Gellert
He found himself lost in visions, witnessing the future of Russia seventy years hence. The ruling party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, had outlawed its magical counterpart, "Freedom for All." The once-cohesive nation was now fragmented into over ten general governorates, embroiled in conflict with one another and torn apart by interethnic strife. Virtually all industry had vanished; Russia's primary function had devolved into a mere exporter of resources. The police presence was overwhelming—Russia led the world in police officers per capita, supplemented by internal troops. Striking or merely holding a sign proclaiming "observe the constitution" would land one in prison. The populace feared the authorities more than criminals and turned to law enforcement only out of sheer desperation.
The population teetered on the brink of concentration camp conditions—everyone was registered at their place of residence. To perpetuate chaos and anarchy, "legal armed detachments" were formed to punish dissenters, all while the authorities feigned ignorance. Those who opposed torture were branded as US agents, just as cowardly pacifists and other dissenters who refused to unite around a common cause were banned in Germany. Power was conferred solely upon the most unscrupulous individuals; the more shamelessly one lied, the more wealth and privileges they acquired. Families of the elite lived and received medical care abroad, while the rulers themselves worked rotationally within the country. The enforcers were labeled heroes—those who eliminated the discontented within the state. Moreover, the discontented rarely resisted; if they did, they faced execution by punitive forces.
The populace was strictly forbidden from possessing weapons, ensuring they could not rebel. The most agile and intelligent were occasionally granted the chance to emigrate, which was deemed a significant life achievement. In a cruel twist, America was declared Russia's primary enemy. The regime could be characterized as corrupt, occupying, and conformist. The majority had grown accustomed to such a life, accepting it as normal. Were you fortunate enough to be in power? Steal, exploit, conceal, deceive, and suppress—these were your rights. Did you not make it to the top? Tough luck—try elbowing your way up the corrupt-conformist ladder of success; serve, humiliate yourself, and mimic those in power, integrating into a deceitful, cynical, and treacherous system. If you could not, endure in silence, stealing only small change, much like the submissive majority. If you refused or were unable, you faced the prospect of aging in fear, or worse.
Gellert emerged from his visions. Excellent, simply excellent. If he had learned anything from the Jews, it was that not everyone needed to be killed; some had to work on Saturday. The Ost plan must be softened. He would spare some Russians, ensuring their mortality rate exceeded their birth rate, granting the most loyal the opportunity to assimilate as servants. He had no doubt that Russia would crumble, and he would fashion a puppet to distract America.
It was unfortunate that he could not reach America swiftly, but the Western Hemisphere was smaller than the Eastern, with far fewer inhabitants. There would be a war of attrition—a war without war—and he would emerge victorious. The date for the Russian magicians and Muggles to attack him was set: July 6, 1941, Operation Thunderstorm. He knew this without visions, relying on intelligence reports. Even without intelligence, the signs were clear: the Russians initiated mobilization, amassing troops at the border. They were not preparing for defense; instead, they removed barbed wire from the border and cleared mines from bridges. Troops were already being deployed in protrusions along the border to secure territorial coverage.
The magicians brought in squads of disguised golems, altering the structure of protective spells at the border in preparation for their assault. Adolf had coined the term "big lie," but the Russians surpassed him. In 1939, they labeled Poland the culprit of the war; in 1940, it was France; now, it was Germany. Their media was entirely state-controlled. Songs like "Tomorrow on a Campaign," and "Let's Add a Few More Republics to the Union," were already circulating openly. The Russians were economizing; Muggle soldiers were not issued leather boots. It was shameful to liberate Europe, so echelons of soldiers decked out in leather boots were dispatched to the western border.
They had even prepared a song: the leader personally ordered the composition of "Arise, Great Country" in February 1941! What could one say? They had even considered a song and now possessed a puppet government of Germany on their territory, ensuring that each colonel had a German translator assigned to them.
He scheduled his attack on the USSR—though it was still Russia— for June 22, 1941. This time, unlike France, there was no need for restraint. However, he lamented that the number of his adversaries was so vast that he could only deal with the wizards—the German Muggles would have to handle their non-magical opponents themselves.
