wand.
Boom!
The Fiendfyre serpent collided head-on with the surging ancient magic.
Massive waves of magical force rippled outward in all directions.
Without any warning, the street scene created by Wade's nightmare magic vanished instantly.
At the same time, all of the Fiendfyre surrounding Slytherin was extinguished.
The terrifying magical shockwaves from moments before disappeared as well.
In the blink of an eye, Wade realized he was once again standing in the first-floor laboratory.
Opposite him stood a milky white, semi-transparent figure, completely still.
It was a ghost. Slytherin's ghost.
"How ...is this possible?" Slytherin's ghost was filled with disbelief. "A non-pureblood of Muggle birth, how could you possess the power of an ancient sage? This is impossible!"
Although Wade was very interested in the "ancient sage" mentioned in Slytherin's words, he still watched him with extreme caution, his wand held high.
However, what surprised Wade was that the Slytherin who had been radiating overwhelming magical power in every movement just moments ago now resembled the ordinary ghosts of Hogwarts, no longer showing the slightest fluctuation of magic.
Glancing around at the completely undamaged surroundings, Wade suddenly understood.
"So what you did just now was create an illusion and fight me within it," Wade said in a low voice.
So when Slytherin had claimed earlier that his illusion was no weaker than Wade's, it had not been an excuse to save face.
From the beginning to the end, Wade had believed the other party was inside his illusion, but in reality, he himself had never awakened from Slytherin's illusion.
Damn...
Otherwise, the first-floor laboratory could not have remained completely intact, and the wand in his hand, which had just cast Protego Diabolica, would not still feel cold to the touch.
"You only realized it now?" Slytherin sneered. "If you were facing the real me, do you think you could have lasted that long? In my eyes, your Fiendfyre is still far too immature."
Recalling the battle just now, Wade finally noticed what had felt off.
Standing at the center of two clashing Fiendfyres, he had felt heat, but no actual discomfort at all.
And although the Slytherin in the illusion had seemed immensely powerful, Wade had always felt that he was not quite as strong as expected.
"Boy, you're from Gryffindor House, aren't you? That swordplay of yours is terrible. If it were Godric, he wouldn't have had his sword broken so easily by me," Slytherin suddenly said.
Wade drew the completely intact longsword from his pocket, his expression turning solemn.
Gulp...
That illusion layered over his own had been terrifyingly real.
"No… I'm not from Gryffindor," Wade said as he pulled open his combat attire, revealing a Slytherin House crest beneath.
"What? You're actually from Slytherin? How can a Slytherin student fight like a Gryffindor? And after I left, those three actually started stuffing Muggle-born fools into my House?" Slytherin exploded with rage.
"Do you think I'm weak?" Wade asked coldly.
Slytherin immediately stopped his tirade. "Objectively speaking, you're not weak…"
"Then do you still think a wizard's strength is related to bloodline?" Wade pressed.
"Of course! You're just an exception!" Slytherin snapped, clearly still furious. "Those Muggle-borns… I've never seen students so stupid! They can barely spell a complete sentence. What's the difference between them and trolls?"
"On that point, I disagree," Wade said. "In your era, only a small number of people could read. Among Muggle-born wizards, those from literate, noble families were even rarer, so most Muggle-born students were illiterate commoners."
"If you judge them by the standards used for nobles, of course they'll seem unbearably foolish. So rather than Muggle-born students being inherently stupid, it's more accurate to say that you didn't know how to teach according to individual aptitude."
Slytherin frowned, suppressing his disdain for stupidity. Thinking back to those Muggle-born students from his time at the school, he suddenly felt that Wade might have a point.
"Wait… when you said 'in your era' just now, what did you mean? I only just died…"
"Just died? You've been dead for over a thousand years!"
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