"Have you had enough to say?"
Originally limited by his own state, Voldemort could only verbally refute Alaric's verbal attacks until now, when he finally erupted.
With a flick of his wand, Voldemort sent a red beam of light toward Alaric, forcing him to focus on the battle and defend himself.
"I've tolerated you for far too long!" Voldemort said in a deep voice, though his raspy tone couldn't hide his delight.
Arrogant and temperamental, he was as Alaric had analyzed; from his childhood, he had been fundamentally flawed.
He wasn't truly like the first Dark Lord, Grindelwald, who possessed great power, extraordinary intelligence, and firm beliefs.
As Alaric pointed out, Tom Riddle borrowed others' beliefs and ideals; this kind of person, beneath that seemingly cruel and cold exterior, was actually quite fragile.
With a few well-placed words, one could shatter his psyche.
However, aside from Alaric and Dumbledore, no one had the strength to protect their lives before breaking his spirit.
Yet Alaric had achieved that at this moment.
At this moment, under Alaric's words, Voldemort had completely lost his aura as a villainous boss; he was merely a child throwing a tantrum in anger.
He had completely lost his rationality, discarding all calculations. Concerns about his poor state or the possibility of his Horcruxes being exposed were no longer on his mind.
Now, all he wanted was to kill the boy in front of him, to eliminate the one who had laid bare all the secrets, vulnerabilities, and confusions hidden deep within him.
"I must admit, you do have some skill," Voldemort declared loudly while attacking Alaric, "You indeed caught my weakness and inflicted heavy damage on me.
Just now, I was at my most vulnerable state. Unfortunately, your excessive caution prevented you from seizing the opportunity to defeat me—you're nothing more than that.
Now that I am no longer weak, your death is imminent!"
"Caution? Not seizing the opportunity? Don't make me laugh!"
Alaric maintained his composed demeanor, skillfully maneuvering through Voldemort's assaults, countering with.
"A mere defeated foe shouldn't indulge in fantasies; my plans are not something you can see through. Haven't you realized that yet?"
"Realized... what?" Voldemort, consumed by rage and losing his sanity, instinctively sensed something was amiss upon hearing Alaric's words.
However, he was in no condition to carefully observe his surroundings.
All he could do was attack the boy in front of him like a rabid dog, relentlessly and indiscriminately.
"Alas…" Looking at the once formidable Dark Lord now reduced to this state, Alaric shook his head helplessly, "It seems I have to reveal everything myself—can't you see that the battle around us is a bit off?"
"Not… off!?" At Alaric's words, Voldemort instinctively looked around.
In this moment, Voldemort was almost as if his mind was being manipulated, completely under Alaric's control.
However, despite this, his high intelligence allowed him to immediately notice the oddities around him after being prompted.
Since both Alaric and Voldemort possessed powers that far exceeded everyone else present, both the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters had consciously avoided them after they began their battle, creating a significant area in the center of the battlefield to prevent collateral damage.
If someone were to die from the aftermath of their fight, it would be incredibly unjust.
Thus, the two of them were essentially in two separate battlefields compared to the other wizards.
As soon as one battlefield determined a victor, that power could influence the other battlefield.
Therefore, in this fight of troops versus troops, kings versus kings, if either side could quickly produce a winner, the overall outcome of the battle would follow suit.
Initially, Voldemort believed he was stronger than Alaric—he was always so arrogant.
However, due to Alaric's continuously emerging tactics, he wasn't confident that he could quickly determine a victor.
It was similar to that night when Alaric used a spell to instantaneously transport himself a distance away.
Although he had prepared defenses against it, he still hadn't found a way to counter it—after all, he hadn't even grasped the principle behind it.
However, on the troops' side, Voldemort believed they were at an advantage.
The main reason was the presence of Dementors.
Although Alaric's sudden outburst had destroyed half of them, fortunately, Silver White Hope's attack range was insufficient, allowing half of the Dementors to survive.
Their total number was overwhelming; even after losing half, the remaining ones were enough to flood the entire battlefield, rendering Silver White Hope's strength ineffective.
With the power of the Dementors, combined with the Death Eaters and other dark creatures he had recklessly transported here, crushing the Ministry of Magic was indeed within reach.
He thought that, despite frequently losing in his struggles against the Ministry of Magic and Alaric since his resurrection, this time would mark a turning point in strategy.
After all, the Ministry of Magic could call upon such great power and support so many people in a short time.
Moreover, they had fortified Azkaban in advance, allowing them to break through the floors by destroying the beams of Azkaban, sabotaging the plan to release the imprisoned Death Eaters.
To Voldemort, all of this was evidence of the Ministry's prior preparations.
But he could seize the opportunity and put everything on the line, deploying all his strength to Azkaban, thus forming the current situation. This was a victory for him in strategy.
As long as he could hold Alaric back, ultimate victory would be his, while the Ministry would be completely trapped.
This time, he thought he had won his gamble.
However, Alaric had brought him quite a few surprises.
The sudden death of Nagini left him instantly weakened, nearly forcing him to flee, leading to the loss of a perfectly arranged game.
Fortunately, Alaric did not seize the opportunity to attack a drowning man.
Yet everything Alaric said next exposed all the ugliness Voldemort did not want to face, causing him to lose his rationality.
Now, he didn't care about any plans or delays; he only wanted to kill Alaric, even if doing so might reveal weaknesses and lead to a counterattack, that consideration was no longer on his mind.
As a result, Alaric had given him a third surprise.
Now, under Alaric's reminder, he began to pay a bit more attention to his surroundings, only to discover that the situation on the battlefield was incredibly strange.
It was not the overwhelming victory of the Death Eaters over the Ministry of Magic that he had anticipated.
Nor was it the Ministry pulling out some trump card to counterattack the Death Eaters.
It wasn't even a situation where both sides were evenly matched, suffering heavy losses.
He was astonished to find that there were hardly any casualties on either side.
This was something he had previously overlooked.
Now he realized how unusual the situation was, and the strangeness did not end there.
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