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Harry Potter: The Last Scion of Sprout - 244
🕑 Added 2025-09-15 20:00:17 +0000 UTCChapter 244: Harvest, Transfiguration Soaring, and Diamond-Level Plants!
"A ritual to destroy the Philosopher's Stone?"
Another term never heard in the original story. Ciel showed confusion on his face.
This time Dumbledore answered his doubts: "The Philosopher's Stone is an extraordinary magical creation. It's not fragile like real stone. Creating it requires incredibly profound magic and alchemy."
"And to completely destroy it, leaving not a trace, turning it to vapour, to nothingness, equally requires a deep and mysterious magical ritual. Otherwise..." Dumbledore said meaningfully:
"Even if just a speck of debris or powder might remain. Believe me, many would dig three feet deep to find that powder."
Ciel nodded to show understanding. In his previous life's history, there had been gold rushes where countless people ventured into wilderness for gold, with killings and conflicts lasting over a decade.
Even gold dust could cause such things. Much more so for the Philosopher's Stone with its power to turn lead to gold and grant immortality. If news leaked, dozens or hundreds of deaths would be easily caused.
Then, regarding Nicolas Flamel's invitation, Ciel readily accepted. To be told by such a high-level wizard that there would be unexpected benefits surely meant something extraordinary.
As for whether there might be risks, if there was danger even beside wizards like Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel, probably nowhere in the magical world would be safe.
So moments later, Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel led Ciel up another unfamiliar staircase in the castle to an underground chamber.
Dumbledore said: "Here, no matter what commotion we make, nothing will be detected outside."
Ciel looked at the chamber's interior. From ceiling to floor, intricate patterns were carved in different coloured lines. Just one glance made him feel dizzy and disoriented.
"These patterns contain extremely profound magical knowledge?" This thought emerged in his mind.
Then he saw on his system panel that his magical abilities, like Transfiguration, were flickering with light. Their lustre was becoming increasingly solid.
Obviously, though he couldn't fully understand the magical knowledge contained in these patterns, contact with them greatly benefited his Transfiguration foundation. And what benefited from this wasn't just Transfiguration, but also Dark Arts Transfiguration.
Its foundation growth was even faster than regular Transfiguration!
Now, noticing his expression changes, both Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel looked somewhat surprised. They hadn't expected him to actually gain something from these patterns.
Nicolas Flamel explained: "Magic cannot create materials necessary for life, like food or water. This is Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration's basic principle, which you surely understand."
"Even the Aguamenti charm, which appears to create clear water, cannot actually be consumed. Even if drunk, it cannot sustain life. This is magic's limitation. Magic cannot even create food and water; naturally, it cannot create life."
But immediately, Nicolas Flamel's tone shifted: "But magic is also idealistic. Sometimes, certain limitations can be broken through or circumvented with sufficiently strong will and powerful magical mastery."
"The Philosopher's Stone is such a magical creation. It can break magic's limitations, combining countless types of magical power and converting them into life force. This is the source of immortality."
"Similarly, turning stone to gold is just another, simpler type of conversion. This is the Philosopher's Stone's essence. You can understand it as a tool that converts countless types of magical power."
"The magical array formed by these patterns has the opposite effect. It's the Philosopher's Stone's reverse conversion, transforming the Philosopher's Stone into countless types of magical power, finally dissipating completely into nothingness."
Ciel listened intently to Nicolas Flamel's explanation while observing the magical array. This was about the Philosopher's Stone's underlying secrets, the highest level of knowledge exceeding magical boundaries.
Countless people spent their entire lives trying to glimpse just fragments of this. Now Nicolas Flamel, the creator himself, was presenting it unreservedly before him.
Combining countless magical powers to transform into life force. Converting life force into countless magical powers. Such transformations were simply unimaginable.
No wonder just glancing at these patterns, even without understanding them, caused his Transfiguration and Dark Arts Transfiguration foundations to continuously grow.
