Based on the location provided by the counter-curse, Cohen quickly pinpointed a small, magically concealed rental house near London Station.
Those three Silver Key guys were practically worshipping the giant eye Cohen had conjured, even with death knocking at their door. Talk about devoted followers.
If these Silver Key folks had a slightly more normal belief system, Cohen might have even been willing to keep them around as his goons—but who can blame him when all they could think about was "bringing about the end of the world"? And they wanted to try and speedrun it the evil way too...
Cohen flew in through the balcony window, passing through the curtains concealing the main room. He could immediately see the three people huddled in front of the full-length mirror, kneeling devoutly beneath the floating red eyeball.
As Cohen canceled the spell, the bloodshot eyeball vanished into thin air, replaced by Cohen in his Dementor form, clad in a pitch-black cloak.
"Found you," Cohen said eerily.
"My Lord!" Upon seeing Cohen's true form materialize from thin air, Contestant Number Two prostrated himself on the ground, saying excitedly, "You've finally... finally..."
"You have awakened..." Contestant Number One seemed about to kiss Cohen's robes. "The end of this world is coming... Thank you..."
Cohen got the feeling Contestant Number One had a Death Eater rap sheet. Only Death Eaters liked kissing the boss's robes; Voldemort's people were all like that.
The two suicidal contestants had finished their death speeches, and now everyone's attention turned to Contestant Number Three, who had been keeping his head down and hadn't dared to speak.
Cohen looked at him because he was curious what the relatively smarter Contestant Number Three would have to say.
The other two contestants, however, secretly glanced at Contestant Number Three, urging him with their eyes—the Lord has arrived, shouldn't you say a few words to prove your loyalty?
"I... I feel..." Contestant Number Three tried to make his voice very vague, even putting on a bit of a Liverpudlian accent, attempting to make the other two contestants understand a terrifying fact:
"The Lord's been conning us..."
Immediately afterwards, Contestant Number Three swiftly drew his wand from his waist.
If the Lord had already awakened, He wouldn't be killed by a Killing Curse—because He was the source of the world, and things in a dream couldn't harm His true self.
If the Lord hadn't awakened yet, He would truly awaken due to death in the dream.
If this talking Dementor was just a wizard pretending somehow—then this Killing Curse could also directly expose his clumsy disguise.
If this was just an ordinary Dementor... Dementors don't talk, so that wasn't possible.
Contestant Number Three figured out the best way to prove the Lord's identity in just a split second.
Contestant Number One and Contestant Number Two were a step slower in their reaction. They both lunged at Contestant Number Three only when the green light had already hit Cohen, tackling this believer who had shown disrespect to the already awakened God to the ground.
And even though Contestant Number Three was pinned to the floor by two burly men, he still held his head up, trying hard to see Cohen's reaction after being hit by the Killing Curse.
Cohen wasn't affected in the slightest.
"Is this how you guys say hello to each other?" Cohen asked.
"No, no, no, it's not!" Contestant Number Two fearfully crawled back on the ground, kneeling and apologizing to Cohen. "My Lord, we are loyal! It's him—he's a traitor!"
As he spoke, Number Two pointed a trembling finger at Number Three, indicating that they hadn't known Number Three was a traitor before.
"How come the Lord's robes smell like lavender?" Number One suddenly licked his lips.
"It's because my house uses lavender-scented laundry detergent—wait a minute..." Cohen suddenly realized something. "Hold on, are you actually kissing it for real?"
Seriously, what's wrong with this guy? Other people just go through the motions when kissing a robe, but this guy's using his tongue?!
"?" Number One, having just been cursed at, looked completely bewildered.
"?" Number Two had never seen a god who cussed.
"???!!!!" Number Three had almost believed Cohen was an awakened god—Cohen's sudden curse snapped him out of his daze.
Immediately afterwards, they didn't feel like thinking anymore—or rather, they didn't have the motivation to.
Cohen drained their emotions and, with the speed of lightning, hit each of them with a Disarming Charm before whisking all three into his suitcase.
Cohen bound the three of them tightly with a Binding Charm and tossed them onto the floor of the cabin in the suitcase.
Sissoko and the little basilisk were circling around them, staring.
[You've been really efficient at catching people these past couple of days.] Sissoko remarked.
[Extra snacks! Extra snacks!] the little basilisk cheered.
"Why..." Number Two said sorrowfully, "Why have you become ...?"
"Are you disappointed that I became an adult?" Cohen asked, his eyelids heavy.
"Shouldn't you have already awakened?" Number One said in disbelief. "Why would you attack us...?"
"Shut your mouth, you pervert who licked my robes," Cohen said irritably. "You used to work for Voldemort, didn't you?"
"How do you know...?" Number One said in surprise. "The old master's robes actually didn't smell as good as yours... The Dark Lord's robes always had a certain—"
"Really into being a masochist?" Cohen shot him a dangerous look. "Sophia, you can have this one to play with."
[Yay!] the little basilisk happily coiled around Contestant Number One, dragging him to the side, ready to strangle him and then eat him.
"We should have chosen some more effective measures..." Number Three said to Number Two, turning his head in disappointment. "This dream is too beautiful for Him... We have to kill—"
"You shut up too, you love-starved weirdo," Cohen said, hitting Number Three with a Tongue-Tying Curse before turning his wand on the stunned Number Two. "Legilimens!"
Cohen invaded Contestant Number Two's memories without any resistance.
Cohen's purpose in catching them this time was to see if there was any news about the remaining members of the Silver Key—it was unsettling knowing there was always a crazy organization eyeing Cohen and his family.
Von Braun knew very little about the internal personnel because he himself belonged to the outer circle of the Silver Key. These three might be a bit more in the know.
"The list... the list?" Cohen found something useful in Number Two's memories.
The Silver Key had already stopped recruiting new members—because they had long since scattered to the four winds.
Each faction acted independently, and they had all sorts of plans for Cohen.
The cowardly faction that studied how to protect themselves when the end of the world came (Cohen remembered one of the cowards in Number Two's memory; Cohen had even met him during summer vacation—Rupert, the reclusive wizard who studied emotions).
The radical faction that was plotting to kill Cohen in order to make Cohen understand his true nature and destroy the world (Joshua, Von Braun's brother—that tall Auror who was the first one Cohen took down at Borgin and Burkes).
The superstitious faction that believed Cohen needed more sacrifices to awaken (a total of ten people; these ten were very united, so Cohen took them all out at the end of January).
And the conservative faction that was trying every possible way to make Cohen disappointed with the world (the evil guys who tried to destroy the good things in Cohen's life; the three in front of him were just poor wretches kicked out by the larger conservative group).