"This is bad! This is truly bad..." Dumbledore immediately recalled that Wade had seemed to absorb that kind of magical power from Aurelius just now.
Back in that chamber, Dumbledore and the others had recognized that this kind of magic carried severe side effects, which was why they had destroyed it and sealed the chamber afterward. And just now, Wade had absorbed all of that magic.
In other words… he was now being controlled by the side effects!!
The others were also alerted by Dumbledore's reaction and followed his gaze. They were all shocked by the boy's appearance.
"Ke.. keke..keheheh.. Kehehehe…" Wade Reynolds lifted his head, revealing blood-red eyes. A chilling laugh escaped his lips as his wand slowly began to rise.
"Wade! What's wrong with you?" Nagini stared at him in shock.
"Is it… is it because of me…" Aurelius looked at him with a pale face, his expression full of guilt.
Dumbledore stepped forward and stood in front of the boy, looking at his student with anguish. "Wade! Wake up! I know you can hear me!"
The movement of raising his wand indeed stopped. Wade covered half of his face with his left hand, and a painful groan came from his mouth. At this moment, the figure in the distant forest also looked uncertain when seeing him like this.
"Wade! Wake up! Use your willpower! I believe you can definitely control yourself!" Dumbledore said anxiously.
The veins on the boy's left hand bulged as he covered his face, while his exposed blood-red right eye suddenly locked onto Dumbledore.
"Ke heh heh heh…" The eerie laughter appeared again. "Control? Control what? I feel great right now!~~~ This feeling~~ Kehehehe!"
Hearing this, even the hand holding the Elder Wand began to tremble.
"Quick… all of you, retreat into the stone house. Leave this to me," Dumbledore said calmly. But everyone could hear a trace of panic beneath his composed voice.
"I'll help you…" After sending Nagini and Aurelius into the stone house, Aberforth stepped back to Dumbledore's side. Wade Reynolds had ended up like this while trying to save Aurelius; if anything irreversible happened, Aberforth would never be able to forgive himself.
"Wade… I know you're not like this. You're a good boy, aren't you?" Dumbledore said gently as he slowly walked toward him.
"A good boy?" Wade tilted his head. "What's so fun about being a good boy? I've got much more interesting things to do…"
"Wade, listen to me—"
"Keke~! Avada Kedavra!"
Green light illuminated the forest outside the stone house. Dumbledore reacted instantly. Almost the moment the Killing Curse was cast, he raised his wand and unleashed a blazing red spell. The red and green spell beams collided violently.
Boom!
The Killing Curse, amplified severalfold by Wade's descent into darkness, collided with Dumbledore's Disarming Charm, which he dared not unleash at full power because he did not want to harm his student.
For a moment, it actually held its ground.
Aberforth, of course, did not stand there idly. While his brother and Wade were locked in a "spell-welding contest," he flicked his wand and cast a Petrification Curse. However, a stone wall suddenly rose in front of him, not only blocking his spell but also sprouting several sharp spikes from its surface.
If Aberforth had not dodged in time, he would have been almost pinned to the wall.
Seeing this, Dumbledore had no choice but to increase the power of his spell.
Boom!
The balance of the duel shifted abruptly.
Dumbledore's red spell beam began to slowly devour the green beam, inching closer and closer to the boy's wand.
Wade pressed his lips together and brought his previously free left hand up to grip the wand as well. Only when he held the wand with both hands did he finally stop the decline.
"Wade! Wake up!" Dumbledore shouted loudly.
At this moment, Aberforth made another move. Seeing this, Wade sharply flicked his wand upward, and his figure vanished from the spot. Aberforth's Stunning Spell missed its target.
"Apparition?" Aberforth exclaimed.
Dumbledore said nothing more, and his figure vanished as well.
Boom!
Snap!
Boom!
Snap!
Boooom!
The figures of Wade Reynolds and Dumbledore kept Apparating across the field, countless powerful spells shooting through the air, triggering a chain of terrifying explosions around them. The sight left Aberforth stunned.
But even if he wanted to help now, he could hardly intervene. The two of them were moving too fast.
Back then, what happened to Ariana had also been Aberforth's nightmare…
And it was not only Aberforth who was stunned. Nagini and Aurelius, watching from the window of the stone house, were also terrified.
Wade was actually fighting Dumbledore to the death? And with such overwhelming power… could a teenager really possess this level of strength?
At the same time, the figure in the dense forest finally could not hold back any longer and stepped out of the shadows.
Grindelwald looked at the boy who was locked in an intense battle with Dumbledore, his eyes filled with delight.
Even though Dumbledore was holding back at every turn, for a boy barely in his teens to fight him to this extent was already unimaginably powerful.
Sure enough, his prophecy had not been wrong. Only such a genius could play a crucial role in his future plans. But a genius like this could not be allowed to fall here because of an accident.
So Grindelwald walked out of the forest, took out a brand-new wand, and swiftly joined the battle. The fight that Aberforth could not keep up with posed no difficulty for Grindelwald.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The thunderous collisions of spells and explosions raged across the area. Aberforth had no choice but to stand in front of the stone house, guarding it closely, afraid that the spells of the three would tear the house apart.
With Grindelwald's intervention, Wade's offensive could no longer pose any real threat. At this moment, Wade—who had hidden his consciousness and was watching his body, dominated by murderous instinct—was completely stunned when he saw Grindelwald appear.
Wait, I'm fighting Dumbledore and Grindelwald alone? Seriously?
Unsurprisingly, the body driven only by combat instinct was quickly pinned to the ground by the combined efforts of the two legends.
Thud!
Grindelwald raised his wand and fired a Stunning Spell into Wade's back. His body went limp and collapsed to the ground, falling unconscious. Of course, it was only the bloodthirsty consciousness born from negative emotions that was knocked out.
Wade's true consciousness was hiding and watching the scene unfold.
Still, when he looked at his own body, covered in wounds, he could not help baring his teeth in pain.
Was this act of playing the victim a bit too real?
This was all Grindelwald's fault. When he had been fighting Dumbledore, he had clearly been in control of the rhythm.
All he needed was to interfere with his body at the critical moment, let Dumbledore defeat him, put on a mild show of suffering, and everything would have been over.
Who could have expected Grindelwald to suddenly appear? That old man kept saying Wade Reynolds would be of great help to his future cause, yet he struck with such brutal force.
Old man… just you wait!
Seeing the boy subdued, Dumbledore finally let out a sigh of relief. He looked worriedly at the figure lying limp on the ground, and no longer had any interest in questioning why Grindelwald had appeared here.
"What do we do now?" Aberforth walked over, glared at Grindelwald, then asked his brother.
"Let's take him back to the castle first," Dumbledore said with a frown. "I need to find a way to remove that kind of magic from his body…"
"What exactly is going on? Shouldn't you explain it to me first? As a senior investigator of the Ministry of Magic, I have the right to know the whole story!" Grindelwald said seriously.
Wade was crucial to his plans, so he could not afford to let him die here. That was why Grindelwald also wanted to understand the situation and restore the boy to normal.
Dumbledore frowned in thought for a moment, recalling Grindelwald's attainments in Dark Magic, and then said reluctantly, "Then come with us. We'll talk after we return to the castle."
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