At the same time, flames erupted around his body and wrapped him completely, making him look like an enormous fireball.
Rhys raised an eyebrow.
Why was he getting serious?
He suddenly remembered what had happened when Rowena and Helga regained consciousness.
They had done the same thing.
They had both used their domains.
Why did every single one of them decide to attack him as soon as they regained their senses?
Rhys hurried deeper into the dungeon.
He had no desire to fight Gryffindor while he was furious.
If they were going to fight, they should at least find somewhere more open.
Fighting inside that little room really could cause a collapse.
When Godric and Salazar disappeared from the room one after the other, Rowena's eyes lit up.
She immediately circulated her magic with all her strength and began working to break Salazar's Full Body-Bind Curse.
A few minutes later, Rowena successfully broke the spell and regained her freedom.
Seeing her friend escape the restraint, Helga immediately brightened.
Since Rowena was free now, surely she would help remove Helga's curse as well.
To Helga's surprise, however, the first thing Rowena did after regaining her freedom was rush out of the dungeon like a gust of wind.
Helga: "?"
She felt that her friendship with Rowena had officially reached its end.
Not long after Rowena ran off, Helga suddenly realized something.
At last, she understood why Salazar had used the Full Body-Bind Curse on them.
He had not wanted to give either of them the chance to use a magical item to record what had just happened.
Naturally, Helga then realized that Salazar would probably erase their memories of the song.
How could she allow that?!
Helga felt that the entertainment for the rest of her life depended on that song. There was absolutely no way Salazar was going to erase it.
With that thought, she hurriedly began breaking the Full Body-Bind Curse on herself.
Before long, she regained her freedom just as Rowena had.
The first thing Helga did after freeing herself was extract the memory from her mind and place it inside a small crystal vial.
She tossed the vial onto the ground, and it sank into the earth.
Being skilled at controlling soil, Helga used the ground itself to carry the crystal vial all the way to her private classroom, ensuring that nothing could happen to it.
Not long after she finished backing up the memory, Rowena returned.
Their eyes met, and they exchanged a look of mutual understanding.
One seemed to be asking, 'Mine's done. What about yours?'
The other seemed to answer, 'Of course. Everything's taken care of.'
Now that the most important matter had been dealt with, the two quietly waited inside the small room for Salazar and Godric to return.
A few minutes later, Rhys and Godric came back one after the other.
Both wore calm, peaceful expressions, as though nothing had happened at all.
The moment the two entered, however, the atmosphere in the room became subtle.
Only then did Salazar, Helga, and Rowena realize something.
This seemed to be the first time the four of them had truly gathered together again in a thousand years.
Ever since Salazar Slytherin had stormed away from Hogwarts in anger a millennium ago, nearly ten centuries had passed without the four of them sitting together like this.
Now that they had finally reunited, only Helga and Godric remained largely unchanged.
Rowena and Salazar, on the other hand, had practically been reborn.
In an instant, the little room seemed to become extraordinary, as though it had suddenly gained historical significance, like the stable in Bethlehem.
All four fell silent.
None of them knew what to say.
After an unknown amount of time, Rhys finally broke the silence.
"Welcome back, Godric."
Gryffindor raised an eyebrow.
"Shouldn't I be saying that to you, Salazar? If I remember correctly, someone once said..."
"Please call me Rhys." Rhys's expression remained blank. "Rhys Lint. That Salazar is already dead. I'm a completely new person now. So the one who returned to Hogwarts is Rhys Lint, not Salazar Slytherin."
Gryffindor responded by blowing his nose loudly.
This fellow was still as good as ever at twisting logic.
Still, Godric did not dwell on the issue for long.
He lowered his head and looked at his battered body, then could not help complaining.
"What exactly did you three do to my body? This one was obviously Rowena's doing. This one has Salazar written all over it. And Helga, look at this. There are still little stones embedded in the wound."
His hands moved over his body as he identified the origin of each injury.
Rhys, Helga, and Rowena stood together in the corner of the room, as though all three had suddenly become mute.
They had been trying to capture Loki at the time, but it was also true that they had beaten Godric's body into a terrible state.
After quite a while, Godric finally finished inspecting the wounds across his upper body.
Then he noticed the problem with his arm.
"Rowena, was this your doing?!"
"I can explain."
"Loki was occupying your body..."
Gryffindor: "..."
He tried to convince himself.
And before long, he let it go.
His old friends had not done anything wrong.
If their positions had been reversed, he would have done the same thing.
If anyone was to blame, it could only be himself for being careless all those years ago and giving Loki an opening.
"So, do you have any miracle medicine or something? I'm not going to lie, this actually hurts quite a bit."
Godric held out his hand toward his three old friends.
The three quickly dispelled the power of their respective domains still lingering in his body, while Rhys also pulled out several potions that accelerated wound healing.
Godric took the potions and straightforwardly applied them to his injuries.
His wounds visibly began improving.
After dealing with the ordinary injuries, Godric turned his attention to the large severed section at his elbow.
"Did Loki stitch this himself? His craftsmanship is awful."
Godric could not help criticizing it before extending his arm toward Rowena.
Rowena raised her hand and thoughtfully cut Godric's arm off again.
With the assistance of wind magic, the cut was extremely smooth.
Rowena had also taken care to follow the original wound, minimizing any additional damage.
"Thanks."
Godric curled his lip, then very carefully reattached his arm.
His craftsmanship this time was far more refined than Loki's had been.
Once the arm was reattached, Godric moved it around and found that it worked quite smoothly.
With that, all of Godric's old injuries had finally been treated.
Feeling comfortable from head to toe, Godric stretched.
The joints throughout his body produced a series of loud cracks and pops.
"Come on. Let me see what Hogwarts looks like a thousand years later."
After finishing his stretch, Godric spoke to Rhys and the other two.
He had been looking forward to seeing Hogwarts after a millennium.
Before, he had only caught a fleeting glimpse and never had the chance to look around properly.
Now, he finally had the opportunity.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI