The swarm of spiders, threatening to swallow the horizon, finally snapped Albus back to his senses.
"By Merlin's cursed beard!"
Clenching his jaw and cursing the long-dead wizard, Albus quickly drew his wand and surveyed his surroundings.
Though they were magical creatures, their basic biology was no different from that of ordinary spiders. And their well-known weakness was fire.
At this stage, the only fire-making spell Albus knew was Incendio.
But Incendio was a spell with a very short range, and he had no confidence he could take out the entire swarm of spiders flooding in from all directions.
If that was the case, perhaps if he could at least restrict their direction of approach, he might have a chance.
The spiders would reach his position in, at most, ten seconds.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Was it the thrill of a life-or-death situation that spurred him on? In that short time, with a level of mastery unbelievable for a first-year, he succeeded in pulling the surrounding stones into a barrier around himself.
It was a crude wall, but it was a wall nonetheless. He could have created a full bunker to completely enclose himself, but then the spiders would simply break through the stones and it would all be for naught.
So Albus left one direction—the space directly in front of him—completely open.
The idea was to force the spiders to swarm toward that single point.
And his plan seemed to have been a success. No matter how many spiders there were, Albus could hold his own if he could keep them in a one-on-one situation.
"Incendio!"
"Protego!"
"Levioso!"
Unleashing a number of spells that was rather large for a first-year to know, Albus held back the spiders' assault.
In his first-ever real combat situation, Albus could feel his own spell distribution and control becoming smoother and more refined.
He was even developing the creativity needed to respond to the split-second crises that arose.
'Don't tell me, this was his goal?'
His skills were improving in the heat of battle. Could this have been the lesson that Senior Aisen intended to impart?
As he began to dispatch the spiders with growing ease, Albus even had the spare thought to consider Aisen's intentions. A sliver of gratitude even began to form.
"Confringo!"
BOOM!
As if to mock that very thought, a spell flew in from somewhere and blew a hole in his stone wall.
As Albus panicked at the sudden attack from his flank, Aisen's voice echoed from an unknown direction.
"Albus, looks like you're holding up pretty well! Let's raise the difficulty a bit!"
Merlin, help me. Good intentions? What a joke. Senior Aisen was undoubtedly a demon crawled up from the depths of hell.
"Aaaargh!"
The attack from two directions was on a completely different level. It wasn't just arithmetically twice as hard; the number of things to keep track of made it feel at least five times more difficult.
He was barely managing to survive with a display of magical control incredible for a first-year, but he was hopelessly outnumbered.
If only the spiders' attack would stop for a single second, he could reinforce the wall and fight much more effectively.
As if someone had heard his wish, the spiders' assault suddenly ceased, and a quiet fell over the area.
'What is it?'
It was inexplicable, but he had to take advantage of it. He quickly moved to reinforce the wall, but at that moment—
CRACK! BOOM!
All the stone walls surrounding him exploded at once.
And in their place stood a spider of an overwhelmingly larger size than the others.
An Acromantula.
"Haha... damn it all."
But for some reason, the Acromantula simply stared at Albus for a long moment.
Then, it turned its body and returned to the deep woods of the Forbidden Forest.
Once the Acromantula had retreated, the spiders' attack, which had momentarily paused, resumed, though now at a level that was somehow manageable.
After a considerable amount of time, the spiders, realizing they could not easily devour Albus, stopped their mindless charges, leading to a strange stalemate.
Just as Albus was about to finally catch his breath, thinking the situation was over, dozens of plumes of smoke shot toward him and landed on the ground.
It was the sign of Apparition.
And among the figures who appeared as the smoke cleared, one of them ground his teeth and spoke to Albus.
"Hey, kid. You the one who caused all this mess?"
Dozens of wizards, their faces covered with black half-masks, spoke in a thuggish tone. Anyone could tell they were not good people.
Before the tense Albus could even reply, another wizard cracked his neck and shouted.
"Because of your damn mess, the spiders swarmed and completely destroyed the hideout we worked so hard to build. How are you going to compensate us for this!"
There was only one type of wizard who would secretly build a hideout near Hogwarts, let alone in the Forbidden Forest. Dark Wizards.
A grin spread across one of the wizard's lips from beneath his mask.
"You interfered with our business, so I trust you're prepared to pay the price?"
There's so much you can do with the corpse of a promising young wizard.
With those chilling words, they fired spells at Albus.
"Avada Kedavra!!"
Albus thought it was nothing short of a miracle that he dodged the attack.
