As the endless sea of petrified mortals closed in to tear him apart, Hazkar released a deafening, earth-shattering roar. A blinding golden light erupted from his broken body, shining brilliantly before dimming into a deep, heavy green. His mortal disguise violently dissolved.
A massive river turtle—the true, awe-inspiring form of the Old Man of the River—emerged from the light. The colossal beast was easily fifty feet tall and twice as wide, a living mountain of iridescent, impenetrable shell and ancient magic. Zahken raged. He lifted his massive, pillar-like legs and stomped the earth with catastrophic force, instantly crushing hundreds of the charging Stone Men beneath his immense weight.
"Let the trapped souls of the Rhoynar go, Garin!" Zahken bellowed, his divine voice shaking the very foundations of the ruined city.
In response, the Shrouded Lord directed the giant, corrupted water spheres to barrage the colossal turtle. The heavy, pressurised orbs hammered against Zahken's massive shell. The ancient deity roared, violently swinging his heavy, scaled head to shatter the incoming projectiles, but the water reformed instantly, relentlessly battering his flanks.
Drawing upon the deepest reserves of his river magic, Zahken reared up and brought his front legs down in a devastating stomp. The sheer kinetic force transfigured the surrounding earth. Massive, jagged spikes of solid bedrock violently erupted from the mud, shooting upward to cleanly pierce and violently disperse the hovering water spheres, raining black, corrupted droplets over the battlefield.
Yet, despite the destruction of the water magic, the remaining Stone Men mindlessly continued their charge, swarming the giant turtle's legs like a legion of petrified ants.
Seeing the absolute chaos consuming the plaza, Hadrian slowly lowered the Elder Wand. The brilliant emerald dome shielding him and Hermione smoothly dissolved into the damp air.
"Come, Hermione. We must head to the city," Hadrian commanded, his voice perfectly steady over the roar of the colossal battle. A shimmer of the disillusionment charm is placed on them both.
Hermione blinked in disbelief, her wand still tightly gripped in her hand. "We are not leaving?"
Hadrian turned his glowing emerald eyes toward the shattered ruins of the divine structure. "No. We need to do something far more important first."
"Where are we going?" Hermione asked.
"The Grand Temple of Rhoyne," Hadrian answered.
As they travelled into the city, they headed directly toward the Grand Temple. The sounds of the fight in the distance intensified, but they did not halt to look behind. The shattered ruins of the city, choked with thick undergrowth and pervasive dampness, gave the streets a dark, foreboding appearance. Soon, after turning down a few winding paths, they saw the destroyed remnants of the temple.
Hadrian immediately increased his pace.
"Father, what are we doing?" Hermione asked, unable to quell her curiosity.
"Hazkar trapped Mother Rhoyne to the statue she descended from. In return for this cage, he was corrupted by the Taint. He cannot make her speak of what happened a thousand years ago, but he hoped I could, or at the very least, that I could get answers regarding the tragedy that took place at Chroyane. Those answers will help us fight the Taint and prevent its spread." Hadrian didn't slow his stride as he answered. "Once we are done, we need to give him a sign. He will kill himself using his divinity, destroying all the Stone Men and likely the Shrouded Lord in the process."
Once they neared the steps of the ruined temple, they spotted multiple pitch-black stones scattered across the ground, each oozing a foul, black liquid.
Hadrian's expression grew deadly serious as he observed the dark stones. He summoned the Death Stick, casting several intricate observation spells over them before nodding to himself.
"These are links," he said.
"Links?" Hermione asked, confused.
"To the realm of the corruption. The Taint," Hadrian explained, his emerald eyes reflecting the dark ooze. "They are very similar to the black stone I saw in Sothoryos."
As Hadrian spoke, the dark liquid that had been sluggishly bleeding from the stones suddenly erupted. It gushed outward in thick, violent waves, pooling across the damp cobblestones. From the depths of the black ooze, shadowy entities began to rise.
They took the terrifying shape of towering, horned demons. They were entirely pitch black, lacking any discernible features or faces. Thick, viscous corruption continuously leaked from their bodies, dripping back into the mud as they reached out and manifested jagged, equally black weapons forged from their own dark essence.
Without a sound, the legion of demons charged.
Hadrian reacted instantly, raising the Elder Wand. "Protego Diabolica!"
A roaring ring of dark, protective fire erupted around him and Hermione. The intense heat scorched the damp air, but as the charging demons collided with the magical flames, the fire did not burn them. Instead, it hissed violently and dissolved. The corruption-soaked bodies of the demons and the surrounding mist aggressively devoured the magic, eating the mana until the protective ring was completely snuffed out.
Seeing the fire fail, Hermione stepped forward, thrusting her wand at the closest beast. "Bombarda Maxima! Confringo!"
The concussive and explosive curses struck the leading demon dead in the chest, but there was no detonation. The spells simply sank into the pitch-black liquid of its body and fizzled into nothingness, entirely absorbed by the Taint.
"Step back, Hermione!" Hadrian commanded. He slashed his wand through the air in a complex, aggressive arc. "Fiendfyre!"
A colossal, roaring serpent of cursed, sentient flame burst from the tip of his wand, diving directly into the heart of the demonic horde. The heat was apocalyptic, yet the demons simply marched through it. Their leaking bodies acted as a void, absorbing the dark magic. Within seconds, the apocalyptic flames withered and died, eaten alive by the corrupted mist.
Refusing to yield, Hadrian channelled his purest magic. "Expecto Patronum!"
A blinding, magnificent silver light erupted, taking the form of a massive owl. The radiant, positive energy slammed into the shadowy vanguard. For a fraction of a second, the demons faltered against the divine light, but then the black ooze surged forward. The corruption latched onto the patronus, dissolving the brilliant silver magic like acid eating through silk.
Hadrian sheathed the wand. Magic was useless.
In a flash of movement, he drew his goblin-steel broadsword. The heavy blade hummed as Hadrian bypassed his magical reserves entirely, engaging the horned beasts in brutal combat.
He ducked beneath a sweeping strike from a pitch-black halberd, driving his sword cleanly through the demon's torso. He spun on his heel, using the momentum to entirely sever the arm of a second attacker before bringing the broadsword up in a devastating arc that decapitated a third.
His physical skill vastly outmatched the mindless aggression of the horde. Yet, as the severed heads and limbs hit the mud, the battle took a horrifying turn. Thick tendrils of black liquid slithered rapidly from the oozing stones nearby, wrapping around the dismembered demons. In a matter of seconds, the limbs were violently pulled back together, seamlessly reattaching as the demons stood back up, completely unharmed.
Hadrian drove his boot into the chest of an advancing demon, knocking it back to buy himself a momentary breath. He quickly surveyed the regenerating horde and the dissolved remnants of his spells.
"They are mana-nullifying," Hadrian concluded, his voice cutting coldly through the chaos. Their bodies were designed to eat magic, and the environment itself rendered physical damage entirely meaningless.
He lowered his broadsword. His glowing emerald eyes flared, suddenly burning with radiant green light that pierced the gloom of the dead city.
He raised his free hand toward the broken canopy.
"Lemegeton!" Hadrian commanded, his voice echoing with an unnatural, ancient resonance.
The effect was violently instantaneous. The very fabric of reality seemed to buckle under a crushing weight as the legendary artifact was summoned. Absolute suppression slammed down upon the ruined temple square. The oppressive grey mist violently recoiled as it was forcefully pushed back from the epicentre of the summoning.
The horde of regenerating demons froze. They collectively took a staggering step backward. Even though they possessed no faces and spoke no words palpable terror roiled off their leaking bodies in thick waves seen just from the way the hunched and backed away.