Reinforcements Arrive

The Minotaurs and Gorgons had already charged into the castle, their heavy footsteps echoing through the stone corridors like a succession of muffled thunder rolling underground.

Behind them, the Caribbean pirates and Southeast Asian pirate forces continuously fired volleys of spells toward the towers as covering fire. Multicolored beams of magic surged like fireworks flowing backward, raining densely upon the castle's high windows and tower tops, while they followed close behind and rushed into the castle.

Whether they were the massive Minotaurs, the grotesque Gorgons, or even the bloodthirsty pirates, all of them wisely avoided Skylar's direction. Like a rising tide flowing around a jutting reef, like a pack of wolves circling around a sleeping lion, instinct told them that they could not go that way.

Skylar made no move to stop them. He did not even spare them a glance.

Because directly ahead of him, four figures had already locked onto him. Four utterly different yet equally terrifying presences pinned him in place from four directions like invisible chains.

Voldemort stood at the center, his black robes snapping in the night wind like a black battle flag.

Fervor and mockery burned within those scarlet Snake Eyes, as though he had finally seen the most interesting prey fall into his trap. The Elder Wand in his hand slowly turned, its green tip flickering in and out like a venomous serpent's tongue.

Monster Harry stood slightly behind Voldemort's right side. His body had become almost unrecognizable as human—deformed, twisted, half man and half snake. Fine dark-green scales covered his skin, gleaming with a cold, ghostly sheen beneath the moonlight.

His left eye remained Harry's clear blue, but his right had turned as scarlet as Voldemort's. Different kinds of madness and pain filled those two eyes. Behind him, nine enormous black-green serpents