bookpower 183: The Rod of Dominion
183: The Rod of Dominion
183: The Rod of Dominion
Creating a Philosopher's Stone was no simple task.
John had been holed up in the alchemy room for two weeks straight.
Before him, the cauldron emitted a dazzling array of lights—green, red, blue, and purple—illuminating the entire room.
As the radiance finally dimmed, a blue stone appeared within the cauldron.
"Haah~ A Philosopher's Stone... tsk seems it still needs some refining."
Picking up the stone, the blue Philosopher's Stone shimmered with a flowing light in his hand.
Unlike the red Philosopher's Stone of legend, this blue stone had consumed nearly all the materials in John's warehouse.
Even so, John's expression remained calm, though there was a trace of disappointment in his eyes.
Clutching the Philosopher's Stone, John could feel his magical power growing stronger.
This was the third Philosopher's Stone he had successfully crafted to date. The first had been fashioned into a wand, which he gifted to Nagini.
The second was embedded into the Silver Wick Sword.
As for the third, John had other plans for it.
The silver ring on his finger transformed into a sleek gauntlet. He carefully inlaid the Philosopher's Stone onto the back of the glove.
With just one stone, the glove began to emit waves of blue light.
The five additional magic crystals channeled their energy into the Philosopher's Stone, amplifying its power severalfold.
With just a raise of his hand, John reshaped the objects before him.
A teapot disintegrated into raw clay, and a chair reverted to its original wooden form.
Taking out his wand, enhanced by the combined power of the magic crystals and the Philosopher's Stone, even a simple Reducing Charm could now obliterate an object into nothingness.
"This can boost a spell's power by nearly a whole level," John calculated, estimating that the strength of his Reducing Charm had increased by roughly one tier.
It was essentially a spell amplifier.
The gauntlet retracted back into a ring as John raised his hand and made a grasping motion in the air.
The Silver Wick Sword materialized in his hand, its silvery blade now adorned with delicate, golden crack-like patterns.
"Hmm, I need to add something more."
He glanced at the sword's blade, where flickers of fire and arcs of lightning danced faintly.
Speaking an unusual incantation under his breath, he uttered, ||Forge Through Brambles and Thorns.||
The blade seemed to be coated in an invisible, glass-like film as it sliced effortlessly through a block of gold without leaving a mark on its surface.
John raised an eyebrow in curiosity and reached out to pick up the gold.
Half of the gold block had been sliced clean through, leaving the other half with a perfectly smooth edge.
This was the effect of the powerful Severing Curse John had created. What was severed by this spell could not be restored with a Reparo Charm or any other means of magical repair.
"Permanent damage—what is stripped away can never be healed."
Rather than just cutting, "stripping away" was a more accurate description of its effect.
With a single slash of the Silver Wick Sword, John could even sever magic itself.
It was a devastatingly lethal enchantment.
Dispelling the magic, John set about inscribing new enchantments onto the Silver Wick Sword, further enhancing its capabilities.
After spending a while longer in the alchemy room, he finally stepped out and headed to his office.
In his hand, he carried a new creation: The Rod of Dominion.
The name was undeniably overbearing, but its functionality in the wizarding world was just as earth-shattering.
This artifact was strictly single-use, completely irreparable after activation.
Once triggered, it generated an unalterable suppression field with a fifty-meter radius.
Meanwhile, far away in the Albanian forest, Peter Pettigrew appeared.
He had somehow stolen a wand from some unlucky wizard and now wandered aimlessly, his mind in a haze.
Time passed, day by day.
...
August 22nd
This day marked a turning point for Watson.
The so-called "investors" had started to make their move against him.
These were powerful individuals with immense resources, the shadowy elite controlling London's underground.
Even a big shot like Fane Wallace was nothing more than a pawn in their hands.
Fane Wallace's aggressive attempts at legitimizing himself had angered the investors, setting the stage for everything that followed.
Sean Wallace somehow obtained intel on those people and planned to retaliate.
Watson got dragged into the chaos, prompting Uncle Seryozha to make a personal appearance.
Meanwhile, John found himself staring at a dish that Mrs. Wick had proudly prepared, lost in thought.
"Mom, why did you add dish soap when you were washing the rice earlier?"
"That's how you make it clean, my dear."
Mrs. Wick elegantly took her seat as John stared at the plate of banana-mango chicken wings with rice before him, sinking deeper into contemplation.
He distinctly remembered that Mrs. Wick didn't use to make... things like this, dishes that might warrant banishment from the kitchen.
If she had just said this wasn't a Asian dish, he might have let it go. But Mrs. Wick insisted with utmost confidence that this was a famous Chinese delicacy.
Her unwavering conviction—had John not spent time with Nagini—might have actually convinced him.
'This is something only Daphne could come up with...'
As he debated how to tactfully inform Mrs. Wick that this dish might earn her a one-way ticket out of the kitchen, a loud explosion suddenly rang out.
Boom!
"What the?"
The sound was deafening, like something had blown up.
The noise clearly came from across the street.
Stepping outside, John was greeted with the sight of the Dursleys' shattered windows.
What followed was the unmistakable roar of Vernon Dursley.
Same old formula, same familiar flavor.
Vernon bellowed at the top of his lungs, and John noticed an electric stove flying out of the house.
"What's going on over there?" Mrs. Wick, noticing the commotion, asked curiously.
John shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe the fireplace exploded?"
What he didn't realize was that his offhand remark was, in fact, true.
Inside the Dursley home—
Covered in soot and ash, the Weasley family had attempted to use the Floo Network to retrieve Harry. What they hadn't anticipated was that the Dursleys had long since bricked up their fireplace.
To make their way out, Mr. Weasley had resorted to blasting the fireplace open with a spell.
Vernon Dursley was on the verge of a coronary. He had tried so hard to be "cordial" this summer, and this was how those wizards repaid him?!
Unable to contain his rage any longer, Vernon let loose all the pent-up fury he had been bottling up for the entire holiday.
__________
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