"What do you mean by you burned my body?" he suddenly asked, almost alarmed at what the boy said.
"Yeah," Orion replied, not understanding why it was a big deal. He had burned the body—so what? Why would a dead man care so much about his body? In fact, wasn't this better? Burning his body meant it couldn't suffer anymore.
"That's impossible. You must be mistaken," Eric reacted.
"Nope, I'm pretty sure that vampire zombie burned to a crisp," Orion said, still unfazed. He yawned, wanting to steer the conversation back to vampires or Merlin, but he noticed the man in front of him starting to panic.
It was almost as if he'd burned the man alive. "Was he able to feel his body burning? I don't think that's possible, right? There shouldn't be any connection between this magically animated picture and that body," Orion pondered, convinced there shouldn't be any connection.
"This magic is nothing but like a magical diary. Because of the magic, human expressions, emotions, and memories of the person can be restored in these pictures, but beyond that, there shouldn't be any connection," he thought.
"Quiet down, will ya? It's not like you could have used that body anyway. What's the point of shouting now that you've been dead for centuries?" Orion sneered, seeing the picture murmuring and getting noisy while denying the reality in front of him.
"That... I... I'm not worried about my own body, you foolish child. That body holds the magic passed down to me by Merlin himself. It was supposed to be passed down to the next successor," Eric practically shouted, clearly angry.
Hearing this, Orion couldn't help but widen his eyes. Now that he thought back, maybe this was the reason why that vampire was able to use magic. It was possible, right?
"Sorry, but the deed is done already," Orion shrugged.
"And wait a minute, how come that old man didn't recognize his own disciple back then? Yeah, he looked like a zombie and was turned into a vampire, but still, one would expect the greatest wizard of all time to see through that, right?"
Now Orion wasn't sure whether he was overthinking it or if this picture was lying to him.
"No, there's no way you did that. It's impossible," Eric finally said, unable to accept the truth.
"There's no way a brat like you could kill a perfect vampire," Eric replied, trying to calm himself.
"Perfect vampire? Just because he could use magic, you call him a perfect vampire? Dude, you're too far gone," Orion rolled his eyes.
"Use magic?" Eric, who had been panicking all this time, suddenly fell silent. He snapped his gaze at Orion as if he had said something strange, then fell quiet, making Orion believe that the man in front of him—dead though he may be—might not have died in the best mental state.
"God, please don't tell me that all this time I wasted on this mental picture was for nothing," Orion thought as his eyes twitched.
"Yawn... Alright, I can't take it anymore. We'll talk tomorrow when I've had some sleep. Bye," Orion said, knowing he wasn't going to get anything useful from Eric today.
It was wise to just let it go and sleep.
Eric, seeing Orion leaving, hurriedly tried to stop him. After all, this matter was very important to him, but Orion was already gone by then.
He couldn't help but sigh and internally pray.
For Eric, his body didn't matter at all. He had left everything behind, even giving up his humanity to pass on the power he was supposed to give to the next successor.
But he couldn't pass the magic given to him to the next successor.
He wasn't lying to Orion when he said he was turned into a vampire, at least his body was. But he didn't tell the entire story.
He was never cursed. He...
"My lord, I beg you to guide the next successor. I would be the biggest sinner if I can't pass your blessing to the destined one," Eric looked up and said this.
There was nothing but remorse in his voice—pain and helplessness.
.
.
.
Orion returned to Hogwarts, and now he just wanted to sleep.
"That picture, he was hiding a lot. I have to find out what. Right now, he's the only lead I have to bring back Merlin.
Sigh, this is just so fucking troublesome..." Orion grumbled as his magic flared up, the irritation and frustration he had been holding back finally coming to the surface, making the entire Room of Requirement shake.
It was a good thing Orion had put enough enchantments in place to handle him fighting, let alone just releasing magic. Though his magic had improved so much that just releasing it was not inferior to an outright battle.
"After all this trouble, I'm going to bring you back, old man. You better nominate me for Wizard King. Or else I'm gonna lose it."
xxx
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