Choices and an Unexpected Turn
With the appearance of the Death Reaper's avatar, the battle in the Mirror Dimension intensified.
The professors surrounded the avatar of Death, and countless spells shot back and forth in the Mirror Dimension, showcasing the dark magic of Death to its fullest extent.
Dumbledore almost single-handedly blocked most of the dark magic from the incarnation of Death, and even had the strength to counterattack. The other professors were far inferior in comparison; they could mostly only carefully dodge the troublesome magical attacks and occasionally seize an opportunity to launch an offensive.
Fortunately, there were two masters of Potions and Herbology, Professor Slughorn and Professor Birley, who brought a large supply of potions to help deal with the injuries or exhaustion of some of the professors.
Death seemed to value the Invisibility Cloak, a Deathly Hallows, highly. The now-illusory projection had somehow appeared beside Xiwen, forming an angle with the controlled Baron, and together they launched an attack on Xiwen.
With only the Vishanti's Sacred Sword in his hand, and facing two illusory scythes at the same time, Xiwen couldn't help but become somewhat flustered.
Helena watched anxiously from the sidelines, but she was currently using all her strength to try to expel the spatial rift brought by Death from the Mirror Dimension, and for the moment she couldn't free up her hands.
During the fight, Xiwen caught a glimpse of Helena's anxious expression, took a moment to turn to her and call out, "I'm fine here, continue what you're doing, Helena!"
As he spoke, Xiwen summoned a hexagonal matrix covered with mysterious runes in front of him. Then, a golden-red hook scythe, radiating a metallic luster, suddenly emerged from the matrix and was tightly grasped by Xiwen in his empty left hand.
The Hoggoth's Hook, once used in the Albania Forest, has been summoned once more!
Xiwen floated back several dozen feet, raised his right hand to hold the Vishanti's Sacred Sword in front of his eyes, and held the Hoggoth's Hook upright next to the golden-red blade in his left hand, forming a cross-shaped starting stance.
"Let's try again now, we have the same number of weapons," he said coldly.
"Your spells are certainly flashy," Death chuckled in a low voice, devoid of any warmth. "Then let me see if your strength matches your appearance!"
In the next instant, Baron and the projection of Death appeared from two different directions, simultaneously wielding scythes and slashing at Xiwen.
Xiwen took a deep breath, deftly slinging the hook sickle behind his back with his left hand, using the angle between the blade and the spearhead to parry the scythe in Baron's hand. Then, with agility Vishanti's Sacred Sword in his right hand struck the hilt of the scythe Death's Projection, and then slashed the blade along the long shaft towards Death's hands.
Seeing that the situation was not good for him, Death quickly pushed his scythe to the side, interrupting Xiwen's attack, and then swiftly withdrew his hand.
Just as Death withdrew his scythe, a subtle smile crept onto Xiwen's lips.
It turns out that his real target wasn't the projection of Death at all, but the Bloody Baron was being controlled on the other side!
Suddenly, Xiwen slammed his hooked sickle down, revealing Baron's face and his crimson eyes. The next moment, two bright yellow lights flashed in Xiwen's eyes—the Vishanti Exiz-Tenz Eyes, Exiz-TenzEyes!
Baron, controlled by Death, suddenly felt all his strength rendered useless. It was as if, in that instant, he had lost all the power from Death and reverted to an ordinary ghost.
At the same time, Xiwen suddenly began to wield the hook sickle in his left hand.
He first suppressed the powerless scythe phantom in Baron's hand, then raised his hand and unleashed a fierce Cleansweep, instantly slicing Baron's transparent body in two!
Baron's face showed an expression of extreme pain, and he lay stiffly in the air like a corpse.
"Unfortunately, the Hoggoth's Hook is not a product of the Demon God, and does not contain much power targeting the soul." The yellow light in Xiwen's eyes slowly faded. When he saw the power of Death within Baron gradually binding his body, which had been broken in two, together again, he couldn't help but sigh regretfully.
At this moment, the phantom of the Death Reaper behind Xiwen also reacted, the red light in its eyes revealing a hint of embarrassment and anger at being outmaneuvered.
He swung his scythe fiercely, and a purplish-black blade of light shot out from where the scythe was swung, giving the impression of tearing through space the moment it appeared.
Xiwen's eyes narrowed, and he abruptly threw out both Hoggoth's Hook and Vishanti's Sacred Sword, then used his free hands to form hand seals again.
Immediately, a pale red magic circle quietly appeared in front of him.
Countless phantom weapons with sharp blades emerged from the magic circle. These endless blades even enveloped the hook scythe and holy sword that Xiwen had just thrown out, eventually transforming into a violent storm that soared upwards and became entangled with the purplish-black light blades.
This is Sarnios's Storm of Swords!
Surrounded by countless sharp blades, the purplish-black blades only held out for a moment before being torn into shimmering fragments of light, scattered everywhere, and eventually turning into mist and disappearing.
The endless blades in the storm, after destroying the light blades, did not stop at all, and continued their momentum as they crashed into the Death's Projection in front of them.
Countless pieces of tableware, tables and chairs, and Halloween decorations replicated in the Mirror Dimension were indiscriminately torn to shreds by this storm unique to the blade. Broken tableware, pumpkin powder, and wood chips from the tables and chairs filled the air, creating a hazy, chaotic scene.
For a moment, I couldn't tell where the ceiling was and where the Great Hall floor was in this space.
Xiwen breathed a weary sigh amidst the swirling dust, gazing at the slowly dissipating storm of blades.
As the dust settled, a figure knelt amidst the ravaged ruins.
His cloak was tattered into strips, and the mist that had always covered his face was extremely thin, giving his face, which had never been revealed to this day, a sense of being faintly visible.
The projection of Death was clearly at its last gasp; its form was extremely illusory, and the phantom of the scythe in its hand had completely vanished.
"I want to know, how much of a burden will destroying this projection of you place on your true form?" Xiwen floated wearily to the front of the disheveled projection of Death and asked softly.
At the same time, he slowly gathered the power of the next spell in his hand, preparing to completely annihilate this projection here.
"Hmph." Death ignored Xiwen's actions and instead chuckled.
"You may be quite strong, but your weaknesses are also quite significant." He suddenly asked coldly in a low voice. "You must care a lot about that woman over there who controls this space, Doctor Strange, right?"
"If we take that woman hostage, I wonder if you would be willing to hand over the Deathly Hallows?"
Xiwen was startled and immediately looked up at Helena's location.
At this moment, Helena hovered stiffly above the Great Hall, and beside her neck, a sinister scythe phantom silently rested in the air, the hilt of which was held in the hand of the Bloody Baron, whose body had been barely glued back together.
"Let go of Helena!"
Upon seeing this, Xiwen's mind went blank, and he shouted loudly.
"Hand over the Invisibility Cloak, and we'll release this lady immediately." Death smiled coldly, looking up at Xiwen. "Don't worry, I'm always true to my word."
"Stephen, don't give him the Deathly Hallows!" Helena cried out urgently. "I'm just a soul, I might be fine!"
"She's just deceiving herself." Death remained unmoved, then said to Xiwen, "I guess you can sense the soul-targeting power contained within this scythe, right?"
Xiwen's expression turned extremely conflicted.
Neither handing over the Deathly Hallows nor allowing Helena to be harmed were options he could accept.
"Still hesitating? It seems you won't know the damage my scythe can inflict on the soul until you try it." Death shook his head and said slowly. "In that case, let this lady experience the power of the Death's Scythe!"
As he finished speaking, Baron raised his scythe.
However, the next moment, the crimson light in Baron's eyes flashed violently, and the scythe in his hand froze in mid-air!