Golden Snidget picked up a piece of leftover debris, crushed it in his hand, and then threw it to the ground in frustration.
"You know this place better than anyone. Is there anyone who could just break through the defenses here so easily?"
Since Phoenix often returned to Germany to assist Golden Snidget, but the breeding park was usually managed by others, she wasn't fully aware of the situation.
"No way," Golden Snidget replied firmly.
"The security here is solid. No one could break through without setting off alarms. The core defense was built with tons of resources and money from the club; it could easily hold off a serious attack for at least half an hour, giving us time to respond."
He felt a deep sting in his heart.
Building these three parks had taken him more than 20 years of savings from the silver wand.
Now, it felt like all that work had been blown away in an instant.
His expression beneath the mask grew fierce.
"What's strange is that I didn't see any signs of resistance from the internal guards. It's impossible for so many people to just vanish."
Thunderbird nodded thoughtfully, seeming to piece something together.
"If what you're saying is true, then it has to be an inside job."
He then fixed his gaze on Golden Snidget beside him, as if trying to read something in his eyes.
Golden Snidget noticed the strange look and immediately shot back,
"Why are you staring at me? I didn't attack the park."
But his words only made his heart race; Thunderbird was clearly suspicious of him.
Phoenix, standing nearby, also sensed the tension.
Like Thunderbird, she looked at Golden Snidget with a strange, questioning expression, realizing there was more going on beneath the surface.
At that moment, Thunderbird snorted coldly.
"You've always claimed that the park's defenses we're flawless. So how do you explain such a huge mistake now?"
He continued,
"If this was the work of the inner ghosts, ordinary ones couldn't pull off something like this. Besides, what happened here looks less like an attack and more like an organized migration."
"If someone can do this, who else could it be besides you?"
After saying this, Thunderbird turned to face Golden Snidget, his wand hanging loosely by his side as he slowly moved closer.
Behind his mask, Golden Snidget's eyes narrowed into slits.
Thunderbird wasn't just staring; he was ready to fight.
If he sensed anything unusual, he wouldn't hesitate to attack immediately.
At the same time, Golden Snidget noticed that Phoenix had quietly moved behind him, as if the two had come to an unspoken agreement in an instant.
"Thunderbird, now's not the time to lose your head. What reason would I have to do something like this?" Golden Snidget said, trying to ease the tension.
He knew that if they couldn't clear up these suspicions today, things would only get worse.
"Reason? How about monopolizing the breeding park's resources all by yourself?" Thunderbird sneered.
"The Horned Basilisk hasn't shown up at all lately. Who's to say you haven't figured out the elixir formula? With something like that, we wouldn't need people like you around." Golden Snidget's voice rose in frustration.
"Use your brain for once. If what you think we're true, why would I pick this moment to cause trouble? I've spent so much time building this park. Keeping it intact benefits you, me, and the whole club. According to our previous plans, we won't be short of magical animals anytime soon. Do you really think I'd be so foolish as to shoot myself in the foot?"
"Then if it's not you causing all this, who else do you think it could be? It doesn't even look like an attack. Could the park managers have done this?" Thunderbird's tone softened slightly, but his suspicious gaze never left Golden Snidget.
"Right now, what we need to do is investigate instead of fighting among ourselves," Golden Snidget said firmly.
"The person behind all this is either someone from inside the club or an enemy who managed to sneak in. Are you really going to pick a fight with me now?" His tone grew colder as he continued,
"And if all of this was my plan, do you really think just the two of you could stop me?"
Suddenly, a powerful surge of magic erupted from Golden Snidget, its force rivaling the blue Fiendfire cast by the Thunderbird.
Seeing this, the Thunderbird and Phoenix instinctively unleashed their own magic fields. The three waves of power lit up the night like three blazing flames, each one dense and radiating outward, pushing everything nearby away.
When these magic fields collided, they didn't expand further but locked into a tense stalemate. Any further escalation would likely trigger a full-scale battle.
After about ten seconds, the Thunderbird was the first to ease his magic, and the Golden Snidget and Phoenix quickly followed suit, retracting their magic as we'll.
"He doesn't seem to be bluffing," the Thunderbird said, glancing at Phoenix instead of Golden Snidget.
"I can definitely sense the steadiness in his magic."
Phoenix nodded. With their experience and strength, they could read subtle details from the way magic was wielded.
Turning to the Thunderbird, Phoenix added,
"Your magic feels wilder than before, like being caught in a thunderstorm. Looks like you've grown stronger."
The Thunderbird smirked and teased back,
"And you're just as annoying as when you wandered into that cemetery at midnight."
Then, with a calm gesture, he put away his wand, no longer aiming it at the Golden Snidget.
Watching the two banter as if he we're invisible, Golden Snidget felt a flicker of irritation but knew that the previous doubts about him had been cleared, for now.
"Since the misunderstanding is temporarily settled, what should we do next?" he asked.
Alex emphasized the word
"temporary," as if reminding Golden Snidget that his plan wasn't set in stone yet.
Golden Snidget didn't pay much attention to that. Instead, he said grimly,
"What we need to do now is find the missing people and magical creatures."
Phoenix looked around the vast, empty park they had all worked so hard to build over the years.
"Do you have any leads? Moving that many people and magical animals isn't a small feat, especially without anyone noticing. It couldn't have been done by just one or two people," he added.
Golden Snidget nodded thoughtfully.
"First, there has to be an insider, someone working for them, but I'm not sure if it's someone from the club or the park staff. Second, those people and creatures can't have just vanished into thin air; they must have been taken somewhere to be resettled." He paused.
"I met with the park managers a week ago, so it's unlikely they we're transported too far. We might still be able to find them by following that trail."
"Who do you think's behind this?" Thunderbird asked right away.
"Who's our target?" Golden Snidget considered.
"The most likely suspect is Andre from the Ministry of Magic's Department of Legal Enforcement. But honestly, he doesn't strike me as someone capable of pulling off something this big. There aren't many other options left, either someone from the Wizengamot or a wizarding family."
"Could it be a foreign group?" Thunderbird pointed southeast.
"Like some old rivals from over there?" Golden Snidget narrowed her eyes.
"You mean the other saints? They usually stick to guarding Grindelwald and don't act so recklessly."