Seeing Dumbledore's figure, Sterling felt immense relief wash over him.
He had never truly fought a hostile great wizard before, causing him to severely misjudge their calibre.
Without Dumbledore's arrival, he would have been forced to rely on the protective measures Maleficent had left behind.
Dumbledore winked at him, wearing a relaxed smile, conducting the Elder Wand like a symphony conductor. Under his control, the sea of flames boiled, raging tongues seeming to touch the clouds.
Black beams shooting from Voldemort's fingertips constantly scattered the flames, only to be staggered by the next wave, yet still, his skin showed no burn marks.
"Dumbledore!"
Voldemort roared, releasing an Avada Kedavra thicker than any spell Sterling had seen, almost wide enough to engulf him entirely.
Facing this curse, Dumbledore's leisurely expression grew serious. Under his control, earth rippled like water, stone walls rising layer by layer, turning to grey-white dust when struck by the Killing Curse.
"Tom, I truly never expected you so close to me... Have my wrinkles made you forget old wounds?"
"Or has death diminished your memory, clouding your already dim wisdom with more dust?"
Dumbledore's wand spun like a dancer's ribbon, and the entire Forbidden Forest came alive under his command. Leaves transformed into fire waves, and roots became roaring golden lions, while soil donned stone armour and charged forward with branch-spears raised.
Voldemort's black beams swept continuously, interspersed with transparent slashes. Each spell gave Sterling a heavy sense of crisis, and Voldemort seemed tireless, with no pause for recovery.
Black light constantly destroyed knights, scattered flames, and killed golden lions, but the forest's materials were endless. Dumbledore's Transfiguration continuously created more warriors for battle.
"You're old! Dumbledore! You couldn't kill me eleven years ago, and you still can't now!"
Voldemort cast a massive transparent slash, instantly clearing a direct path to Dumbledore.
"Avada Kedavra!"
This Killing Curse rapidly shifted from green to grey-white the moment it left his finger. Everything in its path was crushed to grey-white powder. Sterling felt chilled just watching.
Dumbledore knew this curse could only be met head-on. If alone, he might dodge, but Sterling was still here.
His face grave, he raised his wand and struck downward forcefully. The earth shook, and the ground beneath Sterling and Dumbledore suddenly sank ten inches, darkening overhead.
Dumbledore used these ten inches of soil as transformation material, and what emerged from so much matter...
A pure white wall filling Sterling's entire vision.
Its surface seemed formed of countless overlapping wings. Just looking at it brought inner peace.
When the grey-white Killing Curse met the wall, the entire world filled with grey-white lightning. The deafening noise forced Sterling to cover his ears.
Trees struck by scattered lightning turned to dust. This single blow left the forest area around the centaur tribe unworthy of being called a "forest".
Perhaps it could be renamed "Forbidden Hollow".
When the lightning faded, the white wall showed no cracks. It stood as a boundary. Outside lay desolate land covered in grey-white dust; inside remained a corner of vibrant forest...
Dumbledore cancelled the transfiguration. The wall returned to soil, refilling the ground. Rising from the deep pit, they found Voldemort gone.
The earth was flat. Everything on the surface had been "killed".
"Professor, Voldemort he..."
"Fled, same as always. He cast that spell to create escape time."
Dumbledore transfigured two stones into little figures to lift his fine wizard robes, avoiding the grey-white dust.
"Professor Dumbledore, other Dark wizards can't use such Killing Curses, can they?"
"Of course not, Sterling." Dumbledore stroked his smooth beard. Having not used magic frequently in years, he wasn't as relaxed as he appeared.
"Though reluctant to admit it, he too has surpassed wizardly limits, possessing a Thirteen Magic mark... I filled Sage Magic's mark with Transfiguration as foundation, gaining the ability to transform legendary magical artefacts."
Dumbledore showed Sterling a pinch of dust.
"Do you remember what this used to be? Think back to this forest area. Do you remember how it looked before Tom's Killing Curse destroyed it?"
Sterling froze. He didn't know.
He knew this place was "formerly" forest, that the dust contained Dumbledore's transfigured creations... but exactly what, he had no idea.
Even the memory that "this was once forest" was slowly fading.
"Whether life or otherwise, true death begins when they're forgotten."
"Tom filled Death Magic's mark using the Killing Curse as its foundation, gaining this terrible power that leads all things toward true oblivion. Those killed by such curses are forgotten even by parents and spouses. No matter how desperately they try to remember, only emptiness remains. Tom has killed far, far more than people know."
Dumbledore gently stroked Sterling's head, giving him time to accept the truth.
This was Sterling's first encounter with such terrifying magic.
What was more horrible than death?
Dying with no one knowing.
If killed by such a curse, wouldn't Maleficent and Vivian and others... all forget him?
Sterling realised he could only remember this had once been part of the "Forbidden Forest". Whether it had been lake, hill, or woodland, he couldn't say. The very essence of what had existed here was fading from his mind like morning mist.
A seed sprouted in his heart, wilting against "Witness of the Author".
Thirteen Magic: Nature Spirit.
The magical mark the forest promised to give him was still condensed and gifted by the Forbidden Forest, even in its current weakened state.
Sterling could feel the entire forest's magic nearly depleted.
Once magic-rich, the Forbidden Forest now differed little from Muggle forests, with a large dust-covered wasteland near the centre.
"Nature Spirit's" effect was powerful. "Nature Spirits are the world's beloved." This alone explained everything.
It was slowly fusing with "Witness of the Author".
Sterling sensed they would birth an ability rivalling or surpassing "manifestation"...
But he actively halted the fusion process. Sterling reached into the luminous mist emanating from his chest and retrieved the newly sprouted seed from within his heart.
Crushing it deliberately, piece by piece, he returned the Thirteen Magic mark to the wounded forest that had gifted it to him.
Beneath Sterling's feet, a blade of grass emerged.
He heard countless seeds breaking free, a hymn full of newborn joy.
Greenery exploded outward from Sterling's position like a shockwave of pure life. Grass and wildflowers burst forth and bloomed within moments.
The grey dust of death became nothing before life's unstoppable torrent, buried as rich fertiliser for new growth.
Sterling forgot what the original forest looked like, but he remembered this flower sea he'd created.
Animals frightened away by the fierce battle were drawn by stirring vitality and kind eyes watching Sterling in the flower sea's heart.
Surviving centaurs stumbled from their ruined tribe, collapsing in the flower sea. Magnificent life force wound around them, slowly healing their broken bodies.
Two magnificent birds descended from the recovering canopy, singing as they presented Sterling with a pristine white iris.
He allowed them to perch on his shoulders, tucking the flower gently into his hair as he continued his soft melody.
Dumbledore smiled, watching the sea of flowers and the child singing softly with birds at its centre.
Sterling didn't regret using his Thirteen Magic for the Forbidden Forest's second spring.
He didn't lack this one magic, but the forest desperately needed this vitality.
So he played this Song of Spring for the Forbidden Forest.