In an instant, the fiery snake entrenched around Voldemort rushed toward Adrian.
Adrian, who'd read the original books, knew the power of Fiendfyre very well. It could even destroy Horcruxes. The fire-resistance potion he'd drunk couldn't resist such flames.
"Philosopher's Stone! Take it!"
Just as it was about to reach him, Adrian suddenly yelled and made as if to throw the Stone into the mouth of the fiery snake.
"No!" Voldemort's snake face suddenly twisted. He forcibly changed its direction and hit a side wall instead.
Adrian glanced at the rapidly melting bricks on the wall, swallowed, and peeked at the countdown for support. Only a little over twenty seconds had passed.
Adrian felt five minutes had never passed so slowly. He gripped the Stone in his hand even tighter.
Voldemort saw Adrian's movements and realized he'd been tricked. Though furious, he didn't dare use the Fiendfyre curse again, because he wasn't sure whether the Philosopher's Stone could survive it.
However, even without Fiendfyre, Adrian's situation didn't improve at all. As a master of dark magic, Voldemort had more than one type of spell at his disposal.
The only thing that allowed Adrian to hold on was that Voldemort's condition was continuously declining. This body belonging to Quirrell had been burned by flames, not to mention having much of its vitality absorbed. It was a miracle it was still standing intact.
Every time Voldemort cast a spell, he was draining the last bit of this body's vitality. If he ran two more steps, he might fall apart immediately.
This was what Adrian wanted to see.
"Are you only capable of hiding?" Voldemort yelled anxiously and used another bone-breaking curse. The powerful magic exploded the stone pillar Adrian relied on into two pieces.
Taking advantage of Voldemort's limited movement, Adrian jumped around in the wide room, using Transfiguration to alter the terrain from time to time, or harassing him with fire curses and spells like Oppugno. For a while, there was barely any real exchange of blows.
Voldemort, so angry his body was about to collapse, finally couldn't help himself. He no longer held back any reserves.
From a distance, Adrian could clearly see the flesh and blood on Voldemort's burnt face suddenly shrink. Then a large amount of black mist poured out of the broken body and spread toward Adrian.
"Impedimenta!" Adrian tried to build a magical barrier in front of him, but the black mist surrounded him from all directions. Burning it with fire curses had no effect.
Before being completely surrounded, Adrian hastily used a Shield Charm on himself, but this layer of defense was breached by the black mist in an instant.
He didn't know what the black mist was made of. When enveloped by it, Adrian felt all kinds of negative emotions flooding his mind. What's worse, the black mist quickly penetrated his body through his mouth, nose, and pores.
The biting cold spread throughout his body. Adrian felt the heat and vitality of his body being taken away by the black mist. Even his accelerated thinking slowly fell into paralysis.
At this moment, the pendant hanging on Adrian's neck faintly emitted a light gleam, allowing him to barely stay conscious in the black mist.
But this protection wasn't infinite. As time went by, cracks began to appear in the middle of the pendant.
The pendant's protective power allowed Adrian to survive a while longer. More importantly, Adrian faintly felt a warm current gushing from his heart. Magic-infused blood gradually flowed throughout his body.
Adrian, whose thinking had been frozen, regained his ability to act. Dazzling white light from the tip of the wand he gripped tightly appeared suddenly. The black mist surrounding him seemed to have encountered a natural enemy, gradually dissolving like the first snow under the sun.
At the same time, the system prompt sounded in Adrian's mind.
[Ding!]
[Task: Promised Revenge status has been changed. Blood magic is temporarily unlocked. Please check in time.]
Adrian, who'd just escaped danger, couldn't help but take a look.
[Task: Promise of Revenge]
[Mission Objective: Eliminate Quirrell]
[Description: Because you are fighting the enemy, you have temporarily obtained Cecilia's approval. If you want to retain this power, you need to fulfill your promise as soon as possible.]
[Note: The Shadow of the Unicorn Bloodline has been unlocked!]
The several question marks in the bloodline magic column in Adrian's system had disappeared, replaced by a unicorn shadow flashing blue light!
Under the experience card's accelerated thinking, Adrian mastered the newly acquired abilities in just a few moments. As he swung his wand, more white light and shadow gushed from its tip. The strands of light were like phantoms, then faintly gathered into the form of a unicorn.
It was just like what Adrian had seen in the Forbidden Forest, beautiful, proud, sacred and inviolable. The only difference was this figure was completely composed of white phantom light and shadow, more illusory and ethereal. Its eyes were red, staring straight at Voldemort's figure.
"Bloodline awakening?" After the black mist was completely dispelled, Voldemort as the caster also fell into shock.
"No... no, this isn't bloodline awakening..." Voldemort immediately objected.
Bloodline awakening referred to members of ancient wizard families with special bloodlines. When their strength broke through a certain limit, or when they experienced major trauma, they might activate the special bloodlines hidden in their bodies, combining with their own conditions to gain some magical abilities.
But the power of these bloodlines had been greatly reduced after many generations. It was hard to say how much power could actually be gained. It was almost impossible to integrate the power of magical creatures into a specific kind of magic like Adrian had!
Not to mention the unmistakable familiarity of the unicorn before him. Voldemort was very sure it was the one Quirrell had killed before. Now it appeared before him in this state, there was only one possibility.
The first-year wizard in front of him had completed the most dangerous blood fusion experiment in the magical world and successfully survived, stealing part of the creature's power!
However, while Voldemort stood uncertain, Adrian quickly became familiar with his new power. He clearly felt his vision suddenly divide into two parts, one was seen by his own eyes, the other through the independent eyes of the unicorn. The body controlled by his mind seemed to have become two.
"From now on, offense and defense have reversed," Adrian said lightly as he looked at Voldemort, who had no good flesh on his face due to excessive extraction of vitality.
This was a very strange feeling, and it brought Adrian unparalleled confidence. Furthermore, he'd been chased around before and nearly swallowed by the black mist.
Now it was finally time to fight back.