The Chain of Traps

As he listened to the fake Baker's righteous words, Avada, still under the Disillusionment Charm, couldn't help feeling a little moved. If he hadn't had Magic Sense or known about Horcruxes, he might really have felt a little sympathy for the fragment of soul before him.

Unfortunately, he knew about Horcruxes and understood that objects like the Diary really could act and think independently, but were still, in essence, part of their creator. And with Magic Sense, he could easily see that the magic and mental energy within Professor Baker's body were both "incomplete," and came from the same source as the real Baker in the Crystal Ball.

In other words, the fake Baker was like an artificial intelligence: he could think and interact with the outside world according to established programming—in this case, his memories—but he didn't possess genuine self-awareness. Moreover, his actions now represented the real Professor Baker to some extent. That meant the real Professor Baker would most likely do and say the same things in this situation.

So, he'd focus on helping Professor Baker return to his original body.

Though that was what he thought, Avada's hands never stopped moving. He silently or quietly cast the most familiar spells he could manage, attacking the fake Baker while using the surrounding cover and his own movement to avoid revealing his position. He didn't care at all that his energy was rapidly draining.

Meanwhile, Baron, who was slacking off with a few minor jinxes and had been spared the fake Baker's attacks, silently watched the fake Baker's every move.

Is it coming? That moment...

Suddenly, the fake Baker's face turned pale as he hovered in midair, but a flash of light passed through his eyes. He whipped his head around to glare at a spot on the ground and quickly raised his wand.

Now!

"Incarcerous!"

The instant the fake Baker raised his wand and aimed it somewhere, Baron sprang into action, casting a spell far more powerful than anything he'd managed before. But the fake Baker seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He tilted his head slightly, and the spell missed.

Then he shot Baron, whose face had fallen in astonishment, an amused glance. His wand flashed toward another direction, and he mercilessly fired a brilliant red bolt. Though Baron was more than ten meters away, even a glimpse of the light brought a wave of exhaustion over him, making him drowsy. It was an extraordinarily powerful Stunning Spell!

This is it!

Suddenly, the fake Baker's body jolted. The ropes that had been firmly attached to the ceiling all came loose at once, leaving him unsupported and sending him tumbling downward. The brilliant red bolt went wide, struck an empty patch of floor, and scattered into a shower of light.

"Impedimenta!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The instant the ropes came loose, before the fake Baker even had time to cast a Levitation Charm, both spells struck him squarely. The Impediment Jinx broke his Bubble-Head Charm, while the Petrification Curse immobilized him. The effect would last only a few seconds against his formidable strength, but he was falling!

The fake Baker's body slammed hard into the ground from a height of more than five meters.

[In this situation, I need an invisible opponent to put me under pressure, so I can't quickly purge the poison and curses. That will force me to use the Hyper-Senses Charm.]

[The Hyper-Senses Charm is practically made to counter the Disillusionment Charm. A wizard using it will have extraordinarily sharp senses, easily gathering every bit of information from their surroundings. They can then detect the slightest disturbance and quickly pinpoint an invisible person. But the spell has one drawback: the overwhelming amount of information puts tremendous strain on the mind, so it can't be used for long—only a few seconds at most.]

[The instant the Hyper-Senses Charm ends and the mind suddenly relaxes, it creates a perfect opening for an attack. Of course, I know that leaves me vulnerable, so before ending the spell, I'll pretend I've found my enemy and react, baiting them into using the attack they would have aimed at that opening. Only then will I truly end the Hyper-Senses Charm and attack them.]

[So all you have to do is cast a Slippery Charm on the ceiling beforehand and activate it the moment the Hyper-Senses Charm truly ends. That will make me fall without warning and create an even bigger opening. Your Mental Link lets you seize the moment together: one of you can use a binding or petrification spell to stop me from slowing my fall, while the other breaks my Bubble-Head Charm...]

[That way, not only will I suffer serious injuries from the fall, but I'll also lose my protection and be exposed to the poison and curses again.]

"Professor Baker's certainly harsh on himself..."

Watching the fake Baker slam into the floor with a dull thud, Avada's eye twitched. He immediately ended the Disillusionment Charm, appeared, and fired a Stunning Spell at the fake Baker, who hadn't yet managed to get back up.

"K?!"

The fake Baker was an immensely experienced master of combat. Even badly injured and with several broken bones, he gritted his teeth against the pain and rolled aside to dodge the spell. Then he saw his enemy's face and cried out in utter shock.

While the fake Baker's attention was entirely fixed on Avada, Baron had quietly cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself and slipped away to who knew where.

[By now, I've suffered fairly serious injuries and my condition has deteriorated greatly, so I'll start trying to leave the Room of Requirement and seek help from another professor. At that point, the real me will use Spatial Magic to hide the door, leaving me with only one option: to get serious and fight with everything I have. In that situation, K has only one thing to do after revealing himself: defend with everything he's got. Though I'm already incredibly weak, you still can't beat me in a direct confrontation.]

[However, when I see that the person who ended the Disillusionment Charm is one of my students, I won't use lethal or overly powerful spells. Combined with my weakened state, that means K won't be under too much pressure as long as he defends himself. He just needs to keep his Shield Charm in place, ignore whatever tricks I use, and wear down my energy.]

[Next, it'll be Mr. Shafiq's turn to turn invisible, and then...]

Just as Professor Baker had said, after fending off Avada's attacks and tending to his external injuries and broken bones, the fake Baker began retreating while defending himself, trying to reach the Room of Requirement's door. When he realized the door had disappeared at some point, the pressure on Avada suddenly increased.

An army conjured through Transfiguration, a waterfall appearing out of thin air overhead, bursts of flame erupting from the floor, curses that could pass through a Shield Charm and strike from a distance, and the powerful magic pouring from the fake Baker's wand without pause... Avada felt less like he was dueling one person and more like he was under attack from a crowd of wizards. The sheer variety of the attacks, which came from almost every direction, left his Shield Charm on the verge of collapse after only a short while. Worse, whenever he tried to cast another Shield Charm, a spell that could bypass it would strike from afar or erupt from the floor, making his life miserable.

Fortunately, his Magic Sense let him detect the signs of every spell before it was cast, allowing him to dodge or defend as if he could see the future. This greatly eased the pressure on him, and he even seemed to have things somewhat under control amid the fake Baker's frenzied attacks.

There was no speech during the rest of the battle, only spells. The fake Baker seemed to have given up asking why and was focused on defeating the student before him so he could question him about everything afterward. Avada, meanwhile, silently counted through the steps...

Their gazes crossed the battlefield, where countless spells streaked through the air, and locked onto each other's eyes.