Chapter 67: Arc 2: Chapter 22: Little Wizard’s Letter

When Hermione informed Merlin about the detection ward that stimulated the dark mana inside him, he planned to leave the city in the fastest time possible.

On the night in the restaurant, after the dark mana broke through the limit, Merlin could feel the dark mana inside him corrupting his soul at a rapid pace every hour.

This was the beginning of the demonization, first, the soul, like a piece of paper, would be thrown into a puddle of ink; when it's completely soaked in ink, it'll become one with the ink.

After the soul is filled with darkness, it'll become distorted, and then the physical body begins to change.

Merlin did not want to turn from a regular person into a distorted half-demon within a month.

As he bid Hermione farewell, Hermione took a drop of Merlin's blood as a beacon for some kind of magic.

The little girl's house was in fact just a street away from the restaurant; one could tell from the apartment young Hermione lives in, that her family was the wealthy type.

Merlin escorts Hermione to the apartment, then returns to the hotel in the fastest way possible, packs his clothes, and leaves London on the nearest train.

His destination was a small coastal city an hour away from London, it was a famous local tourist attraction where Merlin could hide more effectively.

And this was the perfect reason for leave, when they communicated on the phone, agent Garrett did not hesitate and directly accepted Merlin's leave request, and like a qualified senior, he tells Merlin to have a good leave and rest.

Unfortunately, now was yet the time for Merlin to tell him his secrets.

On the third day after leaving London.

It was sunset, Merlin leaned against the chair by the bed wearing his casual clothing. The cold wind blew onto Merlin, and the near-winter breeze made the room feel ice-cold, yet Merlin's heart was slightly anxious.

A cloud of black fog that did not disperse flickered on his fingers like some weird adornment, making Merlin's finger look like a blown-out candle.

This was not him actively using his fog ability.

It was the emission of the rapidly growing dark mana in his soul, this not dispersing black smoke represented Merlin's faltering soul. But the good news was that the spread-out dark mana was not as uncontrollable as it was 2 years ago, it was gentle and would not concur misfortune as it used to.

The bad news was that the mana emitting from Merlin's body was too massive, and it was overworking the shell pendant the Atlantean Vulko had given him; he drank as much water as he could, but the purification powers of the pendant were becoming insignificant when facing Merlin's ever-growing mana.

The originally sparkling shell had dimmed, and there were cracks all over the surface.

If this keeps up, Merlin suspects that the pendant would stop working within at most a day. And once the only thing Merlin has to suppress the mana corruption was damaged, Merlin's condition would further worsen.

"Bam"

A weak impact made the contemplating Merlin raise his head. In his dark senses, Merlin could feel that a small source of vitality was trying to enter Merlin's house from the other side.

The vitality...was odd, it had a faint trace of mana.

Merlin stands up and walks to the window, then he sees...

A cat.

A cat was lying in the cold wind as its fluffy fur swayed with the wind.

The cat had a small, delicate backpack that was buttoned onto the cat like clothing. To be honest, this was an ugly cat, probably the ugliest cat Merlin had seen.

It had a squashed face as if it had slammed into something. And from the front, the cat looked to be somewhat unhappy.

But the cat had sharp eyes, in those yellow pupils were a light of wisdom.

After seeing Merlin, the cat extends its paw and, like knocking on the door, pats on Merlin's window. The latter walks forward and opens the window, then the cat storms into the room, finds the warmest spot, curls up, and meows cozily.

It seemed that its journey here had not been a cozy one.

"Uhh, are you Hermione's messenger?"

Merlin did not know how to handle this intelligent cat, moments later, he walks into the kitchen and walks out with a can of beef in his hand.

Merlin opens the can, the cat abruptly raises its head after smelling the fragrance; it changes to a sitting position while looking at Merlin with its tail swaying around.

Merlin places the can in front of the overly smart cat. The latter meows, turns around, and exposes the backpack on its back at Merlin; all while it lowers its head and begins enjoying its dinner.

In the backpack was a letter, on the letter, was a sentence Hermione had written down:

"Merlin, I asked Crookshanks to deliver this letter to you. Do take good care of my cat, and remember to bring it back to me the next time you return to London."

"ps: Don't let it have too much meat, it's on a diet, thank you."

"Oh, so you're called Crookshank, what an odd name."

Merlin glances at the fat cat, the latter was indulged in its food and ignored Merlin with a cat's usual haughtiness. Merlin did not interrupt its meal, he took the letter and returned to the balcony.

He opened the letter, on it was a graceful font, like the graceful words in ancient books.

"Merlin:"

"I'm currently spending my holidays in my friend Ron's home, his family is one of the famous pure-blood wizarding families. You should thank the generosity of Ron's parents, as they allowed me to read through their family collections, and I finally found a way to solve your current issue."

"Please don't skip to the back of the letter for the method, and patiently read through the passage I've excerpted."

Reading this, Merlin was relieved, Hermione had finally helped him find a method.

It was difficult.

As Hermione told him, Merlin did not open the second letter page, instead, he patiently read on.

The following passage must've been excerpted by Hermione from a book, it was filled with a serious tone usually found in textbooks.

"In the world of Muggles, ignorance is a common phenomenon, and the disasters caused by ignorance are too many to count."

"Muggles would exclude all things different from them, even if it's their own kin. From the witch hunt in the middle ages to the racial slaughter in WWII, it all proves that the hatred between Muggles will never end."

"Today, we'll be discussing a disaster from history that was caused by ignorance."

"On multiple occasions several hundred years ago, when a magical child was forced to repress their talent through physical or psychological abuse, these poor children would naturally develop an extremely painful emotion. Even apprentice wizards know that distorted pain accompanied with outstanding talent can create true monsters."