He took a deep breath. His brow, where his mental eye was located, tingled. His sixth sense continuously reminded him that even if he couldn't understand now, he should observe more.
Someday, when he understood this process, it might prove tremendously useful! Therefore, even as his mind grew increasingly fatigued under the incomprehensible knowledge, he didn't blink, using all his strength to clearly see those pattern carvings and strange symbols.
Especially the changes when these patterns collided with magical particles.
Just then, Nicolas Flamel lifted the Philosopher's Stone, looking at Dumbledore: "Albus, prepare yourself. We're beginning."
Dumbledore's expression became unprecedentedly serious, as if the coming task was no less than battling a top-tier wizard.
Moments later, with the slightest stirring of magical particles, the two wizards at the magical world's pinnacle simultaneously acted before him.
Ciel widened his eyes. Except for when Dumbledore had cast the Patronus Charm in his presence, this was his second time seeing Dumbledore take action.
And this time, Dumbledore's seriousness far exceeded that Patronus Charm. Nicolas Flamel's wand movements caused magical changes no less than Dumbledore's.
After they both waved their wands, the chamber's patterns began emitting increasingly bright light. Though he tried his utmost to see clearly, everything was completely flooded with brilliance.
He simply closed his eyes, focusing entirely on sensing the magical flow in the chamber. Soon, he felt it.
At the Philosopher's Stone's position, the centre of the pattern-formed magical array was like a black hole. Countless different types of magic, not just blazing flames, freezing ice, bright light, and pitch darkness, were all being devoured by the Philosopher's Stone's black hole.
What emerged from within the Philosopher's Stone was a type of magical property he had never seen before. Upon sensing this special magical property, he felt his body instinctively generate a desire.
But moments later, this desire weakened. Compared to this trivial desire, he was more focused on his system panel changes.
Now, the lustre on Transfiguration and Dark Arts Transfiguration was steadily climbing! He had thoroughly experienced the profound difficulty of these two magical knowledge areas.
Making even small progress required unimaginable effort. Only because his magical perception had finally reached Platinum level did this process become slightly easier.
But over this period, both Transfiguration and Dark Arts Transfiguration remained at the Bronze level, just showing varying degrees of Silver lustre. True advancement to the Silver level might require an entire summer's hard work, possibly not even achieved by next school year's start.
But now, the Silver lustre on both transfiguration types was rapidly spreading. This sight filled him with tremendous joy. How could he care about that trivial strange desire?
Seeing his performance, both Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel showed strange expressions. Especially Nicolas Flamel, who seemed to set aside his worries.
Because once activated, the Philosopher's Stone would convert magic into life force, creating powerful attraction for any creature, especially humans. After all, the desire to live, to live longer, was practically human "base code".
Even the most gifted wizards were no different from Muggles in this regard. Nicolas Flamel couldn't help recalling his once-proud student's desirous expression when facing the Philosopher's Stone.
If he had noticed earlier instead of blindly believing the student could overcome such obsession, perhaps that incident wouldn't have happened. Many tragedies could have been avoided.
But now, seeing Ciel apparently completely untempted by the Philosopher's Stone, Nicolas Flamel couldn't help sighing inwardly. Lady Hufflepuff's judgement was indeed remarkable.
Then Nicolas Flamel cleared his mind of distractions, looking at Dumbledore. Dumbledore nodded slightly. The Elder Wand moved.
The magical array's brilliance suddenly surged again. Eyes-closed Ciel immediately felt the magical change. The black hole at the Philosopher's Stone's location disappeared.
In its place, like a supernova explosion, life force continuously converted into thousands upon thousands of strange magical properties, gushing forth.
At this moment, his senses were completely occupied by these countless magical properties. He finally understood why Nicolas Flamel had insisted on inviting him to this Philosopher's Stone destruction ritual.
Because the countless magical particles produced during the Stone's destruction indeed provided unimaginable benefits for Transfiguration, especially Tolman Transfiguration, specialising in magical property changes.
