This page offers a guide on how to complete In the Shadow of the Relic, which is a quest within the Sebastian Sallow Relationship quest line in Hogwarts Legacy. During this quest, you’ll learn the killing curse - Avada Kedavra - which is the third and final Unforgivable Curse that you can choose to learn with Sebastian.

How to Start In the Shadow of Time¶

This quest unlocks shortly after you’ve completed In the Shadow of Hope. It is recommended that you’re level 28, but we unlocked this quest at level 24 and it wasn’t too difficult to complete it whilst being under-leveled.

When you unlock this quest, you’ll get a notification from Ominis Gaunt telling you that he and Anne are very concerned about Sebastian. You’ll need to meet him and Anne at the catacombs where you found the Relic during In the Shadow of Time.

When you arrive, Ominis Gaunt will tell you that Sebastian has completely gone of the rails, and Ominis is mad at you for not stopping him. You’ll get the decision here to admit fault or tell him that Sebastian never listens (which he doesn’t). There’s no consequence to which answer you choose, and Ominis will take partial blame for not being more firm with Sebastian too.

How to Defeat Inferi¶

After speaking with Ominis, you’ll want to head into the catacombs to locate Sebastian. When you were here last, you had to fight off a host of spiders, but this time the place is crawling with inferi.

Inferi are undead creatures that initially take little to no damage from offensive spells. They can be Levioso’d and Depulso’d but they take hardly any damage unless you set them ablaze first. Using Confringo or Incendio is very useful here, and after using a fire attack, other offensive spells will do regular damage. Confringo is great for targeting one Infernius at long range, but if you spend a Talent point on the Incendio Mastery (unlocks at Lv 5), your incendio will make a huge ring of fire around you, burning any enemies in the vicinity. This is perfect for situations like this when you’re surrounded by invulnerable Inferni.

In addition to unlocking Incendio Mastery, you should also consider spending a Talent point on the Transformation Mastery (Lv 22) - when enemies are struck with the Transformation spell, they transform into explosive barrels. This is a crazy combo that allows you to change enemies into explosive barrels that you can then throw at other enemies. If you don’t have available points to spend on this talent, don’t worry too much as there will be several barrels/vases (including explosive ones) around the catacomb that you can throw at the inferni.

You’ll need to continue through the catacombs, defeating several lots of Inferni as you go. Remember to use fire spells and barrels to defeat the Inferni quickly - and, if you’re partial to unforgivable curses, Crucio and Imperio are both powerful in these fights too.

Once you’ve reached the room with the first skull door, Ominis will want to have a quick word. He’ll tell you that the Inferni are being controlled by Sebastian! He’s really gone off the Dark Magic deep end.

He decides to leave to try to stop Solomon from telling the Headmaster but asks that you continue on to find Sebastian deeper in the catacombs. If you’re not in a rush, you can head into the optional rooms that diverge from the linear path to fight some extra Inferni to gain XP and add to the Inferni enemy challenge count.

Eventually you’ll come to an Accio-Skeleton puzzle (like the door puzzles the last time you were in the catacombs). Use Accio to pull open the tombs on the walls to find two sets of skeletal remains. Then use Accio to bring the skeletons over to the bone columns. After placing both sets of skeletal remains, a set of bony stairs will appear.

Sebastian is awaiting you in the room just up ahead. When you speak to him, he’ll seem quite deluded about the whole Relic situation and won’t think that him controlling the Inferni is even a big deal!

Then, all of a sudden, out pops Sebastian’s uncle, Solomon Sallow - who is very very angry with the two of you. He will snatch away the Relic and destroy it. Sebastian is very mad and thus begins the boss fight against Sebastian Sallow…and a whole horde of infinitely spawning Inferni!

How to Beat Solomon Sallow: Boss Fight¶

So, as you’ll see this fight isn’t a straight forward battle between you, Sebastian and Solomon. At the same time, you’ll also need to fend off several Inferni that continually spawn throughout the fight. The key here is to focus most of your efforts on Solomon as once his health has been dwindled all the way, it will trigger a cutscene (regardless of how many Inferni are around). That being said, it’d be unwise to completely ignore the Inferni.

In fact, we recommend using the Inferni to your advantage. If you did end up unlocking the Transformation Mastery talent we mentioned earlier, you can use it to turn Inferni into explosive barrels that you can then throw at Solomon. You can’t turn Solomon into an explosive barrel though so don’t bother trying (your wand will spark and refuse to cast the spell)!

