The perspective of the holographic projection continued shifting under Link's control.
People had already noticed that the Sky City hanging high in the sky was dropping one oval-shaped object after another toward the city below.
These objects appeared to possess the ability to float on their own. They descended slowly and arranged themselves into orderly rows, forming a dense "net" that spread downward.
Terrifying spatial fluctuations emerged between the openings of the net, tearing apart the surrounding air, light, and even space itself.
The process was slow, but incredibly steady.
Yet the people beneath the giant net, including those inside the underground Polish Ministry of Magic, showed no reaction whatsoever.
It was as if they simply couldn't see either the giant net or the space city floating above it.
"Merlin above! Dear heavens!"
The Polish Minister of Magic muttered in horror.
His already resilient spirit had been completely shattered by the unbelievable scene before him, leaving his mind blank in a dazed state.
This was because a small magical community like Poland's, with its sparse population, was fundamentally different from the larger magical communities.
Other magical communities might still use their Ministries of Magic as administrative centers, much like Britain's, but most people still lived scattered throughout their countries.
The Polish Ministry of Magic, however, had too few people.
Most of them preferred to stay together for warmth and safety.
And the Ministry was naturally the best place to do that.
As a result, small Ministries like Poland's weren't merely administrative centers.
They also served as residential areas and commercial centers for wizards.
Aside from work or entertainment, many wizards rarely left the place.
This was both for safety and to help the Polish Ministry better uphold the Statute of Secrecy.
At this very moment, several thousand wizards were inside the Polish Ministry of Magic.
The overwhelming majority of them were ordinary civilians.
If that giant net truly descended over the Ministry...
The consequences were beyond imagining.
The Polish Minister of Magic suddenly shuddered, as if finally snapping out of his daze.
Without the slightest hesitation, he left his seat and dropped to his knees.
"I beg you all! Your Excellency Picquery, Your Excellency August, and Your Excellency Flamel! Please save the Polish Ministry of Magic! As long as you can save it, I'm willing to pay any price, even my own life!"
By the end, the Polish Minister's voice had become choked with sobs.
Combined with his graying temples and thin frame, he gave off an overwhelming sense of sorrow.
Dumbledore was clearly moved.
His eyes had even begun to redden.
But Link, Picquery, August, and the other Ministers of Magic, who were the main targets of the Polish Minister's plea, remained unmoved.
Putting aside whether they had any way to save the Polish Ministry of Magic...
Anyone capable of becoming a Minister of Magic naturally possessed empathy.
But they also possessed the reason and wisdom to restrain that empathy.
They weren't the sort of people who could be persuaded simply because someone knelt before them crying.
Moreover, many of them knew very well that the Polish Minister's grief probably wasn't mainly because his people were about to be slaughtered.
It was because his entire family was also inside the Ministry.
Compared to the Polish Minister, everyone was much more interested in the holographic projection at the center of the conference hall.
They all wanted to see what the so-called "Sky City deterrence" would actually look like once it was put into practice.
To them, this was an excellent learning opportunity.
As for the Polish Ministry below, along with the wizards and Muggles...
They didn't care.
The Polish Minister clearly realized this as well.
Remaining on his knees, he crawled across the floor like a dog until he reached Link's feet.
He looked up at Link pleadingly.
Large tears gathered in his reddened eyes before finally falling, leaving two streams running down his sharply defined face.
He knew Picquery and August very well.
One was nothing more than a beast obsessed with power.
The other was a black widow.
To be honest, even if those two said they were willing to help the Polish Ministry, he wouldn't have dared accept.
Because every place they had "helped," especially those where they had stationed troops, had ended up in miserable condition.
So now, his only remaining hope was Link.
He hoped that this young British Ministry commissioner still had some kindness left, that years of political struggle hadn't completely crushed his compassion.
He hoped Link would spare some of that kindness for him.
For the Polish Ministry.
Looking at the Polish Minister kneeling before him, especially at the pleading expression on his face, Link suddenly smiled.
"Heh, Minister. I've always been very interested in the treasures your Ministry keeps hidden within the Department of Mysteries."
"No problem!"
Before Link had even finished speaking, the Polish Minister answered decisively.
"You can send people to my Ministry afterward and take everything. Every single thing! It's all yours, as long as you're willing to help!"
The moment those words were spoken, quite a few people present revealed envious expressions.
No matter how small a Ministry of Magic was, its Department of Mysteries always contained plenty of valuable items.
That was common knowledge.
A large portion of those hidden treasures were irreplaceable artifacts created hundreds or even thousands of years ago, when extraordinary resources had been abundant.
The rest were bizarre objects beyond comprehension.
Modern wizards might not yet be able to fully unlock their functions.
But there was no doubt they were the keys to the next era.
As long as even one crucial technology could be developed from them, magical research would advance by leaps and bounds.
Still, envy was only envy.
None of the other Ministers present, including Picquery and August, had any intention of stealing the opportunity.
Nor did they have the ability to save the Polish Ministry in such a short time.
Instead, they all watched Link with interest.
They were curious what method he would use to save the Ministry on the brink of destruction.
Link naturally understood exactly what they were thinking.
He nodded to the Polish Minister, stood up, glanced around the room, and lightly tapped his wand.
A moment later, the conference hall doors opened.
Cedric and Newland walked in carrying a suitcase.
Ignoring all the Ministers of Magic present, they walked straight to Link and opened the suitcase.
Picquery and August, who were closest to Link, couldn't help stretching their necks to get a better look.
Link didn't hide anything from them.
He took out a rectangular device from the suitcase.
