[On Diagon Alley]
The battle was still going on.
The Aurors and Hit Wizards had already fallen back into Gringotts to make a stand.
This was Scrimgeour's order, but also a helpless choice forced by the real situation.
Because the number of Death Eaters far exceeded their expectations. Under a numerical suppression of this scale, even though each of them was well-trained and well-equipped, they could not avoid falling into a bitter struggle.
A massive number of Death Eaters were pouring in from the Knockturn Alley portal every moment.
All of them wore black robes and skull-shaped masks of various designs.
Amid their crazed, manic laughter, green flashes kept bursting.
Countless spells slammed against the Gringotts entrance, striking the Protego Totalum shield jointly maintained by the Aurors and Hit Wizards.
Ripples spread across the shield again and again.
Even with the protection and support of the two ancient alloy gates of Gringotts, the Aurors' and Hit Wizards' combined Protego Totalum barrier was breaking and collapsing nonstop.
And once a gap appeared, several beams of sickly green light carrying ominous energy would instantly shoot through the brief opening while the Aurors were trying to repair it, snatching the lives of those positioned at the rear.
Of course, the Aurors were not soft targets.
Their long, strict training helped them quickly adapt to this brutal fighting style, and they began deliberately opening tiny windows in the shield after gathering magic power. Then they would blast spells out through the opening to form a defensive counterattack, and finally repair the window instantly.
Sickly green and blood-red beams intertwined across the battlefield.
People on both sides fell every moment, but the next moment more fighters would take their place.
Screams and insane laughter mixed together.
Like fine wine at a banquet, adding yet another layer of brutality to this shocking feast.
Meanwhile, at a slightly farther distance from the battlefield before Gringotts, more Death Eaters had turned their attacks toward the shops lining the street.
The simple defensive spells on those storefronts could not withstand the Death Eaters' wild bombardment at all.
With explosion after explosion, walls kept being blown apart, and right after that the Death Eaters would cheer and rush inside, looting the shops completely.
This was obviously unwise.
In fact, if these Death Eaters had cared about the battle rather than indulging in their obsession with "zero-cost shopping," then with their numbers, several times that of the Aurors and Hit Wizards, they would have already broken into Gringotts long ago. The front battlefield wouldn't have become so brutal and deadlocked.
However, Voldemort, standing atop the Knockturn Alley portal overlooking everything, showed no intention of stopping them.
He understood very well.
Right now, the vast majority of these so-called Death Eaters could only be described with words like "rabble."
As Dark wizards, they actually weren't all that loyal to him, the Dark Lord.
Over the past ten-plus years, they had been suppressed by the Ministry for far too long.
At this moment, it was time for them to vent.
Letting them run wild for a while would greatly help in consolidating their loyalty.
And commerce was never something Voldemort valued.
What he wanted to build was an extremely centralized wizarding nation.
To achieve this ideal, manufacturing and education were the most crucial sectors.
If the place they conquered today were Hogwarts or an industrial district, Voldemort would certainly have forcibly suppressed the Death Eaters.
But Diagon Alley and Gringotts?
He wasn't bothered.
Business was something that would only require development and support after he established his regime and stabilized the situation.
Right now it wasn't worth mentioning at all.
Especially since Diagon Alley and Gringotts practiced free commerce, not the centrally controlled state-run commercial system he advocated.
If anything, Voldemort found their destructive behavior pleasing.
After all, this was damaging the very foundation of the Ministry of Magic.
Withdrawing his gaze from the chaotic scene below, Voldemort slowly looked up.
Up in the air, one green streak after another was being fired by the celebrating Death Eaters.
These green lights shot into the clouds and soon burst across the sky, forming one Dark Mark after another, nearly covering every inch of the visible sky, plunging previously bright Diagon Alley into oppressive darkness.
Voldemort only glanced at most of the Dark Marks before looking away.
His gaze stayed fixed on the one at the center, the Dark Mark cast by young Barty.
He was actually quite disappointed.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't understand why such a simple task had taken young Barty so many days without success, and why in the end he even resorted to the Dark Mark for help.
