Ascent

What a clusterfuck. This was not an ideal situation. We had planned so many contingencies, and the mission was going swimmingly. The moment the scumbags had arrived, Luna had done a sweep and informed us that Nagini was not here. So, we had resorted to plan B and activated the traps.

I had taken over a Death Eater and ascertained whether he knew the location of the snake. Fortunately, it was common knowledge among their ilk because some of them had to assist Macnair in feeding the beast. Since the puppet was keyed to their wards, it made it all the more easier to commandeer him out of the battlefield and into their hideout.

When I had to get the cup, I had done something similar. Following a similar but more forceful approach, my puppet approached the hidey-hole. Once he confirmed that the snake was there, it was a simple thing to set the thing on fire, courtesy of a fiendfyre. I did not bother to put out the fire and just let go of the puppet and concentrated on the fight that was going on. He still had standing instructions to demolish the place and do as much damage to the garrisoned forces as possible.

Nev had wanted to fight Bellatrix and none of us had any reason to object to that. So we had planned accordingly and it was going fine. Even after his fuckup, I still had traps that could have aided us in escaping. But Dumbledore had to come at the worst possible moment and mess it up. Oh, I had factored in their interference, but that didn't mean that I had to like what was happening.

If Dumbledore and his merry band of idiots hadn't popped up, I would have unleashed another lethal trap to occupy Riddle while we escaped. Now, I had to do something else. Even though I did not like how the Order was doing things, I would not make them collateral damage unless I was a hundred percent sure that the move would kill Tom.

Now here we were, in a Mexican standoff.

"You made a big mistake coming here, old man. These worms were already getting on my nerves. You are just the icing on top of the cake. Do you even think you can hold yourself against me with that pathetic arm of yours? What happened to your vaunted ingenuity? I see that you've blatantly copied my gift to Wormtail," ranted Riddle.

"But of course, it is a beautiful piece of magic Tom. Such a shame that you spend your time indulging in death and destruction. If only you focused more on bettering society with such magic," said Dumbledore as he showcased his bronze arm. I tuned out both of them and focused on the task at hand.

I quickly glanced at my team and was relieved that nobody was injured so far. Although, Nev and Sue seemed exhausted due to their bout with Bellatrix. It would have been preferable if they had managed to kill her, but still, dismemberment was a fine trade-off. A portion of their attire was singed and frayed just a tiny bit. Considering I had personally fought off Bellatrix once, I would say that their enchanted uniform was performing splendidly. A negligible amount of damage to the clothing was more than a fair deal.

"Artemis, sitrep," I ordered through the comms as I warily looked at the Order members. On paper, we were outnumbered here. Although we were not enemies of the Order, they were not strictly allies either. To the Order, we were a dangerous group with a large kill count, so it was obvious that they would not work with us outright unless they established some communication.

"Acknowledged, give me ten seconds. Collating information with Mad-Eye," came Luna's voice from the comms.

"Gaia, maintain your position. We might need cover fire," I said as my gaze flickered towards her position for a second. Thanks to the visor, nobody would be able to follow my line of sight. Also, due to the enchantments on the helms and the badges, as long as we spoke into the comms, nobody would hear what they were saying as well. Amelia's artificer deserved a bonus when all this was over.

While all these thoughts flooded my mind, I was never negligent about the two behemoths in the field. Riddle and Dumbledore were squaring off and hadn't fired a spell off yet, but they were close to it. Riddle's rage was quite palpable and it was only a matter of time before he went off the rails. For now, they were trading barbs, but that would escalate within seconds.

My fourth path was active, pumping me with more magic than I naturally possessed. But it was a finite resource, and I would run out of it soon enough.

"Guys, I'm sorry-" started Nev. Although, he was quickly cut off by Susan.

"Dryad, keep the comms clear. We will review all this later," she said.

"Understood," he said in a somber tone.

"Owl, we have Shacklebolt, Moony, Tonks, and Bill at your position. Jones, Arthur, and Diggle are securing the perimeter," came Luna's voice over the comms.

"Got it. Overseer, please call off Shack and Tonks post-haste. Make sure they tell their fellow lackeys to not interfere," I said.

