Chapter 661: Undercurrents, Carnage

The streets of the Kingdom of Bhutan were peaceful.

This was a world untouched by the smoke of industry.

The stars in the sky shone brightly, and even the air seemed fresher.

Theodore walked along the stone road before coming to a stop.

Across from him, another wizard had stopped as well.

The two looked at each other, nodded, and continued forward.

But in the instant they passed one another, both noticed the wand clenched tightly in the other’s hand.

No words were needed.

They raised their wands at the same time.

"Impedimenta!"

"Stupefy!"

Theodore covered his bleeding nose as he watched the man he had hit stagger without falling.

He raised his wand again and flicked it.

"Stupefy!"

The man was blasted backward and collapsed.

Theodore’s heart began pounding rapidly.

"Was he looking for me?"

The other man had attacked without hesitation, as though he had expected Theodore to make a move.

Had Inge’s people already noticed what they were planning?

Theodore dragged the man aside and hid him.

Then he continued toward the locations they had surveyed during the day.

The Star Disciples had spent the daytime keeping track of where the wizards from Poland were staying.

With the information Lippi had provided, they could identify which people had been replaced.

He continued searching through the darkness.

In the quiet night of the Kingdom of Bhutan, flashes of light suddenly appeared in several places.

A green light flashed.

Oxer dodged the attack, then countered with the same green light and struck his opponent.

A red spell hit him from behind. Oxer turned around as the protective amulet on his body fell to the ground.

The attacker clearly had not expected that.

Just as he was about to cast again, Oxer trapped him with a Binding Curse.

The man opened his mouth to shout, only to have it sealed shut.

"Something’s wrong."

Oxer frowned.

These people had changed positions.

There should not have been anyone in that location according to the daytime reconnaissance.

He was not the only one to notice something was wrong.

The others gradually realised it as well.

Then a green light illuminated a British Auror.

The first casualty appeared.

Figures wearing the symbol of the Deathly Hallows hid themselves like venomous snakes.

Executioner held a wand shaped like a rolling pin. His hook pierced a wizard’s ankle and dragged the man toward him.

The twins silently appeared behind the target, seized his shoulders, and their wands flashed as they rendered him incapable of fighting.

If one were looking down from the sky, they would have noticed...

Flashes of light began appearing everywhere.

What had started as a silent contest soon turned into both sides becoming fully aware of the other’s presence.

"They’re trying to attack Minister Crouch!"

Theodore dodged a spell and, seeing how aggressively the other side was pressing the attack, suddenly understood.

They had the same idea as his side.

Both wanted to eliminate the other in advance.

Once Theodore realised what was happening, he Disapparated.

He reappeared on the street outside Barty Crouch Sr.’s residence.

A wizard was just raising his wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Without thinking, Theodore raised his wand and interrupted him.

But a layer of Shield Charm appeared around the wizard.

An amulet!?

The wizard recovered and turned his wand toward Theodore. A fireball shot at him.

Theodore waved his wand, pulling over some cover to block it, then raised his left hand. A red light flashed and struck the other man.

"Another amulet!"

Theodore cursed under his breath.

He needed to warn Barty Crouch Sr. and the others.

Raising his wand, he fired a burst of sparks into the sky.

The sparks exploded overhead.

Theodore had thought the other man would realise the situation was hopeless and retreat, but a sharp crack sounded beside him.

The wizard appeared at his flank, and an explosion of flame sent Theodore flying.

"Fuc...k.."

He rolled several times across the ground, scraping away a large patch of skin from his face.

Ignoring the pain, Theodore waved his wand and Disapparated.

Two seconds after he vanished, flames exploded again, blasting apart the spot where he had just been standing.

Theodore realised that the other man had no intention of letting him go. He kept dodging and using the Full Body-Bind Curse to harass him.

But when the wizard realised Theodore was not using the Killing Curse, he stopped bothering to dodge altogether.

Layer after layer of Shield Charms blocked Theodore’s attacks as the man relentlessly attacked him.

"Damn it!"

Theodore hid behind a building and took two deep breaths.

He knew he needed to use another spell.

His fingers trembled slightly.

Did he really possess the malice needed to take a life?

He took a deep breath as memories of the Battle of Hogwarts surfaced in his mind.

Back then, he had not had the courage to use the Killing Curse.

What about now?

"Avada Kedavra!"

He rushed out, stumbling as he dodged an attack. Raising his wand, he shouted the incantation.

