The Reclaimed Soul

It was an extremely wonderful feeling.

It's a wondrous perception that even Harry, a living Horcrux, couldn't experience.

Riddle, who already possessed the dual identities of Horcrux and main soul, seemed to sense another version of himself gradually awakening in the darkness when he came into contact with Hufflepuff's Golden Cup, Voldemort's Horcrux.

Along with that came memories that clearly did not belong to Voldemort or him.

It was a kind-faced woman, a scarred House-elf, a brown-haired boy sneaking into the kitchen, and finally, himself reaching out his slender fingers, pinching one of the handles, and lifting the cup from the soft satin cushion.

It's amazing how this Golden Cup seems to have etched the memories of everyone who resonated with it.

Hepzba Smith, the Hufflepuff descendant and the last owner of the Golden Cup, is presumably a descendant of the brown-haired boy.

He secretly took the Golden Cup from the kitchen, going against Hufflepuff's own wishes to leave Golden Cup in the Hogwarts Kitchens.

The other self within the Horcrux began to combine those memories and think.

Looking at his other self, and feeling a profound sense of loss that he was only now acutely aware of, Riddle fell into a daze. He recalled the conversation in the Headmaster's Office an hour earlier.

"Do you really want to repent as the main soul?" Dumbledore with a worried expression.

But he answered decisively, "Only in this way can I be more complete, compared to Voldemort."

This was his answer at the time.

But only he himself knows what he is thinking.

As he spoke, a fleeting image of Harry Potter summoning the Nether Dragon flashed through his mind.

That was when he made up his mind to do it.

And coincidentally, the information Harry Potter discovered about the Horcrux yesterday allowed him to actually carry out his plan.

Since gaining human form and even the identity of the main soul, Riddle can confirm that he is now far stronger than he was at seventeen.

Moreover, after studying Muggle knowledge in depth, those ideas were even more eye-opening for him, and his magic improved greatly.

Moreover, after Voldemort's transformation, he also possessed some of the characteristics of a wizard in that domain.

However, without undergoing those arduous magical Transfiguration, and without the memories of his adulthood, he ultimately stopped at that realm—the realm of Voldemort and Dumbledore.

He originally thought that by combining the scientific knowledge he had learned that Voldemort did not understand with his own Magical Theory, he could create a powerful destructive force to kill Voldemort and then become his teacher.

But Harry Potter's progress made him feel threatened.

He might be able to increase the destructive power of his magic step by step through scientific research and further theoretical advancements.

However, in terms of fundamental improvement, progress has been minimal.

Although his path of combining science fiction and magic has a promising future, his progress is far slower than Harry Potter's.

Therefore, he came up with the idea of retrieving other Horcrux to strengthen himself.

Because of Harry Potter, the powerful Horcrux.

Those inanimate objects were actually his weakness.

However, he did not intend to retrieve the Horcrux according to the method described in the book.

In "The Secrets of the Darkest Art," the only way to retrieve the soul from Horcrux is through repentance.

That is, to truly feel the killing one did to create Horcrux, and to experience it from the perspective of a victim.

Performing this act is equivalent to ripping off the 'scarred' part of the soul and merging the 'wounds' together.

It is said that this feeling is extremely painful, and this pain alone can destroy a wizard's mind.

This is why Riddle doesn't choose this method to reclaim souls.

The new method comes from something that everyone has overlooked.

At Hogwarts, thanks to the magic that imbues food with spirits, more and more ghosts are regaining their blood-red color, no longer pearly white.

They gradually regained a little bit of their magic.

However, their magic is not the same as it was in life; their state is quite peculiar.

It actually needs to be taken out and used immediately, that is, it needs to be refined in a magical magnetic field or by digesting spiritual food when it is used.

Even so, this led to a group of ghosts starting to study magic again.

They existed like hands and feet during their lifetime.

Riddle, in his quest to reach the realm of demigods, came into contact with many ghosts.

They tried to find inspiration from the unique magic they possessed.

The Fat Friar was one of them.

As a resident ghost of Hufflepuff, and always kind.

This caused other ghosts and wizards to overlook one thing.

He was a remarkable man who almost became pope.

He combined his faith in the Bible with some of his own unique magic.

This even includes Dark Magic.

After all, the devil was also a servant of God.

In Muggle stories, there are many priests who recite the Bible to subdue the devil, or even directly command the devil.

Riddle found his way in the Fat Friar's magic.

A magic called Sacred Sacrifice was developed.

They see their own evil thoughts as demons, and themselves as the lord of all demons, Satan, the source of all evil.

Kill your own evil side, and sacrifice yourself.

Now, he will regard himself in the Golden Cup as a demon and begin the sacrifice.

"I am Satan, the enemy of God, the Lord of evil, the oldest serpent. I am the soul of sin and depravity, you worship yourself." Riddle sang a hymn written in Hebrew.

As the poetry began, his wand danced along with it.

The Golden Cup began to float in mid-air, and runes emerged from Riddle's mouth.

The runes were absorbed one by one by the Golden Cup, producing a series of ethereal sounds.

Riddle's voice grew increasingly rough, the whites of his eyes turned pitch black, and illusory dragon horns appeared on his brow bone.

Then came the sound of flapping wings, and black feathers slowly emerged from the Golden Cup. Riddle, with pure white eyes and snow-white hair, stood before Riddle, whose eyes were black and whose horns were prominent.

The Golden Cup began to fall slowly with the sound of flapping wings, and when it landed on the stone ground, the white-haired Riddle spread his black wings.

Black flames began to rise from his body, from his bare feet to the tips of his hair.

A cross, as white as marble, appeared behind him, and golden chains bound him to it.

The real Riddle stopped reciting the poem and began to inhale.

As Riddle inhaled, the burning flames began to surge into Riddle mouth and nose through his breathing channels.

Riddle's white-haired body gradually became ethereal, and the cross and golden chains began to emit specks of starlight, flying towards his dark wings.

The jet-black wings were tinged white by starlight, the cross and chains vanished into nothingness, and the white-haired Riddle was left only as a phantom.

The real Riddle also stopped inhaling.

The moment he opened his eyes, the two Riddle overlapped!

The Sacred Sacrifice is over!