When the fabric of space and time tore and the team appeared off the coast of İçmeler, the reassuring solidity of wood and steel was not beneath their feet. Instead, they landed knee-deep in ice-cold water, on top of a rusty wreck that had tilted at a forty-five-degree angle and was sinking into the waters. The yacht had taken a fatal wound. The terrifying sound of metal crunching coming from beneath the hull drowned out even the howl of the storm. The dark, foaming sea below glowed with the sickly green magic of skeletons, like swarms of thousands of fireflies. Dozens of Carian guards had gutted the bottom of the yacht, gnawing at the boat like flesh-eating bugs and pulling it into the waters. “Efsun! Alaz!” roared Darius. His voice was so loud that Okan, next to him, flinched in fear. Darius, ignoring the water coming up to his waist and the green curses flying around, lunged toward the lower deck of the yacht, which was sinking into the waters. Meltem was right behind him, with her knives drawn. Kuzey and Barlas stood shoulder to shoulder on the yacht’s deck, trying to keep the passage open by raining curses on the bone swarm trying to climb up from below. The stairs leading down to the lower deck were completely underwater. Darius plunged his wand into the water. “Partis Temporus!” (Water-Parting Charm). The dark water parted to both sides like Moses parting the sea, creating a temporary corridor. Darius and Meltem dove into this opened wet, claustrophobic tunnel and kicked open the shattered steel door of the main command room. The sight inside shattered all the shields in Darius’s mind simultaneously. The room was half-filled with water. Alaz was pinned on top of a generator in the corner, blood flowing from his forehead completely covering his right eye, firing at two skeletons trying to enter through the door with a modified shock gun in his hand. His wand was broken in half. But the real destruction was next to the table. Efsun... The experienced Auror of many years, the mother of the team, and the old woman who was their sole source of intelligence, had slumped over the radio console. A rusted, bronze Carian sword protruded from her chest, passing through her back and embedding itself into the panel of the console. Blood flowing from her lips and chin had dyed that microphone, which had guided the team for years, crimson. “No... No!” Meltem threw her knives aside and ran to Efsun’s side like fire falling upon a hearth. She grabbed one of the skeletons with her bare hands and shattered its skull by slamming it against the console. Swinging his wand, Darius pinned the other skeletons in the room to the wall and knelt next to Efsun. The old woman’s hands were resting on a red, manual switch on the radio panel. “Efsun... Don’t let go,” said Darius. His hands were trembling, he didn’t know where to put his wand. “Vulnera Sanentur... I’m going to heal you, just hold on...” Efsun smiled faintly, a pain-filled smile with her blood-filled lips. Her single, intact eye was looking at Darius. There was no fear in it. “Too... late... boss,” whispered Efsun. Her voice was no longer that strong, authoritative voice they had heard over the radio for years. Her lungs were collapsing. “The archives... Widdershins... The reason they found us... the files in the castle. Nazir learned who we are from the documents in the castle.” The yacht sank a bit more with a terrifying jolt. The water level had risen to their waists. Alaz sobbed, crying as he jumped into the water from the generator with Meltem’s help. “Efsun! We can’t leave her!” Efsun grabbed Darius’s trembling hand with her bloody hand. “Weapons are gone. Headquarters... gone,” breathed Efsun. The light in her eyes was slowly fading. “But... I didn’t leave the files to him. All of the Ministry’s hidden servers... I am deleting them right now.” With one last burst of strength, the woman pulled down that red switch under her hand. Thick smoke rose from the console. The yacht’s databank had been permanently destroyed so it wouldn’t fall into Nazir’s hands. “You...” Efsun’s head slowly fell onto the console, her eyes focusing on Darius one last time. “You are ghosts now. Take... the city back.” When the light in Efsun’s eyes completely extinguished, the last moral compass in Darius’s world sank to the bottom of the sea as well. “We have to get out!” shouted Meltem, forcefully dragging Alaz, who wanted to hug Efsun’s lifeless body. The water had reached their necks. Darius stood up. There was neither a tear nor an expression on his face. He aimed his wand at Efsun’s lifeless body, and then at the radio console. He would not allow Nazir’s army of the dead to use Efsun’s body like a puppet. “Incendio Maxima.” As the pure fire burned even inside the water, beginning to turn the console and Efsun’s body to ash like a Viking funeral, Darius turned his back and dove into the water. Minutes later, eight silhouettes washed up on the dark pebbles of the İçmeler shore. Soaking wet, covered in blood, freezing, and gasping for breath, they threw themselves ashore. A hundred meters away, that massive boat that was once their castle created a terrifying whirlpool and was completely swallowed by the dark waters of the sea, accompanied by the green lights of hundreds of skeletons. Alaz was punching the wet pebbles, letting out muffled screams; Meltem had buried her head in Lidya’s shoulder, shaking silently. Barlas and the Inquisition team were sitting silently on the beach, with the horror of this destruction that had just occurred. They had lost everything too, but compared to what the CORE team had just lost, their losses were nothing. Kuzey, with a posture resembling a broken marble statue, was looking at the sea. He had plunged his new wand into the ground. Darius... Widdershins. Darius stood alone at the edge of the beach. Water dripped from the wet robes on him, and the blood flowing from the scars on his face mixed with the rain. He was looking at the ocean, but his eyes didn’t see the sea. Barlas struggled to his feet and approached Darius with heavy steps. “Your weapons are gone,” said Barlas, his voice barely audible in the storm. “You have no headquarters. You have no intelligence. You have no support network. We have nothing left in our two hands but our wands, Widdershins. We are just a handful of fugitives now.” Darius slowly turned his head to Barlas. Barlas had faced countless dark wizards, killers, and monsters throughout his life. But when he looked into Darius’s eyes at that moment, an ice-cold sweat poured down his back. In those eyes, there was no longer an Auror’s justice, a human’s mercy, or a hunter’s tactic. There was only pure, bottomless, unstoppable darkness. “You’re right, Barlas,” said Darius. His voice was so whispered that it sounded as if it came from beneath the soil. “We have no badges anymore. We have no headquarters to defend.” Darius drew his wand. No color glowed at its tip; there was only that dull, deadly void that absorbed darkness and bent the light around it. “I have nothing left to lose anymore. And I swear, Barlas... Tonight, even if all the darkness beneath Bodrum collapses on that man... I am going to teach Abu Nazir what mercy means.” 38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfPQHEkqoQr
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