Harry Potter: I am the Legend

A black-purple fist expanded rapidly in Hoffa's vision, glinting with metallic sheen.

In a split second, Hoffa had no time to cast a spell. His wand transformed into a lion-headed gauntlet, encasing his left arm.

Life Conversion Activated.

Life: 6.

Life: 7.

Life: 8.

Most of his magic power was converted into life force.

Hoffa's arm muscles bulged, veins popping on his forehead.

He punched hard to meet the old woman's attack.

Boom!

A heavy, metallic thud echoed.

The old woman was sent flying backward by the impact, crashing into three rows of seats in the first-class carriage before coming to a stop.

Hoffa didn't fare much better—he leaned heavily against the doorframe, his arm trembling uncontrollably.

This punch had power entirely unbefitting of an elderly woman; it felt like colliding with a professional boxer.

Wasting no time, Hoffa quickly converted his life force back into magic power to stave off the dizziness from magical depletion.

On the other side, the old woman wasn't dead. She struggled to her feet, grinning as she drew a pistol from her clothes and aimed it at Hoffa.

Always vigilant, Hoffa extended his mental field to envelop the floor, where the metal began to morph into grasping hands.

But before he could complete his spell Shattering Grip, a giant emerald-green snake struck first.

It smashed through the train's roof and dropped like lightning into the carriage, instantly coiling tightly around the old woman.

The snake's enormous body constricted with immense force.

The old woman's eyes bulged, and her bones creaked under the pressure, causing the heavy gun to clatter to the floor.

Locked in a deadly stare, the old woman glared at the snake, which in turn fixed its unyielding gaze on her. The snake's head slowly transformed into Ocipia's upper body.

Hoffa had never seen such an expression on her face before—hatred, fury, disgust, and an overwhelming thirst for vengeance!

Towering over the old woman, Ocipia grabbed her head with one hand. With a twist of her waist, the massive snake tail coiled tighter, and with two crisp cracks, the old woman's head tilted to the side, her spine snapping into three pieces, twisted like a pretzel.

Breathing heavily, Hoffa watched the shocking scene from a distance. It took him a while to recover.

Leaning on a seat and clutching his right arm, he slowly approached Ocipia.

"Is she dead?" he asked softly.

"Yes," Ocipia replied coldly as she reverted to her human form. "She seems to have been a professional assassin."

A professional assassin?

Hoffa looked at Ocipia, pale-faced. Despite her young age, she exuded a fierce aura of killing intent, showing no discomfort whatsoever.

But times were different, and Hoffa didn't linger on the thought. He crouched beside the fallen old woman.

Only now did he get a clear look at the one who had attacked him—or rather, Silby.

It was a wrinkled old woman, her face pale, with blood mixed with bits of flesh dribbling from her mouth. Her internal organs had likely been crushed.

She looked no different from any ordinary elderly woman on the street—except for her right arm, which was mechanical.

Seeing it, Hoffa's eyes widened slightly.

He was well aware of the technological level of 1939. People of this era didn't even have air conditioning, let alone robotic exoskeletons or mechanical limbs.

Still, it wasn't entirely mechanical either. There were no wires or chips indicative of futuristic technology. Instead, it resembled something like a door bolt, operating through levers and bearings—a very old-fashioned design.

"What... is this thing?" Hoffa asked in shock.

"A Construct Wizard," Silby answered softly as his wheelchair rolled closer to the corpse.

"A wizard? This... is a wizard?"

"No, it's a creation controlled by a wizard."

Silby shook his head slightly.

Hoffa pressed further, "Can you explain more clearly?"

Ocipia answered this time, her arms crossed and her brows furrowed as she stared at the corpse.

"Construct Wizards—one branch of modern wizardry," she began.

"These wizards are obsessed with Muggle technology—not just Muggle technology but Muggle weapons as well."

"They integrate Muggle technology with wizardry, even using magical crystals and surface circuitry to replace the internal flow of magic.

