Chapter 751: Stalemate
Chapter 751: Stalemate
After finally uttering the name of the woman he had loved his entire life and felt guilty about for half of it, Snape sighed as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The depth of his black eyes seemed to lose something, becoming vacant, lifeless, and empty. His head, which had just been raised, fell to the ground, and his body lay still.
"Betrayal, deception", Voldemort said angrily to Snape's corpse. "You admitted to me that there was another woman in the world, one with purer blood, more worthy of you—this was all a lie. You actually deceived the great Dark Lord for a Mudblood woman who didn't choose you."
With these words, Voldemort's eyes blazed with fury, and he angrily cast a spell that struck Snape's body, reducing it to ashes that mingled with the blood and the silvery-blue substance on the ground. He then violently flicked his robe, raised his wand, and shattered the roof, flying into the air.
After floating through the hole in the roof, Voldemort waved his wand and began to chant a spell. As the final words of the spell echoed, a blinding white beam shot from his wand, shattering the protective shield of Hogwarts Castle. He then raised his head in anger and shouted in Parseltongue, "Nagini!"
"Long live the Dark Lord!" The Death Eaters, who couldn't understand Parseltongue, cheered when they saw the protective shield of Hogwarts destroyed by the Dark Lord. The low morale, previously dampened by various setbacks, soared.
Hearing the cry of "Long live the Dark Lord", the Hogwarts guards immediately grew tense. With the most crucial protective shield gone, this cry signaled the beginning of the final battle.
"Charge!" A leading Death Eater cautiously confirmed that Hogwarts' protective shield was completely gone, then stood at the front and shouted. The dark crowd surged forward.
"Now—" Professor Mcgonagall turned to face everyone, raising her wand, intending to say something to boost morale. But as she habitually looked up, her eyes widened in shock, and her face showed utter astonishment.
Seeing Professor Mcgonagall's sudden change in expression, the others instinctively followed her gaze, turning to look at the top of the castle. They were greeted with an extremely shocking sight: a floating castle now hovered low above Hogwarts Castle.
"I am pleased to introduce my secret weapon for this war, the Aerial Fortress", Liam said, a slight smile curling at the corners of his mouth. Using magic to amplify his voice, he ensured everyone, friend and foe, could hear him. "And I have also prepared an army to hold back the Obsidian Puppets that nearly cover the entire clearing."
As Liam spoke, ten openings appeared on the hemispherical bottom of the Aerial Fortress, and black dots shot out from them. As these dots drew closer to the ground, it became clear that they were two-meter-tall, four-legged robots.
Under the influence of magic, the robots' descent slowed just before they reached the ground, and they landed safely. They quickly formed a steel barrier between the Death Eaters and Hogwarts Castle.
By the time the Death Eaters recovered from their shock and launched their charge, the defenders within the castle retaliated with spells. In an instant, spells of every color filled the clearing outside the castle.
A few seconds after the exchange of fire, the first wave of Voldemort's Obsidian Gargoyle Puppets collided with the line of Liam's Steam Robots. The massive creatures made a deafening noise upon impact, and occasional explosions formed mushroom clouds on the battlefield.
These explosions were caused by the Steam Robots that had charged into the Death Eater ranks. Liam had equipped them with self-destruct devices filled with Bomb Cherries. Clearly, the Death Eaters hiding behind the puppets had not anticipated this move, and Liam saw several of them fall, never to rise again, as they were struck by the fragments of magic-infused metal from the explosions.
Unfortunately, the enchanted Metal fragments flying at high speed had little effect on the Obsidian Puppets, only managing to leave a few shallow scratches on their hard surfaces. After the initial assault, the Death Eaters, having realized this, slowed their advance and formed the puppets into a dense formation at the front.
This, however, gave Liam's Steam Robots the opportunity to land. Over time, more and more robots descended from the Aerial Fortress, and they were reinforced by the statues from Hogwarts. The defensive line visibly thickened and strengthened.
Soon after the engagement, the Death Eaters realized that without taking down the Aerial Fortress, they couldn't even approach the walls, let alone storm the castle as planned. Due to the distance, only a few spells managed to hit the Aerial Fortress, and they were easily deflected by the protective shield it emitted.
Of course, Liam's side also suffered losses. The Steam Robots, being cheap and expendable, had initially caught the Death Eaters off guard with their self-detonations, but the exchange rate afterward was grim. Even with the help of numerous wizards, it took the sacrifice of five or six robots to destroy a single Obsidian Puppet.
Moreover, with the Death Eaters outnumbering the Guards, the Hogwarts defenders were fighting a tough battle. Liam saw two stone beasts, usually guarding the entrance to the staff room, being hit by curses as they tried to rush out to support the front lines. They were reduced to several chunks, writhing weakly on the floor, moaning, "Oh, just leave me... let me lie here and die..."
"Truly lucky", Lupin said with a relieved expression, having just stunned a Death Eater with a spell and taking cover behind a wall as several dangerous spells flew past. He had dodged just in time, as his previous position was hit by at least three or four spells in that instant.
"What do you mean, lucky?" Liam deflected a spell aimed at him with his wand, then disintegrated an extremely active obsidian baboon with a pink light before dodging a barrage of spells from the Death Eaters. Leaning against a sturdy stone wall, he shouted to Lupin a few meters away, "I think being ambushed today is the greatest misfortune we could have."
"I mean, it's lucky Dora just had her baby and couldn't come today, or I would be worrying about her in this situation—" Lupin's words were cut short when he saw a Werewolf hit by a Killing Curse, falling off the wall into the castle.
"Fortunately, the Protective Suit absorbed the impact, but he won't be able to fight anymore", Liam poked his head out to check and saw Zhang Qiu quickly run to the fallen Werewolf, examine him, and levitate him into the castle with her wand, giving Liam an OK sign.
"That's a relief", Lupin sighed, then continued fighting. Liam, as the focus of the Death Eaters' concentrated fire, ran in the opposite direction, firing spells to destroy the powerful Obsidian Puppets.
Liam's strategy was to draw out Voldemort. Just as he knew that eliminating Voldemort was the core of the war, Voldemort was aware that he could only breach Hogwarts Castle and kill Harry by eliminating Liam. However, Liam was hiding inside the castle with others, and while Voldemort was arrogant, he wasn't foolish enough to think he could storm the castle alone and defeat Liam under the combined assault of a large group.
For Voldemort, the key was to break the stalemate and kill Liam as quickly as possible, or he would face complete failure once Dumbledore returned.
(End of Chapter)
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