One week later, the Void Dragon flew across the corners of the globe. From London to Paris, from Paris to Berlin, from Berlin to Rome, and from Rome to Ireland. Muggles couldn't see its existence, but under its wings, countless people, in a state of chaos and madness, hurt one another. All of Europe descended into unprecedented war and insanity.
Finally, as night fell, the dragon returned to London.
On the streets, flames roared, and soldiers with machine guns frantically sprayed bullets into the crowds. A mother, dragging her son in a desperate escape, was riddled with bullets, but in their final moments, they embraced, smiling.
Groups of people jumped from tall buildings, holding hands and choosing death together.
Some foolish individuals, cowardly, tried to flee, but as they ran, they transformed into animals. They became small animals cooperating together.
There were wise ones sitting on the ground, gazing at the sky with blank expressions, as though they had already foreseen this day.
The dragon soared high in the sky and saw a group of people standing unmoving amidst the chaos.
These were a large group of fully armed wizards. They wore special glasses and stood in silence under Big Ben, looking up at the sky.
The leader of them was Auror Melos, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts.
He looked up and saw the majestic creature floating beneath the clouds, its massive wings occasionally illuminated by flashes of white and purple lightning, revealing its colorful scales. The wings beat, creating gusts of wind.
Its massive legs resembled demon claws with three joints, and behind them, a long, powerful tail twisted slowly, exuding a strange and ominous aura.
The air was filled with the void and the hollow mental field, like a black hole, draining away every ounce of hope and reliance from those nearby, stripping them of their morality and leaving them raw and real.
But the Ministry's wizards were elites, carefully chosen. Their minds had not been swayed by this void-like field.
After locking onto their target, Melos commanded the Aurors to raise their wands, and countless beams of light shot from the tips of their wands, weaving into enormous magical nets.
Some Aurors directly Disapparated and reappeared in the air. With a wave of their wands, giant iron chains appeared, stretching across the sky.
The dragon looked at their actions with disdain, its face cold. It casually sensed the rising power within it, flapping its wings once more and soaring straight up, as agile as a falcon.
The iron chains meant to bind it were snapped apart. The curses hitting its body were like bullets striking thick metal, bouncing off instantly. This was the Swedish Short-Snout's formidable defensive power.
The Aurors who tried to bind it were thrown high into the air by the massive force of its body. The fusion of dozens of fire dragons was not as simple as adding one plus one.
Before the Aurors could react, thick blue smoke filled the sky. It was the toxic breath of the Australian Opaleye.
With each breath, several Aurors clutched their throats and collapsed to the ground.
The others immediately raised their wands above their heads, and each one had a fishbowl-like enchantment placed over their heads. Though comical, it was effective.
After releasing its toxic gas, the dragon vanished from the sky. This was the Welsh Green's unique ability to vanish into the air.
It couldn't be seen by the naked eye, but the air buzzed with a sense of excitement and anticipation. The dragon was awaiting, eagerly anticipating a higher form of pleasure.
Under this mental field, the pulses and heartbeats of everyone in the crowd surged in rhythm with its emotions.
The Aurors exchanged glances and nodded silently. Back to back, they slowly moved forward, trying to lock onto the dragon's location. But after just a few steps, the environment of London twisted, and a mental illusion replaced reality.
Cars racing down the street transformed into black, burning skeletal warhorses, with people riding them like ghosts. Countless bats and crows flew overhead, while rats and cockroaches crawled across the ground.
The Aurors froze. This level of illusionary magic was unheard of.
Melos, the Auror leader, trembled and stood still, as if rooted to the spot.
He saw a little girl standing in the middle of the street, surrounded by a swarm of bats. The girl was dressed in a white dress, looking pure and innocent.
It was his late daughter.
Melos's calm expression turned pale. He began running frantically, shouting, "Elena!"
He rushed to the girl and hugged her tightly.
The warmth of her touch and breath reminded him of this warm reality.
He trembled as he cupped her face, saying, "Elena, Elena…"
The little girl gently hugged him back and whispered, "The Void... has come."
As the words left her mouth, countless rats and cockroaches emerged from the girl's eyes, nose, and mouth, devouring her completely in the blink of an eye.
Witnessing this, Melos screamed and clutched his head in despair, while behind him, the other Aurors experienced their own personal horrors and illusions.
In an instant, the team hunting the dragon fell into deep despair.
The dragon appeared at the top of a street, its enormous eyes as large as billboards, gazing down at the chaotic world below. It laughed wildly.
This was its innate ability. It effortlessly reached the deepest parts of the human mind. It easily saw through the unreality of this crude world.
It took off again, then landed and transformed.
Its body shrank, becoming smaller and smaller.
Finally, it stopped atop Big Ben, transforming into the form of Hoffa from the beginning—no golden eyes, no gray hair. His hair and eyes were black, and the wind caused his clothes to flutter.
He stood at the top of Big Ben, looking down joyfully.
