Chapter 192
While the other wizards tended to the wounded, six gang leaders approached Harold, who was speaking with Dumbledore.
"As agreed, for the next three years, you will not interfere in our affairs." Their representative, the leader of the largest group, stepped forward.
"And you will not drag ordinary civilians into your disputes. If you do, we will have every right to bring you to trial." Minchum's words were met with an indifferent nod. This point had already been settled when the agreement was signed.
They shook hands, and the representative turned back to his colleagues.
"Then we'll be leaving as well. I trust you can see to our wounded and our dead." He smirked and sent a yellow flare skyward with his wand. As it blazed across the sky, signaling his men, the gang members began disapparating from the battlefield one by one.
"Do you think it was wise to accept those terms?" Albus asked. He hadn't heard of the arrangement until now, and he was somewhat surprised Harold had agreed.
"We had no choice." The Minister exhaled heavily and gave a crooked smile, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield where many bodies still lay.
"If I hadn't, the casualties would have been far worse. And besides, who says I intend to let them do whatever they like?"
He caught Dumbledore's amused look, and the other man let out a quiet laugh.
"You haven't changed at all."
"That's rich, coming from the greatest 'light wizard' in Britain." He put a deliberate edge on the last two words.
"What did you offer Voldemort? I won't believe he simply agreed to help out of goodwill." Albus let the barb pass and pressed on.
"Non-interference in matters concerning the dark side of Magical Britain for the next eighteen months."
Tom himself hadn't bothered to say goodbye. He had left a few minutes earlier, taking what remained of his surviving servants with him. At this point, every single Death Eater mattered, especially after they'd lost nearly half their number, and he had no intention of leaving anyone behind to be questioned, knowing perfectly well that interrogation would follow.
Dumbledore stared at Minchum in astonishment.
"If you give him that much time, aren't you worried he'll rebuild his strength?"
Harold bared his teeth like a predator.
"I'll thoroughly enjoy watching him try to subjugate or eliminate the remaining gangs with a hundred-odd Death Eaters. And it'll be even better if they simply slaughter each other."
"No. You truly haven't changed." Albus shook his head and stroked his beard. "Well, I won't keep you any longer, and breakfast will be starting soon. I simply cannot miss the raspberry tart."
"Only Albus Dumbledore could think about sweets at a moment like this." Dumbledore gave a silent shrug and disappeared. "He's ninety-six years old and still acts like a child sometimes. Though he's a cunning old fox, I'll give him that."
He let out another sigh, accompanied by a half-amused smile, as he recalled his first encounter with Dumbledore at the Wizengamot years ago. Dumbledore had been eating lemon sherbet in the middle of a session, explaining that he hadn't had breakfast yet.
"Minister!"
"What is it?" He pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked at the Auror, who had called out to him and was standing over one of the enemy bodies, with a puzzled expression.
"Look at this." The Auror pointed his wand at the exposed chest, where the Black Star insignia was flickering, appearing and vanishing in rapid succession. It looked distinctly strange, and the Minister's unease was immediate.
"Everyone step back from the enemy bodies, and move the wounded out now!" His shout startled the wizards around him, but no one argued. They moved quickly, levitating the injured back behind the first barrier, the one they had spent so much effort destroying earlier.
Simple Levitation Charms made short work of it, and then they began clearing the bodies of their own dead as well, until nothing remained under the dome except the enemy corpses. The curt order still left most of them confused.
Harold himself simply watched the mark, which flickered faster and faster with each passing second, until suddenly it froze, then dissolved and vanished entirely.
*Hmm.* Another full minute passed before he slowly shook his head. *I'm getting too suspicious.* *Damn Moody and his constant vigilance.* He looked down at the small stone lying in front of him. Everything that had been piled on him in that short week was simply too much, and without thinking, he kicked the stone as hard as he could.
But mid-flight, just as Minchum turned away and headed toward the wounded, the stone shifted slightly off its trajectory, and a second later it struck the head of one of the bodies lying on the ground. In the next instant that body was engulfed in flames, and then:
BOOM!!! A powerful shockwave hit the Minister squarely in the back, hurling him forward several meters. He managed to draw his wand from its holster in mid-air and raise a barrier, but after the first explosion came a chain reaction: BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!! The detonations blurred into a single roar, and fire swept through the entire dome.
