There was a passage written on the parchment, a passage that looked drenched in blood.
[Stop where you are. This power should belong to no one.]
Leonard had no idea what kind of ink had been used. It had supposedly sat here for nearly a century, yet the writing still looked as rich and vivid as fresh blood, as though it might drip right off the parchment at any moment.
He stared at the words for a moment, stunned.
Then the corners of his mouth lifted, and a wild smile spread across his face.
"What a joke."
Magic wrapped around Leonard's palm as he casually brushed it across the writing, using the power of Transfiguration to wipe away the line of ink, whatever it had been made from.
"If it belongs to no one, then I'll take it. Besides, I don't really want to stay human anyway."
Still grinning, Leonard watched as the stone chest before him crumbled into dust and transformed into a floating mysterious symbol.
"How's it going over there? Those bugs are breaking through!" Dumbledore called from a distance.
"I found the exit, Headmaster. You can come over now," Leonard called back.
Dumbledore came over at once and glanced at the parchment in Leonard's hand. Leonard did not hesitate at all and simply handed it over.
"I found this in the chest. It's a method for making ancient magic stone statues," Leonard said.
"Stone statues?" Dumbledore had never seen the statues inside the ruins, so he did not yet understand how valuable the instructions were.
"I'll explain once we're out of here." Leonard looked back at the insect swarm climbing up from below, trying to surround the two of them, then grabbed Dumbledore's sleeve and activated the mysterious symbol with his other hand.
Silver light swallowed Leonard, Dumbledore, and Fawkes. But just before the light fully engulfed them, a tiny black opening appeared beside Leonard, and a vigorous little seed slipped out of it.
When the glow faded, the two wizards and the phoenix had disappeared from the spot. Left behind, the insect swarm lost its target and froze for a moment before erupting into confused, chaotic movement.
Then a single seed struck the shell of one of the insects.
Startled, the insect immediately twitched.
Crack.
The seed took root and sprouted. Countless tiny roots burrowed into the insect's body, and intense pain struck at once, sending the creature rolling wildly on the ground.
But after only a short time, it stopped moving and stood there stiffly like a corpse.
The surrounding insects did not understand what was happening and continued to crowd around it as part of the swarm. Then in the next instant, that frozen insect used its enormous mouthparts to tear apart the insects beside it.
The surrounding insects froze for a second.
Then they all lunged at the traitor, intending to rip it apart.
That insect seemed to possess endless stamina. It overturned and shredded many of its own kind, but in the end, one against many was still hopeless. Eventually, another insect seized an opening and tore it open.
Inside its split body, countless roots writhed.
Before the swarm could react, the insect that should already have been dead started moving again.
With the swarm packed so densely together, those roots had no shortage of new hosts. With the slightest movement they found bodies to invade. Root after root pierced into nearby insects, infecting them and leaving them dazed. Then, the moment they were touched, they too began slaughtering everything around them in mad frenzy.
The swarm, which had been orderly and united against a common enemy, collapsed into total chaos.
They began tearing one another apart, and the dense sounds of their fighting echoed across the cliffside.
Then came a rapid series of explosions.
One after another, those insects that had killed and devoured so many others burst apart, and from their shattered corpses grew bright red sprouts.
Those sprouts swayed in the middle of the insect swarm, using the broken bodies littering the ground as nourishment. After devouring enough insect remains, they quickly matured into full-grown Parasitic Pods.
The plump pods cracked open slightly, then burst, launching bean seeds in all directions.
Some landed on the ground. Some landed directly on insects. Wherever they landed, they rooted and sprouted instantly, consuming every bit of nutrition around them and growing at terrifying speed.
One seedling after another sprang up along the cliffside, and each one represented a vast number of insects being wiped out.
Far below, the surviving swarm was still climbing upward. With Leonard gone, the ancient magic had ended, and no more insects were hatching, but the ones left behind still numbered in the tens of millions.
But there was only one future left for them now.
To become fertilizer for the Parasitic Pods.
Under the influence of Leonard's enhanced talent, plants that could grow regardless of terrain were far more terrifying than those nameless insects.
Inside the cave at the cliff's edge, the ancient Gubraithian fire still flickered, faintly illuminating the little patch of space around it.
Those flames would be the only witnesses to the extinction of the swarm.
...
On the lush green grass, Fawkes spread his wings and let out a clear, delighted cry as he soared into the sky.
That restriction back there had nearly driven him mad. If he could not fly higher than five meters, he might as well have been reduced to a walking chicken.
Dumbledore watched the carefree Fawkes, but there was no trace of relief on his face after surviving the ordeal.
He turned to Leonard and asked, "Where exactly is that ancient magic ruin located?"
Dumbledore was still worried about those insect swarms. If they ever escaped the ruin and reached the outside world, it would be a disaster.
Not everyone could combine flames the way he had just done, using ordinary fire alongside phoenix fire to drive those things back.
"I don't know," Leonard said, shaking his head. "All the ruins are entered and exited through transfer magic."
The true locations of ancient magic ruins were a secret. The doors were only linked through transfer magic, so the position of the door did not reveal the actual location of the ruin itself. Leonard had already visited three ruins and still had no idea where they truly existed.
Take the ruin linked to Gringotts Vault Twelve, for example. That ruin was definitely not near Gringotts. Otherwise, the greedy goblins would have dug it out long ago and gotten themselves killed by that giant statue.
"But Headmaster, you don't need to worry too much. Those ancient ruins should have protective measures of their own. Those insects probably can't get out," Leonard said.
He understood Dumbledore's concern. He was worried about those things too, which was exactly why he had left behind a little insurance policy before departing, enough to make sure those disgusting creatures would be wiped out completely.
"Let's hope so," Dumbledore said.
But inwardly, he was already planning to ask a few old friends to keep an eye on those ancient ruins. If the insects really did get out, they would need to be ready to respond.
"All right, let's go back. Come sit with me in the Headmaster's office for a while," Dumbledore said. He glanced at the parchment in his hand, then returned it to Leonard.
"As for this parchment," Dumbledore said, "there are still a few things about it that I'd like you to explain."