"A ritual to destroy the Philosopher's Stone?"
Another term never heard in the original story. Ciel showed confusion on his face.
This ti Dumbledore answered his doubts: "The Philosopher's Stone is an extraordinary magical creation. It's not fragile like real stone. Creating it requires incredibly profound magic and alchemy."
"And to completely destroy it, leaving not a trace, turning it to vapour, to nothingness, equally requires a deep and mysterious magical ritual. Otherwise..." Dumbledore said aningfully:
"Even if just a speck of debris or powder might remain. Believe , many would dig three feet deep to find that powder."
Ciel nodded to show understanding. In his previous life's history, there had been gold rushes where countless people ventured into wilderness for gold, with killings and conflicts lasting over a decade.
Even gold dust could cause such things. Much more so for the Philosopher's Stone with its power to turn lead to gold and grant immortality. If news leaked, dozens or hundreds of deaths would be easily caused.
Then, regarding Nicolas Flal's invitation, Ciel readily accepted. To be told by such a high-level wizard that there would be unexpected benefits surely ant sothing extraordinary.
As for whether there might be risks, if there was danger even beside wizards like Dumbledore and Nicolas Flal, probably nowhere in the magical world would be safe.
So monts later, Dumbledore and Nicolas Flal led Ciel up another unfamiliar staircase in the castle to an underground chamber.
Dumbledore said: "Here, no matter what commotion we make, nothing will be detected outside."
Ciel looked at the chamber's interior. From ceiling to floor, intricate patterns were carved in different coloured lines. Just one glance made him feel dizzy and disoriented.
"These patterns contain extrely profound magical knowledge?" This thought erged in his mind.
Then he saw on his system panel that his magical abilities, like Transfiguration, were flickering with light. Their lustre was becoming increasingly solid.
Obviously, though he couldn't fully understand the magical knowledge contained in these patterns, contact with them greatly benefited his Transfiguration foundation. And what benefited from this wasn't just Transfiguration, but also Dark Arts Transfiguration.
Its foundation growth was even faster than regular Transfiguration!
Now, noticing his expression changes, both Dumbledore and Nicolas Flal looked sowhat surprised. They hadn't expected him to actually gain sothing from these patterns.
Nicolas Flal explained: "Magic cannot create materials necessary for life, like food or water. This is Gamp's Law of Elental Transfiguration's basic principle, which you surely understand."
"Even the Aguanti charm, which appears to create clear water, cannot actually be consud. Even if drunk, it cannot sustain life. This is magic's limitation. Magic cannot even create food and water; naturally, it cannot create life."
But imdiately, Nicolas Flal's tone shifted: "But magic is also idealistic. Sotis, certain limitations can be broken through or circumvented with sufficiently strong will and powerful magical mastery."
"The Philosopher's Stone is such a magical creation. It can break magic's limitations, combining countless types of magical power and converting them into life force. This is the source of immortality."
"Similarly, turning stone to gold is just another, simpler type of conversion. This is the Philosopher's Stone's essence. You can understand it as a tool that converts countless types of magical power."
"The magical array ford by these patterns has the opposite effect. It's the Philosopher's Stone's reverse conversion, transforming the Philosopher's Stone into countless types of magical power, finally dissipating completely into nothingness."
Ciel listened intently to Nicolas Flal's explanation while observing the magical array. This was about the Philosopher's Stone's underlying secrets, the highest level of knowledge exceeding magical boundaries.
Countless people spent their entire lives trying to glimpse just fragnts of this. Now Nicolas Flal, the creator himself, was presenting it unreservedly before him.
Combining countless magical powers to transform into life force. Converting life force into countless magical powers. Such transformations were simply unimaginable.
No wonder just glancing at these patterns, even without understanding them, caused his Transfiguration and Dark Arts Transfiguration foundations to continuously grow.
He took a deep breath. His brow, where his ntal eye was located, tingled. His sixth sense continuously reminded him that even if he couldn't understand now, he should observe more.
