"More than three hundred Galleons! That was just the price he tossed out casually. What does that tell you? That he only has a little over three hundred Galleons? No. It proves the wealth behind him is impossible to measure. But now it's all gone, all gone, because of you, you idiot!"
Schneider waved his arms wildly in fury.
The elegance vanished from Theodore's face. He rubbed at his forehead, already sensing that the expressions on his subordinates' faces as they looked at him had become a little strange.
"No need to panic. Maybe he's carrying some kind of container for storing Galleons on him. Search him. We might still find something."
As he spoke, Theodore started walking toward the center of the magical bombardment, where the smoke and dust were gradually thinning, but then he suddenly stopped.
Because in the fading smoke, he saw a figure slowly walking out without a single scratch.
"Ever heard of the rule of smoke but no damage?" Leonard casually tore away the black robe that had been scorched through by the flames, revealing a face horrifying enough to shred anyone's sanity.
"Now it's my turn."
To be honest, the situation had turned out a little differently from what he had expected.
Originally, he had planned to make a powerful entrance and wipe out a whole crowd the moment they swarmed him, but in the end only one person had come close. It really took the shine off his dramatic debut.
"Monster!"
A look of terror appeared on Theodore's face. Even a fire dragon could not possibly have come through a combined attack from so many wizards completely unharmed. Was this thing a fire dragon wearing human skin?
Instinctively, he raised his wand. A sickly green light began to gather across his twisted features.
At this point, forget capturing him alive. Theodore was now more worried that this monster might tear him to pieces.
The Killing Curse.
The ghastly green beam shot out in an instant. As a wizard who worshipped dark magic, Theodore had invested more time into the Killing Curse than any other spell, all in the hope that one day he might cast it wandlessly, or even silently.
So he was extremely confident in the speed of his casting. Not just ordinary wizards, even battle-hardened Hit Wizards would not be able to react in time.
With casting speed like that, Theodore had secretly killed quite a few wizards.
This monster in front of him might have come through a storm of dark curses untouched, but it would absolutely fall before the Killing Curse.
Absolutely.
Leonard looked at the Killing Curse flying toward him and smiled faintly. He raised his right hand, and branches glowing with silver light instantly wrapped around his palm. In the next moment, he caught the incoming Killing Curse in his bare hand and crushed it with ease.
The forest fell silent.
Through the dissipating smoke, the wizards Theodore had brought for the ambush saw the scene before them and felt their minds go blank.
This world had to be fake.
How could anyone catch a Killing Curse with their bare hand, let alone crush it?
Since when could that thing even be crushed?
The hope on Theodore's face turned to horror. He stumbled backward in panic, only to suddenly feel something tighten around his leg, followed by a prickling pain like needles piercing flesh.
He instinctively looked down and realized that the grassy ground had, at some point, become covered in vines. More than a dozen of them had already coiled around his calves like venomous snakes. Their sharp thorns pierced straight through his tailored formal clothes, through his skin, and began sucking his blood.
"Ah! What is this thing? Get off me!"
"Don't wrap around me!"
"What the hell is this thing? Run... my legs. Help me, someone help me!"
Screams tore through the silence of the forest. One by one, Theodore's subordinates were caught by the vines.
Some were relatively lucky. Though the vines had torn up their legs and left them bloody, their lives were not immediately in danger.
But some panicked and tried to run. The tightly wrapped vines tripped them, and the moment they fell, the vines surged over them like sharks smelling blood. Barbed tendrils coiled around their bodies and bit deep into flesh, making wet sounds like meat being chewed apart.
At first there were miserable screams, but only for a few seconds. Then the cries vanished, leaving behind only still human-shaped lumps covered in vines.
It was not as if no one tried to fight back with magic. But the vines were wrapped too tightly. Before their spells could damage the vines, they often blew back and injured the casters themselves. And those vines were terrifyingly tough. It took several spells just to damage one, but the instant a vine was damaged, it exploded apart.
And those vines were embedded inside people's flesh.
So the area quickly turned into a bloody mess. Fresh screams rose again and again, only to be drowned beneath the sea of emerald vines.
The green that should have symbolized life and abundance had become a hellscape of death.
Theodore's face went from livid to pale. He stared at the thing in front of him, whatever it was, and felt that face, as if made of intertwined roots and tendrils, was the perfect embodiment of this green hell.
A great mass of vines spread out from beneath Leonard's feet, yet none of them harmed him in the slightest, as if he were the absolute ruler of this green inferno.
Fear swallowed Theodore whole. At a moment like this, elegance meant nothing. His heart was already filled with endless terror.
"Theodore! What are you waiting for? Do something!" Schneider shouted while tangled in the vines.
The vines were still climbing higher. Their sharp barbs punched through the skin at his waist, and the intense pain finally jolted Theodore out of the paralysis of fear.
He stared at Leonard, gritted his teeth, and pulled out a metal bottle engraved all over with Ancient Runes.
"No matter what kind of monster you are, you won't be able to resist this power!" Theodore shouted as he opened the bottle.
Leonard raised an eyebrow. His knowledge of runes told him that the runes on the bottle meant sealing, binding, and confinement. Judging by its material and condition, the bottle had clearly existed for a very long time, and the runes covering it were extremely complex.
Jackpot. It really was an Obscurus.
The moment the Obscurus appeared, the magic in the surrounding area immediately began to show signs of disorder. As the Obscurus fully unfolded and revealed its true form, a surge of chaotic magic was about to erupt.
Theodore watched it with eager anticipation, hoping to see the Obscurus tear his enemy apart.
Instead, a series of clear metallic clinks rang out. Several silver chains shot from Leonard's hand and wrapped around the Obscurus.
"It's useless. A single person can't possibly restrain or destroy an Obscurus." Seeing Leonard make his move, Theodore's pale face broke into a smug smile. "Just wait to di..."
Before he could finish, dense chains had already covered the Obscurus. In the blink of an eye, they became a tattoo-like cage and sealed it completely.
The Obscurus dropped neatly into Leonard's hand.
Leonard looked at the Obscurus in his palm, then looked back at Theodore with a smile.
"What was it you just said?"