Blood and Fire - Part 2
Luciel stared at the black smoke as it hid itself beneath the earth again, returning to Armand's shadow as if it were completely under his control.
And his gaze became more serious, almost oppressive, as a thought crossed his mind.
"How many?" Luciel asked.
Armand needed no more words to understand what he meant.
"What? Does it make you uncomfortable realizing you're not as special as you thought?" Armand asked mockingly. "You were just one of the failures. One of the many I had before perfecting my research. But by far, you survived the longest. I must say, I admire your strong mentality. Many of the failures, after being thrown away, couldn't endure it and never reached adolescence. Was it because of her memory? The love she… had for you was genuinely deep. That's why I chose her. I knew she would make a wonderful mother…" Armand said calmly.
"Don't talk about her!" Luciel shouted for the first time, showing uncontrollable fury across his serious face. "You don't even have the right to say her name or speak a single sentence about her," Luciel added while his eyes, burning with complete fury, locked onto him.
Armand seemed to enjoy seeing his son lose control while carefully observing him.
"Now you're full of rage. But after all, the one responsible for her death is still you. Only you, Luciel. All you had to do was keep pretending we were a happy family. You just had to stay quietly in your corner and be my cover. All the problems you caused me because of her death… you only had to be a good son."
The moment Armand finished saying this, Luciel, no longer able to contain his anger, launched himself toward him in a frenzy at a speed difficult to follow with the naked eye, leaving behind only a golden flash from his armor rushing toward Armand.
Who showed a confident smile.
This time Armand did not even need to raise his wand.
Suddenly, a black mass of mist and dark particles burst through the ground, attacking Luciel at the same speed.
Luciel jumped to the side to dodge it, but that thing, which could not even be properly described as a creature, had already marked Luciel as its enemy and lunged toward him again while the ground beneath it shattered apart from the force of its movement alone.
A massive destructive hunger slammed directly into Luciel.
He instantly raised his sword and cast a Protego Maxima.
But the magical shield shattered into pieces from the mere contact with the black mass before sending Luciel flying backward several meters through the air toward the flames surrounding the battlefield.
That thing kept chasing him to destroy him.
Luciel, with incredible skill even while airborne, twisted his body and adjusted himself into a midair jumping position.
His enchanted boots glowed faintly, forming a small platform of air beneath his feet, which Luciel used as support to launch himself sideways and evade the entity.
The moment Luciel touched the ground again, he did not stop and immediately ran toward Armand once more.
But Armand, completely calm, raised his wand and a wall of stone rose from the ground in front of him.
Forcing Luciel to stop abruptly.
Before glancing over his shoulder for an instant, seeing the black mass rushing toward him, making him jump aside once again.
The obscurus completely destroyed the wall ahead, turning it into small chunks of rubble and dust.
The mist slid around Armand as if it were protecting him, faint glowing sparks visible deep within it.
A roar came from that abstract form toward Luciel, who was now staring directly at Armand and the obscurus protecting him.
Armand slightly raised his hand as if caressing the air, softly passing it through the black mist of the obscurus with a proud smile.
"You see, Luciel? She knows how to respect her father," Armand said while his gaze shifted toward him.
Luciel's face had completely hardened while staring at that monster.
What kind of monster had he created? And in the worst way possible.
Luciel slowly regained his calm because he knew attacking recklessly was pointless.
As a sword master, he understood that very well.
He had only lost control because of his rage.
But that was not helping him at all.
Luciel's gaze became calm again and settled on Armand before shifting toward the obscurus.
The information about those creatures was extremely scarce.
The only thing truly known was that those creatures were born from children who suppressed their magical talent due to physical and mental abuse.
And they could only continue existing as long as their hosts remained alive.
The hosts would eventually take on their complete form once they completely lost control, though they were still trapped somewhere inside.
Even so, Luciel could not understand how Armand was capable of controlling something like that.
Luciel raised his sword once more, returning to a guarded stance.
His golden armor still glowed faintly thanks to the flames surrounding the battlefield.
Which, for some reason, Armand was still keeping active.
Luciel was also wondering about that, though he still did not have a single clue.
Armand let out an amused snort when he saw that even after witnessing the obscurus, Luciel still had not given up.
As if he still believed he could fight a living catastrophe.
"Kill him," Armand said coldly.
The moment it heard the order, the gray mass surrounding him like a guardian instantly moved toward Luciel.
