"What happened?" Helga came over.
She noticed the drastic change in Rowena's expression and immediately realised that something major must have happened. With the old raven's personality, there was no way she would lose her composure like this otherwise.
"Give me a moment."
Rowena did not answer her old friend's question immediately. Instead, she began manipulating the crystal ball.
She could not allow Salazar's alias to remain at the top of the rankings. It would only attract trouble for him, especially with such an absurdly high score.
Before long, Rhys Lint's name vanished from the top of the leaderboard and returned to the bottom.
The whole process took less than a minute.
Even though it happened so quickly, some people still noticed the abnormality.
"Did you see that just now? Rhys Lint seemed to shoot straight to first place."
"Huh? I didn't see it. How many points did he have?"
"Several... tens of thousands? I couldn't even count how many digits there were..."
"Are you messing with me?"
"He's at the bottom now, so there must've been some problem with the scoring system..."
Several students who had noticed the change in the rankings began discussing it enthusiastically.
Before long, they concluded that there had simply been some error with the leaderboard.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why Rhys Lint's ranking had suddenly skyrocketed or why he had gained such an astonishing number of points.
"Of course, maybe our Mr. Lint turned into You-Know-Who and went on a killing spree inside the competition venue," someone joked.
Unfortunately, no one wanted to entertain him.
Although You-Know-Who had been rather unimpressive lately, the psychological shadow he had left over the modern wizarding world was still too deep.
No one wanted to joke about that.
Only after Rowena had cleaned up Salazar's trail did she tell Helga what she had just discovered.
Helga immediately frowned after hearing it.
"Obviously, Salazar has completely gone on a killing spree."
Helga arrived at the most likely conclusion.
Rowena did not know what to say.
How should she put it?
This did not seem very Salazar-like.
This style of behaviour was far too Gryffindor!
But after thinking about it again, it somehow also felt extremely Salazar-like.
In another world, the restraints she and Helga normally placed on Salazar would be reduced to almost nothing.
Salazar could lower his moral standards to a terrifying degree.
And Salazar in that state was far more battle-hungry than Godric.
"Should we contact him and tell him to restrain himself a little?" Helga asked.
There were still dozens of students inside the competition venue, after all.
She did not want Salazar to get carried away and drag them into whatever he was doing.
"There's no point contacting him right now..."
Rowena shrugged helplessly and transferred the actual backend data to Helga.
Looking at Salazar's score, which was still constantly increasing, Helga found it difficult to maintain her composure.
"At this rate, after he's finished wreaking havoc, there probably won't be many decent experts left in your little world," Helga remarked.
"That's exactly what I want. That's the whole reason I sent him in there."
Rowena supported what Salazar was doing, even if the commotion he had caused was admittedly rather excessive.
But precisely because of this, she would be able to restart the alchemical world sooner and bring the out-of-control world back under her control.
"Look, the score stopped moving!"
After chatting with Rowena for a while, Helga noticed that the number beside "Rhys Lint" had stopped changing.
She immediately nudged Rowena, indicating that she could try contacting Salazar now.
However, Rowena's "call" went unanswered.
A few minutes later, Rhys's score suddenly surged upward again.
Rowena and Helga: "..."
"Looks like he's fighting something troublesome."
Rowena sighed.
"There's no need to keep contacting him. He'll get in touch with us once it's over."
Helga's brows knitted tightly.
She had a very bad feeling.
"Do you think Salazar might... lose?"
After hesitating several times, she finally voiced the thought buried in her heart.
Rowena was startled.
"Nah, he'd win. After all, it's Salazar we are talking about. He may look young, but from what I can tell, his strength hasn't declined much from his peak."
Although Rowena rarely openly expressed approval of Salazar, deep down she actually agreed with the view that Salazar had travelled farther along the path of immortality than the other three of them.
If she were forced to speak truthfully, she would indeed admit that Salazar's method of extending his life had the fewest side effects and preserved his personal strength remarkably well.
Helga's situation was the exception.
What had happened to Helga could no longer really be called life extension, because the length of her lifespan had not actually changed.
She had simply become a traveller through time.
Among the three of them, Rowena's method had produced the greatest side effects and the greatest loss of strength.
"So you're certain he can handle the enemies inside the alchemical world?"
"..."
Faced with Helga's question, Rowena fell silent.
Helga: "???"
"Rowena, say something!" Helga became even more uneasy.
At first, she had only vaguely felt that the old snake might be in trouble.
But the old raven's silence had completely alarmed her.
Could Salazar really lose?!
"Under normal circumstances, there shouldn't be a problem."
Rowena remained silent for quite a while before finally choosing her words carefully.
"Under normal circumstances?"
"I mean in a one-on-one fight."
Rowena still had considerable confidence in Salazar.
She did not believe that her little world could produce anyone capable of defeating him in single combat.
"Is this a normal situation right now?"
Helga's question made Rowena fall silent again.
Helga immediately understood everything.
Judging by the speed at which Salazar's score had been rising, there was no way he was fighting the people of the alchemical world one at a time!
The old snake was probably fighting the entire world's highest-level combat forces at once.
At that moment, Rhys's score suddenly jumped upward twice more.
Rowena and Helga simultaneously sucked in a breath.
Those last three increases were already almost equal to the total increase from before...
And the points were awarded according to the strength of the enemies killed...
Neither Rowena nor Helga dared imagine what Salazar was facing.
"Can we help him? Rowena, we can't just stand here and watch!"
Salazar's situation was probably extremely dangerous now.
Helga felt that no matter what, the two of them should lend him a hand.
Otherwise, how were they supposed to face him when he came out of the alchemical world?
"If I could help him, why would I..."
Rowena was growing anxious as well.
Wasn't the entire reason she had sent Salazar inside because she had already lost control over this little world?
Her interference would not have much effect.
But halfway through her sentence, Rowena suddenly narrowed her eyes.
"Actually... I might be able to try something."
As she spoke, she quickly led Helga toward the competition venue.
Then she placed her hand against the boundary wall separating the alchemical world from the real world.
"I can create the illusion that I'm about to restart the alchemical world and use that to draw the world's will away," Rowena explained to Helga while she worked.
In her view, Salazar's current predicament was most likely caused by the world's will targeting him. If she could divert even part of its attention, that alone would be enough to help him considerably.
Once the idea occurred to her, Rowena immediately put it into action.
The moment she made contact, however, she noticed something unusual.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI