— — — — — —

"Grindelwald, have you no shame?!"

"You’re the Dark Lord! Who the hell taught you all this social etiquette crap?!"

"What’s wrong with you?! I’m literally hunting you down right now, and you’re still thinking about sending gifts? What did you even send? What did you write?! Gamo tin mana sou, MALAKA..."

On the snowy mountain, Grindelwald let out a deeply satisfied sigh and quietly listened to Andros unleash a torrent of abuse.

Quite a bit of it was in Greek, so he didn’t understand every word, but he understood one thing perfectly well.

The man was furious.

And furious was good.

If Andros was this angry, it meant Grindelwald’s move had hit exactly where it should.

In his excellent mood, Grindelwald calmly twisted the knife a little deeper. "Old Andry, just accept your fate. Don’t think you can make up for it later. You know exactly what Tom’s personality is like."

’So nasty even a Dark Lord found it excessive.’

Of course, Grindelwald wisely kept that last sentence to himself. If Andros remembered it and repeated it to Tom later, he’d be the one getting buried alive.

Andros finally stopped cursing and fell silent.

Both of them knew Tom had a particularly nasty little hobby.... He loved receiving gifts.

It didn’t matter whether the gift was valuable or not. What mattered was the attitude. You had to send something.

He might not remember who gave what, but he absolutely remembered who gave nothing.

Over the years, they’d heard that line more times than they could count. Every holiday or special occasion, Tom would inevitably pull the same routine.

And then there was his second hobby: kicking these people while they were down.

So, to avoid being targeted by that petty little demon king, Andros had spent years walking on eggshells.

Yet despite all that caution, Grindelwald had still stabbed him in the back today.

Andros didn’t even need to see the exact wording to understand what was in that letter.

But this was Tom at his pettiest. No gift for the banquet, no acknowledgment from Andros, and Grindelwald must have gone out of his way to seal off every possible excuse. The letter itself was less a message and more a carefully constructed trap. Something along the lines might be: {I will try to persuade Andros to send a gift — don’t be sad, Tom.}

"Grindelwald, you f*cking asshole!"

Driven by grief and fury, Andros’ muscles suddenly expanded. His perfectly fitted wizard robes exploded apart instantly, scarlet muscles bulging and steaming with heat, as red as his eyes.

He clenched both hands tightly, as though grabbing onto two giant door rings, then yanked downward with all his strength.

Crack! Rumble!

Grindelwald looked up in shock.

The sky above, packed with storm clouds and frozen mist, split apart like shattered glass, countless fractures spreading. Then, as though the sky itself could no longer endure the strain, endless crimson lightning crashed down toward him in a catastrophic flood.

"Andros, you’re serious?!"

He genuinely hadn’t expected Andros to go this far.

According to Tom’s terminology, what was this called again...?

Right. Opening with an ultimate move right off the bat... totally illegal.

...

..

Meanwhile, back in Dalaran—

Tom suddenly stopped walking. His eyelids lowered slightly, concealing the strange distortions caused by his time vision.

A moment later, he opened his eyes again, helplessness flashing through them.

Seriously... It was one thing for the world to misunderstand him, but even his own teachers didn’t understand him?

He only enjoyed receiving gifts because opening them felt like pulling blind boxes. It was the excitement that mattered.

How could he possibly take it to heart for real? He wasn’t that petty.

"Tom, what’s wrong?"

Astoria looked at him with concern. They had only walked a few steps before Tom suddenly stopped and closed his eyes.

"It’s nothing." Tom smiled faintly. "Someone was talking behind my back. I caught them."

Astoria’s brows instantly furrowed. The temperature around them dropped slightly, and her azure hair began glowing faintly.

"Who was it?"

Tom chuckled and rubbed her head. "Just some harmless teasing. I didn’t take it seriously. Next time there’s trouble, I’ll come straight to my cute little princess and complain."

Only then did Astoria relax, her cheeks flushing slightly.

"Come on, let’s find Ikaros. I want to take a look at today’s gift list..."

...

..

"Grindelwald, you shameless bastard!"

Rumble!

The snow mountain collapsed.

More accurately, the entire mountaintop was violently erased from existence.

A gigantic Patronus titan over twenty meters tall stood amidst the storm in awe-inspiring majesty. Every movement carried power no weaker than high-level astral magic.

It could honestly be said that Andros was fighting harder today than he had against Voldemort.

After all, only rivals held true naked hatred. And colleagues were natural-born enemies.

"Andros, do you think I wasn’t prepared for you?" Grindelwald sneered, a look on his face that showed no fear of death whatsoever.

Swish—

The Patronus giant hadn’t looked imposing for long before a massive purple magic circle appeared across the ground. Magic condensed into thick chains that wrapped around the giant’s limbs. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

A bizarre force continuously eroded the Patronus itself, visibly shrinking its enormous body.

"Enjoying yourself?" Grindelwald sneered. "I specifically consulted Lady Morgan to create this spell just for you. Sorry it took some time to cast—hope you like it."

Whether Andros was enjoying it or not was unclear, but Grindelwald certainly was.

He had paid a painful price to obtain this magic array from Morgan. It condensed and amplified every form of negative emotion, the complete opposite of a Patronus’ essence. Naturally, the two forces devoured each other on contact.

But... The gap between them wasn’t something a single spell could erase.

Even though Grindelwald had prepared countless tricks and countermeasures beforehand, Andros had already entered a true berserk state. Every trap and hidden tactic only made him angrier.

Before long, all of Grindelwald’s preparations were smashed apart through sheer brute force.

The raging Protego Diabolica that once blotted out the sky was compressed into a tiny fireball. His transfigured magical creatures were dismantled so thoroughly they were practically scrap parts.

Realizing things were going badly, Grindelwald decisively turned and fled.

The two chased each other across the snowy wasteland. Since they weren’t far from Durmstrang to begin with, they soon reached the area surrounding the school.

The terrifying commotion drew huge numbers of teachers and students to watch from a distance, but merely the leaking aftershocks of magic were enough to make the school’s protective ward tremble violently. Nobody dared step outside to get a closer look.

They could only barely make out Grindelwald battling a towering, musclebound man.

The flood of magic illuminated the sky brighter than daylight itself. Grindelwald’s figure was nearly swallowed by the explosions, leaving everyone utterly stunned.

Where the hell had this monster come from?

He was actually beating the Dark Lord so badly that Grindelwald could barely defend himself?

Had the entire wizarding world changed yet again?

"Andros, enough!"

Using the study space connection, Grindelwald finally gave in.

"If you keep this up and truly cripple me, destabilizing the Acolytes in the process, aren’t you afraid Tom will come after you later? You’d also be damaging Ariana’s future."

Only then did Andros ease his assault slightly.

Still, under cover of the spellfire, he rushed in close and slammed two heavy punches directly into Grindelwald’s body, each fist wrapped in surging magical power.

Voldemort would definitely recognize those punches. Back in the Forbidden Forest, he’d once taken one head-on and nearly died on the spot.

...

Tom had already cleansed many of the side effects caused by Grindelwald’s dark magic over the years, but the punches still hurt enough to make him bare his teeth in pain, his internal organs practically shifting out of place.

"Grindelwald! Inviting you to join the Sun Chasers was an honor! Since you refuse, don’t regret it later!"

After throwing out one last ruthless declaration, Andros finally departed in satisfaction.

On the ground below, the teachers and students exchanged bewildered looks.

WHAT? The Sun Chasers again?!

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