An: I dunno how much of a cliffhanger it was in the last chapter, because it seems pretty obvious that for the sake of this story, there is only 1 outcome that is really possible but hey, there's some very cool stuff coming up pretty soon, this story is finally beginning to get really interesting, even if it's taken me nearly 70k words to get it here!
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE, PLEASE READ: I have just gotten a very disturbing review from a user by the name of Arnie1702.
He has written:
"Reported. You have been found breaking of rules by TAPIR forum and you will be mass reported by us and you will be banned. Enjoy your ban rule breaker.
Mach The Slewfoot,
Admin of TAPIR forum."
For those of you who don't know what TAPIR is, I didn't either, I've looked them up and they seem to be some kind of plagiarism forum for FFNet.
Not only is it EXTREMELY offensive to me to be accused of plagiarism, I am also honestly not sure what the validity of that claim is. The review was left on my first chapter, indicating that the claimant didn't even READ my story before finding it to violate TAPIR guidelines.
I believe that Arnie himself is likely a troll, but I don't know whether he has actually reported me to TAPIR or what, I haven't heard of them before this, and I honestly do not know whether this story is under danger of being taken down.
I have put a significant amount of the last 2 years into writing this story. I know I'm not the best of writers, and most of you reading this likely know that too. However, I have always tried to write to the best of my ability, and I believe that, with the help of lots of constructive reviews, and a lot of practise at writing, I have become a far better writer than I was before.
Whatever your opinion of my writing is, I do not mind it, I understand why people may not like what I write or how I write, that is completely okay with me, however, I would just like to say that everything that has been posted on this story has been written in its entirety by me. Nothing in any story of mine on FFNet has been plagiarised.
That said, thanks to all of you who continue to read my work on this site, I hope you enjoy this chapter and the rest of this story, hell, I hope I am allowed to write the rest of this story.
If anyone has any idea on how TAPIR works, or knows anything about what Arnie said, please PM me, I don't know how legitimately worried I should be. The only action I have taken is sending a PM to one of the mods of TAPIR.
Sorry to all for the extremely long AN, but I am actually worried about this.
Now, on with the chapter.
*** Present
Pure energy continued to shoot out of Babajide's hands, in a large steady burst, it hit Voldemort straight-on, cutting through the wave of darkness which had come up to protect the Dark Lord.
A jet of darkness came to counter it but it was failing slowly, unfortunately, so was Babajide's strength, but he seemed to keep on pushing his magic into it.
The stream of Darkness failed and the pure magic crashed into Voldemort.
It hit the Dark Lord straight in the chest.
Voldemort threw back his head and screamed, his body being flung far away from Babajide, leaving a scorching trail of destruction in its path.
Babajide fell to his knees, his magic exhausted for the moment, completely spent from the exertion.
Anu rushed over to him, catching the far larger man with little effort.
Babajide's eyes rolled back into his head.
Anu didn't know whether to be exasperated at her old friend or to rejoice in awe that The Darkness' greatest servant had just been taken down by Baba.
The more pragmatic Cyril, approached what seemed to be the corpse of the Dark Lord lying far in the distance with a raised wand.
It was a gruesome sight.
The stream had cut through Voldemort's chest, there were obvious signs of burning, and blood and organs had gone flying everywhere.
Ribs seemed to be cracked and Voldemort's neck was at an odd angle.
Cyril lowered his wand in relief, leaning down to take Voldemort's pulse, just in case.
Not feeling anything he got back up, turning his back to the corpse, beginning to yell something to his comrades who were still quite a way away, Anu supporting the unconscious body of Babajide.
Then he heard something rustle behind him.
Cyril turned, wondering whether some of the Death Eaters that fled upon assault from him and Anu had returned to check on their master.
Cyril had not thought that there could be a more gruesome sight than that of Voldemort's dead body, but what appeared before him was perhaps even worse.
The 'corpse' of Voldemort was standing on 2 feet, darkness swirled around it's chest, flowing in and taking the place of destroyed organs and coming out to sew the Dark Lord's chest shut.
