Seeing that the insects had been forced back for the moment and could no longer threaten the steps beneath his feet, Leonard let out a breath of relief. But his expression quickly turned serious again.
He was thinking about a very troubling question.
Where had these insects come from? And why had they been placed here?
The more he thought about the fact that their eggs had been set right at the entrance to the ruin, right where the ancient magic trial took place, the more uneasy he felt.
In a rushed situation, any Heir to Ancient Magic would lose the ability to fight after using that enormously draining ancient spell. If that happened, would they not be forced to face these insects with absolutely no way to resist?
That was practically a guaranteed death sentence.
The problem was that only an Heir to Ancient Magic should have been able to enter the ruin, or bring others in. Leonard counted as a special case because he relied on the Ancient Sprout, but aside from that, no one else should have been able to get in.
"So there's only one possibility left..."
"These insects were set here by some previous Heir to Ancient Magic?" Dumbledore said, already having seen through it all.
With Dumbledore's intelligence, he had no difficulty piecing together the cause and effect, so naturally he understood where the insects had come from.
But he was also puzzled. If it really had been a previous Heir to Ancient Magic... why would they do something like this?
A test? But if this was a test, it was far too harsh. It was essentially meant to kill people.
"That should be it." Leonard nodded. Thinking back to the memories that had surfaced in his mind, he had already formed a guess.
That predecessor of ancient magic had probably intended to kill from the very beginning. If their purpose in sealing ancient magic had been to let its power disappear from the world forever, then naturally they would not have left behind any proper inheritance for future generations.
Thinking about it that way, everything suddenly made sense.
Leonard recalled what he had encountered in the earlier ruins.
The giant statue in Vault Twelve, with its agile reactions against a charged ancient magic attack.
The map chamber beneath Hogwarts Castle, with its three murals that had been deliberately damaged.
And now, in this third ruin, a swarm of insects that could be activated by ancient magic.
It was obvious that that predecessor truly had not intended to leave any path of survival for those who came after.
Of course, that was not something suitable to tell Dumbledore. If this model of moral virtue heard that the last Heir to Ancient Magic had chosen to seal away ancient magic, then he would probably respect that predecessor's will as well.
And Leonard still wanted to see the true power of ancient magic for himself.
So he chose to play dumb and act as though he had no idea why there was such a deadly trial here. Perhaps, he thought dryly, it was simply a predecessor's profound love for the younger generation.
...
Boom.
With a loud rumble, the platform carrying the two of them and the phoenix slowly came to a halt.
Dumbledore and Leonard quickly stepped off and looked ahead.
In front of them was a vast hollow space, and at the far end stood a conspicuous stone chest.
The chest itself looked utterly ordinary. Its surface did not even have any patterns on it. If not for the obvious seam, at first glance it might have been mistaken for nothing more than an ordinary block of stone.
Two ancient blue Gubraithian flames illuminated this small area. It was the first time Leonard had ever seen this kind of everlasting magical fire.
That was probably the reward this ruin had left behind for the heir.
But now was not the time to focus on rewards. Behind them, the densely packed swarm of insects was still trying to break through the wall of flame, crawl up, and tear apart two wizards and one phoenix.
Dumbledore glanced back at the relentless swarm, then waved his wand and completely destroyed both the platform and the tree beneath it with fire.
A continuous string of explosions rose from the swarm below. Leonard leaned over to look and saw that the insects had not truly retreated. Instead, they were still climbing slowly upward along the smooth cliff face.
"Looks like we don't have much time," Dumbledore said. "Let's keep moving and see what's inside that stone chest."
Leonard did not object. He merely tightened his grip on the seed in his hand.
Now that he knew that ancient magic predecessor probably felt no goodwill at all toward him as a successor, he was even more wary of this ruin.
Still, based on what he had learned from the previous two ruins, even though that predecessor had clearly intended to kill, the underlying rules of the ruins themselves had not been altered.
Otherwise, with just a slight tampering to the transfer mechanism, Leonard probably would have been killed by a built-in trap the first time he ever stepped into a ruin. There would have been no need for that giant statue at all.
So the stone chest ahead should contain both the reward and the method of leaving this bizarre ruin, right?
Could it also contain a clue to the next ruin?
Leonard was not sure, but whatever was inside, he had to look.
Dumbledore did not approach. He simply watched Leonard walk toward the stone chest while he himself stood at the cliff's edge with Fawkes, keeping an eye on the insect swarm below in case it surged upward.
It really did have to be said that Dumbledore was extraordinarily principled. Even at a time like this, he still knew to leave Leonard a bit of private space.
Leonard came to the stone chest, looked it over, hesitated for a moment, then used his wand to pry it open.
The lid lifted, dust billowed out, and inside lay a piece of parchment that had been specially treated with magic. The dust could not settle on it, leaving the parchment perfectly clean.
Seeing that, Leonard pulled on the dragon-hide gloves he had prepared earlier and picked up the parchment, which gave off a faint blue glow.
Thankfully, it was not written in some obscure ancient script. It was in perfectly normal English.
As for what it said...
"The method for making ancient stone statues?" Leonard looked up in surprise after reading it.
What this parchment recorded was actually the crafting method for the guardian statues used inside ancient magic ruins.
It included not only the endlessly self-repairing stone statues, but also the giant kind that were immune to most magic.
Leonard had coveted those things for a long time already, especially the giant statues. They were practically strategic weapons.
"Some of the materials are a bit rare, but they wouldn't be hard to gather..." Leonard muttered, his eyes lighting up.
Of course, this could also be shared with Dumbledore as a useful gesture. While these statues were stronger than the animated stone guardian army of Hogwarts, they were still helpless when facing ancient magic.
If Dumbledore installed this sort of statue throughout Hogwarts, then the school would be practically undefended against Leonard.
That was not to say Leonard planned to do anything to Hogwarts. It was merely a very minor arrangement in case it ever mattered.
"Hmm... I'll share this with the Headmaster later," Leonard murmured.
As he spoke, he casually turned the parchment over, and then his eyes caught a line of writing on the back.
Leonard froze.
"This is..."