Eric hadn’t forgotten that if he wanted to complete the System’s quest, the only viable method was to suppress the troublesome Monster Books with his own Magical Pressure.
There was one crucial requirement for that plan to work, the Monster Books had to actually be susceptible to it.
If the Monster Books were purely alchemical creations, or nothing more than artificial products manufactured by witches and wizards, Eric doubted his magical power would have any effect on them whatsoever.
Any raw magic that touched them would simply be resisted in much the same way as a spell, neutralised by their inherent magical resistance.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
Although the Monster Books weren’t living creatures, these peculiar magical objects actually possessed a degree of animal instinct.
Judging from Eric’s earlier experience subduing the first Monster Book that attacked him, those instincts clearly influenced their behaviour.
The other books had been able to perceive how Eric subdued the one that lunged at him first, and they had deliberately kept their distance from him for a short while afterward, evidently unwilling to become his next victim.
In other words, the Monster Books could feel fear.
Whatever you are, as long as you can be frightened, that’s enough.
Even as these thoughts raced through his mind, Eric didn’t stop.
His gaze remained fixed on the Monster Books hovering before him.
As his eyes shifted, the white light emerged from the subdued Monster Book in his hands and shot forward like lightning.
Eric saw streak after streak of white lightning flash across his vision at tremendous speed, darting in perfectly straight lines.
The lingering afterimages overlapped before him until they formed a dense, irregular web.
And every path traced by that white light passed through one of the remaining Monster Books.
Including the few already charging towards Eric, hundreds of Monster Books were pierced by the white light in the blink of an eye.
Everything happened extraordinarily quickly.
Eric couldn’t actually follow the light with his eyes, yet the sensation was unmistakably real.
Because every point it passed through had been chosen by him beforehand.
Throughout the process, Eric felt as though he himself had become that white light, hurtling through the air alongside it at incredible speed.
His head throbbed painfully, yet at the same time, the sensation was exhilarating.
A chaotic flood of information about the Monster Books poured into his mind all at once.
His skull felt as though it might burst from the sheer volume of it, and even his movements faltered for an instant.
But Eric’s thoughts never stopped.
As the white light disappeared, he could clearly sense that his Mental Field had spread across every Monster Book present.
The connection was complete.
Next…
Compress the magic.
And then— Release it!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ To everyone watching, Eric had gone completely still.
He stood there alone, holding a motionless Monster Book in one hand, his eyes vacant.
Several more Monster Books were already flying towards him, yet Eric showed no reaction whatsoever.
The surrounding witches and wizards saw it happen, and more than a few cried out in alarm.
As far as they were concerned, Eric might have managed to subdue one Monster Book through sheer luck, but now several of them were attacking him at once.
And Eric didn’t even have a wand.
Under circumstances like these, none of them could imagine how he intended to get himself out of danger.
“Damn it!” Standing at the edge of the crowd, Tom’s face twisted in panic.
At that moment, he desperately wished he still possessed the reflexes of a master duellist so he could draw his wand instantly.
An eleven year old who hadn’t even started Hogwarts was about to face several Monster Books at once.
Tom had no idea what would happen to Eric afterward.
What he did know was that he himself would be in enormous trouble.
When young witches and wizards entered the magical world for the first time and Tom personally accompanied them to purchase their school supplies, he bore a certain degree of responsibility for their safety until they formally left for Hogwarts.
And that wasn’t even considering the kind of talent Eric possessed.
A young wizard with magical power like Eric’s would, without exception, be expected to accomplish extraordinary things in the future.
And now such a prodigy might meet an untimely end while under Tom’s supervision.
Merlin knew what the Ministry of Magic would make of that.
Tom was beside himself.
He had absolutely no desire to end up in Azkaban because of this.
None whatsoever.
Moving faster than he had in years, Tom reached for his wand.
His fingers quickly closed around the handle, and he yanked it from his pocket.
Just as he was about to cast a spell— His hand trembled.
Clatter!
The wand slipped from his fingers and fell onto the ground.
No!
Tom stared at it in despair.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he had needed to draw his wand this quickly.
His spirit might still have been willing, but his body, long out of practice, was brutally honest about its limitations.
Tom immediately crouched and reached for his wand.
He hadn’t given up.
Tom had been through plenty in his younger years.
He wasn’t some fragile wizard who collapsed at the first setback.
As long as there was even the slightest chance, he wouldn’t abandon hope.
Almost there.
Just a little more— Tom could already see his wand lying on the ground.
His fingers were about to close around it when— A violent gust swept past.
His wand was lifted straight off the ground and hurled nearly ten metres away.
This time, Tom didn’t even try to chase after it.
His legs were trembling uncontrollably.
He couldn’t summon any strength into them at all.
Because a sensation he knew all too well had just swept over him from behind.
Tom’s face went pale.
That hadn’t been wind.
It was…
Tom raised his head in shock and looked towards Eric.
Before he could prepare himself, an overwhelmingly ferocious presence erupted from the boy!
Pure Magical Pressure burst from Eric without the slightest restraint.
Wave after wave of magical force surged outward, with Eric at its centre, forming a tremendous shockwave that swept in every direction.
For a moment, every other sound seemed to disappear.
There were only instinctive screams and the deafening roar of the impact.
Bricks were torn from the ground.
Every Monster Book still airborne was smashed down.
The overwhelming Magical Pressure swept through an area more than ten metres around Flourish and Blotts in an instant.
The bookshop’s front door was blasted completely off its hinges and slammed onto the ground.
Several neighbouring shops were caught in the same wave, and nearly every window in the vicinity shattered at once.
Tom had been knocked flat the instant the pressure erupted.
And he wasn’t alone.
Apart from Eric himself, nobody present had been remotely prepared for what happened.
The others fared little better than Tom.
Lying face down on the ground with his eyes tightly shut, Tom felt as though his heart were about to leap out of his chest.
This magical impact wasn’t even remotely on the same level as what he had experienced earlier in the Leaky Cauldron.
Tom wasn’t sure whether he should feel fortunate that Eric hadn’t unleashed this much power inside the pub.
His thoughts were complete chaos.
His mouth hung open.
He had countless things he wanted to say, yet not a single word would come out.
He had no idea how much time passed before he finally managed to open his eyes.
Tom looked towards the entrance of Flourish and Blotts.
Only one person was still standing.
The storm had died away at some point.
Eric still wore the same mild smile as before.
He looked towards Tom, his lips moving as though he were saying something.
Only after several moments did the words faintly reach Tom’s ears.
“…Sorry.
I used a bit too much force by accident.” Eric smiled as he dismissed the Mental Field and quietly felt colour return to the world around him.