"Hit by his own Killing Curse, yet able to g to existence even with his soul destroyed?" After leaving the Headmaster's office, Glenn found himself intrigued by Dumbledore's mention of Voldemort's method of cheatih.

  Now knowing Quirrell ossessed by Voldemort, the soul resonance when he made eye tact with Harry at the openi became quite fasating.

  Voldemort, murderer of Harry's parents, "died" when his own Killing Curse rebounded on him, though he didn't die pletely.

  Harry, protected by a magic of "love" cast by his mother, caused Voldemort's Killing Curse to rebound back at him.

  There seemed to be no i e betweewo?

  The only link might be that rebounded Killing Curse.

  If the Imperius Curse, one of the three Unfivable Curses, trolled the soul by f it to follow the caster's ands, and the Cruciatus Curse tortured the soul, causing victims to feel soul-deep agony that could leave irreversible trauma if cast tinuously - potentially making them lose some essential part of their humanity, like sanity, as with Neville's parents who were driven mad by Death Eaters' repeated Cruciatus Curses...

  Then perhaps the Killing Curse, first among the Unfivables, alseted the soul?

  Imperius trols the soul, Cruciatus tortures it, so the Killing Curse must...

  ...destroy the soul.

  Which brought the focus back to Voldemort, who survived the Killing Curse but could o in a crippled state possessing others.

  This suggested Voldemort's soul hadn't pletely vanished.

  Throughout magical history, the Killing Curse had no known ter-curse - touch meah, unless Voldemort had accessed magical knowledge beyond this era that might allow survival after being hit.

  But the probability was tiny, and Dumbledore clearly had some uanding of his method - his "specution" was likely certainty.

  If Voldemort truly knew a ter to the Killing Curse, would this old bee let a crippled Voldemort roam free?

  Wouldn't he just capture him aract everything down to when Voldemort still wet his bed through alternating Imperius and Cruciatus?

  Suowledge would revolutiohe magical world - clearly this possibility could be ruled out, as Dumbledore showed ement, instead revealing traces of worry.

  Was there some history between Dumbledore and Voldemort? Why that expression?

  Was he worried about Voldemort still being alive, or about Voldemort himself as an individual?

  Or perhaps both.

  Too many questions, too little verifiable information - best set aside for now.

  Besides, Dumbledore himself said he suspected Voldemort's method was evil and would lead oray, so the ter-curse possibility could be eliminated.

  As Glenn anized his thoughts, he suddenly noticed something insistent.

  Given Dumbledore's personality, if he khe method's evil nature could lead people down a dark path, he wouldn't mention it to others at all. Glenn wouldn't bet a single Knut that the old bee had simply slipped up.

  Had he deliberately revealed it to me?

  To guide me to think about this and find answers myself?

  Glenn frowned, realizing things weren't simple - he serouble brewing again.

  Did Dumbledore trust my character?

  Or was he certain I wouldn't be tempted by such methods?

  But by my own assessment, my as weren't those of a good person, or what you'd expect from someone kind. Besides, I could still sense Dumbledore's subtle wariness of me, even if it was gradually diminishing toward zerlenn stopped walking and thought carefully, quickly reag a clusion.

  Voldemort's method was for immortality or loy, so Dumbledore wasn't wary of me because...

  I have the Philosopher's Stone.

  Of course - Voldemort achieved false immortality through this method, surviving a Killing Curse, but he still coveted the Stohat could produce the Elixir of Life.

  His true goal ursuing immortality, esg death.

  Glenn's eyes narrowed as he uood why Dumbledore wasn't afraid of him iigating Voldemort's evil methods.

  He and Hermione already had the Stone's game-breakience - what need did they have for other paths to immortality?

  The Stone's stored soul energy was enough for the Hawthorne and Granger families to live until the end of time.

  "Voldemort must have used some method to make his soul iructible..." Glenn tinued p.

  He sat dht there, entering a meditative state.

  A stream of words fshed rapidly through Glenn's mind, being stantly filtered.

  Having found the right dire of thought, specution about the truth became somewhat easier.

  Gle he was onto something, but couldn't quite grasp it precisely.

  He had extracted many potentially relevant terms but still couldn't ect them.

  ...Until one word appeared.

  Backup...

  Backup?

  Backup.

  After maintainiation for four hours, fifty-two minutes and twenty-seven seds, Glenn finally found the key point that felt most correct.