The entire thing was made of metal, with numerous buttons and knobs protruding from its control panel.
Link rapidly pressed a series of buttons.
Soon, dense Ancient Runes appeared across the smooth surface of the device.
Wrapped in massive amounts of magic, those Ancient Runes gradually gathered above the device.
Finally, they formed a spatial rift about the size of a human head.
At the same time, the scene within the holographic projection changed.
Directly beneath the spatial net, an identical spatial rift slowly opened.
A series of astonished gasps immediately filled the conference hall.
The Ministers from the smaller Ministries rarely had the chance to encounter such advanced alchemical equipment.
Picquery and August, however, wore expressions of gravity and shock.
Because they recognized it.
The device Link was using employed spatial technology far beyond anything they currently possessed.
If their previous conclusions based on the battle at the French Ministry had merely been speculation...
Then now, Link was almost openly displaying his terrifying "decapitation strike" capability before them.
Link glanced at the two women and let out a cold laugh.
Cedric immediately understood.
He reached into another box Newland was carrying and took out a metal sphere about the size of a goose egg.
Under Link's magical control, the sphere was thrown into the spatial rift, instantly appearing on a street in Krakow.
Because no Muggle-Repelling Charm had been cast, many nearby pedestrians were drawn to the bizarre scene and began gathering around while shouting.
Such a blatant violation of the Statute of Secrecy made the Polish Minister frown deeply.
The current Polish Ministry simply had no ability to deal with a leak on this scale.
But he quickly realized he had worried for nothing.
As the smooth metal sphere arrived, the surrounding space rapidly solidified.
In the end, with the sphere at its center, all space within several kilometers completely froze.
Everything inside the area, including humans and every other living creature, became motionless as if someone had pressed a pause button.
Even the dust floating through the air stopped.
The scene looked almost identical to the time-stop sequences from certain films.
The difference was that this time it wasn't time that had been frozen.
It was space.
That was actually far more terrifying.
The people inside remained fully conscious.
Yet they couldn't move in the slightest.
All they could do was remain trapped in endless fear.
At the same time, however, the spatial net above Krakow was also blocked by the sealed space.
These two spatial powers, similar in nature yet fundamentally different in operation, entered a deadlock above the city.
The previously stable structure of the spatial net instantly collapsed.
Chaotic spatial power surged into the sky, shattering vast stretches of space.
"Hoo..."
Dumbledore let out a long sigh of relief.
His right hand instinctively rested on the Space Lock tucked inside his robes.
The reason he hadn't spoken up for the Polish Minister earlier was because he wanted to see whether Link would use the Space Lock, and what its true effects would be.
He had treated Krakow as a testing ground.
Now, the experiment had undoubtedly succeeded.
The Space Lock developed by the British Ministry of Magic truly could resist attacks from the Sky City.
Although the defensive field probably couldn't last forever, since sealing space also trapped everyone inside and prevented them from surviving for very long.
Still, compared to being instantly torn apart by spatial rifts, this was already an excellent temporary solution.
That meant he could now safely install the Space Lock at Hogwarts.
Unlike Dumbledore, however, everyone else in the conference hall was too stunned to speak.
None of them had known Link possessed something like the Space Lock.
The scene before them had gone beyond everything they understood.
They had never witnessed spatial destruction on such an enormous scale.
What shocked them most was still the metal sphere Link had deployed.
They had all seen it clearly.
The spatial field released by that metal sphere had completely blocked such terrifying spatial attacks.
"Lord Flamel, this thing..."
Picquery instinctively wanted to ask about it.
And ask for one.
But before she could finish speaking, Link raised a hand to stop her.
Only then did everyone notice that the Sky City in the holographic projection had finally detected the changes below.
The inverted structures beneath the Sky City suddenly transformed, revealing countless gun barrels.
Brilliant magical light rapidly gathered within them before erupting downward as a dense barrage of magical shells.
Even through the holographic projection alone, everyone present could sense just how terrifying those projectiles were.
Because they were powered by the Sky City's internal energy reserves.
Magic that was virtually inexhaustible.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Dense explosions erupted across the surface of the sealed space.
The Space Lock positioned at the center of the spatial field finally came under attack.
Wave after wave of bombardment struck it.
Even its originally smooth metallic surface began to fill with tiny cracks.
At that moment, Link raised his wand.
After only a brief charge, he thrust it fiercely into the spatial rift before him.
An overwhelming torrent of Fiendfyre erupted above Krakow.
Born directly from Link's own magic, the Fiendfyre completely ignored the Space Lock's seal.
Twisting into a massive fire dragon, it shot toward the Sky City like a meteor flying upward.
Of course, directly attacking the Sky City itself was unrealistic.
So the moment it left the spatial field, the Fiendfyre's ascent slowed dramatically.
Instead, it began devouring the magical bombardment around it.
Fiendfyre's devouring property wasn't especially effective against spatial power.
Because spatial power wasn't pure magic.
It was a way of using magic to drive the rules themselves.
Its essence was still the rules.
A power far beyond magic.
But against the Sky City's bombardment, which consisted of pure magical power, Fiendfyre's true nature was fully revealed.
In only a few seconds, the Fiendfyre had expanded more than tenfold.
As it grew larger, the area it could intercept and the efficiency with which it devoured magic both increased continuously.
By the time everyone in the conference hall came to their senses, the Fiendfyre had already become a wall of fire, completely surrounding the entire spatial field.
[T/N: New fanfic chat—"Genshin Impact: Just Another Guy who Transmigrated". Currently, it has a Powerstones Goal for 5 bonus chapters. It ends on Monday, so rain those Powerstones.]