Liuguang's clear, glass-like eyes remained fixed on Nagini inside the iron cage.
He could hear the giant snake's "voice" — sometimes bloodthirsty and frantic, sometimes filled with desperate pleading — and beneath the chaos he sensed the deep, hopeless despair of being trapped inside her own body, struggling with no way to break free.
"Master," Liuguang's voice echoed gently in Lucien's mind, "could I… try using my flames?"
Lucien turned to look at the young qilin.
He knew Liuguang's pure qilin fire could burn away curses. Back when they had healed the little unicorn Aurora, those flames had already shown their power to purify lingering Dark Magic.
But Nagini…
This curse was rooted in her bloodline and had been entangled with her for decades. It had fused with her very being.
If they burned the curse with pure fire, would it also harm her?
Lucien stayed silent for a moment.
"Let's try," he finally nodded. "Keep it gentle at first. Start with the lightest touch."
Liuguang stepped to the edge of the cage, opened his mouth, and exhaled a single wisp of near-pure-gold flame.
The flame drifted down like a weightless feather and settled softly over a palm-sized patch of scales on Nagini's body.
"HISSS—!!!"
The giant snake let out a piercing, agonized shriek!
Her massive body tensed violently, thrashing wildly to escape—
Lucien's wand was already raised.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
A gray light flashed. Nagini's body froze instantly, preventing her from flailing and spreading the pure fire any further.
Only her vertical pupils continued to tremble violently, showing exactly how much pain she was enduring.
Purple-black smoke seeped out from between the scales covered by the golden flame.
Part of the smoke was incinerated the instant it touched the fire, producing faint hiss-hiss sounds. The rest condensed into thick liquid that dripped down the scales.
Sizzle—
The droplets hit the metal floor and instantly corroded tiny holes, their edges still smoking.
Lucien reactivated Arcane Sight. The black vortex reappeared in his pupils.
He stared intently at the twisted magic circuits inside Nagini, watching every single change.
Newt moved closer too, eyes locked on the patch of scales touched by the pure fire.
Then his eyes slowly widened.
The scales around the golden flame were shrinking.
They weren't burning away or curling into charred flakes. They were actually shrinking — as if time were reversing, as if something forcibly twisted was being forced back into its original shape.
The edges of the scales gave way to delicate skin.
Human skin!
Newt's breathing hitched.
"Stop!"
Lucien's urgent voice rang out.
The cluster of golden flame vanished instantly.
The cage fell back into dimness, leaving only the petrified giant snake and that palm-sized patch — most of the scales there had already receded, revealing a strip of faintly pink human skin that stood out shockingly against the surrounding dark-green scales.
"It really is too deeply rooted."
Lucien shook his head, voice heavy with helplessness.
The pure fire could indeed burn the curse — the effect was even stronger than he had expected. The curse hidden in her flesh had been ignited and driven out, and the snake scales on the surface had already begun reverting toward human skin.
But—
In Arcane Sight, the moment the pure fire touched the curse entangled in her magic circuits, the already-twisted channels began to shake violently.
While the burned curse dissipated, the magic circuits it was intertwined with were also tearing apart at the same time — like a spiderweb being ripped apart by force.
If they kept burning, the curse might not be fully gone before the circuits collapsed.
And if the circuits collapsed, Nagini would not survive.
It reminded Lucien of how he had healed the little unicorn Aurora. Back then, when her magic circuits were damaged, he had used Magic Weaving to reconnect the broken channels one by one.
But Magic Weaving was designed for magical creatures.
With Nagini, it was impossible to say whether she counted more as human or magical creature…
And the curse was simply too deeply fused with her. The two had become nearly indistinguishable.
While the pure fire burned the curse, it was also burning her life away.
Finding the exact balance — clearing the curse without killing Nagini — was proving far too difficult.
As for the soul…
The pure fire hadn't reached that deep yet.
And after seeing how the circuits and curse were entangled, Lucien now dared even less to let the flames touch her soul.
Inside the iron cage, the giant snake lay motionless.
The area burned by the pure fire still twitched faintly. That strip of exposed human skin looked especially jarring surrounded by the dark-green scales.
Newt said nothing.
He simply stared at the giant snake, lips moving soundlessly, eyes turning red.
Lucien noticed his expression.
"Don't worry, Mr. Scamander."
His voice was quiet, yet carried the kind of certainty that made people want to believe him:
"One day, you will sit with your old friend again and enjoy afternoon tea together."