But though disappointed, Voldemort had no intention of abandoning young Barty.
After all, this was the only one in more than ten years who had remained loyal to him and truly succeeded in resurrecting him.
Someone like that must not be wronged.
Because young Barty was not only his benefactor but also the banner he would raise before all the old Death Eaters.
Voldemort needed young Barty to show the rest of them what glorious future awaited those who were loyal to him.
Of course, that banner-raising could wait.
The immediate priority remained seizing the Horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup.
Voldemort took a long breath, then suddenly raised his wand.
A thick pillar of green light shot upward, piercing the dark clouds.
In the next moment, with the green pillar as its center, the heavy clouds began to swirl, forming a terrifying vortex.
All the surrounding Dark Marks were slowly drawn in, gathered together, and condensed into a brand-new, unimaginably massive, terrifying Dark Mark.
"Hahahahahaha!"
Amid his hysterical laughter, Voldemort's lower body turned into black mist and rose into the air.
With a swing of his wand, a bolt of blood-red lightning crashed down, striking Gringotts at an angle.
BOOM!
The delayed thunder rolled across the sky.
A massive crack spread across the main tower of Gringotts, causing it to tilt.
The Death Eaters and Aurors still fighting on the battlefield in front of Gringotts felt the sky darken, and then they saw most of the towering building collapsing with countless huge chunks of rubble falling toward their heads.
The Death Eaters had better visibility, so they reacted faster.
Most of them Apparated away immediately to save their lives.
A few continued their fearless attacks, eyes glowing with insane bloodlust, they had clearly lost their sanity.
"Quick! Defend upward!"
The Aurors and Hit Wizards were nowhere near as lucky.
Behind them was Gringotts, there was no option to run.
At the shout of the person leading them, nearly everyone redirected their wands upward, forcibly shifting the Protego Totalum shield overhead.
But was that… really enough?
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM…
The severed half of Gringotts' building collapsed completely.
Explosions thundered without pause.
The massive force from the collapse shook the entire area violently, and a powerful shockwave swept everything away in a cloud of dust.
After a long time, the echoes of the explosions finally faded, and the smoke gradually dispersed.
Because the entrance was narrow, the Aurors who had stayed deeper inside Gringotts had been spared, and now they stepped out from what remained of the building, covered in ash, hoping for a miracle.
But what met their eyes… was endless ruins.
The original battlefield had been replaced by rubble and flames. The Aurors and Hit Wizards who had fought at the very front, defending dignity with their lives, had vanished without a trace.
The noisy crowd instantly fell silent.
Shock beyond words appeared on every face.
They all knew exactly what fate had befallen those warriors…
But before anyone could sink into grief, a dark figure streaked through the air from afar.
That figure was wrapped in black mist, exposing only a pale, noseless, hideous face.
Blood-red lightning crackled around him, and an extremely ominous, terrifying aura weighed heavily on every heart below.
And behind him, farther away…
More Death Eaters were rushing toward them, cheering and laughing madly.
In this situation, not even the greediest, most selfish person would continue obsessing over "free shopping."
Because they all understood, that was just a tiny profit.
Once Gringotts was breached, wouldn't the massive piles of Galleons in the underground vaults be theirs for the taking?
In an instant, it was like scavengers celebrating over the corpse of an elephant.
The countless Death Eaters, like vultures, circled and screeched over Gringotts, with Voldemort as their center, their momentum overwhelming.
The remaining Hit Wizards and Aurors were on the verge of collapse.
No one had the mind to organize any defense or counterattack.
All of them stared at the sky, mouths open in despair.
And in truth, counterattacking would be pointless.
Before a legendary power like Voldemort, no matter how coordinated the Aurors were, they were nothing but slightly stronger ants, utterly meaningless.
"Die!"
With Voldemort's ferocious command, terrifying blood lightning poured into Gringotts again.
And close behind it came the Death Eaters, scrambling to rush in first.
Gringotts…
Was broken through…
———
Inside the underground vault complex of Gringotts.
