Taking a gamble might turn a bicycle into a motorcycle. Of course, it was also possible to end up with nothing left of the bicycle, but that was not within Eda's considerations.
Eda had only three choices: abandon Sirius and escape alone; escape with Sirius, exposing her back to Voldemort; or fight Voldemort one-on-one, cover Sirius's escape, and then find an opportunity to leave herself.
Eda chose the last option. She chose to force herself to take one more step at this critical moment.
Who else could be more suitable as Eda's whetstone than Voldemort?
However, both of them had underestimated the other. Eda had not expected Voldemort, who had only just obtained a body, to be so ferocious and capable of putting such immense pressure on her.
Voldemort, on the other hand, had not expected Eda to be so tough at such a young age, actually managing to withstand his relentless attacks for so long.
Crabbe, Goyle, and Fowley, who had all been knocked head over heels, stared at Eda in astonishment.
Who could have imagined that a witch who had not even graduated from Hogwarts could hold out against Voldemort for so long?
Fowley found it even more absurd. Ever since he was little, his family had called him a genius, but compared with these true geniuses, he was nothing.
There was no need to mention Voldemort and Dumbledore. Even Eda before him and his fellow Barty had reached heights that Fowley could never touch in his entire life.
To outsiders, it appeared that Eda had managed to stalemate Voldemort, merely being at a slight disadvantage.
But only Eda knew how difficult things really were. She was completely walking on the edge of danger.
That was Voldemort. The slightest carelessness would leave her dead on the spot. Eda had no choice but to be extremely cautious, pouring all her concentration into her duel with Voldemort.
At this moment, Eda simply had no attention to spare for Sirius, while Sirius, surrounded by multiple opponents, likewise had no time to worry about Eda.
The situation seemed to be inevitably tilting toward Voldemort's side. Perhaps from the moment Dumbledore failed to arrive at the cemetery, the scales of victory had already begun to favor Voldemort.
A defense maintained for too long would inevitably fail. Eda knew she could not remain passive like this forever.
She probably did not even have the luxury of making a single mistake.
Eda needed to seize the initiative. Only then could she escape the dangerous situation of being relentlessly suppressed by Voldemort.
After blocking another one of Voldemort's attacks, Eda waved her hand and once again whipped up a violent gale. The howling wind swept up the scattered stones and withered weeds from the ground, obscuring Voldemort's vision.
Voldemort flicked his sleeve, and the fierce wind abruptly came to a halt. The weeds and stones fell back to the ground one after another, but Eda had once again disappeared from his sight.
Voldemort burst into loud laughter and shouted, "Stop playing these childish tricks. Is this how Dumbledore taught you? Come out. Let us have a proper duel!"
It sounded like an impotent outburst of rage, but in reality, Voldemort was probing for Eda's location. As the leader of the Dark wizards, Voldemort was very skilled at tracking people down.
Voldemort suddenly turned around and launched a powerful attack at a marble tombstone. The tombstone was blasted to pieces by the spell, and even the ground behind it was blown into a large crater.
A robe slowly drifted down into the bottom of the crater. Eda had just been hiding behind that tombstone, which had now been blasted into dust. Death had once again brushed past her.
At that moment, Voldemort turned around again. Then his entire body seemed to float as he slid three steps backward.
Just as the three of Fowley looked on in confusion, a green-glowing spell landed where Voldemort had just been standing. The Killing Curse, the Death Curse, whatever one wanted to call it, its purpose was to reap a life. It was the most straightforward form of killing.
Voldemort raised his arm, his black sleeve shielding him from the dirt and stones flying through the air. He said, "Interesting, interesting! Does Dumbledore know you use Dark Magic? Does he know you can use an Unforgivable Curse with such skill?"
"Let's see where you can run now!" Voldemort said as he unleashed a barrage of attacks toward the direction from which the Killing Curse had come.
However, despite the succession of powerful spells, they did nothing to Eda except blow apart even more graves.
As Eda muttered, "Lord, cleanse me from my iniquity and wash away my guilt," she cursed Voldemort under her breath for being a shameless old bastard who never seemed to get tired of destroying graves.
Her mouth was not idle, and neither were her feet. Facing Voldemort head-on would only lead to her slow death, so Eda chose to engage in a mobile battle, using her agility to keep drawing Voldemort's attention.
However, Voldemort did not fall for it. He saw through Eda's scheme. Voldemort did not want to continue entangling himself with this girl. He wanted to force Eda to reveal herself.
Voldemort raised his wand, and black Fiendfyre suddenly appeared throughout the cemetery. The black flames relentlessly pursued Eda as she ran, quickly turning the cemetery into a sea of fire.