Soday, when he understood this process, it might prove trendously useful! Therefore, even as his mind grew increasingly fatigued under the incomprehensible knowledge, he didn't blink, using all his strength to clearly see those pattern carvings and strange symbols.
Especially the changes when these patterns collided with magical particles.
Just then, Nicolas Flal lifted the Philosopher's Stone, looking at Dumbledore: "Albus, prepare yourself. We're beginning."
Dumbledore's expression beca unprecedentedly serious, as if the coming task was no less than battling a top-tier wizard.
Monts later, with the slightest stirring of magical particles, the two wizards at the magical world's pinnacle simultaneously acted before him.
Ciel widened his eyes. Except for when Dumbledore had cast the Patronus Charm in his presence, this was his second ti seeing Dumbledore take action.
And this ti, Dumbledore's seriousness far exceeded that Patronus Charm. Nicolas Flal's wand movents caused magical changes no less than Dumbledore's.
After they both waved their wands, the chamber's patterns began emitting increasingly bright light. Though he tried his utmost to see clearly, everything was completely flooded with brilliance.
He simply closed his eyes, focusing entirely on sensing the magical flow in the chamber. Soon, he felt it.
At the Philosopher's Stone's position, the centre of the pattern-ford magical array was like a black hole. Countless different types of magic, not just blazing flas, freezing ice, bright light, and pitch darkness, were all being devoured by the Philosopher's Stone's black hole.
What erged from within the Philosopher's Stone was a type of magical property he had never seen before. Upon sensing this special magical property, he felt his body instinctively generate a desire.
But monts later, this desire weakened. Compared to this trivial desire, he was more focused on his system panel changes.
Now, the lustre on Transfiguration and Dark Arts Transfiguration was steadily climbing! He had thoroughly experienced the profound difficulty of these two magical knowledge areas.
Making even small progress required unimaginable effort. Only because his magical perception had finally reached Platinum level did this process beco slightly easier.
But over this period, both Transfiguration and Dark Arts Transfiguration remained at the Bronze level, just showing varying degrees of Silver lustre. True advancent to the Silver level might require an entire sumr's hard work, possibly not even achieved by next school year's start.
But now, the Silver lustre on both transfiguration types was rapidly spreading. This sight filled him with trendous joy. How could he care about that trivial strange desire?
Seeing his performance, both Dumbledore and Nicolas Flal showed strange expressions. Especially Nicolas Flal, who seed to set aside his worries.
Because once activated, the Philosopher's Stone would convert magic into life force, creating powerful attraction for any creature, especially humans. After all, the desire to live, to live longer, was practically human "base code".
Even the most gifted wizards were no different from Muggles in this regard. Nicolas Flal couldn't help recalling his once-proud student's desirous expression when facing the Philosopher's Stone.
If he had noticed earlier instead of blindly believing the student could overco such obsession, perhaps that incident wouldn't have happened. Many tragedies could have been avoided.
But now, seeing Ciel apparently completely untempted by the Philosopher's Stone, Nicolas Flal couldn't help sighing inwardly. Lady Hufflepuff's judgent was indeed remarkable.
Then Nicolas Flal cleared his mind of distractions, looking at Dumbledore. Dumbledore nodded slightly. The Elder Wand moved.
The magical array's brilliance suddenly surged again. Eyes-closed Ciel imdiately felt the magical change. The black hole at the Philosopher's Stone's location disappeared.
In its place, like a supernova explosion, life force continuously converted into thousands upon thousands of strange magical properties, gushing forth.
At this mont, his senses were completely occupied by these countless magical properties. He finally understood why Nicolas Flal had insisted on inviting him to this Philosopher's Stone destruction ritual.
Because the countless magical particles produced during the Stone's destruction indeed provided unimaginable benefits for Transfiguration, especially Tolman Transfiguration, specialising in magical property changes.
