“To catch the bandit, first catch the king. Although I don't know what magic Olena used to control the Dementors and Inferi.”
“But if I want to get rid of the Dementors and Inferi, I must deal with her first!”
Weilan stared at her intently, seeing Olena’s scorched skin completely healed.
“If her healing ability comes from some ancient magic, then can the ancient magic I possess break her healing limit?”
The struggle with the Dementors was slowly draining Weilan’s stamina. Some Inferi gradually learned to block Weilan’s position based on the Dementors behind him.
Weilan had no choice but to use the storm generated by the Thunderbrew, combined with the hard skin armor provided by the Edrus Potion, to forcefully break through the Inferi’s encirclement.
He didn't know how much longer it would take Professor Dumbledore to find this place.
The Dementors and Inferi formed a large circle on the outskirts of the clearing, surrounding him and Olena.
It seemed someone was trying to break through the encirclement from outside. Weilan saw the silver light of a Patronus flickering through the Dementors’ hollow bodies.
But these efforts did not have their intended effect—the enemies were too numerous, and their strength was too weak.
However, Carson, or Mrs. Lupin’s spellcasting on the periphery was effective.
They temporarily diverted Olena’s attention. This Veela had to divert her focus to command more Inferi and Dementors to hold the positions of the two Aurors.
There was only a split-second opportunity.
Weilan, like a ghost, glided to Olena’s side with lightning speed.
Kicking Olena’s vulnerable knee with his right foot and pushing her back with his elbow, Weilan instantly brought the woman, who was a head taller than him, to the ground.
Weilan pressed his entire body weight onto Olena’s upper body while tightly gripping her throat with both hands.
“Mr. Carson, Mrs. Lupin, quickly get away—”
With a roar, Weilan activated the ancient magic, Falling Thunder.
This was Weilan’s first time practicing this magic, but he handled it with such ease, as if the magic was inherently etched into his bones and flesh.
In an instant, countless bolts of lightning descended upon the clearing. The surging, roaring immense energy crushed all the Inferi into dust.
After the Falling Thunder disappeared, all the Inferi were cleared away, leaving only some Dementors, scattered by the Patronuses of a wolf and a parrot.
“Weilan, are you alright?”
Mrs. Lupin’s concerned voice came:
“Hagrid knows the way, we sent him to get reinforcements.”
“We’ve been trying to save you from outside, but there were too many Inferi and Dementors—and fire is ineffective against these Inferi. What was that powerful Falling Thunder magic? Are you hurt?”
Weilan shook his head, looking at Olena beneath him.
She was completely electrocuted into a charred corpse.
“She should… be dead, right?”
Weilan was pulled up by Mrs. Lupin, unsure.
“Let’s go quickly,” Mrs. Lupin said. “These Dementors are too terrifying.”
Carson was controlling the parrot Patronus, clearing a path for them to leave.
Weilan stuffed the Invisibility Cloak back into his bag and was about to leave with Mrs. Lupin when he suddenly heard a rustling sound behind him.
He turned back in horror, seeing Olena standing up again.
“You two go quickly, don’t worry about me.”
Weilan, with his backpack on, decisively let go of Mrs. Lupin’s hand:
“Her goal is to capture me alive, so don’t worry about me dying.”
“But…”
She and Carson showed obvious hesitation.
“No buts, she will kill you without mercy!”
After saying this, Weilan pushed Mrs. Lupin towards the exit.
“Go! With our strength, we can’t deal with that Veela!” Carson gritted his teeth and made the optimal decision, pulling Mrs. Lupin and disappearing at the edge of the clearing, down the path Hagrid had cleared.
Weilan slowly turned around, facing his enemy with unprecedented calmness.
The Veela—Olena—whose charred skin was constantly flaking off, revealing delicate, smooth, normal skin.
“Let me guess, your devil’s powder—those addictive green powders—were prepared for creating Inferi, weren’t they?”
Weilan could now connect the strange incidents he had encountered since the start of the school year:
“These House-elves were also poisoned by your design, weren’t they?”
“I don’t know how you lured Oni. Perhaps you arranged more than one way for the devil’s powder to flow into Hogwarts. It just so happened that the path Oni was on was completed the fastest.”
“You wanted to station yourself at Hogwarts, but you’re not good at close combat, so you wanted to cultivate your own strength at Hogwarts.”
“You couldn’t openly entice students, so you used devil’s powder to create Inferi.”
“Those devil’s powder wouldn’t actively attract creatures to consume them, but as a disseminator of the devil’s powder, you should be able to temporarily change its properties… Am I right?”
“You chose a very clever time to change the devil’s powder’s properties, causing the House-elves to uncontrollably eat the devil’s powder. If the time had been delayed just a little, those devil’s powder would have been sent into the students’ stomachs.”
“Students couldn’t eat this. On one hand, you didn’t want to blow things up, and on the other hand, students’ bodies would be taken away from Hogwarts by their parents.”
“Only House-elves, no one cares about their lives or deaths, and their bodies after death would most likely be buried at Hogwarts.”
“You used their bodies to create Inferi, to enhance your strength during your stay at Hogwarts.”
While listening to Weilan, Olena used magic to weave a black robe onto her gradually healing body.
“Clever darling! You’ve got almost everything right, but just one thing—”
Olena grinned: “I don’t need to painstakingly dig up corpses and then use Dark Arts to turn them into Inferi.”
“Devil’s powder—since you all call it that, then I’ll reluctantly go along with you.”
“Those creatures who die from devil’s powder, their bodies will automatically transform into Inferi after death. All it takes is one command from me, and they can break out of the ground!”
“Moreover, devil’s powder can strengthen the Inferi’s power, preventing them from being easily eliminated by fire.”
“No wonder…” Weilan muttered, thinking of the earth pits that had broken open from the inside out when he first arrived at the clearing.
So, those who died from consuming devil’s powder have actually become Olena’s… Inferi?!
She must have been planning for a very long time.
Dementors circled Weilan, but Olena prevented them from approaching Weilan to give him a Dementor’s Kiss.
“I must be of great value to Olena,” Weilan thought to himself. “So she’s not in a hurry to kill me or push me to a dead end.”
Weilan took a deep breath.
Since this woman was soft on him, he definitely had to stall until Dumbledore arrived to save the day.
“Barty said the serial murders were planned by you,” Weilan asked her. “What was your purpose? Why did you break your promise and kill his son?”
“Good question!” Olena clapped softly. “This involves my purpose in ‘inviting’ you.”
“Inviting?” Weilan scoffed at her. “Direct kidnapping? Is that your invitation?”