Chapter 11: Painting of Silent Night
The tranquility of the garden filled with magical fish ponds was suddenly disturbed by subtle vibrations in the air. Sirius, still sitting calmly at the pond's edge while stroking his white fox, sensed something was wrong. The air around him began to feel heavy, as if there was an invisible pressure slowly pressing down on the entire garden.
The fish in the pond began moving restlessly. The Aurelius that had been swimming in beautiful spiral formations now scattered in all directions. The transparent Crystalfin began flying out of the water in panicked movements, their small wings fluttering rapidly.
Even the Runescale at the bottom of the pond began hiding behind rocks, the rune patterns on their bodies blinking red - a sign of danger.
The white fox in Sirius's lap became restless, its small ears moving to catch sounds that human ears couldn't yet hear. Its clear blue eyes stared warily toward the back.
"What's wrong, little friend?" Sirius asked while gently stroking his fox's head.
In response, the white fox jumped down from his lap and ran to hide behind the nearest tree. Its unusual behavior made Sirius begin to be alert.
Then, heavy footsteps began to be heard from behind the trees. Not ordinary footsteps - each step was accompanied by faint ground vibrations. Leaves on the surrounding trees began to tremble, and some small pebbles around the pond started jumping slightly.
The magical pressure emanating grew stronger. Sirius could feel it like an invisible weight pressing on his chest and shoulders. This wasn't just any magical pressure - this was pressure from someone very experienced and possessing tremendous power.
"Is this the brat..." a heavy, deep voice began to be heard from behind the trees, "who has tortured my son?"
The voice was full of restrained anger, like thunder rumbling in the distance before a storm arrives. Every word spoken made the air around the garden increasingly heavy and oppressive.
Sirius slowly stood from his sitting position, his hand reflexively moving toward the sword sheath hanging at his waist. His ice-blue eyes stared sharply toward the source of the voice.
From behind the trees emerged a very intimidating figure. A large-built man almost two meters tall, with a muscular and trained body.
His brown hair was cut short and neat, with some gray strands at the sides showing age and experience. His face was hard with a firm jaw, his dark brown eyes looking at Sirius with a gaze full of hatred.
Most striking was his clothing - a dark brown robe layered with metal plates on the chest and shoulders, showing he wasn't an ordinary person.
"Theron Moldenheart," the man introduced himself with a thunderous voice. "Father of Kael Moldenheart whom you tortured earlier in the arena."
His dark brown eyes blazed with burning anger. "Insolent brat. How dare you hurt my son like that."
Sirius remained standing calmly, though he could feel the extraordinary magical pressure from the man before him. "Mr. Moldenheart," he said with a still calm voice, "your son was the first to threaten to make my friend into a coat. I only gave him an appropriate lesson."
"LESSON?!" Theron shouted with a voice that made the entire garden tremble. Birds in the surrounding trees immediately flew in panic. "YOU BROKE HIS RIBS, SHOULDER, AND ARM! THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL A LESSON?!"
The ground around Theron's feet began to crack and harden. Small rocks began to lift and float in the air around him. His magical pressure grew stronger, making the air feel like thick syrup that was hard to breathe.
"My son may indeed be arrogant and rude," Theron continued with increasingly blazing eyes, "but he's still a fifteen-year-old boy. He doesn't deserve treatment like that from an arrogant brat like you!"
Without further warning, Theron raised his hand. From the ground around Sirius, dozens of stone hands suddenly emerged moving at extraordinary speed.
Sirius reacted as fast as he could, jumping to the side to avoid the grasp of those stone hands. But Theron had decades of experience - he had already predicted every move Sirius would make.
A stone hand managed to grab Sirius's right leg and slam him to the ground hard. Before Sirius could get up, other stone hands had already grabbed his arms and body.
"Too slow, brat!" Theron shouted while clenching his fist.
The stone hands began tightening their grip. Sirius could feel his bones beginning to be compressed. He tried to reach for his sword sheath, but his hands were already gripped tightly by stone.
Theron didn't stop there. He swung his hand upward, and from the air, a rain of sharp stones began falling toward Sirius. Not ordinary stones - these were stone projectiles formed with magic, hard as steel and sharp as knives.
The stones struck Sirius's body repeatedly. His black shirt began tearing in several places, and blood began flowing from wounds on his arms and chest.
"Feel this!" Theron shouted while continuing to control the stone rain. "This is payback for what you did to my son!"
