Extending Life and Extending Life

Chapter 81 Extending Life and Extending Life

To be honest, Avada was a little nervous—since he mastered the Boundless Charm, he hadn't used those methods of stealth under the Illusion Charm, so he was a bit rusty.

But that's perfect, it makes him look more like a complete novice trying the Disillusionment Charm for the first time, ensuring his disguise is flawless...

The forbidden forest at night was quiet and eerie. The wildly growing weeds and branches looked even more menacing under the moonlight. The whole forest seemed like a beast that was quietly lurking, waiting to devour its prey. Only the mournful hooting of owls and the low growls that came from the depths of the forbidden forest warned people of the hidden dangers.

In this atmosphere, coupled with the thought of what he was about to do, Avada couldn't help but feel nervous. He took careful steps, trying not to touch the bushes or dead branches, while suppressing his breathing. Only when his hand touched the package through his clothes could he feel a little at ease.

"look."

Quirrell lowered his voice so that Quirrell could just hear him: "That's a unicorn."

Avada turned to look in the direction Quirrell was pointing. There, in a sparsely wooded clearing, lay a beautiful, silvery-white animal, almost like a horse. Its body shimmered with a pearly sheen, its mane glowed brilliantly in the moonlight, and it sported a straight horn. It was gracefully grazing on some kind of herb growing on the ground.

"Use the Imperish Charm on it to make it come over," Quirrell commanded.

"It's too far, I'm afraid..."

"Don't get any closer, or it will become alert. Your master said you can handle it."

"..."

Avada's breathing quickened, and his hand holding the wand trembled slightly. It took him a while to regain some composure before he pointed it at the unicorn's body. Avada whispered the incantation in a trembling voice:

"The soul leaves the body."

As usual, an invisible thread extended from Avada's wand and burrowed into the unicorn's mind, instantly giving him control over the unicorn's every move.

Come here... come here...

The unicorn stood up with hazy eyes and staggered toward the two people, stopping only a few meters away from them.

"very good."

Voldemort's voice came directly from the back of Quirrell's head: "You know what to do, Quirrell."

"Yes, Master."

Quirrell stepped forward, his wand extending into a dark blue blade. With a swing of his arm, he slashed fiercely at the unicorn's neck, only to be blocked by a sudden burst of silver light. But the blade seemed to possess a peculiar property; under its pressure, the silver light began to tremble unsettlingly, as if it were about to shatter at any moment…

Avada, nervously clutching the package, narrowed his eyes as he watched the two opposing spells clash.

He couldn't quite understand the principle behind the silvery-white light for the time being, but that dark blue light blade... seemed to be a variant of the Killing Curse?

No, it's less of a variant and more of a weakening... The Killing Curse can instantly destroy a creature's life force structure, causing immediate death, but while this light blade can also directly destroy life force, it cannot kill instantly like the Killing Curse.

boom!

Finally, under the pressure of the azure light blade, the silver light could no longer withstand the onslaught and shattered into countless particles of light. Quirrell quickly retracted the azure light blade, replaced it with a simple cutting spell, and plunged it viciously into the unicorn's neck. Silver blood gushed out instantly. The beautiful creature immediately let out a piercing scream; the immense pain caused it to break free from the Imperius Curse's control, but it was too late—its limbs twitched desperately, trying to muster the strength to escape, but Quirrell held it tightly, rendering it unable to move…

"Now is the time."

"Voldemort commanded softly," Quirrell whispered. Quirrell, while still restraining the unicorn, lowered his head and began to gulp down the gushing blood directly from its wound. During this time, the unicorn's struggles grew increasingly feeble…

"alright."

Voldemort's voice sounded stronger, no longer as soft as before: "Well done, Ken. If you weren't here, Quirrell would probably have had to fight it and make quite a commotion to finish it off... He can't cast two spells at the same time by himself."

"That's enough for today. I need some time to process this power... We can go back now."

"Wait, Professor."

Avada quickly asked, "I'd also like to collect some unicorn blood to take back and study, is that alright? It's an unprecedented material, maybe it can be used to concoct some very powerful potions..."

"Whatever, this beast is about to die anyway... Quirrell, leave him a Disillusionment Charm."

"...Yes, Master."

After the familiar coolness enveloped his entire body once more, Avada watched Quirrell's figure disappear completely into the dense forest. He then quickly crouched down and opened the package he had been caressing for a long time—inside were two bottles, one empty and the other filled with some kind of silvery-white potion.

He first collected some blood in the empty bottle, then immediately poured half of another potion onto the unicorn's wound, and poured the other half directly into its mouth. Then he took out his wand and whispered a spell over the gruesome wound...

Soon, under the combined effects of the potion and the spell, the wound gradually stopped bleeding and healed, and the unicorn's previously dim eyes seemed to regain a glimmer of light...

"Great, it works..."

Seeing the unicorn's condition gradually stabilize, Avada breathed a sigh of relief—it was all worth it for him to beg Hagrid every now and then to see the unicorn in person, to ask for some of the unicorn's horn and fur, and to go to the library to find books on unicorn care. It took him several weeks to concoct this special healing potion for the unicorn.

During that time, he was often disliked by the unicorns—these guys were very aloof, and they were only slightly friendly to Hagrid.

And thankfully, Quirrell used a regular cutting spell instead of the dark blue magic when he cut the unicorn's neck, probably to avoid contaminating the blood—if it had been that magic, he would have been helpless.

"Humph..."

The unicorn lying on its side let out a weak groan, but at least it could make a sound.

"Your life has been saved, but you've lost a lot of blood. Even with my potion, you'll be weak for a while... Can you stand up again?"

Avada carefully used a levitation charm to lighten the unicorn's weight, helping it to its wobbly stand. Its four legs were still wobbling, but it still managed to turn around and bow its head towards Avada—perhaps as a gesture of gratitude?

It probably doesn't know that it was the one who just cast the Soul-Stealing Curse on it, right?

"Go back, tell your friends to get away from here, get away from Hogwarts, that guy will come back..."

Avada sensed that the unicorn's condition had improved somewhat, so he whispered something in its ear while slowly reducing the intensity of the Levitation Charm until it was completely dispelled. He breathed a sigh of relief once he was sure the unicorn could stand on its own and walk away slowly.

"Not bad, at least he was saved, and we even got a bottle of unicorn blood for free... We can take some of this blood, mix it with some soil, and give it to Hagrid, saying that it was found in the Forbidden Forest, so that he can be on his guard in advance, and hopefully Voldemort can regain his strength as much as possible."

"But how am I supposed to explain trespassing into the forbidden forest...?"

"Forget it, it's nothing new. I'll just help him look after Norber."

Avada Kedavra put away his wand, and with the Disillusionment Charm left by Quirrell still on his body, he was about to head back when he suddenly heard a whooshing sound—

"Coo coo!"

A large brown owl swooped down a few meters above his head, dropped a letter, and floated down to Avada's feet.

"This owl looks familiar... Wait, isn't that the same one I used to deliver the package to Dumbledore half a day ago?!"

"Dumbledore replied? And he didn't even change the owl?"

He quickly picked up the letter, and after confirming that there were no shady tricks inside, he opened the envelope and read the contents by the moonlight.

(End of this chapter)