Sol and Harry open the door only to see a set of stairs leading down. No torches or lights were illuminating the path, so the atmosphere was especially dark and eerie. They headed in and closed the door behind them. Sol was still under the effects of the Disillusionment charm so it was Harry who was visible. As they walked down the stairs, Sol tried to erase his presence as much as possible. His footsteps made no sound and his mana fluctuations could not be sensed. After walking a few steps, Harry looked behind him and searched around. The atmosphere had made him abnormally tense so he had forgotten about Sol. Only now had he remembered that Sol was with him. But when he looked behind, he didn’t see him. Even though he knew Sol was invisible, it still made him quite tense. He began to feel more nervous. As he carefully carried on, h became more and more nervous. However, after a while, Sol's voice rang out, “Don’t worry, I'm still here.”

Hearing that, Harry relaxed. However, he still kept a close eye on his surrounding. Seeing this, Sol sighed. He had spoken directly in Harry's mind to not alert Quirrell who might be nearby. Yet Harry didn’t know this. Since Sol was invisible, Harry didn’t see Sol's mouth not moving. So, he believed that Sol spoke normally or more accurately, he didn’t even think about it since he never experienced someone talking directly in his mind.

As they ventured on downwards, they soon saw an opening. At the bottom of the stairs was an oval-shaped room. The middle of the room was at a lower height. There were steps to reach the ends of the room which were at a higher ground. In the middle stood a man with a turban gazing into a mirror. As Harry came closer, he clutched his forehead and groaned as his scar started burning. He entered the opening and looked down at Quirrell with a look of shock on his face, “You?”

Quirrell turned around to look up at Harry. Harry spoke with confusion riddling his face, “N-No, i-it can't be. But Snape, h-he was the one-”

“Yes, he does seem like the type, doesn’t he?” Quirrell cut him off. “Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-st-stuttering Professor Quirrell?” Quirrell gestured mockingly.

“But…that day…during the Quidditch match…” Harry said as he walked down the steps, “Snape tried to kill me.”

“No, dear boy,” Quirrell shook his head, “I tried to kill you! And trust me, boy! If my curse didn't stop working suddenly then Iw would've succeeded! Even if Snape was muttering his counter-curse I don't believe he could've stopped me!”

Harry looked appalled, “Snape was trying to save me…?”

Sol had already sneaked inside. He was standing right next to Quirrell, shaking his head.

Told you not to misunderstand Snape.

He had his wand out and aimed at Quirrell. He could kill him anytime he wanted to but since he still didn’t know where the Philosopher's Stone was he didn’t take action. He knew that the interaction of these two would later reveal where it was being kept. Though he had an inkling that the mirror behind Quirrell was most likely related to the secret, he didn’t do anything. The previous room had already taught him the valuable lesson of sticking to the script when needed. Most likely, he had to reevaluate his approach towards this world once he gets back. But now, he was going to let things play out. He was 85% sure that Harry and Quirrell would have some sort of conflict because of the stone. All he had to do was wait. And patience was now one of his strong points.

“I knew you were a danger to me right from the off[1],” Quirrell continued, “Especially after Halloween.”

“What? You mean… but I didn't-” Harry understood what Quirrell meant.

“Oh save it, boy! You might’ve fooled McGonagall but you can’t fool me,” Quirrell's expression became ugly, “Just the way you dispatched of the troll shows how powerful you’ve become.”

Sol had a blank look on his face. He really can’t fool you. Only you can do that.

“T-T-Then,” Harry pointed at Quirrell as he came to a realization, “You let the troll in.”

“Very good, boy,” Quirrell commended, “Unfortunately, Snape wasn’t fooled. While everyone was heading to the dungeons, he ran to the third floor…to head me off.” Quirrell turned around to look at the mirror again, “He, of course, never trusted me again. He barely left my side. But he doesn’t understand.”

Harry rubbed his burning scar as Quirrell continued, “I'm never alone…never.” He focused on the mirror in front of him. It was the same mirror Sol and Harry encountered at night on Christmas. “Now, what does this mirror do? I see what I desire most. I see the Stone in my hand. But how do I get it?!”

Sol also focused. He understood that the Philosopher's stone might make an appearance now and also that it was the best time for him to steal it.