Special magical particles that normally required countless research attempts to obtain were now, in his perception, as nurous as cattle hair, easily available!
On his system panel, Transfiguration's lustre suddenly began climbing at a much more rapid pace than before. Silver lustre instantly spread across all text.
[Transfiguration (Silver Level)] - Advanced!
And even after advancent, its lustre continued brightening. He imdiately cleared all distracting thoughts:
"For , this is the greatest harvest."
He completely imrsed himself in these countless varied magical particles. Ti passed unknown.
Suddenly his perception cleared. The magical particles that had filled his senses had beco extrely sparse, returning to normal levels.
Dumbledore's calling voice reached his ears: "Ciel? Wake up."
Then he opened his eyes. The chamber's magical array, those complex, mysterious patterns, had completely vanished. The Philosopher's Stone that had been at the array's centre had also disappeared without a trace.
Nicolas Flal now breathed deeply, as if setting down a heavy burden: "It's finished. From now on, there will be no more Philosopher's Stone in the world."
Dumbledore looked at Nicolas Flal with solemn respect: "Nicolas, you made a great decision."
Nicolas Flal smiled bitterly, as if regretting sothing: "I should have destroyed this thing five hundred years ago. Otherwise... Ah."
As Nicolas Flal felt dispirited, Ciel looked serious and bowed to him: "Master Nicolas, thank you for letting observe the ritual."
Now, in his view, on his system panel, Dark Arts Transfiguration was just one step away from Silver level. This alone saved him untold ti of hard work.
Even more dramatic was Transfiguration, not only suffused with Silver lustre but also already showing golden sparkles. It had clearly reached the Silver-Gold advancent threshold!
Moreover, this was almost entirely due to improvents in the Tolman Transfiguration branch. He felt that if he made so progress in Gamp's Transfiguration domain, Golden-level Transfiguration would be within reach!
Looking across Hogwarts students of all years, even seventh-year near-graduates would find this extrely rare. This wasn't even his complete harvest.
The Severus Potion Transfiguration that Professor Snape had given him had previously been completely incomprehensible. This technique was simply too profound; making qualitative changes to magic to transform ordinary potion materials into rare ones required magical mastery he hadn't dared imagine.
But now, Severus Potion Transfiguration's text had beco clear, even showing flickering Iron Level lustre. It was approaching Iron Level.
This ant he was no longer so far from mastering this incredible technique. This was because he had sensed far too many special magical properties this ti, equivalent to filling Severus Potion Transfiguration's "database".
This conservatively saved him at least two to three years. His gratitude to Nicolas Flal was naturally beyond words.
Nicolas Flal waved his hand: "The ritual had to be perford anyway. How much you gained from it is your own ability. Compared to what I owe Lady Hufflepuff, this small favour doesn't even count as cultivation."
Just as he finished speaking, Nicolas Flal gestured to him, seemingly directing his attention sowhere. He paused, following Nicolas Flal's gesture.
Then he saw an astonishing sight. In the chamber, where patterns had once been carved, flowers and grass were beginning to grow?!
These weren't ordinary plants, but flowers and grass composed of flas, frost, lightning, and other magical forces! This strange scene amazed not only him but even Dumbledore with its magnificence and mystery.
Nicolas Flal smiled slightly: "When I completed the Philosopher's Stone, I witnessed this magical, beautiful sight. Magic blossoming into flowers, brilliantly magnificent. Today's Stone destruction shows even more splendid flowers than centuries ago."
He said to Dumbledore and Ciel: "Such flowers can last nearly an hour before dissipating. Absolutely a sight not to be missed."
Dumbledore marvelled. Even his vast experience had never included such scenes.
But Ciel, after initially marvelling at this unique, extraordinary sight, suddenly exclaid in surprise. His gaze burnt as it fell on those flowers and grass ford from pure magical power.
Above them, lines of text were appearing, radiating clear diamond light.
"This is... Diamond-level plants?!"
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