About half a minute passed before everyone snapped back to reality from the wealth of information in Helbo's words—
Then, they all looked at Harry with frightened eyes. Even though the latter had not shown any attitude so far, looking at the boy holding the knife, a look of terror appeared in the eyes of everyone except Cedric. Krum even instinctively drew his magic wand.
"You want me to make a Soul Artifact?"
Looking down at the dagger that appeared in his hand, Harry remained silent for a long time. Then, he looked up and stared at Helbo with puzzled eyes.
The damp, muddy air was filled with a tense, fishy smell.
"Of course, don't play dumb. You already understand what I'm saying—" Helbo nodded as if it was a matter of course. He folded his arms across his chest, looking intrigued as he waited for Harry's choice.
"Just confirming, because..."
Harry turned his head, his emotionless green eyes staring at Fleur, making her feel a bit uneasy. The girl's expression became incredibly frightened. Until Harry turned his head, she still believed that the boy couldn't possibly do as Helbo said, but now...
No way, mate, you're really choosing?
"To choose one, I am of course..."
Harry muttered, lowering his head. His palm flipped lightly, the dagger fell, and the magic wand hidden in his sleeve popped out. The boy turned and waved the wand, and a ghastly green light lit up, "Avada Kedavra!"
The Killing Curse, free of any hesitation, with a deathly aura, instantly flashed in front of Helbo—
But the ground's stones suddenly transformed into a bird, flapping its wings to leap high, only to be shattered into pieces by the Killing Curse. The fragments flew around like knives and found their mark on Cedric, who stood behind Harry, shielding the Reductor Curse he cast alongside Harry—
"Avis, Engorgio!"
Harry's actions did not pause for a second. Golden sparks shot out like arrows; the ground collapsed in tandem with dull rumblings seemingly coming from afar. Attempting to blast the ground, Cedric decisively stopped—it would be disastrous if they were buried alive inside.
"Obscuro!"
With Cedric chanting the spell, a dark blindfold appeared in front of Helbo. Not resisting at all, Helbo merely waved the birds Harry had released away.
"Entrail Expelled!"
Only then did Krum seem to react, immediately joining the rhythm of Harry and Cedric, flicking out an evil curse. Originally meant for magical indigestion, the spell could actually extract a person's internal organs.
"Disgusting."
Helbo commented, casually swiping away the curse heading for his heart, and finally launched his counterattack.
"Imperio!"
With a light tap from Helbo's finger, Harry, unable to defend, instantly lost control. The blue light in his eyes extinguished, a warm flow nourished his body at that moment, venomous thoughts surged in his mind, and the boy's gaze gradually became vacant—
"Wait! Harry?!"
Cedric noticed it, and almost instinctively, he threw a Finite Incantatem at Harry. However, the Imperius Curse was classified as one of the three Unforgivable Curses for a reason, and could not be interrupted by Cedric's spell. Harry's gaze visibly started to dim.
But at the brink of losing the last gleam, his lips seemed to buzz slightly...
"Since you're unwilling to choose, let me choose for you."
Helbo's voice remained crisp as ever, but to the others, it was akin to hearing the most venomous curse in the world.
"Quick! Think of something!"
Seeing Harry's raised wand, Fleur cried out instinctively, looking at Cedric with pleading eyes.
"Damn!"
Cedric swore under his breath, slamming his pocketed hand onto the ground, "Grab onto me!" He shouted, and the others, including Daniel, who couldn't cast a spell, lifted their hands to Cedric's shoulder.
The next moment, the pea Cedric had slammed into the ground began to root and sprout. Dark green vines rapidly overgrew like Jack's beanstalk, carrying the four up toward the roof of the cave's cavity. The rock ceiling loomed up close within the blink of an eye; Cedric raised his wand, "Confringo!"
The cave's wall exploded in response, but instead of expected light, it was endless yellow sand—
This was the last image Cedric saw before losing consciousness.
…
"Ah, they escaped."