As Quirrell kept pondering, a hoarse voice rang out, “Use the boy.” Harry heard this ghastly voice and started looking around frantically whereas Sol who was right next to Quirrell did as well.

Sol: ???

What the fuck? What the hell kind of possession trick are you using that requires the possessor to speak out loud? Can’t you just speak to him telepathi-…wait, don’t tell me…

Quirrell snapped his head back to Harry and yelled, “Come here, Potter! NOW!”

Harry flinched then warily approached Quirrell one step at a time.

Quirrell stepped aside as Harry came in front of the mirror. He asked him, “Tell me. What do you see?”

Harry gazed into the mirror. He saw himself. His pale slightly dirty face. He has short, dark-brown hair and circular glasses sitting on top of his nose. In the next moment, his reflection smiled and reached into the pocket of its pants. He then took out a dark-red stone the size of Harry's fist. Even though it was a bit dark inside the room, the stone still had a slight shine to it. The reflection smirked and winked at Harry who had turned wide-eyed from shock. Then, the reflection stored the stone back into its pocket. Harry's jaw was agape from shock as he looked from the pockets of his reflection back to his own pockets. However, he calmed his expression as he subtly used his hands to touch his left pocket. There was something inside! Harry understood that the famed Philosopher’s Stone was now inside his pocket. He quickly shifted his gaze back to the mirror as his breathing quickened.

No matter how subtle he had been, his actions didn’t escape Sol's eyes. Sol was readied himself to take action as he realized where the Stone was.

Quirrell noticed this and hurriedly asked, “What is it? What do you see?!”

Harry stuttered as he came up with an excuse, “I-I’m shaking hands with Dumbledore. I’ve won the house cup-”

But before he could come up with more excuses, that hoarse voice from before spoke again, “He lies!”

Hearing this, Quirrell angrily frowned at Harry as he yelled, “TELL THE TRUTH! WHAT.DO.YOU.SEE?!”

The voice spoke again just before Quirrell was about to do something, “Let me speak to him.”

Quirrell turned around from Harry and said worriedly, “Master, you are not strong enough!”

“I am strong enough for this.”

During this Harry was slowly backing away from the mirror. Quirrell turned around and undid his turban. The cloth covering his head was slowly undone and it covered less and less. As he undid the last portion of the cloth, he revealed…a face on the back of his head! It looked horrifying. Quirrell had no hair on his head so that one could see the face clearly. It had a nose that was almost flattened. The face stretched out, making the back of Quirrell's head extend. Quirrell's head looked severely deformed. The face looked both withered and smooth. It was due to the blue veins slithering across it like snakes. Its beady black eyes looked at Harry. It opened its small mouth, “Harry Potter, we meet again.”

“Voldemort!” Harry gasped.

“Yes…you see what I’ve become,” Voldemort spoke in a voice reminiscent of snake's hissing.

Beside them, Sol frowned. He shook his head. Why would you do something like this? Just directly take control of his mind! Why the fuck did you use ‘Parasitism'?!

Parasitism is a technique that works exactly as it sounds. It makes you live off of another being. The host can be unwilling or willing. Though a willing host is easier to parasitize off of. This technique at its earlier levels was heavily looked down upon. As it was extremely inconvenient to do and weaker than other possession methods. The one Voldemort was using was a technique Sol had only read about, yes read about. Never practiced. Sol learned about this technique from the 『Akashic Records』. Sol couldn’t remember whether or not he ever practiced this technique but seeing the amount of disdain he had looking at this spell, it was highly likely he disdained himself from learning it even in his previous life. It was even worse since ‘Parasitism’ had improved leaps and bounds since then. From infecting someone’s mentality with yours to outright taking control of one’s soul. Had it been these that Voldemort used, Sol would’ve taken him seriously. But now, Sol only held him in contempt.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Voldemort continued, “See what I have to do to survive. To live of another. A parasite. Unicorn blood can sustain me but it cannot give me a body of my own...but there is something that can...”

Sol sighed. Time to end this.

He pointed his wand at Harry.

Bewitching Sleep!

Instantly Harry flopped to the floor, asleep. Both Quirrell's and Voldemort's faces were riddled with shock. But before their brain(s) could register what happened, pale blue flames emerged from nowhere and covered their head. These flames soon solidified and encased their heads in a block of ice. Their hands tried to claw at their face to free themselves as the ice suffocated them. But after a few attempts, their arms suddenly became straight and stuck to their body. Their legs stuck together as well. Their body took on a blue-hue as if blood had drained from it and they fell to the floor.

