Lucky pounced from nowhere, knocking the Graphorn to the ground with a single paw.
This caused Maxwell, who had intended to offer some resistance, to give up completely...
He couldn't win... there was simply no way to win...
If only he had followed the ancestral teachings of the previous leaders and kept a low profile.
Before such a powerful wizard, his so-called organization—the pride of his life—was a joke.
Over a hundred years ago, the wizard who destroyed more than half of the Ashwinders was powerful, but he was just one man.
But the person in front of him brought a whole group of powerful wizards with him...
He tremblingly pulled out a yellowed piece of parchment and found that all the names had been marked with red crosses, with many new names added below them.
"It's over... they're all dead..."
Almost all their strongholds had been uprooted simultaneously; just how strong was the wizard before him?
With the Ashwinders completely eradicated, Victor Wick had obtained a vast amount of loot.
Aside from a few interesting manuscripts, Victor left the rest for the young members of the Knights Templar to handle.
Looting and covering their tracks—they were professionals at this work. So, Victor handed those places over to them and returned to Hogwarts alone with Lucky.
While leafing through the seized manuscripts, he found a very interesting piece of research.
The collars capable of controlling magical creatures were indeed goblin-made items, allowing wizards to forcibly enslave them.
Victor had already studied this point and didn't find it surprising.
However, this research appeared to be an improved version based on those collars!
Forcing a magical creature to submit was essentially a form of torture, much like the Ukrainian Ironbelly hidden beneath Gringotts.
Only by obeying the master could they avoid punishment; over time, these magical creatures became accustomed to submission.
During this period, as long as the master showed them the slightest bit of kindness, these creatures would involuntarily develop a sense of gratitude toward them.
In humans, this was a typical case of Stockholm Syndrome, but Victor hadn't expected it to work on magical creatures as well!
The focus of this manuscript was to directly amplify this emotion, saving a significant amount of time required to cultivate such symptoms!
What caught Victor's interest happened to be the concept of amplifying a specific emotion mentioned in the manuscript!
If used purely for evil, this research would certainly cause endless harm.
But Victor was thinking further... if applied elsewhere, it could be very interesting...
After two months of stalemate.
On Christmas Eve.
Sirius finally cornered Regulus in Diagon Alley after the latter couldn't help but sneak out.
This time, having learned his lesson, Sirius didn't let Dorcas Meadowes follow him.
This was undoubtedly the right decision. When Regulus saw that Meadowes wasn't there and Sirius was alone, he didn't flee immediately, intending instead to have a talk with him.
"You're with Victor Wick, trying to wipe us all out... I am your brother," Regulus said, looking at Sirius with a face full of sorrow.
However, Sirius, having cornered him for months, had long since run out of patience. The earlier sentiment of wanting a proper heart-to-heart with his brother had vanished, and he had no patience left for explanations.
He began to curse immediately. "Never mind that! Tell me right now, what is the Dark Lord's secret to immortality? I'm going to tell Dumbledore immediately! Do you have any idea that the Dark Lord is back and planning to use the Philosopher's Stone to resurrect? Do you realize that while you're hiding in the ancestral home, the wizarding world is in peril?! Are you going to become a criminal to the wizarding world just for your pathetic persecution complex?"
"Huh?" Regulus, who had been full of complaints and intended to accuse Sirius of disregarding their brotherhood, was stunned by Sirius's outburst.
"What are you 'huh'-ing about? Stop wasting time! What harm is there in telling me this news? Even if Victor is a scoundrel and I'm colluding with him, what's the harm? We already know you've discovered the Dark Lord's secret anyway! Besides, haven't you realized? If we were really on the Dark Lord's side, asking you this would be completely redundant!"
"That's true... but, aren't you really being deceived by Victor Wick..."
"Use your brain, Regulus! You should know what kind of person Dumbledore is. Even if you don't trust me or Victor, can't you just write a letter to Dumbledore? Do you think Dumbledore is also in league with the Dark Lord?" Sirius shouted, jumping in frustration.
He was truly frustrated by his brother's stubbornness. This boy had been submerged in the underworld for years; although he had developed great skills, his paranoid and suspicious nature made Sirius want to grab him by the head and give him a good thrashing.
"But Kreacher said..."
"Kreacher hates me, Regulus! What good could possibly come out of his mouth? You're letting him relay messages to you?" Sirius was fuming. "You weren't this thick-headed before. How did you become so stupid?"
"Hiss..." Regulus was scolded severely by Sirius, but his mind finally began to work.