The terrifying Fiendfyre serpent had already been dispersed by Link.
The shattered stones of the vault gate had been quickly cleared away by the group, and a cavern as large as the Australian Opaleye cave from before finally appeared before their eyes.
From floor to ceiling, the cave was packed tight with gold coins and goblets, silver armor, furs of strange magical creatures with spines or wings, potion bottles filled with brews, and even a skull still wearing a crown.
Under the flickering glow of wandlight, the reflections from the coins and jewels lit the entire cavern in dazzling brilliance.
Seeing all this… everyone present sucked in a breath of cold air.
By nature, humans are not very different from the dragons of legend.
Both love anything shiny.
Otherwise the ancestors of humankind would never have chosen copper, silver, gold, and gemstones as symbols of wealth.
When such an enormous amount of treasure is suddenly piled before you, the shocking feeling that makes your whole body tremble and your heart stop is nothing like staring at a string of numbers on paper.
"Hmph!"
Krell gave a cold snort.
The hunters behind him all lowered their heads to hide the greed in their eyes.
Seeing this, the gloomy look on Krell's face eased slightly.
He knew these hunters all too well.
Legal hunting and even poaching magical creatures was extremely dangerous; people often betrayed or killed each other for a bit of profit.
By any rational measure, these hunters were not good people.
Such men must be controlled with dominance.
Treating them kindly would only make them push further.
Krell was thinking this when Link suddenly said with a smile, "It's fine. My only goal is Hufflepuff's cup. As for the rest of this treasure, take whatever you can carry, I won't take a single coin."
The hunters, who had just lowered their heads, immediately snapped them back up.
Every face was filled with disbelief.
The quick-reacting ones had already pounced toward the treasures they had long been eyeing.
But the moment they touched the items, they screamed and stumbled back.
Looking at their palms, they were covered in burns and blisters.
And the treasures they had grabbed split apart in midair as they fell, multiplying into many copies.
A second later, following a loud crackling sequence of pops, the floor was rolling with countless identical items, it was impossible to tell which one had been the original.
"The goblins put both the Gemino Curse and the Flagrante Curse on everything!" Link said.
"Without a goblin counter-spell, anything you touch will burn and multiply, but the copies are worthless. If you keep touching the treasure, you'll eventually be buried alive under the gold!"
As he spoke, Link used his water-control ability to crush the endlessly multiplying fake coins and jewels, and at the same time, under the effect of the Sensory Charm, his massive mental power swept across the entire vault, easily locating the cup buried in the piles.
Then a thin thread of cursed power shot into the pile, wrapped tightly around the cup, and yanked it free.
The process caused a huge commotion.
Fake Galleons and jewels poured like a waterfall across the floor; now there was hardly any space left to stand. The scorching gold radiated intense heat, the vault felt like a furnace.
And then the cup fell into Link's hand.
Under the double cleansing of cursed power and water manipulation, the Gemino and Flagrante curses on it were completely wiped away, so it didn't multiply like the other objects.
"I'll repeat it, as long as you have the ability, you can take anything here. I only need this."
After saying that, Link carried Hufflepuff's cup out of the vault.
The remaining hunters looked at one another, then at the mountain of mixed real and fake treasure, and finally gritted their teeth and lunged toward it.
Meanwhile, Link's full attention was already focused on the cup in his hand.
The cup had an ancient look.
It had two finely crafted gold handles, and the body was engraved with symbolic, intricate designs.
According to legend, its creator, Lady Helga Hufflepuff, had given it rather wondrous abilities.
It could accelerate and improve the preparation of ingredients and potion materials, making cooking and potion-making better in quality.
It was also the first vessel in Hogwarts used to assist house-elves in magically transporting food.
Quite commemorative.
The cup was different from the Slytherin locket from before.
There were no defensive enchantments placed upon it, it could easily be destroyed with cursed power.
But Link did not want to do that.
[🎉 Shoutout to Kaustup, Gonzalo, Tiago and Roger for joining patreon. Thank you very much.🤗]