Harry's chainmail was already soaked with the yellowish-green blood of the spider demons, and even armor crafted from the hide of a thousand-year-old basilisk couldn't withstand the corrosive bite of this demonic ichor for long.
He had carved a bloody path through the enemy single-handedly. By the time Harry reached the headmaster's office, his body was drenched in demon blood.
With a flick of his wrist, he shook the gore from his warhammer. Forged from the venomous fang of a basilisk, the weapon had performed to Harry's satisfaction. Even the most resilient demons couldn't struggle for long after a blow from this hammer; the basilisk venom ensured their swift demise.
Still, by the time Harry fought his way to the eighth floor of the castle, the demons' fel magic had pitted and scarred the surface of his warhammer. Fortunately, as a blunt weapon, such wear didn't diminish its destructive power.
Smash and done.
"For the Spider Mother Aranasi!"
A snarling Aranasi spider demon warrior—humanoid from the waist up, spider below—charged at Harry with a battle cry. Harry dodged its barbed thrust and smashed its skull to pieces with a single swing of his hammer.
"For the Spider Mother?" After slaying so many demons, Harry had begun to sense something off about their behavior. "Not for the Burning Legion or Sargeras?"
He quickly recounted every demon he'd faced since entering the castle. Though they didn't speak English, their demonic chants hadn't once mentioned the Burning Legion.
So, it wasn't Sargeras escaping the Pantheon to restart the Great Crusade?
The timing was wrong for such thoughts, but the realization brought Harry a sliver of relief. If this wasn't the Burning Legion's resurgence but merely a band of rogue demons from the Twisting Nether attempting an invasion, then the situation wasn't yet the worst-case scenario—though it was still dire.
Staring at the shattered remains of the gargoyle statue that once guarded the entrance, Harry noted it would never speak again. A quick inspection revealed it hadn't been destroyed by fel magic or brute force but by a powerful Severing Charm that had reduced it to fragments.
So, someone inside the castle had summoned these demons after all.
It didn't take long for Harry to pinpoint the likely culprit. Who else could it be but Voldemort's soul fragment?
When he'd learned the Ministry's Floo Network couldn't connect to the headmaster's office, Harry had already suspected, given the sensitivity of the location, that Voldemort's soul fragment was attacking Hogwarts to free his main soul.
Dumbledore hadn't kept Voldemort's main soul with him but had stored it in a drawer in the headmaster's desk. Harry had seen it many times.
What he hadn't expected was that the assault on Hogwarts came not from Death Eaters but from a horde of demons.
Remaining vigilant, Harry ascended the spiral staircase to the headmaster's office. He soon stepped over the shattered inner door and entered the circular room.
Dumbledore's collection of trinkets remained untouched on the desks and cabinets. The books on the shelves and the items on the desk showed no signs of disturbance. Everything seemed perfectly normal—except for the figure standing beside the desk.
"Ginny?" Harry's eyes widened. He hadn't expected to find Ron's sister here of all places.
Truthfully, Harry's memories of Ginny were sparse, mostly from the previous summer at the Burrow. He recalled her seeming to idolize him, always shy when speaking to him.
As for what happened after the school term began… Harry had barely spent any time at Hogwarts this semester. Even when he was here, he stayed in the Great Totem.
"No, you're not Ginny," Harry corrected himself, gripping his warhammer tightly. "You're Voldemort. If you have even a shred of honor, come out of that girl's body!"
He didn't know what had happened at Hogwarts in his absence or how Ginny had become entangled with Voldemort's soul fragment. All Harry knew was that he had to destroy this fragment, this demon-summoner, here and now.
"Why so serious, Professor Potter?" Gone was the shy demeanor Harry remembered. Ginny smirked, her expression unfamiliar. "Is it because of this girl? Or because of… this?"
As she spoke, she raised her hand, dangling an object—the unmistakable trinket Harry had crafted last year from Voldemort's main soul and Quirrell's spirit.
He'd already gotten his hands on it.
"Careful, young Harry!" a voice interrupted. From atop a nearby cabinet, the Sorting Hat shouted, "Something's not right—watch out for that diadem! This old hat remembers clearly; that's Ravenclaw's!"
"You mean the legendary diadem that grants wisdom?" As a Hogwarts student, Harry was well-versed in the lore of the four founders. "You turned Ravenclaw's Diadem into a Horcrux?"
"Hat, does Ravenclaw's Diadem have any offensive magical abilities?" Harry asked immediately.
"Offensive abilities?" The Sorting Hat looked puzzled. "No idea. It just makes you smarter. It can't talk—well, except for me! I'm Gryffindor's hat, after all!"
"Thank you for the explanation, Hat," Ginny said with a slight smile. She tapped the diadem perched on her head. "You're right, Potter. Isn't it beautiful? Only something this precious and significant is worthy of being my Horcrux. You know far too much. Dumbledore really doted on you, didn't he? He told you everything."
Harry didn't respond. He raised his warhammer and lunged.
There was no need for words with an enemy like this. No matter how powerful Voldemort was, his soul fragment still needed a host body to wield magic. Harry planned to subdue Ginny first.
