The Final Trial P9
As the labyrinth received so much damage, it began to shake violently. Its walls trembled hard while enormous masses of ferns started stretching outward. Several walls began moving forcefully, as if the labyrinth, realizing it could no longer fully heal the damage it had taken, had changed and instead was now trying to regenerate by using walls from unnecessary areas to rebuild what had been destroyed.
Many of the corridors began shifting places, as if the labyrinth itself was reconstructing.
Fleur, Victor, and Marton, who had been facing each other, briefly stopped when they saw the enormous golden hand rising above the labyrinth with expressions of surprise. When those three powers collided, they felt the ground shake beneath them while the walls around them immediately began moving. A new wall formed behind them, or rather, it seemed to be advancing like enormous serpents made of ferns heading toward the clash of those three monsters.
The corridor behind Marton, the one leading toward the cup, suddenly closed shut as new corridors opened along the sides.
But Marton did not seem to really care about that as he turned his gaze back toward the two wizards in front of him.
Fleur and Victor raised their wands almost at the exact same time. Their temporary alliance against Marton was already implied; Marton, who truly did not seem to be competing like the other champions, but instead appeared to be planning something else. Something that seemed to involve controlling Victor.
"Why are you doing this, Marton? I don't think I ever hurt you enough for you to attack me like this," Victor said, unable to bear the intrigue of why one of his own companions was attacking him like this with one of the worst dark spells. One of the three Unforgivable Curses, no less.
Marton had a serious expression, but for a moment it almost broke apart as if he was genuinely holding back the urge to cry, which looked rather strange coming from someone as tall and broad as Marton.
"I'm sorry, Victor. I actually like you a lot, you know? The photograph from the third trial was the one I asked to take with you during the interview. The one you signed," he said with a somewhat pained tone before putting on a serious face again. "But my family depends on this. Please forgive me," he said before raising his wand toward Victor.
But Fleur cast a spell even faster than Marton.
"Expelliarmus!"
The spell slammed directly into Marton's chest, but he only took a single step backward as if he had merely been lightly pushed. Though a pained expression briefly appeared on his face upon feeling the impact.
He looked toward Fleur and showed an annoyed expression before raising his wand and forcefully firing a spell toward her.
"Protego!" Fleur said.
Marton's spell slammed into it a second later, creating an explosion without breaking Fleur's defense. But she instantly launched another charm.
"Everte Statum!"
She fired another spell which Marton once again took head on. In fact, he did not even seem to have any intention of dodging it. Like the previous ones, it struck him directly, tearing a cry of pain from him, but it truly did not seem to cause much damage.
Fleur was clearly getting irritated seeing that her spells were not hurting him at all.
And she was not the only one.
Victor was also casting dark magic spells, the kind made to easily harm wizards, but every single one that struck Marton simply seemed to hit him and burn his skin for a moment before he began recovering with ease, as if he was not receiving any real damage.
It was like trying to tear down a wall using spells.
"Incarcerous!" Marton immediately cast.
And two magical ropes flew toward Fleur and Victor trying to trap them, but both quickly moved to the sides to dodge.
But Marton turned his wand toward the ground while muttering something before finally casting:
"Serpensortia!"
And a hole formed beneath him as a huge amount of snakes began pouring out, slithering toward Fleur and Victor.
Fleur made a completely disgusted face and raised her wand above her head, about to cast a spell, but Marton, knowing she was genuinely annoying with her chained enchantments, did not hesitate to attack.
"Diffindo!"
Fleur canceled her spell and a shield appeared in front of her. Marton kept firing spells at her without stopping.
"Repulso! Diffindo! Reducto!"
Victor, surrounded by snakes, quickly cast:
"Expulso!"
And created an explosion with himself at the center, sending the snakes flying away. He raised his wand to attack Marton, but Marton stopped for a moment before casting his next spell toward Fleur and instantly moved his hand toward Victor.
"Imperio!"
Victor, who had been about to attack, lowered his wand to defend himself while Fleur dropped her shield and tried to act immediately. But as she did, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her calf, looking downward and noticing one of the snakes biting her.
But she endured the pain for a moment.
"Depulso!" she shouted while aiming toward Victor.
The spell struck him and pushed him away.
At the same time Fleur lowered her wand, striking the snake to force it to release her calf, then stood back up to see if Victor was alright.
But the moment she raised her head, a spell flew toward her at full speed from Victor's side.
"Glacius!" she heard while seeing the spell moments away from hitting her.
"Fumos Duo!" she shouted instantly.
A screen of dark red smoke rose up and the sound of her jumping to the side could be heard as she dodged, hiding herself inside the mist.
Meanwhile Victor stood back up from the ground after being pushed away, but now his face had no emotions, like a puppet.
Marton watched him silently and let out a faint smile after seeing his spell had landed before turning toward Fleur's red smoke.
"Vento!" he shouted.
And whirlwinds burst out from his wand, pushing the smoke apart.
While Victor raised his wand to attack Fleur.
But the moment the smoke cleared, they saw a corridor that had not been there before, one that had most likely formed because of the labyrinth's movement. While drops of blood could be seen in that direction. Fleur had probably escaped after seeing Victor had been controlled.
Marton looked at the snake lying off to the side after Fleur's attack and smiled faintly.