Sol revealed himself after he had Petrificus Totalus. He could easily use Bombarda to blow their head off, but that would be a bit hard to explain. He had a feeling that Dumbledore might be watching. However, his Mana Eyes were not high enough to search for any surveillance spells used by Dumbledore. Rather, he didn’t even try to search for it right now. Dumbledore was called the ‘Strongest White Wizard’, so Sol had assumed that his surveillance would be undetectable by the current Sol. However, that would change.

Sol walked away from Quirrell who was laying petrified on the floor. He walked over to Harry who was also on the floor, asleep. He reached his hand into Harry's left pocket and pulled out the dark-red Philosopher's Stone. His breathing quickened as he became excited holding it. Even without any detection skills, he could feel the immense mana stored within the Stone. He walked to the side of a room and cast Regnum Ignotum so that no one could see what he was doing. He sat down on the floor and concentrated on the Stone on his palm. He began sensing the mana inside.

Pure mana flowed inside the mana. The mana was enough to supply a magic device for 100 years. Sol pitied the fact that he wouldn’t be able to fully absorb the mana stored within the Stone. The absorption process would most likely waste ginormous amounts of mana and there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn’t strong enough to absorb it all nor did he have enough practical experience about Magical cores. He really regretted not reading more about Magical Cores now. However, he could feel where his past self was coming from. He frankly had a plethora of knowledge on Mana Veins so that made him quite sure that his previous world was one where everyone had Mana Veins in them.

Sol sighed and began absorption. Sol sent out a bit of his mana towards the stone. He molded it into a needle shape and began to drill into the stone. Bit by bit, the hole got deeper. After a while, his mana finally penetrated the shell of the stone and he began pulling the mana in the stone to his body. The mana slowly flowed within his body, from hands, down his arms, and to his abdomen where the Magical Core was located. He waited with bated breath as the mana from the stone was about to be absorbed into his core. However, as soon as the mana from the stone touched his Magical Core, he froze. The mana started crazily flowing out of the stone. If the output of mana before had been a trickle, the amount of mana coming out now was akin to a waterfall. Sol abruptly opened his eyes and looked at the stone on his palm. The mana from the stone kept flowing into his core and was almost on the verge of overflowing it. As he was going to throw it away, a crack opened on the stone. The mana dispersed in the atmosphere and overwhelmed Sol. He immediately became petrified, unable to move a single part of his body. However, he was conscious. He was aware of everything that was happening and was panicking as the mana had finally bloated his core and was about to burst. It was causing him immense pain. It was as though he had eaten food that the population of England could’ve eaten for 10 years within a minute. But instead of feeling it all over his body, it was as though all the pain had converged in his abdomen. Sweat beads started popping up on his forehead and all over his body. He wanted to let go of the stone yet he couldn’t move his body. The mana from the stone kept on flowing into him. But most of it dispersed into the air from the crack.

Soon, the pain intensified as his core started signs of cracking. Small cracks riddled his core though he was in no position to see it. Just based on the pain he was feeling, he had a rough idea of what was happening. He had no time to think as he tried to resist the pain. The pain surged as the cracks became bigger and bigger. It felt as though all his bones were being grounded into dust however the pain was converted in his abdomen. Sol's eyes became bloodshot as he resisted, his clothes became drenched in his sweat and the blood for his previous wounds. The pain kept surging on and Sol was about to lose consciousness and the cracks on his core started to look like crevices.

After a while, the mana still kept on flowing in and finally shattered his core. The burst of pain assaulted Sol. It felt as though he had stuck toothpicks in his toenails and kicked a wall as hard as he could but it felt incomparably worse. And this pain was of course converged in his abdomen. His eyes rolled back as he lost consciousness.

Even when he was unconscious, the mana flowed in him. The mana kept on grinding the shattered pieces of his core until they became a fine powder. After a while, this powder became a semi-liquid jelly from the flowing mana's pressure and converged within Sol's abdomen, turning into a sphere of jelly 1.5 times bigger than Sol's original core. The mana from the stone stopped flowing into his newly formed core and started flowing into his tissues and cells.

