"However, before you celebrate your victory, I have a small question…"
Evelyn gently hugged Hannah, leaning slightly forward to whisper in the girl's ear. "When did you start to labor under the delusion that I had deactivated the Binary Reversal Reconstruction Architecture magic?"
"Wha..."
Before Hannah Abbott could react, the shell of "Evelyn" rapidly lost its color, transforming into a pure white marble sculpture, engulfing her like quicksand, leaving only her head exposed.
The marble sculptures surrounding Luna suddenly converged, forming a hemispherical stone bowl that firmly trapped her.
Meanwhile, Hermione, who was preparing to cast a spell, suddenly felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. A lifelike white queen chess piece expressionlessly drew its sword, placing it slowly and deliberately on her shoulder.
On the empty bronze throne, Evelyn reappeared, resting her cheek on her hand, silently overlooking the three little witches below whose faces had suddenly changed, as if she had never moved at all.
On the armrest of the bronze throne, the hourglass that should have been shattered on the ground was still dropping its last few grains of sand. Evelyn narrowed her eyes, gently placing her left hand fingers down as if holding a chess piece, and softly said.
"Checkmate!"
"Damn it, so close, so close..."
Hannah muttered dejectedly, like a deflated balloon.
Even with her powerful strength, she was unable to exert any force while encased in the soft marble. She felt as though she were trapped in viscous mud, all of her strength dissipating unnoticed as she struggled.
"Unfair! You definitely cheated!"
Hermione Granger's face also wore an expression of indignation.
This feeling of failing at the last moment was terrible. They had finally managed to get within three meters of Evelyn with the help of Luna's illusion magic, intending to rely on Hannah as a trump card to defeat this dumpling with a single blow.
According to Hermione's deduction, Evelyn shouldn't be able to use the magical abilities they knew in this level.
Unless she deliberately violated the rules she had set, Evelyn, as a weakened version of the dumpling who was "physically weak," "unable to Apparate," and "with limited spells available," would have been impossible to fight back in this situation.
"In a sense, it was indeed just a little bit short…"
Evelyn shrugged, pinching her index finger and thumb together in the air, revealing a mischievous smile.
"Roughly, about the entire combat process of the seventh level—as for cheating, there really isn't any, I must regretfully inform you that there may be some insignificant loopholes in your deduction."
Hermione felt her heart suddenly sink heavily.
That's right, Luna, it's Luna!
In the previous levels, Luna hadn't cast the "Binary Reversal Reconstruction Architecture magic". If the activation and deactivation of a spell were considered the same action, then the snap Evelyn made at the beginning was a spell casting cue.
Hermione looked away, stubbornly huffing.
"Hmph, if you hadn't used an illusion to replace the hourglass time, luring us out…"
"Alright, that's the second mistake you made, not reading the question carefully."
Evelyn smiled slightly, looking at the stubborn "Calculating Machine" with a playful expression, and continued.
"Remember what I said before, this is a fair three-vs-three match, even if you plan to hide until the time runs out, you still have to hide yourselves well first... Look up above."
Up, above?!
Hermione's face changed, and she suddenly looked up, only to see a fist-sized owl silently circling in the sky, and the flight path was exactly a triangle based on her, Hannah, and Luna's coordinates.
"Spare rations, returned!"
Evelyn slightly raised her arm, and Spare Rations, who had been silent for a long time, made a triumphant cry and landed beside the girl.
Coo-hoo-ha-ha—
"Round-faced chubby chickens are very magical birds, their dark vision and dynamic vision are more than a hundred times better than normal humans. If ordinary birds want to reach its level of vision, unless their entire brain is made up of visual nerves. Even more amazing, they use hearing for precise positioning when hunting, as long as the time difference between the sound waves reaching the left and right ears is greater than 25 microseconds, they can lock the location of the sound source…"
Evelyn touched Spare Rations's little head, looking at Hermione with a smile that was not a smile.
"In other words, from the beginning, your location was under its control, unless you can perfectly silence and achieve impeccable light and shadow effects, otherwise the rough granularity and breathing sounds will expose your whereabouts."
After a slight pause, Evelyn glanced at the little puppy lying beside her feet and added.
"Oh, right, you also need to eliminate the smell—don't forget, there is also Little Marinated Snack…"
"So, that means..."
Hermione took a deep breath, biting her lip hard, her body trembling a little.
"From beginning to end, you were playing with us? You could have ended it sooner, why did you do this! Do you think this is fun? Just to prove how powerful your magic is? What do you take us for?!"
An ear-splitting silence.
Hannah subconsciously turned her head, looking at Evelyn with Hermione.
"Don't let emotions control your normal logical abilities, Granger," Evelyn replied calmly, "This is just an assessment, it has never changed."