"That really is quite the enthusiastic welcome."
Standing at the center of the barrage, Grindelwald remained remarkably calm. He even had time to take a look at exactly what plants were attacking him.
"Bitterthorn. Looks like a mutant variety. Those thorns can reach that far?"
"And that is... Venomous Tentacula? It's actually that big. Hm? It can spit poisonous spikes too, and the attack speed is fast, with a huge range."
"What is that? Chomping Cabbage? Wait... dragons, phoenixes...?"
"Why do these plants carry the magic of Magical Creatures?"
Grindelwald raised a hand in puzzlement, and vast magical power erupted outward. The sheer force of it made everything around him suddenly slow down.
The dust hanging in the air almost seemed to freeze. Dense poisonous spikes and vines crowded together midair, forming a tightly packed semicircle.
Modern magic changes the rules through a wizard's will.
As an Eternal Wizard, Grindelwald could even use overwhelming magical power to create an effect akin to stopping time.
This was an ability Grindelwald had slowly developed on his own. As an Eternal Wizard, he was still young, and there was still more, stronger power for him to dig out from within himself.
Grindelwald wanted to take a closer look at these plants. Just as he was about to step forward, his brow suddenly twitched.
Something felt wrong.
He could not tell whether it was just an illusion, but he had the distinct feeling that although those poisonous spikes and vines looked frozen, they were actually still inching toward him.
Grindelwald blinked, and his expression changed.
It was not an illusion. Under his magical perception, those plants were forcing their way out of the time lock, and the magical shells on their surfaces were annihilating his own magic in a way Grindelwald could not understand.
"This is bad, I need to..."
There was no time to think. The magic freezing time shattered, and the space around him seemed to crack like glass as countless poisonous spikes and vines swallowed Grindelwald whole.
Explosions rang out. Venom hissed as it corroded everything, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. When the dust finally settled, a crater remained in the ground. Grindelwald stood in the middle of it, the place beneath his feet raised into a platform while everything around him had been destroyed.
At the critical moment, Grindelwald had unfolded a shield that completely wrapped around him. It was a shield formed from Apparition magic, one that allowed any attack to pass through him without injuring him. After repeated refinements, it could even directly reflect attacks.
But Grindelwald was still hurt.
He opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood that carried the smell of scorched flesh.
On the surface, it looked as though he had redirected every attack, but at the instant they passed through his body, they left behind curse-like marks. Once those marks accumulated to five, they would detonate immediately.
That curse was not magical power. Even Grindelwald could not dispel it. And because the damage appeared directly inside the body, it could not be defended against at all.
Fortunately, the vitality of an Eternal Wizard was exceptionally strong. Otherwise, that single wave of attacks would have badly wounded Grindelwald.
"What a vicious ability." Grindelwald looked at the restless plants around him and bared his teeth in a grin. "Are you not going to come out and meet me? Or do you want to see one of my trump cards?"
Leonard slowly revealed himself. Standing atop a giant Venomous Tentacula, he looked down at Grindelwald.
"So it really is you," Grindelwald said, narrowing his eyes. "Dumbledore underestimated you after all."
"Underestimating me is perfectly normal. After all, I haven't really done anything, so I'm a very safe person." Leonard sat on a branch of the Venomous Tentacula. "If you hadn't found this place, I would have gone on being this safe."
"A snake that does not strike is not harmless. It is only waiting for the right moment to kill in one blow. So what exactly are you waiting for?" Grindelwald asked bluntly.
"It's rather rude to compare people to snakes," Leonard said flatly. "But I can assure you, this is not aimed at Dumbledore."
"You know who I am?" Grindelwald frowned.
Leonard gave a quiet hum in reply.
"Then what do you intend to do about Voldemort?" Grindelwald glanced at the surrounding plants. "I originally thought you let him go because you couldn't deal with him, but judging by your abilities, suppressing Voldemort would be effortless for you. Don't tell me you're in league with him."
Grindelwald's voice turned cold. The magic around him boiled and churned, giving off a terrifying aura.
Even if these plants could not kill Voldemort outright, they could at least drive him away. Yet Leonard had chosen not to do that. Instead, after doing who knew what, he had let Voldemort escape.
"No. When it comes to Voldemort, our goal is the same." Grindelwald's aura had no effect on Leonard at all.
"So you really did tamper with Voldemort. Then can you kill him directly?" Grindelwald asked.
"No. I may have come to it halfway through, but I'm still an Eternal Wizard in the end. It's no problem to tamper with him a little, but there's no way I could do something lethal without it being noticed." Leonard smiled faintly.
"So I need you to hold him off for me. I'll create an opening for a one-hit kill."
Grindelwald stared at Leonard and said in a low voice, "You're joking."
An Eternal Wizard was still an Eternal Wizard, especially Death God, a being with absurdly tenacious vitality. Killing him in a single blow was easier said than done.
And for Leonard, an ordinary wizard, to claim he could create an opening for a one-hit kill sounded as ridiculous as an ant claiming it could bite an elephant to death.
It was pure fantasy.
"I'm not in the habit of joking about matters this serious." Leonard shook his head.
Grindelwald thought for a while, then suddenly said, "When Voldemort appears, he probably won't come alone. With Death God's power, Hogwarts will likely be surrounded by a great number of undead."
He had taken a liking to Leonard's plants. With those plants in place, almost no one below the level of an Eternal Wizard would be able to break through Hogwarts.
"You can leave that to me," Leonard said. "But I need a little help."
"What help?"
"I need all of your research on Obscurus," Leonard said.
...
Inside the World Tree.
Leonard returned to the interior of the World Tree. Harris Raymons, still in raven form, was hopping around atop a living wood vine that had been reshaped into human form.
Seeing Leonard return, Harris Raymons lazily greeted him, then asked, "Leonard, are you still not planning to send this stand-in back to the past? The longer you drag this out, the more troublesome it'll become."
"It is troublesome, but it's also something to hold on to." Leonard waved a hand and opened the Obscurus research materials Grindelwald had given him. As he read, he glanced at the living wood vine.
"As long as it's still here, I know that the me in the future will definitely survive."