Chapter 58

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It took longer for Ethan to analyse the room than it would have his mother since his magical sense was quite restricted in its area of effect, and he also wasn't as good as her. Still, with enough time, Ethan was able to look through the entire room.

Standing next to one of the coffins, Ethan said, "The entrance is behind this one."

Snyde looked at the surrounding coffins and asked, "Can you open it without triggering the trap?"

Ethan was frowning, his voice holding a hint of frustration, "The trap was made ingenuously, as all the coffins are part of one enchantment, with intricate connections between each of the coffins."

"Can't you deactivate the parts that would trigger the coffins?"

Ethan shook his head, "That's the thing. The trap wouldn't so much as activate the coffins, but it would cancel it instead. I guess that whatever is inside those coffins is held within a stasis, powered by the enchantment. Tempering with any of the coffins or the earrings would deactivate the enchantment and release them."

Snyde held her chin, taking in his explanation as she mused, "Then we need to modify the enchantment instead of destroying it… that is ingenuous."

"Easier said than done. It is mostly a charm, and I am far from confident at managing to do anything to it," Ethan said, looking at his father with a meaningful glance. He was the expert in charms, not Ethan.

Henry caught onto it as he approached the coffin Ethan was next to, and after a moment said, "Yes, I can feel something, but I can't sense it well enough to do anything to it. How about only deactivating some of them, instead of all of them?"

Ethan thought about his father's proposition and expressed these thoughts aloud, "It would probably be harder than to deactivate them all at once. All the coffins are interconnected, and focusing on changing only a few of them would require more brain power than to consider the enchantment as one."

Stretching lightly, Ethan shared a look with Miyuki, the little Kitsune nodding as she understood what he wanted to do almost instantly. Although their bond hadn't reached the level of twins, when they were together they did not need to say anything to know what was on the other's mind.

Having gotten confirmation from her, Ethan told the others, "What we can do, though, is delay the deactivation of the coffins, so we don't have to deal with them all at once. With preparation, we should be able to take this fight. The things inside the coffins seem to be some variants of Living Dead, so if we prepare accordingly we should be able to take this safely."

Snyde smiled, glancing at Henry as she was curious to see the famed Flash Wizard in action, while Henry himself asked, "How many will there be at a time?"

Ethan looked at the eight coffins that contained the monsters, and after thinking about it for a moment, replied, "I'd say two at a time. The longer we take, however, the harder they will be to contain."

Henry nodded, and looked down at the ground, seemingly looking for something as he asked, "What about transfiguration?"

Ethan tilted his head, wondering what his father was speaking of, before looking down too and catching onto it, "I cannot sense anything that would interfere with it, or that would be triggered by it. I would be careful about the structural integrity of the room, however."

Henry looked happy to learn that. On the other hand, Snyde's attention was on the pair of earrings, which she was eyeing closely as she asked, "And these? They must be magical, being displayed like this. Do you reckon they would be of any use for this fight?" The greed on her face was barely concealed, which was understandable as magical artefacts were all precious, whatever their uses may be. Most wizards never got one in their lives, although the likelihood of Curse Breakers acquiring one was higher than most other jobs.

Ethan looked at her speechlessly, seriously questioning who was the Hogwarts' graduate professional Curse Breaker between the two of them in his head, but he still replied, "They certainly are magical, but they are the core of the enchantment, veiled by it. Besides, even if they weren't, I am not an appraiser."

Ethan might have said the last part a bit more dryly than he had intended to, seeing the awkward expression Snyde had as she muttered, "I see."

Meanwhile, Henry was smiling while looking at his son, apparently amused at his reaction.

Miyuki, who had been content by mostly watching since they had arrived in the tomb, was excited by the prospect of finally some action. While she and Ethan shared much, passion for magic was not one of them.

That was not to say Miyuki did not wish to learn magic, but for her, it was solely to become stronger, while Ethan truly found magic to be a passion. That was why this exploration did not interest Miyuki much, as they were not here to become stronger.

Soon, the entire room was covered with a thick mist, which served to put anyone within under an illusion. Miyuki was capable of using illusions without her mist, but they would always be more powerful within the mist.

The Kitsune had received an all-around increase in power from the growth of her fourth tail, and that included her ability to use illusions. And now, the ability to use illusions happened to be what they were using to delay the opening of the coffins by 'confusing' the enchantment with Miyuki's illusion magic.

It might sound strange, but illusion magic was a whole lot more powerful and complex than most people thought, and very few wizards ever learned it, and even less mastered it. Most users of illusion magic were magical beasts with the innate ability to use it, such as with Kitsunes.

Ethan himself had tried to learn illusion magic, which should have been easier since he shared such a close bond with a magical beast capable of using it proficiently, but he had never made any advancement on that end.

Still, despite not managing to learn to use it himself, Ethan knew the basics about the magic. The general impression people had of illusions was that they worked by tricking the senses by tempering the information they received, and while it was technically not false, it was also incomplete.

Illusion magic had a broader and more conceptual application, as it was the manipulation of the unreal.

This misconception came from the fact that most forms of illusion magic could only be used to trick a person's senses, and it was plenty powerful already, but with the right skill set, it was possible to fool more intangible targets, such as an enchantment.

Here, the strategy was to trick the coffins into thinking the other coffins were still sealed shut. It was complex, but Miyuki was good, and she had the necessary knowledge to pull it off.

Although she never expressed much interest in Runes, she had picked up a thing or two about it simply due to how much time she had spent with Ethan and his mother. And for any rune, she might not understand, her bond with Ethan helped a lot.

And this enchantment had little to do with Runes anyway, what she mainly had to rely on to get a grasp on the enchantment were her mind and magical sense, both of which she had a good mastery of, so it was not a problem.

Soon, the entire room was completely covered in the illusory mist, not only achieving the effect of near blindness but also allowing her illusion magic to affect all of the coffins.

With everything ready, Ethan deactivated the enchantment.