After receiving Link's accurate explanation of the Space Lock, Dumbledore did not rush back to Hogwarts.
Instead, he handed the Space Lock to Cedric and had him send people to Hogwarts to install it. He also followed Link's suggestion and did not use the conventional expanding spatial force field. Instead, he chose the safe house concentration mode, increasing the force field's strength by reducing the area it covered.
As for the location of the safe house, both Link and Dumbledore agreed that the Room of Requirement would be a good choice.
After finishing the arrangements for Hogwarts, Link and Dumbledore naturally threw themselves into preparing the next offensive against Sky City and Beauxbatons.
That was also why Dumbledore chose to remain at the Ministry of Magic instead of personally returning to Hogwarts to supervise the installation of the Space Lock and stand guard there.
This time, Dumbledore planned to fight alongside Link.
At the same time, Barty Sr. and the others in the conference hall were engaged in an intense discussion over how power would be divided within the Alliance.
Link's earlier intimidation of the various Ministries of Magic had been extremely effective and had indeed frightened away the vast majority of the smaller Ministers of Magic.
However, the heads of major Ministries such as Picquery and August, along with a small number of people blinded by greed, remained unaffected.
They were still fighting Barty Sr. and Percy for their own interests.
With them taking the lead, the ministers of the smaller Ministries, who had already been intimidated by Link and had originally planned to cooperate unconditionally, also began thinking about resisting and grabbing whatever benefits they could.
All of this made the negotiations increasingly difficult. The talks on the first day ended in complete failure, leaving Barty Sr. and Percy more and more anxious.
Before the negotiations began, Link had given them a strict order. They had to protect every interest and every bit of dignity belonging to the British Ministry of Magic. He had also already done enough intimidation work for them beforehand.
Under such circumstances, if they still failed to achieve their objective, or even if they succeeded but dragged things out for too long,
then the label of incompetence would likely be attached to them.
And incompetent people had no place in the current British Ministry of Magic.
The people Link had trained at Hogwarts had already begun entering the British Ministry of Magic on a large scale.
These people were more in line with Link's way of thinking and more loyal to him. One after another, they were charging toward the peak of power like hungry wolves.
If Barty Sr. and Percy could not demonstrate abilities and experience far beyond this group, it probably wouldn't be long before they were pushed out of office.
Fortunately, fate still favored Barty Sr. and Percy.
When the meeting resumed on the second day, just as they looked helplessly at the ministers below, who had become even more united and even harder to deal with, a letter and a Pensieve Orb were delivered to the conference hall.
At first, the ministers in the hall paid little attention to the arrival of the letter.
Picquery and August even appeared unusually relaxed, completely out of place with the serious and tense atmosphere around them.
In their eyes, the situation had already been locked in.
Link Flamel and Dumbledore might indeed surpass them by far in magic,
but they were still far behind when it came to political struggle and forming alliances.
The previous night, they had already reached a private agreement with most of the other Ministers of Magic. Everyone firmly believed that as long as they stayed united, they could carve off a huge slice of the massive cake the British Ministry of Magic had laid out.
Even Link Flamel could not stop that.
Because everything they were doing was within the rules Link himself had established.
If Link wanted to stop them, the only option was to flip the table.
But if he really did that, then his plan to establish the International Ministry of Magic Alliance would collapse.
Because by then, neither he nor the entire British Ministry of Magic would have any credibility left.
However, at that moment, Picquery and August noticed that the instant Barty Sr. and Percy read the contents of the letter, their expressions completely changed.
Their earlier nervousness, unease, and even despair all disappeared.
What replaced them was overwhelming joy.
Unable to wait another second, Percy immediately placed the Pensieve Orb onto the projection device. The holographic projection in the center of the conference hall activated once more and began playing an entirely new recording.
As the footage played, the once noisy conference hall gradually fell silent.
Because what appeared on the screen was the destruction of the Japanese Ministry of Magic by Sky City.
As Sky City's spatial destruction net descended, the Japanese Ministry of Magic, without Link's assistance, failed to organize any kind of resistance.
