Harry pinned Voldemort in place with the Runes Lock, delight stirring in his heart.
But the next moment, he realized something seemed wrong. It was not just Voldemort: everything around them had frozen.
Then Voldemort moved.
Perhaps it was not quite right to say Voldemort moved. His body remained in its previous position, frozen along with everything around him.
His soul projection, however, moved.
Harry had kept Magic Perception active all along-he had discovered that, as long as he was not directly facing a deity, it generally no longer affected him.
There was something wrong with Voldemort's magical flame, and Harry wanted to get as close as possible while coming into as little contact with it as possible, so he had kept it active.
Consequently, he could also see the other man's soul projection.
Previously, Voldemort's strange beast-shaped soul projection had behaved like a normal soul projection, moving along with Voldemort.
It merely looked a little odd because it was a flying serpent. But after seeing it often enough, that was nothing unusual.
Now, however, with Voldemort and everything around them frozen, it turned its head to look at Harry.
The sensation was as strange as looking into a mirror and suddenly seeing your reflection smile.
An inexplicable chill ran down Harry's spine. The next moment, the black scales on Voldemort's soul projection abruptly stood on end, and countless black curses actually peeled away from them.
Before Harry could react, those curses spread toward his palm along his Runes Chain. Harry tried to dodge, only to discover that, with everything around him frozen, he too had lost the ability to move.
Damn it, what was going on?
Harry was utterly horrified but powerless. He could only watch as those black curses rapidly covered his left wrist, then his entire arm,