Tentatively letting the Imperius-influenced Harry touch the thick vines, and confirming it wasn't aggressive, Helbo felt relieved to step forward—he hadn't survived this long solely by relying on his ability to reconstitute through Soul Artifacts—and curiously raised his head to look upward.
The tip of the vine had already disappeared into the darkness of the cave, its dark green surface, and deep blue magic patterns pulsing like a breath.
"Interesting."
Helbo blinked but seemed uninterested in managing the vine any further. Watching Harry, who had his head down and was in a daze, he chuckled and led him deeper into the corridor—after all, creating a Soul Artifact wasn't urgent, and would those kids running out expose him?
Haha, I hope they manage to run out.
...
"Cough, cough—"
Under the pale moonlight, a hand "broke through" the yellow sand from the middle. The once delicate hand was now scarred and struggled hard to push itself out of the sand, a futile effort since the laws of physics were clearly not needed here.
A silent chant rose from beneath the sand, and in the next moment, strands of silver-white hair broke through the surface; then came the dusty girl. Fleur, who had nearly suffocated several times, gasped for icy air, coughing up white breath and retching, but clearly, nothing came out except some sand.
Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she quickly turned around and blasted a giant pit in the ground with her magic wand—
"Ho—"
The unconscious Cedric suddenly sat up, instinctively scanning around. Seeing Fleur dazing by the campfire, he blinked.
"Stop looking, I don't know where they went either."
Fleur, guessing exactly what Cedric was about to ask, muttered gloomily, "In all this sand, that damned Quidditch player didn't mean to take us... As for the American... good luck to him. The fact I managed to bring you up counts as me being kind."
The girl grinned, though her saving Cedric had little to do with kindness, that didn't stop her from giving herself some credit.
"...Alright, where are we now? Did that person not chase us?"
Cedric rubbed his still groggy head, his gaze sweeping the surroundings—seeing nothing but endless sand, impossible to distinguish.
"Don't know, and no idea if we're being chased. I ran with you for half the night—"
Fleur shrugged, "You really know how to pick a time to wake up, I just lit the fire." The girl placed her hands above the flames, the huge temperature difference between day and night in the desert made these magically summoned bellflower flames quite useful, "So, should we just leave that boy there?"
She stared at Cedric, blue eyes full of doubt.
"...Harry will be saved."
Cedric took a deep breath, staring at the flickering blue flame.
"Ha, let's hope we save ourselves first—"
Fleur sniffed, her tone both teasing and sorrowful, "As far as I know, Europe doesn't have deserts, who knows where we are now..." she sighed, "It's impossible for someone familiar to suddenly appear behind us and recognize us as a wizard—"
"Hey, who are you... what are you doing here?… Wait, Diggory?"
A sudden voice came from behind them. They instinctively turned around to find a man in a burlap robe lowering his hood, revealing a head of red hair, "Aren't you supposed to be in the tournament? Even though it went off the air about half an hour ago—may I ask, what happened?"
"...Hey, Bill."
Cedric opened his mouth, seemingly shocked to run into a familiar face from the neighboring village in such a situation, then he turned to Fleur, equally bewildered, "Did you learn some magic that makes words become law?"
"... If that were the case, I'd have just cursed that bastard to death." Fleur paused before muttering grimly.
"..."
"Couldn't we suddenly have a Portkey back to Hogsmeade land in my hand?!"
"..."
"Alright, seems your magic isn't quite there yet."
...
"Ah, I still need to prepare a room for you—"
Inside the mysterious cave, Helbo stood in front of a stone table, meeting Harry's gaze from across it, "Hey, kid, stop looking at me like that, or I might just dig out your pretty green eyes—" Clearly, Helbo had lifted the Imperio Curse from Harry.
"Oh, I'm sooooo scared, please don't gouge out my eyes... ahhh."
Harry recited without emotion, the tone dripping with sarcasm.
"Haha, I like your spirit; taming you will surely be fun—" Helbo seemed entirely unfazed, even letting out a gleeful chuckle.