Watching Dumbledore and Fawkes emerge from the firelight, the few young wizards immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
The three of them flicked their wands upward in unison, severing the link between their spells. Dumbledore seized this opportunity to launch his offensive.
Myriad spears of light materialized behind Dumbledore, and with a wave of his hand, they all shot toward Voldemort.
Voldemort sneered, waving his wand to erect a magical barrier in front of him. Dumbledore's incredibly formidable offensive failed to budge the barrier even an inch.
However, Voldemort's actual condition was not as relaxed as he appeared on the surface.
His left hand, hanging by his side, was already trembling slightly.
"We can do something." Having disengaged from the combat, Kyle's eyes once again lit up with that familiar mischievous glint.
Cedric looked worriedly at the large areas of burns on Kyle's body. "Is your body up to it?"
"I took much worse injuries in the Forbidden Forest last time; it's no big deal," Kyle waved his hand dismissively.
"I'll fly you guys over." Fred summoned the giant clay bird that had been circling in the air as their final escape route.
George also shed his battle armor, grabbed the hand Fred extended, and used the leverage to climb onto the bird's back.
The four soon arrived at the perimeter of the area where Dumbledore and Voldemort were dueling, positioning themselves in four different directions.
If one were to look down from above at their positioning, they would discover that the four of them stood in a perfect square.
"Ninja Art! Four Violet Flames Formation!"
A cubical barrier composed of purple, semi-transparent flames sprang open within the Forbidden Forest.
Upon seeing this barrier, Dumbledore was slightly surprised, but then he smiled faintly. "It seems you cannot run now."
Voldemort let out a cold snort. He also realized the precariousness of his situation, but as the dignified Dark Lord, he could not show weakness.
Both of their wands fired magic continuously at one another. Spells collided with spells in mid-air, triggering wave after wave of explosions.
Earth and stone splattered, trees shattered, and the battlefield enclosed by the Four Violet Flames Formation was quickly reduced to a shambles.
Cold sweat began to seep from Voldemort's forehead; his current state was already that of a spent force.
Even without the earlier exhaustion caused by Kyle and the others, his power was not enough to contend with Dumbledore.
He was currently just a remnant soul. Possessing Quirrell, he could only gain power by squeezing the life force out of his host.
But even if he burned Quirrell's life force to ashes, he still wouldn't be able to land a Night Guy kick on Dumbledore's face.
The thought of retreating had already sprouted in Voldemort's mind.
Majestic magical power surged continuously from Dumbledore. In an instant, a giant bow formed entirely of light materialized behind him.
Voldemort attempted to Apparate.
The location they were in was already quite far from Hogwarts Castle, where the Anti-Apparition charms were placed, so Apparition should have been feasible.
However, Voldemort discovered that his Apparition was subject to immense interference.
If given time, it wasn't that he couldn't escape, but Dumbledore clearly wouldn't give him that chance.
"Damn it, this bizarre barrier actually has the effect of prohibiting Apparition!" Voldemort cursed inwardly.
Kyle had developed the Four Violet Flames Formation specifically to restrict spatial displacement magic like Apparition.
However, the current barrier could only lock down Apparition; it could not stop other teleportation magic like Portkeys.
Perhaps the future Four Red Yang Formation could achieve a lockdown on Portkeys, but that was a matter for later.
Surging magic condensed upon the bow into a glittering golden arrow.
Voldemort knew that Quirrell's body could no longer be preserved.
A storm of energy whipped up within the Forbidden Forest. The light arrow greedily absorbed the surrounding magic, and the bowstring, composed of pure magic, gradually tightened.
Power fully accumulated, Dumbledore gently flicked his wand. The released arrow of light transformed into a dazzling, blazing phoenix, dragging a magnificent trail of flowing light as it whistled toward Voldemort.
Under this scorching, blinding brilliance, Quirrell's body began to disintegrate.
The moment the blazing phoenix struck him, Quirrell's body thoroughly decomposed within the light. Everything he was shattered into the most fundamental particles, vanishing into formlessness with the wind.
However, what no one noticed was that before Quirrell's body completely dissipated, a wisp of black smoke detached itself from him.
The black smoke silently passed through the blockade of the Four Violet Flames Formation and vanished into the boundless black night.
Observing that the battle inside had ended, the four sustaining the Four Violet Flames Formation ceased their magical output.
The barrier dispersed, and the Forbidden Forest returned to its original tranquility.
Dumbledore stood where he was, his brow furrowed tightly.
Tonight's events were truly not good news for him.
He had also recognized the identity of that dark wizard as Voldemort; he would absolutely never mistake that gloomy, cold magical signature.
He didn't believe Voldemort had died so easily. Even the rebounding Killing Curse back then hadn't been able to kill him.
Voldemort must have relied on some evil Dark Magic to survive in the state of a remnant soul.
Moreover, even in this remnant soul state, Voldemort could still exert considerable power.
Of course, the bit of power Voldemort had recovered so far wasn't enough to worry Dumbledore; even four young wizards had been able to go toe-to-toe with the current Voldemort for a while.
What worried Dumbledore was that, to this moment, he still didn't know exactly what magic Voldemort was relying on to stay alive.
Without sufficient information, there was no way to talk about a targeted method to stop him.
The four young wizards gathered around.
Looking at the burns on Kyle, a flash of distress passed through Dumbledore's azure eyes.
With such a large area of burns, just looking at it made his own skin ache phantomly.
Yet Kyle acted like nothing was wrong; this wasn't the first time Dumbledore had marveled at this child's grit.
Dumbledore bent down, examined Kyle's injuries, and then raised his wand to tap lightly on Kyle's body.
The traces of the burns receded rapidly, and all the pain vanished without a trace.
Kyle tried moving his body; in just a few short seconds, he had completely recovered.
Through the holes burned into his wizard robes, one could see that the newborn skin bore no sign of ever having been injured.
However, it seemed he would need to keep a few spare sets of clothes in his storage pouch in the future; he realized he currently had no clothes to change into.
After finishing the treatment for the two injured parties, Kyle and George, a smile surfaced on Dumbledore's face.
"You all did very well." He gave a thumbs-up to the young wizards.
Hearing Dumbledore's praise, Cedric and the Weasley brothers flushed red with excitement.
"Upon receiving Miss Granger's request for aid, you acted promptly and decisively to arrive first. Subsequently, you maneuvered with both bravery and resourcefulness against such a dangerous dark wizard, saving the life of our gamekeeper. It was truly excellent."
Listening to Dumbledore critique their actions with such a tone of approval, Cedric grinned so hard the corners of his mouth nearly reached his ears.
The twin brothers wore almost the exact same expression.
Only Kyle remained calm.
Could Dumbledore bring out something practical to reward them besides points?
For example, a signed note for the Restricted Section, or perhaps that pile of Dark Magic books on the bookshelf in the Headmaster's office.
"For your heroic conduct tonight, one hundred points to each of you."
Hearing Dumbledore's words, the Weasley brothers cheered excitedly.
Even Cedric, who was slightly more steady than the brothers, had joy overflowing from his face.
"Let's go, we're returning to the castle." Dumbledore looked at the giant clay bird to the side. "A very interesting alchemy creation."
He could see at a glance the violent magic contained within the clay bird. If nothing unexpected happened, this explosive thing was likely...
"Thank you for the compliment, Professor Dumbledore."
Fred scratched the back of his head, a bit embarrassed. "Actually, this was Kyle's concept."
Fred's words instantly confirmed his suspicion.
Dumbledore shook his head, feeling a bit weary. When would these days of worrying that Hogwarts might one day be reduced to nothing but a crater finally come to an end?
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