Kasen yanked open the Vanishing Cabinet, stepped inside, and shut the door behind him.
"I shall face Voldemort directly in the Death Eaters' lair in my Kasenhis form!" Kasen muttered before suddenly throwing open the cabinet door.
In an instant, scorching heat! Suffocation! Paralysis! Stiffness!
"Fuck! That old bastard Voldemort has no sense of honour! He threw the Vanishing Cabinet into lava! Good thing I have... a Fire Resistance Potion!"
.......
Italy, the crater of Mount Etna...
"Master, have you sensed the current state of the Vanishing Cabinet?" Barty Crouch Jr. asked humbly as he stood behind Voldemort.
"It has been opened."
Voldemort glanced back at his most loyal and capable servant, responding with a rare trace of warmth.
"The space within ten metres of the Vanishing Cabinet has been heavily reinforced. Even with Kasenhis's strange teleportation ability, it would take him at least three seconds to escape, and three seconds should already be enough..."
Barty Crouch Jr. carefully chose his words, but his meaning was perfectly clear. Three seconds was more than enough for Kasen to be boiled like a frog in the scorching lava. There was no need for them to keep waiting here.
Voldemort shook his head. "You still don't understand Kasen..."
Barty Crouch Jr. looked at Voldemort in confusion. The way he said Kasen's name sounded far too... affectionate.
Voldemort immediately noticed his confusion and explained, "In my eyes, there are three people in the entire European wizarding world worthy of being mentioned alongside me. Do you know who they are?"
Barty Crouch Jr. already knew the answer.
"Dumbledore... Grindelwald..."
As for the final name, he found it difficult to say aloud.
The first two were renowned old wizards who had been famous for decades and were both over a hundred years old. The last one, however, was not even older than Barty himself, assuming the official information was correct.
Yet this terrifyingly young wizard had repeatedly fought his master to a standstill. Once, his master had even returned as nothing more than a soul...
Although his master had never revealed how many people had besieged him that day, the way he had roared Kasenhis's name after his resurrection made it obvious just how much Kasenhis had contributed to that battle.
"Allow me to complete the answer for you. The final person is Kasenhis. He is foolish, cowardly, obstinate, and his head is filled with everything that makes people weak. But you cannot deny that he is indeed a genius."
"A genius worthy of standing alongside me, Dumbledore, and Grindelwald. More importantly, he is young, even younger than you. When such an extraordinarily gifted young man stands before me, it is difficult not to feel a sense of closeness toward him. That is why I affectionately call him Kasen. At first, I even called him Professor Kasen."
"But emotions are useless things that must be discarded on the path to greater power. Therefore, for the sake of a far greater cause, he must die."
Voldemort watched as bubbles began to gurgle across the surface of the lava pool. It looked remarkably similar to that beautiful instant when one of Snape's potions was just about to reach completion.
Finally, a wizard's robe floated to the surface.
"Master," Barty Crouch Jr. whispered.
Voldemort stared at the wizard's robe floating on the surface. "For an alchemist of his calibre, creating a robe impervious to fire and water would be no problem at all."
He drew his wand and fired an Avada Kedavra directly at the robe.
The Killing Curse struck it and blasted a small hole through the fabric, revealing the gleaming white bones beneath.
Voldemort frowned and looked at Barty Crouch Jr. "Retrieve that skeleton."
Barty nodded and raised his wand, preparing to summon the skeleton with the Summoning Charm.
Before he could even speak the incantation, however, the skeleton seemed unable to endure the heat of the lava pool any longer. It suddenly leapt straight out of the lava, swung the rapier in its hand, and flung a stream of molten rock toward Voldemort and Barty Crouch Jr.
"I knew it was you!"
Voldemort whipped his wand backwards, and a towering wave instantly rose from the lava filling the crater.
Kasen, wearing nothing but a shirt and trousers, was hurled into the air along with the wave, looking momentarily bewildered.
He recovered in an instant. His gaze sharpened as he swept both hands forward, and the enormous wave of lava instantly solidified into black obsidian. He then punched the obsidian wave.
The black wave shattered into countless razor-sharp fragments. Like some kind of Frost Shadow Technique, every shard flew toward Voldemort and Barty Crouch Jr. in a violent storm.
"Stand behind me, Barty," Voldemort said.
Barty Crouch Jr. hurriedly moved behind Voldemort and watched as the figure before him blocked every incoming obsidian shard with nothing more than a thought.
Seeing this, Kasen wasted no time. He grabbed Steve, who was climbing up the remains of the obsidian wave.
"The organisation has an important and difficult mission for you."
Without waiting for Steve to answer, Kasen grabbed him by the wrist and hurled him straight at Voldemort.
Steve did not disappoint. With the terrifying acceleration carrying him forward, he brought his razor-sharp Netherite sword down toward Voldemort.
Voldemort frowned, and a stone wall instantly appeared in front of him. Yet beneath Steve's sword, it was no different from tofu.
With a sharp slicing sound, the wall split apart, its cut surface as smooth as a mirror. The Netherite sword continued straight toward Voldemort and sank deeply into his body.
Then an eerie resistance suddenly travelled up Steve's wrist, something a Netherite sword this sharp should never have encountered.
Only then did Steve finally see what was happening.
The resistance was not caused by the blade failing to cut through Voldemort's flesh. Instead, the severed meat inside Voldemort's body had transformed into writhing tentacles covered in suction cups, firmly gripping the Netherite sword and holding it in place.
"Barty, please keep our dear Professor Kasen occupied for a moment. In the meantime, I would like to study this Mr Skeleton standing before me."
Voldemort revealed a strange smile as he spoke.
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