[N-No... Impossible... How can you still be alive?!!]
The goblin stared, his eyes widening in total disbelief.
Subconsciously, he raised his hand, attempting to pull the cleaver free.
He tugged once, twice.
But the blade, buried deep in Ethan's shoulder, refused to budge, as if fused to the bone!
Streams of blood, tinged with golden magical energy, slowly climbed up the length of the blade.
The goblin began to tremble.
He switched from holding the weapon with one hand to gripping it with two.
He gritted his teeth, exerting every ounce of strength he possessed, yet he could not lift it even a millimeter.
"Look. Your first strike, delivered with all your might, didn't even cleave through the ground... It only left surface cracks."
Ethan ignored the goblin's desperate struggles.
He glanced sideways, his gaze drifting to the rock platform below, settling on the long, narrow gouge carved into its center.
He continued, his voice unhurried and calm:
"That is why I thought at the time: the power of your attack isn't actually that great. It's just loud, that's all."
"...Then again, goblins will be goblins."
Ethan smiled abruptly.
That smile, paired with the blade sunk into his shoulder and the blood bubbling out, made Ethan look like a Demon God descended upon the earth.
Finally, a look of pure terror surfaced on the goblin's crazed face.
His chaotic, clouded eyes cleared for a moment.
He heard Ethan laugh briskly:
"Even if you use Dark Magic, you can never become a true dragon."
This fact had been proven by the goblins' ancestors hundreds of years ago.
[Ah...]
Confused and dazed, the goblin looked up above Ethan.
It was as if he saw an ancient dragon with vertical golden pupils, gazing down at him coldly.
The supreme pressure radiating from it seized him by the throat, rendering him immobile.
Compared to a "counterfeit" like him...
They weren't even in the same weight class.
"——————However, your blood magic looks quite interesting."
"Let me try it, too."
Ethan's voice seemed to drift into the goblin's ears from a great distance.
The goblin watched as Ethan raised his hand with genuine interest.
His fingers rubbed together.
Snap.
He snapped his fingers with a crisp sound.
The next second—————
"BANG!!!"
The goblin's body violently exploded!
Clang!
The scarlet bone-spur saw cleaver spun through the air before slamming heavily into the ground!
Under the gaze of the crowd, golden spikes pierced through every inch of the goblin's skin!
They emitted a blindingly brilliant light!
Suspended high in mid-air.
It looked exactly like...
A resplendent, burning sun!
The students were dumbfounded.
They stared blankly at the light source rising within the dim underground cavern.
Blood drizzled down from mid-air like a gentle rain.
It was like a crimson curtain, or perhaps a cross of suffering meant to wash away sins.
On the ground, the blood bloomed into vibrant, bursting sunflowers.
The immense life energy contained within them healed the dying white dragon, transforming this blasphemous, blood-stained land into something surprisingly tender.
In the dead silence, the corners of Ethan's mouth curved up.
Blood still flowed from his shoulder, while golden radiance spilled across his back.
Facing the members of the Enlightenment Society, who stood with their mouths agape, stunned like wooden chickens, he raised his arms high and spoke slowly:
"Some might feel that this magic is too evil and dark..."
"But I am willing to call it——————"
"[The Rising Sun]."
Look at this painful light; how dazzling and merciful it is.
It shines equally upon everyone.
It illuminates this dark era.
Ethan narrowed his eyes, looking like a blessed saint bathing in the glory.
"Ah, how beautiful..."
Luna murmured, entranced.
She opened her arms upward, as if she wanted to embrace the light, a flush spreading across her face.
"Crazy... they're all crazy...!"
Hermione looked at Luna with horror, her body unable to stop trembling.
...Don't they find Ethan in this state absolutely terrifying?!
This was already Dark Magic of a severe magnitude!
Hermione felt both fear and a bitter unwillingness that she could not empathize with Ethan like the others.
Perhaps...
This dilemma, this painful internal conflict...
Was also a torture bestowed upon her by Ethan.
The society members began to worship.
Actually, they had been a little afraid at first.
