Chapter 161: Expedition to Moria

Under the training of Elladan and Elrohir, Kael's martial skills improved rapidly. If he had been a fragile mage before, now even without using magic, he could face Orcs head-on with his Flame Sword Flammifer or divine spear Aeglos. During this period, he drank Ent-draught once more. The Ent-draught made him grow a little taller again, barely breaking through to two meters. This made him tall even among Elves, who were generally quite tall. Besides height, his greatest gain was a much stronger body. While the Ent-draught's effects hadn't worn off, he was energetic every day. Even after being drilled by Elladan and Elrohir, he remained vigorous and grew stronger. For this, he specifically made several pots of growth potion, then had the great eagle Thorondor carry the potions to Fangorn Forest to trade with Treebeard for Ent-draught. Thorondor could no longer be called an eaglet. Under Arwen's careful care and feeding with lembas, magical provisions, his body had grown rapidly, his wings becoming strong enough to support circling flight around Weathertop. After Kael also fed him Ent-draught, his size directly doubled, becoming even larger than adult great eagles. So Thorondor officially became Kael's messenger, carrying potions across vast distances to Fangorn Forest and successfully trading for Ent-draught. Treebeard was very fond of the great eagle Thorondor, specially treating him with Ent-draught. So when Thorondor returned to Weathertop with Ent-draught, Kael saw a great eagle whose size had doubled again. Kael could only marvel at Thorondor's good fortune. Though Thorondor wasn't truly adult yet, his size already exceeded the largest Eagle-lord in the Misty Mountains, with wings spanning nearly 30 meters. When he flapped his wings, wind swept like a storm, like the legendary roc blocking out the sun. Once able to fly, Thorondor no longer needed feeding. Hogsmeade Town residents below could see the great eagle flying daily, departing at sunrise to hunt in distant wilds, returning at sunset to his nest in the tall mallorn tree. When Bilbo celebrated his birthday, he also received Kael's gift, Ent-draught. The effect was immediate. Bilbo grew a full 8 centimeters, becoming the tallest hobbit in the Shire. Bilbo was so thrilled that he threw a special feast in Hobbiton, inviting all his neighbors to marvel at his newfound height. Time passed day by day as Kael dated Arwen and was trained by Elladan and Elrohir. Until one day, a raven brought news from Gandalf. The dwarves had decided to expedition to Moria. Leading them was an old acquaintance of Kael's, Balin. For this expedition, Thorin Oakenshield, King under the Mountain, wouldn't participate directly but still fully supported Balin's reclamation of Moria to restore dwarven glory at Khazad-dûm. Originally, the dwarves wouldn't have decided so quickly. After all, not to mention the Orcs in Moria being difficult to handle, the Balrog lurking in Moria's mines was the greatest threat. The Balrog's terror far exceeded that of the dragon Smaug. The once-mighty Khazad-dûm kingdom was destroyed overnight at its peak. So the dwarves were hesitant about reclaiming Moria, with divided opinions. But after Gandalf traveled north and brought news that Kael was willing to help, the dwarves' confidence soared. Not only would Gandalf and Kael, two powerful wizards, assist, but Kael also had the dragon Smaug. They believed there was a high probability of victory. "Kael, long time no see!" In the castle, dwarf elder Balin emerged from green flames in the fireplace, warmly greeting Kael. But when he saw how tall Kael had become, he looked up in surprise. "My goodness, Kael, what did you eat? How did you grow so tall?" "A little gift from the Ents," Kael explained with a smile. Balin looked at Kael with some envy, shaking his head regretfully. "Ents aren't very friendly to us dwarves. They're said to have had conflicts with our ancestors. Fangorn Forest has always been forbidden to dwarves." Kael thought that since dwarves loved mining and forging, requiring tree-cutting, it would be strange if they had good relations with tree-protecting Ents. After all, he had nearly been marked unwelcome by Ents for burning Old Forest trees. It was quite strange. Plant goddess Yavanna and smith god Aulë were married, but their creations, Ents and dwarves, were very hostile. This was surely another kind of ironic fate. Then they began discussing cooperation details. Balin, as the dwarven representative and expedition leader, had full authority to cooperate with Kael. Moreover, once Moria was reclaimed, Thorin Oakenshield wouldn't directly rule Moria. Instead, Balin would become Lord of Moria with autonomous rights, like Dáin Ironfoot of the Iron Hills. Balin was very generous. As a collaborator, he promised that after reclaiming Moria, he'd give Kael half of Moria's treasures and grant him permanent rights to one-tenth of mithril vein profits. Meaning in future dwarven mining of Moria's mithril, one-tenth would belong to Kael. Hearing Balin's offer, even Kael was somewhat surprised. Moria contained rich