Chapter 60

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Taking several steps back, Ethan did not find himself very far away from the monsters, as it wasn't a very big room, but it gave him time to think before he cast another spell.

"Incendio!"

Ethan's magical reserves were getting low; Custodia Malum was quite the taxing spell, but he still decided to go with a large area of effect Incendio, as he fired a cloud of fire at the three monsters.

The three monsters once again acted as one, parrying the attack in the exact same way as they cross-slashed their sword before them, dissipating the flames before it could hit them.

But while their attention was on Ethan, Tracey had sneaked up behind them at some point, and she cast her own spell, "Spongify!"

Out of all the spells they had learned during their first year, this was definitely not one of those Ethan thought Tracey would use.

But the spell did not aim to directly harm the monsters. Instead, it slammed into the armour of one of the monsters, making it soft.

Spongify was the softening spell and would turn soft anything it hit.

And just as it did, Henry appeared behind the monster and drove his hand through its back. Looking at the hand that came out of the monster's chest, not only was there a heart in his father's hand, but Ethan also noticed that Henry's hand had also turned monstrous. It almost looked like a vampire's hand, actually, with long claws at the tips of his fingers.

The other two monsters still did not even turn in Henry's direction, focusing on Ethan instead as they leapt at him and swung their swords.

Left without much of a choice, Ethan sharply whipped his wand up, causing spikes to come out of the ground. They hit the monsters right in the chest, but they were only stopped and not pierced through, thanks to their armour.

Ethan would have preferred not to use transfiguration, but the room thankfully didn't start crumbling down.

This only won Ethan a moment of respite, but it was enough for Snyde and Bilaal to cast several spells at the two remaining monsters and for Henry to cast away the one he had just killed.

The two monsters were good, as they managed to parry most of the incoming spells, but they still got hit a couple of times, resulting in chinks in their armour.

They were about to attack again, but suddenly found their legs to be failing them as Miyuki slashed at their Achilles' heels. And once they lost their ability to move, they became sitting ducks for the group to dispose of.

As the last monster was killed, Ethan squatted down next to one of them, curious about them. He had never seen these particular monsters or even heard of them, but his experience mostly extended to his first-year book on DADA, so it was not so surprising.

However, neither his father, an experienced Duellist who had travelled the world, Snyde, who was a Curse Breaker or even Bilaal, who was a local, had ever heard of them, meaning they were probably unique to this place.

Ethan first looked at the connection between the bird head and the human body, but it was seamless. It did not look like the two parts had been stitched together.

While Ethan may not be an expert in anatomy, he could still pick up some clues from his observations, which led him to a simple conclusion: this was not a natural entity.

There were three sources of magic Ethan could sense within the body.

The first one was present in both the head and the body and had the effect of altering it to become bigger. It was slightly more concentrated within the head, probably because the head of a falcon was much smaller than a human head. He did not know what form of magic had been used, unfortunately.

The other two traces of magic were both exclusively inside the head, but Ethan could not tell what they did.

He could recognise the enlarging magic because there was a Second Year Charm called Engorgio, which turned whatever the spell hit bigger. While Ethan had not learned it, he did once see a second-year student enlarge his turkey leg at dinner.

So he was familiar with that form of magic. The other two, not so much.

Since he could not tell much more from this particular corpse, Ethan moved to a second one to check whether there would be any difference, only to hear Snyde exclaim, "Where did the earrings go?!"

Ethan turned to look at her, then where the earrings were supposed to be, and sure enough, there was no more magical jewellery floating there.

He was about to say something when he saw his father taking a pointed look his way. Their eyes met for an instant, and Ethan heard his father's voice in his head: "Pretend you don't know. Find something."

Ethan was at a loss, as he truly did not know where they were gone, although his father's message told him Henry had something to do with it.

What really confused him, however, was his father's willingness to suddenly use telepathy. Did that mean Snyde and Bilaal were not among the ones Henry wanted to hide his earlier message from, if there was even one.

That would only leave Rakepick, Weasley, and Zaid. Since Zaid and Bilaal were connected and presumably had the same means, at least mentally, if Bilaal was fine, Zaid should be too.

As for Bill Weasley, although Ethan knew better than to unconditionally trust his meta-knowledge, he still found it hard to believe Bill Weasley would be someone his parents would need to be careful around.

That only left Rakepick, who was the most likely suspect in the first place since she was the most accomplished, and the only one in the group who might actually be able to threaten his parents.

But Ethan could still feel there was something amiss with the entire situation. He was almost sure his parents had been trying to pass a message to each other, and his father's message was definitely something he did not want Merula Snyde to know about.

For all his doubts, however, Ethan did have to come up with something, so he put on a curious expression as he approached the cut-off pillar where the earpieces had been and examined it silently.

His magical sense did not tell him much. He could feel the remnants of the enchantment, as well as something else.

Ethan, who had been looking at it half-heartedly, doubled back, focusing on that second trace. It was not anything he could recognize. Did his father use some form of magic he did not know about?

Although Ethan's lack of experience generally prevented him from knowing the exact effects of the magical traces he examined, he could at least guess which branch of magic they belonged to. This one, however, did not belong to any he was familiar with. He would have to ask his father exactly what kind of magic it was.

Still, that was not something Snyde had to know, so he looked back at her and said with a helpless expression, "That's unfortunate."

Snyde's jaw visibly clenched as she suddenly burst out in anger. "Why didn't you say the earrings would disappear!?"

More than being offended at the outburst, Ethan felt curious. Magical artefacts were precious, but not that much. Especially since it wasn't even necessarily going to be hers. Ethan couldn't help but wonder what made her overreact. Why was everyone being so weird?

Ethan knew that reacting calmly would probably make things worse and might even make him appear guilty in her eyes, so his expression froze and he replied coldly, "If you're unhappy, maybe don't rely on a First Year student?"

Whatever she was about to say died out in her throat as her anger rapidly faded, and she coughed awkwardly, "Sorry. I got caught up."

Ethan stared for another couple of seconds before gesturing towards the dead monsters, his voice still devoid of any sort of warmth. "It was probably the doing of the guardians. Did you notice they were getting better with each one we took down? I'm pretty sure they had magic, and they used it to make the earrings disappear."

"Guardians?"

Ethan shrugged. "Got to call them something, no?"

Henry was smiling as he added, "Besides, you said Ramesses had a powerful magical artefact that was the reason for his firstborn's death. Surely it will be deeper inside, and in comparison, these earrings pale quite a bit, don't they?"

The moment he heard his father speak, Ethan extended his mind energy over to Snyde, believing his father would not speak for nothing. And it seemed he was right too, as while Snyde's expression remained neutral, Ethan managed to pick up the faintest feeling of astonishment from her.

Although very curious, Ethan refrained from digging in deeper. Snyde had decent mental defences, and while the momentary shock had let out some of her emotions, Ethan did not believe he would be able to go any deeper without alerting her.