Apparently, our behavior did not sit well with the Order and Kingsley opened his mouth to speak up. He would learn today that things were not going their way. Fighting the good fight was all good and dandy, but a certain amount of competence was necessary. I raised my hand to interrupt him and temporarily turned off the voice muffling that hid our voices.

"Just a second," I said. The distortion spell was still active and my voice sounded eerie. He was taken aback for a second and was about to respond before he jumped in astonishment and fished out his badge from his pocket. Tonks followed suit as they both moved to hold their badges like phones.

I was surprised for a second that it did not emit the shrill noise that it usually did, but then I realized that it must currently be in covert mode for when they did not want their covers blown.

All hell broke loose all of a sudden as Voldemort and Dumbledore started their deadly dance. Looked like they got tired of the trash-talking pretty fast. I raised a shield and was supported by my team at once. But it wouldn't be enough, so we backed away slowly, raising transfigured obstacles in front of us.

The Order members surrounding us did the same as they too backed up.

"Gaia, be careful. If it looks like the fight would spill over towards you, I want you to retreat ASAP," I immediately switched on the voice obfuscation and said.

"N-Noted. What about the traps within the house?" she asked. I could feel the fear in her voice. Out of all of us, Hannah was the only one who had not been in such vicious fights, so it was understandable. She was doing a great job so far, and I did not want her to panic and make a mistake.

"Don't worry about that, your focus should be on escaping if it comes down to it. Only lay cover fire when we are engaging Riddle. Don't reveal your presence till then."

"Owl, two enemy squads closing in on your location. One of them is led by Greyback," said Luna. Dear lord, when it rains, it pours. Despite the annoyance, I took vindictive pleasure in knowing that one more facet of Voldemort's forces would be obliterated today. The Death Eaters accompanying him are all dead, bar Bellatrix. The flaming surprise I left behind in their hideout would have taken out a lot of them as well.

"ETA and route?" I asked.

"It's a pincer. One from the west and the other from the east. ETA is two minutes for both parties. The Order's wards are quite wide so they ported in quite a distance away," she said.

"Athena, the ball's in your court," I said and glanced towards Kingsley and Tonks, who were paling fast due to what they were hearing. Tonks sure was a good actor. She was with us and had no reason to fear, but Kingsley just realized that his boss was onto his extracurricular activities.

A few of our barriers shattered due to the ongoing duel, so I started waving my wand around, laying down more protective measures between us. I could see Bill doing the same, using some esoteric curses to counteract the stray spellfire.

I let Hermione deal with the situation with the flanks because she was the one who worked with Amelia to prep the area around this house. They had evacuated the civilians and placed them in a safe location. This whole block was rigged by us, in preparation if the fight ever spilled into the streets. The ministry was ready to reimburse the homeowners if their house got busted. To them, taking down Voldemort was a priority. On paper, this whole undertaking was supposed to whittle at his inner circle and to use it as a distraction to strike at their headquarters.

While I had control over the Death Eater, I had relayed information about their various hideouts I plucked from his mind to Amelia. She had her trusted Auror troops on the ready, to raid all the Death Eater hideouts. With the lack of a proper prison, they were given the all-clear to employ lethal spells.

Just a day before this operation, Amelia had somehow managed to wrangle some sort of contract with Scrimgeour. Newly minted minister or not, he has worked under Amelia for years. He trusted her judgment and relied on her a lot during this war. So when she came up with a suggestion that the ministry should hire us as mercenaries, he deliberated on it and signed the thing. He wanted to be seen doing something, and we were doing precisely that, so it was a win-win situation for both sides. He was not a gullible idiot like Fudge, but he was under immense pressure, and in canon was even ready to just do PR ops rather than taking the fight to Voldemort.

Of course, there were some restrictions and stipulations. Namely, as long as we only engaged Death Eaters, we were given carte blanche on how we dealt with them. We were told to keep the collateral damage to an absolute minimum, but we were here in an official capacity.

The fact that Amelia trusted us gave us a lot of leeway in terms of how we operated. Heck, we had not even met the man, but her vouching for us apparently was enough for him at present. Another factor was that we have had consistent results so far. My raids had done a lot of damage, and it showed a lot of competency on our end. Everyone was sick and tired of this war and were not willing for it to drag on as it did last time. She made sure that our identities were protected, and that we wouldn't be persecuted by the obstinate morons who had a problem with us offing these shitheads.