Previously, whenever something happened, his mind was filled with thoughts of how others were trying to harm him, naturally leading him to view things in the worst possible light.
But now, being reminded, he began to consider the situation from a different angle...
"Are... are you telling the truth?"
Sirius began to grit his teeth.
"Alright... alright... I'll tell you." Regulus thought about it and realized Sirius had a point.
Even if he told Sirius, it wouldn't change much, as Sirius already knew he was aware of the Dark Lord's secret.
Telling him wouldn't make the situation any worse.
"Out with it!"
"It's a Horcrux. He created a Horcrux..." Regulus finally revealed the information.
"A Horcrux... it's actually a Horcrux..." Sirius frowned and fell into deep thought. After a moment, he rolled his eyes at Regulus. "Why didn't you just say so earlier? Was that thing you took the Dark Lord's Horcrux?"
Regulus nodded numbly.
"Did you destroy it?"
Regulus pulled out a damaged locket. "I burned it with Fiendfyre."
Sirius frowned. "The Horcrux is destroyed, but the Dark Lord isn't dead... which proves he has more than one."
"Are... are you going to take this?" Regulus pointed to the locket in his hand.
"No, take it to Dumbledore yourself. That's what Victor meant. Only by doing this can you clear your past as a Death Eater and start anew!" Sirius glared at Regulus again before Apparating away.
Regulus looked at the cold, quiet street in shock.
That... that was it? He really just wanted the information? He really wasn't trying to harm him?
Regulus waited for a long time, but neither Dorcas Meadowes nor Victor Wick appeared with reinforcements.
Left with no choice, he returned to the ancestral home, his mind heavy with thought.
"Young Master is back! You didn't run into the Eldest Master, did you? Kreacher said it already, that traitor Eldest Master..."
"Shut up, Kreacher! I need you to give me an explanation!"
"Hiss... a Horcrux?"
In the Headmaster's office, Victor Wick's face scrunched up as if he had swallowed a fly.
"The news Sirius gave me was indeed that," Dumbledore sighed. "My previous suspicion was correct."
Dumbledore looked at Victor and noticed his expression was quite strange. "What's wrong? Although it's troublesome that Tom made more than one Horcrux, we aren't without options... things aren't at their worst yet."
"No... I was just thinking... a Horcrux? The Dark Lord's so-called means of immortality is a Horcrux? That's it?" Victor's face was filled with a disappointment that Dumbledore found very odd.
"Victor, what do you mean...?"
"The truth is, I know what a Horcrux is. I've read about it in 'Secrets of Darkest Arts'. But because the Dark Lord had confidently told us he had gone very, very far on the path to immortality—further than any of us—I subconsciously assumed his method wouldn't be something as subpar as a Horcrux..."
Victor's disappointment was genuine. He had expected Voldemort to be more capable... to have truly found a way to create an immortal soul and an immortal body. But it was just this?
Victor's high expectations for Voldemort had directly created this blind spot.
"A Horcrux... what kind of immortality is that?"
"To put it another way, creating a Horcrux is just choosing a wretched life over a good death... it's not even as efficient as the Philosopher's Stone!"
Dumbledore finally understood what Victor meant.
He looked at Victor with a strange expression. "In fact, Horcruxes are very troublesome... we've only just learned that Tom made them, and we don't know how many he created. We cannot kill him until we find all of them."
"That's not so difficult," Victor said weakly.
The Dark Lord's image collapsed before him... it turned out the guy was nowhere near as strong as he had imagined.
It gave him the feeling of having engaged in a battle of wits and courage against mere air.
"What do you plan to do?" Dumbledore didn't share Victor's sentiment; he only wanted Voldemort to disappear completely.
"Just have him lead me to the Horcruxes himself, shouldn't we?" Victor said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, leaving Dumbledore stunned.
He stood up and pressed the back of his hand to Victor's forehead. "You don't have a fever..."
"Of course I don't."
"Then why are you talking nonsense? Tom isn't brain-dead; why would he ever lead you to his Horcruxes?" Dumbledore asked, puzzled.
He was starting to suspect that recent pressure had caused Victor to lose his mind...
Dumbledore was even considering how to lighten Victor's workload.
"The Dark Lord was never sane to begin with, Professor... when has he ever been normal?" Victor said, exasperated.
"Then how do you plan to make him listen to you?"
"To drive someone to do something, you only need to offer them enough profit. I truly have what the Dark Lord wants. Oh, right... I need to go and modify that Philosopher's Stone again, add a little something extra for him..."
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