Pg the clipboard aside, Alex slid on a set of knuckle-dusters, each rune-inscribed to enhance pairiking. He didn’t hesitate, aiming a calcuted punch straight at Torquil’s chest wound. The force sent fresh waves of agony through Torquil’s body, making him arch against the floor in a futile attempt to escape. Already weakened from the earlier ordeal, Torquil let out a sound that could only be described as primal—raw, guttural, and filled with despair. The runes on Alex’s knuckles amplified the pain, turning every blow into an unbearable torment.

  The onlookers were frozen iheir faces pale as Torquil’s screams rattled through the room. One of them began trembling untrolbly, and anripped the edge of the table for support, their knuckles white. Alex, unfazed, checked the instrument’s dial again, nodding in satisfa. “Fasatiional distress seems to cause slight fluctuations, but the mana reserve remaiively stable. Good data.”

  Torquil bared his teeth, gritting them against the searing pain radiating from Alex’s brutal punch. Despite the agony, his gre remained sharp, his eyes bzing with venomous defiance.

  He scribbled a few more notes on his clipboard before turning back to Torquil, his expression as calm aached as ever. “Thanks for your cooperation. I’ll heal you up now. Let’s just say you’ve at least been helpful for on your life..”

  Alex pulled the su pump of the oversized syringe, and blood slowly began to flow back through the infusion tube into the empty vial. His eyes stayed glued to the values on the dashboard. As the blood filled the tube, the pointer on the instrument began to retract, inch by inch, from its initial reading of 412 to 410. By now, Alex had extracted nearly 40 milliliters of blood.

  "Yaxley’s body holds around 4,000 milliliters of blood. Drawing out just one pert seems to lower his mana levels by about two ticks, roughly 0.5%. That means blood tains nearly half of a wizard's magical power. Is this true for all wizards, or do individual differences exist? I'll o test more subjects to firm," Alex muttered, already f pns in his mind.

  Without dey, he returned Yaxley’s blood, wiped down the instrument half-heartedly, and moved on to the other four Death Eaters. Iion s didn’t faze him in the slightest. He grabbed the one, plugged the needle in, aed the process. After a full round of blood draws and measurements, Alex came to a definitive clusion: a wizard’s blood tains about 50% of their magic power.

  Alex's eyes lit up as he reviewed the data. "If magic power is so trated in the blood, I might not even need invasive tools to measure mana iure. A simple blood test could work just as well." He couldn’t suppress his excitement as a solution to a long-standing problem dawned on him.

  Currently, his measuring instrument required a rge tact surfad deep iion into a subject’s body for accurate results—a method as terrifying as it was impractical. But this neroach could make things simpler.

  "First, I’ll o craft an alchemy tool capable of deteg total blood volume. Then I’ll draw a small sample to measure its mana tration. Multiply that by the total blood volume and double it for accura, you’ve got the wizard’s total mana reserve." Alex ractically giddy, sketg out calcutions in his head.

  He g the group of restrained Death Eaters, who were too weak to protest. To Alex, they were treasures—living, breathi subjects who could help him perfect his methods. "I’ll o run more tests ime to fiuhe numbers," he decided, a grin spreading across his face.

  Karkaroff, trembling in his restraints, shuddered at the sight of Alex’s expression. "He’s smiling again! This maniac treats us like toys! If someone—anyone—saves me, I’ll sell my soul," he whispered, eyes squeezed shut as he prayed desperately to any dark force that might listen.

  Alex cpped his hands, his voice cutting through the tense silence. "Alright! That s up phase oime for phase two!" His enthusiasm sent another wave of dread through his unwilling subjects.

  Alex approached his workbend picked up a peculiar metallic object. It looked like a segmented , woven together from , ented rods. Despite its crude appeara carried a certain elegahe charm inscriptions glinting faintly uhe dim light.

  Carefully, Alex pced the on the ground and whispered an intation. The writhed, twisting and coiling until it transformed into a small, silver sh an unnervingly smooth, metallic sheen. The creature flexed its body once before darting toward Yaxley with unnatural speed.

  Alex wasted no time. He ied the measuring device bato Yaxley’s body and watched the readings closely. The silver snake ed itself tightly around Yaxley, and the effects were immediate. Yaxley began to shiver violently, his body temperature dropping as though he’d been plunged into ah. The instrument dispyed a rapid dee in mana reserves—clearly visible, even to the naked eye.

  Holding a stopwat one hand, Alex alternated his gaze betweeimer and the instrument. "Eighteen Lum of mana loss per sed," he noted aloud, his voice filled with satisfa. "That means each spell etched into the snake drains two ticks per sed. That’s four times more effit than my earlier tests on Travers."

  Yaxley’s shivering turned into untrolble vulsions as his mana reserves plummeted. In just 23 seds, the instrument showed that his magical power had been pletely drained. Yaxley slumped forward, his skin pale, his breathing shallow. Meanwhile, the silver snake maintais firm grip, further l his body temperature.

  "This is promising," Alex mused, jotting down the results. "The Spirit-Binding S only drains mana quickly but also immobilizes the target and disrupts their focus with its cooling effect. Perfect for bat and tai sarios. I might upgrade it into a full-body once I get better materials."

  Yaxley couldn’t quite grasp what Alex had doo him. The moment the metal snake made tact, he felt his magic draining rapidly, a bone-deep chill creeping over him. It was as if his body was surrendering to the frost. The thought crossed his mind—perhaps freezing to death like this wouldn’t be so bad. It might even be a relief, a final escape from this awful teenager who seemed to revel in tormenting him.

  But just as he began to embrace the idea of death as a way out, the chilliion started to fade. Warmth returo his body, gradually repg the cold. Alex had retracted the silver snake and, rather thoughtfully, cast a warming spell on him.

  “So that’s it, huh? You won’t eve me die if I wao…” Yaxley muttered, his voice trembling. His lips curled into a strange smile, ohat didn’t reach his dull, gssy eyes. He stared bnkly at the ceiling, the weight of his mental and physical torment dragging him closer to the edge of madness. A soft, uling chuckle escaped him, building into a disjointed ugh.

  Alex, watg this peculiar rea, scratched his head in fusion. “What’s with that smile? I warmed you up, didn’t I? Shouldn’t you be grateful or something?”