Malrik's presence deepened.
A pressure that distorted light and air, soaking into the bones of the world.
The valley held its breath as the Shatterveil twisted, bending like iron warped by heat, and hate.
Nero held his ground in its center, eyes blazing with determination, his fingers curling around his wand.
He was like drawn steel, every muscle tense, ready to strike.
Malrik faced him, silver eyes gleaming with anticipation, a cruel smile playing at his lips.
Around them, the Black Talons stood at the edge of the valley, their bodies taut, shoulders shuddering beneath dark armor.
They hadn't recovered from Malrik's earlier outburst, but they had resumed their formation out of habit or fear.
Behind their masks, hollow gazes flickered, fragments of obedience slowly knitting back together.
The Shadow Hunters lingered, embracing the darkness, their forms ghostly, flickering at the edges of Nero's vision.
They had become witnesses.
The duel had become theater.
A cursed stage with two actors.
Nero's chest tightened. He was surrounded, outnumbered, outmatched.
There was no apparent escape.
But his resolve burned bright, fierce and unyielding.
He would fight. He would defy Malrik, no matter the cost.
Malrik's laughter echoed through the valley, hollow and cold.
"So stubborn... so defiant... even in the face of despair."
His voice was low, dripping with contempt. "I wonder... how long before that fire flickers out?"
His fingers curled, shadows coiling around his body, crackling with cursed magic.
The air grew colder, vibrating with power as the darkness twisted around him, bending to his will.
The Dark Sorcerer's voice was low, venomous, as he raised his hand, and said.
"Break."
The ground shattered.
Shadows erupted from the earth.
They lunged at Nero, sinuous and swift, mouths wide, filled with glinting fangs of darkness.
Nero's body moved on instinct, his wand carving through the air.
A barrier of silver light erupted before him, shimmering with void-infused energy.
The shadows struck the shield, colliding in bursts of shadow and silver, darkness spilling through the cracks.
The force slammed into him, his body skidding backward.
Pain cracked through his ribs as his feet dug into the ground.
Malrik's laughter was mocking, hollow.
"You resist... but it's pointless. Despair cannot be defied."
His silver eyes gleamed with amusement. "You will break. Just like all the others."
Nero's wand sliced through the air.
"Sectumsempra!"
Blades of invisible magic carved through the air, slicing through the shadows.
Malrik's form flickered, warping as the spells struck him, darkness spiraling from his body.
But his smile never faltered.
The shadows absorbed the attack, dissolving the blades into smoke.
Malrik's body shivered, flickering at the edges, his silver eyes gleaming with amusement.
"Pathetic."
He raised his hand, his fingers curling.
"Pierce."
The air vibrated, rippling as the darkness warped around him.
Shadows around him twisted into spears, spiraling toward Nero, their edges shimmering with cursed magic.
Nero's wand snapped up.
Another barrier snapped into place, tight, focused, reinforced with layered enchantments and a hint of Void.
The first volley struck. Half the spears twisted off course, repelled by the barrier's pressure.
The rest collapsed on impact, unraveling midair into formless shards, their cursed structure devoured by the Void's touch.
The remaining spears twisted mid-flight, reversing angle, curving in like serpents looping behind prey.
The barrier held in front, but it wasn't a dome.
The lances struck from both sides.
Boom.
The explosion knocked Nero sideways.
Dust scattered into the air.
He rolled, boots grinding across jagged terrain, as he stabilized himself.
A thin trail of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth.
Malrik's eyes flicked down, intrigued. "Oh?"
He smiled.
"You even blocked that? Good."
The smile widened, sharper now.
"Then how will you handle this?"
He raised both arms.
The sky darkened.
Hundreds of gleaming spears formed in a spiral above and around Nero.
A formation that promised no blind spot.
They hung in the air for a second.
Before plunging towards Nero to skewer him.
Nero took a breath, his eyes sharpening.
His wand moved.
Time did not stop, yet the world slowed.
"Protego Nivalis."
Countless ethereal snowflakes bloomed into existence.
A ring of white spun outward from Nero in slow, suspended motion.
Each flake shimmered, reflecting moonlight that wasn't there.
