To Elijah, goblins were not a threat.
He raised his wand. There was no need to maintain a disguise anymore. His appearance shifted back to its original form.
"You are… Tom Riddle?" Griphook's pupils shrank.
"I'll give you a chance."
Elijah's wand traced a smooth arc. A faint blue light spread like mist. Griphook instinctively tried to dodge, but the magic caused him no harm.
Instead, the blackened wall vanished.
In its place, a vast, hidden space revealed itself.
"This is…"
Griphook's eyes widened. He had never imagined there was another chamber hidden within the vault.
"An arena."
Elijah stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at him. His gaze burned with intensity, yet remained utterly cold.
In truth, even this massive space was not the final destination. To reach the Ancient Magic guardians, further trials still awaited.
Elijah had no interest in dealing with them separately.
He would handle everything at once.
Griphook stood frozen, caught between shock and fear, barely daring to move. Meanwhile, Elijah walked calmly into the darkness.
The space was enormous. Looking up revealed nothing, yet the circular stone pillars surrounding the area suggested a ceiling somewhere above.
They were thick enough to support the entire structure.
Elijah stepped forward. In the endless darkness, only he could see the faint glow rising from the ground, drifting like mist.
He stopped at its center.
"Revelio."
The light expanded outward, yet the cavern did not grow brighter.
Instead, the ground beneath him changed.
What had been dull stone now resembled frozen black ice.
Beneath it, rows of kneeling knight statues lay dormant.
Unlike in the game, where only a handful existed, here there were dozens. Enough to form an army.
Elijah stood at the center, casting a disdainful glance at the small, isolated figure of Griphook, then closed his eyes as if resting, completely ignoring him.
Griphook's nerves were stretched to the limit.
Elijah's past actions had proven his strength. Not long ago, on the Scottish coast, he had killed a dragon alone.
A creature that normally required multiple trained dragon handlers to subdue, and even then through indirect means like targeting its eyes.
And yet..
This same wizard now stood alone against an entire goblin force.
Griphook could not see the changes beneath Elijah's feet. He saw no army of stone knights, only a single man standing in darkness.
In his eyes, this was arrogance.
Madness.
Death.
No matter how weak goblins were individually, together they had once waged war against wizards.
Over the past century, they had forged countless magical artifacts. A fully equipped goblin army could force even the British Ministry of Magic to deploy all its Aurors.
And this man thought he could face them alone?
Did he think he was Dumbledore?
Or You-Know-Who?
Ridiculous.
A cruel smile spread across Griphook's face.
Once Boderick arrived with the army, "Tom Riddle" would die here.
He waited, tense with anticipation.
Then.. rumble~~!
A distant rumble echoed through the vault.
Griphook's eyes lit up.
The sound of metal wheels grinding against tracks.
Reinforcements had arrived.
Boderick entered first, clad in armor, leading the charge. Despite his short stature, his ghostlike features and imposing presence made him unsettling to behold.
Elijah opened his eyes.
Griphook quickly retreated behind Boderick, whispering urgently. Outside, the rumbling continued as more goblins poured in, one after another.
Their yellow-green skin made them resemble a swarm of ravenous locusts.
"So, you are Tom Riddle," Boderick said, stepping forward arrogantly, his tone filled with contempt. "You killed my brothers, Dokuro and Adora."
Elijah frowned slightly.
"Call me Elijah, Mr. Goblin. I don't like that name."
"I don't care what you're called," Boderick sneered. "You're going to die here. Do you expect me to build you a tombstone?"
He raised his hand sharply.
"Attack."
Boderick's arms were unusually long, nearly two-thirds the length of his entire body. Despite his short stature, his hands were larger than those of an average human.
As his broad palms swung downward, the goblins behind him immediately surged forward, screaming as they charged with weapons raised.
They poured through the narrow bronze doorway, past the vanished wall, swarming into the vast darkness like a tide of insects. Boderick had already assumed Elijah was as good as dead, and he leisurely surveyed the space, a satisfied expression on his face.
"So Vault 12 hides a chamber like this. Ragnok's records were correct. Perfect. I'll use this wizard's blood to uncover the secrets of Ancient Magic."
