["No... impossible... I must have misheard... there is no way they are still alive!!!"]
Bellatrix shrieked manically, her entire body trembling uncontrollably.
But as the thick smoke dissipated, the scene that greeted her left her frozen in place.
The flesh on the front of the giant had been entirely incinerated. Billowing gray smoke rose from the charred remains, exposing the massive, blackened skeleton embedded within.
Yet, behind that titan, everyone was still standing!
Though their robes were scorched and their faces were covered in soot and ash, not a single person had fallen. Every one of them—including the heavily injured Sirius Black—stood like a monument, maintaining their stance with wands raised or arms braced.
Crackle. Pop.
In the air before the giant, one could still see the faint, silken remnants of magical energy dissolving into fragments.
It was the shimmering residue of a collective Protego barrier.
There were no protectors and no protected. Everyone, alongside the giant, had unified to form an indestructible shield that had weathered that cataclysmic, soul-crushing blow.
["Impossible... this is impossible!!"]
Bellatrix lost her voice in a ragged scream, her pupils vibrating with terror. More than mere shock, it was the shattering of her very faith. She had been granted such overwhelming power, yet it had been held at bay.
Why? How could this be?!
For a moment, it was as if Bellatrix were staring up at an iron wall that pierced the heavens—a wall that no matter how hard she struck, would never crumble.
In those blood-red, crazed eyes, the emotion known as "fear" appeared for the very first time.
"You and Voldemort are the same," a clear, calm voice rang out through the silence.
Ethan Vincent stepped slowly from behind the giant. His clothes were slightly singed, his expression unbothered.
His gaze swept over Bellatrix's stunned, fearful face before he turned away. He began to climb the giant's slumped arm, step by step, his voice conversational and steady:
"We are like countless stars in the universe. Under the pull of the gods, we have run in our prearranged orbits since the moment of our birth. But what if a star doesn't want to go that way? What if it wishes to avoid its predetermined collision and ultimate destruction?"
"To contend with the gravity of the universe seems impossible—the height of folly..."
Ethan reached the giant's broad, cracked back, standing tall upon the protruding vertebrae. With a sudden, violent motion, he plunged his arm into a fissure in the bone. A spray of hot blood erupted.
"But even if I am torn from my orbit, even if I am shredded by fate like a moth to a flame... I will never leave my life to chance. I will not be a puppet!"
"Anyone who stands in my way—dies!!"
With a primal roar, Ethan yanked his arm upward!
Splurch!
Accompanying the extraction of a pale, elongated section of spinal bone, geysers of blood sprayed from the giant's back. This was a weapon nurtured by the giant's own life force—a Greatsword of Slaughter, forged through Flesh Magic and the Bone of Guidance.
[Name: Flesh and Spinal Sword]
[Grade: Tier 3 · Blue Rare]
[Effect: Only a storm can topple a great tree; only tyranny can uproot evil. Go forth and purify! Wash the world in a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood!]
Drip. Drop.
The blood fell like a morbid rain. Flesh and viscera coiled around the several-meter-long spine, congealing into a jagged, serrated blade designed to rend and tear, inflicting the maximum possible agony upon its target.
Ethan slowly raised his head. As he moved, the shadows retreated from his face, revealing eyes that burned like twin cobalt flames. His black hair whipped in the wind as he looked down at Bellatrix with a terrifying, elegant smile.
"See you in Hell, Miss Bellatrix."
The words had barely left his lips when Ethan swung the Flesh and Spinal Sword downward in a devastating arc!
["No... No...!"]
Bellatrix's eyes bulged. Even if she hadn't exhausted her magic, she couldn't say with any confidence that she could survive such a strike.
Instinctively, she tried to Disapparate.
To her horror, she found the space locked. Her magic fizzled into nothingness.
...A restriction! There was an Anti-Apparition Jinx on this space the whole time!!
In that split second, the realization hit her like a physical blow. She finally understood why Ethan had created this pitch-black void outside the battlefield.
She had been a grasshopper in a jar from the very beginning. There were only two options: eat, or be eaten.
Gazing up at the meat-cleaving sword that seemed to split the very world asunder, Bellatrix finally let out a scream of pure, unadulterated despair:
["Master, save me—!!!"]
In that moment, a sudden mutation occurred!
Ethan's pupils constricted as he glanced upward. With a flick of his wrist, he shifted the trajectory of the greatsword. Instead of a vertical split, he transitioned into a horizontal cleave that tore away a massive chunk of Bellatrix's torso before the blade swept upward in a graceful, deadly curve.
He pointed the sword directly at the ceiling!
The next second—
BOOM!!!
The pitch-black barrier shattered like an eggshell!
A colossal hand, large enough to envelop everyone in the room, reached down from above. The hand was a sickly grayish-white, skeletal and withered like the hand of a corpse, exhaling a frigid, tomb-like chill.
However, when it collided with the upward-swinging Flesh and Spinal Sword, it unleashed a force of staggering magnitude!
BANG—!!
A shockwave erupted, snapping Ethan's robes violently and knocking the cluster of students to the ground.
"Bloody hell! What is that now?!" Ron shrieked, staring at the ceiling in disbelief. He felt his understanding of the wizarding world crumbling into dust. At this point, he'd prefer it to be Voldemort!
Crr-ack.
Ethan shifted from a one-handed to a two-handed grip. Under the immense pressure, his knees buckled slightly, his boots sinking into the giant's flesh.
From the hole in the ceiling, rows of eyeballs swiveled and rolled, staring down at him with icy malice.
"So, this is the power of Death..." Ethan muttered. "No, it's not all of it yet."
"Once again, it is merely Death descending into the world through a borrowed vessel!"
But this time, it was stronger than the manifestation Voldemort had summoned. It was as if some taboo had been broken, allowing Death's influence to grow steadily. It wasn't just Ethan's defiance of fate—it was something more.
Ethan thought back to the skeletal heart he had destroyed deep beneath Azkaban. Not only had it wounded Death, but it had also acted as a shackle. By destroying it, he had inadvertently allowed Death's influence over the mortal realm to expand.
"...Heh, that's actually a good thing."
Ethan stared back at those venomous eyes and the pale, giant hand. He planted his feet firmly, his magic churning as he slowly forced his knees straight!
"The more physical Death becomes, the easier He is to kill—and to maim!"
Ethan let out a low roar, his cobalt eyes glowing with blinding intensity!
He channeled every drop of his magic into the weapon. The meat on the Spinal Sword surged and throbbed, turning the blade into a living chainsaw that ground deep into Death's palm, severing the tendons condensed from pure, concentrated magic!
"Light comes from the darkness! You can never extinguish the radiance of the 'Lamp'!!"
With Ethan's roar, a sharp CRACK echoed through the chamber. The hand of Death was severed by the greatsword!
Simultaneously, the surrounding space began to disintegrate.
SHATTER!
Like a mirror breaking into a thousand shards, the darkness fell away. The group screamed as they plummeted into a different, equally dim space below.
"Where are we?! Are we still in the Department of Mysteries?!" Ron yelled, his face pale with grief.
He glanced over and saw a stone archway standing in the center of the vast, empty room. And that strange, ancient doorway was standing directly beneath where Sirius Black was falling.
[Heh heh...]
Amidst Death's mocking, faint laughter, Ethan looked down. His pupils shrank to pinpricks.
He reached out his hand, the brand on his palm glowing. The Deathbird took flight, letting out a shrill, piercing cry as it dived toward the archway!
At the same time, countless hands reached out in unison!
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