Chapter 161

The next two and a half days, Severus continued to torture his magical core non-stop and gradually, it became bigger and stronger, and the pain did not disappear, but became a little weaker, for the reason that it almost did not grow and he got used to it, except for those very moments when the wizard crossed a certain rank. 

At these moments, he really wanted to howl and deep down, the half-breed even swore that if he ever managed to meet the one who created such a method, he would beat him half to death, no matter how much this method worked.

 At this point, Snape was approaching the peak of the "Master" rank and almost all the crystals with the purest magical power had already lost their bright shine, only a small handful remained, compared to the full cave that was before, but they were gradually fading, losing magic. 

To the surprise of the Prince himself, everything was going even too well, which of course he was incredibly happy about, because even in that book, the chance that everything would go perfectly was eighty percent, usually after such a "sadistic" method, one or two cracks appeared on the core, which had to be "treated", otherwise they could spread throughout the core and destroy it. 

But in his case everything worked out, and he was glad that he wouldn't have to lose the Treant King's heart, because the wizard wanted to use one of them for the "Eternal Life" potions and in the future give it to Bella to drink, he didn't worry about Nagini, after her evolution, she would live at least a thousand years.

And the second one could be used to achieve the rank of Archmage and without any side effects.

***

And finally, after another half day, the faint, misty haze surrounding the Prince's figure began to thicken and the next moment, an almost invisible dark red magical wave burst from his body, passing through the entire room in an instant and after which, not a single crystal remained on the floor, and the walls of the cave themselves suddenly heated up to redness for a few seconds, and then slowly began to return to their usual state. 

After that, the fog began to dissipate, revealing a completely unharmed Severus, who had only slightly lost weight over these three days, and from him and his clothes, such a disgusting smell emanated that no rational or irrational creature could even approach him, but this was not surprising, because due to the stress on the first day, sweat literally flowed from him in a stream, and especially at one point when he overdid it with the amount of magic launched into the core and almost damaged it.

But besides that, something new was added to his appearance, his aristocratic pallor became almost unnoticeable, and on his head, to the white strand on one side, another was added, but it was already red on the other side, no more changes were observed in his body from the outside. 

A deep sigh escaped from his lips, and a satisfied smile crept onto his face and he opened his eyes.

"I will never engage in such masochism again…" and looking down at the heart of the King of Treants, his smile became even more satisfied, "Still, it's good that we managed to do without it…" lifting it, he looked at a small boulder, two meters high and four meters long, lying at the end of the cave and pointing his palm at it, it trembled and slowly began to rise up… But a moment later, when it was already at a height of ten centimetres, the Prince's face twisted and with a crash, the stone fell back to the ground… "Almost died…" the wizard drawled with a crooked grin, at the very moment when he lifted the boulder with the help of telekinesis, the core tensed strongly because of which pain passed through the wizard's entire body, no less than the one he felt all these two days.

 But it was not surprising, because after such a terrible load, the core needed at least a week to recover, which of course the Slytherin knew, but he still wanted to check how much stronger he had become, especially with a material core at the peak of the "Master" rank and the result did not disappoint him at all. 

At the moment, the wizard could use only a small part of his power until he recovered, but even this was enough to lift a huge stone, the weight of which was at least forty tons and for a man whose main direction was not earth magic, this was an excellent result, and after all, this was only ten percent of his strength and at the moment, the Prince could fight on equal terms thanks to the material core with "Pseudo-Archmages" at the initial rank, who had not yet acquired something like this and because of which they could not rightfully call themselves "Archmages". 

After all, the "Archmage" is a creature,whose body, soul and core merged into one and with their power, they were able to destroy crowds of "Masters" at the peak with just one sluggish wave of their hand.

And besides, Severus could also fight equally even with the King of Snakes from the forbidden part of the "Magic Jungle" and win if he put in maximum effort, although he would not like to face even the weakest of the Devils yet, these creatures were too dangerous.

Looking at his palm, he began to collect magic on it, which from the air, circulating through the body and passing through the core, acquired a red tint, which caused a satisfied sigh from Snape. 

"Finally, it was able to acquire the fire element and now there is no need to worry that due to Severus' talent for mind magic, the core will not acquire this property," although he was not particularly worried about this, but he was still glad that something like this did not happen, because, although mind magic is very powerful, fire magic was much closer to him. 

