Chapter 350 The Third Dementor Riot
·
Yun Yin Shen
Chapter 350 The Third Dementor Riot
"Can I call you a MacGuffin? How did you come up with the idea to create such a broomstick? Where did your inspiration come from?"
Hearing Mandela's words, everyone in the stands stared at him.
"I... I just thought of it by luck."
McGuffin felt a little depressed. He couldn't say that he couldn't ride an ordinary broom. He couldn't hold his breath and invented this new flying broom.
——How can this be said.
"By the way! Maybe Quidditch is not very suitable for this new type of flying broomstick. It is too fast for wizards. This is just a low-quality product that I created initially. I believe that under the research of [Global Light Wheel Company] master broommakers, the potential will be greatly improved soon, and the perfect work can be developed several times faster!"
McGuffin dawdled, and finally thought of a way to put aside the topic just now.
"Is it true?" Ludo turned his head and asked with rounded eyes.
"If it can be several times faster, this broom is really not suitable for Quidditch. Unless the riders and wizards are given potions, the speed of the Quidditch game really cannot be accommodated!"
After one of the wizards in the [Global Light Wheel Company] discussed with the others in a low voice, their faces were a little stiff, and they stared at the MacGuffin in disbelief.
(I don't know how he could speculate on this news, which is obviously the most confidential matter of the company).
Now everyone understands without having to use Soul Repentance. It seems that what the little wizard conjectured is true.
Mandela squeezed his chin, and asked the little wizard in front of him curiously.
"You say it's not suitable for Quidditch... It seems you've got your own idea of how to use the broom, don't you? Tell me..."
"Didn't know you've heard of Muggle car races?" said McGuffin.
"Perhaps we can hold a broomstick speed competition after improving the performance of the broomstick...Determine the route and let the wizard hide himself...See who can win No.1?"
"It's impossible!" Ludo Bagman directly vetoed this statement.
"After all, you are still a young wizard. You don't know how much resources the entire Ministry of Magic will take up just... the Quidditch World Cup. In order to hide the existence of the game, everyone in the world will be gathered together—the work of the memory reversal and cancellation team in the Muggle society, all kinds of security done by the Aurors...the wizards of the Ministry of Magic have formulated many regulations to allow Quidditch to be successfully held without being noticed by the Muggle society."
"These are all necessary conditions for a successful event! ... And an air competition, this is not the eighteenth century ... There is no way to hide that the sky is full of those big iron birds of Muggles."
"Hey, why am I talking about this with you little wizard?"
"However, the performance and speed of broomsticks continue to improve. This is indeed a problem. The Quidditch game cannot be turned into a racing game. It will be a mess if it continues."
Bagman said, staring worriedly at the broom on the field.
Jordan Mandela smiled, "That's in the future. Let's see what kind of problems this game can expose this new broomstick? However, it seems that it has enough qualifications to enter the Quidditch World Cup."
"After this game, maybe we can inform all the countries participating in the World Cup whether they are ready to equip a new type of broom."
"But [Global Light Wheel Company] you must ensure the safety performance of the broom..."
"Of course!"
"We'll... what is that!"
The representative of [Global Light Wheel Company] screamed, it wasn't just him, McGuffin found that all the wizards watching the arena were backing away again and again, and they all drew out their wands.
A burst of icy white mist quickly emerged from the ground, continuously and rapidly flooding the ground, and gradually submerged the corridor stands full of little wizards.
— Dementors?
Are these monsters crazy?
Everyone, professors, including Dumbledore, and officials from the Ministry of Magic are here...
What about Goodman and them?
McGuffin knew that in order to appease the parents, the Ministry of Magic sent Goodman and a few Aurors to station in the school these days to suppress the dementors...
——But what about them?
The runway terraces engulfed in white mist suddenly fell into silence.
The cheers and noise in the arena seemed to be paused, as if someone had turned off the background sound effects. For a while, there was only the sound of howling winds and rainstorms hitting the field.
Dumbledore also frowned, his face was very ugly, it seemed that he did not expect a scene to happen.
The rain-soaked four academies on the stands began to frost bit by bit as the white mist spread the cloth-like decorations of four colors.
A layer of translucent white crystals slowly grows and spreads along the site.
The cold current invaded and circled around the venue.
