The sharp blade aura passed through Link's body, yet caused no damage.
Because the blade that supported its existence had already shattered completely. What remained was only a harmless burst of force.
And falling together with that force was the blood spraying from Phoenix Fawkes' body.
It drenched Link evenly from head to toe, causing a strong burning sensation all over his body.
That was the pain unique to wounds healing.
A phoenix's tail feather was the highest-grade wand core material, while its tears and blood were also premium potion ingredients.
The only difference was that tears were commonly used to cure poison, while blood possessed the ability to gradually heal wounds.
For Link, this was simply wonderful news.
But there wasn't the slightest trace of joy on his face.
He merely stared blankly at the phoenix flames that had been split apart before him.
The warm flames continuously gathered together, eventually turning into a gray-white egg that quietly fell onto the warm sand.
Link instinctively curled his finger and used magic to draw the egg into his hand, yet he could not feel even the slightest bit of warmth from it.
As if it were...
A dead egg.
At the same time, Voldemort, who had just unleashed that empty slash in the distance, finally landed on the ground.
The blood-red sword in his hand had already shattered.
He tried to use dark magic to piece the fragments back together, but failed every time.
That was only natural, because Gerald's soul fragment had already died. Inside Voldemort's mind space, the familiar nagging and cursing were gone forever.
"What a piece of trash!"
Voldemort cursed as he disdainfully threw away the remaining sword hilt.
Then he took out his wand again.
It was originally Harry Potter's wand.
Coincidentally, its core used a tail feather from the same phoenix as the wand he had used in life, allowing him to control it just as easily as his own.
So whether he had a sword or not made little difference.
He had always been a wizard skilled in long-range combat.
BOOM!
A mass of thick darkness far stronger than before erupted from the tip of Voldemort's wand.
That darkness, formed entirely from cursed magic power, twisted and churned endlessly as if it possessed its own awareness and life.
Behind Voldemort, it slowly opened crimson eyes filled with greed and murderous intent. The immense malice corroded another thick layer from the already devastated ground around them.
Meanwhile, Voldemort stood at the very front with his wand in hand, his robe swaying gently in the evening wind, a cruel smile hanging on his face.
He looked as elegant as could be.
If Gerald were still alive, however, he would probably be so furious at this sight that he would point at Voldemort's nose and curse him again.
If the Voldemort soul fragment occupying Harry Potter's body had properly read the information and memories Gerald had passed into his mind space, he would never have abandoned the remains of the sword Gerald had become so easily.
Inside those fragments was one of the most precious substances in the world.
Unfortunately, Gerald would never get the chance to say those words.
Even the remaining blood blade fragments slowly melted into crimson liquid after being discarded and losing Voldemort's magical support, sinking into the earth.
A smile slowly appeared on Link's face.
He first carefully placed the egg left behind by Phoenix Fawkes' rebirth into a small pouch specially used for storing unusual items.
Then he drew a circle in the air with his wand.
There was nothing special about this circle.
There was barely even a trace of magical glow on it.
But the moment the circle was completed...
All of Gerald's shattered blade fragments floated into the air, rapidly dissolved into bright red blood, and followed the circle Link had drawn into his body.
Link felt a tremendous power rush directly into him.
The feeling was very similar to when he had used the Dawn Potion before.
The only difference was that after entering the body, the Dawn Potion's power still needed an active conversion process to separate into mental power and magic power.
The King's Blood inside Gerald only gave Link a brief sense of a foreign object the moment it was absorbed.
What followed was an indescribable feeling of ease and comfort, along with lines of dark-gold notifications appearing across his vision.
[Avada Kedavra LV6 acquired!]
[Imperius Curse LV6 acquired!]
[Fiendfyre LV6 acquired!]
[Cruciatus Curse LV6 acquired!]
[Vanishing Spell LV6 acquired!]
[Disarming Charm LV7 acquired!]
———
A huge amount of data and energy flooded into Link's mind instantly, causing even his concentration to waver for a brief moment.
But Link could still endure this level of infusion.
After all, the power increase provided by the King's Blood was much gentler by comparison.
If it had been a normal skill-point upgrade, Link would probably have fainted from the pain already.
When he regained his senses and looked at his status panel again, Link was surprised to discover that the densely packed list of spell levels had shrunk dramatically.
Spells such as Sectumsempra, whose level had broken through LV7, along with various Pure spells and others based on similar principles, had completely disappeared.
In their place were...
[Magic Control, Curse LV2]
[Magic Control, Water LV1]
[Magic Control, Air LV1]
[Magic Control, Arcane LV1]
At first glance, it looked as though the levels of Link's spells had decreased.
But what Link actually felt was that not only could he still use those vanished spells, their power and controllability had improved, and the way all related spells manifested had undergone enormous changes.
Especially curse-related magic.
It was an extremely mysterious feeling.
If he had to describe it, then previously, when Link cast Legendary-tier abilities, it was like a greedy capitalist directing workers... that is, magic power... on an assembly line.
The workers would show up, but they always worked slowly and lazily.
Especially if he wanted a group called "Air," he first had to send "Water" out to change clothes and temporarily fill the role.
Now it was as though not only had the real "Air" workers arrived at the factory, but they had also brought along an entirely new group called "Arcane".
Most importantly...
If Link raised his arm and gave an order now,
Others might still slack off.
But "Curse" would definitely rush over as if Link had increased its piece-rate wages a hundredfold.
Sometimes it even seemed more eager than Link himself.
Link only needed to have a thought. Before he could even react, "Curse" had already run into the workshop and started working.