The Aurors outside the barrier had enough time to seal the opening and prevent the shockwave and flames from breaking out, but what had happened to those still inside was unknown.
At the same moment, near the border with France, in a small snow-covered clearing surrounded by bare trees, more than a hundred figures in leather gear materialized out of thin air.
The man in robes standing at the head of the group glanced indifferently to his right, gave a contemptuous snort, and prepared to Disapparate again, first across to the neighboring island, then eastward.
The rest of his group did exactly as their leader did, following him in silence. Vitold, positioned in the center of the group, kept to himself quietly, as did the Steel Division members.
The Diamond Division's deputy commander was already casting the spell when he stopped abruptly and frowned. He raised his palm and made a specific gesture. In the same instant, every wizard in the group produced a magical instrument.
"Who are you, and why are you following us?" He swept his gaze slowly around the clearing, feeling the weight of someone's stare but unable to identify its source.
"You have decent perception," a deep, elderly voice sounded directly beside his ear, raising the hairs on the Black Star member's neck. Dark gray aura erupted from his staff, swallowing him instantly and spreading several meters in every direction.
"I'll ask again: who are you?!" He kept turning, searching for the source, gripping the artifact tightly.
"That isn't important. But you took something that doesn't belong to you."
"What did I take from you?! We've never met!"
The other wizards listened, straining to locate the voice. No matter how carefully they searched, they found nothing.
"You took it from the battlefield just now, even though I had my eye on it first." A robed figure materialized before them, one hand outstretched. "Give me the vial. Otherwise, I'll have to take it by force."
"You still haven't answered my question." The necromancer's expression darkened, his unease deepening with every passing second. The old man possessed terrifying strength. What alarmed the necromancer most was the sheer volume of life energy he sensed in the stranger's body, dozens of times greater than that of the Diamond Division's own commander. As a necromancer, he walked the razor's edge between life and death, perceiving both forms of energy with precision. He knew it was also one of the truest measures of power: the more life energy a wizard held, the more magic he could channel. His instincts, honed over decades, screamed at him to get away from this creature as quickly as possible.
"Lord ihiros." The name came from Charles, who stepped forward, his voice shaking slightly. He had recognized the old man immediately. He had read his file more than once, photograph included.
"You know him?" The deputy commander's gaze snapped to him.
"Yes. The leader gave strict orders never to antagonize him and to make every effort to maintain good relations." He swallowed, then added, "His apprentice will be the next commander of the Copper Division. Those were the leader's words."
"Understood." The necromancer produced the vial without hesitation and tossed it to ihiros. "If returning it keeps things on good terms between us, I have no objection." He managed a tight smile, though his eyes made it clear that parting with this particular prize didn't sit well with him. Battles in which he could collect death energy this dense, drawn from wizards rather than Muggles, were exceedingly rare. This had been the third in over thirty years.
Ordinarily, he harvested it from Muggles, but the difference in quality was significant. Death energy from wizards was ten times denser than from ordinary people and accelerated physical improvement much more effectively, expanding the body's capacity to channel magic and allowing him to cast progressively more powerful spells.
As much as he wanted to keep the vial, he couldn't. A conflict with an old man like this would lead nowhere good, and even if he survived the encounter here, the Diamond Division's commander would finish the job back at headquarters, sparing the leader the inconvenience.
"It's a rare thing in our time: a wizard who thinks about consequences." Ihiros raised the vial to eye level with a slight smile, then gave a nod. "Convey my gratitude to your leader. I will repay this in kind." And with those parting words, Ihiros disappeared.
The necromancer exhaled deeply, swallowed his frustration, and gave Charles a brief nod of acknowledgment for the warning. He raised his hand again to signal the others to stand down.
"Do you know how powerful he is?" he asked the Steel Division's commander.
"We don't know his limits. But he destroyed a top-ten team from the Queen's organization as if it were nothing. That's what my brother told us."
"Vitold. Yes. Good, tell the leader the rest yourself when we're back at headquarters." Alegria nodded quickly. "One year away from all this, and already so much has changed." The satisfaction he had felt earlier was gone from his voice. He loosened his grip on his staff slightly. "And I made this entire detour for nothing. Well then. Let's move. I'm looking forward to seeing my teacher again."
"Yes!" A moment later, the clearing was empty.
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