Mrs. Hooch was blowing her whistle vigorously, leading the entire Quidditch team towards the nearest stand, avoiding the dementors.
In the pitch-black sky, more and more black figures gathered, floating densely over the Quidditch pitch.
All the dementors gathered here, staring coldly at the people in the stands.
"How dare they? What did Goodman eat!"
Ludo took out his wand, "The voice is loud!"
He pointed to his own throat, and a thunderous roar immediately resounded throughout the packed gymnasium.
"Goodman! Manlin! Colin! What's the matter with you? Come out immediately and stop the dementors, they are not allowed in."
The black torrent of dementors was squirming in the sky... McGuffin saw their faces hidden under the black hoods looking around the stands, as if they were looking for something.
Not so much, right?
Are you looking for yourself?
McGuffin hurriedly took a few steps closer to Dumbledore's direction.
The headmaster of Hogwarts seemed to have noticed McGuffin's little move. He glanced at it, but didn't react much.
He took out his wand and looked in the direction of the court.
McGuffin followed his gaze—it was Harry.
He didn't faint and fell down. Although the broom shook violently, he managed to fly again.
Harry followed Mrs. Hooch closely. He took out his wand and spewed out a puff of white mist from time to time to stop some dementors who strayed from the main group and approached them.
——It seems that [Occlumency] and [Guardian Charm] training did have some effect on him.
After Dumbledore withdrew his attention, he began to wave his wand, and a silver phoenix jumped out from the tip of the wand, rushed to the sky, and began to drive the dementors away.
But this also attracted the attention of the dementors, and they began to gather in the sky to form a black ball, floating in the middle of the field,
The monster in black squirmed slowly in it, colliding with the silver phoenix constantly.
The impacts made some of the dementors fall down like dumplings, and the black ball kept shrinking. Similarly... the body of the silver phoenix and the silver light also gradually disappeared in this little impact.
The black ball squirmed, and directly split into a black torrent, rushing towards their stand.
And most of the dementors are still relying on the spherical shape to besiege Dumbledore's silver phoenix.
"Are these monsters crazy?" Jordan Mandela yelled, raising his wand and waving it. From the tip of his wand, a silver animal like a beaver jumped out and rushed towards the dementors.
In such a situation, most wizards in the stands were dumbfounded, they had never heard of such a thing.
Everyone was waving their wands and issuing the [Patronus Charm], but wizards who could really show the Patronus were a minority after all, and most of them could only spew a silver light to prevent the dementors from approaching.
On the other side, the wizards and professors of Hogwarts also waved their wands to summon their patron saints and rushed over, but they couldn't stop the dementors who were completely insane.
They screamed and screamed in this storm, fearless of life and death like a swarm of bees, heading straight for this stand.
For some reason, McGuffin knew in his heart that these guys came here entirely for himself.
Maybe Dumbledore knew about this, so he blocked himself and called to his side?
Otherwise, just asking myself what I think about that new broom, I wouldn't have drawn myself here specifically...
McGuffin looked up at Dumbledore. He was waving his wand, directing the phoenix to fight against the formation of those dementors again and again, without showing any expression on his face.
I can't see what he is thinking in his heart.
On the other side of Professor McGonagall’s stand, a silver wolf, a cat, and a doe appeared. They pierced through the blockade of the dementors with silver light, and jumped in the air to help disperse the dementors in other stands (those who were scattered and deviated from the entire formation to threaten other little wizards).
After the silence, all kinds of screams began to come and go on the field, just like the alarm system of a car, one after another, endlessly.
Among them, in the stand of the most powerful Slytherin, DeLS Malfoy and her sister group, the ear-piercing screams almost drowned out the sound of the storm, together with all the other little wizards.
After a few minutes, Dumbledore finally smashed the gathered black ball of dementors, but those defeated dementors still ignored the damage, floated up again, and directly surrounded the stand where McGuffin was located from all directions.
"This is wrong! This is very wrong!"
cried Ludo Bagman, waving his wand.
It was the first time that McGuffin knew that the [Patronus Charm] could be used in this way... Ludo Bagman wrapped the silver light emitted by the [Patronus Charm] directly around the wand, like hitting a Bludger, and rolled the rushing dementors one by one, and rolled them far away.
However, talk is better than nothing.
Now these crazy dementors finally broke through the defense line and came to the stands to face these wizards face to face.
