It was indeed a troublesome thing to suddenly have to go through the discharge procedures. Maka waited at the door of the 'Snow Witch' for a long time before finally waiting for Celine.
When Maka saw Celine, her mother was floating beside her, showing no sign of waking up.
"Please come in..." Celine said, opening the door with the key.
The layout of the 'Snow Witch' has not changed at all, but the tables and chairs inside have accumulated a thin layer of dust. This is what a house quickly becomes once it is unoccupied.
Combined with the current situation of the owner of this private restaurant, it is easy for people to have the illusion that "the house and the people are decaying together."
Follow Celine to the second floor, which is a curved corridor that extends along the wall. On one side is the door, while on the other is a carved wooden handrail that looks into the hall below.
The first thing that catches the eye is the various souvenirs in the corridor. Their origins are all over the world. Along the way, souvenirs from new to old were displayed in front of Maka's eyes.
Every souvenir seems to tell the story of Celine’s mother’s colorful life.
At the end of the corridor, a portrait hangs. When Maka walked up to it, the woman inside smiled peacefully at him.
"That's my mother's self-portrait when she was young..." Celine said, "This way, please."
She said, opening the wooden door of the last room. It seems that this is her mother's bedroom.
When Maka took a first look at this bedroom, he didn't have much surprise.
There is nothing else here, except for a simple single bed and a dressing table. Various other places where things can be placed are cleverly arranged with all kinds of wonderful souvenirs.
Probably, this is Celine's mother's only hobby in her life.
Maka helped Celine lift the quilt, and then Celine carefully placed her mother on the bed. At this time, Maka took out a bottle of nourishing potion and drank it for Celine's mother.
"This will allow her to maintain her strength so that she can perform the examination more safely later..." Maka explained, "Well, she can also swallow on her own."
After that, he continued: "Let your mother take a rest and let the potion work as it should. Let's go out first..."
"Sorry, I think it's best for me to use as few spells as possible outside the school - please move the tables and chairs first, we need a large enough open space." Maka pointed to the middle of the hall and said.
After Celine heard this, she immediately waved her wand and used a floating spell to pile the tables and chairs against the wall.
"Is this enough? If not, I can take away the bar—"
"No, that's enough." Maka said as she walked to the edge of the hall and started to take things out.
It includes a thick notebook, several rolls of blank parchment, quill pens and ink bottles, his homemade water pen, and several potion bottles of different models.
He was obviously going to start drawing the rune pattern he had figured out himself again, which looked like a Muggle circuit diagram.
"You can sit for a while, or go to your mother's place to keep watch - I know you should be very worried," Maka said, "When I get better, I will come and call you."
Celine hesitated for a moment, then nodded silently.
Maka no longer cared about her, but just leaned down on the floor, opened her notes, and began to think about it carefully.
The steps to be done this time are actually not much different from what he did to himself last time. It's just that some time has passed since the first attempt, and during this period, Maka also checked her soul several times.
At this moment, there have been many improvements in the structure of the array and the matching of runes.
What he has to do now is to fine-tune the data based on Celine's mother's condition.
It didn't take long for him to draw a rune pattern on the blank parchment that met Celine's mother's needs. In terms of accuracy, it has obviously improved a lot compared to the first time.
After many calculations, Maka poured a whole bottle of mercury-like liquid with a bright metallic color into the center of the hall. Then, the liquid spread quickly and soon flowed throughout the entire hall.
Suddenly, the floor of the hall was completely covered with this liquid, as if the entire floor had turned into a huge mirror.
After pouring the liquid, Maka immediately ran towards the wall - he had to run away while the liquid had not yet solidified, so as not to leave footprints and affect the drawing of the formation diagram for a while.
After that, he began to prepare the ink needed to draw the pattern.
Time passes bit by bit...
Maka, who had entered the state, was highly concentrated and habitually completely ignored the passage of time. It wasn't until he mixed the ink and finished drawing the entire array that he discovered that there were several plates of cold food placed on the steps of the stairs.
Maka subconsciously looked up at the corridor on the second floor, only to see Celine lying on the carved wooden handrail, quietly looking at the mirror-like floor of the hall in trance.
