Melina's death power originated from Destined Death—
the very power capable of slaying gods.
Meanwhile, there was no way Death itself would hand Voldemort a force capable of killing divine beings.
Thanatos could clearly see that Voldemort was not the kind of person willing to remain beneath another forever.
Thus, in order to prevent Voldemort from escaping his control, Thanatos carefully limited the amount of death power Voldemort could wield.
It was set at an extremely precise level.
Just enough to remain powerful—
yet fundamentally incapable of harming true divinity.
Naturally, Thanatos had likely never expected that a Voldemort wielding such power would still encounter enemies this troublesome in the mortal world.
At the end of the day—
Thanatos had severely underestimated Arthur.
Or more accurately—
he had never anticipated Melina's existence at all.
Although Voldemort was desperately trying to adapt to Melina's combat rhythm, the wounds covering his body only continued increasing.
Because Melina's attack patterns constantly changed.
And as her familiarity with the Black Knife improved—
her attack speed became faster and faster.
At this moment, Voldemort's heart was filled with resentment.
He resented the fact that Death had granted him death power—
yet failed to provide any compatible magic alongside it.
As a result, despite being a wizard, he was now forced to fight like a warrior against Melina.
Honestly, even an undead summoning spell like Arthur's would have been enough.
At least then he could have summoned reinforcements to deal with the completely one-sided battlefield.
(Thanatos: You think I know techniques like that?!)
Just as Voldemort began hesitating over whether he should directly call upon Death for assistance—
Melina suddenly withdrew from battle.
She retreated calmly to Arthur's side near the edge of the battlefield.
Her purpose in fighting Voldemort had merely been to familiarize herself with the Black Knife.
Now that she had become sufficiently accustomed to the weapon, she no longer had any interest in continuing.
Besides—
before the battle began, Arthur had specifically reminded her not to kill Voldemort.
Thus, after completing her test of the Black Knife, Melina voluntarily ended the fight.
Voldemort stared suspiciously toward Arthur, completely unable to understand what he was planning.
Meanwhile, Arthur looked at Voldemort with an extremely malicious smile.
"Well then…"
"Are you ready for round two, Mr. Voldemort?"
As he spoke, Arthur took out a piece of black spirit ash before ringing the Spirit-Calling Bell in his hand.
"Ding."
The clear bell tone echoed across the battlefield.
Then—
a translucent black figure slowly materialized before Arthur.
The instant Voldemort saw the figure—
his expression changed dramatically.
Because the soul Arthur summoned looked exactly like him.
Voldemort immediately understood where this soul came from.
After all, the majority of his Horcruxes had fallen into Arthur's hands.
Originally, Voldemort assumed Arthur had already destroyed all those soul fragments.
Now, however—
it became obvious that Arthur not only preserved them—
he had even transformed them into a puppet-like soul.
Voldemort pointed furiously at Arthur.
"You actually dare use my soul for something like this?!"
"I will never forgive you!"
At the same time, Voldemort attempted to resonate with the summoned soul using the origin of his own soul.
He tried to forcibly reclaim it through their connection.
Arthur naturally noticed what Voldemort was doing.
He simply didn't care.
Long ago, he had already modified "Voldemort's" spirit ashes extensively.
Otherwise, the summoned soul would never have obediently followed his commands.
Now, the soul Arthur summoned and the real Voldemort could practically be considered two completely separate individuals.
"Mr. Voldemort…"
"Stop wasting your energy."
Arthur waved dismissively.
"If I dared summon him directly in front of you, then naturally I'm not worried about you taking him back."
"Instead of thinking about reclaiming him…"
"Why don't you think about how you're going to deal with yourself?"
The moment he finished speaking, Arthur commanded "Voldemort" to charge forward.
As the black soul sprinted toward the real Voldemort, crimson-purple death power condensed within its hand.
Eventually—
it formed into a sinister longsword.
"Voldemort" instantly arrived before Voldemort and swung the blade downward.
Voldemort hurriedly raised his own death-power sword to block.
For a moment—
two soul-like beings, differing only in color, clashed violently against each other.
And to disgust Voldemort even further, Arthur intentionally controlled "Voldemort" to fight using nearly identical techniques and movements.
These combat patterns were naturally derived from Arthur's observations during Voldemort's earlier battle against Melina.
Voldemort never could have imagined—
that one day he would literally end up fighting himself.
And not just casually—
but in a battle to the death.
Watching the black version of himself wield nearly identical weapons and techniques made Voldemort increasingly frustrated as the battle continued.
Finally—
all the rage he had accumulated during his fight with Melina exploded at once.
He unleashed his death power with full force, completely disregarding the consumption.
Then he swung viciously toward an opening in "Voldemort's" defense.
Arthur ultimately wasn't the real Voldemort.
Nor could he perfectly master Voldemort's fighting style in such a short amount of time.
Caught off guard—
the "Voldemort" he controlled had its sword arm severed instantly.
Arthur clicked his tongue in disappointment.
As expected—
being too flashy was never a good idea.
Playing things steadily was still better.
Still, Arthur wasn't upset.
He simply controlled "Voldemort" to pick up the severed arm still gripping the sword.
Technically, he could have reattached the limb using death power.
But Arthur chose not to.
Instead—
he directly used death power to transform both the severed arm and sword together into a wand.
A wand containing part of one's own soul—
there could hardly exist a more suitable wand for "Voldemort" than that.
Meanwhile, the real Voldemort nearly shouted internally:
What the hell?!
He genuinely never realized death power could be used like this.
Simply condensing death power into a wand would only create a stick infused with death energy.
It wouldn't amplify spellcasting at all.
But integrating part of one's soul into it changed everything completely.
This essentially meant using death power as the wand's body—
while using one's own soul as the core.
Creating the perfect wand specifically tailored to oneself.
In some ways, it resembled how Veela hair functioned as wand cores.
Ultimately, Voldemort had possessed death power for far too short a time.
His understanding of it still remained at the most superficial level possible.
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