"You think me a fool!" the Old Man bellowed, his voice vibrating with fury. "One prison is not enough to contain me, yet you would dare to think you could entrap me even further!"
He launched himself directly at Father, who had just cleared the vicious thorns but was already staggering as the dark poison aggressively entered his bloodstream.
"That is no ordinary cut, boy," the Old Man taunted maliciously. "It is the most potent, concentrated form of greyscale I have ever crafted. It can never kill a true godling, but it will severely weaken you."
Stepping inside the blade's guard, the Old Man drove a heavy, scaled fist directly into Father's face. Father's head snapped back from the brutal impact, but before Hazkar could pull his arm away, Father's gauntleted hand shot out like lightning. He caught the Old Man's extended arm, his emerald eyes burning with furious power. Using every ounce of his tremendous physical strength, Father brutally squeezed the limb, literally crushing the heavy shell and bone to a sickening paste. The ancient entity groaned in sudden, shocking agony, but he fiercely refused to yield, using his other intact arm to throw another devastating punch at Father's chest.
Seeing my father—who I had never even seen sweat from exhaustion—bleeding and poisoned, a wave of agonizing anguish violently erupted within my chest.
I screamed, raising my wand with trembling, blood-slicked fingers. "Sectumsempra!" I slashed my wand downward with every ounce of emotional fury I possessed. The dark cutting curse tore through the damp air, striking the Old Man directly on his armoured shoulder. He casually used his thick turtle shell to absorb the blow, clearly expecting the mortal spell to bounce harmlessly away. But driven by my absolute terror for Father, my magic had instinctually overcharged. Initially, the thick shell showed no reaction whatsoever. A heartbeat later, the supposedly impenetrable armour violently splintered into multiple jagged shards, leaking thick, luminous green blood down his chest.
The Old Man was utterly surprised by the devastating impact of my spell. He whipped his head toward me, immediately sending a deadly volley of thick vines and roots surging directly at my position.
But Father ruthlessly capitalized upon that fleeting distraction. He struck the deity squarely in the chest with a silent Incarcerous spell. Thick magical ropes exploded outward, tightly binding the entity before he could even attempt to stop them. Because his focus had been fractured by my attack, he tumbled into an immediate paralysis. Before Hazkar could even struggle against the bindings, Father followed up with a blisteringly fast Petrificus Totalus, locking the Old Man into a complete, rigid state.
Channelling his remaining strength, Father brutally blasted the paralyzed deity through the air, sending him crashing heavily into the very center of my rune array.
The Old Man was terrifyingly resilient. Within mere seconds of hitting the mud, he had already shattered the full-body bind. Absolute panic was written all over his scaled face as he desperately prepared to launch himself out of the perimeter.
I dropped to my knees, violently channelling my raw mana directly into the damp earth, screaming the activation chant at the top of my lungs.
"Tu qui pugnam ingressus es, intra terram ligatus esto.... Divina vincula!"
Blinding green light erupted simultaneously from the six outer runes forming the sextagram, instantly connecting to the final runestone I had planted at the very center. The ethereal light shot vertically into the gloom, immediately weaving together to form a towering, cage-like entrapment around the frantic deity.
Father arrived at my side in a blur of motion. He extended his hands toward the glowing bars, furiously channelling his own immense mana into the structure. The magical cage visibly hardened under his divine power, the light shifting from an ethereal glow into a solid, almost tangible barrier of confinement.
Father let out a heavy, rattling sigh, his broad shoulders slumping slightly. He reached into his enchanted pocket, summoning a small glass vial filled with a thick, crimson potion. He uncorked it with his thumb, downing the healing draught in a single gulp, before immediately summoning a second vial and pressing it firmly into my trembling hands.
While we caught our breath, the Old Man of the River continuously battered his heavy, bleeding fists against the luminous prison in a frantic attempt to break free. But the divine prison remained entirely unmoving. Although the Old Man continued to yell and furiously curse at us, no sound whatsoever escaped the barrier, leaving him trapped in abject maddening silence.
Father watched him furiously rain heavy blows onto the prison, but the relentless assault did not leave even a single dent. Ultimately, utterly unable to progress in his desperate escape, the Old Man gave up. He sat down heavily upon the damp ground. Slowly, his massive armoured form dissolved, and the broken, greyscale-covered Hazkar of old reappeared before us.
Father nodded, visibly recognizing the return of his calm demeanour. As Father firmly touched the glowing bars of the prison once again, the divine light shimmered brilliantly before settling back into its previous, impenetrable state.
"Now, will you answer truthfully?" Father asked, his voice echoing coldly in the gloom.
Hazkar looked us straight in the eye, remaining entirely silent for a long moment. "Merely because you have me physically restrained, it does not mean that I have submitted to you. I may have failed in my initial attempt, but it was not because of your strength that I failed. My own haste and eagerness led to this travesty."
"I take it you wish to remain rotting in this prison forever, then," Father spoke, openly taunting the ancient entity.