[London. Not far from the headquarters of the Ministry of Magic.]
Almost all the members of the alliance were shocked at the sight of the cracks quickly spreading across the entire surface of the barrier, and especially Albus and Harold, who knew much more about it than others, because it was supported by what was outside, and since it began to collapse, this meant that most of the squad supporting it was destroyed and almost immediately their suspicion fell on Voldemort, who also left his people there.
But meeting his gaze, Dumbledore, who had been opposing him for many years and had learned to understand the dark wizard quite well, immediately dismissed his suspicion, because Tom was also quite gloomy and if Tom was pretending to be so, then he was doing it too convincingly.
And the old man's gaze fell on the last suspect, a smiling green-haired man, who was not surprised at all.
And the remaining members of the organisation also looked quite calm and even a little excited, which immediately made it clear who the culprit was.
The Headmaster quickly guessed what was happening, so, sharply pointing his wand upward, he released a red, shining projectile, rushing upward and the next moment all the wizards who saw it, immediately began to gather in groups back to back and began to look around.
The Dark Lord also turned into black smoke, flew into the second barrier and landed five metres away from Albus, and behind him appeared several wizards in dark robes and masks.
Among them were Yaxley, Abraxas Malfoy, Bellatrix Black and Antonin Dolohov, the four most powerful "Death Eaters".
And finally, the dome finally broke and after a few seconds a cold, indifferent voice sounded, hearing which sent shivers up everyone's spine.
"I suggest that we end your games for today …" next to Charles appeared a man of about fifty in a dark robe, with a hood on his head, in his hand he had a wooden staff with a red crystal on top.
His crimson eyes emitted a dangerous ominous glow, and the dark, cold aura surrounding him made even Dumbledore feel uncomfortable.
And behind him, one after another, wizards began to appear in similar outfits to the regular members of the "Steel" squad, only instead of green patterns, they had dark blue ones, and also diamonds embroidered on their chests.
Half of them held staff in their hands, and the other half wands, and there were even those who did not have a guide at all.
In just a few seconds, eighty-two people appeared in front of the union, of course, almost four times less than them, but Harold, who approached, was in no hurry to give the order to continue the attack, he only needed one look at each of the newcomers to understand that they were much more dangerous than their previous opponents.
And if, fighting with the first, they lost almost half of the wizards, then what would happen after a clash with this second group? It could be a victory, with huge losses, or a crushing defeat due to underestimation of the enemy's forces.
The choice of any of these options was fatal for the already precarious position of the magical world of Britain.
Next to the unknown dark wizard, two more people stood, whose form had a slight difference in the form of two diamond symbols on their chests and each of them exuded an aura that was in no way inferior to Charles.
From which, both Albus and Tom felt strong magical pressure on themselves.
Dumbledore, after meeting Amon, fully feeling on his skin a small part of his power,easily managed to get rid of this obsession, but the Dark Lord, with each passing second, became more and more gloomy, because he always considered himself the strongest dark wizard, but looking at the wizards standing in front of him, who were in no way inferior to him, and one, perhaps, even surpassed him, hit his pride hard.
The unknown himself, with undisguised contempt, looked at them, he did not care about either the wizards of Britain or the "Steel" department, and if not for the order from headquarters, as well as the promised reward, then it is unlikely that they would have made a detour from Germany to Great Britain.
And for now, the man was in no particular hurry to return back to headquarters, because he still had not taken the reward left by the joint efforts of the two warring parties.
Unlike the noseless man, the dark wizard of the "Black Star" saw much more - a huge amount of gray aura reminiscent of a real fog hanging over the entire battlefield, because, as a necromancer, he was very close to the energy of death and only by absorbing it could he become stronger.
For the same reason, the members of the "Diamond" department did not immediately enter the battle.
In fact, he had reached this place ten minutes ago and all this time, he was simply watching the battle, because the more a person dies, the more death energy will appear and the stronger he will become, and the reward was approved not only by Vitold, the former commander of the "Steel" department, but also by the leader of the organisation itself.