And finally, when Severus calmed down a little and sniffed, his face twisted and sharply waving his hand, he used the Cleansing Spell on himself and the entire cave, completely destroying all the smell, dirt and sweat, putting himself in order. 

"Well, it's time to get out of here and go home…" Severus muttered, stretching, pointing his palm towards the exit, which a second later slowly began to open and the next moment, a green "arrow" flew into the passage, which abruptly stopped in front of him and with concern on its face, began to circle around him and examine the young man with its vertical pupils, 

"I'm fine, forgive me for making you worry."

And when it finally stopped, a sigh of relief escaped from its "mouth". "I'm glad... very…" 

Severus sat down, gently ran his palm over her "cheek" and smiled softly, wiping away the tears with his thumb, while looking straight into her eyes. " I've told you many times, you don't need to worry about me, I'm a tenacious bastard."

"Don't say such nonsense…"

"Okay, okay, I won't, but you also stop comparing me to others, I'm not so weak that you constantly need to worry about me, okay?" grinning, he poked her in the nose, which made the snake snort in displeasure.

"But you always do something strange, how can I not worry?!"

"When I say that I have everything under control, it means that I have everything under control, have I made myself clear?"

" …"

"I don't hear an answer, my Lamia…"

"Yes…" she nodded, lowering her eyes, even somehow tiredly.

"Understand, I am pleased with this, very much, but when it happens again and again…"

"But you too have given me enough of this reason over and over again!" Nagini answered with displeasure, raising her gaze sharply. 

"We're back to where we started…" he said, sighing tiredly. "Okay, let's close this topic, I don't want to quarrel with you over such a matter." 

Raising his eyes towards the exit, he raised an eyebrow in confusion. "By the way, where is Lucky?"

And after these words, the snake shuddered and, as if remembering something, opened its eyes wide in shock and very quickly climbed onto him.

" I completely forgot! Let's get back quickly, our house and bench were attacked yesterday! Shafik, Jose and Nestor managed to get away in time, and Tobbi was badly hurt, and also the Macmillans...!" As soon as he heard the beginning, he was very surprised that someone would dare to do something like that, but with each new word, Severus's face became gloomier, especially when he heard that the house elf had suffered and that it had also affected the family that had helped him at the beginning of his journey, Snape abruptly interrupted her. 

"Enough," waving his hand, he dispelled all the spells cast on this place and the next moment, his head began to fill with information, because Snape's core was connected to the core of the house and any actions on the territory of the "House, like an artifact" were immediately recorded and the Prince could view them at any time. 

But for these three days, he had to fence himself off from this so as not to be distracted. 

First of all, what surprised him was that the unknown people were able to break through the spells cast on the house, but when he saw exactly how, or rather with what, the young man's face became even gloomier.

 This was one of the artifacts, the mention of which, Severus, found in the Ravenclaw book, it was called "Rule Breaker", this thing was able to destroy the spell or, if they were stronger, then create a loophole in them, through which anyone could easily pass and this artefact was from his world.

 And as soon as the unknown were inside, they immediately came across a wolf, who howled, warning the others about the uninvited guests, and then the massacre began, in which the winners were not animals, but people. They acted surprisingly harmoniously and protected each other's backs, therefore, the magical creatures could not defeat them in any way, and the victims became more and more, until finally the "boss" of the territory appeared, which turned out to be the Dark Hound, who lost her temper when she saw the bodies of her dead brothers lying on the ground.

 The wizards were not ready for something like this and they lost two almost immediately, the rest quickly regrouped and began to fight off the wolf's attacks, but even she had a hard time against all five, especially their leader, judging by her voice, who single-handedly repelled almost eighty percent of the attacks and even hit the beast several times, leaving a couple of wounds with her wind magic. 

But as soon as the guests heard the tiger's roar accompanied by dark clouds that obscured the sky, which became louder with each passing moment, they decided to retreat and not take risks. 

Their leader also made attempts to destroy the bodies of the dead, but the Dark Hound was much faster and had already dragged them away, and then the house elf moved them to the dungeon, imposing "stasis" on the bodies so that they would not begin to decompose before the arrival of the master. And it took the Prince only ten seconds to digest all this information, after all, after the core had been strengthened, his mind magic had also become stronger.

 But he had no time to think about it and immediately disappeared from the cave, moving home...

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