Sirius tried to fight back, but the grip of the stone hands was too strong. Every time he tried to move, the grip tightened further. His breathing became labored, and he could feel some of his ribs beginning to crack.
The worst was when a large stone struck his left arm with full force.
The sound of breaking bone was clearly heard. Sirius's left arm bent at an unnatural angle, and he couldn't hold back the groan of pain that escaped his mouth.
"SIRIUS!" August's voice thundered from the distance.
The Academy Head ran at full speed toward the garden, followed by several teachers and prospective students who heard the commotion. His usually calm eyes now blazed with anger.
Behind August, Astrid, Mikhail, Aeris, Fiora, and Gleen ran with anxious and frightened faces. They had just left the arena when they heard the rumbling sounds and screams from the garden's direction.
"THERON! STOP!" August shouted while raising his wooden staff. Golden light began flowing from the tip of his staff.
But Theron ignored August's warning. His anger had blinded his common sense.
"THIS BRAT MUST DIE!" Theron shouted while clenching both fists. The stones around Sirius began moving and gathering, forming a stone cage that was gradually shrinking.
"Stone Destroyer Technique: Death Cage!"
The stone cage began shrinking slowly but surely, its thick and hard walls beginning to press Sirius's body from all directions. This wasn't just a cage - this was a crushing machine designed to pulverize anything inside it.
August reacted quickly. His wooden staff shone with very bright light, and he swung it toward the stone cage.
"Light Magic: Dawn Spear!"
A golden light spear shot from the tip of his staff, aimed at the stone cage. But August stopped his attack at the last second.
If he destroyed the stone cage with full power, the flying stone fragments could injure Sirius inside. Similarly with his light explosion - it might end up hurting Sirius instead.
"Theron! Don't force me to fight you seriously!" August shouted with a voice full of authority. "Release that boy now!"
"NO!" Theron replied while continuing to shrink the stone cage. "This brat must die! He has crossed the line with what he did to my son!"
The other teachers who came with August began preparing with their respective magic. But the situation was too complicated - one wrong move could endanger Sirius.
Inside the stone cage, Sirius felt the walls getting closer. His movement space was increasingly narrow, and he could feel the pressure growing stronger on his bones. His broken left arm throbbed with extraordinary pain.
The prospective students watching looked pale and frightened. Mikhail gripped his silver ring tightly, Aeris couldn't hide his horror, Fiora clenched her fists in frustration at being unable to do anything, and Gleen trembled with fear.
Most shocked was Astrid. Her red eyes stared at the stone cage with a mixture of anger and something else that was hard to identify.
The stone cage kept shrinking. Sirius only had a few seconds before his body would be completely crushed.
But then, Sirius's ice-blue eyes that had looked pained suddenly became very calm. Even in the middle of this desperate situation, his expression changed to very peaceful.
From inside the increasingly narrow stone cage, a calm and cold voice was heard very clearly:
"Silent Night Painting: Slaughterhouse."
The rectangular sword sheath at Sirius's waist suddenly glowed with a deep black light that was oppressive. That light wasn't like ordinary darkness - this was darkness that was alive, moving and surging with frightening energy.
What happened next made everyone watching feel like the world had suddenly turned into a nightmare.
From the cracks in the stone cage, the black light began seeping out. And with that light, formed a world very different from the beautiful Mount Lunaria from before.
The sky turned pitch black with clouds moving fast and threateningly. A thin crescent moon shone with cold, pale white light, providing little illumination to the pitch-dark world.
Under that frightening sky stretched a terrifying landscape. Dead trees with twisted and sharp branches reached toward the sky. The ground was grayish black with cracks emitting thin red smoke.
Most frightening was the building in the middle of that landscape - a large old house with terrifying architecture. Its windows were dark and empty like dead eyes, and its open door like a gaping mouth showed total darkness inside.
But what made everyone shudder were the creatures inhabiting that painting.
Hundreds of crows with glowing red eyes flew in threatening formations. They didn't make sounds like ordinary crows - their voices were like heart-wrenching screaming cries. Their wide black wings moved with unnatural movements, creating moving shadows on the ground.
Giant bats with gleaming red eyes flew among the crows. Their size was like eagles, with sharp teeth gleaming under moonlight. The sound of their wing beats was like galloping horses.
Black wolves with glowing yellow eyes ran among the dead trees. Their jet-black fur moved like smoke, and their howls sounded like screams from another world.