His broken neck snapped into place awkwardly, a shard of bone sticking out of his neck.
"That wasn't very nice." Voldemort crooned, his broken body being held together by The Darkness.
Shadows coalesced around the Dark Lord.
Cyril stumbled back a few steps involuntarily, the magic radiating off Voldemort was enough to make the formidable wizard scared to the bone.
The normally-brave Greek tried to apparate out, his comrades be damned, but after a second of trying felt like he'd run straight into a brick wall.
The Greek Wizard whimpered in the face of the strongest force of evil he had ever faced.
"Anu…" he whispered slowly, "ANU!" he yelled louder.
The Indian witch looked towards him cheerfully before her smile faltered at the sight of the Dark Lord.
Blades of darkness flew at Cyril.
The Greek wizard moved out of instinct, despite his fear, a wall of rock emerging out of the ground to block the strikes, but shattering uselessly as The Darkness tore straight through his formidable defense like a hot knife through butter.
Cyril let out a primal scream of pain as several knifes of Darkness tore into his skin.
His well-trained mind brokenly noted that none of his injuries were fatal.
The Dark Lord wanted to play with his prey.
Cyril knew better than to pull out the knives of Darkness which were embedded all over his body.
The Greek tried to drag himself to his feet, unable to stop the mewls of pain as he attempted to stand back up.
His Indian companion had come running, her wand blazing, spells flying at magnificent rates, all of them extremely lethal.
The body of Voldemort simply stood there, taking all the spells to his person.
His bones crunched, his blood boiled and if the swelling in his chest indicated anything, his lungs turned inside out.
Voldemort laughed, his boiling blood gushing out of his mouth.
The Darkness enveloped him, standing in for bones and fixing his lungs.
With a flick of his hand, bindings of Darkness flew from his hand to bind the Indian witch, who dove out of the way, having learnt from Cyril's takedown that there was no way in hell she could counter the Dark Lord's attacks herself.
"Clever girl!" Voldemort said, as if talking to a favoured pet, vaguely gesturing with his hand, causing the restraints of Darkness to fly at Anu once more.
A wall of fire met the darkness, but it seemed to flicker out of existence as it touched the magic of it's foe.
The restraints flew into Anu, crashing her down to the floor, surely breaking at least a few of the witch's bones.
Despite the obvious damage, the Indian witch didn't even flinch.
Voldemort lazily made the restraints tighten around her to extreme levels, cutting into her skin. Anu didn't let out any sign she was affected by the bindings, choosing to glare at the Dark Lord with hateful eyes instead.
"I have to punish the bad boys and girls!" Voldemort remarked, as if to explain his torture relative to the quick deaths of the aurors.
With a flick of his wand, which he had drawn for the first time in this duel, he had placed Anu under the cruciatus curse.
Despite not having shown any signs of pain to the arguably insane levels of pain the Dark Lord had already put her under, even Anu could not remain unfazed by the cruciatus.
A screech of pain was drawn from her lips.
Cyril, who had managed to get to his feet was feebly sending spells at Voldemort.
With a flick of his wrist, the knives of Darkness still embedded in the Greek wizard all dissolved into nothingness, leaving his body to start bleeding out.
Without another word, Cyril charged at the Dark Lord, swiping his wand aggressively, but to no avail.
He was simply flung aside by the Dark Lord, who seemed to be getting bored of this whole ordeal.
In her pain, Anu barely noticed the slight telltale pop of apparition accompanied by a sprightly "Good Morning!" being spoken by a cheerful voice.
Anu turned her head as much as she could, the cruciatus curse on her having been momentarily dropped as Voldemort himself surveyed the new arrival.
Anu's eyes finally landed on the poor soul who had landed up there at that very moment.
Pierre Moreau.
*** End of Chapter
An: I would once again like to reiterate that if you have any idea what is up with the entire Arnie/TAPIR thing, please PM me.