Green light burst from the tip of his wand and shot forward.

It struck the wizard, and the colour rapidly drained from his face.

His expression was one of shock.

The next second, his body collapsed heavily to the ground.

Theodore panted heavily, feeling something wet beneath his nose.

He wiped it away with his hand.

Blood.

His first kill.

Theodore’s emotions were complicated.

Just like taking the life of an animal, human death could be just as quiet.

The Killing Curse.

It was Dark Magic through and through.

And it also symbolised Theodore shedding his immaturity.

The Theodore Nott of now was beginning to look like someone worthy of following the King.

He steeled his resolve and headed toward another location.

The sparks he had fired had warned everyone. They all realised that the people from Poland had the same idea.

A vicious battle began.

...

Comedy aside, John cared a great deal about his father.

Mycroft had come to Watson during the day regarding the missing weapons.

That night, John came here himself.

He stared at the melted wall.

This was no ordinary wall.

It was a high-strength wall capable of withstanding explosions, reinforced with steel plates beneath the outer layer of concrete.

Melting through it would require extremely high temperatures.

Yet John sensed something else within it.

His eyes narrowed into vertical pupils as he reached out and touched the wall, which was still slightly warm.

"Magic."

He looked at the chaotic particles lingering on its surface, remnants left behind after magic had been used.

"Fiendfyre."

He reached a conclusion.

Aside from Fiendfyre, it would be difficult for anything else to achieve this.

And this was no ordinary Fiendfyre either. At the very least, it was far stronger than what an average wizard could produce.

Under a Disillusionment Charm, John walked inside.

This was an armoury used to store weapons.

Aside from the missing missiles, there were several fighter jets and many weapons that had not yet been made public.

"There are guards here, yet no one noticed this hole?"

John noticed the patrolling personnel and thought of the Confundus Charm.

Otherwise, there was no way the commotion caused by Fiendfyre could have gone unnoticed.

And Apparition could not take a wizard somewhere they did not know, yet the intruders had managed to enter. That meant they were familiar with the interior of the defence facility.

"Wizards and the military?"

John frowned deeply.

What was with this contradictory combination?

||Trace.||

He waved his wand, and numerous footprints appeared around him.

||Rewind.||

In John’s eyes, the scene around him began to reverse.

Figures appeared over the footprints, each one representing someone who had passed through this place.

The surroundings continued moving backward.

Soon, the scene in his eyes had returned to one day earlier.

The wall was still intact.

Then suddenly, he saw a middle-aged man who appeared to hold a fairly high military rank enter with a young man.

Everyone around them saluted the middle-aged man.

When John saw the younger man, his pupils contracted.

"A wizard indeed."

His gaze fell on the wand.

The young man walked into the base with an indifferent expression.

"That’s far enough."

The young man spoke, then waved his wand.

Everyone inside the base was struck by a Confundus Charm. As if something urgent had come up, they all began leaving one after another.

Strangely, however, the middle-aged man was outside the range of the charm.

Then the wall melted.

A huge opening appeared.

Someone slowly walked in through it.

He raised one hand, and the missiles floated into the air before flying out through the breach.

The scene in John’s eyes vanished.

"So wizards were involved. But why would that man help them?"

John was puzzled. The middle-aged man was clearly a senior official at the base. Not only did he know about wizards, he was cooperating with them.

No matter how he looked at it, something about this was strange.

"It’s possible he was already under the Imperius Curse before he came in."

John pondered the possibility.

The Imperius Curse was not infallible. Someone with a sufficiently strong will could resist it.

Muggles might not possess magic, but when it came to mental strength and willpower, they were not necessarily inferior to wizards.

Especially those who held great authority. They often possessed iron wills and would not be easily controlled.

Using the Imperius Curse to control a high-ranking official was already difficult in itself.

This was especially true in wartime, when generals in the military were often men tempered through blood and fire.

For people like that, breaking free from the Imperius Curse was not impossible.

John grew increasingly confused by the direction things were taking.

First, the weapons had been stolen, and it turned out wizards were responsible.

Then there were Muggle officials cooperating with wizards.

What exactly were they plotting?

John’s sixth sense throbbed, warning him with a growing sense of unease.

"If this happened here, then was it the same in the other countries?"

A vast web of conspiracy seemed to unfold before John.

One country would have been one thing, but were there people like that middle-aged man in multiple countries, all cooperating with wizards?

Had they all agreed to steal weapons on the same day?

And those weapons...

Where would they appear next?

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