Inside the Forbidden Forest, the great fire started by Link, rather than showing any signs of extinguishing as time passed, instead became more and more intense.
Under the illumination of the firelight, Riddle, standing at the very center of the clearing, was laughing maniacally.
As for Emily not far away, she was staring in despair toward the direction where Link had fallen, with hoarse murmurs coming from her mouth that no one could clearly hear.
At first, she was still trying to call out Link's name, hoping that Link could defeat the powerful enemy. But now, she had already fallen into despair. After all, the battle had progressed to this stage, and there was almost no suspense left.
Riddle clearly thought the same. He finally stopped his maniacal laughter with difficulty, then took a few steps in the direction where Link was lying, and slowly said, "Link, oh Link, see, I was right, wasn't I? In this world, only strength is the one and only truth! The weak, even their breathing is a mistake!"
Riddle tilted his head again and said mockingly, "Didn't you say before something like exceptional wisdom is humanity's greatest treasure? Then show it to me! Quick, use your clever little brain to think, think, think of a countermeasure!"
Riddle's voice echoed across the clearing, even the flames shooting into the sky seemed affected, trembling violently a few times.
Lying on a patch of scorched earth, Link did not respond. He only barely lifted his head and looked toward Yoyo on his chest.
Seeing this, Riddle shook his head with a bit of self-mockery and said, "Ha! I really must be a fool to argue with a fool like you. Alright, since you won't answer, I should get ready to eat."
With that, Riddle took steps again toward Link.
At the same time, a faint black mist slowly began to seep from his body, twisting around him continuously, as if it too was anticipating the upcoming feast.
But soon, that black mist retracted again, and Riddle's steps also halted.
Because Link stood up again.
At this moment, Link was exactly as he imagined, his entire front was already scorched black. The high-end school robe specially tailored at Transcendence Tailor had now turned into tattered strips, hanging in pieces on Link's body. The utility belt had long since snapped, and the exploded wounds had now, with time, oozed fresh blood again, adding dark red patches to his charred body.
Yet Link's gaze remained clear and firm.
"Gyaa!"
Yoyo also struggled to stand on Link's shoulder.
This one person and one bat, just like this, stared firmly at Riddle.
"You're still going to persist? But what's the point?"
Riddle shook his head and said with a bit of regret, "Why not obediently let me eat you? Look, you're already burnt. If you keep this up, you'll taste even worse."
Listening to Riddle's words, Link's expression still didn't change one bit.
This was all thanks to Occlumency. Only by truly using it did Link realize how useful Occlumency was. It not only blocked out the opponent's trash talk but even helped block pain.
In fact, if not for Occlumency, forget standing, Link probably wouldn't even be able to stay conscious. After all, the human body's self-protection mechanism isn't something that willpower alone can overcome.
After giving a little mental praise to Occlumency, Link looked again at Yoyo.
"Are you ready?" He said this, and Yoyo shivered slightly in response, giving a firm answer.
"Then, let's go!"
As soon as Link finished speaking, Yoyo turned into a blur and vanished into the shadows cast by the firelight.
Link himself raised his wand.
"Incendio!"
Whoosh!
A massive fireball nearly one meter in diameter shot out, scraping the air with a terrifying whooshing sound.
Yet even so, this advanced fire spell still had the same flaws, too slow and too large a target.
Any normal wizard could preemptively detonate it.
Sure enough, before the giant fireball had even traveled ten meters, a ghostly blue beam shot straight toward it.
'Quickly charge up! Vaporize!'
A deep-blue core floated up from within the fireball. In the next moment, the fireball expanded dramatically and then contracted suddenly, ultimately exploding into a sky of scalding steam.
"Sigh! I even said before that you were just as smart as me. So why are you doing such foolish things now? That weird dark magic from before, and now this clever trick. You didn't actually think I'd fall for the same move twice, did you?" Riddle said impatiently. He really was getting annoyed now.
You see, Link had already used this trick against him during a previous real-combat public class. Tricks like this, at best, can only catch someone off guard once.
Now, when Riddle already understood the principle behind it, Link had the nerve to try the same old move again.
This made him seriously doubt Link's intelligence. But doubt aside, appropriate countermeasures were still necessary.
This time, Riddle didn't even use his wand. He just lightly raised a finger, and a fierce gust of wind swept across the clearing, forcibly blowing all the steam into the Forbidden Forest.
Once the white mist faded, Link's figure became visible again. He had already run to a spot less than 50 meters away from Riddle.
Riddle's face revealed a "just as expected" expression and pointed his wand toward Link.
In his eyes, Link now looked like a moth throwing itself into the flames. Foolish and weak.
But... even though all the steam meant to conceal his approach had been blown away, why wasn't Link dodging, and instead was still charging straight at him?
A sliver of doubt rose in Riddle's heart, but the tip of his wand still flashed green light.
To preserve the 'food' intact, he prepared to use a more advanced spell to execute Link.
But just as the green light appeared, a black shadow whooshed through the air and knocked the wand from Riddle's hand.
'It's that bat!'
Riddle immediately made the judgment. He stretched out his arm like a rubber man from a comic and reached for the wand that had been knocked away.
Since he had no physical body and relied on soul energy to hold the wand, this kind of "disarm" trick meant almost nothing to him.
Meanwhile, Link had already raised his wand.
"Glacius!"
A white energy orb appeared instantly.
Only, what surprised Riddle was the target of the energy orb wasn't him, but the sky.
