CHAPTER 172: CHAPTER 172: NURMENGARD

The mountains loomed like silent sentinels, their jagged peaks cutting into a darkening sky.

The air here was thin, cold, carrying whispers of a past that had refused to be buried.

Dumbledore and Nero stood before the gates of Nurmengard Prison.

The fortress rose like a monolith, its dark stone walls untouched by time, a scar upon the earth that refused to fade.

Runes glowed faintly along the edges of its structure, old and powerful magic woven into the very foundations. It had been designed as a fortress of conquest, then transformed into a prison of penance, for its creator.

Nero cast a glance at Dumbledore. His grandfather had been still for a long moment, staring up at the place where he had once put an end to an empire.

"This is the first time you’ve returned here, isn’t it?" Nero asked quietly.

Dumbledore inhaled slowly, his blue eyes reflecting something distant. "Yes."

A pause.

Then, in a whisper, he added, "And he has been waiting for me."

Without another word, they stepped through the ancient iron gates.

The weight of Nurmengard settled around them immediately, thick and suffocating, as if the very air sought to remind intruders of the horrors entombed within its walls.

The gates groaned shut behind them with a finality that sent a shiver through the silence.

Ahead, the corridor stretched long and uninviting, bathed in dim, flickering torchlight.

Shadows clung to the high stone arches, twisting unnaturally, as if they harbored memories of those who had once walked these halls, both conquerors and the conquered.

The cold was different here. It wasn’t the natural chill of the mountains but something deeper, something that sank into the skin and curled around the bones.

Old, vengeful magic whispered beneath the stones, a remnant of the fortress’s original purpose.

Nurmengard had never been meant to house its creator.

It had been a symbol of dominion, a throne for a ruler who would never be questioned.

And now, it had become a mausoleum for an empire that had never fully died.

Each step echoed, swallowed by the oppressive quiet.

The walls bore no adornments, no plaques, no records of the past, only smooth, featureless stone. No history here, only confinement. Only the weight of forty years.

Dumbledore walked ahead, his footsteps measured, deliberate.

His expression remained unreadable, but Nero saw the signs of tension in the set of his shoulders, the barely perceptible tightness in his jaw.

This was not simply a place of memory for him.

It was a wound. Left to fester, untouched, for decades.

The deeper they walked, the more Nurmengard closed in around them.

The corridors seemed to stretch unnaturally, as though time itself warped within these walls.

The torches burned low, their glow flickering erratically, casting long, jagged shadows that danced like specters of the past.

The air grew denser, heavier. It was not simply cold now, it was expectant.

They passed empty cells, their doors ajar, remnants of prisoners long forgotten.

Some cells were sealed shut, their locks rusted over, their interiors nothing but darkness. There was no sound from within. Not a whisper. Not a breath. Just the heavy silence of the forgotten.

Further in, the walls bore marks. Deep, jagged scratches, places where fingers had once clawed against unyielding stone. A silent record of desperation. Of minds that had cracked long before their bodies failed.

Nero felt it now, the presence of Nurmengard itself. It was not simply a prison. It was an entity.

A place steeped in suffering, in shattered ideals, in the ghosts of dreams that had turned to nightmares.

And at its core, waiting, was Gellert Grindelwald.

The corridors narrowed as they neared the heart of the fortress.

The torches here burned lower, their light barely holding back the creeping dark. The air felt different, charged, humming with a latent power that had not faded even after decades of disuse.

A warning. A presence.

Dumbledore’s steps slowed ever so slightly, but he did not stop.

His fingers curled subtly at his sides, a fleeting motion that betrayed what his expression did not.

They passed through a final corridor, one lined with runes barely visible in the stone.

Ancient protections, designed to suppress magic, to bind the unbindable.

Yet here, even as they walked past, Nero could feel the lingering pulse of power beneath them.

Then they reached the final chamber.

A massive door of iron stood before them, etched with sigils that had once been a declaration of absolute rule. Now, they were nothing but remnants of a fallen empire.

Dumbledore raised a hand, hesitating for the briefest of moments before pressing his palm against the cold metal.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then runes shimmered faintly, old wards stirring as if recognizing him, acknowledging the man who had locked this place with his own magic.

The door groaned in protest, as if unwilling to break its silence.

And then, slowly, it creaked open.

Revealing Gellert Grindelwald.

Forty years.

Forty years since that final, shattering duel.

Forty years since he had watched the light in Gellert’s eyes shift from brilliant defiance to cold resignation as he lay defeated.

Forty years since the world had declared their war over, when in truth, it had only left its scars upon those who had waged it.

Dumbledore’s breath was steady, but within him, the past roared to life.

He saw them as they had been. Two young men, side by side, the future stretched before them like an untouched canvas.

Gellert, vibrant and electric, spinning ideas faster than the stars could burn.

And he, the prodigy of Hogwarts, the dreamer who had never quite belonged among his peers, finally finding someone who understood.

The long nights of debate, the whispered plans beneath the oak trees of Godric’s Hollow, the feverish excitement of reshaping the world into something greater.

And then, the darkness.

The dream twisting, becoming something ugly, something unstoppable.

The day they had drawn their wands not in theory, not in practice, but in anger.

Ariana’s frail form collapsing like a broken marionette, her last breath stolen by a spell neither of them could claim, but both bore the weight of.

The silence after. The wreckage of their ideals.

Then, years later, their duel.

Dumbledore had hesitated for so long, hoping, praying that he wouldn’t have to be the one to end it.

That Gellert would see, would understand, would turn back.

But he never did.

And so, Albus Dumbledore had destroyed the only person he had ever truly loved.

Now, forty years later, he stood once more before the man who had once been his greatest friend.

And Gellert Grindelwald was smiling.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

50 Chapters ahead on Patreon (Suiijin): Chapter 222: The Sky’s Favorite