[1990 Pt.21]
His return from the holidays was mostly uneventful except for the way the students and teachers treated him. Where most of the student population had treated him with dismissal before, now, after his performance in the gauntlet they looked at him in admiration, interest and most importantly, caution.
His performance in the gauntlet had impressed upon them that Nathan was strong. It added a certain weight to Nathan's presence that hadn't existed before. The change in his interactions with the teachers was also pretty evident. They called upon him with greater frequency and often praised him whenever he answered correctly, along with certain uncommon trivia or usage for the spell or topic in question.
Even Snape, the dangerous, nasty little bat that he was, seemed more neutral towards Nathan than before. Nathan chalked it up to the guy hating the Weasleys more than he hated a random, somewhat talented, mostly quite Hufflepuff that did not bother him.
His batchmates also treated Nathan with a lot more awe and respect. Nathan was actually thankful that Alan, Jacob and Orion actually seemed to only gain a bit more respect towards him and not act like complete morons due to his stunts.
The Weasley twins kept their distance, but Nathan already knew that publicly humiliating someone's brother was not a good way to have a good relationship with them. Nathan counted his falling out with the Weasleys his greatest loss in the whole Gryffindor-Hufflepuff spat. He knew that things would get better once the war kicked off but Nathan was also aware that his personal history with Charlie Weasley had now burned down any chance he might have had of a close relationship with the Weasleys.
After his return from the holidays, Nathan focused mainly on expanding his mastery of spell-casting. NEWT-level charms and intermediate transfigurations were practised with fervour even as he also spent time every day on two of his most important short-term projects- His Lightsaber and the ISH(Information SuperHighway.)
He had already tested the lightsaber after the matter with the Gryffindors had been settled. The initial attempt at containing the fiendfyre with a spatial enchantment while successful had also nearly killed Nathan three times in a single minute of the testing.
When he had first activated the blade on his heavily warded sanctuary on the cliff at the banks of the murky Hogwarts Lake. The crimson-black flames had erupted just a second before a delayed spatial enchantment had activated. But that slight delay of one second in activation time had allowed the spell to act like the exhaust of a rocket and burn Nathan's legs off.
It was only Nathan's own caution of casting the Spatium Dichotomus prior to the testing upon himself that had protected him.
The next ugly surprise, however, came when the fiendfyre had started eating through the infinitely divided space itself to reach towards Nathan. Very quickly, his curiosity and amusement turned into bafflement and horror as the flames rapidly moved towards him despite the spell he had cast.
It was just his luck that another Spatium Dichotomus that he placed upon the sword as an enchantment meant to contain the flames went off not a moment later and contained the spell. Of course, despite the powerful spatial enchantment, the hellish flames were not deterred and started to eat away at this new spatial boundary too.
Nathan had decided to wait and see how long it would take for the containment to be breached and it had taken just thirty-two seconds before the ever-consuming flames overcame infinity itself. The flames had turned into a monstrous wolf and moved towards Nathan but before they could get a chance to actually harm Nathan, the final and most important enchantment of his sword had been activated by him and dispelled the flames by scattering them spatially. It was the same spell that he used to disperse the stunners thrown at him by the Gryffindors during the gauntlet.
Nathan had been unharmed throughout the experiment, but the way the Spatium Dichotomus had failed in front of Fiendfyre had made him a little uncomfortable. Though Nathan had to agree that it should be expected that the flames could do something like this. They were, after all, one of the most destructive pieces of magic that could be cast quickly. His newly created charm standing against said spell for so long was just a testament to Nathan's own skill. And it was not like the spell failing was a bad thing, after all, it was Nathan himself who would be weaponizing the flames against his enemies.
He found himself within the warded sanctuary again. This time he wasn't there to test a magical creation or a spell he had created. No, he was there to practise his ancient spellcasting. Spells of a dangerous nature that he did not have much practice with but were absolute trump cards that could turn any fight he found himself in.