All this was possible because it was wartime. The Ministry had taken far more liberties in the last war than what we were doing, so it wasn't an issue.

Therefore, Kingsley was on thin ice because he was doing unsanctioned operations and was now impeding an operation that was sanctioned by his bosses.

"Artemis and Gaia, run overwatch on the traps in those streets. Once you get a clear shot, activate the traps. Hold back the nasty ones if the morons from the Order engage the approaching targets. Keep us updated on the situation. Overseer, can you spare some troops?" Hermione asked over the comms.

"Negative. We are facing some resistance at multiple locations, so the troops are quite busy. I will order Shacklebolt and Tonks to cover you if you want to escape," she said.

"No," I interjected, "He is mortal now. If we get a good shot in, he will die for real this time. Dumbledore is already engaging him. I am going to run interference and see if I can sneak in a kill shot."

There was a moment of silence before Susan spoke.

"Bellatrix will be trying to do the same to you. We will gang up on her and take her out. With the numbers skewered in our favor, we should be able to do it."

"I agree Owl, we can take her out swiftly and then try to aid Artemis and Gaia in taking out their incoming reinforcements. I don't think we will be of much help against Voldemort. I am already exhausted just defending from his rampage before these morons came in," Hermione said.

I let out a deep breath and said, "Alright, you three take her out. The Order members might try to stop you if you go for kill shots. Make sure that Shack knows not to interfere. Don't blow Tonks' cover and treat her as you would Shack. Once the mad bitch is down, go and take out the reinforcements. Stick to the rooftops, use the traps we've set up. Try to hide your positions as much as you can. Get the elves to help you spring the traps. We don't want them to get caught up in a pitched battle, but they are proficient at staying hidden. Now move out."

They all nodded and moved sideways, as I steeled myself and headed towards the duel between the snake and the phoenix. Before I could jump in, Dobby popped beside me and held out two vials. I had the elves wear clothes that looked like our uniform to obscure their identities as well. Dobby was a bit put out since we used plain colors, but he acquiesced quickly since it would protect us.

I nodded at him and he promptly disapparated. I pocketed the sky blue potion and unstoppered the vial with the orange potion. It was a dosage of the invigoration draught. At this dosage, the potion rejuvenated the drinker's stamina. It did not top off my reserves or get rid of the wear and tear my body accumulated. What it did was get rid of my fatigue temporarily. I would need to consume a lot of calories later, but at this point, this was a great call by Dobby.

With a tap of my wand, the lower portion of the T-shaped visor retracted. I quickly gulped the potion down. The effect was immediate and I could feel my fatigue vanishing. I closed the visor and headed to battle.

Still locked onto the fourth path, I skirted around the edges of their duel, waiting for an opportune moment to strike. If I got a good shot in, I could follow through with something outrageous and finish my mission here and now.

I watched as Riddle kept unleashing a volley of spells at Dumbledore. The old man kept conjuring solid shields to take the hits and transfigured the debris into a veritable legion of golems that looked like armored knights.

With a negligent wave of his wand, he sent the golems towards Riddle. In response, he stopped his spellfire and looked at Dumbledore with a vicious grin adorning his face.

"Fiendfyre!" he roared, as the cursed flames shot out of his wand and enveloped the swarm of golems. The fire quickly took the shape of a massive basilisk as it sprung at Dumbledore after consuming his transfigured soldiers.

Dumbledore pointed the Elder Wand at the flaming serpent with a strained look on his face. The flaming construct stopped in its tracks and started fizzing out. Riddle meanwhile was not idle. His wand was pointed towards the sky and a steady stream of lightning was shooting towards the clouds.

Seeing that he was occupied, I decided that it was the perfect moment for me to intervene. I summoned Hirudo and sent the knife flying at him. I ensured that its acceleration was twofold. Using my off hand, I propelled it with a gust of wind. Using my wand, I hit it with a depulso. As it streaked towards him, I shot out a couple of severing charms and a decapitating curse as well.

Before Hirudo could reach him, there was a flash of light, followed by a thunderous noise. Thankfully, the visor protected my eyes from any visual effects as I realized what Riddle had been preparing for. The thunderbolt that he would have sent towards Dumbledore was instead used to obliterate my salvo.