The surrounding fire stirred violently for a moment, making Armand glance briefly to the side before lightly moving his wand to control the flames, stabilizing the vortex of fire surrounding them.
Luciel noticed it.
He had no time to keep thinking about it because he could see the black mass rushing toward him at incredible speed, completely destroying every gravestone in its path.
And a gigantic monstrous head formed for a moment while opening its mouth toward him.
Luciel pointed his sword at the monster and different magical flashes shot out from its tip trying to stop it.
But no spell seemed capable of truly stopping it.
So Luciel had to jump to the side using the enchantment on his boots to create distance.
"Diffindo!" Luciel shouted toward the mass as it brushed past him while he brought his sword down violently.
And a massive flying slash shot toward it.
But like the previous spells, it simply passed right through it as if it were nothing and continued on its way toward the wall of flames, which opened slightly for a brief moment, though the fire closed again almost immediately.
This time Luciel noticed it completely and turned his gaze toward Armand, who still looked fairly calm.
But his hand was returning to its original position after having barely moved his wrist.
Luciel looked once again toward the direction where his spell had gone just moments ago and noticed something specific.
That was the direction where the others should be outside the flames.
Luciel moved again, dodging the obscurus' next attack.
Though because of that slight distraction, it struck his shoulder, sending him rolling across the ground while his golden shoulder guard cracked the instant it was touched. Just the contact with that thing had destroyed the golden armor piece.
But Luciel paid little attention to it and rolled to the side. The obscurus crashed down from the sky onto him, destroying the ground where he had been lying only a moment earlier.
Instead of attacking Armand or the obscurial, Luciel, with a movement of his sword…
"Diffindo. Diffindo. Diffindo."
Several slashes shot out from his blade while he pronounced the enchantments toward the flames.
Which quickly opened small gaps through the fire, though they closed again almost instantly.
Luciel pushed himself up with his legs, flipping back onto his feet before jumping backward to dodge the attack of the rampaging obscurus.
And once again raised his sword to attack the wall of flames.
But Armand looked somewhat irritated seeing him try that again and clicked his tongue.
"You're like a cockroach."
And this time he also raised his wand and pointed it at Luciel.
Before Luciel could launch his attacks toward the wall of flames, roots violently burst out of the ground and trapped his feet.
Luciel reacted quickly trying to dodge the roots, but that moment of distraction gave enough time for the obscurus to crash directly onto him.
And slam him against the ground.
"AAAAAH!" Luciel screamed as he felt the crushing pain pressing down on him. Luckily the golden armor protected him quite a bit while filling with cracks.
The obscurus rose once more before slamming down on him again while the roots summoned by Armand continued restraining him against the ground so the obscurus could finally kill him without wasting more time.
But Luciel, enduring the pain as best he could, still raised his sword and pointed it toward the wall.
Before pronouncing at incredible speed, with the little air still left in his lungs, just like Fleur, a machine gun burst of enchantments toward the wall.
"Diffindo, Depulso, Expulso, Finite Incantatem, Relashio."
All those spells struck the wall of Fiendfyre, causing a hole to open in the flames, revealing the view both inside and outside the vortex of fire.
Luciel desperately hoped for a moment of distraction from Armand to attack. Even if that chance could very well get him killed.
Seeing this, Armand's expression became even more annoyed.
"Damn it… if that bastard discovers what I hid from him as a contingency against him…" Armand muttered while preparing to close the flames again, hoping Lucius had not seen the obscurus.
Of course, an association between dark wizards was never truly a complete alliance.
There were always lies. Betrayals.
And Armand knew that very well.
"You, hide yourself!" Armand shouted toward the obscurus that was about to deliver the final blow to Luciel. Luciel showed a dangerous glint in his eyes. He knew this was his chance. But… that opportunity did not seem to arrive. Or rather, it would not even be necessary.
Unfortunately, before Armand could close the gap in the flames, he managed to see the people standing outside.
Making Armand's expression slowly harden.
And then turn to panic.
Because Lucius was not alone on the other side.
Instead, a pair of green eyes slowly turned toward him.
Crimson hair and a rather furious gaze.
The Potter boy was standing beside her with the face of a good child who had just gone to complain to his mother about some bad adults.
Because yes.
Harry's mother was there.
Wanda.
And how exactly had she arrived there…
For that, we'll have to go back a few minutes earlier.
To be continued…