Horatio sat atop the symbiotic Basilisk's head, propping up his chin with one hand as he looked at the Acromantula that had already returned its soul to the Amazon, lost in thought.
"It's somewhat similar to the Killing Curse. Both sever the bridge between the body and soul, but why does the Basilisk's gaze work on souls?" Horatio glanced at little Tom, who was tied to a cross and pretending to be unconscious, then ordered the Basilisk to slither toward him.
"Don't come over here!!!" little Tom screamed frantically in his heart, but he did not dare move a muscle.
"Hey, over there. I know you're awake. Your little pet has already taken my shape. Aren't you going to open your eyes and take a look?" Horatio said to little Tom.
"Horatio, do you think you've won? Even if I'm burned to death by Fiendfyre today, I won't open my eyes." Having been exposed, little Tom stubbornly refused to back down.
"Fine. I hope you'll still be this tough later." Horatio walked over to the Acromantula's corpse and pressed a hand against one of its legs.
As scarlet energy appeared in Horatio's hand, the Acromantula's corpse seemed to melt into a puddle of liquid.
Then the puddle began to reform, becoming a wolf-sized monster with a long, sharp horn growing from its head. Horatio inscribed runes onto its horn that allowed it to touch souls.
Little Tom felt Horatio flip him over and tie him to the cross. Panic rose in him, and he quickly asked, "What are you doing?"
After finding the perfect filming angle, Horatio took a camera from his sack and answered, "Do you know what Japan calls monsters? Kaiju. I just refined a Kaiju. I hope you'll like it."
Horatio had the Kaiju aim at a certain part of little Tom, then switched on the camera. "Tomorrow's Daily Prophet will publish a report about Tom Riddle getting Kaiju'd. But don't panic. This sort of thing is common in England. I'll even help you post an application for a round in an English gentlemen's magazine."
"No, no, no, I was wrong! I'll open my eyes right now!" little Tom did not want to join the England Gentlemen's Association, so he decisively opened his eyes and turned to stare directly into the Basilisk's eyes.
"Pah. I thought you were so tough, but this was all you had?" Horatio said disdainfully as he looked at petrified little Tom.
Horatio turned the Kaiju back into flesh-energy and injected it into the separate space where Bellocan was located. He did not feel the slightest regret over a created biological weapon like that.
Horatio studied petrified little Tom. "A curse on the soul? Interesting."
Horatio opened a Portal to the greenhouse and said to a row of Mandrakes, "Which one of you is willing to contribute a little of your body?"
The Mandrakes eagerly bobbed their leaves, indicating that they wanted to be chosen. Horatio selected the largest one, cut off a piece of its tuber, then replanted it in its flowerpot and sprinkled some extra-strength Jin Ke La on it as compensation.
Horatio then refined that piece of tuber into a potion that could lift curses and dripped it onto petrified little Tom.
While little Tom was recovering, Horatio took out a lantern containing the half of adult Tom's soul that he had captured last term.
After taking out that half-soul fragment and waiting for little Tom to recover, Horatio violently kneaded the two souls together before he could beg for mercy. He removed their consciousness, turning them into an AI soul that could only answer questions.
As his first time editing a human soul, Horatio was quite satisfied with his handiwork. He patted the newly created little Tom soul on the shoulder. "From now on, your name is Flying God."
Flying God nodded dully. Horatio sealed him back inside the diary, ordered the symbiotic Basilisk to hunt as many Acromantulas as possible and bring their corpses here, then picked up the diary, opened a Portal to the headmaster's office, and left.
It was already deep into the night, and Dumbledore was sleeping soundly in the lounge beside the headmaster's office.
He dreamed of reuniting with Grindelwald at a café in his youth. After he confessed his love to Grindelwald, Grindelwald suddenly shouted at him, "Watch out, there's a bomb!"
He looked down and discovered an evil little bastard hiding beneath the coffee table, piling explosives under his chair.
Dumbledore broke out in a cold sweat and woke up instantly. Yet his dream had become reality—the little bastard was genuinely piling explosives beneath his bed.
"Uh... good midnight, Headmaster... I was setting your morning alarm." Horatio was a little embarrassed. He had been so careful, yet Dumbledore had still woken up.
Dumbledore silently thanked his beloved for the warning. If not for him, he might already have been blown into the sky.
Dumbledore grabbed Horatio by the back of his fateful neck and landed two solid punches on his head.
Then Dumbledore felt that something was wrong. Why did his hand hurt a little? He reached up to touch Horatio's head and felt a cold, smooth metal surface.
He removed the thing on Horatio's head, revealing a metal helmet as its invisibility wore off.
Since he had already been caught, Horatio frankly admitted, "Old Deng, through our long-term magical duels, I've learned one lesson: when fishing... uh, no, when causing trouble, not wearing a helmet is very dangerous."
Looking at Horatio's expression, which seemed to say, If you've got the guts, kill me, Dumbledore suppressed the fury in his heart and asked, "Child, why have you come to see me so late at night instead of sleeping?"
"It's a long story..." Horatio told him everything, from how he had scammed the diary from Lucius, to how he had played along with little Tom, to how he had subdued the Basilisk. He concealed only the existence of the Super Beast.
"Headmaster, look, Slytherin's ancestor, sacred ground, and guardian beast are all in my hands. So shouldn't I get to be the head of Slytherin House?
Don't worry, I absolutely won't do anything inappropriate to the students. At most, I'll throw a pool party with the little witches of Slytherin." Horatio pressed four fingers to his temple as he swore.
Dumbledore felt a headache coming on. The term had not even begun two weeks ago, yet Horatio had already caused something huge, quietly pulling off such a major feat.
"Child, that Slytherin Chamber of Secrets..."
"No. That's my spoils of war. If you insist on taking it, then I'll have no choice but to secretly teach Harry some more powerful magic. The Disarming Charm is just for laughs; the Killing Curse is the real deal."
To keep Harry from staging a legendary transformation from savior to Dark Lord, Dumbledore had no choice but to compromise. One Voldemort plus one Horatio was already enough of a headache. He did not want Harry to become a Dark Lord too, turning it into a Dark Lord version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Voldemort, Harry: How were we worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Horatio?
Dumbledore made an agreement with Horatio that he could not release the Basilisk to harm people.
Horatio said he had sent the Basilisk to maintain the ecological balance of the Forbidden Forest. Hadn't that contributed more to protecting Earth's environment than the Green parties of the Europa Union? Look at my missile Super Beast and answer me—shouldn't the Nobel Earth Prize be awarded to me?
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