Lucian ignored Riddle's furious shouting.
Instead, he calmly raised his hand, as if grasping an invisible thread from the air.
"Let me see," he said indifferently,
"how a pathetic thief was born."
Reading Riddle's Past
The moment his words fell, Lucian's overwhelming mental power became absolute authority inside this spiritual subspace.
The fragments of memory swirling around them instantly stopped their chaotic motion.
Like files summoned by a king, they arranged themselves neatly and began unfolding one by one before Lucian.
He saw everything.
A cold, gloomy Muggle orphanage in London.
A lonely boy named Tom Riddle.
Black hair. Dark eyes.
Different from the other children.
Strange things happened around him—uncontrollable magic that frightened everyone.
He was feared.
Avoided.
Isolated.
No family.
No friends.
Only loneliness.
And a twisted pride in being special.
The Light of Hogwarts
Then the scene changed.
Albus Dumbledore arrived.
For the boy trapped in darkness, it was the first—and last—beam of light.
Hogwarts became his only home.
Lucian watched the young Riddle step into the Slytherin common room for the first time.
His eyes burned with ambition.
He devoured magical knowledge like a starving man.
His talent amazed every professor.
But Riddle did not pursue knowledge.
He pursued power.
Discovering the Chamber
Lucian saw Riddle exploring every hidden corner of Hogwarts.
He discovered the Chamber of Secrets.
He controlled the basilisk.
When he confirmed that he was Salazar Slytherin's last descendant, something changed inside him.
Bloodline pride consumed him.
He began to believe:
He was born to rule.
Forbidden Magic
The memories shifted again.
Lucian saw Riddle sneaking into the Restricted Section of the library.
Studying dark magic.
Forbidden spells.
Ancient curses that violated the laws of life.
Then the most important memory appeared.
The First Horcrux
A dark room.
A stormy night.
Sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle stood over the aftermath of his first murder.
Before him lay an ancient book of dark magic.
His wand trembled.
His face twisted with agony, terror, and ecstatic madness.
Then he cast the forbidden spell.
A horrifying scream tore from his throat.
Lucian saw it clearly.
A piece of Riddle's soul—like black smoke—was violently ripped from his body.
The pain was unbearable.
Enough to drive anyone insane.
But Riddle laughed.
Madly.
Because he believed he had just defeated death.
Carefully, reverently, he sealed the torn soul fragment into a black diary.
His first Horcrux.
The first step toward immortality.
Lucian's Real Discovery
The memories faded.
Lucian reopened his eyes in the gray spiritual world.
Riddle sat on the ground, trembling.
His deepest secrets had been exposed.
But Lucian had seen more than just a tragic story.
His mind—working like a supercomputer—had extracted every crucial detail hidden inside those memories.
He saw:
Riddle reading the book Secrets of the Darkest Art.
The page explaining Horcrux creation.
Every step.
Every ritual.
Every incantation.
Lucian also saw a memory from Professor Slughorn's Slug Club.
Young Riddle charming the professor, subtly asking about the limits of soul-splitting.
Under the influence of alcohol and pride, Slughorn revealed the forbidden truth:
"Seven… is the most powerful magical number."
Seven.
The key to Voldemort's entire immortality plan.
The Future Horcruxes
Lucian also saw another scene.
Riddle studying a map of Hogwarts.
With a quill, he circled several legendary artifacts.
Next to them he wrote notes.
Lucian read them all.
Salazar Slytherin's Locket — his mother's heirloomHelga Hufflepuff's Cup — stolen from Hepzibah SmithRowena Ravenclaw's Diadem — the lost crown of wisdomThe Gaunt family shackThe forests of AlbaniaAnd one uncertain future possibility… connected to Harry Potter
For sixteen-year-old Riddle, these were only ideas.
Ambitious dreams.
But for Lucian—
They had precise intelligence.
He now understood Voldemort's Horcrux plan.
The number.
Possible objects.
Even likely hiding places.
To Lucian, the diary was nothing more than an unprotected database.
Every secret had been extracted.
And Riddle didn't even realize it yet.
Riddle Realizes
When Lucian's consciousness withdrew from the spiritual world—
Riddle suddenly felt it.
Everything.
Every secret corner of his soul.
His origins.
His obsession with Horcruxes.
His fixation on the number seven.
His ambitions.
All of it had been read.
Like pages of a book.
His entire existence had been dissected.
Studied.
Analyzed.
The feeling was worse than death.
"NO… NO!" Riddle screamed, clutching his head.
His body flickered violently.
He looked at Lucian's fading figure with pure terror.
His voice trembled.
"What… What did you do to me?"
Lucian's Answer
Lucian glanced at him calmly.
His voice carried no emotion.
"I'm not interested in you."
He paused.
"I was only interested in your memories."
Those words shattered the last piece of Riddle's pride.
To Lucian—
The future Dark Lord had been nothing more than a data source.
And the data had already been extracted.
Soul Purification Flame
Lucian raised one finger.
His Heaven-Defying Comprehension activated again.
Research Topic:
Destroy a Horcrux's soul fragment without damaging its container.
Solution:
Create a conceptual flame that burns only spiritual corruption.
Spell Created:
Soul Purification Flame
A tiny white flame appeared on Lucian's fingertip.
It looked like a grain of light.
It produced no heat.
No smoke.
Yet it carried an aura of sacred authority.
This fire burned souls.
Lucian flicked his finger.
The flame floated gently onto the diary.
The book itself remained unharmed.
But—
"AAAAAAAHHHHH—!!!"
Riddle screamed in unimaginable agony.
The flame had bypassed the physical object and struck the soul fragment directly.
His body twisted violently.
Every memory.
Every ambition.
Every piece of his identity—
Was burned away.
The pain was far worse than the Cruciatus Curse.
"I… am Voldemort… I… cannot die…"
Those were his final words.
Then his body dissolved.
Like mist under sunlight.
The sixteen-year-old Dark Lord vanished completely.
The First Horcrux Destroyed
With the soul fragment gone, the diary lost its magic.
Its leather cover dried and cracked.
The pages curled.
Then the entire book silently crumbled into black dust.
The wind of the chamber scattered the ashes.
The first Horcrux was gone.
Ginny Awakens
At the same moment, the dark force draining Ginny Weasley's life disappeared.
Color slowly returned to her pale face.
Her eyelashes trembled.
She let out a weak groan.
And slowly—
Ginny opened her eyes.
~~--------------------------
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