The corridors were nice, small statues, fine paintings. We headed upstairs and past a set of windows.
I glanced out, revealing a fine set of grounds. We where in some kind of mansion, the sun was low... either setting or rising, I could not tell at the moment.
Pettigrew paused as I stopped to look out the window "This way, Mister Winter." He said.
I nodded and then moved to follow the evil little shapeshifter once more "May I ask where we are going?"
"We are almost there." He said and true enough, less than a minute later we were by a pair of large oak doors.
He strode forwards, pushing both doors open in his path as he guided me into the chamber.
I wasn't really sure what I expected. A dark stone chamber with skulls and maybe a fire along with a large stone throne, maybe. That seemed fitting.
What I instead got was a library. Nice wooden furniture, shelves of books covering the walls, a table with some candles and quills.
Honestly, it looked like something I would have furnished. Sitting by the table was a pale humanoid, facing the door.
So not a foolish Dark Lord, even in his own stronghold he did not put his back to the door. Perhaps this would not be as easy as I expected.
I had already decided that I could not simply cut lose with high energy spells, Voldemort could still escape in spirit form unless I got a good grasp on it first.
The Dark Lord stood up as we entered the room. He was pale.. he differed from the movies. While he was as pale, he was both more and less snakelike. His mouth was unnaturally wide and his eyes was very much reptilian looking. His nose still existed, but was very flat looking.
"Ah, Mr Winter, I presume." He said smoothly. His voice did not match his looks. It sounded human.
I gave him a small bow "Indeed, My Lord Voldemort." I said before I straightened my back again and walked over to offer him my hand for a handshake.
Come on. Be human for once in your damn life. Do the normal thing you Lich wannabe.
Pettigrew closed the door as he walked in behind me, staying near the entrance, watching.
Voldemort's eyes flicked down to my hand and he raised a non existent eyebrow before he looked at Pettigrew over my shoulder while taking my hand "You have recovered well, I see. You collapsed when the Portkey arrived." the Dark Lord said.
I nodded "Yes, indeed." as I shook the evil things hand with a small smile "Thank you for the rescue." I said before I pulled his soul out. I experienced more resistance than what I expected, but it still left his body easily enough.
He gasped and collapsed as I gathered that yellow black... thing... that used to be his soul struggled against the bonds of the black mana around my right hand as I spun around. In the same motion I swung my left hand over to aim at Pettigrew as he started to draw his wand, his eyes going wide.
Blue mana swirled as I flicked my fingers. His wand snapped and was ripped from his hand before Blue and Green mana surged, forming a crossbow bolt and shooting it across the room at him. In my hurry I overcharged the spell. Green mana leaked into the air harmlessly but, not really able to overdo the creation of a single bolt but the extra Blue overcharged the other spell.
The Asgard metal crossbow bolt flew at the wandless wizard... I aimed at center mass, but in my hurry my aim was off. It went into his right eye, through his skull, through the door, wall and I had no idea where it finally ended up with a crash of shattering wood.
It wasn't supersonic, but it had a ton of actual force behind it.
Oops.
Still, the end result was the same if a bit messier than I intended. He fell to the ground and didn't move again. That was the second best thing to deal with magic users. Quickly and putting them down hard.
I could have taken him out with a White binding spell or a Red lightning bolt, but one I was not sure would keep him from transforming and the other was to loud.
Even as overpowered that damn crossbow bolt ended up being, it was still not as loud than a bloody indoor lightning bolt.
I paused and listened carefully.
There was no more sound.
No hordes if angry dark wizards running to their masters rescue so I turned my attention to the 'thing' in my hand and I sneered at the remnants of the soul. It was disgusting, even as I applied a bit more black mana to keep it from escaping it struggled futilely against its bonds.
It was the spiritual equivalent of a walking zombie, half rotten and missing a arm.
No wonder he was a raving lunatic. He tore parts of his soul of when he was sixteen. There was no way to say how that changed his development.
From what I knew he was a evil bastard even before then, but that likely pushed him so far over the limit he could not even see it any more.
But even as horrible as this thing was, I would not destroy it. For one thing I didn't even know if I could. It might also activate his other 'shards' or something and then we would have five of the bastards running around.
Yeah, that would be a improvement.
Channeling some more Black mana I compressed the soul remains into a ball, squeezing it in my hand as I thought about what to do next.
I slowly nodded before I walked over to pull the sleeve of Pettigrews left arm up to reveal his Dark Mark before I stood up and waved my left hand, channeling a good amount of Black mana, creating ten wraiths.
"Search the mansion and grounds, stay invisible. Kill everyone with the same mark on their arm as this man." I ordered them, pointing at Pettigrew "Disable anyone else but without causing permanent harm. Then return to me."
The best way to handle hostile magic users is to never get close enough for them to engage.
The wraiths faded from view as I returned to Voldemorts slowly dissolving body. Another burst of Black mana helped it on it's way, leaving only the skeleton behind.
I bent down and picked the skull up, turning it over in my left hand before I put it on the table. Well, I needed some place to put this soul.
This should work as well as anything else in the room.
Moving Riddle's soul to the skull was as easy as pressing it. Binding it to the bone so it could not just fly away at will was slightly harder, but honestly, what I did to Glory and Ben was harder... if not by much.
"There we go..." I said as the eye sockets of the skull got a slight yellow glow in them. Not the blue normally expected by undead of this sort, but that was expected by the mutilated material I had to work with.
I picked the skull up and looked into the eye sockets. I could feel his terror and confusion. Honestly, it was just a sad sight.
To be reduced to such a state... it would have been kinder to outright kill him, but I was not sure how to do it safely. I did not know enough about the way his soulsplitting worked.
"I suppose congratulations is in order." I finally said "You finally found the immortality you have so long searched for." before I gently put the skull down on the table and walked over to inspect the bookshelf, stumbling slightly and catching myself before I tripped.
Bloody weak even after two days of sleep. It's the lack of food. I sighed and channeled some Green mana to help me keep my strength up. It was a constant drain, but it was better than falling over.
It would be a pity to destroy such a large book collection.
I was mostly trying to keep my mind of the killing going on as I started to look over the titles.
Evil torturing and murdering bastards or not... They were still people. Just because it need to be done did not make me dislike it any less.
AN// Large thanks to Zuzak for betaing this part.