This blood-red lightning came so suddenly that Link and the old wizards, even the Death Eaters, didn't have time to react.
In the next instant, a dazzling scarlet light exploded violently in front of everyone, striking with deadly precision. It blasted the German old wizards who were shielding Voldemort straight into charred husks.
Staring at those horrific burnt corpses, Lucius and the others shrank their necks and instinctively stepped back a few paces.
Voldemort, however, sneered and swung his wand again.
BOOM!
Another bolt of blood lightning crashed down.
This one was thinner than before, but its target was Link.
At that critical split second, Link and the two German old wizards beside him displayed a miraculous sense of coordination.
Almost at the same time, the three of them raised their wands. Instantly, three semi-transparent shields layered themselves above their heads.
At the same moment, Arkam and Yoyo, who had just been crushed tightly in Link's arms, broke free with all their strength, soared upward, and charged straight toward the blood lightning.
The blood lightning struck in a flash, smashing down onto the shields and erupting into a sky full of crimson light.
Its terrifying destructive power destroyed all three shields in an instant. Only when it finally hit Arkam and Yoyo did it dissipate.
Even so, the shockwave from the explosion hurled Link and the others brutally through the air.
As for Arkam and Yoyo, no one knew if they were dead or alive.
"Sh*t!"
Link wasn't sure about the others, but he himself could clearly feel at least three broken ribs. If he went to the hospital, they'd definitely call it a "serious injury."
If this had been in the Muggle world, Voldemort would've been criminally liable for assault!
Shaking his head to clear it, Link forced away those messy thoughts. Enduring the agony, he struggled to get up.
But before he could even sit up straight, the tip of a pitch-black wand pressed against his forehead.
"Ah! What a marvelous counterattack! I almost feel like applauding you, Link!" Voldemort sneered loudly. "Cruciatus!"
Link had never experienced such pain. He felt as if every bone in his body were on fire, his eyeballs spinning madly inside his skull. The torment cut straight into his very soul, it was so unbearable he wanted to kill himself on the spot.
But his body no longer obeyed him. Wracked with convulsions and twisted spasms from the agony, all he could do was vent his suffering with hysterical screams.
Thankfully, Voldemort withdrew his wand quickly. The torture ended abruptly.
Link collapsed to the ground like a puddle of mud, gasping heavily. Sweat had soaked his combat suit, even dripping down his brows into his eyes, but he didn't even have the strength to lift a hand and wipe it away.
Only now did he finally understand why Neville's parents lost their minds, why so many heroes and warriors under the Cruciatus Curse ended up worse than mud.
The pain it caused was absolute, far beyond any human's endurance.
Worst of all, the curse forced the victim to stay fully conscious the entire time.
Under long-term torture like that, anyone would go insane.
"Link, you should feel honored. Even though you've behaved so rudely, I'm still willing to give you one last chance." Voldemort looked down at Link with arrogance and disdain written all over his face.
"Answer me quickly, submission, or death?"
Lucius stepped forward at just the right moment to persuade, "Link, just submit to our master! What's so good about Dumbledore? Is he really worth you throwing your life away like this?"
Lucius's tone sounded utterly earnest and sorrowful.
But in truth, he only wished that Link would either join the Death Eaters or die. Only then would the shame festering in his heart finally disappear.
At those words, a mocking smile slowly crept onto Link's lips.
Voldemort, sincerely inviting him to become a Death Eater?
Maybe back when he had first crossed into this world, he would have believed it. But now, he considered it the funniest joke in the world.
He knew all too well how much Voldemort craved his blood. He had already experienced it firsthand two years ago.
For someone as selfish and self-serving as Voldemort, restraining that hunger just because Link was talented?
'Impossible!'
The invitation was just bait, the real goal was to turn him into a sustainable "blood bottle."
Once branded with the Dark Mark, his fate as Voldemort's lifelong slave would be sealed.
Thinking this, Link nodded and spoke in a weak voice, "You're right."
"Exactly!" Lucius exclaimed in delight. "I'm telling you, being a Death Eater has so many benefits! At the very least..."
But before he could finish, Voldemort suddenly swung his hand. A surge of magical force flung Lucius violently aside.
Then Voldemort's wand slammed down at Link again.
"Cruciatus!"
The unbearable pain returned, this time even more vicious than before. Link couldn't even maintain the most basic Occlumency.
"Lying again! You always love lying to me! Do you really think your pathetic tricks can fool me?" Voldemort shrieked with a twisted face. "I am, Voldemort!"
Link barely reacted. In fact, he didn't even hear what Voldemort was shouting anymore.
The collapse of Occlumency triggered a chain reaction inside him.
Losing his grip on rational thought and sliding into a half-mad state was only a minor issue.
The worst part was that the prison of the heart, where he had locked away Mike, was also crumbling.
Now, black mist leaked out of Mike's body, seeping into Link's heart-space, infecting it, and shoving him further toward madness.
Looking at the huge dark areas now corroding his heart-space, Link felt deep helplessness.
Because Mike, trapped there, had long since lost all will to resist. He just curled up in a corner, motionless, sunk in autistic silence. And he hadn't changed one bit to this day.
As for the black mist, it spread unconsciously, on its own.