Clang!
A shield wreathed in fel flames blocked Harry's warhammer. To his shock, he realized this fragment of Voldemort's soul had mastered fel magic.
"No rush, Potter," Ginny said, stepping back with a cold smile. "Look at that wicked hammer of yours. Don't you want to save this poor girl's life? How heartbreaking. I can already hear her soul weeping… Oh, a child with a secret crush, only to be killed by the one she loves. How cruel. I must say, you're far more ruthless than I imagined, Potter."
"I'm no paladin, and I'm not some rigid fool," Harry said, his face impassive. "But even I know there's no compromising with evil. If I let you go because of Ginny and allow your wicked plans to proceed, I'd be failing everyone else."
"If you think you can use Ginny's life to manipulate me, give it up, Voldemort," Harry said, taking a deep breath. "I understand the weight of life better than you, and I know the meaning of sacrifice. I'll kill you. I'll make you die in the most painful way possible—for Ginny!"
This was no joke or idle threat. Voldemort's soul fragment could sense the truth in Harry's words. The Boy Who Lived had already wrapped his cursed hammer in storm energy and was leaping toward her again.
Stormstrike!
Infusing his warhammer with the raw power of the elements, Harry didn't care about fel shields or threats. His swing shattered the fel barrier and descended on Ginny without hesitation.
In that moment, Voldemort realized this boy was serious. He was truly capable of ignoring his friend's sister's life.
With a scream, Ginny was yanked backward by an invisible force, still clutching the trinket tightly.
Having suffered few setbacks in life, Voldemort's soul fragment couldn't let go of the humiliating defeat from twelve years ago that had cost him everything. That hatred for Harry Potter drove this fragment to torment the boy.
The plan was to trap Harry in a moral dilemma, to torture his soul and break his spirit, then kill the girl at the moment of his agonizing choice, leaving him drowning in guilt and pain.
Voldemort had it all planned out.
He knew of his main soul's catastrophic failure last year—not only failing to resurrect but being turned into a ridiculous trinket in Dumbledore's collection. For the proud Voldemort, this was an unbearable humiliation.
The demons had given him a chance to free his main soul, and the ever-prepared Lord Voldemort had no intention of letting these random demons conquer the world. They were merely tools in his hands.
Time to reap the fruits of victory!
But before he could savor that victory, a hammer crackling with lightning was coming for him.
With a reluctant glance at Harry, Ginny's hand, clutching the trinket, erupted in fel flames. The soul fragment possessing her had no intention of freeing the main soul through normal means. The destructive nature of fel energy was enough to destroy the trinket in moments.
"Aaah—aaaahhh!"
In an instant, a cloud of black smoke burst from the trinket—Voldemort's main soul. Strangely, though, it made no further movements. The smoke coalesced into Voldemort's hideous face, but even with fel flames flickering within, the main soul made no sound.
It was as if he were dead—or catatonic.
"Main soul?!" The fragment possessing Ginny shouted in disbelief. It couldn't fathom seeing its own face with such a blank, vacant expression, like the foolish look of the Longbottom boy.
"Looks like he's already received the ultimate punishment," Harry said, unable to suppress a laugh. "Trapped in a lightless, soundless void, surrounded by nothing but darkness. Ha!"
Voldemort… he seemed to have been driven mad.
At least, to this soul fragment, the main soul appeared insane. Even seeing Harry, his hated enemy, elicited no anger. Freed from its prison, it neither cursed nor rejoiced. It was alive, yet it might as well have been dead.
Even the pain of fel flames burning its soul didn't draw a sound. In contrast, Quirrell's soul, also released from the trinket, screamed the moment it touched the fel flames.
Harry didn't subject Quirrell to the same fate as Voldemort. In the trinket, Quirrell had merely been in a state of slumber.
Voldemort's main soul floated in the air like a walking corpse—a term unimaginable in connection to Voldemort.
"Your main soul is dead," Harry said coldly, ignoring the rage on Ginny's face. "You're next."
Execute!
A Voldemort wielding fel magic was no longer human. In the hands of a ruthless monster, such destructive magic could wreak unimaginable havoc. Harry couldn't let this soul fragment escape, or the future devastation would be catastrophic.
"Sorry, Ron," Harry muttered under his breath.
Activating his Ascendance form, Harry transformed into a wind elemental ascendant. A raging storm tore through Dumbledore's office, and Harry sealed the windows with elemental power. James Potter's spirit appeared behind him, using soul magic to lock down the room, preventing Voldemort's soul from phasing out.
"Me? You're the one who'll die!" Ginny roared in fury, raising her wand. "Avada Kedavra!"
A green beam of light streaked through the confined space, laced with killing intent and mingled with other dark spells. The cabinet Harry kicked forward blocked the Killing Curse but not the other dark magic.
Or the fel magic.
It was clear this soul fragment's mastery of fel magic was rudimentary. It wielded fel flames crudely, as if trying to set the entire room ablaze. In no time, the headmaster's office was engulfed in flames.
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