A ferocious face composed of thousands of tortured appearances opened its huge jaws wide, far wider than any natural mouth could stretch. The explosive suction formed a fierce, violent wind that tore at everything below.
Flying sand and stones, debris from the destroyed building, even chunks of earth were being drawn relentlessly toward that seemingly bottomless great mouth that led to nothing but darkness and dissolution.
Although Sirius and the others sheltered within Bryan's protective magical barrier weren't being physically pulled toward destruction, the earth-shaking scene playing out before their horrified eyes was still utterly terrifying and psychologically devastating.
As if someone had grabbed him by the throat and was slowly squeezing, cutting off air and hope, Sirius shouted with difficulty in a thin, strained voice that barely passed:
"What on earth is that thing?! What have we unleashed?!"
Crack!
The terrifying suction force was so powerful it even caused the hard bedrock of the station hall's base floor that had withstood centuries to develop alarming fissures. The cracks spread like spider webs, growing wider with each passing second.
Apart from Graves's fleeing shadow that was inevitably caught and absorbed, all the vampires from moments ago, those who'd survived the battle, who'd thought they would witness their ancestor's glorious return were being completely slaughtered by the very vampire progenitor they had dreamed of resurrecting for generations.
Their screams were cut off abruptly as they dissolved.
"A collective entity formed by the convergence of blood and thousands of residual souls—"
The ghostly light in Bryan's pale purple eyes flickered continuously like distant lightning, his solemn voice somehow clearly reaching Sirius's ears despite the roaring wind and chaos.
"All show and no substance, really. Not particularly powerful in terms of actual magical force, but probably not easy to kill permanently either."
'Not powerful?!'
What kind of joke was that? This terrifying creature that dominated the sky, that consumed vampires like insects, could be casually defined with the dismissive phrase "all show and no substance"?
The remaining Aurors from MACUSA looked at Bryan Watson with absolutely absurd expressions, their faces showing clear disbelief. It wasn't that they didn't know or hadn't heard how formidable Bryan was:
Some Aurors had attended the Quidditch World Cup last year and had personally witnessed with their own eyes how Bryan used his seemingly god-like abilities to suppress the dark witch Cliodna.
But the sea of blood floating above their heads, covering several mountains like a crimson sky, clearly seemed far more powerful and threatening than Cliodna had been. Was Bryan Watson being dangerously overconfident? Had he miscalculated?
Although he trusted Bryan greatly, more than he trusted most people living, this terrifying thing was among the most frightening entities Sirius had ever seen in his entire life and that life had included encounters with Dementors, Voldemort, and the worst the wizarding wars had to offer.
He looked toward Fawkes's blue eyes with hope, wanting urgently to hear Dumbledore's opinion, to have the wisest wizard alive confirm or deny Bryan's assessment.
Though he noticed Sirius's questioning gaze and the fear behind it, Dumbledore didn't immediately respond to his pleading look. Compared to Bryan's calm assessment, Dumbledore's voice when he finally spoke revealed worry and concern.
"Bryan, the power I possess within Fawkes at this distance is extremely limited. I'm afraid I cannot provide you with sufficient assistance in a fight of this magnitude."
"It's all right, Headmaster Dumbledore—"
Bryan seemed to have had enough of this noise, this display, this posturing. He twisted his wand-holding wrist with a sharp motion, and several golden sparks burst from between his fingers like tiny suns being born.
Whoosh—
As if sensing imminent danger through some supernatural perception, as if recognizing the threat Bryan represented, the giant composite face in the sea of blood suddenly dissolved back into it just before Bryan could make his move.
The distinct features melted away, becoming indistinguishable from the churning mass. Then the entire sea of blood suspended above the mountains began to boil with ferocity.
Face after face, hundreds, thousands of them let out shrill screams in perfect bitterness that made the air tremble and vibrate. In those sharp, heart-stopping wails that spoke of endless suffering, the sea of blood began to contract rapidly, converging toward its core at a rate that contradicted its massive size.
After just a few dozen seconds of this compression watching something so vast become so small, it transformed into an incomparably viscous, vivid red blood sphere perhaps thirty feet across. It released powerful ominous magic in waves with its surface rippling like a living heartbeat.
Everyone fell silent, breath held, staring intently at the blood sphere hovering in midair. No one dared speak or move.
As if it had contracted to its absolute limit, compressed as far as physics and magic would allow, the sphere finally stopped shrinking. But the turbulence on its surface intensified, the ripples became waves. From the distorted outline caused by the violent turmoil, a hand as pale and delicate as a noblewoman's emerged slowly from the blood sphere.
Then the remaining limbs appeared one after another. This was followed by a handsome, sinister face that was beautiful and terrible in equal amount, and finally the upper body evolved from the remaining blood, taking solid form.
The vampire progenitor was being born anew, remade.
Whoosh—
A breeze swept unexpectedly across the hills, carrying the scent of pine and old blood. The night regained its clarity as the oppressive magical weight lifted slightly. The slightly reddish moonlight poured over the earth once more, turning everything in crimson.
The vampire progenitor born from the blood pool appeared before everyone once again, this time fully formed.
Slowly opening blood-amber eyes, the progenitor's gaze swept around in a slow arc, passing over the mountain forests with indifference. Its attention reached toward the brightly lit city visible in the far distance.
The vampire progenitor raised its head slowly, looking at the blood moon hanging in the sky, and its expression showed slight satisfaction, as if approving of the night's ambiance.
Fawkes's blue pupils revealed disgust and coldness as it studied this abomination.
"Bryan, if we let this creature escape, if it reaches the city, it will cause catastrophic trouble."
Bryan nodded slightly in acknowledgment. Invisibly to most, the center of his pupils began to slowly twist and spiral. Along with the appearing vortex, purple light continuously seeped out like ink in water, deepening in intensity.
