Hogwarts Wasteland: The Witch from the Borderlands

Chapter 543 The Dream of the Androids

Who can refuse an opportunity that makes their wish come true so easily?

The greater one's ambition and the deeper one's obsession, the harder it is for one to control oneself.

Hermione was confident that she could control herself and that even if the opportunity were presented to her, she could analyze it rationally and make an objective judgment.

But the scorching heat behind him, almost ready to explode at any moment, gave him a bad feeling.

She can't turn back now, she can't turn around, an unstable will full of murderous intent is locking onto her.

Perhaps Grindelwald is struggling against madness and desperately suppressing his evil thoughts. He may not be able to withstand the slightest stimulation, and even turning around by himself might be mistaken by him as a prelude to an attack.

Exposing your back to him completely will lower his guard and allow the Dark Lord to focus wholeheartedly on his own mind.

But will Grindelwald suddenly make a move?

Hermione didn't know that the old man's thoughts were too deep. To this day, she still doesn't know whether he was genuinely good to her, or completely using her, or perhaps half and half? Or whether he would quietly change at some point?

As things stand, Lanlock's defeat is almost a foregone conclusion. In a three-on-one situation, he has lost an arm, and his application of the Order Rune is completely outmatched. He simply cannot find any chance of turning the tide.

In this situation, according to Grindelwald's consistent code of conduct, he should be considering the next step regarding the application of the Wish Cup. No, perhaps he has already thought about how to build a new Earth and a new human civilization in the future.

In his future vision, eroded by the house fire, the constantly collapsing illusions served as a constant reminder of his failures, his mistakes, and how his recklessness had led to Dumbledore's death.

The Cup of Fulfillment before him seemed to be the remedy to reverse all of this. Could he accept handing it all over to Hermione? Could he accept that a teenage witch with different beliefs would take away his Cup of Fulfillment?

He hardly needed any reason to convince himself to take action, but the golden-red phoenix feather cloak fluttering in the wind before him was like a glance from Dumbledore across the world.

"This child was entrusted to me by him—"

Two people separated by a thousand miles, who haven't seen each other for fifty years.

Two people who fought to the death, who once loved each other, but later never even exchanged letters.

He seemed to be able to read Dumbledore's every move.

His willingness to die, his silence—

The black flames almost obscured the view; the only glimmer of gold and red was the source of Grindelwald's desperate struggle.

Hermione remained motionless, staring intently at Lanlock II like a statue, but in reality, she was using most of her energy to guard against what was behind her.

Even with her futuristic vision, Hermione couldn't observe the Dark Lord's actions. He was also a prophet and the embodiment of destruction. Even with her right eye's ability to see, Hermione could only see a gradually spreading black and red mass.

She could only be more vigilant; if the old man suddenly went berserk, she had to get away immediately.

The golden moon in the sky was still shining brightly, but now was not a good time to call on Hilmi to intervene, as that would only provoke the old man.

The air seemed to freeze, and with the mad surge of the winter curse, the blood lake of the Holy Grail was as cold as winter itself.

But the heat behind him gradually surged, spreading out waves of hot air.

huh~

The unexpected event occurred outside the Greater Grail, where a dark figure was propelled upwards by a crimson light.

"Adam!" Hermione called out.

She saw the robot boy, pierced by the remaining demonic sword, struggling to thrust his broken cursed sword at the hilt of the demonic sword.

"The Demon Sword!" Lanlock II's eyes widened in horror; his supreme demon sword had been shattered like this.

Hearing the call, the broken sword still tried to fly towards the direction of the demon emperor.

But with a crisp crack, the broken blade of the curse-breaking sword finally pierced through the demon sword's defenses and embedded itself in the blood-red hilt.

Everyone seemed to hear a silent scream. The sword that had broken the magic, spells, and contracts finally completed its most glorious exorcism since its forging, with its broken blade!

The demonic sword, carrying Adam, charged toward Lanlock, suddenly shattered, its red light dissipating and iron filings flying everywhere.