Voldemort, who preferred single-target instant kills, was willing to use a large-scale AOE attack just to force the wandering Eda out. Eda could certainly brag about this later.
But Eda was in no mood for that right now. What she needed to do was escape the relentless pursuit of the Fiendfyre.
Seeing that she could no longer continue fighting a mobile battle, Eda had no choice but to try another method. She calculated the cooldown of Blink, and the moment it became available, Eda, who had been running for her life, instantly disappeared from where she stood.
Amid Voldemort's "Neah-heh-heh" laughter, Eda silently appeared behind the completely undefended Fowley.
Fowley, Crabbe, and Goyle formed a trio of foolish spectators. Their positions were somewhat spread out, making it impossible for them to support one another.
The three had absolute confidence in Voldemort's strength, and none of them had considered that Eda might give up fleeing for her life and instead launch a sneak attack against them.
Fowley in particular had first been stunned by Sirius's two punches to the face, then had been sent tumbling around, and afterward had been left speechless by Eda's strength.
Fowley's not particularly clever head was still buzzing, and he never imagined that Eda would appear behind him.
Appearing behind Fowley was part of Eda's new plan. She wanted to provoke and anger Voldemort this way, forcing him to lose his composure.
Besides, Eda had always believed in taking revenge without letting it wait overnight. The grudge between her and Fowley had already been delayed for so many years. If she did not settle it now, when would she?
"Goodbye, Professor Fowley," Eda said softly, her wand pressed against the back of Fowley's head.
At the same time Eda spoke, there was a soft "pfft." A stream of blood shot from Fowley's forehead, and then Fowley collapsed limply to the ground, lifeless.
Not only had Fowley died without understanding what had happened, even Voldemort had not anticipated it. From Voldemort's perspective, the scene was even more shocking.
The anti-Apparition barrier surrounding the cemetery had been placed there personally by Voldemort, and he had been the one controlling the Fiendfyre that had chased Eda around like a dog with its tail on fire. Yet this girl had inexplicably disappeared right before his eyes.
Having lost track of Eda, Voldemort was startled. He became more cautious, doubling his vigilance to prevent her from launching a close-range sneak attack.
The moment he sensed Eda's presence again, Voldemort immediately turned around to defend himself. But to his astonishment, he discovered that Eda's target was not him. She had appeared behind one of his subordinates and killed Fowley with a shot to the head.
Furious beyond measure, someone had killed one of his people right in front of him. Who could possibly tolerate that? Voldemort thrust his wand forward with force, and the cruel green light once again appeared in the cemetery.
A spell that reaped souls and claimed lives came from the front, while the pursuing Fiendfyre closed in from behind.
Attacked from both sides, Eda remained completely calm. She raised her wand above her head with her right hand, and the thin curtain that surged from its tip blocked the Fiendfyre pouring down from above.
With her left hand held out, Fowley's corpse suddenly flew into the air and collided head-on with the Killing Curse.
Using both hands at once, Eda resolved the crisis before her. Then she moved her legs and left the area covered by the Fiendfyre.
Fortunately, Crabbe and Goyle had been afraid of getting caught in the flames and had focused only on escaping the Fiendfyre instead of joining the attack. Otherwise, even if Eda had survived, she would have been badly hurt.
Fowley's corpse, having been used to block the spell, "thumped" back onto the ground.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Eda decisively launched a counterattack. Brilliant white light streaked across the pitch-black cemetery, like a sharp blade piercing through the night sky.
Gift of Liberation!
Faced with the fierce incoming spell, Voldemort sensed danger and did not dare to block it directly with his wand. Voldemort raised a hand, and the ground before him suddenly bulged upward. A towering wall of earth rose up and blocked the impact of Gift of Liberation.
Behind the raised earthen wall, Voldemort stretched out both arms, placing both hands on his wand. The black Fiendfyre covering the cemetery instantly converged, taking the form of a giant serpent with its raised body reaching thirty or forty feet into the air.
At the same time, a mass of blue flames also rose from the ground, transforming into a gigantic Chimera. The blue Chimera charged ferociously toward the towering black serpent.
One blue and one black, the two differently colored flames collided again and again.
Explosions caused by the two giant beasts crashing into each other rang out without end.
With every collision, either blue or black flames splashed outward, setting everything on the ground ablaze.
The wildly surging flames distorted people's vision and sense of distance. The cemetery, which had originally been pitch-black, was illuminated by the two masses of flames as bright as day, even more dazzling than daylight!
Flames that could devour anyone were everywhere, as though two burning suns were scorching the earth.
The cemetery that should have been a resting place for the dead had, at this moment, become a living hell!
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