The dementors waved their long shriveled, scabbed, scorched black hands like sharp claws, tearing apart the silver light of wizards' spells.
They exhaled white mist from their mouths, and the air-conditioning brought great cooling, sweeping towards everyone in the stands.
"Fierce Curse!"
Someone finally couldn't bear it, and directly summoned this kind of evil flame, and they turned into snakes, tigers, jackals and other animals to attack together.
The wizards next to him cursed and waved their wands quickly, directing others to avoid them.
"Crazy? It's in the stands right now, and if there's a spell backfiring, most of us won't be able to escape."
Even Jordan Bagman, always smiling and good-natured, was hopping around, avoiding the stands, trying to get out of here.
McGuffin stood beside Dumbledore.
The professor was surrounded by a silver light, and the dementors did not dare to get close, but they were still eager to try the McGuffin hiding behind the light, and refused to leave.
It seems that the stone has been hammered, and McGuffin understands that he is the main cause of this crisis.
Except for the dementors who were stopped by other wizards, the rest of the dementors who came over began to slightly pull their hoods away, revealing a hollow mouth that was thin and fleshless like a skeleton, and the scabbed black scorched chin was slightly exposed. They exhaled bursts of thick white mist, filling the stands.
(Every wizard watching this scene, especially the MacGuffins, hastened to the point where their minds and souls were literally being ripped out by that hollow face.)
The originally blurred vision became even more foggy, and no one could see clearly, only the yelling of people in the fog could be heard, and the flickering silver light and the black flame of the [Fierffire Curse] could be vaguely seen.
Under such circumstances, the dementors kept breaking through the silver light on Dumbledore's body, and stretched out their blackened and slender claws, trying to touch the McGuffin.
Even if black smoke started to rise from his body, Fainting would still insist on getting close to the McGuffin.
And Dumbledore, the old bee, doesn't know what the hell is going on?He didn't stop all of this, and he didn't know if he was really incapable, or if he let it go on purpose.
He seemed to be busy directing the somewhat dim silver phoenix to defeat the dementors gathered from all over again.
"Call God Guard!"
"Call God Guard!"
After trying the [Patronus Charm] several times in succession, McGuffin's wand could only spray out streaks of silver mist, which the dementors dispersed with a wave of their hand, and the silver light emanating from Dumbledore's body did not frighten these monsters.
Seeing that their scabbed and dry claws were about to touch the McGuffin.
The slightly exposed faces under those black turbans... Every breath seemed to echo in his head, as if cold silver needles were inserted into the body, constantly piercing his internal organs.
McGuffin felt that he heard that song again... the sound of the sea waves that echoed with sadness, pain and despair when he was facing Voldemort and Quirrell.
After spitting out a mouthful of white mist, he felt so powerless and weak, it was, it was just...
Just like the death that I have experienced before.
—He will never experience that kind of thing again.
An intuition, or perhaps an impulse, welled up in McGuffin's heart.
!
—Fuck these dementors!
Following his intuition, McGuffin automatically released the [Occlumency] in his mind.
The negative emotions in the thick fog suddenly enveloped his heart.
Pain, sadness, remorse... All these emotions turned into fuel in an instant and ignited into raging anger...
According to the previous feeling, and the casting know-how of [Guardian Charm].
McGuffin poured these emotions into his magic power, responded to the most longing call in his heart, and felt the echo of the wand in his hand.
Waving in mid-air, he roared, "Call God—Nightmare!"
A flame of translucent black flame spewed from the tip of the MacGuffin's wand, and it turned into a Thestral in the air.
It was about twice the size of the usual Thestrals. It looked like a skeleton. Its muscles and skin were made of some kind of burning translucent black flames. Black flames spread under its two pairs of wings and its limbs and hooves, leaving a trace of flames after it marched.
The mane on the back and the tail are basically composed of the same flame, licking the rainwater in mid-air and burning more and more vigorously.
Its empty eyes, burning with blazing black flames, stare coldly at everything.
Everyone in the stands was stunned, they could also see this Thestral, or Nightmare.
Thestral (Nightmare) proudly snorted and hissed in mid-air, the sound was piercing and sharp... like the screams of countless human beings mixed with various animals.
It is chilling and trembling.
Then it bowed its head and rushed towards the MacGuffin.
Like lightning, the dementors that were hit by it and trampled under their feet were reduced to a pile of black ashes without even having time to react.
