The End of Fate

It was almost dark.

Surrounded by the forest, the mottled sky above the dense woods had taken on a strange red hue. A gust of wind swept past, lifting several dry leaves that spun a few times before sticking to Hoffa's trouser cuffs.

He looked up and turned in the wind, only then noticing that hundreds of spiky pods hung densely among the treetops.

As the two stood there in shock, one fruit in the canopy slowly opened. It spread green wings, revealing the bluish-purple body hidden inside.

Hiss!

It extended a long tongue and flicked it at Hoffa.

So it was that thing!!

Hoffa immediately understood why it had looked so familiar.

A Swooping Evil—the pet of Schmidt Ruterov, a dangerous creature that fed on brain fluid. Why was it here?

If it was here, could Schmidt be far away?

Joey said, "What's going on? Why is a Class 4X dangerous creature here?!"

"Do you remember the Hogsmeade attack?"

Hoffa's face was pale, and his voice trembled slightly.

"The attack... What? That dark wizard carrying dangerous creatures hid in the Forbidden Forest? Are you sure? Who told you?"

Joey fired off question after question, but Hoffa answered none of them. He kept backing away.

Hiss, hiss!

Several Swooping Evils spread their wings in the treetops, pairs of hungry green eyes lighting up in the darkness.

Thinking of that letter, Hoffa gritted his teeth.

Damn it, this was a trap!

A deliberate trap!

Hoffa looked at Joey. Joey was equally stunned and horrified. He nocked an arrow and said sideways, "Take the girl and go first. I'll cover you."

Hoffa did not hesitate. He rushed over and yanked Argeleia to her feet. She had still been reading beside the stone, completely unaware of what was around them.

Interrupted by Hoffa, she snapped angrily, "What are you doing? Do you know how important what I was deciphering—?"

"Shut up, Sherlock Holmes."

Hoffa cut her off without mercy. Dragging Argeleia toward the horses, he had no idea where Schmidt was, but he had to get out before the dark wizard appeared.

But when he reached the horses, he saw that the horse Argeleia had ridden was swaying in place as if drunk.

Argeleia was deeply worried and immediately tried to go check what was wrong with it.

But Hoffa sharply spotted a twitching tail at the back of the horse's head. His expression changed, and he seized Argeleia's wrist.

At that instant, a blood-covered Swooping Evil burst straight through the horse's skull, spraying out with the horse's brains.

"Ah!"

Argeleia screamed and clutched her head.

Thwack!

An arrow arrived in an instant, pinning the diving Swooping Evil dead to a tree trunk.

The poor horse's entire brain had been bored out. It crashed to the ground with a boom, convulsing as it died.

Joey said, "Forget it. Ride the other one."

Argeleia had never seen anything like this. Her face turned deathly pale, and her entire body trembled.

Hoffa was much calmer. He pulled Argeleia over to the other horse, drew his wand, and said, "Get on."

Argeleia tried to climb onto the horse, but after several attempts, she still could not get up.

Hoffa could only half-lift, half-push the trembling Argeleia onto the saddle. Once he had steadied her, Hoffa leaped onto the horse.

At that moment, hissing and the fluttering of wings filled the dark forest without end.

Hoffa turned the horse around and galloped back the way they had come. They had to get out of here quickly.

He did not turn back for Joey, because he knew that if he hesitated, he would only get in Joey's way. He was an adult wizard and had been a gamekeeper for years. Protecting himself would not be a problem.

Sure enough, Joey repeatedly drew and fired behind Hoffa, shooting Swooping Evils out of the air one after another.

Showers of blue-purple blood splashed down.

But more and more Swooping Evils fluttered in from the surrounding woods, and the bow gradually became inadequate.

Joey realized this. He pulled a magical glass orb from his pocket and hurled it into the air.

Boom!

A deafening explosion rang out.

The glass orb struck the Swooping Evils and exploded in the sky.

Hoffa, riding ahead, heard the violent blast behind him and saw flames soaring into the sky.

He glanced sideways. The entire forest behind him had become a sea of fire. Trees at the center of the blast were instantly reduced to powder. The shockwave, carrying leaves and dirt, struck his face so hard that it stung.

Before he could worry about Joey, the shockwave sent several Swooping Evils tumbling into tree trunks ahead of him.

These creatures were extraordinarily resilient. After falling to the ground and swaying a few times, they staggered back up and flew swiftly at Hoffa.

Hoffa did not dare look back. He only prayed that he could rush out of the Forbidden Forest and return to the school.

But as he galloped onward, two Swooping Evils suddenly grabbed the collar at Argeleia's shoulders and yanked her straight off the horse. The creatures were not large, yet their strength was terrifying.

"Bach!"

Argeleia only had time to reach out and scream before the Swooping Evils dragged her more than ten meters through the air in the blink of an eye.

Damn it!

Hoffa had not managed to grab her.

He quickly turned the horse around.

Drawing his wand,

he pointed it at Argeleia and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!"

A red flash shot from his wand, petrifying Argeleia and the two Swooping Evils in midair at the same time.

But things did not improve. Once petrified, the Swooping Evils and Argeleia rapidly fell from a height of over ten meters.

Below them was a dense thicket of thorns!

Even if the fall did not kill her, it would cripple her.

What could he do?

"Wingardium Leviosa!" In his panic, Hoffa cast the Levitation Charm.

But the Levitation Charm did not work on living creatures. The white light struck Argeleia, yet she continued falling.