In just a few minutes, the entire Japanese Ministry of Magic, together with nearly half of Kyoto's urban area, was annihilated within the spatial turbulence.
Picquery parted her lips, but no words came out.
In truth, relations between the various Ministries of Magic were also influenced by Muggle international politics.
After all, ever since the Statute of Secrecy came into effect, young wizards born to Muggles had been well protected, causing the number of Muggle-born wizards to soar. To a large extent, they had shaped the values of the entire wizarding community.
Because of that, relations between MACUSA and the Japanese Ministry of Magic had also been very "friendly."
Of course, that "friendliness" was built on mutual benefit.
After all, the Japanese Ministry of Magic was severely lacking in both population and resources. It simply could not achieve the same level of independence as the other Asian Ministries of Magic, much less proudly distance itself from the International Confederation of Wizards and operate on its own.
Those Ministries could do that only because they possessed overwhelming strength, enough that even Britain, America, and Russia did not dare provoke them lightly.
The Japanese Ministry of Magic was too weak, while the neighbors around it were too powerful. Living among monsters, it naturally sought allies from afar.
Picquery even remembered the so-called magical girls and the various shrine maidens from that island nation.
Putting aside how strong they were, purely from an aesthetic standpoint, they really had been quite beautiful.
But now, all of them had vanished in that single strike from Sky City.
"Just as you've all seen, the Japanese Ministry of Magic has been destroyed!"
Percy declared proudly.
His voice pulled everyone out of their shock. One after another, they all turned to look at Picquery and August in the corner.
Percy's gaze naturally followed theirs.
The corners of his mouth curled upward in contempt as he said calmly,
"I think now we can finally sit down and have a proper discussion about how power should be divided within the International Magic Alliance!"
———
That evening, inside the British Ministry of Magic's Transportation Hall.
Link and Dumbledore stood together on the inspection platform by the entrance.
Before them were Auror forces from the various Ministries of Magic, assembled in formation.
Jointly sending troops to attack Beauxbatons and fight against Sky City had long since been decided. It was also the foundation upon which the International Magic Alliance had been built.
So while Barty Sr. and Percy were negotiating the internal division of power with the Ministers of Magic, those same ministers had already ordered their own Auror forces to assemble at the British Ministry of Magic.
Only after gathering here could the allied forces be deployed all at once under Link's command, using the British Ministry's unique transportation hall for ultra-long-distance deployment.
Organizing and inspecting these troops had also been Link and Dumbledore's primary task during this period.
By now, every force belonging to the International Magic Alliance had arrived and assembled before Link and Dumbledore.
Among the assembled forces, MACUSA and the Russian Ministry of Magic had contributed the largest Auror contingents, with an astonishing four hundred and five hundred members respectively.
Every one of them met the British Ministry of Magic's standards for Aurors.
MACUSA's Aurors were even equipped with gear similar to that used by the British Ministry's veteran Hunter Corps, further increasing their combat ability and making up for the numerical disadvantage they had against the Russian Ministry.
As for the other Ministries, the situation was much less impressive.
Smaller Ministries such as the Polish Ministry of Magic and the Bulgarian Ministry of Magic had sent only a little over ten Aurors each, and their abilities varied greatly.
Still, Link understood that this was already the limit for Ministries of their size.
Aurors were among the finest talents in the wizarding world. Not every Ministry of Magic could afford to maintain many of them.
It should be remembered that when MACUSA was first established, it had only twelve Aurors.
So, strictly speaking, those smaller Ministries had truly contributed everything they had. On the contrary, large Ministries like MACUSA and the Russian Ministry of Magic had still held something back, leaving many of their forces at home.
"Your Majesty Flamel!"
Percy's excited voice suddenly rang out.
Link and Dumbledore, who had been inspecting the troops before them, looked toward the sound and saw Percy and Barty Sr. jogging over.
Barty Sr.'s physical condition was obviously not as good as Percy's.