(End of this chapter)
"Can I call you a MacGuffin? How did you come up with the idea to create such a broomstick? Where did your inspiration come from?"
Hearing Mandela's words, everyone in the stands stared at him.
"I... I just thought of it by luck."
McGuffin felt a little depressed. He couldn't say that he couldn't ride an ordinary broom. He couldn't hold his breath and invented this new flying broom.
——How can this be said.
"By the way! Maybe Quidditch is not very suitable for this new type of flying broomstick. It is too fast for wizards. This is just a low-quality product that I created initially. I believe that under the research of [Global Light Wheel Company] master broommakers, the potential will be greatly improved soon, and the perfect work can be developed several times faster!"
McGuffin dawdled, and finally thought of a way to put aside the topic just now.
"Is it true?" Ludo turned his head and asked with rounded eyes.
"If it can be several times faster, this broom is really not suitable for Quidditch. Unless the riders and wizards are given potions, the speed of the Quidditch game really cannot be accommodated!"
After one of the wizards in the [Global Light Wheel Company] discussed with the others in a low voice, their faces were a little stiff, and they stared at the MacGuffin in disbelief.
(I don't know how he could speculate on this news, which is obviously the most confidential matter of the company).
Now everyone understands without having to use Soul Repentance. It seems that what the little wizard conjectured is true.
Mandela squeezed his chin, and asked the little wizard in front of him curiously.
"You say it's not suitable for Quidditch... It seems you've got your own idea of how to use the broom, don't you? Tell me..."
"Didn't know you've heard of Muggle car races?" said McGuffin.
"Perhaps we can hold a broomstick speed competition after improving the performance of the broomstick...Determine the route and let the wizard hide himself...See who can win No.1?"
"It's impossible!" Ludo Bagman directly vetoed this statement.
"After all, you are still a young wizard. You don't know how much resources the entire Ministry of Magic will take up just... the Quidditch World Cup. In order to hide the existence of the game, everyone in the world will be gathered together—the work of the memory reversal and cancellation team in the Muggle society, all kinds of security done by the Aurors...the wizards of the Ministry of Magic have formulated many regulations to allow Quidditch to be successfully held without being noticed by the Muggle society."
"These are all necessary conditions for a successful event! ... And an air competition, this is not the eighteenth century ... There is no way to hide that the sky is full of those big iron birds of Muggles."
"Hey, why am I talking about this with you little wizard?"
"However, the performance and speed of broomsticks continue to improve. This is indeed a problem. The Quidditch game cannot be turned into a racing game. It will be a mess if it continues."
Bagman said, staring worriedly at the broom on the field.
Jordan Mandela smiled, "That's in the future. Let's see what kind of problems this game can expose this new broomstick? However, it seems that it has enough qualifications to enter the Quidditch World Cup."
"After this game, maybe we can inform all the countries participating in the World Cup whether they are ready to equip a new type of broom."
"But [Global Light Wheel Company] you must ensure the safety performance of the broom..."
"Of course!"
"We'll... what is that!"
The representative of [Global Light Wheel Company] screamed, it wasn't just him, McGuffin found that all the wizards watching the arena were backing away again and again, and they all drew out their wands.
A burst of icy white mist quickly emerged from the ground, continuously and rapidly flooding the ground, and gradually submerged the corridor stands full of little wizards.
— Dementors?
Are these monsters crazy?
Everyone, professors, including Dumbledore, and officials from the Ministry of Magic are here...
What about Goodman and them?
McGuffin knew that in order to appease the parents, the Ministry of Magic sent Goodman and a few Aurors to station in the school these days to suppress the dementors...
——But what about them?
The runway terraces engulfed in white mist suddenly fell into silence.
The cheers and noise in the arena seemed to be paused, as if someone had turned off the background sound effects. For a while, there was only the sound of howling winds and rainstorms hitting the field.
Dumbledore also frowned, his face was very ugly, it seemed that he did not expect a scene to happen.
The rain-soaked four academies on the stands began to frost bit by bit as the white mist spread the cloth-like decorations of four colors.
A layer of translucent white crystals slowly grows and spreads along the site.
The cold current invaded and circled around the venue.
Mrs. Hooch was blowing her whistle vigorously, leading the entire Quidditch team towards the nearest stand, avoiding the dementors.