Cruelty gleamed in his crossed eyes. A wizard's life meant nothing to him.
The same was true for Elijah. He felt no guilt in slaughtering goblins.
Goblins?
That was a polite name.
In truth, they were little more than greedy, vicious creatures.
They rushed at him with bloodshot eyes, as though eager to tear him apart, drink his blood, and devour his flesh.
Most wore light armor with some resistance to magic and wielded silver weapons. A few carried wands, casting spells as they advanced.
"Are all the actors here? Then the performance can begin."
Elijah's wand traced a graceful arc, forming an "R" in the air as he Apparated, deflecting spells at the same time.
A deep rumble followed.
The knights beneath the frozen surface appeared like reflections rising from the darkness. They stood solemn and ancient, as though they had waited here for centuries.
The charging goblins were caught completely off guard. Many tripped over the suddenly appearing statues, tumbling forward in chaos.
"What is this? Where did these statues come from?" Boderick's eyes widened.
"What? Ragnok didn't mention it?" Elijah chuckled softly. He knew very well that the manuscript recorded nothing beyond the moment Ragnok entered the chamber.
After that, Ragnok had vanished with his secrets and stolen treasures. That was why his own kind despised him.
Elijah raised his wand again.
A brilliant sphere of light shot upward and hovered in the air. It shone like a cold winter sun, illuminating the cavern in stark white.
The goblins recoiled, blinking against the sudden brightness.
Under the light, the figures of the knights above and their shadows beneath the ice aligned perfectly.
Cracks echoed through the chamber.
Stone fragments fell as the statues stirred to life.
Elijah calmly put away his wand, clasped his hands together, and smiled faintly.
"At a time like this, I suppose I should say something appropriate."
He raised both hands like a conductor before an orchestra.
"Stone golems. Advance."
The knights drew their swords.
They were guardians. Ancient warriors without emotion. Anyone who entered this place was an enemy.
And right now, that enemy was the goblin army.
Without another glance, Elijah casually transfigured the axe of a knight attempting to strike him from behind into a bouquet of flowers. Then his body dissolved into a stream of black smoke and rose into the darkness above.
He disappeared, leaving the battlefield to unfold below.
Boderick assumed the statues were Elijah's doing.
"So that's why he dared face us alone."
He snarled, directing his forces. "Destroy them all!"
The chamber erupted into chaos.
Metal clashed against stone.
Goblins hammered at the knights' legs, while the knights impaled them with blades, lifting their bodies and smashing them down. Axes severed heads. Swords split chests. Heavy stone feet crushed skulls.
Blood spread across the uneven ice.
The losses mounted rapidly.
For the first time, Boderick felt fear.
His body trembled, but he forced himself to remain standing.
"Stay calm. This is necessary. We must pay with blood to reclaim our rights. Ancient Magic is everything! And we will not return without claiming it for ourselves!"
"Hold your ground!" he shouted, even as he dodged attacks rather than facing them directly. "Do not fear! We outnumber them!"
Sacrifice was inevitable.
His own death was not.
"M-My lord, they are repairing themselves!"
Only then did Boderick notice.
The shattered knights were reforming. Broken limbs reattached. Rubble reassembled, as if time itself had reversed.
The goblins could not do the same.
"Find him!" Boderick roared. "Kill that wizard. End his magic!"
To him, this was simple. Kill the caster, break the spell.
His eyes darted wildly, searching for Elijah.
But Elijah had already vanished into the darkness above, drifting like smoke beneath the unseen ceiling. The flight spell he used was effective, though its black, swirling form looked ominous.
Boderick could not find him.
The goblins were dying one after another.
The battlefield had turned into a slaughter.
"This… this isn't right. It can't end like this…"
He muttered to himself, trying to convince himself it was all a dream.
Then something slammed into his head.
Pain snapped him back to reality.
At his feet rolled a jagged, grotesque head.
It came to a stop upright.
Its eyes bulged, nearly falling from their sockets. Its bloodied mouth hung open, as if trying to scream one last curse.