The air around Bryan became gluey and heavy, as if the atmosphere itself was being compressed. The people standing beside him, except for Dumbledore safely inhabiting Fawkes, began to slowly retreat despite themselves, unable to withstand this suffocating pressure that pressed against their chests and made breathing difficult, Sirius, Amelia, and the others were forced back.
"Albus Dumbledore and Bryan Watson."
The vampire progenitor radiating power, slowly lowered its head with grace. Its gaze fell upon Bryan and Fawkes with intensity. Its voice when it spoke was strange and unsettling—the tone sounding young and vital but somehow filled with a deep sense of vicissitudes.
The gentlemanly smile it showed on that perfect face seemed like that of a vicious beast momentarily adopting human courtesy before devouring its prey.
"Wizards."
As if it had been silent for too long without communicating with anyone, as if language itself had become foreign after centuries of imprisonment, the progenitor spoke slowly. But it still spoke Bryan and Dumbledore's names with perfect pronunciation, having pulled them from the minds of those below:
"Several centuries... pass... wizards have remarkable individuals... strong... if you submit to me... grant eternal life... power beyond death."
Bryan raised his eyelids slightly, glancing with casualness at the moon that had already sunk westward in its nightly arc, measuring time. Then he looked meaningfully at Fawkes perched on his shoulder.
Screech!
Fawkes raised its head and let out a clear cry that tore through the night's oppression and magical gloom. Bright light blazed in its blue pupils, intensifying until it was almost painful to look at. The phoenix suddenly spread its magnificent wings wide and flew directly toward the vampire progenitor with surprising speed and aggression.
At precisely the same moment, Bryan's eyes focused sharply. He stepped into the air as if it were solid ground, and when he reappeared, he was already positioned above the vampire progenitor's head, perfectly suited for attack!
"Regrettable... resistance will be—"
Murderous aura etched itself clearly on the vampire's inhumanly pale face, darkening its expression. It used its strange, halting tone to begin pronouncing judgment on Bryan and Dumbledore, to declare their doom. However, before it could finish speaking, before the threat could be completed, Bryan and Dumbledore had already struck with synchronization!
BOOM!
With a thunderous roar that echoed in everyone's ears, a pristine light suddenly bloomed high in the sky. It was like the first light of dawn breaking over a world that had never seen the sun, it was pure, absolute, overwhelming.
This pure light dispelled the crimson moonlight completely and rapidly expanded in all directions like an explosion, encompassing everything in sight!
The people on the ground felt their vision go completely black for a disorienting moment, then felt as if they'd been thrown into a giant washing machine, spinning and tumbling without control. When their vision finally cleared again, when the world stopped moving, they discovered in absolute shock that they had somehow appeared in a different world.
The moon was still that moon, hanging in the same position. The mountain was still that mountain, recognizable by its shape. And the lush primeval forest still extended beyond where the eye could see, stretching to the horizon.
However, everything around them, including the people frozen on the ground, presented a strange pale color as if a layer of fine white sand veiled everything in sight, as if all color had been leached away.
The world had been rendered in shades of gray and white.
Amelia wanted desperately to cry out in surprise and confusion, but suddenly found that she couldn't move at all, not her mouth, not her limbs, not even her eyes.
She was like an insect frozen in amber, perfectly preserved but utterly immovable. From the corner of her eye, the only part she could still move slightly, she swept over the dust and leaves floating in the air. She discovered with rising horror that they were similarly frozen in midair, suspended as if time itself had stopped.
Even the wind had left visible traces in the air, trails that should have dissipated instantly but remained. The entire world seemed to have been petrified!
No... only they had been petrified and stripped of color.
Fawkes's feathers were still as vivid as ever, the only spot of true color in this colorless world. The scarlet and gold stood out bluntly. The phoenix spread its wings with resolute determination and crashed directly toward the chest of the furious vampire progenitor.
After a burst of fierce, dazzling flames that exploded on impact, Fawkes sadly transformed into a young bird, reduced to a helpless chick and fell into Bryan's waiting palm. Its eyes returned to their normal ruby-like color, the blue fading.
The vampire, pierced directly through the chest by Fawkes's suicide attack, roared in pain and rage. It once again lost its physical shape, dissolving but not back into a sea of blood.
Instead, it became something far worse: an indescribable monster composed of countless skull-shaped soul fragments piled and fused together in impossible formations. The people below looking up at this abomination felt a bone-deep chill with just one glance!
Even frozen, their minds flinched.
A golden flame like a long rainbow, descended from the sky in Bryan's hands. It lashed toward the "stitched soul monster" like a whip made of fire. The flames surged violently on contact, wrapping around the creature. Endless soul fragments shrieked continuously in agony, their screams layering over each other but the monster itself remained completely unharmed!
The flames couldn't consume it, couldn't destroy the souls themselves.
"DIE!"
The countless residual souls composing the monster glared venomously at the expressionless Bryan hovering before them, roaring in unison with thousands of voices. Then the massive, bloated body wriggled crassly, pulsing and shifting. A giant arm composed totally of compressed residual souls took shape.
With a howling wind that announced its coming, it covered toward Bryan with shocking speed. The next second, before he could evade, the giant hand directly seized Bryan and the infant Fawkes in his palm!
Sirius's eyes immediately split with rage and terror. He desperately tried to move, to help, to do anything but under the powerful pressure existing in the air, he couldn't budge even an inch. His muscles stressed uselessly.
Amelia, already "stripped of color" and frozen in this terrible gray world, showed despair in her eyes. Her face, even in colorless, was paler. If she hadn't been petrified, she would probably have collapsed to the ground in horror.
Had Bryan and Fawkes met their end?
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