"You... why do you still have magic?!" Tom's voice cracked with disbelief as he stared at Ethan, like witnessing an endless nightmare given form.
No matter how much damage he inflicted, this accursed boy could never be truly defeated. Always, forever dancing just beyond his reach, as if the entire battle had been nothing more than an elaborate game.
"Arghhhhh! Die!" The massive serpentine pupil on Tom's shoulder began weeping blood, desperately squeezing every last drop of Arthur's remaining life force. The crimson river surged toward Ethan with renewed fury, carrying the stench of corruption and despair!
"Hmph." Looking at the blood torrent occupying his entire field of vision, Ethan released a soft snort of disdain.
He raised his brush high, drawing upon the remaining extraordinary material known as Luminous Essence. Mixed with his own magical power, he swept the implement through the air with decisive force!
"BOOM!" The blood river split down the middle like the parting of some biblical sea!
Crimson waves poured back on both sides of Ethan with tremendous splashes, surging and colliding before pooling in stagnant puddles that emanated a nauseating, rotten stench. The metallic smell of old blood mixed with something far more sinister filled the Chamber's ancient air.
That golden paint Ethan had casually released hung suspended in mid-air like liquid starlight frozen in time. It formed a shimmering curtain that seemed to tear through the very fabric of space itself, with dazzling golden light seeping through invisible cracks in reality.
Its razor-sharp tip pointed directly at Tom's corrupted heart like the finger of divine judgement!
"Ah, ah..." Tom watched this impossible scene unfold, finally feeling genuine fear creep into what remained of his blackened soul.
The body he controlled crashed to the stone floor with a wet thud. The grotesquely swollen muscles lost their dark magical support and began dissolving, flowing downward like melted wax in a grotesque parody of human anatomy.
"You... what kind of monster are you?" The words emerged as a strangled whisper.
Hearing this accusation, Ethan raised one elegant eyebrow with mild surprise. He showed Tom a smile so radiantly pure it could have graced cathedral windows and said with perfect sincerity:
"I'm human, of course. And I represent the kindest, most innocent type of good person among all humanity."
Then Ethan waved his arm with casual grace, softly commanding: "Dragon flames."
This time, he didn't release the fire centred on his own position. Instead, he wrapped the dragon's supernatural flames around that golden light suspended in mid-air! The magical fire began tempering that luminous essence, making it shine even brighter as it transformed into a tangible weapon of pure destruction!
Painting: Terminating Spear of Fate!
Ethan looked down at Tom, who had frozen in shock and horror, and smiled with gentle benevolence that would have made angels weep.
"I can't bear to see others suffer needlessly. Allow me to end your pain right now."
The hand holding his transformed brush pointed downward with the authority of divine execution!
"BOOM!" A streak of golden light flashed like a falling star as the radiant spear pierced through the corrupted body Tom controlled, driving deep into the ancient stone floor!
In an instant, the earth beneath their feet cracked in spreading layers like a massive spider web. The hard stone slabs shattered into countless chunks that leapt upward from their foundations under the tremendous impact, creating a deadly rain of debris.
Water surfaces throughout the Chamber began boiling with supernatural heat. Ancient statues that had stood for centuries toppled with earth-shaking crashes. Cracks spread like lightning up the walls, allowing groundwater to seep through in steady streams that created an eerie symphony of dripping sounds.
The entire Chamber of Secrets actually began falling apart under this single thunderous strike, as if the very foundations of Salazar Slytherin's legacy were crumbling!
A black shadow writhed free from "Arthur's" pierced and ruined body, moving like a diseased rat fleeing a sinking ship. It slipped desperately into the diary's yellowed pages.
"Where do you think you're running, Little Tom!" Ethan reached out with predatory grace and snatched the diary from where it had fallen.
Flip flip flip. He opened the ancient tome, and among the blank, yellowed pages that reeked of old parchment and darker magics, he glimpsed Tom's frantically fleeing figure!
"Come out and face your judgement!" Ethan grinned with cheerful menace, easily breaking through the defensive enchantments and reaching directly into the pages with his bare hand.
Inside the diary's constructed reality...
