Harry Potter: The Legend of Nero Ravenclaw-Chapter 130: Breaking the Link

After several failed tests, Nero sat in the dojo, staring at the remnants of his most recent attempt.

Scraps of parchment littered the floor, faint traces of residual magic still clinging to them before fading entirely.

His barrier, though intact, felt wrong.

It was still pulling from him even when he had no conscious connection to it.

He rubbed his temples.

If I severed the mental link, then why is my energy still draining?

The flaw was clear: while the Shikigami functioned independently, the barrier itself was still anchored to his reserves.

Every second it remained active, it was subtly leeching magic from him, even though it wasn't supposed to.

If he wanted this method to work long-term, he needed to create a true self-sustaining system.

He glanced down at the complex runic inscriptions he had carved into the wooden floor of the dojo.

The designs were meticulous, layered with precision, meant to create a stable containment field.

Yet, it still relied too much on his own magic as its power source.

Then the solution is simple, he thought. I need a way to fuel it without using my own reserves.

And there was only one logical alternative. Leylines.

Leylines were natural currents of magical energy that flowed beneath the earth, acting as veins of raw mana that mages had used for centuries. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

In theory, if he could redirect that ambient energy into the barrier, it would no longer need to rely on his reserves.

But leylines were volatile. Drawing from them required extreme precision.

Too little, and the barrier wouldn't sustain itself.

Too much, and it could destabilize, either collapsing instantly or overloading with excess energy.

Still, it was his best shot.

Nero took a deep breath and began making adjustments to the runes.

He carefully etched new pathways into the inscriptions, modifying their structure so that, rather than feeding off his magic, they would sync with the leyline beneath Zen and Mu's house.

Once the modifications were complete, he pressed his palm to the floor, letting his Raven Eyes activate.

His vision shifted, magic tracing through his sight, he could see the faint glow of the leyline far beneath him, a river of untapped power flowing beneath the estate.

"Here goes nothing."

He activated the barrier.

At first, it was flawless.

The moment the leyline connected, the runes flared to life, pulsing with a steady rhythm as they drew ambient energy instead of pulling from Nero directly.

The shimmering dome of the barrier solidified, its edges stronger than ever before.

For the first time, Nero felt nothing.

No drain, no tether pulling on his reserves. It was working.

He created a Shikigami, sending it into the barrier.

Minutes passed.

Then half an hour.

The Shikigami continued functioning without issue, moving fluidly inside the sealed space.

Nero grinned. Finally, a breakthrough.

But then, something shifted.

Without warning, the runes flared too bright, the glow turning from a steady pulse to a rapid flicker.

The barrier's structure wobbled, the edges distorting.

The Shikigami, still inside, froze mid-motion, as if confused.

Then, the entire field collapsed in an instant.

The backlash sent a shockwave through the dojo, knocking Nero backward as the stored energy dispersed chaotically.

Bookshelves rattled, talismans scattered, and a deep crack splintered across the wooden floor where the runes had been inscribed.

Nero coughed, pushing himself up.

His entire body buzzed with residual energy, his hands tingling as if he had been briefly electrocuted.

"Okay... that didn't work."

Once the residual magic faded, Nero sat back and started dissecting what went wrong.

The initial connection was perfect.

The leyline successfully fueled the barrier, proving that an external source could work.

The instability came later.

The problem wasn't in tapping into the leyline, it was in controlling the flow.

Once it started pulling too much energy, the runes failed to regulate the intake, causing the collapse.

The Shikigami was affected by the instability.

For a moment before the collapse, it had frozen, meaning excess magic could be interfering with its autonomy.

The key issue was balance.

Leylines weren't a passive energy source, they were more like a raging river.

If he wanted to use them safely, he needed a regulator that could ensure a stable draw of power instead of an unchecked surge.

"I need a failsafe," he muttered. "Something to moderate the flow."

And then the answer hit him.

I already know how to filter excessive magical input.

His Occlumency training had taught him to sort and categorize mental input, filtering out unnecessary information before it overwhelmed his mind.

If he could apply the same principle to his runic design, he could filter magical intake and ensure the barrier didn't collapse under excessive energy flow.

He grabbed a fresh parchment and started sketching out a new runic design.

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This time, he made three key adjustments:

A Filtering Matrix.

He added secondary runes to act as a magical buffer, ensuring the leyline's energy would be drawn in measured pulses instead of an uncontrolled flood.

Feedback Stabilizers.

He introduced a loop within the barrier's framework that would allow excess energy to dissipate safely, instead of building to the point of collapse.

Anchoring Nodes.

Instead of pulling directly from the leyline, he designed smaller anchor points around the dojo to distribute the energy flow evenly.

It was a far more complex design, but if it worked, it would solve every issue he had encountered so far.

Nero redrew the barrier with the new stabilizing modifications.

Once again, he activated the field, connected it to the leyline, and this time, the glow remained steady.

No erratic flickering, no immediate energy surges.

He created a Shikigami and let it step inside.

The clone began performing simple tasks, moving smoothly within the containment field.

Minutes passed. Then an hour.

The barrier held.

Nero grinned in triumph. The modifications had worked.

The storage barrier could now sustain itself indefinitely without pulling from his reserves.

The next step would be testing longer durations and eventually pushing the limits.

But for now, he had achieved something no mage had ever done before.

He exhaled, his pulse still racing from the earlier failure.

"Finally," he murmured. "Now I can really start."

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