A trace of surprise flashed across Dumbledore's face.
Link's way of responding had already gone beyond his expectations.
Fortunately, his rich combat experience allowed him to quickly adjust his emotions and raise his wand to prepare a counterattack.
However, just as he was about to move, he suddenly felt a dull pain burst inside his chest.
The feeling was as if countless invisible giant hands were squeezing his internal organs from all directions with all their strength.
Under this sudden change, the light that had just gathered at the tip of his wand instantly went out.
At the same time, Link had already rushed in front of Dumbledore. His left hand and wand crossed again, making almost the same starting move as when he had just crushed the magic wave.
Alarm bells rang loudly in Dumbledore's mind.
The originally flickering light on the Elder Wand suddenly became dazzlingly bright.
"Burst!"
BOOM!
Along with a deafening explosion, the air in front of Link exploded again.
But this time, there was nothing in front of Link. Dumbledore's figure was nowhere to be seen.
Seeing this, Link shook his head. A hint of disappointment flashed in his eyes, which were already filled with a blue glow.
He saw it very clearly. At the most critical moment, Dumbledore had used the headmaster's authority to break Hogwarts' restrictions and Apparated away.
This was the drawback of the LV7 Refill Spell.
Using this new ability, Link could indeed use pure physical high-damage moves like air cannons, and he could also set up large-area pressure fields similar to barriers or restriction zones.
But both of these abilities had their own limits.
First was the air cannon.
Its power was directly proportional to the charging time.
In intense battles, it was very hard for Link to find a chance to fully charge it perfectly.
And even if he did, the enemy could use that short window of time to escape, just like Dumbledore had just done.
As for the pressure field…
Link looked up and saw Dumbledore floating in the sky, his whole body giving off a brilliant golden light.
The light was so intense that it formed a halo in Link's vision, like the sun.
The reason for such a spectacular scene was entirely because Dumbledore was continuously releasing the magic inside his body, and using a method Link could not understand to condense it into a layer around his body that kept strengthening itself, a magic layer that could both attack and defend.
And the pressure field was useless against Dumbledore while he was inside that magic layer.
Taking a deep breath, Link chose to stop holding back.
He also removed the spatial restrictions Hogwarts had placed on him. Holding a mist sword in one hand and charging an air cannon with the other like forming a Rasengan, he flashed and appeared in front of Dumbledore.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
For a moment, explosions rang out without end.
Link and Dumbledore both flashed through the air at continuous high speed at a pace impossible for normal people to understand.
Each time they paused, brilliant golden magic would collide with mist, flames, or exploding air cannon blasts, cancel each other out, and turn into magic light dust filling the sky.
And in such an intense clash, Link's mist armor finally finished storing energy.
Looking at the mist armor on Link's body, which was twisting nonstop and clearly extremely unstable, Dumbledore frowned deeply.
Based on past experience, Link was probably about to split off a mist clone and launch a suicide-style steam bomb attack.
And if that attack was combined with Link's newly gained atmospheric pressure ability, the power might reach a level even he might not be able to withstand.
After all, Voldemort had fallen to this move.
"Hoo...", Dumbledore took a deep breath.
The Elder Wand moved slightly, and the magic layer surrounding him began to change again.
The dazzling golden brilliance that was so bright it was hard to look at slowly became softer, eventually forming a white light that carried a holy feeling.
If an ordinary person stared at that white light, they would probably faintly hear something like a holy choir in their mind.
Clearly, this was Dumbledore's magic form when his combat power was fully unleashed.
Just like Voldemort, as a veteran legendary wizard, Dumbledore had also specially developed his own magic, forming a rare power unique to himself.
And judging from the feeling it gave off, Dumbledore's energy seemed to follow a positive energy path, and was even purer than Voldemort's.
Dumbledore was about to get serious.
But at that moment, while looking at Dumbledore who was ready to strike, Link suddenly did something that almost made Dumbledore cough up blood.
He waved his wand and directly dispersed the mist armor around his body.