Tom ran frantically through the familiar corridors of a phantom Hogwarts, his footsteps echoing off stone walls that seemed to pulse with malevolent life. He felt violent trembling beneath his feet and thunderous roaring that seemed to come from everywhere at once.
Then the ceiling was simply lifted away like the lid of a jewellery box, revealing a massive cobalt-blue eye looking down at him with the cold interest of a scientist examining a particularly fascinating insect.
"No... don't!" Tom screamed in absolute terror, sweat pouring down his face in rivers as extreme fear consumed what remained of his sanity!
He couldn't understand how things had deteriorated to this nightmarish state. Even less could he comprehend why his opponent had suddenly transformed from a mere second-year student into some endless, ancient god that seemed to wield power beyond mortal comprehension!
Future Hogwarts is way too inclusive with its student body!
"Hehe." The ancient god's whisper drifted down from impossible heights like the voice of creation itself.
Creak creak. More ceilings and walls were torn apart with casual ease, memory phantoms of students and professors dissipating like morning mist. Above, Ethan's demonic smile was revealed in all its terrifying glory.
No... no! He was supposed to become the man who conquered death itself. How could he perish at this demon's hands like some common criminal?
Help... someone help me!
Tom scurried about like a headless chicken, completely broken down and beyond rational thought. He could feel that perverse entity above enjoying this process immensely, watching his desperate flight with the cruel fascination of a child pulling the wings off flies.
"Bang!" Tom randomly burst through a door and met eyes with the person behind it.
It was a relatively younger version of Professor Dumbledore, his beard not yet the flowing silver waterfall it would become in later years.
Only then did Tom realise he'd inadvertently entered the Transfiguration professor's office from decades past.
Dumbledore looked at him with genuine surprise and concern: "What's wrong, Mr Riddle?"
Tom blurted out desperately: "Save... save me! Professor! Someone wants to kill me!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Tom felt crushing regret. What's the use of appealing to this memory fragment? They're merely phantoms of the past, like programmed entities wandering this constructed campus, endlessly repeating events that happened long ago. They can't provide any real help.
Tom despaired, his shoulders sagging with defeat. He turned numbly, looking up at that terrible face on the ceiling, wordlessly awaiting his inevitable destruction.
But then, something impossible happened.
A figure appeared directly before him with quiet determination. It was Professor Dumbledore. This elderly professor, the keen white wizard who had repeatedly thwarted Tom's plans throughout his school years, now spread his arms wide and stood silently in front of the cowering boy.
Even though Dumbledore couldn't see anything beyond this memory space. Couldn't perceive Ethan standing above them, existing in a higher dimension than this constructed reality.
Ethan observed this touching scene with something approaching genuine emotion. Watching Tom first freeze in shock, then begin shouting and wailing like an angry child denied his favourite toy, Ethan sighed with what might have been actual sadness.
"Repent, Tom Riddle. Even now, it's not too late."
"No...!" The word emerged as a broken cry.
The next second, Ethan extended his palm with the finality of absolute judgement, covering the desperately sobbing Tom with shadow.
He clenched his fist.
"Pop." The soul fragment in the diary, the proud sixteen-year-old Voldemort who had dreamed of immortality and absolute power, was crushed with a brief, pitiful scream.
He disappeared along with his phantom Hogwarts, along with all the stolen memories and borrowed time.
Then a new painting materialised before Ethan's eyes, as if conjured from the very essence of defeat itself.
It showed Tom covering his face, screaming in terrified distortion that seemed to capture the precise moment when arrogance met its inevitable end.
[You obtained commemorative painting: "The Screaming Tom"!]
[When displayed to specific individuals, can deliver massive psychological impact, shaking their resolve to its core.]
[This painting has been collected in the gallery. When touring the gallery, you can admire this masterpiece on the wall.]
A commemorative item from a defeated foe. Ethan nodded with deep satisfaction, already planning frequent visits to his growing collection.
Ethan withdrew his consciousness and emerged from the diary's depths like a diver surfacing from profound ocean trenches. He watched the name "Tom Marvolo Riddle" on the title page fade away like ink dissolving in water.