Damn it!

Hoffa's mind raced. Think, think!

Suddenly, a spell cut through the fog in his mind.

Hoffa raised his wand and gave it a fierce slash.

"Levicorpus!"

A flash of golden light.

The Half-Blood Prince's spell was indeed as simple and reliable as it had been described in the original book.

Caught off guard, Argeleia was yanked up by the ankle and left hanging upside down in midair, head down. Her undergarments and school stockings were completely exposed beneath her uniform, while her robes covered her entire upper body.

Hoffa had no mood to admire the sight.

The two petrified Swooping Evils fell to the ground. These creatures had high magical resistance, and within moments of landing in the thorns, they began struggling and springing back up desperately.

Hoffa jumped off the horse and ran to where Argeleia hung upside down. He kicked aside several of the sharpest thorny branches and stomped the two struggling Swooping Evils to death.

"Bell Drop."

Hoffa waved his wand again. Once he had finished the incantation, he reached out and caught Argeleia as she fell.

The impact of her whole body dropping made his arms sink. He and Argeleia rolled into a heap, her cumbersome robes tangling Hoffa and the thorns together.

"Finite Incantatem."

Hoffa removed the Petrification Spell.

The instant the spell was lifted, Argeleia grabbed Hoffa's throat from inside her school robes.

"I'm going to kill you, Hoffa Bach! What kind of spells were those?!!!"

She let out a scream sharp enough to pierce eardrums.

Hoffa had not expected that after he had worked so hard to save her, she would turn on him immediately.

Furiously, he shoved her away. "If you think your dignity matters more than your life, then don't fucking drag me down with you."

Argeleia fell silent. Her face was red all the way to her neck, and she gritted her teeth in rage.

Hoffa had no desire to comfort her. He could not spare attention for anything else. In a few quick motions, he tore free of the school robes and sprang up with a flip.

The surroundings were pitch-black, with barely any light.

Hoffa grabbed the fuming Argeleia and tried to run back toward the horse.

But the little black horse that had been with him for a month seemed to sense something. It looked around in terror, then bolted off on its own.

"Damn it!"

Hoffa cursed. Suddenly, his foot slipped, and he had to grab a tree trunk just to remain standing. He had stepped in something sticky.

The smell of blood filled his nostrils.

He instinctively bent down to look. On the ground, thin, winding streams of red flowed slowly. He could not see clearly.

"Lumos."

Hoffa lit his wand.

Blood was everywhere, already gathering into a small stream.

He swallowed, shielding Argeleia behind him as they kept backing away. Yet the farther they retreated, the stronger the pungent stench of blood became.

After backing through a row of cold pines, Argeleia suddenly jabbed Hoffa with her elbow. He was annoyed at first, but then he turned around.

The sight before him sent a chill from his head to the soles of his feet.

Following Argeleia's trembling finger, he saw rows of centaurs standing among the trees beneath the bleak newborn moon, like stone sculptures.

Their heads were raised as they stared into the sky. There were at least a dozen of them.

They were different colors, their coats sleek but dull. Their posture appeared proud, but their hands hung limply at their sides.

Drops of blood ran down from their foreheads, flowing over their tall, powerful bodies and dripping slowly to the ground.

A light breeze brushed their manes, making their shadows sway faintly across the ground and intertwine into bizarre, gruesome images.

More than a dozen centaurs, all dead.

Though they knew the future, they had ultimately failed to escape disaster. Several Swooping Evils were wrapped around each of their proudly raised heads, sucking out their brains.

The air was filled with the utterly chilling sounds of feeding.

Hoffa took a step back and bumped into Argeleia. She clutched his arm tightly, barely able to stand.

Centaurs were magical creatures, but they were as intelligent as humans—perhaps even more so in certain respects.

There was no doubt that only a powerful dark wizard could have killed so many centaurs without giving them any chance to resist.

Schmidt Ruterov had to be nearby.

"Don't make a sound. Leave with me."

Hoffa spoke in an extremely low voice.

Argeleia nodded. Before the shadow of death, she had completely forgotten her earlier grudge against Hoffa.

The two held their wands and slowly retreated in the opposite direction.

Just then, a section of darkness ahead of them suddenly separated.

A tall figure slowly rose from the woods behind the centaurs and stepped into the moonlight filtering through the trees.

This time, he wore no hood. Not the slightest expression stirred across his long Germanic face as he walked slowly and said softly:

"I thought these mules were highly valued. It seems I overthought it. No one cares about such an inferior species."

He walked to the center of the clearing. Several Swooping Evils crawled out from the centaurs' heads and settled on his shoulders.

Schmidt tilted his head and said calmly, "We meet again. I've been waiting for you for a long time."

He looked no different from a neighbor greeting someone they had run into.

But Hoffa felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

There was no doubt that he had walked into a trap.

Schmidt Ruterov had been waiting here at ease for quite some time.

Hoffa retreated to the edge of the clearing and said, "Wouldn't it have been better to leave Britain quietly? Why come to a dangerous place like Hogwarts?"

Schmidt said softly, "I would also like to leave, but I still have very important work to finish. Besides, little boy, you have not returned what you took from me."

Before Hoffa could react,

Argeleia cried out.

"Watch out!"

A sense of danger instantly filled Hoffa's mind. He saw mysterious lights flare on both sides at once.

Spells were coming!

The moment Schmidt distracted him, his two companions attacked Hoffa at the same time.