Mission Successful
An: Oh boy, we're entering the last phase of this story, and I am pretty sure this will be the longest one of all. In terms of story arcs, we are now entering 'The End' Arc. I made a list of active plot threads (not even talking about character arcs here, because I work those mostly organically, and if I miss some, that's why, they're not planned out properly) and damn, there are a lot of things I need to wrap up, and I'm only certain about my plans for some of them. Not to mention that I now feel like following up on The Followers (ha, see what I did there?) because they seem too cool not to follow up on, so them and Nicolas will be diving back into this story. Look forward to all that I suppose! Oh, I'm supposed to shout out webnovel, aren't I? I don't even know whether I should at this point. I was offered money and I was considering it but I have NOT signed a contract so I don't technically have to. I AM still posting this story on that platform as well, I will not be dropping it because I also have a readership there now.
*** Riddle Manor, Present
"Break the wards," Tom said grimly, pulling out more knives, "I'll hold him…"
And hold him he did. Using his alchemically created knives, Tom managed to put up a decent fight, impressing both his enemies-turned-comrades with how skilled he was with hand-to-hand combat.
A blast sent Tom flying, but the former-Lord Voldemort kept on and on fighting against The Darkness, quite viciously, sending magic flying, as well as an abundance of daggers which he kept creating.
A tendril of Darkness shot at him, but he dove beneath it, a knife in his hand, with which he swung quickly at The Darkness, even as his other hand went for a punch - with alchemically created knucklebusters on his hands.
Neither landed, as he was pushed away by The Darkness, once more, as the primordial entity held him off.
Neither of Tom's two allies were able to spend very much time looking upon how good of a job Tom was doing, as they were both quite busy working on the wards. A few Death Eaters tried to fight them at some point, but Babajide proved within half a minute why the two of them were wizards so powerful that only the Darkness itself could actually hope to stand against them.
Arcturus also noted that only a few of the Death Eaters were truly devoted to attacking them. The rest of them were supremely confused because the master that they had spent years serving was now their enemy, and they weren't sure who they owed their allegiance to, The Darkness or their Lord Voldemort.
It was likely - Arcturus postulated - that they would follow whichever of the two won the fight.
The Death Eaters followed the powerful, after all.
Tom's versatility was truly amazing, even being handicapped without The Darkness, which had been his main source of power in his rise and peak of power.
"Enough!" The Darkness roared out, and Tom froze in mid-air, his arms having been grabbed by thick tendrils of Darkness.
The man tried to wriggle out of it, but was unable to.
"I am going to kill you slowly." The Darkness rasped, before noticing that Tom's attention wasn't on it at all.
Controlling his magic completely wandlessly, Tom willed over a dozen knives - which he had guided to float behind The Darkness during the course of their fight - to fly straight into the physical body of his enemy.
The primordial entity screeched in pain.
Tom kept driving the knives into the creature, which fell to its knees.
It looked at Tom with immense hate, and snapped his body in half, killing him in an instant.
The exact instant that the two wizards who had been with Tom were able to break the wards and flee the scene.
The younger of the two, Babajide, looked back at their former comrade with compassion in his eyes.
"I know he deserved that, and more," Babajide said with a quiet voice, "But it is still hard to see a comrade killed."
Arcturus grabbed Babajide's hand, and the two apparated out mere seconds before their imminent capture.
With a crack, they emerged in one of the large fields of Black Manor, where Arcturus let go of the hand of his teammate, and both men lay down flat on the ground, breathing heavily.
"It's what he wanted," Arcturus said, "A painless death."
"Painless?" Babajide said incredulously, "The poor bugger was broken in half."
"Painless relative to the pain of being tortured for the better part of a year," Arcturus said darkly, "And I don't think Riddle was joking when he called it Operation Suicide. He got to die taking out what he hated most in the world...that's all the penance he deserved."
Babajide hesitated but nodded.
"Now we only need to take care of the horcrux inside of Harry," Arcturus said, as both men strolled towards the Black Manor, from where they would be able to floo to Hogwarts to report their mission success and the death of Tom Riddle.
The two walked in relative silence, making their way to the large and imposing ancestral home of the Blacks.
Arcturus busied himself with organising the floo powder, which was stored somewhere away from the fireplace (Baba did not know why) and Baba sat down on the couch in the living room.
The Lord Black found his floo powder and they set off to Hogwarts in a puff of green smoke.
All of the Leaders of the Light were clustered around in McGonagall's tiny little office space. If it weren't for such a serious issue, Baba would have found the sight quite funny. As it was, the grim atmosphere was too tense for him to crack a smile.
Even Sirius Black was sitting stone-faced, waiting for the news - good or bad.
When Tom did not follow the other two men out of the fireplace, a look of horror covered the faces of everyone in the room.
"The mission was successful," Arcturus said heavily.
*** End of Chapter
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