I cursed under my breath as I swatted away a bone breaker that he had sent at me, and sent out an organ liquefier at him in return. Hirudo was a goblin-made knife, and a strike of lightning would not destroy it. I could feel the blade's location and let it be for now.

"I thought you would have run with your tail between your legs, but it seems like you have a death wish. Let me oblige, Avada Kedavra," he said as the killing curse raced towards me.

I rolled to the side and sent out a piercing hex mid-roll. I knew it would not hit him, nor do any damage. But the name of the game was to keep him engaged. As long as he would be defending, he would not be sending curses my way.

By the time the killing curse sailed past me, Dumbledore was done extinguishing the fiendfyre and sent a gout of flames in return.

We looked at each other and nodded in unspoken agreement. Riddle took priority, everything else could be taken care of later.

I took a deep breath and conjured a dozen arrows. A quick spell later, the arrows were spinning like drills. With a mental command, the arrows fired at Riddle. My fourth path's boost was running low and I would soon need to switch to other paths. But right at that moment, I needed raw power to stand alongside these behemoths. I resolved to not waste my attacks and dodged an oncoming spell.

It seemed like he had easily dispatched my arrows and sent a counterattack, but that left him open to Dumbledore's spell, which impacted him in the shoulder.

To my dismay, it just knocked him back a few feet. I did not know whether Dumbledore was pulling his punches or if Riddle had countered the effects of the spell. But seeing the first proper hit on him having such underwhelming results, I grew exceedingly annoyed.

I sent an entail expelling curse at him and immediately tailed it with a bombarda. For good measure, I sent a reducto in quick succession. I wanted to see if he could stop another salvo without summoning a bolt of lightning from the sky. The temptation to shoot off a killing curse was high, but I did not want a repeat performance of my fight with Bellatrix where I quickly drained myself. I was saving the unforgivable for a clear shot.

He swatted away the first two spells but had to bring up a shield to stop my reductor curse. He swiveled and used the same shield to take in a spell from Dumbledore. Alas, the shield shattered and threw him backward.

"Avada Kedavra," I casted, seeing the perfect opportunity to strike him midair. To my astonishment, he floated higher and avoided the spell before hovering in place. I had almost forgotten the fact that Riddle, Delphini, and Snape were the only known practitioners of unaided flight. And no, the budget Death Eater flight in the movies didn't count. Unaided flight was a huge deal because nobody had managed to perform such a feat so far.

A quick look of distaste flashed across Dumbledore's face as he glanced at me before shifting his focus back towards Riddle.

"As I said Tom, you could have used your talents for better things," he said in a disappointed tone.

"Quiet. I am not interested in your spiel," he snarled. I had no interest in talking either, although I could use the distraction the old man was providing. One thing I learned was that despite his immense combat prowess, Riddle did not like to move around much. He always got aggressive when a spell made him move away from his spot. I did not know how it translated to his aerial prowess.

"As an educator-" I stopped paying attention as I began focusing on a maneuver that would bring Riddle back to the ground. I was sure that Dumbledore was indulging in small talk while thinking about the same problem. Riddle's ego would warrant that the man would want the last word in. But he was not patient enough to keep listening to Dumbledore's nonsense.

Wind manipulation was something I recently began dabbling in, so I was not that proficient in it. But I did have some amount of excess energy left in my fourth path. I could see no other way to bring him down, and if allowed to stay afloat, he would rain death on us while we could only defend and do nothing else. I needed to clip his wings and I was willing to use up the remaining juice in the fourth path.

Knowing that I could not mess up, I reached into my pocket and fished out the other potion given to me by Dobby. Without a moment's hesitation, I downed the sky blue potion. It was a potent dosage of the exstimulo potion. It was not advisable to consume potions one after the other. To counter any possible side effects, the dosage of the invigoration draught was quite tame. The vitamix and the girding potions had a similar effect to the invigoration draught, but they were not as stable. They did not work well with other potions. The invigoration draught that I previously took had good synergy with the exstimulo potion I just ingested. The exact dosages were prescribed by Andromeda to avoid side effects. Any more of it, and it would cause problems for me. But this was enough.

