Chapter 630: Now This Is a Fight! Smash!
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Voldemort prided himself on his mastery of magic. His understanding of spells and dueling had long since reached the pinnacle.
But he had never seen anyone fight like Andros.
He almost wanted to ask if the man had so much magic he didn’t know what to do with it. Using such an absurdly wasteful method just to neutralize a simple Killing Curse?
Andros caught the surprise in those slit, snake-like eyes and grinned. He spread his arms and slowly raised them.
The ground began to tremble.
With a thunderous rumble, the earth beneath his feet split apart, breaking into massive chunks of stone. The fragments lifted into the air, fusing together into the shape of a towering, stone Cerberus. It reared up and let out a deafening roar at Voldemort.
Andros didn’t care about conserving magic. He had no real concept of "running out." In a way, he was Hashirama of the magical world.
To him, magic was abundant—meant to be used. Why hold back?
And right now, all he wanted was the thrill of the fight.
A searing heat spread outward. From the Cerberus’s eyes, nose, and mouths, molten lava began to ooze. The surrounding air seemed to ignite, filling the canyon with the sharp, choking scent of sulfur.
The beast lunged at Voldemort.
Its entire body was reinforced with magic. It might look like nothing more than stone and earth, but it was harder than steel. The spells Voldemort fired at it did little more than scatter sparks.
At the same time, Voldemort retreated at high speed. His wand flicked toward the canyon walls, transforming plants and scattered rocks into thick, writhing pythons.
Some surged forward to block the Cerberus. Others leapt into the air, striking directly at Andros.
Some snakes spat venom. Others opened their jaws wide, their tongues transforming into gleaming, blade-like weapons.
"Disgusting."
Andros frowned deeply. He didn’t hate snakes, but seeing so many packed together made his skin crawl.
He’d watched Voldemort fight Tom before. It hadn’t been this revolting. What was this supposed to be? Trying to gross him out to death?
"Get lost!"
Andros snapped, his massive frame flaring with brilliant light.
The incoming swarm of snakes met it like snow under a blazing sun. They melted almost instantly, dissolving into wisps of black smoke.
"Crude. Far too crude."
Inside the study space, Grindelwald shook his head at Andros’s fighting style.
The moment Voldemort arrived, Andros had eagerly dragged a crowd of "spectators" into the space to watch his first battle since returning.
Like Voldemort, Grindelwald’s verdict on Andros was simple: wasteful. Unreasonable.
There was no precision. No efficiency. No elegance.
Only raw, overwhelming force. Endless, surging, unstoppable.
To defeat Andros, there were only two possible approaches.
One was to overpower him head-on with even greater force. Someone like Morgan fit that role. When those two fought, it was nothing but a clash of sheer power.
The other was to find a weakness and dismantle him before that overwhelming momentum fully took shape. Someone like Ravenclaw had the intellect and finesse to do exactly that, subduing him without exceeding his level of power.
Unfortunately, Grindelwald fit neither category.
Which was why, every single time, he got beaten senseless.
Well... except for the one time right after Andros had just revived.
No one else could really understand that kind of despair, but Grindelwald knew it intimately. They were on the same level. His spells were sharper, his understanding of magic just as deep.
And yet he still couldn’t win.
The longer the fight dragged on, the wider the gap became, until in the end he was completely swallowed by an endless, raging tide.
But now? Now someone else was finally experiencing the same thing.
Watching the projection Andros had sent into the void, seeing Voldemort in such a miserable state, Grindelwald grinned like a man who’d just been handed the world.
Ravenclaw and Morgan both clicked their tongues, unimpressed. They had no idea what he was so happy about. Had he forgotten he still owed Andros a beating of his own?
At that moment, a cluster of bubbles gathered together and formed into a human shape. Tom stepped in, glanced at the scene, and raised a brow.
"Oh? Enjoying the show?"
"Why not just go out there and crush Voldemort yourself?" Morgan casually slung an arm over Tom’s shoulder, then pulled him down into her chair beside her with a firm tug.
The boy immediately looked helpless.
Morgan was getting more and more rough around the edges. And her sense of humor was downright bizarre. Sometimes Tom would say something completely normal, and she’d suddenly burst into wild, uncontrollable laughter for no reason.
Somehow, their relationship had already climbed past ninety on the invisible scale.
"Why would I crush him? I still need him to dig up information on the Sun-Chasers," Tom said, brushing Morgan’s hand away. In the process, his hand accidentally brushed against her chest. But neither of them paid it any mind, only Ravenclaw’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Tom continued, "I got in touch with Lupin a few days ago. He’s the one I sent to look into the vampires. He’s made a bit of progress, but the Sun-Chasers are deeply hidden. We need someone reckless, someone completely unrestrained, to flush them out."
"And Voldemort fits that role perfectly."
"Oh, right."
Tom suddenly remembered why he’d come into the study space in the first place. He turned to Grindelwald.
"Send some people to the Amazon rainforest. Isabella from Castelobruxo just shipped back the potion she finished. They’re probably about to start exploring the ruins."
This wasn’t some fake relic he and Andros had cobbled together. These were real ruins tied to prehistoric Amazonia.
"Send people?" Grindelwald reluctantly tore his gaze away from the projection. "Even the professors from Castelobruxo couldn’t handle it. They may not be top-tier, but they’re still elites among ordinary wizards. Sending others won’t make much difference. I might as well go myself."
"No need." Tom shook his head slightly. "Jeanne already told me she wants to check it out. If she’s going, you stay put. Do you have any idea how many eyes are on you right now?"
Grindelwald’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t argue. He turned back to the projection, eager to watch Andros continue manhandling Voldemort.
The battle had already reached a fever pitch.
Though only one of them seemed to be enjoying it.
The violent clash of magic whipped the canyon into a storm of flying sand and debris. Voldemort’s green robes were torn in several places, his focus stretched to its limit.
Even so, he still fell for one of Andros’s feints.
In an instant, the two closed into close combat.
Andros grinned, his glowing arm snapping around Voldemort’s neck as the Dark Lord’s eyes widened in shock.
"Now, now... let’s smash you."
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