Gary realized something was wrong with his wand because the barrier protecting him had shifted.
The barrier began to sway wildly from side to side like a small boat in a giant wave, accompanied by thumping and crackling sounds.
"What's going on?" Gary kicked his legs twice, stopping only when his leg bones crunched. He found that the barrier was already tottering and about to break.
He looked outside the barrier and knew it was his wand acting up again.
The wand was spinning incredibly fast in the air, and the airflow drove all the surrounding blue Fiendfyre towards it. The Fiendfyre disappeared the moment it touched the wand, leaving Gary wide-eyed.
The wand's shaft gradually turned blue from its original crimson, as if it had swallowed all the blue Fiendfyre.
The wand's digestion speed was limited. Some of the Fiendfyre it rolled up didn't get eaten in time and continued to roll around the outside of the wand.
The momentum of the wand's spinning grew stronger and stronger. The Fiendfyre in front of Gary was now completely controlled by the wand.
Gary was in the center of the flames and couldn't see what was happening outside, unaware of how much commotion the wand was causing.
"Stop it!" he shouted at the wand through the protective barrier, only hoping that this object wouldn't be like Koreans and not understand words.
But a dead object is a dead object. The wand was like a gluttonous child, grabbing all the surrounding Fiendfyre and eating it all up, bit by bit.
The wand was having a blast, but Gary was panicking. The more commotion the wand caused, the more likely Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters would notice. At that point, not only would the wand's secret be discovered, but Gary himself would also be in trouble.
Lord Voldemort did indeed sense that something was amiss. He stopped his wand, lifted his head, and glanced in Gary's direction, only seeing four small children crying to the side, but no sign of Gary.
He thought Gary had also perished in the sea of flames. The Fiendfyre there was constantly rolling, presumably having just devoured Gary's corpse and now digesting the magic within his body. Lucius, beside him, had obviously noticed as well, a triumphant smile curving his lips.
Lord Voldemort was a little disappointed. He had thought Gary would be able to walk out of the Fiendfyre alive. His eyes maliciously flickered over the four children.
He didn't intend to kill them. He had to keep his promise in plain sight. There were dozens of people here working for him, and they had to know Lord Voldemort's credibility to work for him loyally.
Lord Voldemort would absolutely not kill indiscriminately at this time. His plan for today still relied on these hostages, who wanted to reclaim their lives from him, to be completed.
He stuck out his long tongue and licked his lips, then lowered his head and continued to carve runes on the ground with his wand.
He had already carved more than half of this long passage of runes, with only the last two sentences left to complete. He had bought this from a Dark Wizard in Germany at a high price, costing the Malfoy family tens of thousands of Galleons.
Lucius had also memorized these runes alchemy arrays. This was the origin of the alchemy array previously found in the first-class room at the Quidditch finals venue on Fuveau Mountain.
He wanted to carve another teleportation array by himself, without dragon's blood ink, using pure magic and mental power to accomplish this feat.
... Gary was going crazy.
The wand was like a bottomless pit, still continuously absorbing the surrounding Fiendfyre. He felt that the Fiendfyre on this side in front of him already showed signs of receding. He looked distressed, not knowing when it would end.
The Fiendfyre released by Lord Voldemort was originally just a small circle, but after devouring the magic of over forty people, it had grown to a terrifying extent.
It was over a thousand meters in circumference and five or six meters wide. Gary had no doubt that if these Fiendfyre were not controlled, they could swallow the entire France.
Now that something to restrain the Fiendfyre had appeared, Gary began to worry about how much commotion the wand would cause.
"What's going on?" A clear American English accent suddenly sounded behind the Aurors.
Moody's magical eye looked back and saw none other than Steve Rogers, the captain of the United States Quidditch team. Behind him were twenty advance team members, most of them travel-worn and anxious.
"Corella!" Steve's many years of Quidditch training had given him a keen eye. He spotted Corella lying on the ground through the Fiendfyre and the crowd.
"You are..." Mr. Shafiq didn't watch Quidditch and didn't recognize Steve.
"We are the advance team sent from the Lyon finals venue to rescue the hostages. Lord Voldemort is up ahead, isn't he?" Apolline, drenched in sweat, squeezed out of the crowd, her golden hair matted with perspiration.
"That's right, it's great that you're here. The Minister for Magic of the Brazilian Ministry of Magic and the Head of the Sporting Goods Department of the French Ministry of Magic are still alive." Ted's words gave these advance team members a shot in the arm.
The advance team members had been very disheartened ever since they dealt with Abraxas. They knew that in a rescue operation, time was life. Being tricked by Abraxas and losing the clue to continue searching, they felt that their superiors had most likely sacrificed themselves.
After leaving the church, they aimlessly wandered around several mountain tops, never expecting to see patches of blue flames on the ground from above when passing by here.
They turned their brooms and flew towards the location of the flames, only to land and see several Aurors firing spells into the flames.
"Fantastic, Minister Avellaneda is alive!" Several Brazilian Aurors in the advance team, who had been silent before, cheered.
"I'll go inform them!" One of the Brazilian Aurors, who seemed to be the leader, jabbered in Portuguese, pulled out his wand, and summoned his Patronus—a lifelike crocodile.
"Speak English, speak English!" Mr. Ted, seeing the Auror's excitement, put on a gibberish-like performance, spouting strings of Portuguese.
The Auror then realized his mistake and quickly switched to English, speaking much slower and sounding particularly clumsy. Steve and Mr. Shafiq could only roughly understand what he was saying.
The crocodile wagged its head and tail and disappeared into the air. Only then did Moody take over the conversation.
"Now we have enough manpower, we can act," he said to Mr. Shafiq.
Mr. Shafiq glanced at the Fiendfyre Curse ahead. His son was still waiting for him, and he wondered if his timid son was now crying in despair.
Mr. George Shafiq had always felt guilty about his son. He hadn't been able to witness his childhood growth, so he certainly couldn't miss it now.
"Alright!" George Shafiq nodded sharply, saying with a resolute and decisive expression.