"As those abused, repressed children experience long periods of emotional distress, they develop a dangerous parasitical magical force inside them."

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"When they reach their emotional or mental breaking point, they would lose control over their body and mana, and that will release the dark powers inside their bodies in a destructive way. And the released power, under normal cases, would form a destructive wind invisible to muggles. In extreme cases, they might physically merge into this dark storm."

"According to the research of the famous alchemist Nicholas Flamel, we call this phenomenon 'Obscurus', hidden 'Dark Shadows', or the more common term, Obscurials."

Reading to this point, Merlin's expression becomes serious, he now knows why Hermione had wanted him to read the passage.

The dark powers described in the article were almost identical in some parts as the dark mana inside him.

Merlin lets out a breath and looks into the distance, fear comes from the unknown, and once you know the true face of the unknown, even the most horrifying things become less horrifying.

"Dark Shadows, or Obscurial, is born from a strong sense of self-depression and self-hatred, it is the combined product of pain and mana and it represents the most miserable side in humanity; according to historical records, children possessed by an Obscurus almost always died before their tenth birthdays, but I believe that in any disaster is a miracle."

"Maybe those miracles have already occurred, hidden away to history we've yet to discover."

"Of course, Muggle Civilization has been improving. The theoretical psychology they invited could effectively treat the disasters caused by these mental illnesses."

"At the same time, under the vigorous intervention of the Ministry of Magic, Obscurials in Europe have long ceased to exist since the last century, and the last Obscurial in North America had perished in around 1926. Although there are claims of Obscurials still active in Europe around the 1950s, this claim was not supported by official evidence."

"Looking back at history can help us tread the path forward. I pray that the tragedy of Obscurials would never happen again."

"Excerpted from the famous wizard Horace Slughorn's 1985 book <Magic Legends>"

With this being the end of the first page, Merlin had mixed feelings over what he had just read.

He lowers his head and looks at his fingers under the night, he recollects his experiences over the past 4 years, and moments later, he sighs and lightly says:

"Self-denial and self-hatred?"

"So the more I hate and deny you, the stronger you become?"

"No wonder..."

Merlin finally had some understanding about his worsening conditions, although he was very different from the Obscurial in the article, these similar magic phenomenons should have similar causes.

Ever since Merlin received Trigon's dark powers by force, there was never a time when he didn't hate it.

He desired to return to his normal life, desired to utterly dispel the dark powers inside him, but such extreme thoughts only led to the accelerated growth of the dark mana within him.

It was a real monster, one that feeds on hatred, and grows ever stronger through pain.

Merlin wanted to stop it, but he used the wrong method.

"But, how do you want me to accept it peacefully?"

Merlin shakes his head, he places the first page of the letter aside and begins reading the second page.

Compared to the long articles on the first page, the second page was much shorter.

"Merlin, if you'd patiently read the information I excerpted for you, then you should be able to understand the source of your problem."

"What I want to tell you is, your situation is very special even among the books I flipped through. I can tell you that you are not an Obscurial, you don't match the conditions of the magical phenomenon; there are rarely even records of your special cases in magic encyclopedias."

"Maybe official wizards with more knowledge and intelligence would know more about the condition you're in, but I think that if an Obscurial can be cured through such methods, it should also be able to help with your condition."

"So, listen to me, Merlin..."

"Starting from now, learn magic! It's not too late yet."

Merlin's eyes widened at Hermione's suggestion, he asked her how to dispel the effects of the dark mana, coincidentally, the little girl's suggestion is for him to accept it.

In other words, what Hermione suggested was the same as what the Atlantean Vulko had suggested.

Redemption was not what he needed, what he needed to do was accept cold reality!

They want him to start accepting the dark mana within him wholeheartedly.

"The best way to cure an Obscurial is for them to start learning magic techniques, allow them to learn how to correctly unleash their repressed mana. I asked uncle Arthur, who was Ron's father, and a wise official wizard."

"He told me, that if an Obscurial keeps repressing him/herself from using magic, it won't be long before he/she is completely devoured by the Obscurus. And for now, this appears to be the only way to save you"

"But the problem is, Merlin, I'm just a 2nd-year apprentice witch, and I don't have the authority to teach you magic; I can't even lend you the magic textbooks I have. But Ron thought of a way for me, he told me that magic usually cannot be taught to outsiders, but there's an exception."

"In the Wizarding World, we call those who are unable to use magic 'Muggles', a disparaging term. And between wizards and muggles, are a group of people called 'Squibs', meaning those with magical talents, yet are unable to use magic due to multiple reasons. "

"Squibs are a group of sad people in the eyes of official wizards, they exist between the present world and the wizarding world, yet they are not accepted by either of them."

"But some squibs were not willing to accept this, so they would secretly use different methods to break through their shackles. For these people to keep magic textbooks is not considered a sin...even the Ministry of Magic would just look the other way, probably in pity towards the squibs."

"This is your chance, Merlin."

"I told Mr, Arthur about your condition, I told him that I had a squib friend that wants to acquire some magic textbooks, and while Mr. Arthur was unwilling to help, Ron promised to help me persuade his dad after I promised to go on a date with him."

"Remember this address, Merlin, come to this address to find Mr. Arthur 2 days later...don't expose yourself! Just act like an unfortunate Squib, okay?"

"Grab onto this chance, and become a wizard, Mr. Merlin; I'm sure that you'll become the best wizard!"

"Lastly, good luck!"

"Hermione Jean Granger, November 4th, 1992, 

Merlin finishes reading the letter and keeps the address Hermione told him in mind; it was a somewhat odd address, located in a remote village near Brighton.

"Mmm...The Prancing Pony."

"Thank you! Young Hermione."

 

*T/L: Note that this is purely fictional, except for the part of the Obscurials and Squibs, taken from the wiki.

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