Chapter 390 - Stunning Secrets (1/2)
”You what?”
Chris shouted so loudly that the thestral stepped back from her looking offended.
”Sorry,” Chris mumbled to it before turning to Fergus. ”Sorry, I think I heard you wrong. What were you saying?”
”No, Christina. You didn't hear me wrong. I did give you powers after you were born,” Fergus said calmly and looked a little amused when Chris's eyebrows knit in confusion. ”Allow me to explain. After I lost control over myself, my memories got hazy and disoriented, but I know what I did. I attacked Malgino, a completely emotional, not-planned, idiotic action if you ask me. I was so consumed by my grief and pain from the betrayal that I just attacked Malgino without considering that just a few minutes ago, I gave him the power of the Crimson Crystal, the most powerful artifact in the world. It went as you expect it. He didn't want to fight me. He didn't want to hurt. He kept saying those things as we fought but, of course, he defeated me. Then maybe for the last time, he offered me — begged me to join him. I did not. I swore in front of him that I will take back all his power and kill him. I will inform the founders about what he was planning. I would never let him succeed. Another grief-stricken response. Naive I thought, he was still Malgino, my friend, the farmer's son, who just wanted to be remembered and appreciated for his skills, and nothing more. I still thought he just wanted the recognition. He just wanted to do something. I really thought I would scare him by threatening. But when he looked at me for the last time, I didn't see fear; I saw pain, confusion, and anger in his eyes. He couldn't understand why was I not choosing him. From the start, we both didn't have much and we were each other's friends and family. Yet, when the choice came, he thought I chose Emory over him. That shredded all the love and humanity he had left while the Crystal destroyed its essence.”
”The Crystal?” Chris turned to Fergus surprised.
”Yes. When my mother first brought me here, she warned me about Crystal's power, how it could do anything in this world but it will destroy — corrupt the essence of the wielder. And even though, I didn't understand at that time, later I did. The Crystal gives the wielder unimaginable power but to do so its magic spreads to the wielder's core and twisting it in the way the Crystal wants. Malgino was already on the brink of evil when I revived him with the Crystal, and the Crystal just tipped it over. It gave him an illusion that he needed no one and everything he did was justified.” Fergus gave bitter smile. ”However, he didn't kill me after I told him all about my plans. I don't know if the thought crossed his mind or not but he did not try to kill me. Maybe he still couldn't bring himself to do so, maybe he thought there was still a chance I would join him. He decided to lock me up here until I get back to my senses. He bound me to the Blood Temple and left.”
There were a few moments of silence as Chris waited for Fergus to collect his thoughts.
”Did he ever come back?”
”I think he planned to but couldn't because of the curse Madam Helga put on him. I don't know exactly what kind of curse it was but it was meant to be fatal. Helga meant to kill him, and he would have died if not for the Crimson Crystal's power. But I must say, getting so much power so easily, completely messed with Malgino's sharp brain. He got over-confident. Spent too much power on his army of hybrid creatures, and made his all experiments successful with it and whatnot. He thought the power would never run out. He realized how wrong he was about that when he got cursed and slowly started to lose power. It took a lot of power from the Crystal just to keep him alive, and slowly he couldn't access magic anymore. Malgino finally understood, why Crimson Crystal is such a powerful thing, it was because it has been fueled by generations of vampires. The blood of the first vampire still fueled it while her bloodline kept the promise and did the same, by giving the Crystal their blood. And it dawned on him that if Crystal's powers are not recharged, he was eventually going to run out of life force to live off.” Fergus walked a little bit while talking before settling down on the grass under a tree shade. He signed Chris to take sit in front of him as he continued, ”The realization woke the original cunning Malgino, who could get out of any situation, no matter how bad it was. So first, he cursed himself for being stupid and then started to plan. He knew he couldn't come back to Titian because now Ryan was the King and he had ordered vampires to kill Malgino on sight and Malgino wasn't strong enough to fight them. He then turned to the wizarding world, tried a lot to find a way to gain back that power. He lost many precious years in hiding and grew weaker in the process. At last, he found a way to channel the life force of a wizard or witch to fuel the Crystal and keep him alive. But now that's all the wizard's life force did. Malgino wasn't satisfied with it. He was still hell-bent on becoming the successor of Hogwarts and its power. He thought that power would save him from Helga's curse and restore his magic and after all the founders were gone from Hogwarts —either dead or gone — he tried to strike again. Unfortunately, Madam Helga thought everything, she knew if Malgino survived, he would come back, and she with the other founders' magic used the power to create the successor as a barrier that will prevent Malgino from entering Hogwarts. What do you know about it, Christina?”
Chris was caught off guard from the sudden address to her but she answered,
”The magic that prevents Malgino from entering Hogwarts is locked somewhere and the only way to unlock it is the founders' keys. Right?”
”Yes,” Fergus beamed at Chris. ”And only the successor gets the keys.”
”Thus, Malgino's obsession with the keys. He still wants to be the successor,” Chris grimaced.
”No, it's not about being the successor anymore, he had long crossed his ambitions. He wants to rule the entire world now. That's his goal. He wants to be the true King of the world, who would rule over every person, creature, human, non-human, everything. But for that, he needs to be powerful again with the successor's power. After Malgino learned what Helga had done and there was no way he could force open the power of Hogwarts, he decided to gather an army. He thought using people for life force was a waste and he could use them for his victory in many ways. He traveled the world and made followers who believed in his plans. He can be quite charismatic when he wants to be.”
”Fergus,” Chris interrupted.