Looking at the seven extrely hot snake eggs the fire serpent had laid, Kael carefully moved them to the testing table.
These fire eggs were no different from bombs. One careless move could explode and ignite the entire room.
As for the mother serpent that had just laid the eggs, she crawled back into the flas without looking back, like completing a task, to recover her strength.
Kael felt sowhat helpless. He seed to have created a problem for himself.
Fire lizards at least couldn't leave flas and wouldn't cause too much trouble. But this fire serpent could leave flas for an hour and lay scorching hot eggs. It was practically a mobile fire hazard.
Without supervision, he worried his hard-built castle might burn down because of this fire serpent.
But now that they'd been born, he couldn't just eliminate the fire serpent and eggs.
Kael waved his hand to freeze one snake egg into dormancy with a freezing charm.
This fire serpent was sowhat similar to the Ashwinder from the wizarding world, and Ashwinder eggs were precious potion ingredients for making Love Potions, Defense Draughts, Felix Felicis, and other potions.
He wanted to see if this fire serpent's eggs could serve as substitutes.
The remaining six snake eggs suddenly ignited, wrapped in flas.
Then six slender gray-white small serpents hatched from the flas. After devouring the fire, they instinctively crawled toward fla sources. Wherever they crawled, they left gray traces.
Three of them crawled to the mother serpent's side, resting comfortably in the flas. But the mother showed no maternal instincts. Instead, like having her territory invaded, she bared her fangs at the three young serpents. If she hadn't known they were her offspring, she might have devoured them.
Even without attacking the young serpents, she still tried to drive them from her territory.
The other three directly seized the fire lizards' hearth, not only disrupting the two fire lizards' mating activities but also forcing them to the fla's edge, too pitiful to approach.
Then these young serpents also bared fangs at each other, trying to drive away their siblings to monopolize a fire source.
Seeing this scene, Kael developed a headache.
He quickly summoned six flas and distributed them to the newborn fire serpents, preventing them from killing each other.
He considered setting up a sealed room specifically for these fire serpents. Otherwise, letting them roam free would threaten his castle's safety. If they escaped outside, Hogsade below and the surrounding forests would suffer.
To prevent accidents, Kael found an empty room with no combustible materials. After expanding the space with an Extension Charm, he specifically created over a dozen small fireplaces in the walls, lighting flas to house the mother serpent and six young fire serpents separately.
As for the two fire lizards, since they weren't as threatening as fire serpents and would quickly die if they left their fire source, Kael left them in the fireplace as unique decorative pieces for Hogwarts' hearths.
After cultivating fire lizards and fire serpents using Balrog heart fragnts and blood, Kael stopped continuing.
He could see that successfully transforming ordinary lizards and serpents into magical creatures was primarily due to the Balrog heart fragnts, while the Balrog blood served as a catalyst.
Both were limited resources. He couldn't waste more on animal experints. He planned to save them for later use.
With experints temporarily halted, Kael turned his attention to another matter.
The petrified Watcher in the Water still hadn't been dealt with in the days since returning. Keeping it in the space chest wasn't a solution.
So Kael prepared to make a Mandrake Restoration Draught to revive and ta the water monster.
He went to the herbology floor and entered the King's Foil growing chamber.
Upon entering, warm, humid air greeted him. The room was like a small world. The azure ceiling stretched endlessly high with countless clouds and sunshine. On the ground, rolling hills were crossed by a stream that wound through valleys into a clear lake.
The King's Foil, once numbering only hundreds, now grew like weeds everywhere, blooming pure white flowers that filled the air with a sweet, rich fragrance that felt soothing and relaxing.
So King's Foil had been transplanted to the garden. With the White Tree there, even in Weathertop's unsuitable environnt, they thrived.
This herb was no longer rare at Weathertop, so when townspeople below ca seeking dicine for serious illnesses, Kael allowed steward Edward to pick King's Foil from the garden to treat patients.
But today, Kael wasn't here for King's Foil.
He went to the lakeside, where the water was full of goldberry and water lilies Tom had gifted. The lilies ca from the Withywindle, blessed with Goldberry's power and possessing even more miraculous healing abilities than King's Foil.
He circled the lake to the far shore, where over a dozen moving broad-leafed plants grew on the grass. Their roots were buried in the ground, but they ford a circle as if whispering secrets underground.