Ancient spells could be very powerful, but they also required massive focus, intent and understanding from the caster. Other than that, most of this magic was cast by calling upon particular myths or legends engraved upon magic itself due to how they were revered and regarded.
There were many theories about why ancient spells could be cast, but the most popular ones ranged from magic being sentient to the spells drawing upon the intent etched onto humanity itself. Nathan himself hovered somewhere in the middle between the two theories. However, he was also not someone who liked questioning the how of things happening much and focused on what he could do with the way things happened. He believed that it made him a good wizard, since not questioning and just accepting allowed Nathan to escape the laws and rules that common logic dictated as necessary for any cohesion in reality.
That is what he always did when he cast magic whether with his wand or without it. He accepted the simple fact that with Magic he could do anything that he intended. He could change the world anyway he saw fit.
Thus, Nathan stood on the raised rocky cliff of the sanctuary and took a deep breath before he said the line that he had spoken a dozen times by now, "I am a tear from the Third Eye of the Destroyer."
A paradoxical surge of warmth and coldness enveloped Nathan, triggering the immediate response of the sanctuary's protective wards to contain his magical aura so that Dumbledore did not get a whiff of what Nathan was doing in this warded area.
Before him, a small orb of teal light materialized, unfolding slowly into a beautiful twinkling star.
"My destruction rages to end all of creation." The teal star transformed into a deep blue hue, emanating dark magic that Nathan knew would etch its mark on the very ground he stood upon—magic that would be very difficult to heal and would reject any attempts at changing its corrupted nature.
"I mock the Divine." The deep blue sphere crackled with arcs of lightning, each discharge sizzling along its surface as Nathan continued, "And I fret over the Cycle." With a subtle whir, the sphere started spinning and gained momentum rapidly.
"Destruction." The spinning sphere descended further into darkness, turning an ominous black. The feeling of corruption and negativity rolling off the sphere that Nathan could sense intensified.
"End." The white arcs of electricity surrounding the sphere shifted to glowing threads of purple that seemed almost eager to do something.
"Erasure." The purple arcs grew more agitated, a few strands striking the ground and vaporizing whatever they touched. Unyielding in focus, Nathan brought his wand's tip closer to the pulsating sphere. When he felt a little resistance, he stopped and prepared to guide the spell that he had called upon.
With a swift gesture, Nathan directed the charged sphere toward a transfigured dummy and snarled out, "Destroy PASHUPATA!"
In the blink of an eye, the fist-sized ball traversed the distance, colliding with the dummy like a freight train in full force. The dummy soared into the air, disintegrating into purple motes of light as the spell's impact consumed it entirely.
".….Phew….," Nathan sighed out deeply as the underpowered charm worked as he had intended. It was always the most difficult to turn these spells from anti-fort spells to anti-unit spells, but it was a good way to train both control and familiarize himself with the spell.
After all, the normal rules of silently casting modern magic did not apply to the ancient method of spell-casting. There was a good reason that even a large number of duelists chose to forego ancient spells in favour of more modern spells.
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Author Notes:
What do you guys think about the ancient spells and the chanting required to cast them?
And did you like the chant for the Pashupata? It comes from the Hindu Mythology of Shiva, The destroyer that announces the end of the current cycle of existence. He is also called 'God of Gods'- a title which the 'King of Gods' Indra takes great personal offence to. This is why the line about mocking the divine and electricity(Indra is Indian Zeus) was added by me in the spell.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, the reason that the Fiendfyre can burn through the limitless spell is because they are eternal and despite limitless being said to manifest infinity, it only divides space infinitely(Yes, there is a difference). I did not do it to nerf the mc but to show that there is magic that can and will break through his 'perfect defence' and that while OP he still is kept in check by the laws of magic and the limitations of the spells themselves.
Hope you all like the chapter and if you do support me on Pa-atreon: (Pat)r(eon).(com)/dukeofvirtue