Chapter 344: Consequences of Magic Diffusion

The Fiendfyre jars blew up the antenna base. What the Phoenix Society members didn't notice was that the base wasn't solid; it was filled with a large amount of gray-black fine iron powder.

The explosion scattered those magic metal powders. In the raging firelight, the gray-black powder rose with the smoke, shrouding the entire mountaintop in a haze.

The magic powder coverage acted like a signal shielding effect. At this moment, both Murphy's mental network and the communication established by the Phoenix Society through Phoenix feathers failed under the shielding.

Therefore, Dumbledore, who was sitting in front of Murphy, did not receive a warning.

But, even so, when he picked up the last bean from the table, a sense of unease rose in his heart.

"Beef flavor."

The moment Dumbledore took the bean into his hand, Murphy spoke.

"You were distracted for a moment, Professor."

Dumbledore frowned, but at this moment, Grindelwald suddenly grabbed his arm. "Albus, we have to go."

He had a strong premonition that they had already failed.

"You still have one last question unanswered."

"You are stalling for time," Grindelwald frowned. "You knew our plan?"

It seemed the other party had realized this too, so Murphy stopped hiding it.

"I have some methods to prevent key information from leaking, so through ordinary means, it is very difficult for you to get important information from my side. Only the Holy Mother can break through my magic contract and provide you with the most valuable information."

"Of course, this sometimes causes some trouble, but as long as I know where the information is leaking from, I can control the leaked content, or even provide the enemy with some false information."

"Now I can tell you, Professor. That antenna is a lure; your men are being slaughtered right now."

Although it sounded simple, in fact, to deceive the Holy Mother, who might have been able to learn some of his thoughts through mental coordinates, Murphy had put in quite a bit of effort. The fact that the antenna was a lure, even Murphy himself didn't know until after Lukas trapped the Holy Mother—this was entirely Lukas's arrangement; she had to ensure Murphy didn't know about this plan.

Dumbledore stood up at once, but Murphy remained seated. "We have sat here for so long; I won't let you leave easily. We can have a fight, but believe me, before you kill me, the Phoenix Society will have long been wiped out."

"Perhaps, you can answer my last question. Get the answer, and I will naturally let the two of you leave."

"Ha, it has been many years since anyone threatened me like this," Grindelwald snorted coldly. He drew his wand, preparing to have a great battle with this arrogant kid in front of him. Dumbledore stopped him. "What else do you want to know?"

"After guessing that secret, I have many more questions," Murphy said. "For example, where did you learn this secret? And for example, who set up that Fidelius Charm? How did he make this spell take effect on a global scale?"

"However, by comparison, I am more concerned about its purpose."

"Why set up this spell?"

"If the spell is destroyed and magic is allowed to spread on a large scale, what will happen?"

"You are afraid," Grindelwald suddenly sneered. "This question, you should have already had a guess yourself, right? How many Muggles are there? And how many wizards? With the current number of wizards, we have the current magic concentration. If all Muggles knew of the existence of magic, and the scale of magic were expanded thousands or ten thousand times, what would happen?"

"Murphy, you want to become a god, but do you think only you have thought of this?"

"How do you know that no gods existed in the past?"

……

Dumbledore and Grindelwald left.

Murphy didn't stop them again. On one hand, without a powerful prop like the Holy Wall, he lacked the means to forcibly trap the two; at most, he could only delay some time.

On the other hand, he couldn't wipe out the Phoenix Society completely.

Emotionally, he didn't dislike that group of people, and there were even many among them who were his acquaintances. If possible, he didn't really want to kill them.

But another consideration was that he had to leave some ties for Dumbledore.

The Phoenix Society was both Dumbledore's wings and his shackles. If Murphy really wiped out the Phoenix Society, it would be equivalent to forcing Dumbledore to become a lone wolf.

And such a master, if he became a destroyer without any constraints, would be an even greater threat to Murphy.

He took out a black notebook and wrote a line on it: "Lukas, come back."

The mental network was shielded by magic metal powder, but this notebook was Lukas's Horcrux body. Her soul resided on it, and its communication priority was much higher than ordinary mental transmission.

A few seconds later, Lukas appeared beside Murphy through several Apparitions. "Professor Murphy."

Murphy looked at the girl in front of him and found that her expression seemed a bit lost.

"What's wrong, Lukas? What happened?"

"I..." Lukas hesitated, but finally shook her head. "I'm fine. Just now I received a warning from the Magic Research Institute; the Holy Mother is escaping."

"Oh?"

……

Magic Research Institute, underground machine room corridor.

Murphy looked through several layers of bulletproof glass at the pendant bound by countless laser beams.

"Its magic intensity is decreasing, although very slowly, but extremely steadily," a researcher said.

"Isn't it because it's resisting the damage of these rays?" Murphy asked.

"There is that factor, but the decay rate is more than half faster than expected, and even if we interrupt the attack, its decay won't stop," the researcher said. "So we think it is escaping."

"Did you detect any magic signals outside the shielding network?"

"No, its escape method is likely non-space-linear. We suspect it has some kind of super-distance channel connected to the outside world. Although our shielding network partially blocked this channel, it didn't completely isolate it."

"Mental space," Murphy said.

His perception sharing with the crow, the mental network, and Dumbledore's Phoenix feather were all super-distance connections, similar to the quantum entanglement effect, where no channel for signal transmission could be detected in between. The Holy Mother's mental space was the same.

Murphy had reason to suspect that it was transferring itself through this special ability.

"At the current speed, how much time is left until it completely escapes?"

"At most two hours, it can transfer 65% of its energy. We think this part of the magic power should be enough to maintain the stability of its main body."

Murphy looked at Lukas. "Two hours, can the antenna be built?"

The antenna destroyed by the Phoenix Society was just a satellite antenna for Muggles built mostly with ordinary materials. He had handed over the real antenna construction plan to Lukas, and even now, he didn't know its specific progress.

Lukas thought for a moment. "It's about 80% complete and can be used, but the power is not up to standard, and the accuracy hasn't been debugged."

"Enable it," Murphy said.

If the antenna is broken, it can be repaired, but there aren't many chances to catch the Holy Mother. No matter what, he has to try.

"Then I might have to say goodbye to you first, Professor," Lukas said. "I need to transfer my main body to Athena first."

But as soon as she finished speaking, a gentle female voice came from the glass cover. "Lukas... no, Tom Riddle."

"Do you really believe this man?"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 345 =====