But the moment they remembered that the terrifying entity stood on their side, the fear suddenly vanished.
"...Is it too late to turn myself in to the Ministry?"
After a long while, Ron squeezed out this sentence.
With a mourning face, he turned his head in despair, seeking agreement from his best brother, Harry.
But with one glance, he saw the grave expression on Harry's face.
Harry was staring straight at Ethan, looking completely stupefied!
Ron: "What's wrong, mate? Don't scare me!"
"Oh? Oh!"
Harry snapped back to reality.
He quickly lowered his head, hiding the shock and disbelief in his eyes!
...He had seen those blooming sunflowers before.
In the Chamber of Secrets, back in second year.
That was————
The magic of the Wizarding World's greatest enemy, [Mr. Lamp]!!
The battle ended.
The blinding brilliance gradually faded.
The students hurried onto the platform, rushing to treat the white dragon.
"Roar..."
The white dragon let out a hoarse, weak growl.
It used its hard snout to nudge the students who came close, appearing both nervous and affectionate.
...After all, these were the kin of the Patriarch (Ethan).
The goblin fell from the air, his body having shrunk back to its puny, emaciated form.
Lying in a pool of blood, he had lost all power and means of resistance.
Heaving with tremulous breaths, he looked about ready to croak in the next second.
Immediately afterward, Ethan's gentle, smiling face appeared in the goblin's painful and blurred vision.
Goblin: "..."
Kill_me.jpg
"Damn it..."
The goblin used the last of his strength to squeeze out a voice filled with grief and indignation:
"If not for you... Gringotts would still be the safest bank in the wizarding world..."
...You stole our gold————Ah!
Ethan stepped on the goblin's head, pushing it into the pool of blood.
He sighed and said:
"Quite the opposite. It was you lot who stole the money that should have belonged to wizards."
"Those Dark Wizards who have already been thrown into Azkaban—why do they still get to keep their vaults?"
"If you ask me, you greedy goblins can't even tell who the real masters are anymore."
They started a war hundreds of years ago.
Resulting in them getting hammered into submission.
Clearly, they are creatures who live by the mercy of wizards.
Yet they mistakenly believed they truly held the economic lifeline of the wizarding world in their hands.
Looking at the wealth they had embezzled—wealth that did not belong to them.
Ethan: "All of you can be shipped off to the Warp to work manual labor."
After working for a few hundred or a thousand years, they'll learn to behave.
[The Rising Sun. Your "Artificial Sun" has illuminated this lightless underground.]
[It has cleansed the souls of everyone, bringing great joy.]
[Soul Fusion increased by 0.2%]
[94.6% → 94.8%]
Just 0.2% more, and it would be over halfway through the nineties!
Ethan's breathing quickened slightly; he wished he could pull off something even more earth-shattering.
However, he knew.
The further he progressed, the harder it became to increase the fusion rate.
He couldn't rush it.
"Just don't give me some 'Fusion Fragment' nonsense at the very end..."
Ethan thought gloomily.
After showing Bellatrix's wand and conducting a little "friendly" interrogation, Ethan obtained the location of Bellatrix's vault.
He released the goblin's head, letting it drop with a thud against the hard rock.
Unconscious.
Finally, the goblin sank into a peaceful sleep.
Ethan straightened up with ease, clapped his hands, and cast Scourgify on himself.
He felt refreshed.
Indeed.
Every now and then, one needs to execute a grand gesture.
Only then can one maintain physical and mental health~
As for other people's physical and mental health?
Well, Ethan expressed that he couldn't help with that.
That's none of Ethan's business~
"Children!" Ethan clapped his hands, smiling beamingly. "Let's go rob—ah, no, let's go retrieve the treasures that rightfully belong to us!"
Hufflepuff's Cup, here I come!
Just then.
Ethan's eyes shifted.
He glanced at the scarlet saw cleaver stuck in the ground.
He licked his lips.
Full of interest, he walked forward, intending to take back "his property" as well.
But suddenly, a quiet call came from behind him:
"Pro... Professor Vincent...!"
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