— — — — — —
"Stupefy."
A gentle voice drifted through the air.
Nassim was still writhing on the ground when the spell struck him squarely. His eyes rolled back, and he immediately lost consciousness.
Honestly, that might have been a blessing. At least now he wouldn't have to endure any more of Ariana's vicious curses.
The good news was that the torment had finally ended. The bad news... nobody knew when he'd wake up.
Inside the Dream Arena, Okeye's emotions were riding a roller coaster.
Nassim had started far behind everyone else, setting off as the second-to-last contestant. Okeye had long since given up hope.
Then everything changed.
A streak of incredible luck gave Nassim two major breaks in a row, allowing him to overtake several competitors and somehow secure second place entering the final round.
And then that scheming heir of Grindelwald had gone and planted a whole network of trap spells around the brazier.
Fortunately, they were all standard spells. As long as Nassim gritted his teeth and worked through them one by one with counter-curses, he should have been able to handle it.
Okeye had confidence in him.
But when Fleur suddenly appeared on-screen after dropping her Disillusionment Charm, Okeye's eyes widened. He stared at Madame Maxime in disbelief.
"Maxime, is this really how you teach your students?"
"I don't see a problem with it." Though Madame Maxime had been surprised by Fleur's ambush herself, she immediately came to her student's defense.
"This is a competition. As long as she doesn't break the rules, contestants are free to use whatever strategy they like."
"If anyone's at fault, it's Nassim. He relaxed too much after clearing the first stage. If he'd stayed alert and prepared, this wouldn't have happened."
"..."
Okeye found himself completely speechless.
Women could argue out of nothing at all. When they actually had the moral high ground, there was no winning. When they were in the wrong, there was still a high chance of no winning. It was like a man catching his wife cheating and finding her in bed with another man, only for her to turn it around—blaming him for not caring enough, for not being attentive enough, and so on. She might even blame him for catching her at all, claiming moral superiority with lines like, "How could you not trust me?"
'Not again,' Okeye refused that outcome.
Unwilling to accept what had happened to his student, yet unable to refute it, he could only glare at Maxime while breathing heavily.
Caught between the two, Dumbledore could do little except play peacemaker.
...
..
Meanwhile, after appearing in the plaza, Fleur walked straight toward Tom's projection.
"Fleur, hurry up and eat something. Recover your strength. The others will catch up soon."
With her hands clasped behind her back, Fleur tilted her head playfully. "And can I get a little information as a reward?"
"Strictly speaking, no." Tom's projection stroked his chin. "But there are exceptions to everything. I can give you one sentence."
"It's best not to stay too close to the other contestants. Otherwise, you'll get dragged into their trouble."
Fleur flashed an OK sign before heading to the dining table and quickly replenishing her energy.
She only ate two pieces of bread and a slice of steak before leaving the plaza, departing before Daphne arrived.
Speaking of Daphne, she had been rather unlucky.
In the last ten minutes alone, she'd enjoyed a "free" aerial sightseeing tour before crashing back to the ground, dizzy and disoriented. She activated another teleportation trap, which kicked her out of the core area and dumped her into the middle layer.
That was the final straw. The young lady exploded in fury.
Summoning her Patronus, she went on a destructive rampage, charging recklessly back into the core zone. Along the way, she even beat up all three magical beasts guarding the final checkpoint.
When she finally met Tom, she spent quite a while complaining.
Fortunately, Tom had long mastered the art of dealing with a sulking Daphne. A few soothing words later, she had calmed down completely.
After coaxing her into finishing a meal, he sent her back into the competition.
However, the consequences of her temper tantrum soon became apparent.
The three magical creatures at the final stage had originally been intended as a power filter. Now that Daphne had already beaten them half to death, everyone coming afterward had an easy time.
The first beneficiary was Kamio, who arrived in Dalaran with almost no difficulty. Upon seeing Tom, she shot him a fierce glare with her beautiful fox-like eyes.
A few minutes later, Jauncey arrived as well.
After noticing the unconscious Nassim lying nearby, he hesitated briefly before deciding to help him.
Of course, he didn't do it for free. Jauncey wanted an alliance.
He proposed that the two of them work together and compete for the championship as partners.
But after being tricked twice in succession, Nassim no longer cared much about winning. At this point, all he wanted was to sabotage Fleur and Ariana.
So he accepted immediately.
The two were still eating when Quinta entered the plaza as well.
Compared to the start of the maze, the gap between contestants had shrunk considerably.
Before long, all seven champions had entered Dalaran.
The Magic Tower, Karazhan, stood quite a distance from them, requiring contestants to cross roughly a quarter of the inner city.
As soon as they entered the city, every champion encountered patrols of alchemical constructs.
At first, the constructs didn't seem particularly strong, so the contestants actively attacked and destroyed them.
But that turned out to be a mistake. Every destroyed construct automatically raised the threat level, causing the city to dispatch more guards, and stronger ones at that.
After being chased across half the city, the champions finally learned their lesson.
There would be no bulldozing their way through.
The only option was stealth, sneaking closer and closer to the Tower without attracting attention.
During this time, Daphne also ran into Kamio. The two huddled together, whispering for quite a while before ultimately continuing onward as a team.
...
..
At the same time, in New York—
It was three in the afternoon in Britain, which meant ten in the morning in New York.
The city was in the middle of its busiest rush. In Manhattan, traffic flowed endlessly through the streets. People hurried back and forth, swept along by the relentless pace of life.
Everyone looked rushed.
No matter how strange something appeared, few people would stop to stare for even a second.
For example, the two hooded figures standing motionless at a crosswalk.
One of them spoke in a low voice, "The development of Muggles is beyond anything I expected. Truly an astonishing achievement."
The other removed his hood, revealing a head of white hair. "It seems you've adapted quickly to modern society, Mr. Herpo. You've even learned to use the word 'Muggle.'"
"It's an appropriate term." The first man pulled back his own hood. An elderly, grotesque face emerged, monkey-like in its ugliness.
It was none other than Herpo the fool, the dark wizard who had just escaped from the Amazon ruins.
"So you brought me here just to look at these skyscrapers?" Herpo asked the white-haired man.
"No, Mr. Herpo." The white-haired man smiled faintly. "I believe the Muggles have already strayed too far down the wrong path. They need a harsh lesson."
"So I hope you'll help me set them straight today."
"Together, we can put everything back on its proper course."
.
.
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