The exstimulo potion had one effect and one effect only. It enhanced the power of a single spell cast after the consumption of the potion. The more potion I ingest, the stronger the boost. This dosage only gave a moderate boost, but combined with the fourth path, it was incredibly potent.

My action didn't go unnoticed by Riddle and he cast a cruciatus at me. I jumped to the side as two more spells came racing towards me. I could already feel the power bubbling up inside me, and there was no way that I would waste the potion's effect for a shield.

I strained my body to its limits and dived to my left and rolled into a crouch. Looking up, I knew that I could not dodge the next one as it was too close. Before I could contemplate my action, a projectile impacted the oncoming spell and the object exploded into splinters overhead.

Dumbledore was throwing his own spells at Voldemort to keep him from firing. So who had intervened? I turned towards the direction the projectile came from and saw Tonks winking at me. I nodded in appreciation and also caught sight of a bloodied and battered Bellatrix being figuratively dogpiled by Hermione, Nev, and Susan. Her canonical three versus one fight against Hermione, Ginny, and Luna was being recreated here. But this time, she was on the back foot and it looked like that fight will end in the next few seconds. She should have already lost a lot of blood due to the severed arm. While I was engaging Riddle, it looked like she had only accumulated more injuries. Tonks grabbed her badge, and after a second, ran towards an alleyway. I figured she was heading to hold off Greyback's reinforcements.

Throughout the whole time, I could hear loud noises in the distance and figured that Luna and Hannah were wreaking havoc on the reinforcements with the aid of the elves.

As I prepared my ace, I saw Dumbledore getting clipped by a spell and staggering backwards in pain. He quickly composed himself and continued engaging Riddle.

I pushed all of the remaining juice in the fourth path, bolstered by the potion toward one singular action. I focused on the wind above to bend to my will and twist. All my effort went towards rapidly encircling the air above me in a vicious manner, and it took effect at once. It would have been better if I was good enough with the elemental manipulation so that I did not need to depend on the path and the potion. But this was a very recent addition to my arsenal, so I could not complain. As the winds started buffeting at Riddle, I conjured several sheets of glass, shattered them, and banished them into the twister.

Dumbledore also capitalized on it and threw in lightweight projectiles of all kinds to the deadly blender overhead. Although I noticed that he was not at the same level he was at in the Ministry. The ring's curse and the injury had weakened him, and it showed in his performance. The prolonging fighting had also done him no favors.

Riddle kept a shield around him to avoid the shrapnel, but the winds kept buffeting at him. He snarled after a few moments and shot down towards the ground. Unwilling to let him go, I commandeered the twister and brought it down, focused on Riddle. By this time, the fourth path got tapped out, and I decided to switch to the fifth path. A shroud of magic encompassed me as a result of this path. I could feel a trickle of blood leaking out of my right eye and the veins in my body bulging. It was not often that I used this path for battle, but I had trained a lot with it. The time limit was an hour per day now, so it was more than enough to finish this fight and use it later to heal myself in case I got injured.

I could feel a marked difference in my physical attributes, mainly my reflexes and the fine control I had over my body and magic. This control helped me funnel the twisting and twirling winds towards Riddle's position. The blender of death and all the pointy projectiles inside it crashed into Riddle. A massive dust cloud rose from the point of impact and I sent in a couple of reductors for good measure.

There was a lull in the battle for a moment and an unholy shriek came from the side. I turned towards the noise to see a deranged Bellatrix trying to move towards us in a frenzy. In her delirium, she had ignored her opponents and that proved to be fatal for the insane witch. In the blink of an eye, three curses impacted her, resulting in a gory mess. A decapitator took off her head while a bludgeoner caved in her chest. Topping it off was a flaming construct that speared into her gut and exploded into a burst of flames that rapidly spread across her body. The fire was most definitely Sue's work. She had been practicing that maneuver extensively the past couple of days.

A roar of rage came from Riddle's dust cloud and the dust was expelled in every direction the next instant.

Dumbledore casually waved his wand and vanished the incoming wave of dust. What greeted us on the other side was a treat to my eyes. My gambit had paid off and Riddle was bleeding profusely from the various shards of glass embedded into his body.

Before he could move from the spot, silver chains burst out from the ground and began restraining him rapidly. I could see runes etched in the chains and realized that this was something that Dumbledore was doing.