They hovered like spirits around him, their paths orbiting with quiet grace.
The first shadow spears met the wall of snow.
And froze.
One after another, they hit, and shattered.
What should have been a thunderous crash came instead as delicate, beautiful silence.
The spears fragmented into glassy shards, falling harmlessly into frost-dusted soil.
The second volley twisted, trying to weave through.
The snowflakes shifted.
Faster than thought, they spun into crystalline arcs, some forming elegant shields, others fusing into slivers of mirrored ice.
The attack disintegrated mid-air, caught in a cage of beauty and death.
Malrik's eyes widened, disbelief cracking through his composure.
"That's…" he whispered. "That's Protego Diabolica..."
He took a step back, shadows recoiling at his feet.
"But it's not flame… it's snow." His voice grew sharper, breath catching.
"You modified Grindelwald's spell!?"
The last spear dissolved into a cloud of mist and fractured light.
At the center of it all stood Nero, untouched by the onslaught.
His robes stirred only slightly in the cold breeze conjured by his own creation.
Around him, the snowflakes continued their perfect orbit, serene, sacred.
Malrik's expression fractured into something between rage and awe.
"A boy dares to rewrite his work? No… I won't accept this. It's not possible…"
He raised his hand, pointing.
"HUNTERS!"
The sky screamed.
Shadow Hunters erupted from the cliffs in a tidal wave of darkness, summoned by Malrik's wrath.
Wraiths cloaked in vaporous robes and silver-eyed masks dove like predators.
Hundreds. And more seemed to be coming.
"Break that shield apart!" he roared.
The ring of snow tightened.
The Hunters fell upon Nero in a storm of shrieks and shadow.
The first wave reached the edge of Protego Nivalis, and froze mid-strike, body wrapped in sudden frost.
In a blink, they turned into statues of ice, arms outstretched, blades halted.
The second wave twisted their forms, diving low, angling from above.
The snowflakes responded.
They moved faster now, slicing paths through the air.
Some collided with the Hunters, transforming into glacial spears that pierced them cleanly, wraiths imploded into clouds of dark vapor and snow.
More came.
They swirled around the dome, hundreds, claws slashing, robes whipping through space, their screams now audible, high-pitched distortions that clawed at the ears.
But none breached the barrier.
Nero stood still.
At the center of the storm, he didn't raise his wand again. He didn't move.
He simply existed within the eye of his spell, a sanctuary of ice and snow.
The snowflakes became a cyclone.
Some splintered into dozens of shards, forming shimmering maelstroms that sliced through approaching Hunters like blades through silk.
Others created mirrored domes, their icy webwork twisting spells backwards in perfect countercurve.
For every Hunter that fell, three more surged forward.
Under this dance of shadow and ice, the dome began to show signs of weakness, from the sheer number of attacks .
Malrik watched, eyes blazing.
The snowflakes slowed their orbit.
The battlefield fell still for a moment.
Now furious, Malrik hissed. "I'll break it myself."
Malrik's voice turned razor-sharp.
"You stand in my domain. Under my curse. And you think you can defy me?"
His eyes gleamed with malice. "Foolish child."
Darkness surged once more as Malrik screamed.
"Break! Break! BREAK!".
Nero's chest tightened, his breath hitching.
He had only recently completed the spell Protego Nivalis.
A protective enchantment born from merging his mastery of barriers, his affinity for ice, and his understanding of principles of intent-based magic.
A quiet counterpart to Grindelwald's firestorm.
Where Protego Diabolica judged with flame, his shield condemned with frost.
It wasn't an imitation, it was a reinterpretation. A different philosophy given magical form.
He had refined it in controlled trials.
Never in a life or death situation. Until now.
The darkness coiled around him, once more, shivering, vibrating with Malrik's cursed power.
Malrik's eyes gleamed with malice, his smile widening.
"You only delay the inevitable."
Suddenly, Nero did something unexpected.
As the battle raged on, Nero exhaled, slow, steady.
His body softened. His eyes closed.
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50 chapters ahead on Patreon (Suiijin): Chapter 214: Shifting Currents