This clearly meant stopping the fight. Not fighting anymore.
As the hot mist rose, Link's skin was slightly red, but there was a mischievous smile on his lips.
That smile made Dumbledore's breathing become rapid and his blood pressure rise. He almost wanted to throw the magic bullet he had been preparing straight at him.
'I just got beaten down for so long, finally got serious, and was about to properly exchange moves with you.'
'And now you stop?'
'Is this because you can't afford to keep playing?'
Dumbledore stood there for quite a while before he gradually calmed down.
Angry as he was, excited as he was, he was still quite relieved that Link had stopped in time.
This showed good judgment.
After all, with their current strength, if they had really exchanged killing moves just now, the two of them probably would have been fine, but the Room of Requirement would have suffered.
This was a precious treasure as old as Hogwarts Castle itself. Many of the rare materials used to build it were already extinct, and repairing it would be extremely difficult.
For something this old, it was better to preserve it properly so future generations could continue using it.
While Dumbledore was going through intense thoughts inside, Link was looking at the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's hand with a face full of envy.
This was one of the legendary Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand.
Before, Link's strength had not been enough, and he had never used it personally, so he couldn't really sense it.
But after fighting Dumbledore just now, Link could clearly feel it.
This Elder Wand truly deserved its title as a Deathly Hallow, the strongest wand.
Normal wands all have their own attribute tendencies. This was one of the reasons Ollivander said the wand chooses the wizard.
For example, the one in Link's hand, ebony wood with a phoenix feather core, thirteen inches.
It was more suited to various types of offensive magic and Transfiguration, and better matched people with courage.
Or the one Link first received, larch wood with a dragon heartstring core, ten and a quarter inches.
That wand was more suited for positive-energy type magic, such as the Patronus Charm.
But the Elder Wand was different.
This legendary wand had no bias at all.
Of course, that didn't mean it was average or had no strengths.
It meant that in every aspect, it had reached the extreme.
Whether it was magic conductivity, magic conversion efficiency, spell amplification, or magic control.
The Elder Wand was several times stronger than other specialized wands.
In the fight just now, there were several moments where Dumbledore relied on the Elder Wand's excellent qualities to escape danger and maintain an even match with Link.
Otherwise, just from the moment when Dumbledore was hit at close range by Link's air cannon at the beginning, Dumbledore would have had to enter full power mode to resist it, and would not have been able to Apparate at all.
Also, that was only the Elder Wand's normal state.
Based on the state Dumbledore entered during his final burst just now, the Elder Wand probably had other unknown modes that had not been revealed.
This really was… something to envy…
"Tsk tsk…"
Link smacked his lips and said testingly, "Professor Dumbledore, you said before, right? When the time is right, you'll give me the Resurrection Stone."
Hearing this, Dumbledore instinctively wanted to nod.
He had indeed promised this.
He wasn't actually as obsessed with the Resurrection Stone as Link thought. If it weren't closely tied to his plans, and if he wasn't worried Link might lose control, he wouldn't even mind giving it to Link right now.
But the next moment, he realized something was wrong.
Link's gaze seemed a bit too intense.
And the thing he was staring at seemed to be…
Dumbledore followed Link's gaze and quickly noticed the Elder Wand in his own hand!
'WTF!?'
Dumbledore almost cursed out loud.
'Is this kid really this greedy?'
'He even wants the Elder Wand?'
Dumbledore looked completely stunned.
Seeing that Dumbledore hadn't spoken for a long time, Link said eagerly, "When the time comes, you might as well give me the Elder Wand too! Anyway, you won't be using it after that, right?"
As soon as these words came out, Dumbledore subconsciously pulled the Elder Wand back, and his chest began rising and falling violently.
"Cough cough cough…"
He coughed hard a few times, as if suppressing the urge to curse. "There's nothing wrong with young people liking legendary stories, but don't get too obsessed."
"The legend of the Deathly Hallows is false. They're actually just some ordinary magic items with nothing special."
"Even if you collect all of them, you still won't be able to defeat death. That much, I've already proven myself.", Dumbledore spoke very sincerely.
