Hogwarts: Even Voldemort Can't Stop Me From Studying

Chapter 1129: Chapter 214: Bloren’s Struggle

Countless eyes were fixed on Bloren at the moment, hollow, cold, without a trace of emotion.

Bloren was thoroughly panicked.

”No... impossible...”

His lips trembled, the magic wand quivering in his hand:

”I am holding the core contracts of all poppets... I am their master...”

But the eyes with which the poppets gazed at him were not the eyes a servant should show its master.

Bloren suddenly turned his head toward the alchemist shrinking into the corner, shouting in grief and anger:

”Illari, you betrayed me!”

Illari stammered: ”Well... this... how should I say...”

”No need to blame our precious alchemist.” William said gently, ”When you abandoned all your subordinates and ran away, you should have known... someone like you is destined never to gain anyone’s loyalty again.”

While speaking, he gestured lightly.

Instantly, all the poppets began to move toward Bloren, the nearest few quickly blocking the way between Sir William and Illari.

”Impossible! Core contracts aren’t canceled so easily! Abigail didn’t say that!”

Bloren frantically sought out Abigail; he knew the earliest and strongest twelve poppets always obeyed Abigail’s commands.

Because their contracts came from Vid Gray; even Illari couldn’t completely erase them.

But looking around, he suddenly remembered, Abigail had long been sent to her death by him.

Holding onto faint hope, Bloren pointed at the nearest werewolf poppet and shouted sternly:

”Stop! I order you to stop! Return to your position!”

The werewolf poppet had no reaction, continuing to advance step by step.

He then turned to the vampire puppet: ”Kneel! Did you hear me? Kneel to me! I am your master!”

The vampire revealed a smile without warmth, its sharp teeth glinting coldly under the light.

The encirclement was shrinking.

Though the poppets were not moving quickly, Bloren still felt the space being compressed, making it hard to breathe.

Mark Paul, who had been quietly standing by William, laughed softly at this moment.

”Mr. Bloren,” Paul’s voice was courteous, yet each word pierced like a knife, ”there’s one thing you seem to have never understood.”

He took a half-step forward, pushing up his glasses with gold rims:

”After Mr. Illari accepted the kindness of the Sir, in return, he removed the part of the poppets’ contracts... that belonged to you.”

”Now these poppets only follow the orders of the Sir and Mr. Illari himself.”

He looked at Bloren’s pale face, his voice carrying sincere puzzlement:

”Honestly, I’ve always been curious... why do you trust those things you neither manufactured yourself nor ever truly controlled the core contracts of? Just because they appear to obey you? Or because they do not argue with you?”

Chris’s expression changed slightly.

— Though the words were aimed at Bloren, weren’t they also about them?

Paul said this unintentionally... or with intent?

He looked at his grandfather, then instinctively glanced at the poppets he had always avoided looking at.

The poppets were not looking at him, yet seeing them stare at Bloren made Chris shudder instinctively.

As if Bloren’s current plight was their future calamity.

Suddenly, he realized how dangerous his current situation was!

The bodyguards they trusted now paled in comparison to the new poppets filling the venue.

In this room, the one who truly held power... was only the seemingly timid and cowardly Illari.

Chris glanced briefly at the alchemist with a face full of guilt who dared not meet Bloren’s eyes, a hint of coldness flashing in his own.

As for Sir William, his expression remained ever unchanging, his eyelids slightly downcast, no one able to tell his true thoughts from his face.

Bloren opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His mind was blank, the tremendous crisis nearly paralyzing his thoughts.

But instinct remained.

Just as the werewolf poppet at the forefront was about to pounce—

”Get away!”

A dazzling flash of cold light suddenly burst from Bloren’s sleeve, directly piercing the werewolf poppet’s chest!

However, the poppet’s speed was unexpectedly swift—

The werewolf leaned back in a sideways slide, almost defying physics to narrowly dodge the attack. Its arm whipped like a leather strap, striking Bloren with a resounding ”crack”!

Bloren staggered to stop his momentum, and once he turned back, blood was already smeared around his nose.

Three other poppets pounced simultaneously, and Bloren roared forward, a silver light seemingly flowing reverse between his hands brilliantly!

”Clang—”

A sharp grinding noise exploded, the sharp dining knife drawing a series of sparks on the poppet’s chest.

The werewolf shook its head slightly, touching its chest.

Only a layer of gray short fur was scraped off its chest, leaving a shallow white scar.

The werewolf poppet grinned, closing in swiftly!

Bloren was startled, quickly stepping back, his left hand already drawing a half-meter long poker from his back waist!

——Earlier, when he requested to meet the Sir, assistant Paul, under the pretense of safety, had already taken away all the weapons Bloren carried with him.