He envisioned the Russians remembering this day for a long time. In an instant, the magical connection and protective barriers would shatter. Then the bloodshed would commence. The Russians could have mounted a defense, but numerous factors intervened. They were unprepared and were decimated piecemeal. Many golems remained inactive, the protective spells were dismantled, and the new assailants had yet to cast their spells. Most critically, the Russians had been ordered not to respond to provocations, nor to retaliate. Some complied due to orders, and they perished. Others fought back, only to be executed by Russian punishers for disobeying orders.
If they resisted, a chaotic fight erupted. Some surrendered, deeming themselves useless in life; dead, they could still serve the common good. Among the Muggles, the situation was almost comical. Soldiers functioned separately from their rifles. Equipment was issued against signatures. Tankers rode in one vehicle while tanks occupied another, and shells were stored in a third. And fuel was still en route.
The same problem persisted: an order not to fire, coupled with punitive forces shooting those who returned fire in violation of orders. The only location where the Muggles would hold the front was the Brest Fortress, merely because it had been designated as a concentration camp for German prisoners of war during the victorious offensive. Elite units, like the 132nd escort battalion of the NKVD, had already been moved there!
Would some consider this good fortune? No, it was calculated. He had granted the Baltics and a portion of Poland to the Russians. While the Russians commenced purges there, they had not managed to eliminate all dissenters. The Russians were shot down from all sides. They could not relinquish the land they had received and were awarded land without any border fortifications or stationary protective spells. They stationed their army there.
The same was true for the German Muggles, though he did not place much faith in them. The Russians possessed the best tanks globally, but without fuel, shells, and crews to operate them against the German tanks. By the time the Russians managed to procure fuel, they would find themselves devoid of tanks. And when the factories evacuated from the border regions began production, Russia would no longer exist.
What purpose did border factories serve? To transport shells and products no further than the front lines. Difficulties could arise. However, the Russians had provided him with ample wagons. They also constructed rail depots near the border to re-gauge the Western European railways. They provided him with sufficient resources: some trains loaded with supplies, including grains and steel, traveled from the USSR to Germany right under artillery fire.
No, the Russians were not naïve. What if the enemy blockaded his railways? But he would not blockade them, as gifts were regularly sent along them. He struck first. What can one say? The Russian Muggles lacked maps of the territory! Anyone versed in military affairs recognizes that an army without maps cannot fight, let alone maneuver effectively. Artillery cannot fire without geographic reference, generals cannot direct their forces, and commanders cannot strategize for battle.
When he invaded, the Russian troops possessed virtually no maps of the border regions, which would become one of the many factors contributing to the Russian defeat. Were they fools? No. They had maps—many excellent maps, in vast quantities, of exceptional quality—but these were maps of German territory. Equally significant was the fact that, beginning in 1939, the Soviet General Staff operated under extreme duress, developing plans in a state of emergency, yet at the time of the German attack, the command possessed no defense strategy.
Alongside other signs, this leaves little room for speculation regarding the nature of the plans the General Staff was devising.
Aviation... The Russians had good aircraft. They had adopted Triandafillov's military doctrine, which advocated using aviation to eliminate enemy aircraft while they were stationary and caught unawares. Thus, following 1939, Russian pilots received no training in aerial combat—ten hours of flight time sufficed to qualify as an aviator. And they perished.
Gellert, transformed into black smoke, personally led his mages into battle. It was time to invade the Russian Department of Mysteries, preventing them from summoning their demons and utilizing forbidden magic at a crucial juncture, just as he did. The enemy resisted fervently, yet their efforts culminated only in death. A colossal magical army, capable of waging a war against Germany, ceased to exist in a single day. The Muggles suffered far less, yet they too lost 80% of their supply wagons and two-thirds of their depots on the first day of the conflict, resulting in a logistical collapse for Russia.
Even now, the situation could be salvaged—by adopting a defensive posture or retreating. Yet the Russian authorities commanded an attack based on pre-war strategies, disregarding the fact that a portion of their forces had been decimated, the Germans' layout had shifted, and the mages possessed demons and an undeclared archmage-prophet wielding the Elder Wand and a time-turner.
Gellert transfigured synthetic fuel in Germany, issuing commands that produced effects his adversaries would not have achieved even with an entire headquarters administered by a luck potion.
He was present at the front and in concentration camps. Here he recharged in one camp, creating an army in another, and feeding demons in a third, while connecting the perfect undead he crafted to Russian magical sources. He dispatched completely compliant Dementors into the fray, shielding them with Antipatronuses and annihilating them with enemy Patronus spells.