  How do you ensure information isn't lost due to a single error?

  The answer is backup.

  As the saying goes, don't put all ys in one basket. If there truly was a method in the magical world to backup one's sciousness...or soul, then wouldn't it mean that if one soul was destroyed, the other backup souls would remain ued, maintaining their corresponding soul information, allowing that person to survive - no, maintain their sense of self?

  Thus preserving their soul against the soul-destroying Killing Curse?

  But was plete soul backup even possible?

  At least to Glenn, who was gradually deepening his uanding of alchemy, it seemed impossible.

  Equivalent exge was alchemy's immutable principle. By Glenn's current knowledge for measuring the "price" of all things, the soul was undoubtedly the most expensive.

  Therefore, the possibility of pletely copying a being's soul must be zero - the backup process would iably cause some loss, even if other beings' souls were used to partially offset the cost.

  Could ay with an inplete soul survive?

  The answer was yes, like Neville's parents.

  If Voldemort truly adopted this soul backup method, he would have only oh avaible.

  Split his soul from his inal body and merge the pieces into other entities.

  Whether living or non-living, souls could attach to them, like Quirrell-Voldemort or the Philosopher's Stone's soul-st and transf alchemical device.

  This was the most logical method, aively less damaging to the inal body pared to other approaches.

  But if Glenn wasn't mistaken, such soul-object fusion would definitely require rge amounts of soul energy.

  This expined why Voldemort engaged in widespread killing, being the feared Dark Lord.

  He could collect vast amounts of soul energy while "sing" Muggles - killing two birds with oone.

  The clues ected.

  If this theory held true, these split soul fragments would act like anchors, firmly log in his soul information.

  When his inal soul was hit by the Killing Curse and dispersed, these split soul anchors would firmly hold it and transmit the soul information, allowing the dispersed soul to restitute itself.

  Bck light flickered in Glenn's eyes - this would also expin the soul e between Harry and Quirrell-Voldemort.

  When Voldemort was uedly hit by Harry's rebounded Killing Curse, his soul dispersed into the air, but the existence of soul fragments allowed him to use his own dispersed (but not yet pletely vanished) soul energy in the air to restitute a new Voldemort soul.

  Then during this process, because Harry was closest to Voldemort and the only living huma, some of Voldemort's soul fragments tally entered Harry's body, were nourished by Harry's soul, and thus...

  ...attached to Harry's soul?

  Glenn was somewhat amazed by his own analysis - this would expin the soul e between Harry and Quirrell-Voldemort.

  This could very well be the truth.

  It was magical, abstract.

  But Harry likely wouldn't be trolled by Voldemort, since he was just a year-old baby at the time - Harry's own soul energy wasn't much, let alohe small amount of Voldemort's soul fragments attached to Harry's soul.

  The intelligence of Voldemort's soul fragments restituted in Harry probably didn't even mat infant's.

  Otherwise, Harry Potter wouldn't be as he was now, despising evil.

  "Troublesome." Glenn's brow furrowed slightly. Quirrell-Voldemort might not even die, and now there was a Harry-Voldemort to deal with.

  He o accelerate his researto soul magic. Harry still had that peculiar love magic that could reflect the Killing Curse, otherwise Glenn wouldn't mind learning Avada Kedavra to elimiure troubles with orike.

  Direct killing? If Glenn hadn't observed wrongly, Dumbledore had likely pced Harry in a crucial position for his future pns against Voldemort, and would probably fight to stop Glenn - their Unbreakable Vow hadn't included proteg Glenn's life.

  Currently g the strength to challenge Dumbledore, the forceful elimination of Harry would have to wait.

  While many doubts had been resolved, more troubles arose in their pce.

  "I'm not strong enough," Glenn cluded - the root cause of these troubles was his insuffit power.

  "Far from enough."

  The road ahead remained long, but Glenn didn't mind.

  Sinort threatehose he cared about, Glenn would achieve his goals no matter the cost.

  His bck eyes grew increasingly clear.

  In his past life, he had no goals while ave him many, leaving him uo see the future clearly, his path forward unclear.

  In this life, he had his own definite goals - even if hell y ahead, he would walk through it.

  With a goal, he would achieve it by any means necessary.

  Annouhe neter is now avaible! Additionally, the test Patreon early-access chapters have been updated to Chapter 112.Thank you all for enjoying this work!patreon./DarkGolds