"She won't run very far poisoned. Snake venom acts very quickly. Even so, it'll be better if we catch her so she doesn't interrupt the tournament's champion," he said while glancing toward Victor for a moment, who nodded as if receiving orders from his master.
…
"Tsk." Fleur clicked her tongue while quickening her pace before stopping at a corner between the ferns. She paused to look at her calf for a moment, where she could see the snake's bite marks and the blood that seemed to be slowing down. But it was obvious it was because of the snake venom, which caused the blood to clot very quickly, something that was also extremely dangerous.
"A snake… I can already see that idiot villain's face mocking me over this," Fleur said, not seeming too worried.
After all, the others had potions that could heal these kinds of things easily, so she did not feel like she was in mortal danger at the moment, at least. While imagining Harry's mocking face over her getting bitten by a snake after fighting him. Though she knew very well that idiot had not been fighting seriously. Not after seeing how that giant hand had been stopped by that familiar red magic.
Fleur looked at her wand for a moment, debating whether she should just surrender already and inform the organizers about Marton. Though of course that seemed like the least favorite option for her pride.
But knowing both her cousin and Harry would probably get angry after finding out she was poisoned and had not received emergency care. And especially Victor, who was being controlled by Marton. Though that was not really her problem. After all, he was still a champion just like her.
"Aah… whatever. I still made it pretty far thanks to Hermione," Fleur said while smiling for a moment, especially remembering her little confrontation with Harry. And with that alone she already felt like she had won everything.
And above all, Marton probably was not expecting her to surrender and reveal that he was controlling Victor with the Imperius Curse, which would ruin whatever plan he had going on.
Fleur raised her wand, about to fire sparks into the sky to signal her surrender. But before she could do it, she suddenly heard the sound of something chewing on something really hard.
So instinctively she lowered her gaze while pointing her wand toward where the sound was coming from.
And her eyes widened in surprise.
A tail covered in red scales was beneath the ferns along the labyrinth wall, swaying softly. And she could easily recognize who it belonged to.
"Red," Fleur said, genuinely happy to see him right now.
Red heard someone call his name and stopped what he was doing, poking his head out between the ferns while tilting it from side to side, the labyrinth's roots still hanging from his mouth as he chewed them like a snack. Even though he did not actually need food.
When Fleur saw Red's silly face, she immediately jumped toward him and gave him a genuinely happy hug, while Red wore a confused expression. But he did not reject her like he normally would with any human trying to touch him, instead letting her hug him because Fleur seemed to carry Harry's scent on her.
Red sniffed her for a moment and, as if he had suddenly understood something, widened his eyes and stared directly at Fleur.
Right at that moment Marton and Victor emerged from a corridor, finding Fleur. And without even hesitating for a single second, Marton raised his wand to attack.
"Imperio!" he shouted instantly.
The moment Fleur heard the spell, her eyes widened as she remembered she was being followed, something she had forgotten because of how happy she was to find Red.
But Red, who was there, immediately opened his mouth and a small red fireball shot out at tremendous speed, colliding with the spell effortlessly. It continued forward and struck Marton in the shoulder, sending him flying backward in an explosion.
"Grrrrr." Red suddenly nodded out of nowhere as if he had just received an order and growled while stepping forward, protectively positioning himself in front of Fleur like a guardian protecting his queen.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the labyrinth, the walls kept trying to regenerate, but when they failed, others began moving in order to recreate the labyrinth again.
Harry reformed his body from the red mist while staring in one direction with a completely serious face. And he murmured something that seemed to travel through the wind in that direction before letting out a faint smile, then looked around again.
The giant hand cut in half turned back into golden liquid while Draco was lifted out of the pit where he had been earlier by a floor of gold raising him upward, while Luciel stood nearby with a serious expression.
Harry noticed both Draco and Luciel looked pretty pale from overusing magic. But instead of defeating them while taking advantage of their weakened magical state, he looked around for a moment at the disaster of the burned ground, the labyrinth trying to restructure itself, and the magic floating through the air.
"Well… I think we may have exaggerated a little, don't you think?" he said with a small amused smile.
But Draco and Luciel did not respond, instead preparing themselves to keep fighting despite being quite exhausted, ready for the second round.
"You know… if you act like that, you make me look like the villain, you know?" Harry said for a moment, since he was not nearly as exhausted as they were while they looked like heroes about to face the Demon King.
"Didn't you tell Fleur you were a villain? Comes with the title," Luciel added for a moment with a faint smile. "Besides, ever since we were young, her cousin was her hero, so… you know how this goes," Luciel added calmly.
"I just want to beat you so I can rub it in your face after I win," Draco said calmly, which honestly sounded exactly like Draco.
Harry slightly tilted his head to the side and also raised his wand, ready to continue the show.
"Then don't complain later that I took advantage of your weakness. After all, it's two against one," Harry added as the three of them prepared to continue fighting.
But before the three of them could begin, the sound of something metallic hitting the ground echoed for a moment, causing them to turn toward the noise, and they saw that the wall moving to recreate the labyrinth's paths was dragging beneath it what appeared to be the Champion's Cup.
And upon seeing it, the three of them seemed to remember what this trial was actually about.
"Ah…" the three of them said at the exact same time, as if only now remembering this was still supposed to be a trial.