"Secondly, after the clones are destroyed, they don't leave behind corpses, but rather transform into pure magic. Judging from the perception just now, these dispersed magical energies will move in the same direction. It seems that the residual magic after the clones disappear doesn't vanish into thin air, but returns to the main body."
"Excellent, the intelligence gathering work is temporarily concluded. Next is the counterattack!" Alan's eyes narrowed slightly, a cold glint appearing in their slits.
After making up his mind, Alan slowly lowered his right hand, and then saw dozens of Soul-Binding Serpents emerge from the spatial ring on his right hand. This alchemy weapon, which comes with a Disabling Charm, has greatly improved its conversion efficiency after years of upgrades by Alan. If entangled by it, it only takes less than ten seconds to dissipate one hundred units of magic from the target's body.
After releasing these Soul-Binding Serpents, Alan cast a Disillusionment Charm on each of them one by one, then manipulated them to quickly scatter, heading directly toward the various clones.
"I wonder if you'll feel distressed, Rune Serpent, after all the magic on your clones is drained dry." Alan sneered. "Also, I need to take this opportunity to test the effect of sensory sharing on them. If they truly share perception with the main body one hundred percent, then don't blame me for being ruthless."
After doing all this, Alan again cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself. Besides these toys, he also had to prepare a big gift for the main body!
On the other side, the Rune Serpent's clones were also searching the first basement floor with full intensity. However, what she found very strange was that although she had basically locked onto Alan's general location, she always found nothing during the search, as if the other party could constantly track their movements.
*Could the other party be invisible? But that's not right; my clones should have no problem seeing through a normal Disillusionment Charm. It's not like that kid has something like the Deathly Hallows Invisibility Cloak, is he?*
*Impossible!*
The Rune Serpent decisively shook her head. The most likely possibility now was that Alan possessed extremely strong perception abilities, or other reconnaissance methods, which caused the clones to always miss the other party during their search. Thinking of this, the Rune Serpent immediately changed her strategy. She drove several more clones into the basement, preparing to use a patient approach to thoroughly check every room and every corridor. She refused to believe she couldn't catch this mouse.
Soon, the clones on the first basement floor changed their behavior pattern. They no longer moved around, but instead, after checking an area, they would stay in place, transforming themselves into human sentries, constantly monitoring the surrounding movements. In this way, in just a few minutes, ninety percent of the first basement floor's space was sealed off, and the remaining clones were slowly approaching the last few rooms.
"Hmph, no matter how much you can escape, you still can't evade my inescapable net. I'll let you know what despair tastes like!" The Rune Serpent didn't believe Alan could simply vanish into thin air. At this moment, she had already concluded that the other party would soon be caught by her.
And just as the Rune Serpent was quietly observing the situation in the basement, one of her clones suddenly showed activity, seemingly attacked again.
"Heh, finally appeared. This time, where will you run!"
Regarding the attack on her clone, the Rune Serpent seemed indifferent. She knew the strength of her clones; a single one couldn't deal with Alan, but as long as the other party made a move, she could use that to pinpoint the other party's location, and then dispatch the other clones to immediately provide support. However, just as the Rune Serpent was about to react, she immediately felt something was wrong!
How could another clone be attacked? And the locations were vastly different, at least a hundred meters apart. But before she could figure out what was going on, the Rune Serpent found that her clones suddenly, one after another, all showed abnormalities. But even if she controlled these clones to scan everywhere, she still couldn't find the enemy's presence in her vision.
Controlling dozens of clones at the same time was already exhausting for her, and the current sudden situation made her even more mentally drained. By the time she hastily controlled the clones to find the culprit behind all this, a metal snake wrapped around their feet, it was already a bit late.
These silver snakes entangling the clones were not only rapidly draining their magic, but also suddenly released a strong electric current at the same time. These currents seemed to specifically reduce their lethality; they didn't cause any substantial damage to the clones, but they could bring her a violent surge of pain!
At this moment, there were over twenty clones in the basement, and the Rune Serpent had been very focused on maintaining a mental link with these clones, so she almost one hundred percent received the pain that so many clones experienced at the same time.
"Ah!!!!"
