"What Am I? What Are You?"
Harry remained standing there, watching as suddenly every single person fighting across the battlefield became completely frozen.
Or rather…
As if they had fallen asleep standing up.
Including Lucius' followers.
The only place where the battle was still continuing was inside the flaming tornado, which shook violently, making it clear the fight in there was still going on.
Maybe protected by the Fiendfyre itself, preventing Lucius' magic from getting inside and interrupting their fight too.
Harry barely spared Draco a glance, who was standing beside him.
And just like everyone else, he had also fallen asleep where he stood.
Harry turned his gaze toward Lucius, wearing an arrogant, carefree smile on his face while staring directly at him.
"Yes… I heard your story, Potter. The Boy Who Lived. Forced to live among muggles who despised him, then saved by a powerful witch who adopted and raised him. The genius kid who, together with his friends, revolutionized entertainment by creating those golems. And then you went even further and recreated magical enchantments that hadn't been seen in so long. Thanks to that, your allied companies now possess most of the galleons in England, just like Nicolas Flamel does in France," Lucius said in a loaded tone.
"I can't tell if you're congratulating me or what," Harry said calmly while crossing his arms.
At the same time, hidden beneath them, his fingers moved slightly toward Draco while a stream of red energy entered directly into his friend's head before spreading toward the others, moving unnoticed.
"I just think it's… funny. I know what you are, Harry Potter. I know what your so called mother turned you into… something… just like me," Lucius said in an almost amused, almost mocking tone.
"Haaa?" Harry said, unable to stop himself from making a face somewhere between confusion and disgust after seeing Lucius' partially deformed face. "What the hell are you talking about?" he couldn't help but ask.
Lucius did not answer immediately.
Instead, he slowly rolled up his sleeve, revealing that beneath his robe it was not only half his face that was deformed.
Because underneath the robe, reddish skin could be seen, still dripping blood.
But now it was clear the blood was literally coming out of his own skin, as if it were seeping from every single pore.
When Lucius ran a hand over his skin, the blood that began coming out ended up dripping onto the ground.
"I know what that woman turned you into. Or rather… that monster hiding behind a pretty mask. But in reality she's just like one of those things that swallowed me whole. The thing I had to devour from the inside just to get out. And I obtained this new power. You're the same, aren't you? One of that woman's experiments. You're just like me. I can feel your power. I can feel that incredibly powerful magic hidden beneath you. But I accepted this new form to obtain this kind of power. Why don't you show yourself as you truly are?" Lucius said while something moved beneath his skin.
Before it started pushing through the flesh itself, causing even more blood to pour out.
Small tentacles emerged from Lucius' arms, creating a truly horrifying and disgusting sight.
Harry, who normally would have had a thousand things to say about that disgusting appearance and about being compared to something like that, for the first time remained completely silent while staring at Lucius.
Understanding that Lucius genuinely seemed to believe his mother, Wanda, was the same kind of monster as Gargantos, the creature that had devoured him.
Harry even raised a finger as if trying to say something.
But no words came out of his mouth.
Only a deathly silence surrounded the cemetery.
Harry kept his mouth completely shut while staring directly at Lucius.
And Lucius kept staring back at Harry arrogantly, as if he had just uncovered all his secrets.
Harry calmly uncrossed his arms as if nothing had happened and softly touched the wand holstered against his wrist.
And without a single change in his expression, he pointed it at Lucius.
"Bombarda Maxima," Harry said with absolute simplicity, as if he were only using a powerful blasting spell to confirm whether the person standing in front of him was real or just a hallucination.
Lucius raised one hand and smacked the attack away with ease, sending it flying off to the side before it exploded into a massive reddish blast in the air.
Lucius' expression remained arrogant.
"Oh, sorry. Thought you were Carrow again. Old habits," Harry said after realizing he had reacted on instinct to the nonsense he had just heard.
But Lucius now had a crooked smile as he looked toward Harry's wand, as if that only confirmed things even more.
Harry noticed Lucius staring at his wand, and he also ended up looking at it himself.
And the wand was literally pulsing, with vivid pulses coming from its core.
But those pulses synchronized with the movements of the tentacles emerging from Lucius' flesh, making it clear to Lucius that Harry could be the same kind of abomination.
Lucius' expression made it obvious.
He was more than convinced of it.
Normally Harry did not care when people mocked him, especially when the crap they said made no sense at all.
But it was a completely different thing to mock his appearance.
What kind of teenager would feel good hearing some horrifying monster say he looked like him?
"You know what? Screw it. I don't care what you say. And I don't care if you're my friend's father," Harry said, genuinely not wanting to keep talking to Lucius anymore while waiting for the others to wake up from the illusion Lucius had trapped them in.
The moment Harry said that, his pupils glowed with an intense red color while strands of his hair also turned reddish.
And Chaos Magic completely surrounded him, making him float slightly above the ground.
And the look in his eyes turned completely serious.
Even more than when he had been competing against his friends in the tournament.
Or even more than when he got angry at that creature that attacked Fleur in the lake.
Harry was clearly far more affected by Lucius' mistaken words than any of the previous times.
"Hahahaha! Good… then I'll rip that skin mask off you with my own hands before that witch gets here. I'll devour your heart to complete this power before I stand before her," Lucius said, becoming more and more excited as he watched the Chaos Magic react to Harry.
Without noticing that his words about fake skin only made Harry's expression grow even colder and more irritated.