He had also established several caches on Russian territory long ago. The Russian security forces easily imprisoned and executed those for the slightest infraction, yet they overlooked several spheres of Tibelum—powerful demons and a couple of hundred reinforced undead. Consequently, Leningrad would be deprived of food supplies, enabling him to successfully choke the city with a blockade.
Russia had not sought to defend itself; the colossal alligator, bleeding, had launched an attack but ultimately faltered. Gellert surveyed the lifeless bodies of fallen German Muggle soldiers. How he envied them! They died now, witnessing the destruction of a vast force poised to descend upon Germany. They were convinced of their righteousness, confident that this war would soon conclude, that their adversary would not recover from the crippling blow, and that they would soon emerge victorious.
The Germans failed to discern the divide between the USSR and the Russian Empire. They believed it would fragment into a collection of semi-independent states, and that German technology was superior and more abundant. Fools. The Germans struggled to bomb the much weaker and smaller England; how could they possibly confront Russia? Local wizards and Muggles had long been mobilized, the weaponry reached peak quality for its time, the dissatisfied and potentially dissenting individuals were imprisoned, and the production capability was boundless—the nation had turned into a massive armaments factory.
An illustrative case was given: the leaders of the occupied territories ordered the locals to be rounded up, seizing everything from them for Germany. They would respond that this had already occurred and was termed a "collective farm." It was then decided to simply rebrand the collective farm into a subsidiary farm of the Wehrmacht.
But Gellert understood that he was effectively fighting against himself. Soon, the Russians would bring forth a new army. And then another. They would march toward certain death with sheep-like stubbornness, merely to enlarge their concentration camps. He empathized with the English—they fought to avoid living in a concentration camp, while the Russians fought to remain in theirs. Although... in a German concentration camp, only those who had been with him from the beginning could serve as Gauleiters.
Perhaps every Russian fought for their right to become the most significant figure in the concentration camp they had constructed. Now he had an opportunity—to eliminate the Russians piece by piece before their immense army could consolidate. Gellert returned to reality. It was time. It was also time for Adolf to initiate his own plans. Strategically, their Barbarossa plan was nonsensical. However, it would effectively obliterate the local magicians before winter set in, while finishing off the Muggles a short while later.
Thus began a new phase of the Second Wizarding War, also known as the Second Muggle War. At zero hours and three minutes, he completed his spell and plunged the ritual knife into the victim, who lay within a cave beneath the Buchenwald concentration camp. He would usher the common good into this world!
On June 22, 1941, early in the morning, Gellert-7, invisibly, stood beside Ribbentrop, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, watching as he handed over a note declaring war from Muggle Germany to Muggle USSR. "You refused to withdraw troops from the border, and Germany is compelled to launch a preemptive strike," Ribbentrop announced.
Invisibly, Gellert accessed the Muggle's mind and sensed his surprise. Surprise at how such a feeble and pitiful country dared to oppose them. "A chained dog" that had broken free, thought the Muggle ambassador of the USSR, "and mad dogs are shot!"
"You will regret this," the Soviet ambassador replied. However, Gellert already knew: the ambassador would be executed by his own people to conceal the fact that Germany had declared war on the USSR. Gellert understood: "Strategic defense was a forced form of combat action; it was not premeditated," as Soviet military textbooks proclaimed.
Even without those texts, he realized the Red Army's defensive maneuvers in the summer of 1941 would be pure improvisation. The Red Army had failed to prepare for defense prior to the war and had not conducted defensive exercises. No mention of defense existed in Soviet regulations. Not only did the Red Army lack defensive plans, but even the theoretical aspects of executing defensive operations had not been adequately developed.
Moreover, the Soviet populace and their military were not mentally prepared for a defensive stance. The people and the army were geared to undertake defensive tasks through offensive methods: "It is precisely the interests of defense that will necessitate the USSR to conduct broad offensive operations on enemy territory, which in no way contradicts the nature of a defensive war."
How to describe the events unfolding at the front? Initially, the Russian commanders presumed it was a provocation and ordered restraint. They then realized that Hitler's aggression had turned eastward, and there would be no victorious assault on Germany while its army occupied England, liberating everyone. The order arrived—everyone was to attack. Yet it was far too late.