[You obtained an extraordinary artefact! Masterless Diary!]
[Properties: Regeneration, Indestructibility]
[It belongs to you now. You can freely use and modify it according to your will.]
So Death Note really does exist in some form, Ethan mused with philosophical interest.
He looked up toward the distant figure of "Arthur", sprawled motionless among the rubble.
The once-proud student was no longer recognisable as human. That face, originally handsome and chiselled like a marble statue, now displayed misaligned features and protruding teeth, as if cursed by some malevolent fairy tale witch. The transformation had rendered him utterly hideous.
His originally muscular physique had been completely drained of vitality, withered like an ancient mummy left too long in desert sands. One arm hung at an unnatural angle, bones and muscles completely deformed beyond any hope of normal function.
He resembled a monster that belonged on a guild commission board with a substantial bounty attached.
"This is what inevitably happens to those who dedicate their lives to dark magic," Ethan observed with clinical detachment, shaking his head with the sound of disappointment. "If only they could follow the path of light and justice as I do, how much better the world would be."
Saying this, Ethan casually tossed a healing spell in Arthur's direction, the golden light settling over the broken form like a blanket of mercy.
Seeing Arthur's withered chest rise and fall slightly, Ethan confirmed the young man still drew breath. Still alive. Sometimes, though, living proves far harder than dying.
"I did earnestly try to dissuade him from this path from the very beginning," Ethan said with complete innocence, his tone carrying the wounded dignity of someone whose good advice had been spurned. "Can't help fools who insist on seeking their own destruction."
"Sigh~ I even provided medical treatment afterward. What a truly magnanimous, good person I am. Even Dumbledore would have to praise me as a white wizard of the highest calibre."
Ethan couldn't help but release a small sigh of satisfaction at his own virtue.
Around them, the Chamber resembled the aftermath of a major earthquake. Water seeped through walls everywhere, creating an environment of ruins and rubble that spoke to the tremendous forces recently unleashed.
"Hiss hiss?!" The basilisk, shaken from its hiding place by the destruction, emerged to stare at everything in complete confusion. Three enormous question marks seemed to appear above its massive head.
What happened? How did our home get destroyed in the blink of an eye? What tremendous destructive power!
The ancient serpent's respect for its little master deepened considerably. It seems like when little master petted me before, he was still holding back the vast majority of his true strength.
[Congratulations! You successfully held an unforgettable art exhibition for an existence not of this world!]
[Your achievement has been deeply etched into their soul, unable to be erased even by death itself!]
[Advancement condition one achieved!]
[Soul fusion degree unlocked!]
[Soul Fusion Degree: 60% → 68%!]
Breaking through the sixty percent barrier in one leap, increasing fusion by a full eight percent! This represents a major breakthrough!
Instantly, sacred radiance enveloped Ethan like he'd been chosen by the heavens themselves!
Ethan's eyes widened as he felt his body first go completely numb, then scorching heat erupted through his veins like liquid magma flowing through every cell!
So hot! So incredible!
The sensation was like having a completely blocked nose from a terrible cold suddenly clear all at once. Ethan felt his entire being had transformed into a perfect conduit for magical power, with every pathway now completely unobstructed!
"Whoosh!" His black hair was blown upward by the magical torrent swirling around him. Ethan's cobalt-blue eyes became twin stars blazing with power, bursting with dazzling light that could have illuminated caverns!
"Hiss hiss!" The basilisk nearby stared in absolute shock, its ancient eyes widening to their fullest extent.
Feeling the tremendous magical power now radiating from its little master like heat from a forge, the mighty serpent actually experienced cowering fear for the first time in centuries!
It was as if a towering mountain had suddenly appeared before it, casting everything else into insignificant shadow.
Little master's aura has become even more powerful than before!
The basilisk's enhanced senses even caught faint traces of its original master's magical signature, Lord Salazar Slytherin himself. And the original master had already been quite advanced in years when the basilisk first knew him.
My little master truly is a peerless genius without equal in this age.
Blue text materialised before Ethan's enhanced vision like words written in starlight:
[Now you can combine the five great serpent paintings into one unified masterpiece.]
[Unleash their true power upon this world!]