Sensing a stranger's approach, most imdiately fell silent, pretending to be ordinary, motionless plants. Others imdiately pulled themselves from the soil and ran away on tiny feet.
These were Mandrakes.
Kael looked at the fastest-running Mandrake and summoned it with a gesture.
"Running so fast. You're the one."
The Mandrake twisted and struggled in midair, very displeased, emitting deadly, ear-piercing sounds.
But Kael had already cast a Silencing Charm, directly ignoring its cries as he drew out a syringe and extracted green juice from its body.
After taking enough, he looked at the sowhat weak, whimpering Mandrake and tossed it back to the ground.
According to proper Mandrake Restoration Draught preparation, the entire Mandrake root should be used, but guided by Professor Snape's potion notes and thinking of sustainable use, he'd devised extracting Mandrake juice as a substitute.
The freed Mandrake imdiately fled quickly into the bushes, burrowing into soil and disappearing.
Kael ignored it, leaving the room to head to the potions laboratory and begin brewing.
Several days passed in a flash.
When the Mandrake Restoration Draught in the cauldron was complete, Kael's lips curved in a satisfied smile.
With Snape's potion notes, his Restoration Draught succeeded on the first try with perfect quality.
He divided the draught into several glass bottles, keeping one to break the Watcher's petrification while storing the rest in the potion cabinet.
Mandrake Restoration Draught wasn't just for curing petrification. It could also help people cursed by transfiguration, hexes, or dark magic return to their original state.
So Kael kept extras just in case.
Taking one bottle of Restoration Draught, Kael went to another room and entered the space chest containing the Watcher in the Water.
Looking at the massive giant octopus, Kael directly poured the entire bottle into its giant mouth.
As the potion took effect, the stone-sculpture Watcher gradually revived. Its gray petrified surface returned to dark green, and rigid tentacles began twisting and curling.
Even tentacles previously severed by Sectumsempra had the lingering dark magic lifted, slowly growing and healing.
Regaining consciousness, the Watcher saw Kael and imdiately angrily swung massive tentacles to attack.
Kael remained calm, waving his wand as Fiendfyre quickly poured forth, blocking his path and instantly incinerating the tentacles.
The flas rapidly expanded, filling the entire chest space and creating a world of Fiendfyre.
Kael stood within the inferno without feeling any burn. The surrounding flas obediently circled him like a king of fire.
But the Watcher was surrounded and engulfed by Fiendfyre, emitting agonized, piercing screams.
Without Kael's deliberate control, it would have been reduced to ash long ago. The searing temperature still tornted the Watcher, making it suffer as if about to burn to death the next second.
Strangely, though the Watcher appeared very distressed, its exterior showed no burn marks.
Kael watched coldly until the creature was barely breathing, then waved away the Fiendfyre, though it still lood nacingly, ready to surge forward and burn it to death.
"I know you understand ," Kael said coldly.
"I can overlook your previous offense, but there's one condition. You must submit to . Otherwise, these flas will slowly roast you, first destroying all your tentacles, then your skin, organs, bones, and finally your consciousness."
"Now, make your choice."
The surrounding Fiendfyre seed to cooperate with his words, forming images of various dragons, basilisks, Balrogs, all staring at it with violent, covetous gazes as if ready to pounce.
The Watcher looked fearfully at the surrounding flas, all tentacles tightly curled together, afraid to touch the fire.
Hearing Kael's threatening words, the Watcher's eyes showed fear and hesitation.
But seeing the scorching flas gradually approaching, survival instinct made it hastily nod just as the fire was about to touch it.
The Fiendfyre reluctantly retreated, as if regretting not being able to devour.
Kael waved his wand, extracting a drop of blue blood from the Watcher and floating it between them. He also took out a drop of his own blood and cast a spell.
The two drops rged under the spell's influence, forming a red-blue mottled blood bead that Kael sent into the octopus's mouth.
As soon as the blood bead entered the octopus's mouth, it rged into its body, spreading through blood vessels as an invisible but powerful binding.
Under Fiendfyre's threat, the octopus dared not make any moves throughout, only cooperating obediently.
This was a variant of the blood oath that Kael had also used on the basilisk. It would make the octopus unconditionally obey all of Kael's demands and prevent it from harming him in any way.
Completing the bonding process, Kael directly dismissed the Fiendfyre.
"From today on, you're no longer the Watcher in the Water, but my pet Kraken."
The great octopus Kraken obediently bowed to Kael, showing complete submission.
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