In the pitch-black sky, more and more black figures gathered, floating densely over the Quidditch pitch.
All the dementors gathered here, staring coldly at the people in the stands.
"How dare they? What did Goodman eat!"
Ludo took out his wand, "The voice is loud!"
He pointed to his own throat, and a thunderous roar immediately resounded throughout the packed gymnasium.
"Goodman! Manlin! Colin! What's the matter with you? Come out immediately and stop the dementors, they are not allowed in."
The black torrent of dementors was squirming in the sky... McGuffin saw their faces hidden under the black hoods looking around the stands, as if they were looking for something.
Not so much, right?
Are you looking for yourself?
McGuffin hurriedly took a few steps closer to Dumbledore's direction.
The headmaster of Hogwarts seemed to have noticed McGuffin's little move. He glanced at it, but didn't react much.
He took out his wand and looked in the direction of the court.
McGuffin followed his gaze—it was Harry.
He didn't faint and fell down. Although the broom shook violently, he managed to fly again.
Harry followed Mrs. Hooch closely. He took out his wand and spewed out a puff of white mist from time to time to stop some dementors who strayed from the main group and approached them.
——It seems that [Occlumency] and [Guardian Charm] training did have some effect on him.
After Dumbledore withdrew his attention, he began to wave his wand, and a silver phoenix jumped out from the tip of the wand, rushed to the sky, and began to drive the dementors away.
But this also attracted the attention of the dementors, and they began to gather in the sky to form a black ball, floating in the middle of the field,
The monster in black squirmed slowly in it, colliding with the silver phoenix constantly.
The impacts made some of the dementors fall down like dumplings, and the black ball kept shrinking. Similarly... the body of the silver phoenix and the silver light also gradually disappeared in this little impact.
The black ball squirmed, and directly split into a black torrent, rushing towards their stand.
And most of the dementors are still relying on the spherical shape to besiege Dumbledore's silver phoenix.
"Are these monsters crazy?" Jordan Mandela yelled, raising his wand and waving it. From the tip of his wand, a silver animal like a beaver jumped out and rushed towards the dementors.
In such a situation, most wizards in the stands were dumbfounded, they had never heard of such a thing.
Everyone was waving their wands and issuing the [Patronus Charm], but wizards who could really show the Patronus were a minority after all, and most of them could only spew a silver light to prevent the dementors from approaching.
On the other side, the wizards and professors of Hogwarts also waved their wands to summon their patron saints and rushed over, but they couldn't stop the dementors who were completely insane.
They screamed and screamed in this storm, fearless of life and death like a swarm of bees, heading straight for this stand.
For some reason, McGuffin knew in his heart that these guys came here entirely for himself.
Maybe Dumbledore knew about this, so he blocked himself and called to his side?
Otherwise, just asking myself what I think about that new broom, I wouldn't have drawn myself here specifically...
McGuffin looked up at Dumbledore. He was waving his wand, directing the phoenix to fight against the formation of those dementors again and again, without showing any expression on his face.
I can't see what he is thinking in his heart.
On the other side of Professor McGonagall’s stand, a silver wolf, a cat, and a doe appeared. They pierced through the blockade of the dementors with silver light, and jumped in the air to help disperse the dementors in other stands (those who were scattered and deviated from the entire formation to threaten other little wizards).
After the silence, all kinds of screams began to come and go on the field, just like the alarm system of a car, one after another, endlessly.
Among them, in the stand of the most powerful Slytherin, DeLS Malfoy and her sister group, the ear-piercing screams almost drowned out the sound of the storm, together with all the other little wizards.
After a few minutes, Dumbledore finally smashed the gathered black ball of dementors, but those defeated dementors still ignored the damage, floated up again, and directly surrounded the stand where McGuffin was located from all directions.
"This is wrong! This is very wrong!"
cried Ludo Bagman, waving his wand.
It was the first time that McGuffin knew that the [Patronus Charm] could be used in this way... Ludo Bagman wrapped the silver light emitted by the [Patronus Charm] directly around the wand, like hitting a Bludger, and rolled the rushing dementors one by one, and rolled them far away.
However, talk is better than nothing.
Now these crazy dementors finally broke through the defense line and came to the stands to face these wizards face to face.
The dementors waved their long shriveled, scabbed, scorched black hands like sharp claws, tearing apart the silver light of wizards' spells.