Mike, in this state, wouldn't respond to anything Link did. Trying to persuade him was just wishful thinking.
And even if Mike calmed down, so what?
Outside, Voldemort was still waiting like a predator.
At this thought, Link suddenly froze.
"If it's already come to this… then why not go all out? Either way, the end is death!"
His gaze toward Mike hardened, and he said with grave determination, "Mike, I know you feel terrible, and you don't want to talk to me. But you need to know, out there, a powerful enemy is trying to kill me."
"I know you hate me. You don't care if I live or die. You don't even care about yourself."
"But I still choose to believe in you."
"From now on, I'll hand over control of my body to you. I hope you can defeat that demon."
"This is for you, for me, and for Emily, and for our family!"
With those words, Link didn't hesitate at all. He opened the prison of the heart.
At once, dense black mist burst out, flooding his heart-space completely.
And for the first time, Mike, who had been withdrawn all this time, lifted his head. His eyes looked at Link with a complicated expression.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
Link smiled at Mike, and sank into endless darkness.
———
Out on the wasteland, Voldemort's torture continued.
Under the relentless pain, Link's body was nearly unrecognizable.
His muscles and bones twisted grotesquely from his desperate thrashing. He had shrunk into himself, looking like some poisoned corpse locked in rigor mortis.
At this point, Voldemort's purpose had shifted, from forcing submission, to simply savoring the joy of tormenting him.
The more vicious his strikes, the more hideous his laughter became.
The Death Eaters had long since retreated far away. They knew very well that being too close to Voldemort in times like this was extremely dangerous.
As for the two surviving German wizards, Voldemort had them pinned to the ground with overwhelming force. Once Link's punishment was done, it would be their turn.
Finally, Link's horrifying struggles ceased.
No matter how many more times Voldemort cast the Cruciatus Curse, Link gave no response.
He just lay there like a soulless husk kissed by a Dementor, eyes blankly fixed on the sky, utterly lifeless.
Voldemort knew this state all too well.
With a contemptuous sneer, he leaned closer, preparing to draw blood.
Just as Link had suspected, Voldemort had never intended to truly recruit him. The whole point was to turn him into a blood mine, for his future plans, this would be immensely useful.
Since Link refused to submit, Voldemort might as well take all the blood at once.
Bringing back a half-vegetative Link as a "blood bank" was pointless anyway, such blood would be worthless.
"Pitiful Flamel family. After all your careful plotting… and in the end, nothing."
Voldemort chuckled as he stretched out his long fingernail toward Link's throat.
But at that instant, pure black curse-power erupted from Link's body, forming a spear that shot straight at Voldemort.
The strike was so fast and unexpected that even though Voldemort drew his wand and blocked in time, he was still blasted backward.
"You sly little insect!"
Voldemort roared. Before he had flown very far, he transformed into black mist again. Brandishing green light in his hand, he charged back toward Link.
But now, Link's form had changed completely.
A torrent of curse-power surged out of him, wrapping around his body, until he transformed into a monstrous beast, four hooves, four horns, over five meters long, with glowing red eyes, resembling a twisted qilin.
At first glance, its aura was even more imposing than Voldemort's.
The Killing Curse Voldemort fired dissolved instantly upon touching the black mist around Link, not stirring even the slightest ripple.
"ROAR!"
A monstrous bellow erupted from deep within Link. He opened his enormous fanged maw. The curse-power condensed, forming a violent energy sphere. Then, wrapped in black-red plasma, it shot out as a devastating energy beam toward Voldemort.
But such an attack could never hit Voldemort directly.
He instinctively froze mid-charge, then flashed aside, appearing tens of meters away.
BOOM!
The colossal beam grazed him and smashed into the Dark Mark in the clouds, obliterating the entire stormy sky.
The madness on Voldemort's face vanished, replaced with grim concentration.
Because he truly sensed danger from Link now.
This monster before him actually had the power to hurt him.
But that didn't mean Voldemort was helpless.
At worst, Link had gone from a teddy dog to a guard dog, capable of biting, yes, but nowhere near fatal to a grown man.
"Pathetic ant! You dare defy a god?!"
Voldemort's shadowy form floated high in the night sky. With the crescent moon behind him, he almost radiated divine majesty.
Then he unleashed power that indeed rivaled the gods.
"Die!"
As his wand crashed down, a blood-red thunder dragon materialized and roared toward Link.
Before it struck, Voldemort swung again, summoning another, even larger thunder dragon.
One...
Two...
Three.
In mere seconds, he had summoned more than ten of them.
The sky turned blood-red, even the moon shrouded in crimson mist.
The dragons rained down relentlessly, gouging a massive crater into the wasteland where Link stood.
His beast-form scrambled desperately, barely avoiding death thanks to his cursed limbs' rapid transformations.
But running could not last forever.
Finally, Voldemort's trap closed in, three thunder dragons in a triangular formation crashed down upon him.
"ROAR!"
Link's wretched scream rang out again.
Under the crushing bloodlight, the black mist shielding him melted away like summer ice, revealing his battered true body.
Just as he was about to be blasted into fragments, something astonishing happened.
A half-transparent flame suddenly bloomed from the center of his forehead.
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