20demayo Chapter 223 Riddle's Trump Card
Chapter 223 Riddle's Trump Card
Chapter 223 Riddle's Trump Card
Just as the basilisk was completely engulfed in its muffled whimpers of imprisonment, and the secret chamber returned to oppressive silence, Lynch in front of it transformed back into that jet-black raven.
A crow let out a short, hoarse caw as it emerged from the swirling gray mist. Its wings fluttered, and illuminated by the eerie green runes of the chamber, it traced a graceful arc before landing lightly on Lynch's left shoulder.
It folded its wings, its jet-black beak slightly adjusting its feathers, and then stood quietly on them, its obsidian-like eyes fixed on Tom Riddle not far away.
Lynch looked at Riddle and said calmly, "Now that you've tried to resist, can we discuss how to deal with your problem, Mr. Tom Riddle?"
"Dispose of me?" Riddle hovered there, his handsome, semi-transparent face first showing surprise, then turning into a furious laugh. "Ha ha—Professor Lynch, are you so sure I'm powerless to resist? You think you've subdued a beast and now you control everything?"
He raised the hand holding the wand, but the tip of the wand was not pointing at Lynch, but at the floor of the secret chamber beneath his own feet!
"You don't understand what Slytherin's true legacy is at all! It's not that basilisk, nor this chamber!" Riddle's voice suddenly turned fanatical. "This Chamber of Secrets itself is the deepest wedge Salazar-Slytherin left in the Hogwarts system! It's a vessel of covenants, a fulcrum of balance!"
He stared intently at Lin Qi, his eyes filled with madness and smugness.
"And I, as its only and true heir, have the authority to initiate its final ritual—not to open it, but to disintegrate it!" The wand in his hand suddenly shone brightly, and with this light, the entire chamber emitted a deep hum!
The eerie green light that had been lingering in the secret room began to intensify.
"The contract will only be revealed when the secret chamber is destroyed!"
"The true power of Slytherin will only choose a new master after it has broken free from all constraints!"
Riddle laughed wildly: "But there's a second option besides inheriting the power!"
"That is to destroy this power!"
"That would directly tear apart Hogwarts' millennia-old defensive magic! All the castle's protection would shatter like glass! It would be nakedly exposed to all danger, and everything would collapse from the inside due to the chain reaction of magical collapse!"
He spread his hands, his voice like the hiss of a viper: "So, Professor Lynch, come on, make your choice!"
"Is it to try and seize that slim chance of obtaining the Slytherin Contract amidst the torrent of destruction? Or to relinquish this readily available power and play the role of a ridiculous hero, saving this crumbling castle and the ants within?"
He threw an extremely cruel choice between two options at Lynch.
This was a threat of mutual destruction, and also the last and most vicious counterattack he could launch when his defeat was already certain.
However, the panic, struggle, or anger that was expected did not appear on Lynch's face.
He even chuckled softly, a sound so faint yet so cold as to extinguish the frenzied atmosphere that Riddle had deliberately created.
Even the raven on his shoulder seemed to tilt its head, looking at Riddle with an all-knowing gaze.
"A good threat, Mr. Riddle. It hits the nail on the head and certainly puts you in a dilemma." Lynch's tone even carried a hint of—appreciation? "However, you made a mistake, a mistake stemming from your age and cognitive limitations."
Riddle's maniacal laughter froze, and a sense of foreboding rose from the depths of his soul.
"What do you mean?"
"First of all, as I said before, I am not interested in the legacy of Slytherin."
"Secondly, all your plans are based on one premise—" Lynch said slowly, as if explaining a key point to a student in class, "that is, Hogwarts' defense system is a fixed, ancient, and passively resilient system, a relic of a thousand years. And this backdoor left by Slytherin," is an absolute trump card that no one knows about and no one can defend against.
He looked at Riddle with a smile in his eyes, but Riddle felt as if everything about him had been completely seen through.
"Let me ask you a question, Mr. Riddle. In the long history of magic, if we're talking about the most recent—I mean the last few centuries—legendary wizards who are universally acknowledged as standing at the pinnacle of magical skill, how many do you think there are?"
Riddle frowned, puzzled as to why Lynch had suddenly steered the conversation in such an unrelated direction, but he followed up on Lynch's question with his own answer: "First, of course, is Voldemort, the greatest wizard of all time; then Gellert Grindelwald, who nearly turned all of Europe upside down; and then—Dumbledore."
When he uttered the last name, it was with obvious fear and disgust.
"A very fair assessment," Lynch nodded. "But Voldemort failed twelve years ago and is now a mystery, while Grindelwald is imprisoned in the tower he built himself. So, there is only one wizard still active in the wizarding world, whose wisdom and power are still at their peak."
Riddle's pupils contracted sharply.
Lynch's voice was calm, yet carried immense weight: "And this one happens to be Albus Dumbledore, the current headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
He leaned forward slightly, and the smile on his face became somewhat playful.
"Now, let's return to the heart of your threat—a contractual wedge planted by Salazar-Slytherin that could jeopardize the entire defenses of Hogwarts."
Lynch spoke slowly and deliberately, each word like a hammer blow to Riddle's heart: "Your so-called 'wedge' is based on the Hogwarts Contract."
"Do you think that, with Dumbledore's wisdom and ability, after ruling this castle for decades, he would be completely unaware of such a huge, potential danger? Or, even if he were aware, would he do nothing, allowing it to become a sword hanging over the entire school, ready to fall at any moment?"
Riddle's expression changed completely. He wanted to retort, but found his throat tighten.
A cold, almost desperate premonition gripped him.
Lynch delivered the final blow: "Let me tell you, just last year, for some personal reasons, I happened to take advantage of certain features of this contract and obtained some of its permissions, which can be considered—tricking Dumbledore."
He watched as Riddle's expression became increasingly complex, and slowly delivered the final blow: "So, with your Slytherin-like shrewdness and caution, guess whether our beloved Headmaster will stand idly by after that little accident, or whether he will use all his knowledge and power to thoroughly study this contract, patch every possible loophole, and prepare sufficiently robust safeguards for every imaginable danger—including self-destruction."
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