章 451: The END

The next moment happened so fast that Colin's eyes almost missed it. Rosaline extended her nails and slightly sliced open the blue-turning part of her shoulder and crimson blood rushed out healing her completely. Next second there was no wound on Rosaline's shoulder, not even scratch marks from her nail.

Stormy was surprised but not as much as Colin and Luna, so she recovered quickly and was about to attack again. However, this time it was Rosaline, who didn't wait. Rosaline jumped at Stormy and she barely managed to roll over and save herself. Both Stormy and Colin had the stark realization that up until then Rosaline was just being defensive and she didn't even start being offensive, and now that she did, everyone knew Rosaline might not be at her full powers because of the sun and the silver but she was still far more powerful than Stormy.

Stormy kept firing curses and silver and poisonous things but Rosaline avoided all of them, so Stormy enchanted a few fallen soldier stone statues to trap Rosaline in place and then shoot the poison and silver. But Rosaline barely needed a minute to crush the stone statues holding her into complete dust with her bare hands and pulled out two double-edged daggers from her cloak. It was pure physical strength and agility that Rosaline was fighting with as she couldn't use her elemental magic in the daylight in this weaker state. But that barely affected the fight as Rosaline rushed at Stormy with the daggers. Everything turned to blur after that for Colin and Luna. The combat between Rosaline and Stormy was so fast that Colin only saw a glimpse of powerful spells and the gold hilt of Rosaline's dagger.

Colin had no idea how long the fight went on, though it felt like an eternity, he knew it was merely a few minutes. However, the fight suddenly stopped with a blood-curdling scream from Stormy. For a split second Colin thought Rosaline had finally delivered the killing blow but then he saw Stormy bloodied and injured but not enough to die, frozen in her place staring at something outside the castle. It was surreal for Colin to see Stormy scared.

Colin, Luna, Rosaline, and everyone hiding inside the castle followed Stormy's gaze and saw Chris and Maligno. At first, Colin thought nothing had changed but then he noticed Chris's right hand . . . plunged into Maligno's chest.

And as they watched in horror, Chris pulled out a red gleaming crystal from Maligno's chest and the blood gushed out of his chest. He fell onto his knees. His eyes bulged out in absolute shock as if he was seeing something nobody could.

"MASTER!!!" Stormy screamed again as he rushed towards him.

But even as Stormy ran towards her master, they watched Maligno's body turning into paper-like white and thin, his eyes slowly closing. Colin thought he mumbled something to Chris as his body started to decay in front of them.

"NO!! NO!! Master, take my life force! Take my life and live! Master, you gave me life when I was dying, now it's my time to return the favor," Stormy tried to draw some runes and some spells to stop Maligno from decaying but a thousand years of life caught up to Maligno in mere seconds and his body slowly started to turn to dust. "MASTER!!"

By the time Stormy reached her master, there was nothing but ashes of Maligno left on the ground. And as if even the winds were bending on Chris's will, a gust of wind blew away Maligno's dust particles even before Stormy could touch him.

"NOO!!" Stormy let out another haunting and ear-piercing scream.

However, before everyone could recover from it, there was another loud bang like a cannon blast, and everyone turned to see Harry and Voldemort's spells collide with their absolute force. Golden flames erupted between them at the dead center of the circle. Harry's red jet met Voldemort's green spell. And everyone watched with their held breath as Voldemort's wand flew out of his hand and he fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty.

One shivering second of silence, the shock of the moment suspended: and then it finally happened. The tumult broke around as the screams and the cheers and the roars of the watchers rent the air. Colin broke into a startled laugh. He couldn't believe it, it was real. They had finally won. They won.

They won.

Everyone was hugging everyone as Colin and Luna along with others ran out to join the celebration. Everyone was finally so relieved. The nightmare was finally over. Everybody was so busy rejoicing that almost nobody noticed Chris was still floating mid-air and as soon as Colin looked over at Chris he knew something wasn't right. The Crimson Crystal that she pulled out of Maligno's chest, seemed to mix into Chris's insane powers. The light surrounding Chris which looked light blue or white up until then suddenly turned to purple and it didn't look like light anymore. Chris was floating in purple flames. And every passing moment the fire seemed to be getting out of control. It looked like the fire wanted to come out of her and burn everything down, but somehow she was keeping it contained which felt more terrifying to Colin.

Colin hurriedly reached Harry as he saw Harry was trying to get away from the crowd and get to Chris's floating figure.

"What's happening Colin? I don't like this . . . she isn't in control," Harry told Colin, worried.

"I know. I have the same feeling. Maybe we should –" Colin began but he couldn't finish the sentence as that was when it happened.

Just like the way, Chris had burst out of the water, she suddenly shot upwards without any warnings.

"Chris!" Harry shouted and the next second she exploded with an ear-shattering bang.

The ground shook violently and the sky turned purple, everyone started shouting and screaming in fear. Even the Dragons screeched and dived on the ground to save themselves. But Colin barely heard the yells of people over his hammering heartbeats as he searched the skies for any sign of Chris. There was no way something happened to her, right? They won and she was fine, Colin chanted that repeatedly in his heart.

"There!" Harry shouted as a dark figure came plummeting down from the sky and realizing that the figure wasn't slowing down as it neared the ground, Harry waved his wand pointing at her. "Arresto Momentum!"

Chris's body slowed down immediately and Harry ran to catch her. Colin, Luna, Ginny, Ron and Hermione followed Harry. No one was rejoicing anymore, the whole place had gone quiet when Harry caught Chris in his arms and fell on the ground holding her.

"Chris! Chris!" Harry was shaking Chris lightly but the panic was apparent in his voice. "Chris, open your eyes. Hermione, Colin, Luna, do something. Help her."

Harry's call snapped Colin out of his daze and he knelt in front of Chris, Luna, Hemione and Ginny did the same. Hermione tried a few spells to bring back Chris's consciousness.

"Call Madam Pomfey!" Hermione shouted when none of her spells worked.

Luna rummaged through her pouch with shaky hands.

"I have some potions!" Luna said pulling out two vials.

However, before Luna could do something with those potions, Colin touched Chris's wrist and found nothing. Colin's eyes burned, he couldn't breathe but he still held his fingers to Chris's nose to see if she was breathing.

Seeing what Colin was doing Luna and Harry froze.

"Colin?" Luna choked out, her throat closing in pain.

"She isn't breathing," Colin whispered out. "There is no pulse either."

"No! You are wrong!" Ginny screamed jumping down to check Chris's heartbeat. She checked again and again but judging by her tears, Ginny found nothing as well.

"Nononononononononononono . . ." Harry mumbled pulling Chris's lifeless face to his chest, his entire body shaking with sobs. "No, please god no. Please please please. I'm begging you, no. Please."

Colin sat there absolutely still looking at Chris's body.

She was dead.

Chris was dead.

Christina Norton was dead.

[To be continued]