The robot boy, having lost all his strength, fell helplessly into the lake of blood, but Hermione dared not move rashly, for fear of disturbing Grindelwald behind her.

The heavy metal body fell into the blood, splashing up huge waves, but the people remained motionless.

The Holy Grail churned and the blood surged, like an extremely dense substance, squeezing Adam out again and leaving him to drift on the surface of the lake.

"The Demon Sword! My Demon Sword!" The Fairy Emperor was devastated, watching the metal fragments that had scattered into the lake and were slowly vaporizing, and he tried in vain to retrieve them with his remaining arm.

"Go see him—"

A deep, hoarse voice came from behind him; it was Grindelwald.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief; the old man had pulled through!

She quickly leaped forward, distancing herself from the heat source behind her that still emanated a dangerous aura.

The spell was cast silently, gently pulling Adam's pierced body into its embrace.

At this moment, the robot boy's body was covered with wounds. His artificial skin seemed to have been corroded by the blood, becoming pitted and exposed the silver metal parts inside.

"Ouch—" the boy whispered as he felt his head being lifted up.

"Pain definitely affects my decision-making ability. It feels so real, so—so painful—"

He seemed unable to describe the experience; he could only repeat his descriptions of the pain.

"Like—like?"

Hermione whispered, "Like the Crucifixion, that's how humans torture each other."

Adam's eyes lit up: "Like the Crucifixion! Influencing decisions through pain—the human experience!"

He was covered in blood, not his own, but from the Holy Grail.

But his eyes were bright and clear, seemingly made exceptionally lucid by the pain.

Hermione stared at the steel body, her heart sinking.

The energy in the Holy Grail comes from the Winter Curse, a mixture of countless painful memories of humanity, which has now seeped into Adam's core. This power seems to have changed him, making him more human than ever before.

This most sophisticated robot was now crackling with electrical circuits all over its body. The demonic sword had dealt it a fatal blow. Although the penetrating wound was not large, the fairy's curse had seeped in first, causing extremely serious damage.

Then came the erosion of the Holy Grail's energy. These problems caused Adam to develop indelible, rust-like red stains, both inside and out.

"Am I going to die? Like a human?" He used the word death instead of destruction or shutdown; he wanted to die in a human way.

Hermione didn't know how to answer. Even if Sechenov came back to life, he probably wouldn't know how to save the robot boy who had been completely altered by magic.

"Don't grieve for me, this is a good ending." He saw the witch's emotions and tried to raise his hand to comfort her, but he couldn't.

He laughed: "I didn't die as a consumable or a tool, did I?"

"You are a hero, a hero who fought for humanity," Hermione said, her eyes lowered. Adam destroyed the Supreme Sword, which was tantamount to severing the most important arm of the Goblin Emperor.

Bang!

A small explosion occurred in his chest, but Hermione managed to subdue it with one hand.

"I will shut down the nuclear reactor myself. I won't cause you any trouble." As he spoke, the buzzing sound inside his body gradually subsided, with only a little remaining energy to support his final actions.

But his spirits seemed to be getting better and better, and his face, with half of its metal skeleton showing, looked somewhat frightening.

The pain from the curse continued to be transmitted to him through the remnants of the brain-bound creatures, causing his mechanical body to twitch uncontrollably.

"It's so cold. Is this what winter feels like?" He gazed at the torn starry sky, as if using his last moments to experience everything that humanity had to offer.

"I see it—" His blue eyes reflected the starry sky, and a smile appeared on his lips.

"I saw something that Muggles could never even imagine in their entire lives—"

"I saw a large black ship burning and ablaze beneath Orion—"

"I saw the light emanating from the clock—shining within the gates of prophecy and mystery—"

He lowered his eyes, his face displaying an emotion more complex than any human's, almost indistinguishable from Hermione's: "And all of this—will vanish into the black spacetime—"

"It's like—" he struggled to use the last of his power to power his vocal cords.

Dark green cursed rain fell, blurring his face with blood mixed with the Holy Grail.

"Like tears—disappearing in the rain—"

His head drooped.

"The moment of death has arrived."

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