mithril veins. As a very precious magical metal, mithril had extremely high value. Just the mithril shirt Thorin gave Bilbo could buy the entire Shire. Before the Balrog awakened, Khazad-dûm had built a prosperous kingdom from mithril production, with wealth far exceeding the Lonely Mountain. Now Balin was willing to give one-tenth permanent mithril shares, a massive, continuous wealth source. Since Balin showed such sincerity, Kael naturally accepted with a smile. Perfect. Smaug always complained of poverty. This Moria expedition would make him contribute. After settling cooperation terms, Balin didn't stay long, agreeing to meet in a month before leaving the castle to return to the Lonely Mountain and organize personnel and weapons. On Kael's side, he also began preparing for the upcoming Moria journey. He would face the Balrog, a Maia-level being. Unlike Gandalf and other Maiar whose power was restricted, the Balrog had no such limitations. Though since the War of Wrath, when Middle-earth nearly shattered, all Valar limited releasing power beyond the material world's capacity, the Balrog's strength was undoubtedly powerful. Even Sauron without the One Ring had no absolute certainty of victory. According to Gandalf's introduction, Balrogs were essentially spirits of flame and shadow, primarily controlling fire for close combat. Balrogs were originally Maiar related to fire, "Guardians of Flame." When Melkor hadn't fully fallen and still wore brilliant glory, they were attracted and followed him, later falling into darkness with Melkor, becoming terrifying Balrogs. Targeting the Balrog's flame attacks, Kael created fire-protection potions based on Professor Snape's Potions notes. In Harry Potter's first year, Snape had set up an extremely dangerous black flame wall in Hogwarts' dungeons to protect the Philosopher's Stone. Even Voldemort possessing Professor Quirrell couldn't pass through those flames, only getting through by solving Snape's logic puzzle to obtain a fire-protection potion. This fire-protection potion could resist all magical flames except Fiendfyre. Kael wasn't sure how Balrog flames compared to Fiendfyre, but he needed to prepare for both possibilities. So in the following month, he began attempting to recreate this potion. For some potion materials unavailable in Middle-earth, Kael consulted Brown Wizard Radagast, Middle-earth's herb master, based on Snape's noted properties. Radagast, worthy of being a Maia serving plant goddess Yavanna, knew all Middle-earth plants and animals intimately, directly providing Kael with materials of similar properties. With Radagast's help, Kael substituted several Middle-earth materials. After several cauldron explosions, he finally successfully created the fire-protection potion. Moreover, the effect was stronger than the original. Kael captured a lone Orc, fed it a fire-protection potion, then unleashed Fiendfyre. Though the Orc was ultimately burned to ash by Fiendfyre, Kael was delighted to find the potion-drinking Orc lasted several seconds in Fiendfyre before burning to death. Getting this result, Kael was very pleased, directly feeding another bottle of fire-protection potion to another Orc without regret. This Orc lasted over a minute in Fiendfyre before being consumed. Though the time was brief, Kael was very happy. With the fire-protection potion, he had more confidence facing the Balrog. Still feeling insufficient, Kael continued making fire-protection potions in the following days. By the agreed date with Balin, he had made five full cauldrons of potion. If not for the potion's complexity and insufficient time, he would have made even more. As green flames ignited in the castle fireplace, Gandalf and Balin emerged successively, with Balin bringing an iron chest. "Kael, not seeing you for a while, your changes really surprise me!" Gandalf said somewhat amazed. "You look more like a warrior now. Have you been training?" Kael nodded, somewhat reluctantly recalling, "Uh... Elladan and Elrohir trained with me." Gandalf, perceiving everything, immediately understood and smiled teasingly. "You picked their treasure, 'Evenstar.' Not being expelled from Rivendell already shows Elven restraint. I remember when human Beren wanted to marry Elf princess Lúthien, Doriath's Elf-king Thingol strongly opposed, even setting harsh conditions: demanding 'a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown' as dowry for marrying Lúthien, trying to make him retreat. You're fortunate. Elrond is a kind lord who won't deliberately make things difficult. Otherwise, you wouldn't have suffered just this little, and they helped strengthen you through training." Kael nodded with a smile, showing no resentment. "I know, Gandalf. Lord Elrond and Elladan cherish and love Arwen dearly." Then he asked curiously, "Gandalf, where have you been this time?" After all, just convincing Lonely Mountain dwarves to expedition to Moria shouldn't take so long. Gandalf didn't hide. "I went to Dunland. You know that person, besides contacting Orcs, also plans to recruit Dunlendings, so I wanted to see if there was a way to prevent it."