"Let everything disappear, let it all vanish."
The young man on the tower spoke softly. His black eyes gleamed with a light as deep as a black hole, as if it could absorb all the light in the world.
At this moment, he stood above reality, trampling it beneath his feet, mercilessly ravaging and spewing out his resentment and dissatisfaction with the world. He was an arrogant, invincible emperor, mad and reckless.
But just then, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, and a thunderbird descended to the ground. It transformed into human form, and another Hoffa landed in front of the young man, who looked exactly like him.
The other figure did not seem the least bit surprised, not even slightly shocked. He looked at the exploding sparks on the ground, the frantic shadows of people, and the grief-stricken Aurors, then tilted his head and laughed, raising his chin.
"You see, in the end, people are always ruled by their subconscious, no matter how beautifully they construct their outward appearances."
Hoffa glanced down, then shifted his gaze back to the Void Dragon, firmly locking eyes with it, saying, "I'm here to stop you."
The Void Dragon glanced at Hoffa and shook its head. "What do you plan to stop me with? Your clumsy and pale words? Or your muscles that weigh less than a hundred kilograms? Do you think you can shake the Void?"
"Yes, I cannot shake the Void, but I can shake you."
The other Hoffa sneered. "Nonsense."
Hoffa calmly replied, "You are not the true Void."
The other Hoffa looked at him disdainfully. "Say that again."
Hoffa looked at him with a sympathetic expression.
"I said, you're not the true Void. The real Void does not interfere with this world; it only watches in silence, coldly. But you, you are just a projection of my inner violence and madness. A monster born from my hollow heart, trying to find a sense of existence in this world."
The black-eyed, black-haired boy suddenly turned his head, glaring at Hoffa, his face turning pale and green. He grinned, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, as if threatening him.
"Come back," Hoffa extended his hand. "Come back to me. Don't waste energy in vain."
The Void Dragon, staring incredulously at Hoffa's face, said, "Are you truly this stupid, or just pretending? You've been stuck inside a vacillating, headless fly for years. Finally, you gained the power to dominate yourself, and now you foolishly want me to come back?"
"But that is still part of me," Hoffa said. "Don't make me take action against you."
The Void Dragon laughed, as though hearing a great joke. "Take action? Do you really think you stand a chance against me?"
Hoffa did not move, simply keeping his hand outstretched.
Looking at that hand, the Void Dragon's expression gradually turned cold. "Do you know what?"
"What?"
"I despise this about myself—the boundless tolerance I have for everyone, even myself. You compromise time and time again, dragging yourself back to the starting point, refusing to answer the call of loneliness."
As it spoke, it stood up from the high Big Ben.
"But I really hate those who never change."
With that, its body quickly expanded, its arms turning into thick dragon claws, and giant wings unfolded from its back. Maintaining this half-dragon form, it disappeared into the air.
Hoffa squinted. That was the Welsh Green Dragon's ability to vanish.
In the next second, the half-dragon figure appeared in front of Hoffa, swinging its arm down with tremendous force. Hoffa raised his own arm to block the attack from the other self.
In the clash, the black-eyed Hoffa looked at the golden-eyed Hoffa, coldly saying, "Come on, stop me. If you want this world to return to normal, kill me!"
With that, he exerted pressure with his arm.
Without hesitation, Hoffa raised his right arm, and a hemispherical shield immediately sprang from his left arm, enveloping his body.
The claws and shield collided, causing the ground to crack.
The immense force from the upper body caused fluid dynamics to make Hoffa taste blood in his throat, coughing up a pool of blood. His left forearm bent instantly.
The next moment, the magical shield shattered under the immense force. He was forced through the top of Big Ben, shot into the air like a cannonball.
Boom!!
He was thrown back thirty meters, crashing into a pile of boxes, buried under a heap of rubble and metal fragments.
The half-dragon boy opened his mouth, and the oxygen in the air was sucked away, a light glowing deep in his throat, nearly as bright as the sun's surface. His chest swelled high.
Dragon's breath was about to erupt!
At that moment, a hand suddenly shot out from the rubble, forming a fist.
"Crushing Grasp!!"
With a loud crack, enormous stone hands reached up from the ground, seizing the fire-breathing creature's neck, forcing its fiery breath to change direction, shooting it towards the sky.
Then, layers of stone hands pressed down on the creature.
Hoffa's wings sprouted from his back as he leaped out of the pile of rubble. His left arm bent outward at a thirty-degree angle. His right hand gripped his left arm's broken bone, biting his lip as he forcefully twisted it back into place. With his long-term injuries, he easily corrected the bone.
In an activated state, magical power turned into life, and his cells rapidly split. His severed arm healed quickly. The wings disappeared, and Hoffa tested his arm before rapidly retreating.
The Void Dragon roared, and the temperature in the air rose again. Everything flammable around it caught fire, and the stone hands melted into glowing lava, dripping off its body.
