CHAPTER 49: THE TRIAL BY COMBAT

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ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE AN ALDRICH BOY?

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It was a barren land, there was a group of armed men that was escorting a silver-eyed boy. the boy was cuffed, as if they were bringing the boy to their execution, but the boy's expression was neutral, devoid of worry and fear, instead, he kept going, following the men who was escorting him, that boy was of course, Ed.

The men led him to a platform in the middle of nowhere, the platform was filled with men and woman with strange robes. Ed was dragged into the middle of the platform, everyone was staring at him, as if he was an animal in a zoo.

The men then released Ed's cuffs, making him able to use magic again, which was a relief, so now, he can use Occlumency to calm himself down and to not take a bait of provocation from the councilmen.

"Well, well, well… The Aldrich boy has come." An old man with a strange robe that is seemingly filled with gems and gold sneered and came over to him, scanning him from a close distance.

"Um, who are you exactly? I knew you were the judge then, but they never told me your name…" Ed questioned, he figured that a guy like him didn't like being not known, he has an arrogant smile like Lockhart, but he had a feeling that he is similar to Dumbledore in one way, crafty, eccentric, and a really good schemer, but while Dumbledore use his talent for a somewhat greater purpose, the man in front of Ed, did not.

The man that is standing in front of Ed look annoyed, but he didn't show it openly, instead his eyebrow twitched, and just answered the question, "I'm the head councilman of this government, Duke Sangrey."

"Duke? As in the noble title?" Ed continued asking, making his illiterateness obvious.

"Yes…" Sangrey said weakly, a bit annoyed.

"So, there's a king right? If there's a duke, there's a king."

"There's no king my boy, I am the leader." Sangrey continued, seemingly more annoyed by the minute.

"But you're a duke… so the leader must be a king." Ed continued, acting innocent.

"Enough! I am the leader, there is no king in the multiverse as I am the highest leader of them all!"

Ed raised his eyebrow, "What about God? Is there a god? If there's a god then he/she's the highest leader, not you…"

Sangrey's face was now filled with rage, and it looks like he could lash out at Ed at any second, but before he could do it, someone interrupted their conversation.

"I believe time is of the essence head council…" said a silver-eyed man, it was Alan, wearing his councilman robe.

Sangrey looked at Alan for a second before calming down, "Yes… let's get this over with."

Sangrey walked away from the two, making conversation between them possible.

"Hello Alan…" Whispered Ed quietly.

"Hello Nephew, ready for the trial?" Alan asked, curious on what the little devil is planning.

"Not really, no, but I'll try to fix this mess." Ed answered, gloomy at the thought of the fight. Ed then looked at the surrounding lands, and asked the man, "Is this where I fight?"

Alan nodded, "Yes, it will be this entire world."

"Where's my opponent then?"

Alan looked hesitant for a second, before answering, "Only the head councilman knows who your enemy is, as he's the one who sets it up…" he answered, making Ed frowned, "So be careful Ed, the rules of the trial by combat is so vague and full of loopholes, so everything is possible."

"What is the rules then?"

"The only rule is, 'the opponents will fight to their death'…"

"Really? No rules about who the opponent is? How many the numbers?"

Alan shook his head, "Sadly, no, the rules hasn't been revised for centuries, as practically no one used this method anymore."

Ed sighed, "That is just incompetence, are you telling me that the multiverse is guarded by these people?"

"Unfortunately…"

Ed shook his head, "Here, hold this for me, a last resort." Ed said to the man while handing over a vial of his own blood, the man looked confused, but accepted it anyway. "All right, let's start this shit." He said, Alan nodded, and signalled something to the group of the councilmen, which they just nodded. Ed then was escorted once again by the hunters, he was escorted to the distant barren land, he saw that the councilman used a device to one by one exited the world, making this world really devoid of life. The only remaining people that were here were Ed, the hunters, and… surprisingly the head council.

After a couple of minutes of walking, the group stopped, and now Ed was facing the head council for some reason, who was grinning victoriously at Ed. 'what's going on?' Ed thought, the councilman's smile made Ed nervous by the minute, Ed's palms were sweaty, and his forehead dripping a cold sweat.

"Are you ready boy?" the Sangrey said, his face showing a smug face.

"Can I prepare first?" Ed asked.

"Sure, whatever you need, in the end you will probably fail anyway…" Sangrey said with a smirk.

'That's a bit arrogant…' Ed thought, 'What is he planning anyway that made this man so confident?'

