What materialised before Ethan's eyes was a magnificent sunflower slowly emerging from the shattered remains of the black egg, its form both beautiful and otherworldly.
The emerald green stalk rose with deliberate grace, leaves unfurling like nature's own artwork. Petal by petal, countless golden petals bloomed in magnificent layers that caught the Chamber's dim light.
Golden yellow, bright yellow, pale yellow, orange-red... Various shades of warmth intertwined together like flames leaping outward from some divine source. The colours flowed and surged with such vigorous life force that the air itself seemed to shimmer!
[You obtained "Eternally Burning Sunflower"!]
[Description: Life blooming furiously from the black egg, itself the embodiment of radiance in the mortal world]
[Effect: Feeds on magical power and life as nourishment, can return multiple times the energy in explosive blooms; when blooming, spreads seeds that parasitise within living beings, absorbing host nutrients to continue blooming when signalled [Caster and caster-designated creatures will not be harmed]]
[Evaluation: The living bathe in radiance, the rebellious burn to ash.]
Excellent! Under the pure white mask, Ethan's eyes blazed with triumph. This sounded quite impressive indeed.
Ethan felt his magical power and life essence rapidly draining away, becoming nourishment to feed the newly hatched sunflower. Then the spider pendant at his chest worked its magic, replenishing his life and magical reserves in an endless cycle.
This is life's perpetual motion machine! Ethan felt even the great alchemist Nicolas Flamel would have to kneel and acknowledge his genius.
Though after blocking Harry's heart-piercing sword strike, the spider pendant had temporarily shattered, its purpose fulfilled.
At his chest, Harry stared in shock at the wound his blade had created. Bright red blood trickled from the pierce, yet it vanished halfway through the skin as if absorbed by something hungry beneath the surface.
Around the mysterious man's neck hung a blood-red spider-shaped pendant, now fractured into pieces. But the dense magical power within, so thick even Harry could sense its potency, flowed directly into that pierced chest. The energy attached like spider silk, resembling pulsing red veins beneath pale skin.
What in Merlin's name is this thing?! Harry's eyes widened in horror and fascination.
His wrist remained gripped in an iron hold, preventing him from pulling out the sword and escaping this nightmare.
"Crack." The sound of something breaking echoed from above.
In his panic, Harry instinctively looked up and watched in stunned disbelief as that pure white mask began shattering like eggshell. From within the cracks, several furiously blooming golden sunflowers burst forth with impossible beauty!
The flowers obscured the face completely, petals spreading like solar flares.
Harry stood completely stunned, his mouth hanging open as he stared at this scene that defied all logic and reason. His mind went utterly blank from trying to process what exceeded human comprehension.
Is... is this creature still human?
The "sunflower" slowly looked down at Harry with an alien grace. Golden petals blazed outward like living flames, making the central dark disc appear even more lightless and terrifying. Like a deep tunnel with no visible end, something gazed down at him from those depths without any trace of human emotion.
"Chirp!" The phoenix released a high, sharp cry of alarm.
Suddenly diving down from above, it beat those magnificent crimson wings against that terrifying sunflower creature, desperate to protect Harry.
The phoenix's intervention made Harry shudder and snap back to his senses.
"Ugh!" Harry yanked hard with desperate strength, breaking free from the supernatural restraint and pulling out his blade!
The sword left the chest cleanly but brought no blood with it. Instead, faint golden light seeped from that hollow wound like liquid sunshine.
"Huff, huff, huff..." Harry panted heavily, still trembling from shock and adrenaline.
What kind of creature was that?! What exactly is this [Mr Lamp]?!
"Ah, so this is true power... I can see the light clearly now." [Mr Lamp], or rather, Ethan, murmured with obsessive fascination.
He caressed the sunflowers blooming across his transformed face with reverent fingers. Everything within his enhanced sight was wrapped in brilliant, overwhelming radiance!
