After finishing dinner, Kyle was brought by Dumbledore via Apparition to an unknown seaside location.
At this moment, their footing was on a black rock jutting out alone above the sea surface.
The intense scent of the vast ocean poured into Kyle's nasal cavity, and his ears were filled with the sound of crashing waves.
The waves rolled beneath their feet, churning up a massive amount of foam.
Before them towered an incomparably massive cliff, its steep rock face plunging straight down into the murky depths where its features were obscured.
Seeing this cliff, Kyle curled his lip in disdain.
It seemed that old Voldy's style wasn't all that low-class after all; at least in terms of visual presentation, it had a certain degree of merit.
Choosing a cave at the base of a cliff like this as a secret base could practically rival Batman's Batcave.
He just wondered if there was any interior decoration. If it was just a completely bare, raw rock cave like this, it would truly be a terrible waste of resources.
"Let's go, we're heading over."
A dazzling, golden-red flame blossomed on Dumbledore's shoulder, and Fawkes the phoenix soared out from the flames.
Dumbledore reached out and grabbed Fawkes's talons, signaling Kyle to put his hand on them as well.
Kyle shook his head. "I can fly myself."
A complete Susanoo standing only 1.8 meters tall enveloped Kyle's body.
It had to be said that the magical version of Susanoo was far more convenient than the original, as its height and size could be freely adjusted at will according to his own will.
The long Susanoo wings on his back spread wide, and with a fierce flap, they kicked up a gust of wind while carrying Kyle's body flying toward the distant crevice in the cliff.
Whistling as he threaded through a pitch-black tunnel, Kyle folded his wings, stopping just in time before slamming headfirst into the rock wall.
The roaring, burning Fiendfyre on the Susanoo armor illuminated the entire cave. Kyle stood in the center of the cavern, carefully inspecting the muddy, sludge-covered rock walls all around.
"Voldemort hides things here?" Kyle searched for a long time without detecting any trace of magic.
"This is only the antechamber of the cave," Dumbledore said, pressing his hand against the rock wall. "He set the magic very covertly; you have to perceive it with care to find its existence."
"Oh? Let me see." Copying Dumbledore, Kyle pressed his hand against the rock wall as well.
The two began circling the rock wall starting from the left and right sides of the entrance, touching the rough cave walls as closely as possible as they walked.
Finally, on an inconspicuous, rough patch of cave wall, Kyle sensed a faint magical fluctuation.
"Found it?"
Kyle didn't answer Dumbledore's question, instead suddenly raising a fist and smashing it heavily against the rock where the magical fluctuation came from.
As the rock shattered, the outline of an archway emerged on the cave wall, radiating a dazzling white light as if strong lighting were illuminating it from behind the crack.
Another punch followed, but the archway didn't shatter as Kyle had imagined; instead, after a loud crash, it remained completely motionless.
Dumbledore opened his mouth, intending to step in and stop him, but before he could get the words out, Kyle drew his wand, pointed it straight at the archway, and let out a point-blank Expelliarmus your dog life.
Dumbledore had no choice but to let Fawkes teleport him out of the cliff cave to escape the aftermath caused by that Disarming Charm.
Looking at the billowing smoke and dust venting out of the cave, Dumbledore's aged face turned slightly dark.
Yet now wasn't the time to pull out the Nine Wolves belt to discipline Kyle. The massive commotion kicked up inside the cave felt just like an earthquake; one had to remember there was a Muggle village located on the mountainside just behind this cliff.
If Dumbledore didn't go handle it and the Ministry sent people to investigate, the spectacle would be enormous.
As a master Legilimens, Dumbledore was exceptionally fast at dealing with the group of Muggles in the village.
In less than three minutes, he was back inside the cave.
Looking at Kyle, who stood lazily by the archway looking entirely unbothered, anger welled up inside Dumbledore.
"Dad, you're back!" Kyle wore an innocent expression. "I couldn't figure out this magic; it seems to require some sort of specific item to unlock it."
Voldemort had set up this magic during the wizarding war he initiated, and back then Voldemort was at the peak of his power, so it was completely normal for Kyle not to figure it out immediately.
However, that didn't mean Kyle lacked a way to open it.
As the saying goes, brute force creates miracles.
If Kyle wanted to, he could summon a two-hundred-meter-tall Susanoo and level the entire cliff where the cave was located.
Under such circumstances, no protective magic would be of any use, and he and Dumbledore could naturally stroll in grandly from any other direction into the original cave, grab the Horcrux, and leave.
However, the commotion would have been far too massive, which was why Kyle hadn't taken action and instead quietly guarded the archway waiting for Dumbledore, the Grand Archmage, to come handle it.
The moment he thought about Voldemort's Horcrux being hidden right behind the archway, Dumbledore lost the inclination to bicker with Kyle.
He studied the archway for two minutes before shaking his head with slight disappointment.
"Tom Riddle still cannot shake these low-class tastes."
Saying this, Dumbledore used Transfiguration to turn a stone on the ground into a short dagger.
"If I am not mistaken, the item required to open this door should be blood."
As his words fell, Dumbledore raised the dagger, intending to slice his own hand.
A sudden Disarming Charm knocked the dagger flying out of his grasp.
Dumbledore didn't pick up the dagger, turning instead to Kyle with an exceptionally firm tone, "Let me do it, Kyle."
Kyle shrugged. "Dad, haven't you ever considered..."
A basin containing blood from an unknown animal appeared in Kyle's hands. "...using this?"
Dumbledore's face turned dark. How had he suddenly forgotten about this?
"Come, come, step aside." Kyle hurled the blood from the basin straight toward the archway.
That scene could thoroughly be described as "having dog's blood poured all over."
Instantly, the archway radiating dazzling white light was covered by the dark red blood. Under the pull of gravity, the blood on the archway slowly slid down, pooling into a dark little stream right beside their feet.
They waited for a long time, but neither of them saw the archway make any reaction whatsoever.
"What is the meaning of this? Didn't you say it requires blood?"
Dumbledore crouched down, dipped his finger into the pool of blood by his feet, and brought it close to his nose to sniff it.
"Whose blood did you use?"
"Pig's blood," Kyle said with a hint of regret. "I was originally planning to use it for a hotpot once it coagulated."
Dumbledore's expression suddenly turned remarkably colorful. "Change it. Use magical creature blood."
"Oh." This time, a vial of dragon blood appeared in Kyle's hands.
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