Harry Potter: I am the Legend

Dawn broke once again over the ocean.

Hoffa was sitting cross-legged in the cabin, deeply meditating, when a sudden, piercing alarm broke the tranquility outside.

The sound was neither the usual bell rung by sailors when setting off, nor the noise of card-playing and revelry on deck—it was an alarm.

He got up from his bed and strode quickly to the deck.

The weather was misty, the air heavy with the oppressive stillness that comes before a storm. On the deck, several sailors stood with binoculars in hand, scanning the horizon.

"What's going on?" Hoffa asked one of the sailors.

The sailor, seeing him approach, handed over the binoculars without hesitation. "Someone's coming after us."

Hoffa grabbed the binoculars and looked into the distance. Through the round lens, he spotted a warship cutting through the waves, its full arsenal visible, with turrets towering like steel skyscrapers.

Compared to the massive warship, the cargo ship they were on seemed as insignificant as a mouse beneath an elephant's foot.

It was clearly a German warship.

Hoffa lowered the binoculars, gripping the railing tightly with a look of disbelief.

Pinpointing a ship in the vast ocean wasn't impossible, but for them to locate his ship with such precision—and to come in such force—it was clear they knew his location deliberately.

He cursed under his breath, "Damn it! How are they tracking us so precisely?"

From the beginning of his journey with Chloe, Hoffa had a nagging sense that the German wizards wouldn't give up so easily. But even after escaping to the sea, their pursuit continued relentlessly.

Something didn't feel right.

At that moment, Chloe and the widow had also rushed to the deck, drawn by the alarm, and were questioning the sailors about the situation.

Hoffa turned his gaze to Chloe, staring at her intently.

How were they finding him every time?

Back in Paris, they had accurately located his house. Now, even out at sea, they had done the same.

He walked up to Chloe.

The nun, still upset over the events of the previous day, ignored him. But the widow, Mary, immediately grabbed his arm.

"What's going on? Is it true that the German wizards are after Frank? Did you lie to me!?"

She didn't know Chloe's identity or abilities and assumed the warship was after Frank.

Hoffa didn't respond to the anxious widow. His focus was solely on Chloe.

"What are you staring at me for?" Chloe asked irritably.

"Is there something on you?" Hoffa pressed.

"What?"

"Did they do something to you? Otherwise, how could they track us so precisely?"

"I don't know."

Unconvinced, Hoffa circled Chloe, closing his eyes to focus purely on her spiritual presence. In the black-and-white spiritual world, he saw it—behind the pure white silhouette of Chloe, faint wisps of black smoke coiled around her. The black aura was so faint that it could easily go unnoticed without careful observation.

The others watched his peculiar actions with confusion, except for Chloe, who grew annoyed. This invasive, almost X-ray-like scrutiny would make anyone uncomfortable.

Crossing her arms, she snapped, "Don't tell me you think I'm the one leaking information."

Hoffa opened his eyes and, without a word, pulled her aside to a corner and lifted her shirt. What he saw made him gasp and stagger back in horror.

Chloe's once-smooth and fair back was now covered in five or six pairs of grotesque eyes. The eyes blinked incessantly, surrounded by pulsating veins of red and blue, like living tendrils.

The sight of the writhing eyeballs and their vein-like appendages churned his stomach.

"The Touch of the Eye Demon."

No wonder those black wizards could track him so precisely.

In the year since leaving Hogwarts, Hoffa had encountered many bizarre and sinister curses. This one wasn't the most dangerous, but it was certainly one of the most revolting.

Chloe, still unaware of the horror on her back, only knew that Hoffa had abruptly pulled her into a corner and lifted her shirt, exposing even her undergarments.

As a young woman, she yanked her clothes down forcefully, her face flushed with anger.

"Get off me, Bach! What the hell are you doing!?"

"Don't you feel anything?" Hoffa pressed, leaning against the wall.

"All I feel is that you're a complete scumbag!" Chloe shouted, veins bulging on her forehead under her nun's habit.

"Your back," he said.

"What about it? My back's been a little itchy lately, but what's it got to do with you? Do I have to report every itch to you now!?"

"See for yourself."

Unwilling to waste time explaining, Hoffa pressed his hand against the cabin wall.

Under the effects of Transfiguration, the metal wall morphed into a small triangular prism, trapping Chloe inside. The interior surface of the prism transformed into smooth, reflective mirrors.

Chloe gasped as the mirrors revealed the grotesque truth about her back.

Within three seconds, a piercing scream of terror echoed from the triangular prism.

Hoffa raised his hand, dispelling the transfiguration. The prism gradually disappeared.

The nun, once brimming with anger, now sat collapsed on the ground, her face ashen, her expression one of utter horror.

"What… what… what's going on!?" she stammered.

"The Touch of the Eye Demon," Hoffa explained in a low voice. "It's a black magic curse that parasitizes a living host, feeding on vision and information while transmitting the host's location to the caster. Those dark wizards must have marked you when they made contact."

"I… I had no idea… ugh!"

Before she could finish, she lunged toward the railing and vomited into the sea.

Mary peeked her head around the corner. Initially suspecting Hoffa was doing something harmful to Chloe, she instead saw the nun retching over the railing. Alarmed, she rushed over and gently patted Chloe's back.

"What's wrong?" Mary asked, her voice full of concern.

Chloe, her eyes red and tearful, rasped, "Help me… get rid of this curse."

Hoffa stood silently, his expression grave as he gazed at the distant horizon. Then he shook his head.

"Not now."