"Team, fire at him and then rendezvous with Artemis and Gaia as planned," I said as their objective was completed here.

A hail of spells flew towards Riddle as he was struggling against his bindings. It looked like the Order members still at this location had pitched in their own spells. From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of my team retreating. I was confident that they would deal with the incoming forces. Now it was up to me to do my part.

In retaliation to our attack, he roared once more as his mana rippled out of him in an explosive wave. The repulsive force clashed against the various spells and completely snuffed out some of them.

Despite all this, a cutting curse slipped through and took out his right shin. I could feel Hirudo lying on the ground close to his location, so I flicked my index finger, wandlessly taking control of it. The blade jumped from the ground and homed in on him. It got lodged in his torso and guessing by the location, it either nicked his lung or pierced his liver. The man roared in pain as another explosive wave of magic emanated from him, shattering his bindings and expelling the knife.

It didn't matter much as the knife was cursed and he would be hard-pressed to heal the damage it had afflicted. With another flick of my fingers, it returned to my left hand. The blade sang with glee as it got to munch on some powerful magical blood.

Riddle looked like he had been through hell. He was soaked in blood, which was flowing through various orifices. His left leg was nearly severed and the cursed cut I made would keep on pestering him for quite a good while. The debris lying on the ground rose up and shielded him from our attacks. The man took ragged breaths as he severed his damaged leg, a flowing silvery substance solidifying in place.

"Ah, looks like I am not the only cripple here Tom," said Dumbledore cheerfully. It seemed to enrage him something fierce as he glared at us both.

An inarticulate sound escaped his mouth as he began unleashing bolt after bolt of lightning at us, each increasing in intensity.

The duel that followed was brutal as he completely gave into some sort of berserker rage and kept lashing out like an animal. Dumbledore was slowing down the more the fight progressed and I was no better as my shields kept getting battered due to his relentless attacks. It kept going this way for the next couple of minutes.

Since he was stabbed by Hirudo, I decided that taking over his mind would give the perfect opening to end him once and for all. I switched over to the sixth path and battered at his mind, hoping to gain control. My body felt sluggish, coming out of the fifth path, but for what I was doing, I needed the sixth path to boost my mind arts.

"I'll kill you," he roared as something hit my occlumency shields like a freight train. Ever since I got here, the sixth path had never failed me. But then again, I had never used it against masters of the mind arts.

"We shall see," I said as I put every ounce of my focus into the sixth path, hoping to gain control over his mind even for the briefest moment.

To my shock, I was blinded by a bright light. The moment my eyes adjusted, I found myself standing buck naked in a white expanse. Just like the limbo canon Harry found himself in when he got hit by the killing curse. The next instant, my raid uniform covered my body. Alas, it was a second too late.

"Potter?" rasped Riddle. I looked at him and was taken aback for a moment. The man was gaunt, emaciated. He was nothing more than skin and bones. His black robes swirled around him, but they were hanging on to him like his skin hung off his bones.

"But that would mean that you are the annoying pest," he mused and then broke into full-blown laughter.

Meanwhile, I was trying to make sense of what was happening. My horcrux was long gone, so there should be no reason for me to find myself in this place. On second thought, I had a hunch about what was happening. Even though the horcrux was gone, there was still something linking us. He did take my blood for his resurrection after all. Me trying to possess him must have triggered some esoteric connection.

Since my cover was blown, I saw no point in keeping up the ruse over here. I pulled back the hood and retracted the helmet in a single motion. If I killed him, the identity died with him momentarily, if I didn't then it wouldn't do much good for him after tonight. I was a prime target regardless, and he had already attacked those that I was close to. So in his hands, the identity does jack shit. Moreover, it was not like he could disclose my identity to anybody else.

The identities of the vigilantes were protected by an overlooked feature of the fidelius charm. One of its features was to conceal secrets. We cast the charms on ourselves in such a way that unless we told someone, or if someone saw us unmasking directly, our identities would be magically concealed. Our identities were the secrets, and we were the secret keepers. Since I was my own secret keepers, Tommy boy could not blab to Snape and make life difficult for me. I did not know why the Order was absolutely braindead with their usage of the charm. In the second war, Bill was the secret keeper of his own house, it made no sense why they didn't do something similar in the first war.

