HP: The Duelist of Hogwarts - 385

Chapter 385: Cadmus's Resurrection Stone

Sean raised his wand and traced it lightly across the cabinet before him. Wisps of faint black smoke immediately seeped from the cabinet's cracks, accompanied by barely audible wails. Extremely eerie.

As expected, there were protections in place. This thing must be some kind of magical artifact.

Sean waved his wand again and shot a red beam directly at the cabinet. Black smoke surged from the cabinet's gaps, blocking the red light head-on. Skeletal claws wreathed in black smoke extended from the darkness, and soon, completely smoke-shrouded skeletons crawled out from the cabinet's billowing darkness, shrieking as they lunged at Sean.

Sean's left hand pinched and pulled at his wand, manifesting a lightning whip. He swung the crackling whip violently. With thunderous snaps, the lightning whip shattered one black smoke skeleton, and as Sean continued wielding it, those intimidating and indeed quite powerful smoke skeletons all dissipated under his lightning strikes.

“Fulgur Flagellum!”

The lightning whip transformed into blinding lightning. Following Sean's wand thrust, it struck the cabinet head-on, rapidly dissipating the black smoke pouring from it. This black smoke differed from Sean's Smoke Rope Curse. It was a combination of negative and death energies that could be neutralized with white magic. The Patronus Charm would be quite suitable, but Sean's Fulgur Flagellum spell naturally possessed tremendous lethality against negative energies, making it more appropriate in this situation than his not-yet-fully-mastered Patronus.

BOOM!

With an explosive sound, the black smoke on the cabinet completely dispersed. The cabinet itself bore numerous scorch marks. Clearly, this magical artifact was utterly destroyed in Sean's hands.

Of course, Sean didn't care. Even if he'd obtained it intact, he had no use for it. Carrying a dark magical artifact invited problems. Some paranormal incidents in the Muggle world, or evil spirit attacks, while mostly fabricated stories or human-caused events, a small portion actually originated from dark magical artifacts that had found their way into the Muggle world.

Sean waved his wand lightly. The cabinet doors opened from both sides, revealing Marvolo Gaunt's ring simply placed inside.

Sean didn't rashly reach out to touch it. He examined it first with his wand. After confirming there were truly no problems, he donned dragon-hide gloves, carefully placed it in a box made of dragon hide, then stored it in his Undetectable Extension Bag before removing the gloves.

Sean didn't plan to trigger this Horcrux immediately. In the outside world, there was no guarantee Voldemort's soul fragment wouldn't escape. If the fragment truly escaped, it would be equivalent to releasing another Voldemort. Sean didn't want to create trouble for himself. So he planned to wait until returning to Hogwarts to trigger the soul fragment inside. Places like the Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirement, where soul fragments couldn't escape, were ideal dueling locations.

Next are Hufflepuff's Cup and Slytherin's Locket. One's in Gringotts, one's at the Order of the Phoenix headquarters. Both are impossible to obtain through conventional means. I can only wait patiently for the right opportunity.

Muttering to himself, Sean collected the remaining alchemical puppets and Disapparated instantly from the spot.

Returning home, Sean again took out Marvolo Gaunt's ring, placing it in an alchemical array with purification capabilities. This purification array was originally designed to process materials from dark creatures or contaminated precious materials. It could remove negative energies and curse-type magic from materials.

Now it was perfectly suited to purify Marvolo Gaunt's ring. As for whether the Horcrux's dark magic would be purified, Sean wasn't worried. If Horcruxes were so easily purified, Voldemort wouldn't have placed his hopes for immortality on them.

Sure enough, when Sean performed the purification, considerable negative energy dissipated from the Gaunt ring. Based on the amount of negative energy, Sean estimated there was at least one or two curses. It seemed that for Horcruxes placed independently outside, Voldemort had indeed applied numerous protections.

After purification was complete, Sean took out two tweezers and carefully examined the ring. He successfully opened it and, from inside, extracted what appeared to be a large gemstone. One of the Deathly Hallows...

The Resurrection Stone!

Sean restored the Gaunt ring and returned it to the dragon-hide box for storage in his Undetectable Extension Bag. He picked up this diamond-shaped black stone with the white Deathly Hallows symbol on its surface. Instantly, detailed information about the Resurrection Stone appeared before him.

[Resurrection Stone]
[Quality: ???]
[Effect: Can revive one deceased person. Remaining time: 0 years, 3 months, 27 days]
[Note: Contains the Authority of Death. Obtain all three Deathly Hallows to become Master of Death.]

Huh? It actually has resurrection capabilities? This... It seems quite different from the literary works of my previous life.

Moreover, the remaining time should indicate the remaining years. By this reckoning, the Resurrection Stone could have revived someone two years ago, but Voldemort seemingly didn't know the Gaunt ring contained the Resurrection Stone, or perhaps he simply didn't know the Deathly Hallows actually existed.

Having a ready-made resurrection item in hand without knowing it. This must be recorded. When the time comes to tell Voldemort, that snake-face of his should be quite entertaining to watch.

Looking at the Resurrection Stone in his hand, Sean had no intention of summoning deceased persons. He put the Resurrection Stone away directly. Of the three Deathly Hallows, the Resurrection Stone was in Sean's hands, the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's, and the Invisibility Cloak with Harry. If he could borrow their Hallows, he could see what this so-called Master of Death actually was.

The Resurrection Stone's revival ability was indeed an unexpected discovery, but Sean was extremely pleased with this surprise.

He'd completed more than half of his holiday plans. What remained was exploring the suspected Ravenclaw treasure location. However, before investigating that place, Sean still needed proper preparation. After all, no one knew what awaited them there.