"Quirrell, it's still not too late to stop now."
A familiar voice came, and then a person who looked exactly like Quirrell walked out from the depths of the mist, standing in front of Quirrell. The two were like looking in a mirror.
"It's already too late!" Quirrell looked at his own reflection, without any hesitation, and directly drew his wand.
"Reducto!"
A ray of light burst forth, heading straight for the other self.
"Protego!" The other Quirrell used a Shield Charm to block the spell's attack.
The two no longer spoke and entered full combat mode. Thunderous sounds continued to echo as the surrounding mist was wildly stirred by their battle, which lasted for several minutes. They used all sorts of methods, but unfortunately still couldn't determine a winner.
"Damn it! How can this be!" Quirrell's face was ugly.
He originally thought this duplicate wouldn't be very strong, but after fighting for a while, he found that this duplicate's strength was completely matched to his own, and in some aspects, was even stronger than him.
"Don't bother with that phantom, and find the Philosopher's Stone!" Suddenly, a low, hoarse voice came from the back of Quirrell's head.
Quirrell's face immediately changed, and he said tremblingly, "Yes, Master."
Quirrell no longer entangled with that phantom and began to move quickly through the mist, searching for where the Philosopher's Stone was stored.
"Avada Kedavra!" Suddenly, a green light shot out from the depths of the mist, heading straight for Quirrell.
Quirrell's face changed drastically, and he hurriedly threw himself to the ground, barely dodging this fatal blow.
"You dare use the Killing Curse!" Quirrell looked at the mist in disbelief.
After fighting for so long, that phantom had never used the Killing Curse, so he thought the phantom couldn't use it.
"I am you. What you can use, I can use too," the voice of the other Quirrell came through.
"Find the magical traces here and destroy them!" The low, hoarse voice came again.
"Yes, Master." Quirrell's body trembled again.
Since it was clearly impossible to ignore 'Quirrell' while searching for the Philosopher's Stone, he had to deal with that duplicated Quirrell. The mist obscured Quirrell's vision, but as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, he was quite familiar with the workings of magic. He quickly sensed something was wrong.
However, with the duplicate's interference, Quirrell had no way to counter those magical attacks.
"I can't wait any longer. Leave it to me." The low, hoarse voice came again. Unlike the previous relative calm, this time the voice contained a hint of madness.
"Master, your body..." Quirrell said tremblingly.
"Quickly!" The hoarse voice roared.
Quirrell didn't dare say anything more and immediately unwrapped the purple turban on his head. An ugly, squeezed-together face appeared on the back of Quirrell's head. The next moment, Quirrell felt his body filled with cold power, and his whole body was almost frozen.
Swoosh!
He suddenly waved his wand, and the entire room began to shake violently. The surrounding mist seemed to boil, rapidly rolling back in all directions at extreme speed.
"Tom." 'Quirrell' saw that twisted face and spoke.
"Dumbledore, you can't stop me!" Boom!
The next moment, 'Quirrell's' phantom shattered with a crash, and the entire room returned to silence.
"Ma... Master," Quirrell said tremblingly.
"Quickly, find the Philosopher's Stone. We're leaving here." Voldemort's condition was very poor. The strength he had recovered using unicorn blood was almost exhausted. But as long as he could get the Philosopher's Stone, all of this would be worth it.
"Yes!" Quirrell hurriedly looked around and soon saw a stone platform in the center of the room with a red stone on top.
Quirrell hurriedly ran over and grabbed the red stone.
"The Philosopher's Stone, the Philosopher's Stone is in hand!" Quirrell said excitedly.
However, Voldemort's face on the back of his head became incomparably ferocious at this moment.
"Fake! We've been played!" This stone had no magical power at all. This wasn't the Philosopher's Stone at all.
"What?" Quirrell, who had just been excited, was now completely stunned.
"Leave here, quickly!" This was very likely a trap set by Dumbledore to lure him into action.
And now, there were probably many people waiting for him outside. In the worst case scenario, Dumbledore and the Aurors were already waiting to catch him.
Quirrell didn't dare stay any longer. He turned into a black mist and rapidly escaped along the route he had entered. He never would have thought that after working so hard for so long, it would all turn out to be just a bubble.
Dumbledore had already anticipated they would come to steal the Philosopher's Stone, so he had placed a fake one here. Was he really so calculating? Or had Dumbledore already discovered Voldemort hidden in his body?
Just thinking about this possibility filled Quirrell with terror.
"Master, where are we going?" Quirrell asked for Voldemort's opinion while escaping.
"Leave Hogwarts! No, wait, go to the Forbidden Forest first. I need unicorn blood!" Voldemort said in a low voice.
His aura was greatly weakened, and he had to replenish himself with some unicorn blood as soon as possible. This pure magical creature existed in very small quantities in other places, but quite a few lived in Hogwarts' Forbidden Forest. Therefore, this was his last chance, and he had to risk catching a unicorn.
"Yes, Master!" Quirrell didn't dare to object. He soon rushed out of the third-floor corridor.
There was no one in the corridor outside. Since this was a forbidden area, students wouldn't come here either. Seeing that Dumbledore hadn't appeared here, Quirrell breathed a slight sigh of relief. Without any hesitation, he directly broke through the third-floor window and flew toward the Forbidden Forest.
At this moment, Voldemort was filled with rage and madness, wanting nothing more than to slaughter all of Hogwarts. But he couldn't do it.
He had no body of his own, and all his schemes had been seen through by Dumbledore, who had set this trap in advance to lure him into action. Although from the final result, it seemed Dumbledore hadn't anticipated he would act at this time, so he hadn't intercepted him.
But in this round, he had ultimately lost.
Just thinking about the price he had paid for that fake Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort couldn't suppress the mad fury in his heart. He hated Dumbledore. He also hated that boy who had stopped him. He hated even more that Dudley Dursley, who had ruined his plans at Gringotts!
If not for this person, he could have easily obtained the Philosopher's Stone after that goblin opened the vault door, without any effort, and none of the subsequent events would have happened. He might have even recovered his physical body by now.