Perhaps it was due to an overconfidence in their plan, believing that the fledgling students of Hogwarts could not possibly withstand the onslaught of the Acromantulas for long. Before the professors, who had been addressing matters in the Forbidden Forest, could return to discover the setup in the dungeons, the nest within this dungeon would have already served its purpose. The spellcaster had not even bothered to establish any defenses here.
Yet, the unexpected resilience of the young witches and wizards at Hogwarts, combined with the coincidence of the Night Watcher professor abstaining from hosting the Duel Club for two weeks due to exhaustion in the Room of Requirement, ensured that this conspiracy against the students of Hogwarts was doomed to fail.
Confronted with the intruder, the young Acromantulas emitted sharp hisses and hastened their devouring, attempting to grow rapidly to fend off the peculiar threat before them.
But their efforts were in vain. Glenn had no intention of granting them any chance to grow.
Threats must be eradicated at their inception.
Dispelling his magical transformation, Glenn caught his breath and steadied his mind before drawing his wand.
"Fiendfyre."
He spoke, his voice devoid of any emotion.
It was akin to the grim reaper delivering a death sentence.
A small yet radiant flame shot forth from the tip of his wand, its brilliance piercing through the dim dungeon.
But something was amiss with the flame's color.
The fire, which should have been a warm orange-yellow, gradually deepened into a sinister dark red. Crimson halos intertwined with black-red hues, imbuing the formidable dark magic with an eerie and malevolent aura.
The intense heat caused the surrounding air to ripple. The Acromantulas, engrossed in their feast of rotting flesh, seemed to sense an imminent threat to their lives, their bodies trembling involuntarily.
Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger...
They felt it. The entity before them was a monstrosity far more terrifying than their natural predator, the Basilisk.
The dark red, ominous flames began devouring everything in their path the moment they touched the ground.
Acromantulas, webs, chunks of flesh, the blood pooling on the floor...
The flames consumed their surroundings like a living entity, growing at an astonishing rate. Their size expanded rapidly.
And then, they began to transform, shifting into a specific shape.
The dark red flames stretched, expanded, and eventually coalesced into the vague form of a massive serpent.
The crackling of burning material morphed into the hissing roars of the fiery serpent. Although Glenn's mastery of this advanced spell was not yet perfect, resulting in an incomplete and imprecise form, the aura of menace and danger it exuded was undeniably real.
It was unimaginable how powerful this fiery serpent would become once Glenn fully mastered the spell.
The blazing serpent, coiled on the ground, gradually lifted its front half, forming an "S" shape—a prelude to its predatory strike.
Without warning, the serpentine flame conjured by Fiendfyre lunged at the Acromantulas in the dungeon, its movements eerily lifelike.
Its speed in striking and biting was astonishingly fast. Even with Glenn's extraordinary dynamic vision, he could barely track the trajectory of the Fiendfyre serpent.
Fiendfyre, a spell of immense power, once unleashed, indiscriminately pursues and consumes anything flammable. It is notoriously difficult to control. Wizards who lack the skill to manage it or the knowledge of its counter-curse often fall victim to their own creation, meeting a fiery end amidst agonized screams.
Standing calmly at the dungeon's entrance, Glenn coldly observed the devastation wrought by the Fiendfyre.
He was observing, analyzing, recording.
This was Glenn's first formal use of the Fiendfyre spell. Due to its immense power and ability to burn everything flammable, he had refrained from practicing it in the Room of Requirement.
He had only rehearsed the casting method countless times in his mind.
That was all.
Tilting his head slightly to avoid a stray ember of black-red flame, Glenn continued to evaluate the spell.
"Extremely powerful, with rapid spreadability, making it highly effective against groups of enemies. However, its controllability is exceedingly low. The caster can barely feel any connection to the unleashed Fiendfyre..."
"As expected, the spell's creator sacrificed controllability in pursuit of absolute destructive power. It's reasonable and understandable—no spell is perfect."
"But could its magical circuit be modified? Its excessive power against enemies could be reduced to compensate for its controllability..."
Like a dispassionate experimenter observing test subjects in a controlled environment, Glenn's emotionless black eyes coldly regarded the Acromantulas struggling in agony within the Fiendfyre.
Even the barbaric and ignorant Acromantulas, chewing on flesh torn from their own kind, felt fear.
A fear that came from the depths of their souls.
The black-robed figure wielding the high-temperature flames before them resembled a reaper from hell, wielding a scythe capable of extinguishing life.
Extreme terror and the instinctual drive to survive momentarily freed them from the spell's control.
But it was already too late.
Their deaths were inevitable.
Their deaths were irreversible.
The black-red fiery serpent created by Fiendfyre had completely occupied the entire dungeon.
All the Acromantulas within the dungeon, as well as the mountain of flesh in the center, were utterly consumed by the serpent's fiery bites, reduced to a puff of smoke, and vanished into ashes.
The matter was settled.
Having lost its prey, the fiery serpent's soul-piercing eyes turned toward Glenn, standing at the dungeon's entrance.
Then, with a speed even greater than before, it lunged at him.
The gaping maw of flames filled his entire field of vision as the scorching heatwave surged toward him.
But Glenn merely raised his wand.
"Fiendfyre End."
That was the counter-curse Glenn had devised for the Fiendfyre spell.
An invisible ripple emanated from the tip of Glenn's wand. The fiery serpent shattered and dissipated the moment it came into contact with the ripple, letting out a final wail of resentment and regret.
The Fiendfyre vanished, leaving behind only a lingering heatwave in the spacious dungeon.
Glenn lowered his wand and turned away without hesitation.
Compared to practicing the still-unfamiliar Fiendfyre spell, Glenn had rehearsed the counter-curse for Fiendfyre countless times in his mind.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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