He even opened his mental defenses so Link could see he wasn't lying.
But it didn't help.
Link still looked at Dumbledore with clear disdain.
As if he were looking at a miser.
This made Dumbledore even more embarrassed.
He waved his hand and quickly changed the subject, "Back to the main topic. Your earlier guess wasn't wrong. Your current strength can indeed match that of a standard legendary wizard."
"But only in terms of combat ability."
"I believe you understand this as well, right?"
Link nodded.
His advancement path was actually completely different from traditional wizards.
At present, much of his strength depended on the system panel, in other words, the help of the King's Blood.
This gave Link a terrifying growth speed in strength, but it also placed some limits on him.
For example, magic understanding.
Normal legendary wizards advanced by understanding magic.
But Link was lacking in this area.
This meant that even though he now had combat power comparable to a legendary wizard, and had gained control over curse magic, he still couldn't freely control other types of magic like Dumbledore and Voldemort.
But Link felt this weakness might not be impossible to fix.
Based on the knowledge Link currently had, the power of curses was actually just a variant of the purest form of magic.
At the same time, dark spells like the Severing Charm and the Killing Curse were specific spells under the category of curse power.
Right now, the situation was that by upgrading the Severing Charm's skill level, Link had successfully gained control over curse power.
And after that, through that control, he further increased the skill levels of other dark spells like the Killing Curse.
So following this logic, if the Severing Charm's level was raised to a certain point, could Link also reverse-derive the most fundamental and pure magic control, and then raise the skill levels of all spells?
If this step really worked, then it could also count as a kind of magic understanding.
And compared to ordinary legendary wizards, a legendary wizard like Link who advanced through the King's Blood system would have combat power beyond imagination.
But if he really wanted to walk this path, the source of golden skill points would become a new problem.
Right now, his Severing Charm was already at LV8. To raise it to level 9, Link still needed four whole golden skill points.
This was almost an impossible task.
So was there any other more practical way to solve this and keep upgrading the Severing Charm?
Of course there was.
Link almost instantly lowered his head and looked at the dark golden experience bar of the Severing Charm, which was already filled to nearly one-third.
This experience bar had appeared after the Department of Mysteries incident, when he absorbed the King's Blood from the severed arm of the shadow figure.
And relying on the King's Blood from that arm, several of Link's other skills had also greatly improved.
So the remaining steps became very simple.
Find those shadow figures, and Voldemort.
'Then kill them all!'
That way, not only would he obtain more King's Blood, he would also definitely gain many Horcruxes.
Because in a sense, those shadow figures were also Horcruxes.
Their forms had just changed a bit, becoming able to move independently and becoming stronger.
And because of that change, the rewards Link could get from them might even be richer.
Having made up his mind, the focus returned to Link's previously distracted eyes. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, forming a cruel smile.
At this moment, Dumbledore, who had stayed silent all this time without interrupting Link's thoughts, suddenly said, "You've already decided to go to France?"
"Of course not. Why would you think that?" Link quickly adjusted his expression and played dumb.
"France is very likely the base of those shadow figures. Without confidence, I wouldn't go there alone."
Hearing this, Dumbledore shook his head and said with a complicated expression, "I know that expression too well. That's the look you get after making an extremely important decision."
"And combined with the killing intent that just leaked from you, I think you've already been tempted. You want to use the King's Blood to fix the flaws in your system, don't you?"
Link didn't speak. He just looked calmly at Dumbledore.
Since he had already been seen through, there was no point pretending anymore.
And even if Dumbledore saw through him, it didn't matter.
He was no longer who he used to be.
From every angle, he now stood as Dumbledore's equal.
Link couldn't interfere too much with Dumbledore, but at the same time, Dumbledore also couldn't stop something Link had already decided.
Dumbledore clearly understood this too.
He sighed and suddenly looked up and said, "Actually, this isn't such a bad thing. I support you doing this. But just like you said before, France is still too dangerous. So this time, I'll go with you!"