The mounds of storage stones charged with magic fell into Grindelwald's possession. Over half of the golems lay captured in an inactive state. He would reprogram some and deploy them to the Western Front, dismantling the remainder for resources. What does the Tears of Despair spell resemble? It blankets an area of one square kilometer, then obliterates a ten-by-ten meter section, and then another. Is that impressive? No, because it randomly selects territory and does not strike the same location twice.
One could easily evade it by simply leaving the affected area or finding shelter in already impacted zones. But when this entire square kilometer brims with golems with their defenses disabled—that is precisely what is needed. The paradox is that if the Russians had prepared for war, things would have unfolded far more favorably for them. He would not have claimed the trophies.
The Russians would not have lost their entire magical army on the first day. The border would have been secured, but as it stood, there were no barbed wire defenses, no mined bridges, and the magical shields over the area were minimal (they were charging the attacking weaves).
And how he reveled in the local Ministry of Magic... He dispatched seventy-five wizards before he had to withdraw. True, now even the dimwitted understood he was a demonologist. The finest demonologist. He feared that he had overlooked something, that he had failed to foresee an aspect of the enemy's strategy. That his Muggles, particularly the inferior ones in the South, would falter.
Yet everything was progressing even better than he had planned. His intelligence had unveiled the Russians' treachery, and it was time to repay them for all their atrocities and crimes! More and more artillery regiments joined the fray, adding their voices to the polyphonic chorus. His Muggle troops, bypassing prolonged engagements with dispersed enemy units, surged forward. Border bridges were seized by saboteurs. The saboteurs were astonished: the Soviet bridges had not even been mined.
How to explain such an egregious degree of unpreparedness for war? The shock of the assault was staggering. Surprise always triggers a chain of calamities, each leading to others: the destruction of aircraft at airfields renders troops vulnerable from the air, and they (having no trenches or foxholes in border regions) are compelled to retreat.
Retreat signifies that thousands of tons of ammunition and fuel are relinquished at the borders; retreat means that airfields are abandoned, resulting in the immediate destruction of any remaining aircraft. Retreat without ammunition and fuel equates to inevitable demise. Retreat signifies a loss of control by command. The command is unaware of the conditions within the troops and thus cannot make informed decisions; the forces receive no orders or commands that fail to align with the current circumstances.
Saboteurs who had breached the border in advance operated everywhere along communication lines. They either severed the communication pathways or infiltrated them, transmitting false signals and directives to enemy forces. The enemy's actions devolved into fragmented, isolated battles. Russian commanders inquired of Moscow: "What should we do?" The question was dire. The Red Army was not prepared for defense. The troops were far less equipped for defensive maneuvers than offensive ones. Defense had not been practiced during training; there were no plans for a defensive war.
What to do? Initially, "do not succumb to provocations," followed by "Attack!" Act according to the pre-war plan, which they had ordered to incinerate without review? The USSR had prepared for war, for an offensive war; it had been preparing for its entire existence. This was why they exterminated their own people and their environment, why they exported grain to a starving country and natural resources, purchasing and creating means of producing weapons.
This was why they possessed more military hardware than the rest of the world combined, why they sang about war in all their songs and poetry. Another version would serve merely as a monument to human blindness. No, he simply had far too much ereghu; all kinds of foolishness crept into his mind, and this could not be.
Resting thanks to the time-turner, Gellert concealed his mages and ventured to the rear. Problems arose. His Muggle forces crushed prisoners beneath tank treads. They either locked them in camps upon capture or executed them. "Let them eat shit!" Or they shot them; his mages slaughtered locals for sport. He commanded them to safeguard the prisoners! Protect! Only kill in designated locations—it's easier to create a large altar than a small one. He was not a monster! He only killed those he could process. Like a vampire: he consumed what he could.
Yet his followers disappointed him increasingly. Excessive cruelty. Like a manticore: they would regurgitate but still consume. Everything was proceeding as it ought: the destruction of everyone at the borders, the capture of spoils, the encirclement of the Russians, and the defense at the center. The Russians squandered their reserves in a futile assault on fortified positions, while he decimated them in Ukraine, securing material and blockading their Leningrad, known as Petersburg, the former capital.