During the run, Percy had left him far behind. By the time Barty Sr. reached Link, he was already panting so hard that he could barely speak.
Percy, however, was still full of excitement and immediately said, "The treaty has been signed! The new International Magic Alliance will have one Chief Speaker and two Deputy Speakers. The British Ministry of Magic will serve as the Chief Speaker, while MACUSA and the Russian Ministry of Magic will serve as the two Deputy Speakers."
"The council formed by these three Speakers will be responsible for all decisions concerning the new International Magic Alliance, including wars against external enemies!"
"Most importantly, we secured veto power for the British Ministry of Magic!"
As he spoke, Percy had already begun gesturing excitedly.
He had every reason to be excited.
After all, the Muggle United Nations had already demonstrated just how powerful veto power could be.
"So what did we have to give them in return?", Dumbledore quickly asked.
Compared to Link, Dumbledore cared much more about the establishment of the new International Magic Alliance.
Because Link merely wanted to use people like Picquery as cannon fodder to help him defeat the Shadow Man.
Dumbledore, on the other hand, wanted to use the new International Magic Alliance to rebuild order.
"We gave them the opportunity to purchase Space Locks with Galleons and various supplies," Barty Sr. said after finally catching his breath.
"Each Ministry of Magic is limited to buying one. The overwhelming majority purchased one, allowing us to gather an enormous amount of resources and gold. Combined with what we seized from the French wizarding world, the profit margin from this war has reached an absolutely unbelievable level!"
Link showed little reaction to the profits Barty Sr. mentioned.
After fully understanding the oligarch alliance within the British wizarding world and using the Beckman Group to control nearly half of the European market, Link had already lost any real sense of money or resources.
To him, even figures large enough to drive others mad had become completely ordinary.
So he merely nodded and smiled.
"You said some people chose not to buy a Space Lock. You're referring to Picquery and August, aren't you?"
"To be precise, there were five ministers altogether, including the two of them. Three of those ministers genuinely couldn't afford the cost of purchasing a Space Lock. As for Ministers Picquery and August..."
Barty Sr. said calmly, "I think they're doubtful about the safety of the Space Lock. They're afraid we've built a backdoor into it that could be used against them."
"Also, they believe that since the British Ministry of Magic can create Space Locks to resist Sky City, then MACUSA and the Russian Ministry of Magic should also be capable of doing the same."
"I think they'll regret it."
Link smiled as well.
The few of them exchanged glances, and their smiles grew even wider.
Seeing this, Dumbledore shook his head helplessly and said, "Then it's time for us to bring all of this to an end."
"Yes, that's right. It's time for all of this to end."
Link turned around and gazed at the formations below, murmuring, "Let's go."
As soon as he finished speaking, the massive magic array in the center of the Transportation Hall began to operate.
A hazy sphere of light emerged from it and gradually enveloped everyone inside the hall.
When it reached its peak, the enormous sphere of light suddenly exploded.
BOOM!
The sudden explosion and flash jolted Norton awake.
He gasped as he sprang up from the sofa. After looking around several times, he finally came to his senses and confirmed that he was still in the headmaster's office at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic.
The thunderous explosions continued without pause.
From time to time, blinding firelight flashed outside the windows.
The light was so bright that even the heavy curtains of the headmaster's office could not block it completely.
Looking at the crystal chandelier swaying from the shockwaves of the explosions, Norton let out a helpless sigh.
Today was already the fourth day since Beauxbatons had been surrounded.
Over the past four days, the British Ministry of Magic Aurors led by Newland and Scrimgeour had launched a massive assault on Beauxbatons every so often.
Of course, their attacks could not truly break through Beauxbatons' defensive system, which countless Beauxbatons students were so proud of.
However, Newland and Scrimgeour's goal had never been to breach the walls. They simply wanted to harass the people inside the castle.
From that perspective, their tactics had been extremely successful.
In fact, they had been a little too successful.
[T/N: New fanfic chat—"Genshin Impact: Retiring Early from the Fatui". A solid read, definitely give it a try. Have a great day~]