His gaze followed the energy orb upward until he saw the thick cloud layer gathering not far above him.
Crack~
The energy orb exploded within the clouds, releasing dense cold air.
Compared to the cloud layer, the orb was basically nothing. But that small explosion caused massive changes in the entire cloud layer.
Rumble~ Rumble~ Rumble~
Deafening thunder boomed from within the clouds.
Hearing this, Riddle's expression changed drastically, while Link let out a breath of relief.
'The plan succeeded!'
Though the steam he created had been blown away, the forest surrounding the clearing was still ablaze, forcing that same steam to quickly gather again over the clearing.
Water vapor and floating ash particles clashed violently under the effects of hot and cold air, generating the first electric currents. Link's ice spell added ice crystals, and thus, the thunderclouds were born.
By now, the battlefield below had already turned into dry, scorched earth due to earlier fighting, and the humidity in the air had suddenly surged, unevenly distributed due to the steam.
This was practically… a perfect environment for heat lightning to form.
Of course, that alone wasn't enough.
"Transfigure!" Under Riddle's gaze, Link cast another spell.
This time, the target was beneath his own feet.
Buzz!
A silver-white metal spear quickly formed beneath Riddle's feet, piercing through his ethereal body and stabbing straight into the thundercloud above.
Next, the thunder roared. A surge of lightning coursed down the spear into Riddle's body.
In an instant, electricity surged. Riddle was bathed in blue-white lightning, his entire figure flickering with instability.
"Ahhh!"
A sharp, shrill scream came from Riddle's mouth. The thick black mist in his body spilled out in large volumes, trying to resist this heavenly force.
Link laughed, he laughed heartily. Because clearly, the lightning had suppressed and harmed Riddle's soul form.
And from his reaction, lightning seemed to have strong restraining power against him.
This reminded Link of his past life's tales of thunder magic subduing ghosts. Of course, this was probably just his own wild imagination.
He didn't believe such ideas would exist in a purely Western fantasy world.
After calming his grin, Link raised his wand again.
Seeing this, Riddle's face changed, and his pupils flickered with green light.
"Basilisk! Come save me!" Riddle cried out in Parseltongue hysterically.
Upon hearing this, the basilisk Arkam, coiled like a snake cake in the distance, also had green light flash in its eyes.
It slowly uncoiled, grabbed Emily with its tail, and slithered toward the lightning-filled battlefield.
But halfway there, the green light in its eyes suddenly flickered, and at that moment, a hint of pain appeared on its terrifying face.
The reason was simply because Link had just turned his head and looked at it.
Seeing this, Link smiled with relief. Arkam would stop just from a glance meant it hadn't forgotten him. That was the best news he could ask for.
Meanwhile, Riddle's expression was anything but good-looking.
He knew that with two Parselmouths present, there was a chance the basilisk would become confused.
Earlier, the reason he chose to duel Link one-on-one wasn't just his arrogance, he also feared the basilisk's deep bond with Link would lead to it helping the wrong side.
Now that he had no choice but to call it, the expected problem really happened.
Riddle gritted his teeth. A surge of thick black mist exploded from his body, temporarily overpowering the lightning and giving him back some mobility.
But by now, Link's spell was fully charged.
A massive cursed energy had formed at the tip of Link's wand, mimicking the casting pattern of Sectumsempra.
It was invisible and colorless, yet the overwhelming power it contained caused the air around it to slightly distort.
"Didn't you say you wanted to eat? Then taste this!" Link said so.
The cursed energy in his hand shot out, slamming hard into Riddle's body, now completely wrapped in black mist.
Buzz~
The invisible cursed power exploded, instantly clearing Riddle's misty body and revealing the diary hidden at its core.
"So you were hiding there!" Link roared, waving his wand again.
But no matter what spells he cast, the ancient diary continued to float steadily in midair.
Eventually, the thunderclouds in the sky slowly dispersed. The massive cursed power was exhausted. Link gradually fell into despair.
Riddle's true body, the diary, was a Horcrux created by Voldemort through cruel dark rituals.
Such Horcruxes, as far as known, could only be destroyed by Avada Kedavra or basilisk venom.
And those two things, Link currently had neither.
The black mist reappeared. It slowly drifted from the diary and reformed Riddle's shape, wrapping around him again.
"Well done, Link!" Riddle said while observing his body.
Compared to before, his figure had now become semi-transparent. Clearly, Link's barrage of attacks had drained most of his soul energy.
Seeing this, Link only gave a bitter smile. His enemy wasn't doing well, but he himself was in even worse shape.
His magical energy was almost completely drained from the prolonged fight.
On top of that, the effect of Blood of Boreas was fading. Plus, he had been seriously injured earlier.
Link at this point could practically be described as a burnt-out candle.
As for Yoyo, it had been corroded by the black mist when it knocked away Riddle's wand. Now, its condition was even worse than Link's.
Riddle noticed this too. Holding Lockhart's wand, he said, "I'm starting to believe your words now. A bit of intelligence might indeed compensate for your weakness in strength. But clearly, the boost it gave you wasn't enough."
"Still, you can be proud. After all, in the end, you managed to truly enrage me. But as the price, I'll let you experience what true despair feels like."
Saying that, Riddle slowly pointed his wand toward the nearby Emily.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The ominous green light tore through the night, leaving a deep imprint on Link's retina.
"Ha!" Link roared and stood up. Every cell in his body was howling, urging him to give up.
But Link ignored it all, and ran toward the destination of that green light.
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