Lumen's clear, glass-like eyes remained fixed on Nagini inside the iron cage.
Listening to the giant snake's "inner voice", sometimes bloodthirsty and frenzied, sometimes painfully pleading, one could sense the deep despair hidden beneath that chaos.
It was the despair of being trapped inside one's own body, fully aware of what was happening yet unable to stop it, wanting desperately to struggle but lacking the strength to break free.
"Master," Lumen's voice sounded softly in Lucien's mind, "could I... try using my flames?"
Lucien turned to look at Lumen.
He knew that Lumen's Qilin Pure Fire could burn away curses.
Back when they treated Aurora, Lumen's flames had demonstrated the ability to purify remnants of Dark Arts. Even stubborn traces of dark magic could be gradually burned away beneath those golden flames.
But Nagini...
Her situation was fundamentally different.
This curse had been rooted in her bloodline and entangled with her body for decades. It had already become one with her to such an extent that even Lucien could barely distinguish where the curse ended and Nagini herself began.
If Pure Fire burned away the curse, would it also harm her?
Lucien was silent for a moment.
"Let's try it," he finally said with a nod. "Control your strength and start with the gentlest touch."
Lumen walked to the edge of the iron cage, opened its mouth, and breathed out a wisp of nearly pure golden flame.
The flame was extremely small.
It drifted down like a light feather and gently settled over a palm-sized patch of scales on Nagini's body.
"Hiss!"
The giant snake instantly let out a shrill, miserable cry.
The sound was sharp and piercing, echoing harshly through the enclosed space.
Her thick body suddenly tensed, muscles tightening beneath the scales as she prepared to twist and struggle violently.
Lucien had already raised his wand.
"Petrificus Totalus."
A flash of grey light swept over her.
Nagini's enormous body instantly stiffened, preventing her from thrashing around and accidentally bringing more of herself into contact with the Pure Fire.
Only her vertical pupils continued to tremble violently, revealing the immense pain she was enduring.
Purplish-black smoke began seeping out from between the scales covered by the Pure Fire.
Some of it was incinerated the instant it touched the golden flames, producing a faint hissing sound.
The rest condensed into a thick, viscous liquid and slowly dripped down along the scales.
Sizzle.
The liquid fell onto the metal floor and instantly corroded several small holes into it, their edges continuing to smoke and hiss.
Lucien activated the Eye of Peering Magic again.
A black vortex emerged in his pupils.
He stared intently at the twisted magical circuits inside Nagini's body, observing every minute change taking place beneath the surface.
Newt also leaned closer, his eyes fixed on the scales covered by the Pure Fire.
Then his expression gradually changed.
His eyes widened.
The scales around the golden flame were shrinking.
They were not being burned away.
There was no charring, cracking, or curling caused by heat.
Instead, the scales themselves were shrinking as a whole, as though time were somehow flowing backward, or as though something that had been forcibly twisted out of shape was slowly returning to its original form.
Delicate skin began appearing along the edges of the scales.
Human skin.
Newt's breath caught.
For a moment, he simply stared.
"Stop!"
Lucien's urgent voice suddenly rang out.
The cluster of golden flame was extinguished instantly.
The iron cage fell back into dimness, leaving only the petrified giant snake and that palm-sized area where most of the scales had faded away.
A patch of slightly reddened human skin had been revealed beneath them.
Against the surrounding dark green scales, it looked especially striking.
"It really is too deeply rooted."
Lucien shook his head, his tone filled with helplessness.
Pure Fire could indeed burn away the curse.
In fact, its effect was even more significant than he had expected.
The curse hidden within the flesh had been ignited and expelled, causing the scales on the surface of Nagini's body to show clear signs of reverting to human skin.
That alone proved that Lumen's flames were effective.
But...
Through the Eye of Peering Magic, Lucien had also seen something far more dangerous.
The moment the Pure Fire began touching the curse entangled within the magical circuits, those already twisted circuits started trembling violently.
The curse was indeed dissipating beneath the Pure Fire.
However, the magical circuits intertwined with it were also beginning to disintegrate, like a spider's web being forcibly torn apart strand by strand.
The two had become far too closely connected.
If they continued burning it, the circuits would collapse before the curse could be completely removed.
And by then, Nagini naturally wouldn't survive either.
This reminded Lucien of the situation when he had treated Aurora before.
At that time, Aurora's magical circuits had been damaged, and he had used the Magic Weaving Technique to reconnect the broken magical pathways little by little.
That process had been difficult, but at least the damage itself had been relatively clear.
Nagini's condition was different.
The Magic Weaving Technique worked on magical creatures.
In Nagini's case, however, it was difficult to say whether she should still be considered human or whether decades of transformation had already pushed her closer to being a magical creature.
Even her magical circuits had become something between the two.
The curse had become too deeply entangled with her.
The two were almost inseparable.
While the Pure Fire burned away the curse, it was also harming Nagini herself at the same time.
Finding the precise balance where the curse could be removed without destroying the magical circuits supporting her life was simply too difficult.
One slight mistake could turn treatment into execution.
As for the soul...
The Pure Fire hadn't reached that deeply just now.
And after seeing how thoroughly the curse had become entangled with Nagini's magical circuits, Lucien no longer dared to casually let the Pure Fire touch her soul.
The magical circuits could perhaps still be repaired.
The soul was another matter entirely.
Inside the iron cage, the giant snake lay quietly.
The area touched by the Pure Fire was still twitching slightly, while the patch of exposed human skin looked especially conspicuous among the surrounding dark green scales.
Newt said nothing.
He simply stared at the giant snake.
His lips trembled slightly, and his eyes gradually reddened.
Lucien noticed his expression.
"Don't worry, Mr Scamander."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a certainty that made one want to believe him.
"Sooner or later, you'll be able to sit down with your old friend again and enjoy afternoon tea."
________
(^///^) Please support this fic and also read 12 chapters ahead at Patreon.com/DrakDevil1