He had suddenly tripped on something invisible, and a beam of green light shot past just above his head.
Though he was only eleven years old, Albus, who had already devoured numerous books, knew the nature of that spell.
Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse, which extinguishes life upon impact.
He never imagined that even Dark Wizards would use such an attack on a child without a moment's hesitation.
Was he really going to die here in such a pathetic way?
Faced with death right before his eyes, Albus's mind went blank. No matter how much of a future archmage he was destined to be, right now, he was just an eleven-year-old boy.
'What do I do, what do I do!'
There was no way out. Albus's brilliant mind had already realized there was no path to survival and was about to despair.
But the one thing Albus had forgotten was that he was not the only person there.
"That's just about a passing grade, barely. Class is dismissed for today!"
And in that place, Albus saw a god of magic.
CRACK-BOOM.
It began with a bolt of lightning that fell from the sky.
Faster than the swiftest spell, the blue thunderbolt descended and turned a Dark Wizard into a pile of ash.
"What was that!"
"Stay alert!"
Everyone froze at the sudden attack.
CRACK-BOOM. CRACK-BOOM. CRACK-BOOM. KABOOM.
The lightning did not stop at one. It struck several more times in quick succession, and with each thunderous clap, a wizard or a monster fell.
Watching this, one of the Dark Wizards screamed in terror.
"Ancient magic that commands lightning... Ah, it's [The Unknowable One]!"
[T/N: The Unknowable One (알아서는 안되는 자): A title given to Aisen by Dark Wizards, literally meaning "The One Who Must Not Be Known." It's a direct parallel to Voldemort's moniker, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."]
And with that cry, Aisen Knightly appeared.
"How dare you invade the grounds of Hogwarts while I'm here. The only good Dark Wizard is a pile of ash."
What followed was not a battle, but an execution.
BOOM. A man was launched into the sky and then fell back down.
With a wave of his hand, dozens of spiders shrank smaller than ants and were crushed under Aisen's heel.
A wizard who had been transfigured into a barrel of explosives collided with his comrades and detonated.
And the grand finale was a net of green light.
Avada Kedavra, Chain.
Unlike the Killing Curses of the Dark Wizards, which reeked of endless malice and horrific killing intent, Aisen's Avada Kedavra felt devoid of any malice.
All that could be felt was an indomitable will to defeat the enemy. A resolve as firm and solid as a great tree.
The green spell that quietly extended from the tip of Aisen's wand instantly linked dozens of Dark Wizards together like a chain, and without leaving them time to even utter a final scream, it extinguished their lives.
Albus stood dumbfounded as the situation was resolved in an instant.
The danger, which had seemed like the end of the world, had been cleared away in a flash.
Nothing was left. Not the hundreds of spiders, not the dozens of Dark Wizards, not the unidentified beings.
All of it had been annihilated without a trace.
The sight was so surreal that Albus couldn't believe it was reality.
Was this all just a dream? When he came to his senses, would he be lying in his dormitory bed? Or was this a hallucination one sees right before death?
"Hmm, was that a bit too cruel to show a kid? Well, they were Dark Wizards, so I guess it's fine."
Aisen slowly walked over to the dumbstruck Albus. In the young boy's eyes, it seemed as if a halo was shining behind Aisen's head.
Aisen smiled at Albus and asked.
"So. Did you enjoy today's lesson?"
Seeing that peaceful visage, Albus finally understood the greatness of the wizard named Aisen. This person was on a completely different level.
To think he had tried to deceive a wizard like that. Albus's heart sank at his own foolishness.
With his legs trembling, Albus barely managed to stay upright as Aisen spoke.
"Remember this, Albus. Your charm is what draws people to you, but a Gryffindor must always be at the forefront of the charge."
Seeing Aisen, who had just demonstrated those words more clearly than anyone ever could, Albus was left speechless.
He didn't remember much after that. When he came to, he was lying in his bed in the dormitory. He couldn't even properly answer his friends when they asked him where he'd been.
Albus just lay there blankly, trapped in a feeling like a waking dream. For several days.
And after a very long time had passed,
Now, when he was called Dumbledore more often than Albus.
He still couldn't tell if the Albus of that day had enjoyed or hated the adventure he had been dragged into. It was simply, profoundly, shocking.
The one thing that was certain, however, was that deep in Dumbledore's mind, the fear of, and admiration for, his senior Aisen Knightly was still deeply ingrained.
Albus Percival Dumbledore would always be at the forefront, as a Gryffindor should.