"Blood becomes paint, soul burns as kindling... with my body serving as the ultimate canvas." Saying this, Ethan looked down at the bewildered and thoroughly shocked Harry, his lips curving in satisfied amusement:
"I must congratulate you, Mr Harry Potter. You've given me something far more interesting than my original plan."
"If Hogwarts still produces gutsy little wizards like yourself, then perhaps there's still something worth anticipating in this world."
"Grow strong and wise, then let me have the pleasure of destroying you all completely."
Harry felt he would rather face a thousand raging Voldemorts than this eloquent, completely deranged psychopath. The feeling resembled being targeted by something utterly filthy and wrong.
He watched [Mr Lamp] raise his wand with theatrical precision, speaking in soft, measured tones: "Bloom, eternally burning sunflower."
As his words fell like a divine command, instantly the Chamber's eerie green atmosphere transformed into brilliant golden yellow.
Harry felt almost numb from continuous shock, watching sunflowers spring up everywhere around them like an enchanted mountain meadow. As if from a dark, damp basement, he'd suddenly been transported into a pastoral flower paradise.
Harry even caught the sweet fragrance of summer blooms on the air.
Merlin's beard, this bloke is as supernatural as Ethan! Harry complained frantically in his mind.
If Ethan were here, he'd definitely find common ground with this [Mr Lamp] character.
No, wait! Ethan is our righteous Morning Star Club president! How could I subconsciously compare Ethan to this evil monster!
Harry deeply condemned his own traitorous thoughts, deciding his moral cultivation needed serious work.
Then his brow suddenly furrowed as he sensed something was terribly wrong.
Why does the air feel so hot all of a sudden?
These sunflowers' colours seemed to be growing brighter and more intense by the second. The golden light was becoming blindingly brilliant, making his eyes water.
Unconsciously, Harry's gaze became unfocused as he stared at the mesmerising display. In his entire world, only that dazzling radiance remained, beautiful and terrible.
"Chirp!" A bright, urgent cry rang out like Professor McGonagall's class dismissal bell, instantly snapping Harry's consciousness back to reality!
He felt his shoulder seized by powerful talons, then his entire body was lifted upward with surprising gentleness!
It was Dumbledore's phoenix! The legendary bird was carrying him toward safety!
But above them stretched only a solid stone ceiling with no visible escape route...
"BOOM!" A sound like mountains collapsing and rivers changing course erupted from below!
The massive explosion shook Harry's head until his ears rang, leaving him temporarily deaf from the overwhelming noise!
The sunflowers blooming throughout the Chamber had detonated in a spectacular chain reaction!
Heatwaves like hurricane-force winds made even the powerful phoenix sway like a small boat caught in a violent storm! Thick stone pillars that had stood for centuries were instantly pulverised to fine dust.
Ancient walls cracked in massive chunks, and under the extreme heat, those fractures glowed red-hot like dense networks of blood vessels!
Golden-red flames surging upward from below instantly enveloped Harry, but strangely, he wasn't burnt at all. Instead, the sensation felt like being immersed in a perfectly heated bath, warm and oddly comforting.
As if these magical flames had no desire to cause him harm.
But Harry soon had no time to ponder this mystery, because he stared in absolute amazement as the entire vast Chamber began collapsing around them!
This is incredibly artistic destruction! Harry's hair whipped back from the rushing wind as he screamed silently in his overwhelmed mind.
"Rumble!" Massive stone blocks crashed down from above as the originally sealed ceiling cracked open with tremendous gaps!
Harry was pulled by the phoenix in a desperate dance of evasion, dodging left and right through falling debris, rushing toward those openings and squeezing through narrow darkness, flying rapidly upward through ancient passages!
Harry couldn't help but widen his eyes in wonder despite the danger. In this magnificent scene of destruction, he actually felt a thrill of excitement coursing through his veins.
He looked down through the chaos to see a solitary figure standing quietly in the golden-red dust and swirling flames.
The sunflowers adorning the man's face had vanished completely. Looking up through the destruction, the mysterious [Mr Lamp] met Harry's gaze with familiar, smiling cobalt-blue eyes that seemed to twinkle with hidden mischief.