He was present there now. Next came the rout of the Russians near Moscow and victory. They had nearly exhausted their magical forces! And the Muggles... His wizards and Muggles would finish them off quickly.
But suddenly, complications began to arise. The resistance from the Russians, especially their magicians, started to intensify. Initially, he exerted himself just enough to overcome everything. Then the resistance grew stronger, and he began to worry. He interrogated prisoners, employing truth serums. He comprehended everything. Russia had nothing to boast about throughout the twentieth century. The locals' lives were devoid of significance, aimlessly rushing about like electrons in a circuit. He had given them purpose: death.
Many decided it was preferable to escape from the reality he presented and join the fight against him. He provided them meaning—death in a war against him. He had foreseen this. He needed to vanquish the local government first, then society. He had already bested the government. Yet, his followers had overstepped their bounds with their brutality. Previously, they had been welcomed with flowers. Now they were met with silence. Now they faced gunfire.
There were enough traitors and collaborators; many served for an ideal, while some did so for rations. Yet, he had more adversaries than allies here now. In other words, if the German army, guided by the moral code of 1914, had invaded Russia, they would have triumphed, and the locals would have gladly assisted in burying the existing government. Yet they were confronted by an army from 1941, one that crushed prisoners with tanks, executed them with machine guns, and forbade locals from feeding the captives.
The locals resolved that their government was not so terrible after all, and alongside the government, they began to resist him. The spirit of propaganda shifted instantly. They were no longer shouting about liberation; now they clamored to defend their homeland, not world domination. His fighters were now rebuked by Russian propagandists, not with cries of "Surrender!" but "What are you scoundrels doing?"
The nature of the wizarding war had transformed. Firstly, half of the wizards who had previously fled had returned to Russia, eager to fight. This was... unexpected! Secondly, those who had gone "on a bender" (hidden during the First Magic War) had awakened. Among them were thirty-four families of the Most Ancient and Most Noble and four archmages! The Russians also possessed fanatics willing to sacrifice themselves to recharge their protective Charms.
In Magic, there exist two singularities—blood and voluntary sacrifice. Most importantly, what transpired now reminded him of his very first confrontation with Albus Dumbledore. He had attacked Albus at that time without realizing he possessed wandless magic. He had not foreseen it in his visions, as there was no reason for him to use it. Yet when he found himself on the losing end, he resorted to it—Gellert had failed to account for how much he altered the future with his actions!
It was all the fault of the foolish bastards in his army, who executed the locals too swiftly! They would not understand until it was too late! But Gellert was not some weakling. He had amassed an enormous amount of ereghu within himself. Even with the simplest Dark spell, he could accomplish much, and with higher magic and the Elder Wand...
He advanced. He killed. In September and October, he experienced his first setback: he and his Muggle followers encircled the Russian Muggles and overwhelmed them. Yet the local wizards pressed on. He had to focus on the wizards. They perished and retreated, but... The Russian Muggle army, instead of falling in the autumn, broke free from the encirclement!
Now they were poised to join the Russian army being redeployed from the border with Japan! No!
He would kill the mages, and the Muggles would perish as well. And he was killing. He had already envisioned it—the Russians would resort to desperate measures, expending many of their wizards and Muggles, deploying climate weapons that initially targeted his mages but would also affect the Muggles.
It was unfortunate that demons held no sway over the weather; they could only consume... He endeavored to encompass everyone with a ritual, and he nearly succeeded. But he lacked sufficient energy. No, there would have been enough victims. Yet... his supporters... They failed to deliver the victims to the site of sacrifice! They killed prisoners and locals in occupied territories! They died in vain, offering him no drop of energy!
This was not sabotage—it was something far worse: stupidity! He observed in horror as visions revealed his defeat near Moscow, and despite all his strength, he was forced to retreat for the first time. As if mocking him... Turkey did not enter the war. Sweden did not enter the war. Japan entered the war, but not against the USSR—rather, they targeted the USA! Fools! Another front!
Now he would face four! Four fronts, the Russians had one, when he should have had three and they three! Four fronts: air and sea against England, now also in the Pacific, in Africa, and in Russia. Even though most of his forces were here, he could not afford to be deceived. The battle was raging globally.
