At dusk, after finishing the three classes of the day, Maka hurried back to Blake's old house. Now that Blake's symptoms are still getting worse, every second counts, and there is no time for him to waste.
As soon as he entered the door, he walked straight to the underground potion preparation room, and didn't come out until late at night to find something to fill his empty stomach.
In the next few days, he had been traveling back and forth between Hogwarts and the Black Mansion, so the time to catch up on sleep at noon every day became particularly precious.
A few days later, Maka was in the potion preparation room, staring closely at the evaporating dish in front of her with bloodshot eyes, waiting for the liquid inside to reduce little by little.
Finally, the last few minutes passed quietly. He couldn't wait to hang some crystal powder from the bottom of the dish, and then gently poured it into a test tube on the test tube rack.
As soon as the crystallized powder came into contact with the transparent liquid in the test tube, Maka stretched out her wand without hesitation and tapped on the mouth of the test tube.
Suddenly, a cloud of mist-like crystals shot up from the test tube. It was gorgeous and blurry, but within that beauty was an extremely dangerous atmosphere.
"this… "
Maka took several steps back. While avoiding the dreamlike crystal mist, the expression on her face underwent a rare drastic change.
"Who is it... No, could it be..." Maka's expression changed again and again, "How could... No, this shouldn't be? What reason does she have to do this..."
As he continued to think, his brows wrinkled tighter and tighter, and his eyes couldn't help but flicker.
"No... It seems that I have to go find her in person this time and ask her clearly!" After a while, he muttered to himself.
After making up her mind, Maka picked up the potion bottle on the table and walked quickly to the door, completely forgetting the usual necessary finishing touches.
"Maka, where are you going in such a hurry? Is there an emergency?"
Beside the stairs on the first floor, he happened to bump into Mrs. Weasley who was going to the kitchen, but he was in no mood to explain.
Moreover, what he is thinking about in his mind at the moment cannot be said to others casually.
"No, it's okay." Maka kept walking, but turned her head and smiled at Mrs. Weasley, "I forgot some things in the office. I have to get them as soon as possible..."
Before he finished speaking, he had already opened the door and stepped out half of his body, then decisively closed the door behind him.
Probably because the door was closed too loudly, Sirius's mother called out again. The voice was so shrill and sharp that Mrs. Weasley couldn't help shouting...
On Maka's way to the black market, he compared his previous speculation at the Langmans' home with the test of the potion itself.
First of all, everyone, including Maka herself, had misjudgments about the effect of this potion.
A wizard who has taken this magic potion is not "crazy" in a simple sense, but has fallen into a state similar to hallucinations.
Secondly, besides the hallucinations affecting their mental will, there is a more direct reason why those wizards with symptoms actively attack others.
Because the people they attack are actually just "blocking" their way.
This magic potion not only causes people to fall into some kind of illusion, but also makes the person who takes it have an extremely strange increase in the ability to sense magic.
To say it is weird is because, in the senses of the person who takes the medicine, the surrounding magic is not presented in detail like Maka, but only produces a highly sensitive perception of specific magic.
If this ability to sense magic is compared to a radar that detects the source of magic...
On Maka's "radar" interface, the closer distances must be more obvious; but for wizards who have taken that kind of magic potion, nothing is obvious, only the "target" will appear unusually eye-catching.
If there is anything that is their "goal", it is naturally the magic power contained in the potion itself.
Because of this, when Mrs. Longman tied up her husband again, there was only one empty bottle in the house that night.
Because it was the couple who suffered sudden symptoms in their sleep and fell into hallucinations; but Mrs. Longman was the only one who could act on her own and go out to find the location of the potion.
After several days of continuous research and testing, Maka has become quite familiar with the magic power fluctuations of this potion. So as soon as he arrived at the black market, he put on a phantom spell and moved quickly in the black market.
He has the ability to sense magic power, which has to be said to be a blessing created by strength.
only…
Maka stepped on the magic book and flew at high speed through the streets and alleys in the black market. His spirit was completely concentrated, and his sensing ability was almost at its limit.