The instant pain made her scream involuntarily. The Rune Serpent felt as if thousands of needles were simultaneously piercing her skin, internal organs, five senses, and brain, and for a moment, this pain caused her to temporarily lose consciousness. In response, the Rune Serpent immediately severed her mental connection with the clones and tried to dissolve them, allowing them to return as magic.
But at this moment, the Rune Serpent discovered with a hint of dread that her clones were being swallowed alive as if by a giant whale, even their magic turning into nothingness, which caused her to lose thousands of points of magic in an instant. Upon realizing this terrifying fact, the Rune Serpent no longer dared to hesitate and immediately dissolved all existing clones, including those still guarding the first floor. Because she simply didn't know what strange method Alan was using that could actually devour her magic.
And just as the Rune Serpent realized that the magic from subsequently dissolved clones could return, before she could even feel a moment of relief, a terrifying tremor came from beneath her feet.
*Boom!!!*
The sudden explosion instantly engulfed the Rune Serpent's location, even spreading to an area of about ten square meters around her. The power of the explosion was incredibly immense, not only blowing a large hole directly into the first-floor ground, but also blasting through the second, third, and fourth floors and the ceiling above, as if a meteor had crashed down from the sky!
Still hiding in the basement, Alan secretly clenched his fist as he looked at the results of his efforts. Against a monstrous individual like the Rune Serpent, underhanded tactics were the only way to be effective. Of course, to achieve the current effect, Alan had also put in a lot of effort. After all, controlling dozens of Soul-Binding Serpents and hundreds of exploding spiders to operate simultaneously was not an easy task; his head was still throbbing slightly.
It was a pity that through the thick smoke, Alan couldn't clearly see the Rune Serpent's condition via the surveillance spiders, and directly extending his senses was too dangerous for him, so he could only wait quietly. If he could directly blow up the opponent, that would naturally be best; after all, the exploding spiders he used this time were several times more numerous than those prepared for Thunderbird last time. Just the cost of manufacturing them exceeded ten thousand Galleons. Even if he couldn't directly blast the opponent to death, leaving her half-crippled like Thunderbird was not unacceptable. Alan simply didn't believe anyone could emerge unscathed from an explosion of such magnitude.
And as the thick smoke in the surveillance spider's vision gradually receded, Alan, seeing the situation inside, was stunned for a long moment. In the dust, a figure gradually appeared floating in mid-air; it was the Rune Serpent. But at this moment, there was not even a speck of dust on the Rune Serpent, let alone any injuries. Protecting her, almost completely unharmed, was a light blue magic shield floating around her!
This magic shield was somewhat similar to Thunderbird's Insulation Shield, enveloping the Rune Serpent 360 degrees without any blind spots. However, unlike the Insulation Shield, although this shield was also generally circular, linear ripples constantly rolled across its surface, flowing slowly like water.
"This… this is simply too outrageous!" Alan's eyes widened as he watched everything. How incredibly strong was this shield, to be able to withstand an explosion of such immense power? One must know that even Thunderbird's Insulation Shield, when enduring an explosion head-on, would still experience some degree of internal shock, which led to Thunderbird's body being severely injured even if it resisted the surface damage. But this shield in front of her, could it even withstand the aftershocks and tremors of the explosion?
"Alan!!!!"
Although the Rune Serpent, floating in mid-air, was still enduring a faint stinging pain in her brain, she was completely enraged by Alan's actions, which made her scream hysterically.
"No one… no one has ever pushed me to this extent! Remember, you forced my hand!" The Rune Serpent had lost her previous calm composure. "Next, I will make you taste what true pain is, you filthy rat who only knows how to hide in dark corners!"
After her ferocious roar, the Rune Serpent flew upward without looking back, passing directly through the large hole in the ceiling above, until she was suspended in the air nearly a hundred meters above the mansion.
"Rise!!!!"
The Rune Serpent, flying in mid-air, roared sharply, then pointed her wand toward the manor below. Immediately after, Alan, who was in the basement, felt a terrifying tremor, and then felt his body lighten. At the same time, all the surrounding objects suddenly floated up, defying the laws of physics, and rapidly moved toward the ceiling, as if the entire world had instantly been inverted!
Not long after, besides the surrounding objects, even this massive manor slowly began to rise with a tremendous rumbling sound. Alan, watching this scene unfold before his eyes, couldn't help but swallow. Holy cow, this building is taking off!