Lupin tightened his grip on his wand and stood in front of the terrified children.
"Douglas..."
Douglas did not answer.
His eyes were fixed on the empty stretch of dense forest ahead.
Space was twisting there.
Like a sugar cube dropped into water, its edges began to blur and dissolve.
Light refracted into strange shards of stained glass.
Then a foot stepped out of that distorted light and shadow.
It was a claw covered in long, silvery-white fur, but golden flames burned at its tips.
The flames fell to the ground without igniting the dead leaves, yet scorched the soil with a sizzling hiss, sending up wisps of white smoke.
A figure slowly emerged from the ripples in space, one step at a time.
He had a wolf's head and powerful, agile limbs, yet walked upright, his bodily proportions more like a human's.
He wore no metal or leather, but a suit of armor forged from pure light.
The armor resembled flowing moonlight, engraved with intricate, sacred runes. Each rune breathed slowly, drawing in and releasing unsettling energy.
But the most terrifying thing was its eyes.
Those were not eyes any living creature should have.
There were no eyeballs in the sockets, only two masses of fiercely burning golden flame.
There was no emotion in those flames, only a cold, absolute will, as though programmed.
This half-human, half-wolf monster, this creation that forcibly stitched holiness and savagery together, simply stood there in silence.
Its very existence was the vilest blasphemy against the laws of nature.
The Italian Ministry of Magic.
On the map in Lorenzo's office, a dazzling golden point of light appeared out of nowhere in the Apennine Mountains.
Its brilliance even eclipsed the green vortex representing Douglas.
"Madmen! Those utter madmen in the Church!"
For the first time,