Watching the two disappear into the sea of fire, Adrian opened his mouth to stop them.
If they wanted to go back, they'd have to get past those violent chess pieces. It had been hard enough for the four of them to make it through together. Hermione and Ron alone would have an even harder time.
But staying here didn't mean absolute safety either. If he and Harry won, fine. But if they lost, they couldn't even escape from this closed space when facing Quirrell and Voldemort.
"Let's go." Adrian sighed. He should worry about himself first.
Harry nodded solemnly and poured the small vial of potion down his throat. He looked like he was about to face execution, but with Adrian's company, Harry felt somewhat more confident than he would have alone.
However, Harry soon discovered that Adrian was chanting some strange spell. Under the light of his wand, his figure quickly disappeared.
On the empty platform, except for the flames rising everywhere, Harry was left alone.
"Adrian? Are you still there?" Harry suddenly panicked.
"I used the Disillusionment Charm. The effect is similar to your Invisibility Cloak. I'm right next to you now." Adrian's voice rang in his ear.
Harry calmed down. Although not being able to see Adrian made him feel strangely vulnerable, Harry didn't ask Adrian to drop the spell and accompany him visibly.
With this light and dark approach, they'd have better odds of winning.
Even if it meant he'd be used as bait, Harry had no objection. In his opinion, Adrian was different from himself. He didn't have to face the responsibilities and duties regarding the Dark Lord, but he'd gotten involved anyway.
Before stepping into the black flames, Adrian spoke again as if thinking of something.
"After you go in, don't panic no matter what you see, and don't attack immediately. Try to get close to Quirrell or Voldemort, then restrict his movement. Grab his hand, or use your hand to cover his face, anything works. Just don't give Quirrell a chance to pull out his wand."
Harry was confused. He understood restricting movement, but what was the point of covering his face?
Was it to block his line of sight?
Harry couldn't figure it out, but he still agreed directly. He wasn't like some old-fashioned wizards who felt that fighting without magic would compromise their dignity as a wizard.
Whatever worked was fine.
Adrian felt a bit relieved. As long as Voldemort wanted to get the Philosopher's Stone, he wouldn't immediately attack Harry. And once Harry touched him, they'd win.
"Redeem the SSEC," Adrian said silently in his mind.
[Ding!]
[Redeemed. 100 system points deducted!]
As the notification sounded, Adrian's brain speed increased rapidly, and his various senses seemed much more sensitive.
His opponent was Voldemort. Adrian didn't dare relax even slightly. He needed to push his state to the limit.
He took a few steps forward into the range of the black flames. The hot tongues of fire rushed over his face. This strange flame maintained a very high temperature without any attachments.
Fortunately, the fire-resistance potion worked well. A thin water curtain automatically emerged around his body, blocking the flames and high temperature.
Moving forward, there was a large room surrounded by twelve huge support pillars. In the middle stood a massive mirror. A wizard dressed in black robes with a hood covering himself tightly stood in front of the mirror with his back to them.
Perhaps hearing the movement behind him, the figure in the black robe gradually turned around. Harry's eyes widened. A chill rushed from the soles of his feet to his head.
Adrian almost couldn't sustain the Disillusionment Charm.
What kind of face was that?
The face was full of pits and burns. There wasn't a single patch of good skin from top to bottom. White bone was clearly visible on the forehead.
Both eyes had lost the protection of eyelids and were directly exposed. The most disturbing thing was how this scorched face seemed to overlap with another illusory snake-like face. Grotesque was the only word to describe it.
Adrian swallowed hard. Although he'd guessed that Quirrell and Voldemort couldn't be unharmed after his and Norbert's attack, he hadn't expected Quirrell to be injured this badly. The fact that he was still alive with wounds like this...
"Harry... Potter!" A low, hoarse voice came from Quirrell's burnt mouth, mixed with anger, surprise, and something else.
"Are you Quirrell? Or Voldemort? How did your body become like this?" Although Harry's heart was pounding with fear, he quickly calmed down. Following Adrian's earlier instructions, he approached Voldemort step by step.
"You ask me why?" Voldemort's fluctuating emotions became even angrier.
It was all Quirrell's fault!
It had taken so much effort to deal with a unicorn, which meant he hadn't drunk enough blood. Instead, he'd been hit by a fire dragon that came out of nowhere.
Originally, he'd barely blocked that attack by forcibly taking control. It was just a hard fall. But before he could relax, their hiding place had been set ablaze with a large-scale fire curse. And there were several hot dragon breaths mixed in!
Quirrell, the idiot, had been stunned and dropped his wand. If Voldemort hadn't fully taken over control of the body and forced a wandless cast to shield them for a bit longer, then retrieved the wand and escaped in time, Quirrell's body would have been roasted into charcoal long ago.
What made him even angrier was that he hadn't seen what the attacker looked like from beginning to end. Someone who dared to use fire curses on such a large scale in a place like the Forbidden Forest, even in his Legion of Death Eaters, there weren't many wizards that reckless.
Voldemort had completely lost his patience with Quirrell. After roughly repairing the broken body with dark magic, he'd suppressed Quirrell's own consciousness.
Although this state couldn't be maintained for more than a few days, as long as he successfully obtained the Philosopher's Stone, he'd get back everything he'd lost!
Now the key to breaking through Dumbledore's magic was right in front of his eyes. Voldemort could barely contain the excitement in his heart.
Harry had already closed his mouth. He'd understood that the person in front of him was probably not Quirrell, but Voldemort himself. Although he was scared, he still shook his legs and slowly approached according to the original plan.
"Yes, come here. That's it. What a pleasant meeting." Voldemort looked at Harry with eager eyes, but his voice shifted halfway, as if he'd sensed something. His face darkened.
"But before that, it's better to clean up some bugs that have sneaked in..."
Harry's expression changed. When Adrian heard this, he rushed toward cover beside a stone pillar.