Giant owls with gleaming white eyes perched on dead tree branches. Their heads could rotate 360 degrees, and their gaze made anyone who saw them feel like their souls were being stripped bare.
Most frightening were the shadow creatures moving around the old house. They had no definite form - sometimes like humans, sometimes like animals, sometimes like something unidentifiable. Their eyes were red light dots moving in the darkness.
The entire painting lived and moved with frightening harmony. Night wind blew with sounds like screams, dead trees swayed with sounds like breaking bones, and all creatures within moved with threatening movements.
"My god..." August muttered with disbelieving eyes. As an academy head with decades of experience, he had never seen anything this terrifying.
The prospective students watching could barely breathe. Some of them stepped back several paces because they felt like the creatures in the painting would come out and attack them.
Astrid, who had looked anxious earlier, now stared at the painting with very different eyes. There was a mixture of fear and... admiration in her eyes.
"Beautiful," she whispered with a voice barely audible. "Terrifying but beautiful."
In the middle of that frightening night painting, the stone cage imprisoning Sirius suddenly cracked with a very loud sound.
Black light cracks appeared across the entire surface of the stone cage, and from those cracks came increasingly strong black light.
Then, in one very fast movement, a straight slash split the stone cage into two exactly equal parts.
Sirius emerged from the stone cage ruins with very graceful movements, though his condition was already very severe. His black shirt was tattered and covered in blood, his left arm hung helplessly because it was broken, and there were wounds on several parts of his body.
But most surprising was his expression. In the middle of such a condition, he smiled. Not a smile of pain or frustration - this was a very calm and slightly... frightening smile.
The sword in his hand glowed with the same black light as the painting around him. Its blade, usually light blue, had now turned pitch black with reddish veins moving like blood.
"Mr. Moldenheart," Sirius said with a very calm voice, contrasting with the frightening painting around him. "You said your son didn't deserve treatment like that?"
His ice-blue eyes stared at Theron with a very cold gaze. "Then what did I deserve for defending myself?"
A slash from his sword launched at extraordinary speed toward Theron. But this wasn't just an ordinary sword slash - along with that slash, all the night creatures in his painting joined the attack.
Hundreds of crows with red eyes flew toward Theron at high speed, their beaks and claws gleaming sharp. Giant bats attacked from different angles with their sharp teeth. Black wolves ran on the ground at amazing speed.
Most frightening were the shadow creatures moving like black smoke, attacking from all directions with constantly changing forms.
Theron, who had looked very confident earlier, now felt true terror. This wasn't just a magic attack - this was an attack from another world brought into the real world.
"STONE PROTECTION MAGIC: DEFENSE DOME!" Theron shouted while slamming both hands to the ground.
From the ground around him, stones began rising quickly and forming a thick dome covering his entire body. The dome was layered, with extraordinary thickness, designed to withstand any attack.
But the attack from Sirius's painting wasn't an ordinary attack.
The red-eyed crows crashed into the stone dome with surprising force. Every time they crashed, small cracks appeared on the dome's surface. Hundreds of crows attacking simultaneously made those cracks grow larger and spread.
Giant bats used their sharp teeth to gnaw at the stone, creating small holes that grew larger over time. Black wolves used their claws to scratch and tear the dome's surface.
Most effective were the shadow creatures. They seemed able to seep through small gaps in the dome, seeking entry to attack Theron from within.
Sounds of the stone dome cracking began to be heard from various directions. The layered dome that had seemed impenetrable was now slowly crumbling.
"Impossible..." Theron muttered from inside his dome. "How can an attack like this penetrate my strongest defense?"
Outside the dome, Sirius stood calmly while controlling his attack. Though his body was severely injured and his left arm broken, his control over the night painting was perfect.
"Because I am Sirius," Sirius said with a voice clearly heard despite the chaos of the attack.
His smile grew wider, and for the first time since the battle began, everyone watching felt horrified by Sirius - not because of his strength, but because of the calmness he showed while creating destruction.
Theron's stone dome finally couldn't hold anymore. With a very loud sound, the dome collapsed into rubble, revealing Theron who was already severely injured inside.
But Sirius's attack wasn't finished. The night creatures in his painting were still moving toward Theron who no longer had any protection.
And in the middle of that frightening night painting, Sirius stood with a calm smile on his blood-covered face - like an artist admiring his most terrifying artwork.
"So pathetic. Attacking first and ending in defeat. Fighting magical beasts in my home is far more challenging than fighting a muscle brain."