Dumbledore had grown completely numb to the overwhelming initiative and sheer good luck of the Father-Distressers.
Why did these children always manage to find Voldemort's meticulously hidden Horcruxes in places he least expected?
Was it simply because he wasn't as mischievous as this bunch of little brats? Dumbledore no longer wished to dwell on the question.
As long as Voldemort's Horcruxes could be found, what did anything else matter?
Meanwhile, having left the range of Hogwarts' Anti-Disapparition Jinx, Kyle didn't rush back to France. Instead, he summoned Arashi, mounted its back, and let the Thunderbird fly leisurely through the sky.
Raising a protective barrier to block the oncoming gale, Kyle lay flat on the Thunderbird's back, pulled out a pen and paper, and began writing a letter to Snape, who was far away in Spinner's End.
Although it was still unclear whether all of Voldemort's Horcruxes had been gathered, Kyle had no desire to wait any longer.
If they continued searching blindly, who knew when on earth they would finally find them all?
Better to let Voldemort reconstruct his body and resurrect—a move to draw the snake out of its hole.
Kyle wasn't worried that Voldemort, upon resurrecting and realizing several of his Horcruxes had been destroyed, would continue making new ones.
The number of times a person's soul could be split was ultimately limited.
Having created so many Horcruxes already, Kyle didn't believe Voldemort could produce another batch of new ones in a short period.
Thus, it was time for the Dark Wizard Ah-Vol to return and let the people of the wizarding world experience what it meant to know pain.
To keep Voldemort's resurrection process entirely under control, the best method Kyle could think of was to have Snape—the former Death Eater and the biggest double-agent under Ah-Vol—welcome the Dark Lord back.
During Voldemort's resurrection, it would be even more perfect if a few of his old man's subordinates or Pain's Six Paths could slip in as well to assist Snape.
Finishing the letter, Kyle raised his hand and summoned Itachi, the crow he had let range free for a long time.
Binding the letter to Itachi's leg, the cold-hearted Kyle tossed the crow straight out into the air.
Watching the crow circle twice in the sky before finally locking onto its direction and flapping its wings toward the horizon, Kyle and the Thunderbird Arashi vanished into thin air as well.
When Snape received Kyle's letter in Spinner's End, his mind was honestly filled with utter bewilderment.
He had initially thought that his secret attack on Azkaban and his breakout of the Death Eaters from the prison had been exposed.
The Ministry of Magic had known about the Azkaban incident long ago, but for the sake of the upcoming Quidditch World Cup, they had kept a tight lid on it and refrained from making it public.
Logically speaking, Kyle shouldn't have known about it.
Only after reading the letter did Snape realize that their plans simply happened to coincide.
In that case, they might as well proceed according to Kyle's plan.
In the short term, their goals aligned—both were aiming to bring about Voldemort's demise.
After having the jet-black crow carry a reply back to Kyle, Snape rose from the sofa, left the dim living room, and walked down the stairs into an even darker basement.
Not a single beam of external light penetrated the basement; the sole source of illumination was a ruby emitting a faint, eerie red glow at the center of a magical array in the middle of the room.
After so much time spent recharging, the energy contained within the Philosopher's Stone was once again full to the brim.
Snape unbuttoned his collar and pulled out a silver pendant from inside his shirt.
Embedded in the pendant was none other than a prism-shaped black gemstone—the Resurrection Stone.
With the energy inside the Philosopher's Stone replenished once more, it was time to break the second seal on the Resurrection Stone.
The magical array used for breaking the seal, along with the consumed auxiliary materials, were the very ones left over from Snape's previous attempt.
Since there was no need to construct a new array, Snape quickly guided out the magic power restored inside the Philosopher's Stone, transforming it into a magical chisel that slammed heavily into the Resurrection Stone.
Under the impact of the energy, faint phantom chains manifested once again on the surface of the Resurrection Stone.
Before long, the chains coiled around the Resurrection Stone shattered under the powerful impact, and the magical brilliance swirling on the surface of the Philosopher's Stone dimmed once more.
Placing the Philosopher's Stone back in its original position to recover its magic power, Snape could hardly wait to scoop the Resurrection Stone into his hand, meticulously sensing the abilities unlocked after breaking the seal.
Soon, a smile surfaced on Snape's perpetually stoic face—one that he couldn't suppress no matter what, gradually turning wild and unrestrained.
The new abilities revealed by the Resurrection Stone after breaking its second seal far exceeded Snape's wildest imagination.
He had originally thought the Resurrection Stone would at most make it easier for him to manipulate and play with souls, or that the strength of the dead summoned through Impure World Reincarnation would be closer to their peak in life.
Never could Snape have imagined that the Resurrection Stone was actually a key—a key to communicate with the Underworld.
By leveraging this key, Snape could siphon magical energy from the Underworld to empower himself, and when casting spells, he could draw upon the magic of the Underworld to amplify their power.
If Snape had ever read Doctor Strange comics, he would know that this was the famous borrow-and-pay style of sorcery.
No—this was vastly superior to the borrowing mechanics of the Kamar-Taj sorcerers.
When those sorcerers borrowed power, they had to pay it back; unless one reached the level of Ancient One, who could default on debts through sheer strength, the more one borrowed, the severe the side effects became.
However, siphoning magic from the Underworld through the Resurrection Stone was like using a key to open the vault door and carrying out treasure—how could taking one's own property be called "borrowing"?
Though the magical energy possessed by the Underworld couldn't compare to entities like the Vishanti, Cyttorak, or Dormammu, after accumulating over endless ages, the accumulated amount was still an astronomical figure for an ordinary wizard.
When every wizard died, except for those who remained in the world as ghosts, their souls carried the magical energy contained within them into the Underworld when departing.
While the population of the wizarding world seemed small, across thousands of years of magical history, that accumulated magic power was immense.
After trying to kidnap Kyle to coerce Dumbledore into trading the Elder Wand, only to end up in failure, Snape had finally come to understand that the wizarding world was Ultimately a place that prioritized personal martial power.
If he had possessed peak-tier combat power in the wizarding world during that operation, why would he have needed to rely on such flashy tricks?
He could have simply snatched the Elder Wand straight out of Dumbledore's hand.
Even looking at the present, he wouldn't need to take risky moves to try and resurrect Voldemort just to deal with Dumbledore.
At this thought, Snape immediately conducted a test on the Resurrection Stone, eager to see just what tier his strength could reach with its aid.
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