All kinds of complex magic fluctuations surrounded him, passing by him one by one as he moved. Even he was agitated because of this high-intensity work.
It's like you're driving a racing car, driving fast on a complex street full of speakers, and at the same time, you have to distinguish the different music played in each speaker.
Maka, who thought she was used to being surrounded by all kinds of magic waves, couldn't help feeling irritated at this time.
"Hold on, hold on... hold on some more!"
"In order to find out the truth... we must hold on a little longer!"
"Calm down, calm down... Feel every source of magic calmly, and don't miss any of it..."
"I won't worry about anything this time. I must ask her clearly!"
Maka gritted her teeth, her breathing became heavier and heavier, and her head felt more and more swollen... so swollen that it felt like it was going to explode.
Finally, his feet softened during the rapid flight, and then he suddenly fell from the magic book.
Although he did not fly very high due to the limited sensing range, the inertia of the high-speed flight still caused him to roll on the ground and fall dozens of feet, and crashed into a pile next to a certain house with a crash. Empty wooden box.
"Huh..."
After a while, he climbed up from the pile of wooden boards, leaned against the wall with his eyes squinted, covered his head with his right hand and gasped.
"I...why am I so impatient?"
After resting for a while, and after his breathing gradually calmed down, he frowned and asked himself.
When he said this, his left hand was still hanging by his side, and his forearm was bent at an unnatural angle, but he didn't pay attention to it.
Just when she fell down, Maka's left forearm was fractured. He was naturally in severe pain at the moment, but this severe pain actually made his chaotic mind a lot clearer.
"Is it because of 'her'? Yes, that should be true... But what is the specific reason? What is it for? What is it?"
Keep thinking, asking and answering questions...
Maka searched her heart, confirming and ruling out bit by bit, trying to find out the source of the inexplicable impatience.
Suddenly, he put his right hand in front of his eyes and stared blankly.
What reflected in his pupils was a hand that had lost its color and was trembling slightly. He tightened his grip and then released it, repeating this four or five times, with a wry smile appearing on his face.
"Am I... scared?"
Maka McClain is just a coward.
"I'm scared again..."
Maka McClain is indeed just a coward.
The experience of losing his emotions did not make him fearless. On the contrary, he became more sensitive to himself and to the feelings around him.
When he first came to this world, he was afraid; when he was forced to wander alone, he was afraid; when he touched the blood on Luna's body, he was afraid...
"What am I afraid of?" Maka sneered and laughed at herself.
What Maka McClain is afraid of is actually just "loneliness". He broke into this world alone. No matter how many people he met, he still felt that he was alone.
That feeling of loneliness was always lingering in the deepest part of his heart, lingering.
It wasn't until the moment he unexpectedly received the admission notice to Hogwarts that a sense of familiarity with an old-fashioned air gradually filled his loneliness.
Since enrolling at Hogwarts, every person Maka meets makes him feel less lonely. For Maka, this is undoubtedly an untouchable salvation.
But many years of loneliness made him close his heart. To this day, only a few people have opened his closed heart.
So, although he doesn't want to lose anyone, what he doesn't want to lose the most is the people who are most important to him, right
In this deserted alley, next to the pile of broken wooden boards, Maka leaned against the cold brick wall and took out the potion bottle with her uninjured right hand.
"...could it be you?"
He shook the bottle gently, and the liquid swayed leisurely behind the translucent bottle wall.
"… Willie?"
In fact, when Maka saw the test results in the potion preparation room, she immediately understood one thing - the main ingredient in the half bottle of potion turned out to be the powder of "Mystery Crystal Flower".
In terms of rarity, he had only seen the mysterious crystal flowers in Hogwarts, which were the mysterious flower seeds that Willy asked him to help plant.
Even Dumbledore said they should have been extinct, and that was not something that could be obtained easily.
In addition, Maka once bumped into Willie practicing preparing potions before, and she also inexplicably refused his help. Most of this has a very secret causal relationship.
"...At least, I will still choose to believe you."
Before she finished speaking, Maka used a repair spell on her left forearm, then pulled out the cork of the small half bottle of potion and poured it into her mouth.