The bigger the risk, the greater the reward. If he successfully captured Lady Alsha, he would gain access to all her hoarded resources and wealth. He might even be able to secure the High-level Meditation Technique manual early!
Since Alsha was now a Formal Wizard , she had the authority to purchase the highly restricted manual at a heavily discounted price within the Court Wizard organization.
With this goal in mind, Damian had carefully planned tonight's operation. He brewed a batch of Polyjuice Potion to perfectly mimic Viktor Hansen. Then, he hid the basilisks eye inside the meticulously arranged bouquet.
By taking advantage of the colorful cloud grass's natural tendency to instantly scatter and wither when fully ripe, he ensured that the moment Alsha looked down, she would make direct eye contact with the petrifying stone.
Damian had also enchanted the bouquet to act as a Portkey. If Lady Alsha proved more formidable than he anticipated and successfully blocked the petrification, he could instantly trigger the Portkey to escape.
The operation had gone incredibly smoothly. Alsha hadn't suspected his disguise for a second. The Polyjuice Potion didn't just alter one's superficial appearance; the physical transformation was absolute, right down to the cellular level. Damian had tested it before—if he transformed into someone who was naturally nearsighted, his own vision would blur to match theirs.
He purposefully dropped terms related to the fanatic society—like the "Moon Candle Ritual," the "Divine Kingdom," and the "Dream Entry Ritual" —to temporarily stun her. Then, taking full advantage of her confusion, he presented the rigged bouquet.
The moment Alsha made direct eye contact with the basilisks eye, her body seized up in sudden petrification. Damian immediately triggered the Portkey, dragging them both deep into the Winter Forest.
The moonlight was as clear as water. The two stood frozen in the forest clearing, maintaining their previous posture like a pair of secret lovers having a midnight tryst. The silver light spilled over Alsha's evening gown, draping her in a layer of transparent gauze that highlighted her elegant figure. However, a blazing, murderous anger burned within her deep emerald eyes.
Damian held her delicate hands in his. He smiled faintly. "Lady Alsha, the scenery here is unparalleled. It is truly perfect for admiring the moon."
Suddenly, he felt it. Through the skin of her hands, Damian sensed the immense magic inside Alsha's core beginning to violently boil. He could physically feel her slender fingers trembling against his palms. He instantly realized she was using brute magical force to break free from the petrification curse.
However, Damian's hands were larger than hers, and his fingers were still wrapped firmly around the bouquet. He pressed his thumb directly against the basilisks eye hidden inside the withered stems. Pumping his own magic into the artifact, he forced it to continuously output its petrifying gaze, aggressively draining its ocular power to suppress her.
The two remained completely deadlocked in the moonlit clearing. As the minutes ticked by, the furious anger in Alsha's emerald eyes gradually faded, giving way to profound unease, anxiety, and finally, utter despair.
Only after the basilisks eye had drained nearly half of its total power did Alsha's magical reserves finally run dry.
Sensing her resistance collapse, Damian swiftly pulled out several vials of potion and forced them down her throat. He stripped her of all her magical artifacts and amulets. As a final precaution, he cast a localized sealing hex over her magical core, ensuring she wouldn't be able to passively regenerate her mana.
In a stark, square room, a single chair sat completely isolated in the center. Lady Alsha was slumped heavily in the seat, her eyes glazed over and dull. She had completely lost her former elegance and unruffled composure.
This room was located entirely within Damian's magically expanded pouch. Cast with a masterful Undetectable Extension Charm, the spatial pocket was roughly a thousand cubic meters in size, logically divided into multiple rooms for storing various materials and equipment. He had purposefully emptied this specific chamber to serve as a makeshift interrogation room.
After successfully subduing her, Damian had brought her here. Using a potent combination of Veritaserum and Legilimency, he violently tore through her mental defenses, extracting every hidden secret from her mind.
He finally learned why Lady Alsha had stationed herself in the remote White Stone Town. Deep within a nearby mine, the spatial boundaries were weak. By performing the Dream Entry Ritual there, one could project their soul directly into a specific "treasure land" within the Gap World.
It was from this exact location that they harvested the mysterious "divine brew". Once extracted from the Gap World, this brew had to be nourished with the fresh blood and flesh of living humans. The resulting concoction was an abhorrent, dark potion that granted eternal youth and vastly extended a wizard's lifespan.
While the Wizarding World had various alchemical methods and elixirs to slow the aging process, they all had hard limits. A Wizard Apprentice could live to be around 150 years old, while a Formal Wizard might push past 300.
But this dark potion crafted from the divine brew had absolutely no limit! It shattered the natural boundaries of mortality. As long as the user continuously consumed it, they could theoretically live forever.
This forbidden knowledge was more than enough to drive any aging, desperate aristocrat to madness. The first people to discover the divine brew were the founding members of the "Moon Candle Society", a secretive cult that had been exploring the Gap World for decades.
Combining Alsha's fragmented memories with his own theories, Damian pieced together the terrifying truth. As the dying Gap World slowly drifted closer and merged with their own reality, the deceased Void Creature—the 'Lord of the Moon Candle' —was beginning to passively influence the wizarding world.
It was under this dark influence that the entity mentally transmitted the Dream Entry Ritual to susceptible wizards. In return, these corrupted magic users banded together to form the Moon Candle Society.
Alsha was a core member. Once she learned about the reality-defying effects of the divine brew, she joined the cult without a second thought. Her greatest, most all-consuming fear was growing old. She was utterly desperate to preserve her flawless beauty; she refused to wither and die like the short-lived red iris flower.
Furthermore, she used the promise of the immortality potion to quietly network with the highest echelons of wizarding nobility. Through her elite social circles, the Moon Candle Society expanded its insidious reach.
Dangling the ultimate prize of an infinitely extended lifespan, the cult rapidly infected the upper class like a plague. Within the current Blizzard Kingdom and the high-ranking nobles, countless high-ranking officials were secretly associated with the Society. Many had already taken the plunge and become full-fledged members.
When the cult discovered that the local mine in White Stone Town acted as a spatial bridge to the Gap World's "treasure land", they mobilized immediately. They used their disposable peripheral force, the Mining Brotherhood, to aggressively acquire the territory, dispatching Lady Alsha to oversee the operation.
Alsha had successfully secured the mine and officially broken through to become a Formal Wizard. She had been slated to transfer back to the royal capital within the week. She simply never expected to end up chained to a chair in Damian's pocket dimension tonight.
Damian finally uncovered Alsha's true motive for sabotaging the forest expedition.
Viktor Hansen had originally been sent by the Society to assist Alsha in brewing the dark potion. However, Viktor was an unstable fanatic. Without permission, he began testing horrific arcane rituals obtained from the Gap World, actively sacrificing local residents around White Stone Town to breed corrupted spirits.
Alsha was furious. She didn't want the Court Wizards sniffing around her territory due to a string of gruesome, unsolved murders. Meanwhile, Viktor had become obsessed with finding a magically powerful wizard to use as a premium sacrifice.
To solve both problems, Alsha organized the Winter Forest expedition to get Viktor out of town.
At the same time, Link had been lingering in White Stone Town, stubbornly investigating his grandfather's disappearance. His constant snooping was threatening to expose Alsha's underground potion lab.
Killing two birds with one stone, Alsha planted Quartermaster Al into the expedition team. She provided the tampered beast-luring powder, intending to conveniently eliminate the nosy squad captain in the depths of the Winter Forest.
Ironically, the death of Link's grandfather had absolutely nothing to do with Alsha or the cult. Old Watson had simply wandered into the treacherous Winter Forest on his own and met a tragic, entirely mundane end.
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