Chapter 23: The Night Emperor

Thud.

The Black-robed Person crashed heavily to the stone floor, his unnatural flight stolen from him in an instant. He lay there for a moment, stunned and bewildered, the impact jarring his bones. He had not been struck by a spell. His own magic had not failed. Yet, in that single moment, his body had been wrested from his control, as if the very concept of gravity had become a weapon against him. It was as if the space itself had forbidden him to fly.

What he found most incredible, most terrifying, was the complete absence of any magical fluctuation he could recognize. This was not a wizard's spell. This was something else entirely.

He struggled to raise his head, his gaze sweeping the cavern, searching for the source of this impossible power. There, floating in the oppressive darkness, was a figure. It was a phantom woven from shadow and authority, and it radiated an aura of majesty so profound that it felt like blasphemy to even look upon it. The robed wizard felt an instinctual, primal fear, as if he had stumbled into the presence of a god.

It had no face, no discernible form, shifting like condensed smoke or melting mist. It was both real and illusory, a paradox given form. Its right hand was extended, not in a threat, but in a simple, prohibitive gesture. This was the source. This was the being that had spoken in a language he did not know—a tongue that sounded like the grinding of tectonic plates and the whisper of dead stars—and had rewritten the laws of reality with a single phrase.

Did such power even exist in this world?

Without a doubt, the phantom in the sky was Dudley.

By activating Trunsoest's Brass Book with his own blood, he had temporarily transcended his physical form. His spirit, wrapped around the powerful Sealed Artifact, had ascended, allowing him to manifest this spiritual body—a fleeting state of near-demigod power. But the state was unstable. His own spiritual strength was a flickering candle trying to power a lighthouse. He was borrowing this authority from the Brass Book, and the cost was immense.

Sprawled on the ground, the Black-robed Person recovered from his shock. He raised his wand, the tip already glowing with a sickly green light. "Avada…"

He never finished the word.

"Psychic Piercing!" The command was not spoken, but projected directly from Dudley's phantom form. It was a Sequence 7 Interrogator ability, a direct assault not on the mind, but on the very essence of a being's spiritual body.

A wave of invisible force slammed into the Black-robed Person. He screamed, a raw, guttural sound of pure agony, his spell fizzling out. It felt as if a white-hot spike had been driven through his skull. He couldn't think, couldn't focus, couldn't even breathe.

Hmm? From his elevated perspective, Dudley's phantom eyes narrowed. When he had pierced the wizard's spirit, he had sensed something strange—an impurity, a dissonance, as if another, weaker consciousness was tangled within it.

At that moment, the high-pitched shriek of Gringotts' alarms echoed from above, followed by the sight of several misty white pillars of light descending rapidly. The bank's security was finally arriving.

The Black-robed Person, realizing the danger, forced himself to his feet, intent on escape.

"Imprison!" Dudley commanded, pushing his spectral hand forward. The Hermes language flowed from him, activating a law from a Sequence 6 Judge. This was the last, most powerful ability he could unleash before his spiritual power was completely depleted.

You forced me to use the Brass Book, Dudley thought, a cold fury rising within him. You will not escape. He didn't need to kill the wizard himself; he just had to hold him until the Gringotts guards arrived.

As the law took hold, the very air around the Black-robed Person thickened, congealing into a dense, viscous liquid that wrapped around him like spectral chains. The liquid hardened, layer by layer, into translucent, shimmering amber, trapping him in a solid cage of pure law, a prison from which even a spirit could not escape.

"Who dares invade Gringotts!"

"Invader, die!"

The angry cries of the Gringotts wizards echoed as they drew closer.

But then, something unexpected happened.

BOOM!

The amber prison exploded from within. A terrifying wave of black and red flame erupted from the robed figure's body, sweeping outwards in all directions. The power he unleashed was far greater than anything he had shown before. The Imprisonment law shattered like glass.

The next moment, the wizard dissolved into a stream of black smoke, fleeing into the labyrinthine tunnels at an impossible speed, vanishing without a trace.

"He escaped," Dudley's phantom form murmured, his projection flickering. He hadn't expected the Imprisonment law to fail. That final burst of power… it was on another level. Was he hiding his strength? Or was it something else? He sensed a deep-seated disharmony in the wizard's power, a fundamental disorder. But his contact had been too brief to analyze it further.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Several Gringotts wizards in crimson and gold uniforms landed nearby, their wands drawn. They stared up at the illusory black phantom, their faces a mixture of awe and fear. The sheer majestic aura emanating from the figure made them want to avert their eyes, but their duty compelled them to face it. It seemed to be a person, but not a real one—a projection, its face a blurry, shifting void.

"Who… Who are you, Your Excellency?" the lead wizard asked, his voice trembling as he fought against the overwhelming pressure. They had seen the phantom stop the intruder. But who was he? And how had he appeared deep within Gringotts?

Dudley's spectral form turned its featureless face toward the wizard. A single, cold glance was enough to make the battle-hardened guard bow his head, unable to meet its gaze.

Two words echoed in the cavern, spoken in perfect, chilling English.

"Night Emperor."

With that, Dudley released his hold on the Brass Book. His spiritual body dissolved into motes of shadow and light, dissipating completely, leaving no trace that it had ever been there at all.

***

(End of Chapter)

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