Chapter 197: A Prophecy Concerning Uagadou
"Come in and sit for a moment. I still need some time."
Flitwick's mind was racing, colliding, combining, and dismantling existing knowledge to form entirely new theories.
When Penelope entered, she saw the diminutive professor standing on his desk. Various spells constantly materialized in the air before him, combining and simulating in the void. In front of him, a quill wrote ceaselessly on a long scroll of parchment that cascaded from the desk to the door.
She curiously bent down to pick up the end of the parchment, examining the dense text.
At first glance, she understood that this was not a field she could venture into. Merely comprehending a few sentences was already as difficult as ascending to heaven.
She knew matter was made of particles. She knew how to cast Vanishing Spells, Severing Charms, Summoning Charms, and so on.
But the essence of the spells Professor Flitwick was writing about was beyond her comprehension.
Because one wills it, the range of severance can reach deeper into the microscopic level?
Because one wills it, objects moved by the Summoning Charm can accelerate to the speed of sound, or several times, or tens of times the speed of sound?
Using magic to achieve a desired goal, asking for no logic, listening to no reason—she seemed to recall chatting with Ryan about how part of magic was unreasonable, and all casting mediums and spells were merely man-made logic constructs.
But she also remembered clearly that Ryan had said magic also had a reasonable part: achieving any magical effect required magical power, sufficient magical power.
A being who could truly make thought reality was called God, not a wizard. Wizards still needed to follow some logic.
"How much can you understand?"
While Penelope was deep in thought, Flitwick finished his current derivation.
"Professor, this manuscript... made me doubt I even know English," Penelope said with a bitter smile, snapping back to reality. "I recognize every word, I can read every sentence, but I have no idea what they mean."
She voiced her confusion to Flitwick.
Flitwick waved his wand. A sofa, table, snacks, and tea flew over and settled beside them. "Ryan has now stepped onto the same level as me. What he told you is correct."
Grand Sorcerer?
The concept Ryan had mentioned during the first Adventurers' Club meeting echoed in Penelope's mind. Amidst her surprise, she felt a trace of powerlessness. Penelope felt she might never catch up to him in terms of magic. "As expected of him."
Seeing the smile on Penelope's face mixed with a trace of confusion, Flitwick didn't know what to say.
He knew all about his best student's romantic entanglements. Penelope's excellence had made all other girls with ambitions for Ryan hesitate, believing they could never compete with her.
But now, the gap between Ryan and Penelope was widening, causing even Penelope to feel inadequate.
What a mess... Flitwick decided to stick to research. "The calculations I'm currently working on are all based on a sufficiently powerful magical foundation. Although progress is slow and these are just prototypes, personally, I don't think any wizard can cast such spells using their own power alone."
"To cause matter to fission at the atomic level, to convert mass and energy back and forth..."
Flitwick was also troubled.
The Charms professor's office fell into a somber silence.
Until Penelope looked up. "I want... to study under you for a while. I need to improve myself."
Waking up in his office at Beauxbatons, Ryan saw something noteworthy in his daily intel.
The continuation of bloodlines, the eternity of spirit, there are no barriers in this world. On the vast savannah, Uagadou stands tall upon the mountain, teaching with dedication. Thus, in the valley, a wolf howls, deterring the beasts. Perhaps a new totem will be born, and a new tribe will rise.
"Uagadou School of Magic... I remember it's located in the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda, Africa. They specialize in wandless magic via hand gestures, local specialty potions, astronomy, and self-transfiguration."
Ryan recalled the information on the eleven magical schools. He paid attention to Uagadou because it was the only magical school on that vast continent.
Actually, some Uagadou students also excelled in curse-based alchemy, a continuation of the techniques passed down from the Pharaohs. Their level was not to be underestimated.
But as the inheritor of Nicolas Flamel's legacy, Ryan Welles felt: If I say your alchemy is subpar, your alchemy is subpar.
To be precise, having now become a first-tier Grand Sorcerer in a normal era without Legendary wizards, Ryan was feeling quite floaty. He believed that in all the world, his alchemy ranked in the top five.
A top-five alchemist naturally had the right to critique the alchemy of other schools.
"But what does this intel mean? 'A wolf howls'... Could it be that a friend in Uganda finds the Statute of Secrecy disagreeable, is hiding it from the school, secretly found a small tribe, and is pretending to be a Wolf God, playing a game of Clash of Clans?"
His understanding of Uagadou was limited to text on paper. He wasn't sure if their surveillance or Seers could detect what was about to happen.
Seers were the most mysterious and rare mainstream profession in the wizarding world. So, naturally, Uagadou had quite a few Seers.
However, those Seers were different from the orthodox, talent-based true Seers of the magical world.
But to some extent, they were roughly equivalent to the Divination taught in school using crystal balls, tea leaves, etc.
The Seers there could also be called "Mad Witch-Shamans." Their divination was closer to a form of Dark Magic: paying a price to exchange for information. Not only would the diviner pay a terrible price—like limbs or organs—but the information obtained was also blurry and unclear.
"One could say you win some, you lose some. Although I'm using cheat codes, I also lost the 'price' and the 'blurry information' part."
Seeing that the event in the intel was set to happen in three days, he wasn't in a hurry. Might as well let the bullet fly for a while. Ideally, it would become a done deal: a "Wolf God" appearing on the savannah, and a tribe worshipping said Wolf God.
Because this was what he wanted: for wizards to infiltrate deeper into the Muggle world, occupying an unshakable position in its operation, while simultaneously holding the power to deter the world.
A community of shared destiny—an irrefutable, excellent theory, worth borrowing.
"It's almost time."
He picked up his lesson plans and the practice materials prepared for the Beauxbatons students, heading to the alchemy classroom.
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