Chapter 1308 Your Hatred is Worthless
The east courtyard of Buckingham Palace, which should have been solemn and dignified under the lights of Christmas Eve, was instead filled with an eerie tranquility.
Vincent cut through the night and landed silently on the stone pavement of the courtyard, without disturbing a single speck of dust.
In the center of the courtyard, Aiden, wearing dragon-skin gloves, was carefully placing an opal of extremely high quality, yet exuding a malevolent and ominous aura.
This is the last opal he needs to place. After this, the entire Buckingham Palace will become a terrifying source of curse. Even those passing by will be instantly corrupted by the curse, suffering severe physical and mental damage, and slowly facing death.
His face was filled with an almost pious excitement, and his hand, which was tightly gripping the opal, trembled slightly.
"I'm sorry, your wish will not be fulfilled."
Aiden froze. He slowly raised his head and saw a figure that almost blended into the darkness, with a pair of deep blue eyes.
Those eyes were cold, devoid of anger or hatred, but rather the indifference of someone seeing a mouse run into the kitchen and preparing to casually dispose of it.
“You…” Aiden’s voice trailed off. He looked at Vincent, then down at his nearly completed masterpiece, a look of disbelief flashing across his intact right eye. “How could you… I clearly erased all traces of magic, you couldn’t have tracked me here…”
Vincent raised his hand, causing an A-type sphere that had guided him to the courtyard to deactivate its invisibility and hover in his palm. "This is an A-type sphere, integrating phase scanning, magic detection, and spatial positioning functions. Your method of erasing traces is indeed ingenious, but what if it had been watching from here all along?"
Aiden's expression froze.
He couldn't understand. No, he understood each word, but he couldn't grasp the meaning of their combination.
Just as a wizard cannot understand the concept of quantum entanglement, the barrier of cognition is more thorough than the gap in knowledge.
“Impossible…” Aiden murmured, his fingers unconsciously tightening around the opal in his hand. “How could those Muggle technologies… possibly have discovered me?”
Vincent stepped out of the darkness, his shadow elongated by the palace lights, looming over Aiden. "Mr. Selwyn, you, like most wizards, are trapped in the cage of the Old World."
These words seemed to strike at Aiden's deepest fear. He suddenly sprang up, not to rush toward Vincent, but to crouch down and place the last opal.
Once the placement is complete, the curse will take root in Buckingham Palace like a plague.
"Let's die together!" Aiden screamed, his wand spewing out thick black mist.
His intact right eye gleamed with madness and despair, as if he were witnessing a perfect performance.
Then he saw the flames.
It was not an ordinary flame, nor the blue or red magical flames commonly used by wizards, but a golden flame filled with violence and heat, like that of an angry dragon.
Fiery Fire is a fire that is said to be able to burn everything.
They neatly surrounded Aiden, eventually forming a cage that completely isolated him from the outside world.
"No..." Aiden collapsed to his knees as if his soul had been ripped out, the opal in his hand rolling away with a crisp sound.
His incantation, all his preparations, and his plans vanished into nothingness within the cage that imprisoned him.
This cage made of Fiendfire could end Vincent's life at any time, should he so choose.
Aiden's expression shifted from madness to bewilderment, then to utter collapse. "No...this is my revenge...you can't..."
“Revenge?” Vincent’s coldness vanished. “Your revenge is too pathetic.”
“You don’t understand anything!” A strange emotion flashed in Aiden’s right eye, not madness or hysteria, but something incredibly vulnerable.
"Do you know what happened that day? Three years ago, on April 14th, in that hellish Muggle industrial park!"
His fingers unconsciously traced his disfigured face. "I, Aiden Selwyn, the most talented wizard in the Selwyn family for centuries, the youngest healer at St. Mungo's, was destroyed like trash by a poison unintentionally created by Muggles in an accident!"
Aiden's voice trembled, "Do you know what's most ridiculous? Those Muggles, those Muggles who create disasters, they don't even know magic exists!"
They were unaware that their technology had ruined a wizard's life! They continued with their lives, continued building factories, and continued to believe their world was safe!
"So I started researching." His voice grew increasingly agitated. "I studied Muggle technology, and I discovered we are just as ignorant. They fear magic because they don't understand it! We fear technology because we don't understand it! How symmetrical! How pathetic!"
Aiden picked up the opal that had rolled to the ground. "I'll make them understand, in the only way they can understand. I'll use pain to make Muggles understand that there is a power beyond their comprehension, beyond their control, that can destroy everything they've painstakingly built at any time!"
Vincent stared at him coldly the whole time. "So, you've become the very thing you hate most."
This statement was like an ice pick, precisely piercing beneath Aiden's outward appearance of madness.
“You said that Muggles fear magic because of their ignorance, so you want to punish them with magic.” Vincent stepped forward, his shadow stretching longer in the lamplight.
"But what you're doing now is no different from those Muggles who, out of ignorance and fear, try to resolve their inner unease through violence."
Aiden's lips moved, but no sound came out.
“Fear breeds hatred, hatred breeds violence, and violence breeds more fear.” Vincent’s voice echoed in the courtyard: “It’s a vicious cycle, this is the real prison that traps you, Aiden Selwyn.”
"Shut up!" Aiden suddenly screamed, gripping the opal tightly in his hand. "You don't understand! You Muggle-born people will never understand! You weren't taken everything away from you! You weren't—"
"I don't need to understand your hatred, because it's worthless to me."
Vincent looked down at the former St. Mungo's genius healer slumped on the ground. "You're worth only a little. Tell me, Selwyn, who provided you with the materials? The Borginbock brothers and those black market dealers didn't have the guts, much less the capacity to support this scale."
Aiden's lips trembled, and his undamaged right eye avoided his gaze.
“Let me guess,” Vincent chuckled, his smile devoid of any warmth, “the ability to supply large quantities of high-quality opals and illicit materials indicates that the forces behind you have ample resources. So the answer is obvious: those ancient, pure-blooded families that have amassed centuries of wealth under the protection of the Secret Service Act.”
Aiden's body trembled violently, and although it was only for a moment, it was enough for Vincent.
"Lucius Malfoy."
Aiden suddenly straightened his back, his whole body tense, "How could you..."
Vincent's smile instantly turned frosty.
Lucius is a shrewd and calculating opportunist who always weighs the pros and cons. He wouldn't push a madman onto the stage to perform if there weren't enough benefits.
What does he gain by attacking Muggles and spreading fear? Does he please his master, Voldemort?
……
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