Of course, this was a necessary procedure every time he met with William Stonefield. That old man was cowardly and afraid of death. Bloren had gotten used to it and didn’t suspect a thing.

Anyway, even without weapons, he could send Sir William to hell with a punch.

But he never expected that it was all for this day!

When he broke in to find William Stonefield, Bloren already knew this wouldn’t be smooth sailing. As he passed through Illari’s room, he grabbed a dinner knife and a fireplace poker, concealing them on himself.

But if anyone thought these were all he had, they’d be gravely mistaken!

Bloren, possessing great strength, swung the poker in hand, producing a piercing whoosh, forcing the poppets to back off a bit.

But Bloren’s own robe was also ripped open in several places, his cheek scratched by a werewolf’s claw, and his shoulder struck by a heavy blow from a poppet, bones making ominous cracking sounds.

Moreover, the poppets, fearing neither death nor pain, and being numerous... even if he could hold on temporarily, he would eventually be torn to pieces by them!

Every second spent entangled with them was further dooming his chances of survival!

”Ahhhhh——!”

Bloren roared in anger, with a resolute look, pulled out a few round red balls, and hurriedly glanced towards the corner where Illari previously hid.

——Not there?

His eyes darted around quickly, only to discover a familiar piece of clothing swiftly disappearing from the doorway.

In those brief seconds, Illari had already crouched down, lifted his robe, and fled out the door.

Bloren let out a bitter laugh.

He thought he had discreetly obtained those red balls, but unexpectedly... this might have been Illari intentionally letting him have them!

That guy knew how dangerous these things were, intentionally let him get them, and fled ahead of time!

As for the purpose...

Through the gaps between the poppets, Bloren looked at the Stonefield grandfather and grandson sitting in the wheelchair and couldn’t help but want to laugh again.

——When did that bookworm, that alchemy maniac he knew, become this calculating?

But falling into such a dire strait, while due to Illari’s betrayal, more importantly... was because Stonefield wanted to abandon him!

——In that case, then go to hell!

Even if he could only half avenge himself, it would be better than being beaten to death like a stray dog!

Bloren’s eyes turned wild, and at that moment, he made a move that seemed suicidal——

He suddenly halted, allowing a vampire’s claw to pierce through his chest without dodging or retreating!

”Puff!”

The severe pain instantly contorted Bloren’s face, but instead of backing away, he borrowed the penetrating force to thrust the energy throughout his body upward from the soles of his feet!

The lumbar spine, back, shoulder blades... every bone made unbearable cracking sounds.

That violent energy, like a highly compressed spring, climbed along his spine and finally fully infused into his right arm!

”Die——for me!!”

Bloren roared hoarsely, his body at that moment transforming into a launched cannon stand, his right arm viciously retracting at an incredible angle before snapping forward like a whip!

Scarlet spheres were violently thrown out!

”Boom——!!!”

Flames instantly swallowed everything within sight.

That wasn’t ordinary fire but more like liquid fire—viscous, scorching, carrying a strong corrosive nature.

The blast wave flung seven or eight nearest poppets away, flames pounced on them in mid-air, and their bio-synthetic skin melted and sloughed off like wax figures, revealing the burnt, mottled and terrifying structures beneath.

The temperature of the whole venue skyrocketed in an instant! The oil paintings on the walls curled and charred, the marble floor scorched into spiderweb-like cracks, and the air filled with the pungent scent of sulfur and melting metal.

However——

After the initial explosion, as the flames receded, the spot where William and Chris were remained unscathed.

An approximately two-meter-wide transparent barrier had silently stood around them without anyone knowing when.

It was a high-strength composite transparent glass, even capable of withstanding multiple shots from armor-piercing incendiary rounds or the impact and shrapnel of a close-range high-explosive detonation.

Chris, still trembling with fear, was gasping, his hand tightly clutching the wheelchair armrest.

He glanced at his grandfather beside him——Sir William Stonefield remained seated in the wheelchair, even his posture unchanged.

”A decent alchemy bomb,” William commented, ”But even the technology of the Muggle has its merits, doesn’t it?”

Bloren dangled from the poppet’s arm, blood gushing.

He stared fixedly at the unscathed Stonefield grandfather and grandson, and then at the damaged but struggling-to-rise poppets, the madness in his eyes gradually replaced by a profound despair.

His desperate final strike didn’t even make William raise an eyebrow.

With a high-handed sympathy, William said:

”Commendable bravery, Mr. Bloren. But unfortunately... you underestimated our defensive capabilities.”

He raised his hand and gently waved:

”Take care of him.”

Upon command, those poppets—even with limbs damaged and skin burned away—slowly closed in on Bloren.