Chapter 27
Avada Kedavra!
Li Mu pointed his wand at Dumbledore, whom the Tracking Charm had revealed. The Killing Curse's dark green light tore through the air and struck its invisible target. But as Dumbledore's invisibility dropped, the force of the curse shattered him into wooden splinters.
At the same time, dark green light flashed not far off to Li Mu's side.
The second Dumbledore to emerge from invisibility also cast the Killing Curse at Li Mu.
From the very beginning, while the shockwave from Confringo was still spreading, Dumbledore had already used Transfiguration. He had turned a chair he'd taken from his pocket into a copy of himself, then concealed it in advance with an Illusionary Body Curse.
He had also weakened the curse's invisibility effect, deliberately allowing the Tracking Charm to detect the chair-made decoy.
That way, Li Mu had thought he was attacking Dumbledore by surprise, when in fact he was only attacking a decoy created by Transfiguration. Meanwhile, the real Dumbledore had used the opening to locate Li Mu's true body and hit him with a Killing Curse, striking before he could react.
Dumbledore's combat experience and tactical skill far surpassed Li Mu's, who had yet to see much fighting.
But the next instant, Dumbledore was horrified to discover that the Killing Curse had failed to kill the Mysterious Wizard.
The Killing Curse was formidable, but it wasn't without a weakness.
It silently snuffed out a life the instant it struck a living target.
That was why, before the battle began, Li Mu had already stored several rats aboard the Phoenix. Dumbledore's Killing Curse seemed to have hit him, but it had actually struck a rat that Li Mu had suddenly taken from the Phoenix. The deadliest Dark Magic spell for single targets was easy to counter if you knew the right method.
Dumbledore didn't turn invisible again. Instead, he instantly cast an Iron Skin Charm on himself.
As soon as the charm took hold, Li Mu's Killing Curse hit him.
The Iron Skin Charm shattered at once, but Dumbledore immediately cast another.
His repeated, rapid-fire Iron Skin Charms had an effect similar to a Super Iron Skin Charm. In the end, they blocked the Killing Curse. Of course, that was also because Li Mu's Killing Curse wasn't high-level enough, and his Magic Power reserves were smaller than Dumbledore's. Otherwise, the curse could have pierced through all the Iron Skin Charms.
Having nearly been killed by the curse, Dumbledore immediately realized that the Mysterious Wizard carried plenty of living creatures with him.
Almost simultaneously, Li Mu's second Killing Curse collided in midair with Dumbledore's retaliatory Explosion Curse.
The colliding spells burst apart like fireworks, their fragments stopped by the Iron Skin Charms protecting the two men.
Li Mu continued casting the Killing Curse, while Dumbledore could only retaliate with the wide-ranging Explosion Curse.
Dumbledore's spells were faster and more powerful, but area-of-effect spells were at a disadvantage when they collided with single-target spells. New fireworks kept bursting between them, and for a while, the fight became a stalemate.
Li Mu liked stalemates. The longer they dragged on, the greater his advantage from replenishing his Magic Power.
He had to admit, he'd underestimated Dumbledore.
If Apparition had been possible here, if he couldn't replenish his Magic Power almost without limit, if he hadn't prepared so many rats to counter the Killing Curse, or if Dumbledore weren't already 110 years old and frail with age, Li Mu might have lost by now.
As time passed, Dumbledore became certain that the Mysterious Wizard's Magic Power was inexhaustible.
His reserves weren't high, but his recovery speed was frightening.
If things continued like this, the situation would grow worse and worse for him.
Dumbledore kept casting Explosion Curses with the Elder Wand, a Deathly Hallow, in his right hand. Meanwhile, his left hand silently combined Wandless Casting with Silent Spellcasting, discreetly casting the Transfiguration spell he was best at.
Casting two spells this way was difficult and prone to failure, but he had no other choice.
Luck was on his side: the Transfiguration succeeded, turning a stone into a bird.
Skimming along the edge of the underground Chamber of Secrets, the bird soon reached the passage they'd used to enter. It was just one step away from flying up the passage to Hogwarts and seeking help from the other professors. Once they arrived, they could work with him to deal with this Mysterious Wizard.
But just then, Frostfire Rose flashed into Li Mu's left hand again.
A few quick shots from Frostfire Rapid Fire froze the Stone Bird in midair. It fell and shattered on the ground.
At that moment, Phoenix Fawkes, trapped in the Binding Birdcage, began calling out repeatedly.
Hearing the calls, Dumbledore hesitated.
The Mysterious Wizard was formidable, but Dumbledore had an even more powerful technique. It simply wasn't suited to a place like this, and Phoenix Fawkes, not far from the battlefield, might be caught in the attack and killed.
A phoenix could be reborn through Nirvana, but only once in a short time.
If Phoenix Fawkes died twice in quick succession, he would truly die. Worried for Fawkes, Dumbledore had held back until now. But just then, Fawkes told him in Phoenix Language not to worry about him. Otherwise, both he and Fawkes would die in the end.
At last, Dumbledore made up his mind. He stopped casting Explosion Curses and instead unleashed a Super Fierce Fire Curse.
In an instant, the vast underground Chamber of Secrets was transformed into a sea of endless flames. The raging fire swept outward, making it impossible for Li Mu to keep Dumbledore in his sights through the flames and cast the Killing Curse.
But that was only the beginning. The fire created by the Super Fierce Fire Curse was soon devoured by Fiendfyre.
Fiendfyre engulfed the entire chamber, turning it into a sea of flames. Fawkes, whom both sides had deliberately kept out of the fight, was caught in the blaze. The Binding Birdcage burned away, and Phoenix Fawkes was killed by the Fiendfyre, beginning his Nirvana.
As he watched Fawkes about to be burned to death a second time, Dumbledore finally couldn't bear to let him die.
Combining Transfiguration with the Super Fierce Fire Curse, he took control of the Fiendfyre and forcibly shaped the sea of flames into a fire phoenix. It spread its wings and charged at Li Mu, who was using an Iron Skin Charm to hold back the Fiendfyre. Dumbledore had given everything he had. This was the decisive strike that would determine which of them lived and died.
As the Fire Phoenix bore down on him, Li Mu cast two Explosion Curses in quick succession.
But against Dumbledore, who was fighting with everything he had, they only blasted off one of the Fiendfyre phoenix's heads. The rest of its body kept charging at him.
By Li Mu's estimate, even the Elf Wizard Robe couldn't withstand that blow.
At the brink of death, Li Mu forcibly summoned the Phoenix into the underground Chamber of Secrets.
With any other Seedship, summoning it into an underground chamber would have been impossible.
But the Phoenix was a mimetic Seedship. Though it was 120 meters long, that measurement included its head and tail. By folding its head, tail, and wings to some extent, Li Mu could force it into the cramped underground chamber.
The Phoenix appeared without warning, completely unharmed by the Fiendfyre.
Using the Phoenix as cover, Li Mu cast the Killing Curse through a gap between its wings. The curse struck Dumbledore as he desperately controlled the Fiendfyre phoenix. With only an Iron Skin Charm protecting him, Dumbledore couldn't stop the Killing Curse. In an instant, it snuffed out his life.
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