Chapter 37: Blood Magic, and Successful Entry (2/2)
Elora nodded with a stunned expression.
Quinn chuckled and removed the mustard color from his skin. He pointed at the trunk and asked, ”Please place your hand on the trunk. I have to recast the charm.”
After recasting the charm, Quinn said goodbye to her as she exited the office.
”I hope your bully would leave you alone, Ms. Dunn...” he paused before adding, ”I hope you would help me out when I come to claim my I.O.U.”
Elora looked back towards Quinn to see him with his hands behind his back and a slight smile on his face. She nodded and exited with Quinn smiling as she departed, closing the door behind her.
It took two days before Quinn saw the results of his nifty jinx on Elora's trunk.
Quinn was talking with his friends in the Great Hall, but his eyes caught the sight of Gryffindor girl running into the hall. It made Quinn grin when he saw the mustard color on the girl's skin.
'Teresa Grant, sixth year,' thought Quinn as he recalled the name of the mustard-colored girl.
Quinn watched as Teresa Grant ran to Elora with tears streaming down her face. She yelled at Elora, and Elora shrunk back because of the yelling. Thankfully, McGonagall came running to the scene and interrogated Teresa for her loud yelling.
Elora, in the panic of confrontation, looked towards the Ravenclaw table. Her eyes met Quinn's. Quinn nodded towards her, and she nodded back, showing determination.
'Go get 'em, girl,' thought Quinn as he observed the conversation. Elora told McGonagall her side of the story and how she charmed it so that she could know who was messing with her trunk.
McGonagall turned to Teresa and asked her if she was the one who was mishandling Elora's cousin. Teresa buckled under the pressing glare from McGonagall and confessed.
When McGonagall asked Elora to undo her charm, the mustard color drained from Teresa's skin with a twitch of Quinn's finger.
'Task completed,' thought Quinn before returning to chatting with his friends.
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Quinn stood in the Icy corridor, facing the Icy vault. He was standing just up the steps, stretching his body before walking into the vault region.
”Let's do this,” said Quinn as his breath became visible in the cold.
With a deep breath, Quinn began using Blood magic. Under his clothes, all of Quinn's veins and arteries in Quinn's chest become visible with a red glow. The left side of Quinn's chest glowed exceptionally red because Quinn's heart glowed up.
”Haa~. Haa~,” breathed Quinn as he felt his body warm up in the cold.
”It's working,” spoke Quinn, smiling.
With another deep breath, Quinn descended the steps to the Icy vault. The moment he stepped down the last stair step, a cold that could kill instantly descended on Quinn.
Quinn groaned as he still could feel the harshness of the cold.
”Ugh!” groaned Quinn as he stood still on the spot. Quinn felt something and looked down at his hand, seeing his fingers turning blue.
”Dammit!” yelled Quinn as he ascended the steps back to safety.
He immediately put his hands on his chest, wanting the heat from his chest to warm his fingers. Quinn stomped on the floor because of the first failure.
”I have to increase the area,” was the observation that Quinn came up with just seconds in the Icy vault region.
Currently, Quinn was only heating up the blood in the heart region. He hoped his heart would pump the warm blood to all parts of his body, but he was wrong.
”The heat is leached off too quickly,” growled Quinn as he noticed that the warming the blood in his heart and sending it to the rest of his body wasn't enough.
”Okay, Quinn, you can do this,” Quinn spoke to himself, psyching himself up.
Quinn hadn't tried to use Blood magic on the majority of his body at the same time. He deemed his entire body to be an area too large for his current mastery. But seeing that the limited use wasn't working, Quinn decided to proceed with it.
”No risk it, no biscuit,” quoted Quinn before clapping his hands loudly and jumped up and down to psych himself.
He clenched his hands into fists before channeling magic throughout his body.
Under his clothes, the red glow of Blood magic gradually increased from his chest to his entire torso. His fingertips glowed as the red glow traveled up his arms. And from the soles of his feet, the magic climbed up towards his hips.
Quinn craned his neck as the red glow crept up to his jaw, passing through his neck. The capillaries around his eyes also glowed up, and even the eyes' whites were glowing a very faint red. The only part of his body that Quinn left were the regions that were too close to his brain, not wanting to risk any accident to his brain.
”Yeeeesss. I did it. I am the best!” celebrated Quinn as he felt Blood magic activated throughout his body. He stayed still for a while to stabilize the magic before once again descending into the frozen vault region.
Quinn walked into the deadly chill and immediately felt it. It was cold, freezing, but now it was barely tolerable. He still felt chilly, more chilly than he had ever felt, excluding the first time he stepped here.
”W-working like this would be a-absolutely miserable,” complained Quinn as he closed in on the snowflake icicle, his teeth rattling because of the cold.
Quinn couldn't increase the temperature of his blood because any more than this and his blood would start boiling, and no one wanted that.
The snowflake icicle was a sight to behold. It was beautiful to look at if you could ignore the biting chill. The way it slowly rotated gave it a unique feel of vitality in the frozen area of icy blue.
Quinn raised his gloved hand and touched the icicle, but the second the leather glove came in contact with the icicle, it started to freeze, causing Quinn to snatch his hand back.
”Shit,” thought Quinn as he brushed the sudden ice deposit on his glove.
”Of course, if the area around the gate is so deadly, then this thing attached to it wouldn't be a walk in the park,” grumbled Quinn as he raised his now ice-free gloved hand to cast magic on the snowflake to check its composition.
A minute in the vault area, Quinn was immersed in studying the flake. Three minutes, he felt that the cold had increased. Five minutes in, and Quinn was getting slightly irritated. As seven minutes came to pass, he was shaking in his clothes, feeling really cold.
When the ninth minutes passed, Quinn turned away from the snowflake and rushed back up the stairs, running away from the cold.
He gasped for air the second he felt the cold decrease. The red glow of Blood magic subsided as Quinn's focus limit reached.
”L-Less than t-t-ten minutes is the limit-t,” stuttered Quinn as he heavily breathed.
Just under ten minutes was Quinn's time limit for continuously maintaining Blood magic throughout his body. Quinn had plenty of magic to spare - No, he had loads of magic to spare.
The problem was Quinn's concentration. He could only concentrate for ten minutes while working on the icicle, and that too with deteriorating results. It was quite the effort on Quinn's part to keep most of his body's blood warm and make sure that blood stayed warm.
Quinn sat down on the floor but immediately stood up because the cold stone stung his bottoms.
”Ouch!” said Quinn as he rubbed his behind.
He began pacing the corridor, thinking about what to do next. After thinking about it sometime, he concluded.
”I can't raise the temperature of my body through Blood magic, though I can work on my mastery to keep the current temperature,” noted Quinn. He could keep the Blood magic from deteriorating with this pace.
”But, this isn't enough. I need more...” thought Quinn. Quinn's time in the vault region was excessively uncomfortable. He needed to make it more comfortable so that he could work without constantly feeling like a popsicle.
”I need to increase the surrounding temperature,” reasoned Quinn, but it was easier said than done. He did not know how to increase the temperature in the frozen hell. His grasp on fire magic wasn't on the level that would work against that level of cold. Any heat he could produce would be snuffed out in an instant.
Quinn closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them to look at the vault, ”I have to work with what I have.” Quinn would slowly work on increasing his efficiency. But right now, he had to work with what he had.
”Things I do for magic.”
Quinn cracked his knuckles as the glow from Blood magic crept on his body.
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Quinn West - MC - Exploring the frozen hell - ”I run hot.”
Elora Dunn - Client - Gryffindor - Hates confrontation - Free from her bully. - Owes a favor.
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