Voldemort spread his arms wide with a triumphant grin. He fully intended to deliver a grand speech to the terrified onlookers before beginning his promised carnage.
A mocking voice interrupted him before he could utter a single syllable.
"Yeah, yeah. I am not in the mood for a speech," Aaric said. He raised his wand and pointed it directly at the Dark Lord.
Voldemort frowned. A furious snarl escaped his pale lips when Aaric cast a silent Severing Charm aimed right at his neck.
The Dark Lord moved to the side just in time. The invisible blade bypassed him entirely and struck a vampire standing right behind him.
Enraged, Voldemort retaliated with his signature magic.
"Avada Kedavra!" he shouted.
Nothing happened. Aaric had cast his Disturb Magic, causing the vile green light to fizzle out into harmless sparks before it could even form properly.
That brief exchange of spells served as the spark that ignited a massive war. The vampires, Death Eaters, and dark beings roared as they launched their attack in full force.
Spells flew in all directions while the Hogwarts teachers, Simon, and Edwina stepped up to defend against the first wave of enemies.
Simon conjured a massive wall of fire that swallowed the incoming Killing Curses, while the teachers engaged the charging vampires.
Edwina gracefully intercepted the tide of dark creatures, her magic effortlessly tearing through their ranks.
"You dare!" Augustus Rookwood snarled. He raised his wand to strike Aaric while the boy was occupied with Voldemort.
Rookwood never managed to cast his spell. He choked, suddenly gurgling on his own blood as a silver blade erupted from his chest.
"This is for Elodie Valois," Lucius Malfoy whispered into the ear of the man who had used the poor woman for his vile necromancy experiments.
The surrounding Death Eaters immediately noticed Lucius betraying their ranks. Lucius pulled his sword free and accepted that he would likely die right there, standing alone in the middle of enemy lines.
Dozens of spells and savage beasts lunged toward the blonde wizard.
Before a single attack could land, a powerful force pulled Lucius through the air and deposited him safely beside Simon.
"There is much you need to do yet," the Lord of the Hawthorne house told Lucius.
Simon patted the man on the back before drawing his own sword and casually flinging destructive spells with his free hand.
The Malfoy and Hawthorne patriarchs fought side by side. They moved with lethal precision, using their swords and spells in perfect harmony to cut down the dark army.
High above the chaos, Aaric and Voldemort were flying through the air as their duel progressed.
Though, calling it a duel was a massive stretch. Aaric was basically toying with Voldemort at this point, deflecting lethal magic with insulting ease.
"Is that what you did with your Horcruxes?" Aaric muttered. He pointed down toward three undead dragons that had just emerged from the red portal.
One dragon had a dark ring embedded in its skull. Another bore a cursed cut that pulsed with foul magic, and the third wore an ancient diadem on its rotting head.
Aaric could sense a suffocating amount of dark energy radiating from the creatures. He knew Voldemort had personally crafted these undead beasts, performing vile rituals on them until they possessed enough raw power to challenge someone like Dumbledore.
Voldemort responded to the question with another Killing Curse. Aaric swatted the deadly magic away with his Disturb Magic as if he were brushing aside an annoying fly.
"Well, let me introduce you to our own resident dragon," Aaric muttered.
The entire battlefield shook with a deafening roar. Hagrid emerged from the edge of the Forbidden Forest, riding atop Norberta.
"Come on, girl!" Hagrid shouted.
Norberta responded by opening her massive jaws and firing a concentrated jet of powerful blue flames directly into the nearest undead dragon.
She then spun around in the air, her spiked tail slamming into a second undead beast with devastating force.
The third rotting dragon would have been a serious problem for Hagrid, but it was currently occupied.
It was fighting a massive dragon made entirely out of brilliant red and gold flames.
Draco Malfoy stood below with his arms raised to the sky, a wide grin stretching across his face.
The young wizard was pouring all his magical power and intense concentration into maintaining the fiery construct he had created.
By now, the disciples of the Alchemy Sect had joined the fray. They fought the towering giants and floating dementors with their trusted salamander companions fighting loyally at their sides.
Harry Potter had integrated himself seamlessly with the Alchemy Sect, taking on the bulk of the dementors with his and Pyra's blindingly bright flames.
The most dangerous threat left in Voldemort's army was Nagini. The massive snake had absorbed the terrifying powers of a dementor, making her incredibly formidable in her own right.
However, the cursed serpent was currently being handled by a completely unexpected person.
Death had created more divine beasts than just the Grootslang. A Bakunawa existed on Earth as well, an entity that had been tamed and gifted to Astoria by her older sister Daphne.
Astoria was now putting the divine serpent to excellent use by subduing Nagini completely.
Nagini found herself unable to even twitch in the presence of the diving serpent beast.
The Bakunawa was significantly smaller in size than Nagini, measuring only a single meter long, but its divine aura pressed the dark snake firmly into the dirt.
Astoria was just about to order her serpent to finish Nagini off, but a sudden sensation made her pause.
She felt a distinct, fragmented consciousness hiding deep inside Nagini.
After gaining the Bakunawa as her familiar, Astoria had acquired authority over the sliver of divinity it possessed.
This bond granted her a divine sense and divine powers. She used those exact powers to carefully inspect Nagini and isolate the trapped consciousness she felt within the corrupted serpent.
Meanwhile, high above the fighting, Voldemort was growing more frustrated and enraged by the second.
A literal child was toying with him as if he were nothing but a worthless pebble lying on the street.
"How can you do this? What are you?" the Dark Lord snarled, his voice cracking with unchecked fury.
"Let me show you," Aaric responded with a low hum.
The world around them vanished. They suddenly found themselves standing in a completely dark plane.
Voldemort gasped. He felt his innate connection to magic completely severed. True fear and blind panic seeped deep into his very being for the first time in decades.
"I am Aaric Hawthorne. The son of Simon and Edwina Hawthorne. And the one who is loved by the goddess Vasuki herself."
The more Aaric spoke, the more glowing eyes began to open in the absolute darkness around them.
Dark, rotting hands broke through the unseen ground and grabbed violently at Voldemort.
The Dark Lord could do nothing but crawl pathetically in an attempt to avoid their crushing grips.
"Those are the hands and eyes of the innocents you have killed," Aaric added, his voice echoing from everywhere at once.
A pathetic wail escaped the Dark Lord's mouth. Whenever he accidentally looked directly into one of the floating eyes, he was immediately forced to feel every ounce of pain and suffering he had personally caused that victim.
Although Aaric and Voldemort were currently within a separated pocket space, the people down on the battlefield simply saw the two wizards hovering in the sky and exchanging spells at blinding speeds.
There was no panic caused by their absence because no one even realized they were actually gone.
Down on the ground, the destruction of the Horcruxes began.
The first piece of Voldemort's soul was obliterated when the undead dragon carrying it was incinerated by the fire dragon Draco was controlling.
The second piece vanished when Nagini was completely purified and blessed by Astoria's divine magic.
The third and fourth pieces were destroyed by Harry and Pyra, who unleashed their combined flames to finish off the remaining two undead dragons Hagrid had been fighting.
The moment the very last Horcrux was destroyed, the illusion in the sky broke. The people fighting on the battlefield stopped and looked up.
They simply saw Voldemort's lifeless body falling limply from the sky. The corpse landed on the hard ground with a sickening thud, exactly as any other ordinary body would.
It proved to the entire world that, in the very end, the terrifying Dark Lord was only a mortal man.