The progress of perfecting dimensional magic continued to advance.
John closed his eyes, his mind gradually entering a pure white palace.
"What a rare visitor."
A voice sounded, but no one appeared.
John stopped outside the palace and called out, "Look up, two people."
"A woman and a person with a similar appearance to me."
"You really are impolite."
The voice sounded again.
John waited for his answer.
After a few seconds, the voice carried surprise, "The people you're looking for, I cannot see."
"You cannot see them?" John hesitated. "What's the reason?"
"Perhaps they're not in this world, or maybe it's some kind of concealment magic, like Harry's invisibility cloak."
The answer was unexpected.
John clearly knew what this being was capable of knowing.
If even he couldn't find them, did those people have similar methods of hiding?
John didn't leave immediately. He darkened his expression and asked, "Dad, Mom, and Ariana—can you not see them either?"
The voice was quiet for a long time.
"They are hidden by a force. I can only feel Ariana's dreams."
"I think I understand some things," John frowned. "I still need to thank you for protecting Ariana."
"She is also my family." The voice fell with indescribable emotion.
John nodded and gradually disappeared.
After he left, the pure white mind palace opened.
A person walked out from inside.
He wore white wizard robes, his gaze falling on where John had come.
His expression was calm, but his eyes carried churning emotions.
"The Critic."
Behind him, a massive golden planet floated.
Root systems with dreamlike colors spread outward from this planet as the center.
Not only covering this world, but extending toward other worlds as well.
Including Asgard, Jotunheim, and Svartalfheim.
The person standing before these worlds had eyes full of inquiry and scrutiny.
His expression was meaningful, his gaze falling on those worlds with powerful beings, finally locking onto a place completely different from other worlds.
The Hell dimension.
A hidden root system connecting hell and the world was silently infiltrating.
A depression that appeared out of nowhere was trying to carve a path through these, gradually changing from a small point into a vortex, continuously spreading an imperceptible signal outward.
The location of that place was...
Sokovia.
John emerged from the mind palace. He said nothing, his fingers stroking the bone china teacup.
"Even he is being concealed. These matters are becoming increasingly uncontrollable."
His thoughts flowed as John raised his right hand.
Four gems of different colors bloomed with light on his silver hand.
Putting away the limited gauntlet, John set down his cup.
The cup bounced away on its own, and the table and chairs ran off like wild horses.
The hall became quiet again. John stretched.
"After coming back to work, there really is plenty to keep busy with."
After two years of vacation, it was time to get back to work.
Fortunately, he no longer had to work alone and suffer.
The Magical Kingdom had plenty of talent to share the workload.
John was grateful he had initially arranged personnel to handle government affairs for this country.
"First, let's see what's happening with the vampires."
For this distance of travel, John chose to use Apparition.
His figure disappeared from within the manor.
After a few seconds, he reappeared.
He drew his wand and pointed it at the broken ceiling.
"Reparo!"
The collapsed ceiling began to repair, quickly returning to its original appearance.
John didn't want to return to find the entire manor flooded due to rain.
After fixing the roof, John Apparated away again.
When he reappeared, he was on a London street.
A sleeping homeless man nearby rubbed his eyes and looked at a box of mushrooms in his hand that he'd retrieved from a supermarket dumpster yesterday.
He felt that sometimes eating random things really could cause hallucinations.
But shouldn't eating problematic things make you see dancing little people?
John casually took a pound note from his pocket and placed it in the homeless man's mushroom box.
The homeless man hesitated. Could this also be a hallucination?
Walking out of the alley, John could see the cordoned-off crime scene from a distance.
Those killed weren't just vampires but also a group of people who served vampires.
These people were responsible for finding blood sources for vampires, hoping that one day the vampire lords would mercifully transform them into those immortal magical creatures.
Unfortunately, they never got to wait for that.
Instead, death arrived first.
Over thirty people had been killed.
In peaceful London, this could be called a major case.
Currently classified as gang warfare, but this was just an excuse to placate ordinary people.
Even Aurors had been alerted, so it naturally wouldn't be that simple.
Over the years, the Ministry of Magic had cooperated with the British government, each supporting the other.
The government covered up traces for wizards, while wizards solved dark wizards and supernatural events for them.
Although the Miracle Children project brought wizards to the forefront, such bloody violent incidents obviously wouldn't be fully reported even if they didn't involve magic.
John cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself.
He walked inside without obstruction.
Police officers chatted outside, responsible for guarding the place.
Aurors had also cast Muggle-Repelling Charms to keep people away from this section of road.
Inside the crime scene, however, there was no one.
John's shoe soles stepped in sticky blood, and he couldn't help but frown.
Everywhere he looked, there were hardly any complete corpses; some had been disemboweled.
The killer had used piercing and cruel combat methods.
Drawing his wand, John puffed out his cheeks and blew hard.
Golden powder scattered out.
Falling in this place, messy footprints appeared.
Looking at those footprints, John discovered no other prints appeared.
Those footprints were eliminated one after another out of thin air.
Though there was clearly nothing in front of them, people were still being killed.
"Even the places where she walked are not interfered with by magic."
John became serious.
If it really was the woman Harry mentioned, then this magic immunity ability seemed too overpowered.
When all the footsteps disappeared, John looked up to see the cold storage door open.
Without thinking, there must be another massacre below.
After some time, another set of footprints came.
John looked at the newcomer—this person had large feet, a man.
Raising his wand, John blew out another breath.
Golden powder enveloped the footprints, outlining a human figure.
It was a robust person carrying weapons.
He also entered the cold storage.
John walked into the cold storage and immediately smelled a heavy bloody odor.
He looked down to see severed vampire fangs scattered below.
Picking up the teeth, John held them.
"Very strong swordsmanship." John wrapped the teeth in a handkerchief and put them in his pocket.
After all, these were a vampire viscount's teeth.
The vampires here were somewhat different from those in the magical world.
After collecting the teeth, John used the same technique again.
But this time, the newly formed image instantly exploded.
John looked at a drop of blood on the ground.
He raised his hand, using a summoning charm.
But he found that after the magic touched the blood, it quickly dissipated.
Walking forward, John studied it carefully.
"It has a huge suppressive effect on magic."
He used a syringe to draw up the blood.
John also noticed other strange blood.
Dabbing the bloodstain on his fingertips, John sniffed the scent.
"Human? No, there's also vampire."
Blood combining human and vampire.
The vampire portion was higher than human, seemingly suppressed for years to maintain balance.
This type of blood was the first John had seen.
Because vampires almost never reproduced, but created new vampires through curses and assimilation.
Half-human, half-vampire—this state was almost nonexistent.
John narrowed his eyes. He seemed to remember some vampire mentioning hunters who hunted vampires.
Now involving a half-vampire, these matters were becoming increasingly complex.
Using magic to collect this blood, John left the place.
His purpose was to investigate who the woman searching for Eredin really was.
As for the vampires' deaths, that wasn't particularly important to him.
These vampires weren't good people anyway; their deaths just removed some unstable factors from society.
If not for so many deaths, including humans, the Ministry of Magic probably wouldn't want to deal with this matter either.
He left this place.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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