In Ciel's hands, the thick letter Tonks had sent painted scenes like a living hell. In the photo, an eerie, dilapidated house in Knockturn Alley was spattered with blood. Strangely, there were no large pieces of a corpse, only small shreds of flesh scattered through the room. The marks were brutally clear. Signs of a struggle were everywhere, as if a ravenous beast had killed its victim here, an allegedly nearly dead old dark wizard, and then fed.
Suppressing the chill roiling in his chest, Ciel finished the report. The Aurors' conclusion was that this seemed to be the monster's first kill. Judging from the scene, even subduing a black wizard on his last legs had cost it a fair amount of effort.
But in the following reports, the blood spatter diminished. Signs of struggle practically vanished. The creature's targets shifted from elderly dark wizards to younger ones. In the last incident discovered, the victim had been laid on a table, a tablecloth set beneath, cutlery neatly arranged, and a grotesque banquet setting. If the Aurors hadn't arrived, the poor victim likely wouldn't have had a scrap left. Even so, in a very short time, half the body had already been devoured.
Photo after photo of disappearance scenes, all rendered as moving magical images, made the horror painfully vivid, like it was right before the eyes. Ciel's expression turned as grave as granite.
The last victim, the one rapidly subdued and half eaten, was an elite Auror. Each elite Auror had passed through countless hunts against dark wizards to be certified, far stronger than ordinary wizards. Most dark wizards fled at the sight of an elite Auror. And yet, even a wizard that strong had ended up like this.
No wonder the matter had escalated while the Ministry kept the news buried, afraid of inciting public panic. But from the look of things, it wouldn't stay buried for long.
Still, Ciel cared more about what had created this slaughter.
Only when he reached the last report did he find traces taken from the scene. Among them was a single, very familiar, eerily crimson hair.
In that instant, his expression hardened to iron.
"Quintaped hair. It can't have escaped from Drear Island. And while Quintapeds have some intelligence, they aren't this cunning. Whoever did this understood Auror procedure intimately and even concealed feeding sites with magic. That leaves only one possibility…"
Ciel closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. "Whether willingly or by force, Quirrell has been changed. Voldemort used the Quintaped blood from Drear Island and performed black magic transfiguration on him. He's been turned into a Quintaped."
He remembered the bizarre, horrifying Quintapeds on Drear Island. Soon enough, Quirrell would return to Hogwarts in that form, frenziedly pursuing the Philosopher's Stone. A cold shudder ran through him.
There was nothing he could do about it. Elite Aurors were being one-shotted; was he supposed to comb Knockturn Alley for clues?
He shook his head. Slim as the hope was, he still wished the Ministry would get its act together, at least create problems for Quirrell, bleed away some of his power, and keep him from running rampant at Hogwarts. And Dumbledore, if he still wanted to play saviour games under these circumstances, had better at least put a leash on Quirrell.
Moments later, Ciel put away Tonks's letter and sent his reply. "I've seen that crimson hair in a library reference. It's Quintaped hair. A mere Quintaped couldn't do this; there must be black magic transfiguration involved."
That was all he could do, offer Tonks a lead. The rest wasn't his burden to carry.
Exhaling, he pulled his mind back from the horrors in the letter. Occlumency shuttered his negative emotions. What remained was cool, focused thought.
"After harvesting the Piranha Algae, I'm stronger. But if Quirrell black transfigures into a Quintaped, his power will far exceed what it was in the original timeline. The danger is on an entirely different level. My gains still aren't enough. While the Ministry keeps him tied up and he can't return to Hogwarts, I have to keep pushing my strength. Several plants are about to mature; harvest those rewards again, especially the new batch of Goldfish Vine, and I should metamorphose again. Beyond that, I need methods to counter a Quintaped."
He rifled through his memory for everything he had read about Quintapeds. Some magical creatures had terrifying power and bizarre weaknesses; the thousand-year basilisk was the deadliest of the 5X creatures, yet it feared roosters. Perhaps Quintapeds had quirks too?
But the results were disappointing. Unlike basilisks, with Slytherin and Herpo the Foul leaving records, Quintaped studies were mostly speculation and legend. Firsthanddata was rare, weaknesses rarer still. Many authors might have known less than Ciel did.
He frowned, then remembered something.
In the small greenhouse, there was a plant with a special reward. From that, he might pry out more Quintaped secrets, perhaps even discover a weakness.
