At the same time Frank was solving the difficult tasks given to him by Asmodeus, Asmodeus himself was pointing his wand at the old woman, who now looked far from appealing. Her entire body was covered in burns or missing chunks of flesh, with no uninjured area left.
Asmodeus glanced at the old man, who was already out of strength and had no intention of continuing.
"Avada Kedavra," he said.
A green beam shot forward, illuminating the battlefield.
In truth, upon closer inspection, it became clear that the situation in the battle was not so one-sided.
Asmodeus, Grindelwald, and Dumbledore had managed to overpower their opponents, but the rest of the wizards, although not defeated, were unable to claim victory so quickly.
Seeing the green beam about to strike the enemy's body, Asmodeus was already prepared to assist the others.
But events took an unexpected turn.
Just seconds before the spell could hit the old woman, there was a sound of space tearing, and the green beam seemed to freeze in place. More precisely, a hand appeared in front of the old woman, literally holding the instant death curse.
Before either Asmodeus or the old woman could react, the thin man twisted his hand and threw the death curse back at Asmodeus.
*Boom!*
Asmodeus reacted quickly, Apparating away from the point where the spell landed.
But before he could attack the enemy, he sensed danger.
He turned and saw that the spell, which had just flown past him, had turned and was heading straight for him!
"Motherf***er!!!"
Asmodeus Apparated dozens of times from place to place until he remembered that the death curse wasn't invincible.
So, Apparating farther away, Asmodeus waved his wand, and a dense wall of gravel appeared before him.
*Boom!*
The spell crashed into the wall, destroying it but finally losing its power.
'What the hell? Since when did Avada Kedavra get a homing function!?'
Asmodeus thought to himself and finally paid attention to the suddenly appearing opponent.
A man of extremely sickly appearance... But what caught Asmodeus's attention was the wand in his hand.
It looked almost like the Elder Wand, but with one difference—black smoke kept randomly appearing at its tip.
"Um, dude... Judging by the way you look, you were probably looking for St. Mungo's Hospital. I get it—due to the expansion of territory, the coordinates might've changed... but you were unlucky enough to land in the middle of a battlefield. What a stroke of luck..."
Just as Asmodeus thought he'd distracted the opponent, a wave of maroon fire appeared behind the man.
But to Asmodeus's surprise, the man didn't Apparate. Instead, he waved his wand and conjured a wave of fire of his own to defend himself.
Two different flames collided.
Green and maroon.
But neither could overpower the other.
Asmodeus was once again taken aback.
As arrogant as it might sound, he was confident that no one in this world was stronger than him when it came to fire...
Beyond the power of the flame, what also caught Asmodeus's attention was its appearance.
Although the green color was strange, what stood out most about the stranger's fire were the occasional faces of people flickering in the flames...
Asmodeus didn't yet know what that meant, but his instincts told him that this fire was dangerous.
Seeing that neither could gain the upper hand, both withdrew their flames.
Asmodeus spoke again.
"Um, dude... Don't feel like introducing yourself or something? I feel like this battle is going to drag on, and I at least want to know who can control the death curse so... creatively."
The man finally opened his mouth, and Asmodeus heard a slightly dry, raspy voice:
"Boy, I don't think our battle will last long, but I will introduce myself nonetheless. My name is Herpo the Foul."
Asmodeus wasn't too surprised that the dark wizard, thought to have been dead for a couple of thousand years, was now standing before him. After all, on the neighboring battlefields, there were already several other ancient figures fighting.
"Um, Mr. Herpo, then could you answer a few of my questions?"
"Oh, alright, as a parting gift before your death," Herpo replied, smiling like a kind old man living next door.
"Why would an old man, possibly the greatest dark wizard in history, help a false god from another world?"
"Oh, young man, that's not the case. I have no intention of helping those vermin; their very form of life disgusts me a bit...
It just so happens that you have disrupted many of my little plans. And when mana was restored, the plan of my entire life was ruined by you and your so-called Council of Supreme Wizards..."
"May I know more specifically? What plans of yours did I ruin?"
"Well... Voldemort... that's one thing. I just wanted to remind people of the existence of the God of Death. If you had merely messed that up, it wouldn't have mattered... But because you created those ridiculous mana rings, the war I had prepared for so long never began!!!"
By the end, Herpo was almost shouting, and a red light appeared in his eyes. If looks could kill, his gaze would have been like Superman's, endlessly shooting beams at Asmodeus.
"Great war?"
Herpo scratched the back of his head and replied, "Yes, do you know how long I've been weakening the wizards!? How many times I've stirred internal conflicts within the race!? Hell, even the Muggle Protection Act! I was one of the initiators!! All of it, everything, was meant for one glorious day when wizards and Muggles would clash in a great war! I would finally become the true god of death! But you!!! You ruined it all!"
"Um... god of death?"
"Yes, here I am before you. The god of death from the old tales. What do you think?" Herpo, once again, took on the persona of a kindly old man.
"Well... I don't know, I thought you'd stand out somehow... But you just look like an ordinary dark wizard with some serious mental issues..."
"!!!?"