His golems and constructs, crudely assembled from the remains of the dead, navigated the underwater expanses. Muggle submarines would also prove useful—there was no magic in them, and they evaded nearly all search magic charms. Before the US openly declared war, he dismantled the enemy fleet and air force faster than they could assemble it, but everything would now be different.
Stupid Japanese, what are you hoping for? A non-aggression pact with the Russians? That pact isn't worth the paper it's printed on! The Russians had an opportunity to defeat him. Right in the winter of 1941. They needed to stabilize the front with equal forces everywhere and maintain a reserve for any breakthroughs. They had to consolidate their troops into a fist and tear apart his defenses at a singular point, achieving a tenfold superiority there.
The Russian mages and Muggles pushed him back from Moscow. Then they began attacking everywhere with two- or three-fold advantages. Fools. Again, they were left without reserves. Throughout 1942, they squandered elite units in a futile attempt to push him away from Moscow and lift the siege of Leningrad.
The battle at the Pogostye railway station in the Mga region was indicative. This area was guarded by 2,000 of his Muggle fighters, supported by magicians who neutralized enemy magical attacks. His foes suffered a loss of 60,000 killed. More than the Russians had lost in 1812 during the Battle of Borodino.
He could proudly declare that this was due to magic or his prophecies. No. The Russians continued their checkers game with the same asinine stubbornness, aiming to control the maximum number of squares on the board without even attempting to obliterate the enemy. They had been tasked with seizing heights, not annihilating the foe! Unthinkable!
Then he glimpsed an opportunity to triumph in 1942. The Russian troops in Crimea had held out successfully until now. But they were ordered to go on the offensive... And he knew how to anticipate the moment... One decisive blow—and the Russian South would disintegrate. The breakthrough of the defense in the magical realm would be mirrored by the Muggles.
The battle for Stalingrad should have culminated in victory and the demise of the four Russian archmages he had grown weary of, but... The allies supplied Russia with too many resources. The Russians compensated for their losses by sacrificing their magicians; they staged a breakthrough of demons almost reminiscent of his own.
He dealt with his demons; it was a feat. Then the Russians struck again with climate weapons. His mages suffered another loss. The Muggles... Finally, the evacuated enterprises resumed operations, and the Russians overwhelmed the enemy with superior equipment. Some might have despaired, especially as enemies on other fronts began to gain supremacy at sea and the air shield over the metropolis started to falter.
But he did not whine; he worked. Russia was the key to success. There were four times as many sources of magic there as in all of Europe! With such power, he could contend with anyone... He prepared an aggressive offensive for the summer of 1943. His magical servants would penetrate the front lines. What would later be known as the Kursk Bulge commenced.
Muggles scurried beneath him, but the magicians decided the outcome. He awaited the enemy's demons, yet they never arrived. He killed all four local archmages. He had not suffered wounds for quite some time... he had eliminated nearly all the local ancient and noble wizards, but then... The Russians summoned demons. But not here—in Italy. Instead of defending, they sought to eliminate him.
His English and American enemies, supported by local dissenters, rushed into the breach. He lost the southern part of Italy, and the enemies brought in additional forces from the vacated African front. He envisioned a wonderful future where he would sever the Kursk salient, incinerate Moscow. But Russia would not surrender. And at that moment, he would lose nearly all of Europe.
He abandoned everything to stabilize the front in the West. Without him, the Russians could not be vanquished. That was when he realized he had lost. He had not seen victory in his visions. As if to confirm this, Laurier passed away—not due to saboteurs. One of his children did not tear him apart—he simply died. From age and fatigue.
It was regrettable that he had only one superman at his disposal—himself. He had hoped for at least something—disagreements within the coalition of his enemies! But they were so terrified of him that all clarifications of relationships were postponed until after their victory over him. In 1944, he attempted to wear down the enemy through active defense. It proved fruitless; enemies were reclaiming France, and the USSR was advancing toward the borders.
1945 was destined to be his last. He peered into the future—Hitler's suicide. Forgive me, Adolf. Otherwise, you would have had to take your own life in 1941. The Nazi leadership had disappointed him. Idiots. Just consider the absurdity of constructing trains from concrete during an iron shortage! These cretins lacked knowledge of dynamic loads or the structural quality coefficient—the ratio of strength to density.