It's a completely new school of thought, less than a century old. But they've already established their own faction, shrouded in mystery. It's said that these wizards can even grant Muggles power comparable to wizards."

Magical crystals?

Muggle technology?

Construct Wizards?

Hoffa's thoughts turned to the flyer he had seen earlier on the train.

Could this be the organization?

Hoffa glanced at his watch and then at the old woman's mechanical arm on the ground, which was still crackling with purple arcs.

It was this very arm that had dealt him a substantial blow.

He thought of something and quickly crouched beside the old woman, using his wand to pry open her sleeve. On her mechanical arm, he found a purple slot containing a small purple crystal.

Sure enough, the technology was related.

Hoffa decisively pulled the crystal from the slot.

The crystal glowed with an inexplicable purple light—shaped like a prism and thin.

"Magical Crystal," Silby whispered. "Invented by the Italian wizard, Alessandro Antonio, over a thousand years ago, used for storing magic externally."

Hoffa looked at the magical crystal and then slid it into his watch.

With a series of clicks, the watch's face opened up, embedding the crystal inside. The watch face closed, and Hoffa felt a sharp pain in his wrist.

Several needles pierced his skin.

The watch dial spun rapidly.

0.1X, 0.2X, 0.3X, 0.4X, until it came to a stop at 0.5X.

Magic flowed from the watch into Hoffa's body.

In his mindscape, the ratio of magic to life force was swiftly broken.

Magic: 5

Magic: 6

Magic: 7

Magic: 8

Magic: 9

His magic to life ratio surged to 9:1.

Initially, the magic depletion quickly replenished, feeling like relief after a long drought. But soon, Hoffa was in significant discomfort—an abnormal, overfilled pain.

It felt akin to drinking too much water or overeating.

He shook the watch, and the magic drained back into the watch, restoring his body to a 5:5 balance, alleviating the ache in his arm.

However, the magic index in the watch also dropped to 0.4X.

At that moment, Hoffa gained a clearer understanding of his watch—he could draw magic from the crystal inside to supplement his own, like adding an auxiliary tank to a car.

Seeing Hoffa fidgeting with the watch, Silby asked, "Are you okay?"

Before Hoffa could respond, Ocipia suddenly stepped forward and roughly yanked Silby from his blanket.

Hoffa was completely caught off guard.

Silby was hoisted into the air, revealing his skeletal, emaciated body dressed in a translucent bodysuit beneath his clothes.

Ocipia's voice was low and furious. "Why would someone like this come looking for you? Tell me, have you leaked the key information?"

Taken completely by surprise, Silby was hoisted high. Enraged, he shouted, "What are you doing? Put me down!"

Ocipia didn't comply. Instead, she turned and slammed Silby against the glass of the rapidly moving train corridor.

The rushing wind made Ocipia's black hair whip around her forehead.

"Then why is it, exactly, that we happen to pass by here when the train stopped? Why would someone choose to strike here? Was all of this prearranged?"

"You're lifting me, how can I answer that, you fool!?"

With that angry outburst, Silby's body began to convulse uncontrollably. Hoffa quickly moved to pull his employer from Ocipia's inexplicably furious grasp, settling him into the wheelchair.

In the wheelchair, Silby coughed a few times before sneering, "You interrogate me, but you didn't notice—three months ago, the Soviet Ministry of Magic's minister was already dead. This secret was exposed long ago."

Ocipia's face drained of color instantly; she trembled, unable to utter a word.

Hoffa was completely lost, clueless about what these two were talking about.

But before he could delve deeper into what the "secret" was...

A series of urgent footsteps echoed closer and closer. Through the glass door of the train compartment, Hoffa saw a group of heavily armed train staff rushing toward them.

Glancing at the old woman's body, Ocipia decisively said, "There are definitely more than one assassin in this carriage. This is a premeditated operation; we can't stay on this train."

Just then, the heavily armed staff outside started shouting words in an incomprehensible language. One by one, the leading staff raised their weapons.

Ocipia decisively waved her wand, automatically blocking the carriage door with countless iron beams.