"All right." Ed said, then turned around, he saw that even the hunters were gone now, it was only the two of them, 'Is that old man going to fight me? That can't be right?' Ed thought gloomily, but then he pulled out his wand, and said the spell that he has been working on for about two months.

"Legio Glaciem." He chanted, the surroundings turned cold and hundreds of knight statues with all variations were slowly built from the ground up, there were knights on foot with sword and shield, there were knights on a horse with lances, there were knights on an elephant with javelins on their backs and many more.

"Piertotum Locomotor." Ed chanted once again, and the statues came alive, saluting Ed, making a thumping sound.

The man behind him chuckled and clapped at the sight, "Impressive young boy." He said, "But not enough."

The man then pulled out some sort of silver stick, and pressed a button that is on the stick, making the stick longer, but instead, a red laser came out, making it look like a laser sword. Sangrey smiled madly at Ed, seemingly wanted to get a reaction out of the boy.

But Ed just raised his eyebrow, "You're my opponent? Are you sure?"

Sangrey's eyebrow twitched, annoyed by the lack of reaction, but continued talking, "I'm not the only one." He said, his arrogant smile is back, and he pulled out a device that only has single button and pressed it.

In an instant, thousands of hunters, warriors of unknown origins, and troopers appeared behind him, making him laugh like a maniac.

"It was a mistake boy that you choose the Trial by combat, the rules are so vague that I will be able to do anything." He shouted madly, making Ed frowned.

'Shit.' Ed thought.

"The trial begins… now!" Sangrey yelled, dashing to Ed so fast that he doesn't believe an old man like him could do it. Ed's instinct instantly alarmed and told Ed to dodge, which he did, avoiding instant death from Sangrey's blade slash.

Sangrey then turned to him again, repeating the same movement, which Ed dodged once again, making use of his blinking ability this time. Sangrey frowned, and raised his palm to Ed, he gestured a crushing gesture, and Ed's neck suddenly tighten, he felt like he was being choked. But before he could pass out, Ed blinked once again, avoiding it.

Ed counter attacked, he pointed his wand to Sangrey, and cursed ice shards spawned behind him, the ice shards then launched to Sangrey, but before it could hit the man, it stopped, the man was smirking, the ice shards turned around, and launched back at Ed, attacking him.

Ed waved his wand, gesturing the ice shards to disappear, and they did, but not without leaving a burst of cold wind towards Ed.

While this is happening, Ed's 'army' were struggling, the foot soldiers were quite easy to destroy because they're quite small compared to the rests, but the elephants and the group of horsemen were hard to attack, the elephants were huge, so it's quite hard to destroy using normal means, as for the group of horseman, they were fast and in a group, so it's hard to destroy them in an instant. But it was not for long, because the statues were outnumbered, it is slowly losing, the numbers were chipped off one by one, seemingly waiting to be wiped out.

"Are you sure you're an Aldrich boy?!" Sangrey taunted, "You're weak, you're just like your father, only good at running away!"

Ed however didn't took the bait, instead he was calm, thinking of something, 'Should I use it?' Ed thought, but he digressed, he'll try fighting the man again, and if he's on the edge, he will use it.

Sangrey then opened his palm towards Ed, and suddenly, a plasma beam shot to Ed from the palm, startling Ed, the beam was fast that Ed didn't have time to dodge, and it his Ed's shoulder, making him yelped in pain.

Ed however didn't stay put, he quickly blinked away from the man, recovering his injuries, but then he felt an earthquake, he saw that Sangrey made a stance and slammed his feet to the ground, spikes of rock sprout out of the ground, Ed blink once again, dodging the spikes.

Ed then twirled his wand to the sky and chanted, "Tempestas."

Thunders from above then strike Sangrey, hurting him, but not too bad, as the lightning was absorbed by… the laser sword?

"Using thunder against me boy?" Sangrey said smugly, "The owl didn't tell you anything about me?"

"Well, we didn't know you're the one fighting…" Ed whispered to himself.

Sangrey then pointed laser sword to Ed, and the lightning that it absorbed shot to Ed. the boy saw this, and used Aegis to protect himself, which surprises the duke. But Sangrey quickly recovered and smirked, "You can protect yourself from lightning? How about a bomb?" he said, his palm opened once more, and a plasma ball instantly formed, it was big, so big in fact it could destroy the entire area. The ball then came towards Ed, it was fast, inhumanely fast, but Ed quickly blinked because he couldn't use Aegis on it, it was too big.