"What happened Tom? You look starved. Dear Lucius not feeding you enough?" I sniped, a representation of my wand materializing in my hand. To my surprise, it was not my aspen wand. I looked at the holly wand in confusion, unsure why it was the one coming to my call. Especially when our bond had weakened after the merger of my soul. My soul… that train of thought clued me onto what was happening. This was a representation of our souls.

The reason why he looked so weak was because his soul was not whole. As of tonight, I had disposed of all the horcruxes as well. While I was pondering this, he finally stopped laughing.

"I tried exploiting our mental connection this whole summer to no avail. How ironic that you would be the one to initiate a conversation. So what is this Potter? Another one of your new tricks? Some new form of legilimency?" he chuckled as he examined his body and his newly materialized wand.

"Something like that," I said as I tried to switch paths, but found that I couldn't do so over here. But on further inspection, the path did clue me in on what was happening. So I either possessed him, or he repelled me. This limbo was not between life and death. It was just a place in our minds, skirting on the edge of reality. Because of that, we were interacting at the speed of thought. I had hoped that our inactivity would have given ample opportunity to the others, but it wasn't meant to be.

"Years ago, I gave you an impromptu lesson about there being only power and those too weak to seek it. It seems like you profited from the education I imparted these past few months. Such brutality, such power. All this while, I thought that you were a mere child, surviving due to sheer happenstance. But you've changed haven't you? Was it Black's death? Or was it your brush with my killing curse?" he asked, his voice ripe with humor.

"Looks like you never learn Tom. The moment you learned my identity, you start underestimating me once again," I scoffed.

"Am I? You speak as if I was ever threatened by your alter ego. It does make it easier for me in the end. I don't need to hunt down two separate worms. Killing you here and now would end everything."

"That's worked perfectly for you so far hasn't it?" I smirked in response.

"Arrogance will be your downfall, Potter," he scowled. I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony.

"Ever looked at a mirror?"

"Enough of your cheek. Let's get down to business. I hope you have not forgotten how to duel properly. I do remember teaching you."

Not caring to grace him with a response, I shot off a bone breaker. To my shock, gold light streamed out of my wand instead. The same happened to Riddle, and the golden beams connected in the center of the field.

"How nostalgic," he spat with distaste as the priori incantatem took hold. The golden cage materialized once more, but there were no echoes of our victims sprouting from our wands.

I laughed in amusement as I realized that we were never meant to duel here. This was a mental struggle, never a duel. It was like a tug of war, both of us vying for dominance while the other was unwilling to budge an inch.

As we pushed at each other, I could feel that I was gaining on him bit by bit. He might be a master of the mental arts, but he was not at his peak. Several pieces of his soul, slain; his body, battered and his magic, spent. Riddle seemed to realize this as well as he grit his teeth and closed his eyes.

A few seconds of this, and he opened his eyes, a menacing gleam adorning them. All of a sudden, he pulled at the light and stopped resisting. As the golden beam closed in on him, he spread his arms wide and accepted the beam of light.

The next second, I found myself inside his mind. Before I could start possessing him though, his voice echoed throughout the place.

"You might have blasted your way in Potter, but who said you could stay you foolish boy," the moment he stopped talking, I was hit by a disoriented feeling and found myself thrown outside.

This was the first time that a possession had failed, and I stumbled back due to the disorientation. Riddle himself was no better as he slumped on his knees and took laborious breaths.

Our mental struggle seemed long and arduous to me, but on the outside, barely a second had passed. As we were stuck in an impasse, I hoped that someone would finish him off. It seemed like I had no such luck. The bystanders were too afraid of him to draw his ire, and Dumbledore looked like he was about to tap out as well.

All three of us looked worse for the wear, but Riddle was the only one who took significant physical and mental damage.

"Die!" he roared as he sent a burst of fiendfyre my way.

"Dumbledore, how do I stop it?" I asked as I raised my wand towards it.

"Follow my lead. Push your will onto the flames. They are sentient, so it is similar to performing legilimency. Impose your will on the flames and command them to submit," he said as he straightened himself with effort and pointed his wand towards the approaching cursed flames.

