Leonard never managed to find the third person. Either they were outside his field of vision, or those three crows belonged to one of Raven's council elders.
In that case, there was nothing to be afraid of. Those two wizards would not be able to hold out until the third person arrived. As long as he took out all three crows at once, he would not be exposed.
Seeing that the two wizards were about to bundle Lehende and Norman up and take them away, Leonard decided not to drag things out any longer.
He was certain there were no other wizards nearby, so the only watchers left had to be those three crows.
As long as he dealt with all three at the same time and then cleaned up the two wizards afterward, there would be no problem.
With that thought, Leonard raised a hand. Silver light flickered in his palm, and a silver-white spear, as if forged from lightning itself, slowly took shape.
Ancient Magic. Gungnir.
A powerful ancient spell named after the wand of the Eternal Wizard Odin, with the special property of absolute, guaranteed accuracy.
Its power was enough to pierce a basilisk, and together with its perfect precision, this was exactly the right moment to use it.
Silver lightning flashed in Leonard's eyes. Ancient sprouts coiled around his arm to feed him power, and behind him, in a place he could not see, a strange phantom appeared.
It was a tree. Every leaf bore a phantom image, and within each phantom seemed to be sun, moon, and stars, as if every leaf held the shadow of a world.
Unfortunately, Leonard noticed none of it. He locked onto the crows above, and slowly raised the Gungnir in his hand, as though it weighed a thousand pounds.
At that moment, one of the crows seemed to sense danger. It shuddered, then instinctively looked down, just in time to see Leonard below, eyes blazing silver-white, Gungnir in hand, fixed on it.
"Caw!"
It cried out and took flight to evade him. The other two crows did not know what had happened, but they spread their wings and followed suit.
Leonard looked at the three crows, now clearly no longer in a straight line with him, and the corner of his mouth lifted. Then he raised his hand and hurled Gungnir.
A thunderclap exploded across the sky.
The moment it was thrown, Gungnir vanished from the first crow's sight. Before it could feel relieved, a sharp pain struck it.
A spear tip wreathed in silver lightning had pierced straight through its body.
The spear had clearly been thrown from the front, so how had the tip emerged from behind it?
The crow could not understand what had happened. Its consciousness was torn apart by the power of ancient magic, and naturally it never saw that behind it, the other two crows, just as they were about to flee, were pierced one after the other by Gungnir from impossible angles.
It was as though Gungnir had simply appeared at exactly the right place, at exactly the right angle, to skewer them.
That was Gungnir. Once it locked onto a target, it never lost it.
The three crows dropped lifelessly, and the thunderous crack Gungnir had made drew the attention of the two Raven wizards below.
The two wizards looked up and saw the three crows falling. Their pupils shrank. Their eyes followed the birds downward, and then suddenly the three crows vanished. In the next instant, they saw Leonard charging straight at them.
"What...?"
The two wizards instinctively raised their wands, the Killing Curse already gathering.
At that moment, Lehende, who had been ready all along, let out a roar. Black fur burst across his body, and his claws shot out, smashing one wizard's arm clean through.
At the same time, Leonard had already drawn his pistol and aimed it at the other wizard. Before the man could fire the Killing Curse, Leonard pulled the trigger.
Times have changed, old man. And you're still standing there with Avada Kedavra?
Bang!
The gunshot cracked through the alley. A smoking bullet hole appeared in the wizard's forehead, the back of his skull exploded, and his body crumpled to the ground.
"Move."
Leonard rushed over and casually stuffed both the corpse and the wizard with the shattered arm into the miniature man-eating flower.
Lehende and Norman understood at once. They snatched up their wands and Apparated away with Leonard.
Five minutes later, a wizard dressed like a Muggle rushed into the alley, only to find a pool of blood on the ground.
...
In the basement of the Slughorn house, Leonard and the other two appeared abruptly.
"Whew. Leonard, thank you very much for the help," Norman said with a long breath. "Otherwise this really would have been troublesome."
Leonard waved it off, then hauled out the corpse and the living Raven wizard.
Then he raised a brow, remembered something, and reached in again to pull out a "green cabbage."
No, not a cabbage.
Rita Skeeter.
Rita Skeeter's face was as white as plaster, and she was shaking all over as she looked at the three of them.
"I... I didn't see anything," Rita Skeeter said cautiously.
Leonard gave a scornful smile and shot Norman a look. "Mr. Norman, could I borrow a patch of your land to bury someone?"
Norman immediately understood and nodded solemnly. "No problem. I've got plenty of empty land at home. Burying one or two people won't be an issue."
"No!" Rita Skeeter shrieked. "Don't kill me! I'm still useful!"
"Whether you're useful or not isn't for you to decide," Lehende said. "Besides, no one would dare trust someone like you. We'll only feel safe once you're dead."
Everyone in Europe's wizarding world knew what kind of person Rita Skeeter was. Her sharp, vicious writing and wildly exaggerated stories had earned her plenty of admirers.
Provided, of course, that her pen was not aimed at them.
Even a true saint would be turned into some scheming villain under her pen. That blade-sharp writing of hers had cut down more than a few people.
"I can swear! An Unbreakable Vow! I swear I'll never tell anyone anything about you!" Rita Skeeter struggled frantically to save herself, terrified that one of these people, who killed without blinking, might actually dispose of her on the spot.
They really would kill her. Earlier, that wizard's corpse had suddenly landed right on top of her. She had nearly lost her mind from fright.
The three of them exchanged glances, then nodded.
"In that case, an Unbreakable Vow it is." Lehende stepped forward and extended his hand. "You are forbidden, by any means, from revealing anything about what we have done."
"N-no problem." Rita Skeeter scrambled to her feet and hastily clasped Lehende's wrist, afraid he might change his mind.
Meanwhile, Leonard glanced at Rita Skeeter, thought for a moment, and quietly placed a curse on her.
His study of curses had advanced quite a bit. By now, he no longer needed a physical medium to cast them.
It was still a curse tied to luck, but now it was far more flexible.
The curse he placed on Rita Skeeter was tied specifically to information about the three of them.
If she revealed anything about them, the curse would erupt instantly. Not like the slow, year-long curse Voldemort had put on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, but the kind that detonated on the spot.
The moment Rita Skeeter leaked any information about them, she would immediately be plunged into the worst possible misfortune.
The kind of misfortune where even drinking water could make her choke to death.