"Why not!?" Chloe grabbed his arm with force, her desperation mounting.

"Hurry! Just thinking about that thing on my back makes me want to…" She retched again, unable to finish her sentence.

Hoffa exhaled sharply. "The Eye Demon must be how they've been tracking your location. Everything we've done for days has probably been visible to them."

"If you remove the curse now, the last location it records will be this ship. They'll come straight here, and when they do, no one on this ship will escape unscathed."

Chloe took a deep breath and managed to calm herself slightly. "So, what are you saying?"

"We need to get far away from this ship—lure their attention elsewhere. Once we're safely in another part of the sea, I'll remove the curse, and then we can return."

"Fine." Chloe agreed without hesitation.

The two moved to the edge of the deck. Hoffa unfastened a small lifeboat from the cargo ship and dropped it into the sea, leaping in after it. Chloe followed him without delay.

The sailors and armed thugs on board stared in stunned disbelief.

"Boss, what are you doing?"

"You're just leaving? That's so cold-blooded!"

Some even began to cry. "Don't leave us behind!"

Yesterday, they had stood in tense opposition to Hoffa, but today, they clung to him like a drowning man clings to driftwood, looking at him as if he were Caesar himself.

Annoyed, Hoffa shouted angrily, "Shut up! I'll be back soon!"

His words had little effect. The warship in the distance loomed like the Sword of Damocles over everyone's heads.

Convinced that Hoffa was abandoning them, the crew began lowering lifeboats of their own. The cargo ship devolved into chaos: children crying, sailors cursing, thugs raising their guns.

"Enough!"

Chloe's sharp shout rang out. Her voice carried a strange, calming authority that silenced the chaos.

"I'm not abandoning you!" she yelled. "But right now, we have to lead them away. If we don't, none of you will escape."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" one sailor grumbled.

"What if they—"

"Enough!" Hoffa sneered, cutting him off. His tone was mocking, yet it carried an oddly persuasive weight. "Do you honestly think someone of your station warrants a warship? They're here for us. You should be grateful we're leaving."

His words, though laced with insult, seemed to quell the crowd. Slowly, they moved away from the railing, as though eager to distance themselves from him and let him leave sooner.

But just as Hoffa and Chloe were about to row away, Mary suddenly climbed onto the railing and shouted, "Wait!"

Both Hoffa and Chloe, standing in the lifeboat below, looked up.

"Take me with you!" Mary cried, her porcelain-doll face glistening with sweat.

"What—?" Hoffa was caught off guard. He had made their plan abundantly clear—how could anyone still insist on coming?

Chloe said, "Stay on the ship. I'll be back soon."

"No way!"

Mary glanced back at the crew, clenched her teeth, and without another word, lifted her skirt and leapt off the deck, landing on the lifeboat.

She scrambled to her feet, her face pale as she grabbed Chloe's arm. "I'm coming with you, dear."

"You—"

Chloe started to protest, but Hoffa stopped her.

"Let her come if she wants."

Giving Mary a deep look, he started the motorboat, speeding off into the distance.

On the battlecruiser Scharnhorst,

three black-robed wizards sat cross-legged on the deck, their eyes closed, a mysterious force linking their minds. Mance paced back and forth beside them, hands behind his back.

After a while, one of the wizards opened his eyes. "They've left. Veered thirty degrees off their course and are heading southeast."

"Abandoning the ship to divert our attention, huh?"

Mance rubbed his chin. "It seems Grindelwald's little protégé has discovered the magical mark on Miss Lemay."

"What's the plan? Which one do we follow?"

"Leave Lemay and Bach to Major Dominic. We'll take control of the ship," Mance said.

"A ship without Lemay—why bother?"

"You don't get it, do you?"

Mance chuckled. "For someone like Lemay, abandoning others to escape alone is harder than dying. She might leave now, but she'll be back. Once we have the ship under control, she'll come to us on her own."

On the churning sea, three speedboats raced through the waves toward a distant lifeboat.

Ten nautical miles from the cargo ship, Hoffa stopped their lifeboat. Drawing a dagger from his belt, he looked at Chloe. "Are you taking it off yourself, or…?"

Seeing the blade glint coldly, Chloe swallowed hard, her face growing pale.

"Isn't there any other way?" she asked, her voice tinged with despair.

Hoffa lowered the dagger and glanced at Mary, who stood nearby with her hands over her mouth, looking utterly confused. "How about you?"

"Me? Do what?"

Mary stared blankly at the dagger in Hoffa's hand. "Shouldn't we be trying to escape?"

"You're going to help her with a little surgery."

Hoffa pressed the dagger into Mary's hand. "Cut out the eyes on her back."

Without another word, he turned away, no longer looking at the two of them.

Mary held the dagger in her trembling hands, still clueless about what was happening.

Chloe sighed deeply. Through her coat, she removed her brassiere and handed it to Mary. Then, kneeling on the deck, she lifted her shirt.

"Ahhh!"

The moment Mary saw Chloe's back, she screamed in terror, dropping both the white brassiere and the dagger. Covering her mouth, she shrieked, "What are those!?"

"They're tracking magic," Chloe said urgently. "Hurry and get rid of them so we can go back."

"No, no, no, don't make me do it!"

Mary covered her face and scooted back to the edge of the lifeboat, kicking her legs in panic.

"Mary, it won't eat you!"

"I don't care! You make him do it!"

She pointed at Hoffa without hesitation, shouting loudly.

Hoffa sighed, turned around, and picked up the dagger from the deck.

(End of Chapter)

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