It had consumed the debris strewn on the ground and was almost upon us. This time, it took the form of a dragon as it flitted towards us. My mind felt like jelly after the mental struggle I had just taken part in. No matter how much I tried to impose my will on the cursed fire, it didn't stop in its advance towards us.

Dumbledore also seemed to be having trouble with it because of his exhaustion. Since I had possessed a couple of Riddle's mooks and raided their mind for some dark spells, I only knew one other way to counteract the oncoming disaster.

"Fiendfyre," I roared as a jet of cursed flames shot from my wand and coalesced into the form of a massive owl. Its shape kept mutating as it fought off Riddle's flames. Both the flaming creatures kept changing into other forms, but to me, it was clear which one was mine. There was a small mental thread connecting us, but it was fraying fast.

I hoped that if my flames won out, I would have an easier time controlling them rather than Riddle's flames.

To my astonishment, my cursed fire enveloped its quarry with ease and rose in stature. That moment marked it going out of my control completely. Once more, I tried dominating the cursed flames, to no avail.

The sixth path was not just cutting it. A stray thought crossed my mind and I immediately switched to the first path.

If I could not dominate its will, I can confuse it with my illusions.

As I weaved an illusion and projected it towards the all-consuming fire, I saw Dumbledore kneeling in exhaustion.

I too was nearly spent, but I had confidence that the illusions would save my hide. To my dismay, the flaming creature loomed over me, unbothered. Was this it? All of this effort, only to die to a burning mass of magic?

At that moment, my despair was overtaken by an inexplicable rage. If I died here, then what waited for me was an eternity in hell. Cellarius was clear about it. I would not allow myself to die. I would not fail my mission. Least of all to a semi-sentient magical construct.

As if a dam broke, a rush of magic coursed through my right eye as I screamed out in a frenzy. I projected an illusion of a massive watery construct. It took the shape of a knight and bashed the flaming creature with a shield. The fiery construct reared back due to the impact. Before it could do anything, the knight plunged a sword made out of water into the beast.

I was unsure whether the illusion was actually damaging the cursed flames or whether it was affecting the sentience and causing it to have negative effects. So I kept pushing on.

Someone gasped to the side, but I had no time to find out who. All of these fools were inactive the whole time, I would not waste my attention on them. I focused on my illusory knight and commanded it to smother the flames.

In response, the watery construct jumped on the now diminished flaming creature and exploded. The sheer mass and velocity of the water droplets extinguished the flames completely. The resulting spray of water soaked us all completely. I let out a deep breath of satisfaction and let go of the illusion.

We were no longer wet, but my eyes almost popped out of my socket as I realized that the ground was still shaped like water was sprayed all over it. The grime was shaped like it was swept away from the point of impact. Illusions that affected reality. It was something that I had been trying to perform ever since I got this ability. It looked like I finally achieved it.

I did not have time to revel in my achievement as my eyes roved over the battlefield, trying to find where Riddle was. All my senses were on high alert despite my fatigue.

"Owl, Mad-Eye spotted Voldemort flying out of the ward boundary and activating a portkey the moment he unleashed the flames," came Luna's voice over the comms.

I cursed out loud in frustration. Now it made perfect sense why my fiendfyre took over his so easily. It was because he was not manning it. My rage spiked once again, but I tried to console myself, telling myself that it was not the point of the operation.

Our objective was to get rid of the snake and to lead Aurors towards the hideouts. Both those objectives were fulfilled. The man had a deep cursed wound and had lost a leg as well. So I would count my blessings and keep moving forward.

This was the first time I personally fought him after migrating over here, but I now knew that I was close. Next time, I would not need anyone else to run interference. Next time, I would match him one on one and overwhelm him.

"Sitrep," I said over the comms. The night was not over yet. But the hardest parts were done, and that would abate my disappointment temporarily.

##################

A.N: So, the fight was pretty drawn out, but I wanted to showcase the marked improvements in his skillset. Also, you might have noticed it, but the moment he decided to go in on Riddle in earnest, he developed a tunnel vision during the fight. I do hope you liked that fight sequence.

Also, you might have noticed that a lot is going on in the background. All of those will have some interesting consequences. Please let me know your thoughts on how you felt about this chapter.

The potions mentioned are all canon, either mentioned in the books or in the games. So I did not delve too much into AU territory.