The mana accelerated the healing powers of his cells, closing the wounds from his previous battle. It invigorated his cells and tissues. Sol's body became covered with a white layer of dead skin as new stronger skin formed beneath. His muscles and bones became sturdier. And his hair became more lustrous.[2]

Half an hour passed. Sol opened his eyes and sat up. If one looked closely they could see that his eyes were brimming with vitality. The light in his eyes made it seem as though he had stars in his eyes. Rather it seemed as though his eyes had stars reflected on the ocean surface.

“Uryaa...[3]” Sol exhaled a breath of turbid air and stood up. He looked at his hands to see the white layer of dead skin on them. His hand was holding onto something. He opened his palm to see a black powder on top. He narrowed his eyes and sighed.

The remains of the stone...

He opened his satchel which he had placed to a side before he started absorbing the stone alongside his wand. He took out empty vials to store the powder inside. It took him 3 vials to do so.

Once he stored away the vials of powder, he started peeling off the layer of dead skin from his hands to his shoulder and saw that it covered his upper body as well. He took off his shirt and started peeling the dead skin off as well. When he saw that it went down his legs as well, he stopped. He looked around and sure enough, Regnum Ignotum had long been broken. He picked up his wand which he had placed beside him before he tried to absorb the stone. He raised his wands and cast Regnum Ignotum only for it to cover half of the 2000 cubic meter room. Seeing this, Sol's eyes almost popped out of his sockets.

What the hell?! Why is this so powerful?

He shook his head and shrunk the domain to 20 cubic meters. He noticed that the shape of the domain had changed as well. It had a half-spherical shape before now it was a cube. He stopped admiring the domain and proceeded to peel the dead skin on his lower body as well. After a while, he had finished peeling off the dead skin from his entire body. He inspected his skin. It looked as though it was glowing though he knew it only looked like it. The numerous scars he had never bothered to remove had also been peeled off with the dead skin. His skin was now smooth and brimming with vitality. He cleaned his clothes and repaired them before wearing them. It looked good as new! Feeling satisfied, Sol deactivated the domain and walked over to Quirrell. He had a cold smile as he looked at Quirrell.

He had already died from suffocation without being able to put up the slightest resistance. Sol activated Mana Eyes and looked around. However, he became pleasantly surprised that he could now look through objects. Its range didn’t matter as it had always allowed Sol to look as far as his eyesight allowed. He stopped the X-ray vision and looked around. With it powering up, he confirmed that there were no surveillance spells. However, his worries were unfounded as Dumbledore had been called away on official business and was no longer in the castle. Harry, Ron, and Hermione learned about this from Professor McGonagall but forgot to tell Sol. If Sol learned about this, he would’ve surely coughed up some blood. He could’ve done without the paranoia of someone watching him.

Once Sol confirmed that no one was watching them, he dragged Quirrell in front of one of the pillars in the room. He set him lengthwise in front of the pillar. He looked up at the ceiling. He sighed in relief once he saw that the pillars were merely decorations and weren’t holding up anything. This made his work much easier. He then pointed his wand at Quirrell and thawed the ice slightly melted ice on his face. The ice melted and Voldemort's face which was on the back of Quirrell's head lay flattened against the floor. He then walked over to the pillar and pointed his wand at its base, “Bombarda!”

Boom!

An explosion rang out and a massive chunk of the pillar's base flew out. The base of the side which faced Quirrell had a large chunk of it blown off. So much so that it started teetering and finally fell...on Quirrell's body. Sol cast the Impervious charm on himself and took a few steps back.

Squash! Thud!

The pillar flattened Quirrell under its massive weight, thoroughly crushing him. The sound of bones cracking and organs squashing rang out. Underneath the pillar, Quirrell had been reduced to a bloody pancake with bits of bones and organs sticking out. His head has been thoroughly squashed, leaving no sign of Voldemort. Sol them cast a bunch of spells here and there, creating evidence of a bitter battle. After he was over, the room looked thoroughly ravaged with traces of various offensive spells spread out across the room.

With all that said and done, Sol walked over to Harry and put a hand over his body. He removed all traces of the Bewitching Sleep but kept its effects intact so that it looked like he had simply fallen unconscious. He looked back at the room and nodded his head.

Feeling satisfied, he lifted Harry with Wingardium Leviosa and made his way out of the dungeons, putting an end to this long night.