The one thing beyond Link's understanding was that after absorbing that portion of King's Blood, the vine-like patterns that had already occupied most of his status panel had now completely covered the entire panel.
And visible cracks had appeared on them.
It gave Link a bad feeling.
Unfortunately, he had no time to pay attention to it right now. Voldemort before him was the more urgent concern.
Fortunately, the mass spell upgrades had provided an enormous boost to his magic power, even restoring much of the stamina he had lost due to internal injuries and blood loss.
Such an increase was enough for him to handle the battle ahead.
All of this might seem to have taken a long time.
But under Link's deliberate compression of perception, less than five seconds had passed in reality.
And throughout the entire process, Voldemort made no attempt to stop him.
Even though with the slightest action, he could have intercepted at least half of the King's Blood.
Because in his eyes, Link was already meat on the chopping block.
For prey that was as good as dead, Voldemort preferred to torment it with the cruelty of a cat playing with a mouse.
So it wasn't until he sensed Link's aura recovering from weakness back to its original strength that he spoke with some surprise, "Not bad. You've actually recovered. So what exactly was that thing you absorbed just now?"
"Something you'll definitely regret not stopping once you learn what it is."
As Link spoke, a thought crossed his mind. The cursed magic within him surged out almost at the speed of thought itself, forming living Fiendfyre armor that wrapped around his body.
Not only that, the other three forms of magic followed only a fraction of a second later.
They appeared around Link respectively as mist armor, swirling wind, and pure magic power.
Even the well-traveled Voldemort couldn't help widening his eyes at the sight.
Because what Link was displaying now was true mid-stage Legendary-level power.
It was nearly equal to what the aging Dumbledore could display without the Elder Wand.
And just a few seconds ago, Link had been a heavily wounded low-stage Legendary on the brink of death.
There was no doubt.
This change in Link was related to the blood he had just absorbed.
"Hoo..."
Voldemort subconsciously took a deep breath.
Just as Link had said, he truly was beginning to regret it.
That had originally been his.
But it didn't matter.
Since Link could absorb that substance from Gerald's remains, then Voldemort could naturally extract the same substance from Link's corpse.
With that thought, the hideous darkness behind Voldemort could no longer suppress its greed and surged toward Link.
The cursed magic surrounding Link showed no fear and met it head-on in the form of a giant Fiendfyre titan.
The instant the two forces collided, a massive mushroom cloud made entirely of pure magic rose into the sky, once again covering the stars that had just become visible.
After the initial explosion, however, the two energy forms... both created from cursed magic... strangely entered a balanced struggle against one another.
Then the other three energies around Link refused to be outdone and joined the battle.
The blood-red lightning flashing around Voldemort erupted as well.
BOOM!
Terrifying lightning and scorching steam roared together. Storms and hail filled the sky.
Under the clash of so many powers, all physical laws and natural rules within the Hogwarts region completely broke down.
The waters of the Black Lake froze and melted repeatedly, then rose into terrifying waterspouts, only to be instantly electrolyzed and vaporized by dreadful currents the next moment.
The Forbidden Forest suffered even more complete destruction.
The moment the first Fiendfyre giant collided with the thick darkness, the scorching shockwave had already turned roughly one-fifth of the forest's outer region into charred wasteland.
The surviving creatures began to flee.
The terrified cries of countless beasts echoed through the forest.
Predators and prey that would normally kill each other became temporary allies, forming a beast tide that crushed dead winter trees beneath them as they fled deeper into the forest.
The merfolk and other creatures of the Black Lake had long since escaped into the sea through underground waterways.
What was happening around them was simply too terrifying.
It should be known that many of the creatures living in both the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest were protected species that wizards had relocated from all across Europe.
Their original populations had already been wiped out once by wizards centuries ago.
And now, the battle between Link and Voldemort had awakened the fear deeply engraved into their DNA.
This planet ultimately belonged to wizards.
When Legendary-level wizards fought with their full strength, even true gods would keep their distance.
Even the Hogwarts side, fellow wizards themselves, was no exception.
Although they had already eliminated all the French wizards, and although they had activated Hogwarts Castle's protective barrier with Dumbledore's help and successfully blocked most of the aftershocks from Link and Voldemort's battle, faced with this apocalyptic scene, the students and professors alike could not stop trembling.
They had never imagined that such a horrifying disaster would one day descend upon them.
BOOM!
Another earth-shaking explosion rang out.
Link and Voldemort, who had been entangled in battle, separated once again before crashing together at an even greater speed.
The various energies surrounding them also collided faster and more frequently.
As the battle continued, a faint smile appeared on Link's face.
He had completely figured it out.
The Voldemort soul fragment occupying Harry's body possessed strength no greater than a mid-stage Legendary approaching the high stage.
At first glance, he seemed stronger than Link.
But the problem was...
This was Hogwarts.
The ward network Link had built here with enormous amounts of Galleons was not decoration.
Under the restrictions of countless wards such as the Anti-Apparition Charm and Dark Magic Repelling Charm, Voldemort's personal power had already been suppressed.
"Victory will belong to Hogwarts!"
Accompanied by Link's furious roar, the giant made entirely of pure Fiendfyre threw a punch, scattering a huge mass of thick darkness and forcing Voldemort, who had been locked in a stalemate with Link, back more than ten meters.
Then the Arcane magic around them suddenly erupted, gathering into the purest and most primal form of magic in Link's hand.
Taking advantage of the brief opening created when Voldemort was knocked back, a massive beam of Vanishing Spell light shot forward and completely engulfed Voldemort.
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