Special magical particles that normally required countless research attempts to obtain were now, in his perception, as numerous as cattle hair, easily available!
On his system panel, Transfiguration's lustre suddenly began climbing at a much more rapid pace than before. Silver lustre instantly spread across all text.
[Transfiguration (Silver Level)] - Advanced!
And even after advancement, its lustre continued brightening. He immediately cleared all distracting thoughts:
"For me, this is the greatest harvest."
He completely immersed himself in these countless varied magical particles. Time passed unknown.
Suddenly his perception cleared. The magical particles that had filled his senses had become extremely sparse, returning to normal levels.
Dumbledore's calling voice reached his ears: "Ciel? Wake up."
Then he opened his eyes. The chamber's magical array, those complex, mysterious patterns, had completely vanished. The Philosopher's Stone that had been at the array's centre had also disappeared without a trace.
Nicolas Flamel now breathed deeply, as if setting down a heavy burden: "It's finished. From now on, there will be no more Philosopher's Stone in the world."
Dumbledore looked at Nicolas Flamel with solemn respect: "Nicolas, you made a great decision."
Nicolas Flamel smiled bitterly, as if regretting something: "I should have destroyed this thing five hundred years ago. Otherwise... Ah."
As Nicolas Flamel felt dispirited, Ciel looked serious and bowed to him: "Master Nicolas, thank you for letting me observe the ritual."
Now, in his view, on his system panel, Dark Arts Transfiguration was just one step away from Silver level. This alone saved him untold time of hard work.
Even more dramatic was Transfiguration, not only suffused with Silver lustre but also already showing golden sparkles. It had clearly reached the Silver-Gold advancement threshold!
Moreover, this was almost entirely due to improvements in the Tolman Transfiguration branch. He felt that if he made some progress in Gamp's Transfiguration domain, Golden-level Transfiguration would be within reach!
Looking across Hogwarts students of all years, even seventh-year near-graduates would find this extremely rare. This wasn't even his complete harvest.
The Severus Potion Transfiguration that Professor Snape had given him had previously been completely incomprehensible. This technique was simply too profound; making qualitative changes to magic to transform ordinary potion materials into rare ones required magical mastery he hadn't dared imagine.
But now, Severus Potion Transfiguration's text had become clear, even showing flickering Iron Level lustre. It was approaching Iron Level.
This meant he was no longer so far from mastering this incredible technique. This was because he had sensed far too many special magical properties this time, equivalent to filling Severus Potion Transfiguration's "database".
This conservatively saved him at least two to three years. His gratitude to Nicolas Flamel was naturally beyond words.
Nicolas Flamel waved his hand: "The ritual had to be performed anyway. How much you gained from it is your own ability. Compared to what I owe Lady Hufflepuff, this small favour doesn't even count as cultivation."
Just as he finished speaking, Nicolas Flamel gestured to him, seemingly directing his attention somewhere. He paused, following Nicolas Flamel's gesture.
Then he saw an astonishing sight. In the chamber, where patterns had once been carved, flowers and grass were beginning to grow?!
These weren't ordinary plants, but flowers and grass composed of flames, frost, lightning, and other magical forces! This strange scene amazed not only him but even Dumbledore with its magnificence and mystery.
Nicolas Flamel smiled slightly: "When I completed the Philosopher's Stone, I witnessed this magical, beautiful sight. Magic blossoming into flowers, brilliantly magnificent. Today's Stone destruction shows even more splendid flowers than centuries ago."
He said to Dumbledore and Ciel: "Such flowers can last nearly an hour before dissipating. Absolutely a sight not to be missed."
Dumbledore marvelled. Even his vast experience had never included such scenes.
But Ciel, after initially marvelling at this unique, extraordinary sight, suddenly exclaimed in surprise. His gaze burnt as it fell on those flowers and grass formed from pure magical power.
Above them, lines of text were appearing, radiating clear diamond light.
"This is... Diamond-level plants?!"
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