The Voldemort formed of black smoke slowly emerged from the forest, coming before Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader.
Although both Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader knew that the state of this Voldemort before them was somewhat abnormal, not truly flesh and blood, but more like an image condensed from black smoke using the Smoke Rope Curse.
However, the Smoke Rope Curse itself already indicated certain things. Through Sean's multiple imitations, his disguise as Voldemort had reached a remarkably lifelike degree, and his personal aura also fit the setting of a deranged psychopath. So even with some doubts, neither Scrimgeour nor the masked Auror leader dared truly deny that the person before them wasn't Voldemort.
"Merlin's Beard, the Dark Lord..."
The masked Auror leader stepped back, his expression extremely ugly.
Scrimgeour's face turned deathly pale. He gritted his teeth hard and roared, "You're not Voldemort! Voldemort died long ago!"
"Dead? Indeed, I died at Harry Potter's hands, more precisely, at the hands of Harry Potter's mother. That was a very ancient magic. I was indeed careless. Everyone makes mistakes, don't they? But now, I have returned. The world's greatest wizard, Lord Voldemort, has returned!"
As his words ended, Sean suddenly waved his wand. The surrounding black smoke immediately surged, transforming into black smoke serpents that frantically rushed toward Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader.
Seeing the approaching black smoke serpents, both Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader raised their wands, attacking and blocking the serpents' assault. Various coloured magical lights shot outward, but as long as Sean wasn't defeated, these smoke serpents would grow two heads for every one destroyed. They couldn't be eliminated at all.
The black smoke quickly separated Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader. Sean floated in mid-air, watching the two men continuously resisting the black smoke, and waved his wand again.
"Frost Domain!"
Level 5 Frost Domain had become quite terrifying in power.
The flowers, grass, and trees on the ground quickly became covered with a thin layer of frost, and this frost visibly thickened rapidly, turning into ice that completely froze this area.
As the Frost Domain spread, Sean waved his wand again, raising it high above his head, pointing directly at the sky.
Immediately, wild winds howled and lightning flashed with thunder. A strange gale suddenly arose in the forest, carrying the low temperature of the Frost Domain and transforming into a surging cold wind that swept up, trapping Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader within.
Naturally, both Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader felt the changes in weather and temperature.
But initially they didn't pay too much attention. The continuously attacking black smoke kept them too busy to cope. This was also because their Apparition abilities were temporarily sealed, they were mentally overwhelmed by the fake Voldemort that Sean was impersonating, and they needed to constantly guard against Killing Curses that might shoot from some shadow.
So when they realised something was wrong, when Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader had their arms and knees frozen by a cold wind, only then did they finally realise that Voldemort wasn't without follow-up killing moves. His killing moves had actually already begun!
Scrimgeour waved his wand, continuously casting Warming Charms on himself, but how could magical frost possibly be resolved by such spells?
The cold wind howled. Ice layers rapidly spread across Scrimgeour's body, expanding to cover most of his body in the blink of an eye. His consciousness became blurred, and his movements extremely slow. Just at that instant, Scrimgeour suddenly felt the Anti-Apparition jinx's effect disappear. Without hesitation, he immediately Apparated away.
The moment he left, the black mist that had been surrounding Scrimgeour suddenly dispersed. In his final moment before departing, Scrimgeour saw the masked Auror leader fall under Sean's wand!
Was it the Killing Curse? Or something else? He couldn't escape!
Looking at the Voldemort who raised his head to look at him, Scrimgeour felt tremendous fear rise in his heart. Such power, such cruelty and methods. Aside from Voldemort, it couldn't possibly be anyone else!
Watching the departing Scrimgeour, Sean exhaled. That guy had finally left.
Since appearing, Sean had been stalling for time, all to create the possibility for Scrimgeour to escape. For this purpose, the moment he sensed the Anti-Apparition jinx on both Scrimgeour and the masked Auror leader dissipate, he deliberately dispersed the Smoke Rope Curse's visual obstruction, letting Scrimgeour see the masked Auror leader fall under his wand before leaving.
Of course, what struck the masked Auror leader wasn't the Killing Curse, but the Cruciatus Curse.
Looking down at the masked Auror leader, Sean felt not the slightest bit of pity for such a person. He stepped forward and stomped on the man's hand, crushing both the hand bones and the wand within together, while simultaneously increasing the Cruciatus Curse's intensity.
Agonised wails came from the masked Auror leader's mouth.
Seeing it was about enough, Sean cast a Stunning Spell to completely knock out his opponent, dispelled his magic, picked up the masked Auror leader with one hand, completely pulverised the wand on the ground, and rose into the air surrounded by black smoke.
He went directly to the agreed location. Sean saw Marlowe and the others who had already arrived, along with Howard, who was under guard, and the other masked Aurors. He knew this plan had succeeded.
Before taking action, Sean had secretly reported the meeting between Howard and the masked Auror leader to Scrimgeour. Otherwise, how could such a coincidence occur? Just when Sean was preparing to act, Scrimgeour burst in ahead of time to fight Howard and his group to the death, creating the perfect surprise attack opportunity for Sean's team.
"Master, are you alright?"
"I'm fine. He and Scrimgeour lost their nerve the moment they saw me, constantly guarding against my attacks, so they couldn't display their real strength at all. Isn't that right?"
The last sentence was directed at the masked Auror leader he was carrying.
Casually throwing the man to the ground, Sean kicked off the mask from the masked Auror leader's face, revealing a face that was both familiar and somewhat surprising to Sean.
"It's you... really, what a surprise."
Having lost his mask, the former masked Auror leader raised his head and looked at Sean as the black smoke gradually dispersed to reveal his true appearance. His face was also full of shock.
"How is this possible? It's actually you!"
"I didn't expect it would be you either. Back at Hogwarts, I thought you were trash, someone who ranked at the bottom among Aurors and only became one through dumb luck and sucking up to the right people. But now it seems that was all your disguise, wasn't it? Dawlish!"