Herpo was about to retort but quickly turned and caught the death curse originally aimed at his back.
At the same time, the Asmodeus who had been speaking clicked his tongue and vanished.
The real Asmodeus appeared closer to Herpo.
"At least Asgard's illusion magic didn't fail me... Hey, Herpo, can I ask why the death curse doesn't affect you?"
Herpo's chest was rising and falling in anger.
"You idiot! Do you think the title 'god of death' is something I came up with just for fun!? These are *my* spells, fool! How dare you use them against me!? They are all mine!!! I unleashed them into the world so that you idiots would kill each other and replenish—Ahem, never mind, I'm done with you. Die. I still have to deal with the rest of the wizards."
"Άμεση θανάτωση Κύμα!!!"
Herpo shouted something in ancient Greek, and Asmodeus saw his opponent's wand light up with a familiar green glow. He prepared to conjure a barrier.
But before he could wave his wand, his sense of danger urged him to use fire magic.
For the first time, Asmodeus tapped into the Eternal Flame that had been gifted to him. He gathered the mana that had been assimilated with the Eternal Fire and unleashed it toward Herpo.
As it turned out, his instincts were right.
Instead of a typical green death beam, Herpo's spell caused a wave to rise from the ground, three meters high, and, most notably, it was green and sparkled!
It looked as if the essence of thousands of death spells had been gathered into one!
Without hesitation, Asmodeus poured as much mana as he could into his attack, and the two elements clashed—fire and water.
The battle was intense, and it seemed from the outside that they were evenly matched.
But Asmodeus felt the pressure—he was being pushed back, not by much, but he had to retreat little by little...
Asmodeus didn't rely solely on fire magic; he tried using transfiguration to loosen the ground under his opponent. But around Herpo, there seemed to be a strange field... Any magic that got near him began to decay. Asmodeus could feel himself losing control of his mana when it touched this intangible barrier.
"What's the matter, little one? Can't control your mana when it gets close to me? It's alright, it's normal. You know, if that nine-headed trash knew how to properly form divinity, they'd also have such special powers. Unfortunately, until I become a fully-fledged god, I can't expand my control field beyond the thin layer covering my body. But even so... You won't be able to touch me. So... Die!"
A strange magical formation appeared around Asmodeus, as though a green dome was trying to close in on him.
'Um, this is bad... I need to call for backup!'
Seeing the dome of various formations gradually form, Asmodeus decided to use his strongest spell.
"ODIN!!!!"
The moment Asmodeus's shout echoed, the formation that was about to close shattered.
"I told you..."
Somewhere near Asmodeus, a slightly mocking voice spoke.
Herpo tensed up and asked in a strained voice, "You're a god with completed divinity. You left this world! Where did you come from?!"
"Huh? That old lady and I sensed your presence a long time ago, especially after Asmodeus once took us to an interesting archway... We told him about the existence of someone like the master of a dimension, but he decided to train his army and try to handle it himself, so we hid in the mirror dimension... Do you know how long I've been listening to my angry daughter scream because of you!?"
Saying the last sentence with obvious frustration, Odin appeared next to Herpo in an instant and struck him in the chest. Herpo flew back several dozen meters and began coughing up blood.
"Ah, khekhekhe, you... Why the hell are you helping him!?"
"Huh? He's my sworn brother. And to be honest, also a potential... ahem, ahem. Never mind. Anyway, there's no point in you continuing to live."
With those words, Odin opened his palm, and a sword appeared in it—beautiful but dangerous.
Sensing that Odin was on a completely different level, Herpo began to flee, apparating.
But just as the spatial channel opened, Odin had already swung his sword.
Herpo, who was already shifting through space, only heard the final words before his death.
"This sword doesn't just cut the body... even if you have something as disgusting as a Horcrux, you can't escape..."
Herpo felt himself being sliced into a thousand pieces, but that wasn't what mattered—the true pain he felt was in his soul. When his body died, his mind tried to transfer to the Horcrux hidden in the realm of death behind the archway, but just as he felt himself returning to life, the sword appeared before him once more...
And so, one of the oldest wizards in the world, one of the first dark mages, died, without even being able to resurrect through his Horcrux.
Meanwhile,
Asmodeus, watching Odin sheathe his sword into a bag enchanted with an undetectable extension charm, approached him and said, "Uh, thanks. By the way, what were you trying to say about me being your potential... something?"
Odin turned his gaze away and replied, "Nothing, you misheard..."
"Hey! I *know* you were about to say something!"
But Asmodeus's suspicions were interrupted by a sound he hadn't heard in a long time.
"*Ding!!!*"
"Emergency message from the creator of the PRIMIS system.
'Well done!!! You've killed the illegal occupant of the subspace of death!!! Clear the area around the entrance to the dimension of death urgently! I'll try to delay the merging as long as possible, but it won't be more than three days!!! Act as quickly as possible, it's hard for me to monitor both the separated world and the subspace! The sooner you finish clearing the land, the faster you'll get a very nice surprise!'"
"????!"
"!!!!!"
'WHAT MERGING IS THIS?! I'm in the middle of a damn war!!!'