They exhaled white mist from their mouths, and the air-conditioning brought great cooling, sweeping towards everyone in the stands.
"Fierce Curse!"
Someone finally couldn't bear it, and directly summoned this kind of evil flame, and they turned into snakes, tigers, jackals and other animals to attack together.
The wizards next to him cursed and waved their wands quickly, directing others to avoid them.
"Crazy? It's in the stands right now, and if there's a spell backfiring, most of us won't be able to escape."
Even Jordan Bagman, always smiling and good-natured, was hopping around, avoiding the stands, trying to get out of here.
McGuffin stood beside Dumbledore.
The professor was surrounded by a silver light, and the dementors did not dare to get close, but they were still eager to try the McGuffin hiding behind the light, and refused to leave.
It seems that the stone has been hammered, and McGuffin understands that he is the main cause of this crisis.
Except for the dementors who were stopped by other wizards, the rest of the dementors who came over began to slightly pull their hoods away, revealing a hollow mouth that was thin and fleshless like a skeleton, and the scabbed black scorched chin was slightly exposed. They exhaled bursts of thick white mist, filling the stands.
(Every wizard watching this scene, especially the MacGuffins, hastened to the point where their minds and souls were literally being ripped out by that hollow face.)
The originally blurred vision became even more foggy, and no one could see clearly, only the yelling of people in the fog could be heard, and the flickering silver light and the black flame of the [Fierffire Curse] could be vaguely seen.
Under such circumstances, the dementors kept breaking through the silver light on Dumbledore's body, and stretched out their blackened and slender claws, trying to touch the McGuffin.
Even if black smoke started to rise from his body, Fainting would still insist on getting close to the McGuffin.
And Dumbledore, the old bee, doesn't know what the hell is going on?He didn't stop all of this, and he didn't know if he was really incapable, or if he let it go on purpose.
He seemed to be busy directing the somewhat dim silver phoenix to defeat the dementors gathered from all over again.
"Call God Guard!"
"Call God Guard!"
After trying the [Patronus Charm] several times in succession, McGuffin's wand could only spray out streaks of silver mist, which the dementors dispersed with a wave of their hand, and the silver light emanating from Dumbledore's body did not frighten these monsters.
Seeing that their scabbed and dry claws were about to touch the McGuffin.
The slightly exposed faces under those black turbans... Every breath seemed to echo in his head, as if cold silver needles were inserted into the body, constantly piercing his internal organs.
McGuffin felt that he heard that song again... the sound of the sea waves that echoed with sadness, pain and despair when he was facing Voldemort and Quirrell.
After spitting out a mouthful of white mist, he felt so powerless and weak, it was, it was just...
Just like the death that I have experienced before.
—He will never experience that kind of thing again.
An intuition, or perhaps an impulse, welled up in McGuffin's heart.
!
—Fuck these dementors!
Following his intuition, McGuffin automatically released the [Occlumency] in his mind.
The negative emotions in the thick fog suddenly enveloped his heart.
Pain, sadness, remorse... All these emotions turned into fuel in an instant and ignited into raging anger...
According to the previous feeling, and the casting know-how of [Guardian Charm].
McGuffin poured these emotions into his magic power, responded to the most longing call in his heart, and felt the echo of the wand in his hand.
Waving in mid-air, he roared, "Call God—Nightmare!"
A flame of translucent black flame spewed from the tip of the MacGuffin's wand, and it turned into a Thestral in the air.
It was about twice the size of the usual Thestrals. It looked like a skeleton. Its muscles and skin were made of some kind of burning translucent black flames. Black flames spread under its two pairs of wings and its limbs and hooves, leaving a trace of flames after it marched.
The mane on the back and the tail are basically composed of the same flame, licking the rainwater in mid-air and burning more and more vigorously.
Its empty eyes, burning with blazing black flames, stare coldly at everything.
Everyone in the stands was stunned, they could also see this Thestral, or Nightmare.
Thestral (Nightmare) proudly snorted and hissed in mid-air, the sound was piercing and sharp... like the screams of countless human beings mixed with various animals.
It is chilling and trembling.
Then it bowed its head and rushed towards the MacGuffin.
Like lightning, the dementors that were hit by it and trampled under their feet were reduced to a pile of black ashes without even having time to react.
(End of this chapter)