In the next second, a barrage of gunshots erupted.

Rows of protruding metal appeared on the door, and the train staff outside didn't hesitate—they opened fire immediately.

"Take him and let's leave," Ocipia commanded.

After speaking, she pointed her wand at the train roof.

A red light flashed, and the exhaust vent was blasted open.

She waved her wand again, and the metal on the ground swirled upward, forming a metal staircase through transfiguration.

"Get up," Ocipia ordered.

Without hesitation, Hoffa shouldered Silby and quickly climbed out onto the roof of the whistling train.

Before he could steady himself, there was a sharp, metallic clang.

The entire carriage they were in suddenly separated from the rest of the train.

The deceleration and inertia made Hoffa sway, feeling that things were starting to go awry.

Ocipia quickly climbed onto the roof, shouting at Hoffa, "Put him down."

"Why?" Hoffa was puzzled.

"No more talk. Do as I say," she commanded with a forceful tone. Hoffa furrowed his brows but complied, setting Silby down.

Ocipia looked around for a moment, then firmly grasped Hoffa's arm.

Snap!

That suffocating sensation of Apparition returned, as though being forcibly squeezed into a twisting rubber tube. His head and limbs were crammed into his chest.

Ocipia took him and disappeared from the spot.

Silby was left sitting on the roof, his mouth agape, saying, "Ah-oh."

A kilometer away on a rocky hill, Ocipia and Hoffa suddenly materialized.

Barely catching their breath, Hoffa exclaimed, "Why didn't you bring both of us?"

Ocipia didn't answer. She squinted, looking into the distance.

Three seconds later, she vanished again.

It seemed Ocipia was going to retrieve Silby. Hoffa breathed a small sigh of relief.

Boom!!!

Suddenly, the carriage in the distance exploded, turning into a ball of fire that painted the morning sky red.

The explosion's massive fireball nearly knocked Hoffa off balance.

He finally understood why those people had severed the carriage!!

"Silby, Ocipia?" Hoffa went through about five seconds of mental blankness.

Click!

Silby and Ocipia appeared on the rocky hilltop.

Just as they materialized, a fiery-clad Silby roared, "Hey, couldn't you bring both of us at once?!"

Hoffa, who was mentally blank, slowly regained his senses. He turned in shock, staring at the distant blaze and the falling debris.

Without a doubt, this was an exquisitely planned murder.

From the old woman, to the train staff, to the explosives on the tracks—such organizational skill and planning were not possessed by ordinary groups.

He never would have imagined that what seemed like a simple escort mission would suddenly become so dangerous and terrifying. The guy next to him, whose only mobile body part was his head, was clearly not an ordinary person.

Finally, it was Silby who broke the silence first.

He muttered, "So, what about my wheelchair?"

"At a time like this, you're still thinking about your wheelchair?" Ocipia said coldly.

"Without a wheelchair, how am I supposed to move?" Silby shot back, glaring.

"Let him carry you," Ocipia nodded toward Hoffa.

The two of them looked at Hoffa.

But Hoffa slowly raised his head and said, "I've been dragged into a mysterious murder. Now you still want to hide things from me?"

Silby: "I've never hidden anything from you."

Hoffa: "Then tell me, what do these people want, and what is this 'key' you keep talking about."

Silby glanced at Ocipia.

Ocipia shook her head in silence.

Silby: "Look, it's not that I won't tell you; it's this lady here who won't let me talk."

"Well, if that's the case, then I don't want the tail payment either," Hoffa said blandly. "Just have her take you back. After all, you both know something."

With that, Hoffa turned and walked down the mountain.

The two on the rocks watched Hoffa's figure move through the trees.

Suddenly, Silby shouted out, "Library!!"

Ocipia gasped sharply, "Shut up!"

But Silby had no intention of stopping.

"A legendary library, a forbidden library of ancient top wizards! It's said that this library holds hundreds of forbidden spells, and whoever possesses it can wield the power to control the world!"

(End of Chapter)

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