Of course, the loss of so many ordinary members of the organisation was not small, but if it helped a wizard who was in the top three like him become even stronger, then such losses were acceptable, and the strongest members of the "Steel" department were still able to survive and gain combat experience in a large-scale battle, this was also a very good result.
Finally, after a minute of thinking and understanding how much slop would be poured on him after this decision, Harold said sullenly "We agree, further fighting will not lead to anything good." and as soon as these words were heard, many dissatisfied eyes pierced his back, but none of those who joined to take revenge dared to say anything against, because after all, this decision was made by the Minister of Magic himself, and behind him stood all the Aurors, and Albus Dumbledore himself, supported this with a nod, and a few seconds later Tom also understood that victory with the remaining forces was impossible, because in addition to the fact that their opponents were stronger than the previous ones, the members of the alliance were also tired.
"Excellent." and then, the necromancer looked at Charles standing on the right, no longer paying attention to the two wizards in front of him.
"Are all traces destroyed?"
"Yes," he nodded nervously, swallowing, feeling a strong sense of excitement, because next to him stood not a simple member of the "Diamond" squad, or even a captain, but a whole deputy commander, a wizard, occupying the third place in strength in the entire organisation, second only to his commander and teacher, as well as the commander of the "Gold" squad.
"Okay…"
Such arrogant behaviour, as if they were just dirt under his feet, caused Tom great irritation, because no one had ever dared to behave with him, with Voldemort himself, so dismissively.
But, although he felt anger, the man was in no hurry to attack, realizing all the stupidity and irrationality of this act, because it was suicide in its purest form, and he doubted that the "old foxes" like Dumbledore and Harold would do anything, they would rather watch this with pleasure, and these thoughts sobered the wizard.
But Riddle was not the only one who looked gloomy, many wizards on the side of the alliance were completely in solidarity with him and even Albus felt a prick of irritation, but he quickly suppressed it and only silently watched the unknown wizards.
And a few seconds later, a green vial appeared in the hand of the dark wizard on the organisation's side, completely overgrown with dry roots and having a strange, uneven, angular shape, which immediately alerted the members of the union standing nine metres away from him and they tightly squeezed their wands.
He, in turn, again ignored their actions and uncorked the vessel, the staff in his hand changed to a wand and whispering something, he hit the neck a couple of times and the next moment, the vessel, at an incredible speed, began to absorb the energy of death and even Tom, who was closest to necromancy, finally noticed it when it began to concentrate over the unknown, which aroused his slight curiosity...
A minute later, when the last particle of death energy flew inside, the deputy commander of the "Almaz" squad corked it, and after waving his wand over it a couple of times, it disappeared and the wand changed back to a staff.
"Let's go." he said, hitting the ground with his staff and the next moment he disappeared, and after him, one by one, the rest of the organisation followed, and even some unconscious wizards, still lying on the ground, but alive.
A few seconds later, at the site of the battle, in addition to the bodies of enemy wizards and members of the union, as well as living wizards, no one else remained.
And finally, Harold was able to breathe a sigh of relief, although it was not a crushing victory, but still a victory, because they were able to complete the main task, to drive out foreign invaders from the country.
"Everyone who can still stand, begin to help the wounded!"
"Yes, Mister Minister!" the remaining members of the union on their feet exclaimed in chorus, represented by the Aurors and ordinary residents of Britain who joined this battle, although they looked dissatisfied, they still had to get to work.
And most of the wizards, on the contrary, were glad that this battle was finally over and they were able to survive, but there were those who experienced the opposite feelings, who lost friends, comrades, with whom they fought shoulder to shoulder for many years, with whom they sat in bars in the evenings over a glass of butterbeer, with whom they shied away from school...
Everyone understood that there is no war without losses, but it was hard for everyone to accept this, to realise that they would never see them again...
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