As Jerry kept absorbing the black mist around him, the dense fog began to swirl and gather, gradually forming a huge vortex. It spun faster and faster, dragging the surrounding air into a low rumble.
At the same time, Voldemort sensed something was wrong. He felt the power in the black mist draining away rapidly, and unease rose in his chest.
"What's going on?" Voldemort muttered coldly, his voice betraying an anxiety and wariness he had never shown before.
"How... how is this possible? Why hasn't your soul been consumed?"
As Jerry continued to absorb it, the once-thick black mist grew thinner, as though an invisible hand were peeling it away bit by bit. Yet to everyone's surprise, the vortex only grew stronger, its reach spreading ever wider.
The surging power gradually unsettled Voldemort as well. He felt his soul being pulled toward it, and a fine crack began to form.
Voldemort realized with horror that if this continued, the remnant of his soul might be swallowed whole.
"Damn it!" Voldemort snarled. To preserve the core of his soul, he had no choice but to abandon part of it. Then, bewildered and unwilling to accept defeat, he fled Hogwarts with the fake Philosopher's Stone!
Once Voldemort was gone, the dense black mist seemed to lose the force holding it together and was rapidly absorbed by Jerry. Without the soul fragment feeding it, the enormous vortex slowly weakened.
Ding! [Unknown Bloodline: 0.03%]
"Phew..." As the black mist cleared, Jerry gradually came to his senses, shaking off the thrill of devouring a soul. He rolled up his left sleeve and examined the pattern on the inside of his wrist.
On the surface, the pattern looked no different from before, but Jerry could clearly feel that something within it had changed.