The voice echoed through the vast emptiness of the Ravenclaw Manor's lounge.
"Show what you've got, Nero."
Nero whirled around, his heart pounding.
He activated his Raven Eyes, their sapphire glow piercing the darkness, but...nothing.
No footsteps. No heartbeat. No aura.
The presence was there, the sheer weight of the man's existence, pressed down on him like an unseen force, suffocating and overwhelming.
But his most advanced detection technique could find nothing.
"Oh? So you can't even perceive ?" The voice was amused.
"Right, this is too much for you to see through as you are now."
The mont the words left his mouth, the figure materialized.
A man, tall and imposing, with an aura so dense that reality itself seed to bend around him.
It was as if the world rejected his very existence.
All of Nero's senses scread: flee.
But he knew, instinctively, that running was aningless.
"Don't bother. You cannot escape from here."
A flick of the man's wrist.
The air ripped apart.
A devastating force shot toward Nero faster than he could process.
He barely managed to conjure a barrier, but the instant the spell connected...
BOOM!
The barrier shattered like fragile glass, and Nero was flung backward, crashing against the marble floor.
Pain shot through his ribs, his vision blurred, and his limbs refused to move for a second.
"Stand up."
The command was simple, yet absolute.
Gritting his teeth, Nero pushed himself up, forcing his legs to hold his weight.
He raised his wand and, without hesitation, launched an ice spear while simultaneously casting an invisible displacent hex.
This illusionary spell makes an attack appear as though it originates from a different direction, confusing the opponent's perception.
It's a tactical tool for misdirection, useful in duels to gain the upper hand by forcing the enemy to defend against an illusory attack.
However, the man didn't move.
He simply exhaled.
The ice spear crumbled to dust in mid-air.
Nero's breath hitched.
"Pathetic." The man's tone was flat.
Gritting his teeth, Nero didn't stop.
He unleashed a barrage of spells, weaving in transfigurations, elental magic, fire, water, ice, wind, and rapid bursts of hexes and spells, all countered effortlessly.
No movent.
No exertion.
The attacks simply ceased to exist before they could reach him.
It was like fighting a mountain with bare fists.
"You are weak."
Nero's frustration boiled.
His mind raced for an opening, but there was none.
"If that's all you can do, Nero, I will kill you."
The words sent ice through his veins.
"It would signify that bothering to help you unlock your mories early on would have served no purpose."
Nero froze. His mories?
"What?" His voice wavered. "What do you an by that?"
The man tilted his head, as if mildly disappointed. "Co on, you're smart, aren't you? Of course, it ans I manipulated the Lestranges to co here... to help you unlock your mories."
Nero's heartbeat slamd against his ribs. No.
"And your dear grandmother..." the man continued, his voice smooth as silk, "...even sacrificed herself to grant you the Principle of Space. All according to the plan."
Nero's breath caught. His chest tightened.
"Shouldn't you be thanking ?" the man asked, mockingly. "If so, then show sothing new. Sothing unexpected. Not this pathetic display."
Nero's fingers clenched around his wand.
Grandmother...
"So..." he whispered, his voice laced with fury. "Grandmother is dead because of you?"
"Yeah. So what?" The man shrugged. "It benefited you, didn't it?"
Crack.
The sheer rage in Nero's chest felt like sothing inside him was snapping.
"You bastard!!"
He roared, unleashing a torrent of raw destruction.
Spells layered upon spells.
Bombarda Maxima. Diffindo. Sectumsempra. Piercing Hexes. Bladed Wind. Ice Spikes. Crucio.
He lost count of how many curses, hexes, and bindings he threw in rapid succession.
None reached him.
None.
With a flick of his fingers, the man shattered everything as though he were swatting away dust.
Nero gasped, the realization slamming into him like a curse.
This man was beyond reason.
Beyond anything Nero had ever fought.
"Weak. Weak. Weak," the man muttered.
"Looks like I need you to rember that day."
Before Nero could react, the man's hand twisted in the air. And reality shattered.
A sharp pulse shot into Nero's skull.
His mind broke open.
And suddenly, he was there again.
The past rewound before him, playing in a loop.
His grandmother.
The Lestranges.
The Crucio spell.
The battle.
The sacrifice.
Her smile.
The overwhelming terror.
He watched it all.
Again. And again. And again.
Each ti faster.
Each ti clearer.
His screams ripped through his own mind, but there was no stopping it.
It was eternal.
Endless.
A torture that stripped away his very being.
Her body falling.
Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
Her final breath.
Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
The torture. The grief. The helplessness. The rage.
Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
How long has it been?
Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
I couldn't save her again.
Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
His mind cracked. His magic spiraled out of control.
And then...
Sothing inside him shattered.
Or rather, sothing emptied.
And then, there was nothing.
No pain.
No rage.
No sorrow.
No self.
Just a vast, infinite Void.
Darkness without fear.
Emptiness without despair.
Stillness that erased all boundaries.
And for the first ti... The abyss did not consu him.
He consud it.
Outside, in the physical world.
The man narrowed his eyes.
The air around Nero warped.
No.
It wasn't magic. It was absence.
An existence that did not exist.
And then, Nero moved.
His wand flicked.
The world rippled.
A single pulse shot from him, swallowing the surrounding space.
The man's expression finally changed.
He moved with blinding speed, impossibly fast, his form a blur. Yet the pulse still nearly overwheld him.
A first.
He wasn't unaffected.
Nero's vision blurred. His body trembled, unable to withstand the sheer weight of what he had just unleashed.
The void faded.
The world returned.
His consciousness slipped as he collapsed to the ground.
Through half-lidded eyes, he saw the man standing over him.
Then, laughter.
A deep, amused, crazed laugh.
"Yes, Nero! YES! YES!" The man's voice was filled with satisfaction. "Finally, you show sothing unexpected."
His gaze sharpened.
"You might not be so useless this ti around after all."
Then, he paused, tilting his head in thought.
"What was that? Was that rely the Void Principle? Or..." His eyes flickered with sothing unreadable. "For an instant, did you go beyond the level of Principles?"
Silence.
The man considered for a long mont before exhaling, shaking his head.
"No... it could only be Void."
He crouched beside Nero's barely conscious form, his voice dropping to a whisper.
"Keep growing stronger, Nero. Or else... you will beco useless to ."
A dangerous glint flashed in his eyes.
"And useless people..."
A smirk.
"...are dead people. My dear son"
Darkness consud Nero's vision.
And then, he lost consciousness.
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