They were oblivious to the fact that concrete possesses varying strengths for tension and compression. He could conceive a million such ideas! Build structures on the Moon! So what? The gravity is lesser—material savings are achievable; the soil is superior—there's no groundwater, and there is no risk of corrosion, alongside fire. Everyone was acting foolishly. It was evident that the head of the concentration camps visited the camps only once throughout those years, and he vomited.
And Goering... accepted bribes in fur coats from pilots. True, it would have been wise to utilize that for the ritual and distribute the fur coats among the soldiers—there would have been sufficient for an entire company. The only thing that restrained him was the realization that others in his position would have behaved identically. It was precisely due to the poor quality of the material that he had failed to effectuate any changes for the common good!
They had slaughtered more than necessary, too cruelly, too ostentatiously, and not on an altar! Residents of the nations where Gellert Grindelwald once espoused his ideas and philosophy were now well aware of the emblem—a triangle encasing a circle with a stick inscribed within. When Gellert established his regime in Europe, this symbol became an inseparable part of existence, its original meaning either erased from collective memory or never comprehended.
For many who suffered at his hands, it stood as a symbol of malevolence, torment, and terror. He had become the embodiment of the wall of misunderstanding and hatred. The same held true in the Muggle realm. There was an evident parallel to the Nazi swastika of Adolf Hitler. Initially, both symbols bore no aggression; they remained mere representations of bygone eras. The circle within the triangle was the emblem of the Deathly Hallows from a children's fairy tale, which once became a flag for those who believed in the authentic roots of this narrative; the swastika served as a cross with curved edges—a solar symbol used by numerous ancient civilizations, signifying the movement of life, sun, light, and prosperity.
Both symbols, in the hands of Grindelwald and Hitler, transformed into emblems of oppression, persecution, violence, and terror. The world was astonished—how did Grindelwald maintain his hold? He possessed a secret. The secret astonished him: the ereghu. He had taken so many lives that he could reduce a steel tank to dust with a mere Bone Crusher. His Dark Magic surpassed the strength of any man. Like a tree, he had nurtured the ereghu within himself all these years, and it had begun to sprout.
This should have led to a rupture of his soul, but Gellert had managed to shield himself from it. They claimed he had become a demon. Even his own. Nonsense. He had simply devoted himself entirely to the state. It was unfortunate that, like a Dementor, he could not extract the souls of his adversaries. Gellert felt as though he were immersed in a liquid that could dissolve his mind and obliterate his memories. He wished to recall fragments of his childhood, but why? He was separated from them by a road paved with... how many millions of corpses?
He genuinely sought to build a common good, but people... failed to appreciate him. The damaged beginning must be obliterated to make way for a new one. In June 1945, Muggles would test a nuclear bomb. An excellent concept. No, he did not wish to annihilate entire nations; he simply lacked the resources necessary to conquer the world. He resolved to utilize "human capital" for victory. After the victory, the sacrifices would fade away.
As for the Jews and other categories of people... Nothing personal; anyone could have found themselves in that position. Consider it a matter of chance. Simultaneously, he would rid the world of its failures. Moreover, he was not a fanatic: Jewish wizards and Muggle Jews who wished to fight for him would be afforded the opportunity to live. In the army. And they would remain untouched. True, there were fewer than two thousand of them across the entire nation, but still... He did not harm his own, and if they did not wish to become his allies—that was their concern.
Now... He would cleanse the world of his enemies entirely and construct a new realm. In the name of the common good. But he would not kill everyone. Thus, he needed to summon allies. A drawing appeared in his mind. A grand scale drawing, a ritual on a planetary level... where he would anchor his corners on his concentration camps across the map...
And then... He had never summoned higher demons; many even doubted their existence. The world would become empty. Almost. A perfect blank slate upon which he would inscribe history. But as soon as he contemplated this, the future shifted once more. Dumbledore would halt him! Too late. You will not be able to impede the common good.
But his enemy could not be underestimated. He foresaw the enemy's assaults in the future and would render them futile. He beheld the future: the storming of Berlin by Russian tanks. The Russians had failed to learn how to employ tanks properly throughout the war. He wondered where they would store a hundred train cars filled with coffins. How would they transport them without disrupting the flow of shells? Oh, he had forgotten… They buried the dead without coffins.
Although it no longer mattered; this future would not manifest. Gellert set to work, establishing the ritual for April 28, 1945. There was no time to act sooner.