When Glenn returned to Hermione and the others, carrying the Death Eater whose soul he'd driven mad with the Cruciatus Curse, the battle there had already ended.
Though the battle was over and Hermione along with the three students from North China Magical Arts Academy appeared unharmed, the battlefield was extremely chaotic.
And particularly bloody.
Literally. When Glenn Apparated back to the scene, the first thing that met his eyes was a scene of mangled flesh and blood.
That small area had turned completely dark red. The ground, rocks, tree trunks, branches and leaves—everything was covered in blood and paste-like substances that appeared to be various human tissues. Judging from the coverage, Glenn believed this was very likely the result of some violent explosion.
Within that area, one spot remained untouched by the blood contamination, maintaining its original appearance completely. The area behind it, far from the explosion's center, also bore not a single trace of dark red, presenting a clean, neat fan-shaped section within this eerie red zone.
After Glenn briefly used his enhanced perception to survey the surroundings and confirmed there was no immediate danger, he descended to the ground and walked toward Hermione and the others. At that moment, they were in that clean area, with the girl raising her left hand to heal one of the mages.
White light faded from her left hand as Hermione moved it away from the person's head, lowering her head slightly with a smile.
"There, that should do it. How's your head feeling now? Still hurt?"
Before her, the mage named Fali who'd been hit by the Death Eater's Cruciatus Curse sat cross-legged on the ground, entering meditation. After briefly sensing his mental state, he was delighted to find the pain that had been tormenting his mind was completely gone.
"Thank you so much, Hermione. The injuries in my consciousness sea are completely healed."
Fali clasped his hands together and bowed to Hermione to show his respect.
As a scout and a mage whose weapon was a bow, mental damage would make it difficult to help others in upcoming battles. Hermione's healing had undoubtedly pulled him back from the temporary camp's medical area, which thrilled him.
Fali had been worrying about having a belly full of anger with nowhere to vent. Now he could return to battle and earn merit... ah no, kill enemies.
Receiving his thanks, the girl happily lifted her chin and waved her hand.
"It's nothing—this is what I should do!"
Seeing Hermione had finished her business, Glenn spoke up to inquire about intelligence.
"What happened here?"
Hearing Glenn's voice, Hermione, who'd already sensed his arrival, wasn't surprised. She stood up, patted the dirt from her knees, looked at Glenn, then pointed at the blood-red environment around them. Though her tone carried some confusion, she still explained to Glenn:
"Simply put, during our battle with those dark wizards, they suddenly showed expressions of terror, all coughed up blood, then... self-destructed. As you can see, all those red and white things throughout this area are... well, parts of those guys."
"If I hadn't quickly cast a large-area Shield Charm, we would've become part of the scenery too."
Having experienced too much in these few short hours, Hermione had become somewhat numb. Facing such bloody, nauseating scenery didn't provoke much reaction from her. Though this state was good for the battlefield, Glenn felt he'd need to counsel Hermione afterward.
He still didn't want Hermione to become like himself.
That said, that was for later. Right now, this abnormal incident needed to be understood quickly.
"Self-destruction? Did they show any other unusual behavior before self-destructing?"
Glenn spoke while casually throwing the babbling, mad Death Eater to the ground, then walked out of the clean area into the bloody zone, extending his finger to wipe some of the solid and liquid mixture staining a tree trunk.
Facing Glenn's inquiry, Hermione immediately answered:
"There should have been something. I felt like they wanted to say something before coughing up blood, but couldn't speak because blood rushed up their throats... Perhaps it was some magical incantation?"
"Though they didn't say it out loud, I observed their initial mouth shapes. That should definitely have been the 'c' sound in Chinese pinyin."
Listening to Hermione's account, Glenn also cleaned the filth from his finger while using more refined enhanced perception to examine the entire blood-stained area.
"The total amount of blood splattered outward here falls far short of what should be the total blood volume in those several adult dark wizards..."
He thought thus, then spoke aloud.
"Did they self-destruct simultaneously? Was their timing for wanting to speak the same?"
"The self-destruction happened together, but their intentions to speak... probably weren't unified."
Hermione recalled her memories and answered Glenn's question with certainty.
"Then it was most likely external factors that caused their self-destruction, but what they wanted to say..."
"Um, could they have just wanted to curse?"
A female voice spoke up. Glenn turned his gaze to the three mages behind Hermione. The girl named Xiao Ya said this.
"I felt their expressions were quite angry at the time, and their mouth shapes looked like... profanity greeting someone's mother."
"Greeting... um, it seems... that's actually right...?"
Hermione's eye twitched. Recalling those people's expressions along with their previous crude behavior, she found this theory quite credible and immediately felt speechless.
"Perhaps this was caused by some evil ritual."
Suddenly, Glenn's tone became somewhat more certain. He rubbed his temples and spoke to Hermione:
"I just expanded my enhanced perception range and discovered that all the dark wizards on surrounding battlefields have self-destructed."
"More importantly, the commotion from the eastern battle has grown several times larger than initially."
"Also, the blood volume splattered from the self-destructing dark wizards here doesn't add up. I suspect this relates to blood sacrifice."
The three upperclassmen were still confused, but Hermione immediately followed Glenn's train of thought. Her mind turned, connecting information together. She confirmed Glenn's assessment and added her own speculation:
"Many dark arts can amplify one's abilities by ritually sacrificing human bodies. Judging from Brother Yu's strength, an opponent who could make him cast spells of that magnitude must be extremely powerful—probably the leader of these dark wizards..."
"Maybe this guy secretly did something to his companions beforehand without their knowledge, sacrificing them to gain power... No wonder these dark wizards wanted to curse before dying..."
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