His gaze snapped to a peculiar corner specimen, a new bioluminescent mushroom variant induced with Quintaped blood. Its cap was bristling with eerie red fuzz that made one's skin crawl. Its maturation would grant a Silver reward in Curses and an Iron reward in Quintaped Transfiguration.
[Curses (Silver) — pending maturation]
[Quintaped Transfiguration (Iron) — pending maturation]
He hadn't been keen on such crooked art, but now he saw it differently. That transfiguration would surely contain deep data on Quintapeds. A countermeasure might be buried inside.
But it wasn't ready to harvest yet, and might not ripen before Quirrell's return. Even harvesting, learning the Quintaped Transfiguration, and analysing it for weaknesses would take time, likely not in time. Harvesting early would only yield Bronze level Curses, no Quintaped Transfiguration.
He scowled.
Just then, sensing his approach, the mushroom's crimson fuzz began to wave, as if thirsting for blood. This variant's hunger for blood surpassed Blood Jade's, no doubt heavily influenced by Quintaped blood.
And that gave Ciel an idea.
"The last time I fed Blood Jade and this variant, my Legendary Life hadn't ascended. All my maturation forecasts were based on that. Now, after one ascension, my life level has transformed. If I blood water it now, will it change the result?"
He slashed his palm, misting a spray of blood. The life force within roiled richer than ever.
The mushroom's crimson fuzz thrashed wildly, as if maddened, whipping through the crimson mist and guzzling this singular blood.
When it finished, a faint, distorted face formed among the red fuzz, chittering with incomprehensible excitement.
Ciel's lip curled with instinctive distaste. As expected, anything tainted by Quintapeds, even plants induced by their blood, reeked of wrongness. No austere beauty like Blood Jade, only the stench of malice.
Thankfully, more numerous and nearly ripe Patron Trees infused the greenhouse with holy magic. However sinister the mushroom was, it was still just a Silver tier plant; it couldn't break the Patron Trees' suppression.
When he looked again, the reward orb above the mushroom had swollen visibly, then continued swelling at a slower but still much faster pace, about thirty percent faster than before. He smiled.
[Growth Acceleration — Blood-Triggered Threshold Crossed]
That meant this variant's harvest wasn't far off. He might just extract Quintaped Transfiguration in time to find a counter before Quirrell returned.
He had no intention of meddling in the affair, but preparation to avoid accidents had always been his way. If Quirrell came back and fixated on him, he refused to pin his fate on someone else's whims again.
But his ascension had only granted the Unburnt trait, nothing about accelerating plant growth. Why did it push this mushroom so well?
He pondered and found the answer.
"The sudden surge in the reward orb and the mushroom sprouting a face are linked. That face is probably a maturation threshold. It wasn't close before. But after my current blood, it vaulted over in one go. After crossing that threshold, growth stays accelerated, but the effect is far less dramatic. So, my ascended Legendary Life raised my life tier, my blood now carries something that helps bloodthirsty plants break growth bottlenecks and metamorphose."
His thoughts flashed to the third batch of Blood Jade, the group induced with dragon blood, Acromantula blood, and North Sea Kraken blood. That batch had shown platinum glints early on, a leap from Silver to Platinum thanks to triple blood induction, but it had stalled, its reward orb flickering, the metamorphosis arduous.
Could his ascended blood help that metamorphosis?
He decided to try. Dragon blood and Kraken blood were always available, Acromantula blood was a mere errand now that his power had outpaced predictions.
He misted another veil of blood over the third group.
Mid-metamorphosis Blood Jade wasn't as sensitive to blood, until the first drop of his ascended blood soaked in. At once, its reward orb brightened noticeably, the once blurry reward text sharpening by the heartbeat. Where an unguessable wait had loomed, the process now fast forwarded.
When the mist was fully absorbed, deep blue radiance, like the colour of the ocean, bloomed on the Blood Jade. Staring into it felt like staring into the sea.
[Blood Jade — Metamorphosis Triggered]
On the panel, fresh lines unfurled:
[You induced Blood Jade with Dragon Blood, Acromantula Blood, and North Sea Kraken Blood.]
[Blood Jade has undergone metamorphosis.]
[When this Blood Jade is grown to maturity, you will gain]
[Regrow Limbs (Platinum)]
[Ink Escape (Gold)]
[Vortex (Silver)]