Amidst the thick smoke, it broke free from its restraints, spreading its wings and flying high into the sky. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a massive dragon, unlike any fire dragon before. It had a massive body, strong front limbs, and a body that shimmered with a radiant glow, flowing with an inexplicable, shifting color.
"Roar!!"
With a roar, the giant dragon crushed Big Ben beneath its feet.
But just as the dragon's foot was about to land, a flash of lightning zipped through the air, narrowly avoiding the hundreds of tons of impact.
The dragon didn't hesitate. Its throat swelled, and it opened its mouth, releasing a blast of scorching blue flame that instantly turned the ground Hoffa stood on into a sea of fire.
The lightning was swallowed by the flames, but in the blink of an eye, the sky darkened, thunder cracked, and torrential rain began to pour down.
Beneath the dark clouds, a massive bird shadow soared into the sky, its wingspan over twenty meters, charging straight into the dragon's breath.
In an instant, the two thousand meters between them was crossed. Hoffa, engulfed in lightning, collided heavily with the other self's body.
In the deep blue sky, like a curtain, lightning flashed, revealing a strange and magnificent scene in the skies above London. A massive thunderbird with wings spread wide seized the dragon's head, and they tumbled through the clouds. The thunderbird was smaller than the dragon's head, but the soul energy it contained was on par with the dragon's.
The sharp talons of the thunderbird gripped the dragon's eyes, but it felt like scraping against steel, sparks flying from the contact.
The dragon smiled cruelly and swung a claw. The unique powers of the Swedish short-nosed dragon and the Hungarian tree hornet sent Hoffa flying over three hundred meters, cutting through several layers of clouds.
The dragon pursued, and during the descent, the thunderbird opened its sharp beak, releasing a surge of intense lightning that struck the approaching dragon.
The dragon's body stiffened under the powerful electric charge, but it quickly recovered. Not only that, but its body changed once more, with two enormous wings stretching out from its back.
The scales covering its body transformed into feathers—Hoffa's own human transformation technique.
This shape-shifting ability left Hoffa stunned.
Cross-species transformation was something unheard of.
Then, a massive unknown creature shot out from the dark clouds at a terrifying speed. It was bathed in lightning, moving nearly at the speed of sound—twice as fast as Hoffa.
Hoffa's heart raced! He had never fought against his other self, and he had no idea that his instincts could be this powerful. Desperately, he flapped his wings, trying to carry the creature over the sea, away from the innocent civilians of London.
However, only two seconds passed.
The monster's side wings came around again, gripping Hoffa tightly.
"With this pitiful transformation? You think you can defeat me?" the dragon roared. "Without me, what talent do you have?"
With that, it endured the crackling electricity and heated its entire body to a fiery red state—just like the high temperature of the Chinese fireball. In that extreme heat, Hoffa's feathers burned to a crimson color.
"You didn't die last time when you jumped into the lake, and now you dare to come after me?"
"I didn't come to defeat you."
The thunderbird's bones were crushed with a series of snapping sounds, and it transformed into a half-man, half-bird form, struggling to say, "I came to negotiate terms."
"Negotiate terms? What is there to negotiate?" The dragon roared. "You die, I live. I live, you die."
With that, it clenched its massive claw into a fist, and with a cracking sound, hurled Hoffa down like a discus thrower.
Boom!!
The thunderbird was wrapped in the monster's overwhelming force, soaring through over a thousand meters of sky before crashing heavily into the ground.
As rubble flew through the air, it smashed through London Bridge, plummeting into the Thames River, sending massive waves splashing high into the air.
The monster laughed maniacally, returning to its dragon form, and opened its mouth as if in celebration, releasing a torrent of flames. In an instant, the entire sky was set ablaze. The dark clouds turned into scalding steam, and everything became obscured, leaving only the laughter echoing in the sky.
Underwater.
Hoffa returned to his human form, bubbles rising around him, the muffled sound of water and the booming of explosions filling his ears. Before he could even catch his breath, broken rocks and steel beams came crashing down like an avalanche. Hoffa widened his eyes and kicked off the riverbed, narrowly avoiding the crushing blow.
The boulders slammed into the riverbed, sending massive clouds of sand into the air. It took a while for everything to settle. In the murky river, Hoffa pushed off the ground and soared upwards.
Splash!
He broke through the surface of the water and looked up.
With a thunderous roar, the dragon was breathing fire in the sky, turning the entire sky a fiery red.
At that moment, a massive electromagnetic interference flashed before Hoffa's eyes, like a solar flare eruption. Countless high-energy particles collided with the atmosphere, creating a dazzling aurora over London. The energy from the cloud-covered entity radiated upwards into the sky and down to the ground, releasing incredible and unknown power.
The sky was awash in bizarre, flowing colors, like something straight out of Edvard Munch's The Scream.
Amid the wild colors, embers floated like apocalyptic omens, drifting through every corner of London.
(End of Chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09