Chapter 90: Baby Steps Against The Whirlpool (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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Quinn sighed as he rubbed the insignia from the third vault safety mechanism. He really wanted to know how this tattoo could teleport the bearer. Assuming that no person was casting a portkey or a similar spell, then there was an enchantment that could produce teleportation magic without human or any magical species' help.
”Both the first and this vault had complex runic and warding magic,” noted Quinn as he looked into the triangular entrance to the whirlpool. ”Just how much planning and execution went into creating the vaults. The people who created them must have given all of it a lot of thought when creating them.”
Quinn still usually went inside the first vault to do research and learn more about the mechanism. He would collect the energy from Absolute Zero for his engraver and make observations for an upcoming project that he was working on.
But all the time, including last year, when Quinn had become greedy towards a lot of things, and one of them was Absolute Zero. He had tried hard to figure out a way to get the Absolute Zero out of the vault. But Quinn still didn't know a way to create a portable containment system that would allow him to carry the Absolute Zero without dead-freezing everything around and causing a long-term climate change that would plunge Hogwarts into an ice age for decades to come.
Whoever built the first vault knew what they were doing. The builder had used the energy from the Absolute Zero to trap itself. A self-sustained system that wouldn't degrade as long as the prisoner itself stayed strong.
It was clear that the builder who had made the rune cluster knew how Absolute Zero worked because without an understanding of the alchemic material that was being contained, without the proper knowledge of the power source and runes, the containment arrangement would've collapsed a long time ago because of the corrosive, cold energy from Absolute Zero.
Standing inside the third vault, Quinn went into thinking about the first vault, the Icy vault, for several minutes, before taking a sharp breath and shaking his head.
”Not the right time or place, Quinn,” berated Quinn himself, looked at the ceiling of the cave, and said, ”Sorry about that.” Quinn talked to the third vault as if it was a girl, apologizing because he was thinking about another girl while on a date.
”Let's effin' go,” said Quinn to hype himself as he looked at the triangular entrance.
Quinn loosened his body, wriggled his arms and legs, and made sure he was ready before running towards the triangular water-filled entrance where was Poseidon's Wrath. He felt the water cover his body, immediately followed by a tug on his body, and with a ripple in the water, Quinn was gone.
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- (Scene Break) -
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After a momentary loss of his sensation, Quinn's senses returned: his eyes showed him the raging water, his ears made him hear the loud and continuous splashes of water; he could feel the moisture in the air against his skin, his sense of smell detected the heavy scent of water. Finally, even his tongue sent a signal of a nearby presence of water.
This time, though, Quinn wasn't surprised and was ready for the sudden teleportation. He turned upside down, away from the water, faced upwards, and immediately used one of the spells he had come to look forward to.
The second the magic triggered, Quinn stopped dead in the air; the charm slowed his body's velocity to zero, to the point he was no longer falling and stayed in a spot in the air.
Arresto Momentum was a fascinating spell that was capable of slowing the velocity of the target. If used properly, it could also stop the target completely.
Of course, there were limitations to the Arresto Momentum spell.
First, the difficulty of slowing down objects was directly proportional to the initial velocity of the object. The faster the speed of the target, the more magic and skill from the user it would take to slow down the target. Factors like mass, surface area, and acceleration of the target all added to the spell's difficulty.
For example, an object dropping at its terminal speed would be much tougher to slow down than an object thrown from the top of a short building.
Second, if an object was brought to a complete stop, it would get harder to keep it stationary if the object 'moves' while it's held stationary with magic. Any external force that wasn't in work before the complete stop would be against the nature of the magic and would break the spell after certain limits.
If Quinn wriggled his body in the situation he was currently in, he would break the spell and he would continue to fall. A turn of the head, curl of his wrist, or anything minor wouldn't threaten to break the spell. Anything greater than some minor movements would exponentially increase the difficulty of keeping himself stationary in the air.
So Quinn had to make sure he didn't make any excessive movements. As such, he first turned his backside to the vortex so that his front body would be facing upwards.
Quinn could've used the levitation spell, Wingardium Leviosa, on his clothes to anchor himself in the air, just like the creator, Jarleth Hobart, had done in the first public use of the charm, even though at that time Hobart himself didn't understand what he had created. Nonetheless, that wasn't possible because Quinn only had a pair of trunks on him and those weren't enough to anchor himself in the air.
”Well, I could've transfigured clothes to provide more support,” considered Quinn before lightly shrugging. ”Whatever, I like this spell better.”
Quinn looked up above and smiled because his conjecture was correct.
”I knew I was right; this is an expanded dimension,” chuckled Quinn, watching the pure white ceiling and walls of the place he was currently in. The white walls were telltale signs that this was a created dimension like the one in his suitcase.
”Okay, you can do it. No pressure,” reassured Quinn as he took in several deep breaths before taking an extra deep breath and stored it inside his lungs and eked out without breathing out. ”Here I come.”
The magic stopping his fall disappeared, and Quinn began falling. In the short few seconds of his fall, Quinn crossed his hands over his chest and made sure that he would enter the whirlpool feet first.
Quinn entered the water vortex with a loud splash and immediately sank inside the raging water.
Inside the water, Quinn held his breath as he allowed the turbulent flow to pull him. He kept his body flat as a board and seized his body straight in order to not get hurt from the water.
He hadn't transfigured the gill respiratory system that allowed him to breathe underwater because it didn't work inside chaotic water. Even while in the Great lake, Quinn maintained a calm water envelope to allow a stable water flow because he used water magic to push himself to speeds greater than any aquatic species he knew.
Plus, the bubble-head charm was also completely out of the race because it was too fragile and would pop the second Quinn entered the raging water.
So why was Quinn diving inside the most dangerous waters he had experienced without proper breathing measures? Well, the motive of this dive was to observe the conditions inside the water so he could gather some data.
Last time, the sudden teleportation had taken Quinn by surprise, so he didn't get a clear read on the conditions. But this time, he was ready and was getting a feel of the current with his body.
Quinn had made a plan to get his transfigured gill respiratory system work in his current conditions, but he needed physical data to verify if his method would work.
The flow of the water inside the maelstrom was rough, and the last time, Quinn had experienced water entering his body through the gill side. This wasn't suitable because the water was supposed to enter through his mouth and gently flow over the gill leaves before exiting through the gill flaps.
Water entering through his gills with speed could injure his lungs and cause complications that Quinn didn't want to deal with. So before implementing the changes that would allow him to breathe in his current conditions, Quinn needed the physical data that would roughly show that his idea would work.
Hence, for three minutes, which was his limit for holding his breath, Quinn, with his eyes closed, focused all his attention on his body, feeling the water current, carefully and consciously perceiving the water velocity.
When Quinn felt he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he sent magic to the insignia, and at a certain point, he felt the tug of teleportation. Right after, Quinn disappeared from inside the water.
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- (Scene Break) -
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With a ripple in the water inside the triangular entrance, Quinn came out with water surrounding him as it laid him on the floor before disappearing without a trace.
Quinn opened his eyes and immediately took long breaths of air. He laid on the floor for half a minute before sitting up and saying, ”Okay, that was good.”
He got up and started to pace around the room, a look of deep thought evident on his face.
Quinn had got the physical data he was looking for, and the results he observed looked positive. Now he just needed to do some calculations and make some decisions before he could get started.