The main spells we’d recommend in this fight are: Incendio/Confringo, Diffindo, Levioso and the Transformation Spell. Expelliarmus is also a good choice, as are the Imperio and Crucio curses - though we opted to not use them against Solomon as it felt morally icky.

In addition to using spells against Solomon, you can also launch throwable items from around the room at him, and these will do a decent amount of damage.

Solomon will often throw out Confringo and Levioso, as well as use Protego to cast shields on himself. These shields can be broken easily by throwing physical objects at him. And, if you do happen to get caught in a Levioso spell, which you can typically either dodge or block, then make sure to wiggle out of it using the directional keys or analog stick depending on how you’re playing.

Solomon doesn’t seem to use any unblockable spells, so you can use Protego to trigger Stupefy quite often. The Inferni, however, will use a mix of blockable and unblockable attacks so you will need to be on the look out for those.

When you fully charge up an Ancient Magic Attack, make sure to also utilise it to its fullest potential by using it on Solomon and not on any Inferni enemies. It does a ton of damage but can take a while to get one during the fight so don’t waste it!

Other than his large HP bar, Solomon isn’t too challenging of a fight, and most of the difficulty comes from having to manage him and a horde of inferni at the same time. Just remember to focus most of your efforts on Solomon to finish the fight quickly!

Once you’ve dwindled his entire HP bar, you’ll trigger a cut scene in which Sebastian kills Solomon using Avada Kedavra. Naturally Anne is distraught, burns the Dark Arts book and disaparates away with her uncle’s body.

After the cutscene, Sebastian will run out of the catacombs and it’ll be up to you to chase after him. When you finally catch up to him outside of the catacombs, you’ll get to speak to him regarding his decision to use the killing curse.

Should You Learn Avada Kedavra?¶

It is at this point that you get to choose to learn Avada Kedavra. You’ll get the following options:

• No one should know that curse. - Choose this option and you’ll not have the opportunity to learn the killing curse right now (though you could learn it later on, if you choose the right ending).
• Everyone should know that curse. - If you choose this option, you’ll get the opportunity to learn the curse. You can choose to learn it right now (bit insensitive) or later on (given the ending).

Whichever option you choose, you’ll need to meet up with Sebastian back at the Undercroft to discuss the consequences of his actions.

Best Ending Choice: Should you turn Sebastian in?¶

When you arrive at the Undercroft, you’ll over hear Ominis and Sebastian talking about what is to be done about Solomon’s murder. When you get to talk to Sebastian, he’ll show remorse and ask you to talk to Ominis. Whatever answer you give here won’t matter and you’ll still be prompted to speak to him after Sebastian leaves the Undercroft.

Now, you and Ominis will be given the ultimate choice - and this is a choice that actually has consequences and will impact the game! Do you want to turn Sebastian in?

• “We should turn Sebastian in” - If you choose this option, Sebastian will disappear altogether from the game and you’ll never see him again. He will not appear in the main quest In the Shadow of Friendship, and instead Ominis Gaunt will replace him. If you didn’t learn the unforgivable curses, you will be permanently locked out of ever learning them if you choose to turn him in. When you select this option, Ominis will warn you that Sebastian will never be seen again and you’ll get a chance to change your mind and let him go.

• “We must not turn Sebastian in” - If you choose this option, Sebastian will not disappear and he will still appear in the main quest, In the Shadow of Friendship. If you didn’t learn the unforgivable curses, you can learn them at a later date should you speak to Sebastian about them.

There really is no right or wrong answer here (unless you want to learn the unforgivable curses at a later date). On one hand, turning him in means he will never be tempted again. But on the other hand, he showed genuine remorse and will now have to live estranged from his beloved sister, Anne, which seems punishment enough. It’s at the player’s discretion what they think is best for Sebastian.

When Can You Use Avada Kedavra?¶

Avada Kedavra is so overpowered, sometimes it feels a bit cheat-y. It has a pretty lengthy cool down, but other than that it can be used to take down any enemy - including trolls and infamous foes!

That being said, you can’t have your Voldemort moment unfortunately, as you aren’t able to use Avada Kedavra on any students, teachers or innocent bystanders. This is the case with all Unforgivable Curses. There’s no morality system in Hogwarts Legacy so honestly, learning these “awful” Dark Art spells isn’t gonna impact your game play negatively - but might make you feel bad IRL!