He blinked behind Sangrey, he summoned an ice sword quickly and use it to stab the man's back, which he succeeded, the man groaned in pain, his back was now bleeding, just like Ed's shoulder.

"You!" he roared, but Ed quickly blinked again, running from Sangrey's wrath.

Ed then sat behind a big rock, he was dead tired, he used the army creation spell and a lot of spells after that, so his magic is running low, he saw his statues all destroyed, and Sangrey's lackeys were now searching for him, as they don't know any detection spell.

He took a deep breath, he's trying to remember all the powerful spells that he learned with Gilligan so far, then he remembered a spell that can destroy an entire city in seconds, but were forbidden to use in a crowded area as it can't be controlled, he never used it, never been mentioned by Gilligan outside of class for fear of Ed using it, and Ed never talked about it also as it was dangerous.

Ed took a deep breath, preparing for his final stance before he actually decided to make a black hole. He stood up, blinked to the middle of the armies, which they were instantly alerted and tried to attack Ed, but before they could do it, Ed muttered an incantation that froze the area.

"Niflheim."

The surroundings suddenly became quiet, there were no movements, only cold, chillingly cold, Ed now saw that the ground was covered in ice, mists surrounded the area, the air was hard to breath in as it made a man's nose numb, the men were frozen, still having the same expression as before, he even saw Sangrey frozen, which made Ed had hope a little bit.

"D-Did I win?" he muttered to himself, he then decided to check on Sangrey, he walked slowly to the man, him walking slow wasn't intentional, the air became somewhat solid as Ed felt like he was moving through water in that area, and then there he stood, in front of the frozen Sangrey, the only thing that wasn't frozen is his laser sword, he inspected the frozen body, looking for signs of life.

Ed sighed in relief that the man looked like he was dead, he was going to yell in victory, but then the body in front of him suddenly moved, breaking the ice and choking Ed, making Ed gasped for air.

"You think you can defeat me that easily boy?" he sneered. "I admit, I was impressed with the power you've shown just now, but like I said, it's not enough."

Then he stabbed Ed in the stomach using the laser sword, making Ed gasped in pain, he didn't scream as the pain was too much, he soon felt drowsy, he saw that Sangrey laughed madly, looking at Ed's dying body, 'I'm going to die…' Ed thought, laying on the cold ground, 'I hope Hermione's parents have been revived, that way he can at least continued her life as the way it should…'

He slowly closed his eyelid, embracing death, it was cold, empty, lonely, but then someone spoke in his mind, snapping him out of his thought.

"Fight on Ed…" the voice said, it sounded wise, old, and benevolent, it made Ed's heart warm, "Your family is waiting for you… don't disappoint them… don't disappoint me…"

Ed was suddenly jolted, as if someone gave him an adrenaline shot, giving him more time to fight. He saw that the old man already turned around, seemingly talking to the sky.

Ed opened his palm, he focused on a point in space, right behind Sangrey, he was trying to mess up the space on that point, scrambling the coordinates and the structure of it, every second passed the anomaly became more and more obvious, the space became distorted, the colour turned grey, and Ed felt like air moved towards that point, and now he knows he succeeded on making the black hole, there was no turning back anymore, this world is going to be destroyed.

Sangrey also noticed that something was wrong, he looked back and saw that the black hole was expanding, he looked afraid for the first time, and said to Ed, "What have you done?", the voice became distorted as the black hole absorbed some of the wave.

It's quickly expanding, and Ed tried to find the blood in Alan's hands for escape, he tried hard and hard, but his concentration is breaking as the Head council panicked, he desperately clicking his teleportation device, but it isn't working, 'A black hole interfered with a teleportation device… interesting.' Ed thought, but then quickly set aside that thought and quickly searching for the blood, and he found it, his body turned black, but unlike his normal blinking, the time it took for blinking was much longer as it was blinking to another world, it took roughly 5 seconds to blink, and blink he did, leaving the head councilman to die alone in that dying world.

Ed then appeared in a fancy room, he saw a large screen on one of the walls, looking at the frantic Sangrey, but the people inside the fancy room didn't even care about him anymore, instead they look at Ed, who was bleeding to death on the floor of the room. Ed can't hear a thing, he only saw a panicked Alan, who was shouting something to the hunters, he tried to stop the bleeding on the stomach, it was mostly burned damage as the sword was laser, but some of the sword hit important organs, so it was quite fatal.

Slowly but surely, Ed drifted into sleep, he can't hold the pain any longer and passed out, in the middle of the packed room.