And on the floor, a purple-black rune pattern that seemed to have no rules at all was looming with mysterious blue fluorescence from time to time.
"Bring your mother down, it's ready." Maka shouted to her.
Celine came to her senses, agreed, then turned around and walked quickly to the bedroom.
Ten minutes later…
"No matter what happens, don't be too nervous. I know it well. If something unexpected happens, I'm ready to stop checking at any time..."
Maka warned Celine carefully to ensure that she would not suddenly rush forward after the formation was opened.
At this time, Celine's mother was lying on her back at a certain node on the array. On the mirror around her, complex purple-black lines and various strange symbols were connected to each other. It looked like something was being held. It's like a mysterious magical ritual.
"...Okay, just stand back and watch. I'm going to start."
Having said that, Maka took a step forward and stepped on the only break in the entire array with his left and right feet respectively. He still had not solved the problem of the magic source of the array. As a last resort, the character who provided magic power could only be used by He took it upon himself.
The moment Maka's other foot stepped down, those symbols and lines seemed to come alive, twisting, trembling and floating, bursting out with a mysterious blue light, illuminating the entire hall. brightly lit.
Especially under the influence of the mirrored floor, the light looks particularly bright, and the runes and magic lines are floating up and down, which looks wonderful.
But at the next moment, in the mirror under Celine's mother, a black mist was slowly forming...
Because the current array has been improved by Maka many times, the input of magic power is not as rapid and large as the first time, so the formation of the skull has become much slower.
After all, Celine's mother is old, and her soul is most likely damaged. Excessive impact will directly cause the soul to completely rush out of the body.
At that time, it will be difficult to stuff it back again.
After a while, a skull made of black mist finally formed in the mirror. It slowly opened its jaw and let out a weak roar.
Celine clenched her fists tightly behind her, looking at this mysterious and frightening sight without blinking, trying not to make a sound.
The skull was formed right below her mother, and the hollow mouth was pointed directly at her mother, as if it was about to devour her.
Celine will probably never forget this scene for the rest of her life.
Amid the silent cry of the skull, a humanoid figure emerged from Celine's mother's body.
No, to be precise, it's a "half" humanoid shadow.
"...It's already mutilated." Maka frowned and stared at the phantom.
But after careful observation, he immediately discovered something was wrong - the shadow was incomplete, but at some of the fractures, wisps of black smoke could be faintly seen, and those things seemed...
"Eating souls?" Maka said to herself, "...what is that?"
The black smoke could attach to the soul, so it was obviously not an ordinary thing. After thinking about it, he took a step back for the time being and stopped the operation of the formation diagram.
Immediately, the light gradually dimmed, the skull disappeared without a trace, and Celine's mother's incomplete soul also returned to the body.
"Celine," Maca said, "tell me about the experiences you and your mother had in the United States. The more detailed the better! Especially some special places or weird objects."
Celine had not yet recovered from the shock. When she heard Maka speaking, she had no time to react.
"Celine?"
"Oh, I'm sorry-" She was shocked and turned to look at Maka blankly, "What did you say?"
…
On the other side, Hogwarts Castle, in the Gryffindor common room.
"Ron, don't worry, Banban must have suddenly gone there to play, and he will appear soon..."
Harry was comforting his best friend, but Hermione wasn't here for the time being.
"It's been sleepy all day, where can it go!" Ron didn't believe it at all. He had been worried that Crookshanks was chasing Scabbers again - and had even eaten Scabbers!
"It's okay. At least Hermione has been holding Crookshanks these few days. He has no chance to run out to find Scabbers." The comfort just now was not successful, but Harry was not discouraged. This time he chose to settle for the next best thing. .
"Maybe there are other cats?" Ron couldn't help but said, "Just like... just like... just like Mrs. Norris!"
"Filch's cat doesn't like catching mice." Harry said immediately. "It only likes to look for students who violate disciplines and report them to its owner!"
"But... but..." Ron said restlessly.
"Stop it!" Harry advised, "Or, let's go look for it again! In the corridor, other dormitories, or some other place, okay?"
"You're right, we should look again..." Ron stood up suddenly and ran towards the stairs as he spoke, "Oh - poor Scabbers!"
Harry looked at Ron's back and shrugged helplessly, "He looks just like Hagrid now!"