Feeling Rowena Ravenclaw's gaze, Ian wisely stepped aside, and without any cover, Helena Ravenclaw, like a startled bird, dared not stand up.
She crouched there, looking up at Rowena Ravenclaw, who stood before her, more radiant and youthful than she remembered.
This perspective.
It was like looking up at her as a child.
"Mother... it's you... You've always been here." Tears moistened Helena's eyes; how could she not understand why a soul would linger in the Twilight Zone?
"Helena, my child, of course, I must wait for you here. You are afraid even to walk alone at night; how could I rest easy letting you traverse the rest of the path by yourself?" Rowena's voice was gentle yet filled with strength, as if it could penetrate all barriers and reach the depths of Helena's heart.
She opened her arms to Helena, her smile warm and devoid of the sternness and reprimands Helena remembered, filled only with a softness and apology that seemed to dispel all worldly concerns.
"I'm sorry, Mother; I was too willful." Helena rushed into her mother's embrace.
At that moment, Helena's heart was filled with a thousand words, a swirl of emotions, but in the end, she let go of her thousand-year-old stubbornness and pride with a trembling voice.
"I was too harsh on you in the past, which led to the misfortunes that followed. Books taught me how to raise children, but they did not teach me how to be a proper mother." Rowena gently stroked Helena's hair, relinquishing her own pride and candidly admitting her past mistakes.
"I know you only wanted what was best for me, but I was just too rebellious, wanting to..." Helena's voice trembled as she clung tightly to her mother.
She felt as if she had turned back into a little girl.
"The past is but a wisp of smoke, my child; we stand at a new beginning." Rowena interrupted Helena's words, gently wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes.
The two embraced tightly.
In this Twilight Zone, caught between life and death, fate had allowed them to reunite, finding inner peace and connection. The bond between mother and daughter would continue anew on this journey.
The scene was incredibly warm.
The image was also very beautiful.
If it weren't for "bystander Ian" nearby, lying on a rock and continuously banging the Slytherin locket with a stone, trying to knock out the lingering soul of Tom inside, it would have been even more harmonious.
"Clang Clang Clang~"
The sound of knocking echoed in their ears.
Rowena Ravenclaw turned her head helplessly toward Ian. "Little one, doing that won't help; it cannot separate the soul from the Horcrux."
Both mother and daughter now looked at Ian, who was sprawled on the stone.
"Dumbledore actually told me this before, but right now, I'm just torturing the Tom inside." Ian struck the Slytherin Horcrux again.
"..."
"..."
The two generations of Ravenclaws exchanged glances, both feeling that Ian might have been misplaced in his house, an indescribable emotion washing over them.
"It's all this bloke's fault for bringing us to this hellish place! Lady Ravenclaw, look at me. My skin is getting darker; in your time, I would definitely have been at risk of being sent to the cotton fields." Ian complained, his tone filled with indignation. He had already drunk several cups of saline solution.
"When we were alive, there were no black slave cotton plantations." Helena Ravenclaw couldn't help but remind him, feeling that the little wizard showed no signs of getting darker.
"But there were still black slaves." Rowena Ravenclaw added seriously, stepping forward to take the locket and Resurrection Stone ring from Ian's hands.
She could see that Ian's incessant chatter was aimed at something; this little fellow's thoughts were still as easy to guess as before.
Then, in Ian's earnest gaze, Rowena Ravenclaw reached out her hand again, pulling out a dark, twisted substance from each of the two treasures.
They were filled with various negative emotions, constantly writhing and attempting to escape. However, in Rowena Ravenclaw's hands, they could only be squeezed together into a large mass of dark sludge.
"Lowly insects! You wretched creatures! How dare you offend the great Dark Lord! I will tear your entire family to shreds!"
"No one can stop my return! You may find one... two of me! But there are many more of me in this world! I have laid the foundation for eternal life and undying existence!"
Just like the last time Ian encountered Voldemort's lingering soul, this time, the combined souls seemed to possess a higher level of awareness, but still carried a frenzied sense of insanity.
It was howling and roaring, and its sharp, piercing curses were like claws scraping against a blackboard.
"Shut up!"
Helena angrily scolded Voldemort's lingering soul. Ian glanced at Rowena Ravenclaw, who did not seem inclined to hand Voldemort's lingering soul over to him this time.
"I think this will bring you both peace." Rowena Ravenclaw directly threw the combined, lingering souls into the nearby seething magma.
"Gū lū gū lū~"
It sounded like the bubbling of potions.
"No! What is this place? My magic! Why has my magic disappeared?"
Voldemort's lingering soul struggled to emerge from the magma, but the Dark Lord, who had once instigated bloodshed in the wizarding world, now appeared particularly small and helpless in this boundless hellfire.
There was no escape!
The once invincible dark power had now been stripped away, leaving only a faint consciousness intertwined with unwillingness and fear, struggling for survival in this endless molten fire. The lava seemed to sense the presence of this lingering soul, surging more violently, with tongues of fire wrapping around this weak soul like greedy tentacles.
"Ahhh ahhh!!"
"It shouldn't be like this! It shouldn't be like this!!" Voldemort's lingering soul let out a silent wail of extreme pain, a scream that transcended mortal suffering, filled with despair and lament from the depths of the soul, echoing in this closed hell, unheard and with no escape.
It could only despairingly feel itself being slowly consumed by the magma until its last hand was completely swallowed, and the magma didn't even emit a wisp of black smoke.
Its existence, along with its ambitions and evil, was completely burned away by the lava of hell, turning into nothingness.
Only a sea of seething, fiery magma remained.
Continuing its eternal boiling.
"Ugh! My treasures! They are truly useful treasures!" Ian had originally hoped to burn the two lingering souls of Voldemort to increase his magical power limit, but he didn't expect Rowena Ravenclaw to deny him that opportunity.
Who would dare to stop a mother from avenging her daughter by burning the ghostly fire of a man?
Ian now regretted telling Rowena Ravenclaw that Voldemort was a scoundrel who had wronged Helena during their first meeting.
"The already rotten, lingering soul has no value, even in the realm of alchemy; it would only become pus." Rowena Ravenclaw clearly did not understand Ian's extraordinary traits; she simply watched as Voldemort's lingering soul was burned to ashes, then turned to Ian with a smile.
"This is your treasure, little one."
Rowena Ravenclaw raised the object she was holding.
"You were brought here not because of that ridiculous Dark Lord of yours; he doesn't have that ability. It is this thing you brought that has led you and my child to this..."
In her hand, the Resurrection Stone ring shone with a deep luster.
"The place where it was truly manufactured."
(End Of This Chapter)
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