The dragon crashed into the cavern wall, sending shards of stone cascading down.
William whipped his wand six times, and the falling rocks formed a makeshift dome above, barely strong enough to shield everyone from the tumbling stones.
"Don't panic—I'm here," William assured everyone, and under his steady command, the group fell silent, eyes fixed on him.
As he considered their escape, something drew his gaze to the far end of the cavern. Among the clouds of dust and scattered rubble, a figure cloaked in black robes rose from a burst of shattered rocks.
The Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon turned its massive head and let out an enraged bellow in his direction.
Once, the dragon would have been a magnificent creature, but years of confinement had dulled its scales to a sickly pallor, and its immense, spiked wings hung limply at its sides. Its murky, pinkish eyes were clouded, and its hind legs bore heavy shackles, though the thick chains that had once anchored it had shattered under the dragon's violent escape.
"Master, what do we do?" The hooded wizard's voice shook.
Then, a second, far colder voice came from within him.
"Fool! Who told you to kill that goblin? He could have controlled the dragon!"
"But... the Thief's Downfall appeared out of nowhere and broke my Imperius Curse," the wizard stammered.
"Hmph. Dumbledore must have warned Gringotts of our plan," the cold voice growled. "Damn him! The Philosopher's Stone has already been moved!"
The voice fell silent for a moment, and the dragon raised its enormous, grotesque head to let out a roar that shook the very stone beneath them. It opened its jaws and unleashed a column of flame.
The dark-robed wizard swung his wand, summoning a massive stone hand to intercept the flames, but the dragon's fire was searingly hot, and the stone began to melt.
"Your power is pitiful," the cold voice sneered, the contempt dripping from each word.
He had possessed this body, siphoning off its vitality, leaving the host weakened and vulnerable, making it a poor match against a dragon's fury now.
Even so, they couldn't Apparate in or out of Gringotts.
After a pause, the voice hissed with resolution, "I'll take over your body completely and release all my stored power at once. You'll be left in a weakened state, and you'll need unicorn blood to recover fully. Short term, you're on your own. Do you understand?"
The last words were spoken with a menacing edge, and the robed figure's body trembled. The magic that allowed him to surrender his body came at a great cost—it would drain years from his life.
But he had no choice.
Suddenly, three dark flames ignited in midair, their glow dim at first, but in seconds, they flared into three elaborate bursts of light, each blacker than the next.
The central flame swelled, its form twisting until it transformed into a giant, spectral serpent that floated ominously above them, hissing.
When the black flames had burned out, the wizard's eyes went blank. His wand fell from his hand, only for his body to jerk violently, a sickly green glow enveloping him as his eyes regained focus, now icy and calculating.
He bent down and picked up his wand, testing its weight with a sinister smile.
Ah, the power of a wand in his hand—magnificent.
The dragon's flames punched through the stone hand and advanced toward him, just as he flicked his wand with effortless fluidity, exuding a graceful, deadly rhythm.
With a bang, a thin line of water surged forward, swelling in an instant into a colossal water serpent. Stones and rubble hurtled through it, colliding with the flames, generating a massive cloud of steam.
With another flick, he pointed his wand upward.
William looked up through the fog, staring in shock at the cavern's ceiling.
One,
two,
ten stalactites snapped from the ceiling in unison, aligning into the shape of a sword.
The sword's blackened blade glimmered with dark magic as it plummeted downward, driving straight into the dragon's back.
The Ironbelly's scales, as strong as steel and layered with natural protective magic, yielded like butter to the enchanted sword, which pinned the creature to the ground with a piercing wail.
As the wizard aimed his wand higher, the sword withdrew from the dragon's back, hurtling towards the cavern's ceiling. It struck with a shattering impact, collapsing stone and ceiling alike, revealing a faint sliver of daylight.
The dark-robed wizard staggered slightly, exhausted by the sheer magic required for his conjuring.
William was speechless. His battle with Tywin now felt like a child's game in comparison to this display of raw power.
"Damn you! How dare you steal from gringotts?"
The aged goblin, who had been calling for security without any response, chose this moment to finally act. Enraged, he charged at the dark wizard.
William could only gape at the goblin's suicidal bravery. If the goblin hadn't been in such a hurry to rush to his death, William would have gladly pulled him back with a few choice words about restraint and self-preservation.
If you want to die so badly, fine, but don't drag others down with you!
The dark wizard barely glanced at the goblin, swishing his wand to release a crackling wave of energy that threw the goblin backward with enough force to embed his body into the stone wall, where he left a grotesque bloodstai like a squashed fly on a stone wall.
The whole event lasted barely ten seconds.
William and the others began to inch backward, desperately hoping to go unnoticed.
But of course, it was too late.
The dark wizard, who had paid them no mind before, finally took notice of them, his lip curling in amusement after the goblin's fatal blunder.
"Hogwarts students?" His voice dripped with cold amusement as he let out a deranged laugh.
"I wonder if Dumbledore will mourn your deaths," he sneered.
With a twisted smile, he raised his wand. He didn't aim to kill them outright. No, he wanted to toy with them.
"Imperius Curse!" The dark wizard's wand was directed at the dragon.
The dragon's eyes glazed over, and in seconds, it rose under the dark wizard's control. It lifted its head and fixed its gaze on William's group.
Wounded as it was, with blood dripping from the sword wound in its back, the dragon couldn't fly. But it could still breathe fire.
Under the wizard's control, the dragon opened its mouth, unleashing a blinding stream of flame several meters long.
William stepped forward, gripping his wand tightly.
The goblin who could control the dragon was dead, and while Roy, Iris, and the others were adults, they were practically defenseless against magic.
Hermione gripped her vinewood wand, but her combat effectiveness was half as good as Annie's, and Annie held her fake wand, each of them determined to stand beside William.
As for Boba Tea, he was already shivering in Leanna's arms.
William flicked his wand, pushing Hermione and Annie back.
A girl who could only cast the Levitation Charm, and a child whose toy wand spouted ink…two naive, hopelessly earnest children, with their only lethality coming from their cuteness.
With an upward swing of his wand, William conjured a wall of fire in front of him, standing alone to meet the oncoming inferno.
He was no match for the dragon or the dark wizard, but he would try. If he could hold out long enough, Gringotts' defenses and the Aurors might arrive.
"This ends here!"
His wand blazed with fire, forming a towering wall against the dragon's fire.
The dragon's breath hit the fiery barrier like a sledgehammer against a needle, but the wall held, shimmering like a flawless mirror, refusing to buckle.
From a distance, William stood alone, his hand outstretched as if holding the fire itself at bay, and the flames sprayed outward like drops of water.
The sight was spectacular.
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