Seeing this scene, Dudley instinctively reached toward Harry.
But as his hand extended, something felt wrong.
He stopped, studying the three figures before him, and stepped back.
"Dudley, what are you doing? Quick, give me a hand," Harry urged.
"Dudley, I'm about to be crushed to death. Help me," Ron pleaded.
"Dudley, pull me up first," Hermione said desperately, extending her hand.
The three scrambled to reach out, waving frantically at Dudley, calling for help.
"Who are you?" Dudley's voice turned ice-cold.
The three people before him could be anything, but definitely not Harry and the others.
"I'm your cousin. Don't you recognize me?" Harry's expression twisted. "Have you forgotten how you bullied me before? Hurry up and pull me up. You owe me this."
Dudley's face darkened, but his expression no longer showed anger or anxiety. Only cold calculation remained.
"This place... is quite impressive." Dudley's gaze swept around.
In spirit vision, everything appeared real, with no abnormalities. Yet Dudley could clearly sense something fundamentally wrong.
"Quick, pull me up, Dudley," Hermione kept urging.
The trio's expressions grew increasingly anxious, their faces progressively more twisted.
"No, you're not Harry. You're not Ron either. And you're not Hermione." Dudley looked at the three, enunciating each word. "So what the hell are you?"
Dudley stared darkly at the three struggling to crawl into the passage.
"I am Harry! Have you forgotten how you abused me before?" Harry demanded loudly.
"Reducto."
Dudley didn't waste words and cast the spell directly.
Bang.
The curse struck Harry's body, blasting him apart. However, the next moment, Harry's body was impossibly reassembled and continued beckoning to Dudley.
"Dudley! You're bullying me again! How could you cast such a spell at me? I'm your brother!"
Harry shrieked hysterically.
Dudley looked at Harry coldly. "Cousin! Avada Kedavra!"
A brilliant green light materialized from thin air, striking Harry directly.
Hum!
This time, Harry stopped moving. He stared at Dudley in disbelief, unable to accept that Dudley would cast the Killing Curse on him. His eyes remained wide open in death.
"Dudley! You killed Harry. You murdered Harry," Ron and Hermione cried out in terror.
Dudley's expression remained unmoved, his gaze fixed on the Harry he'd killed.
"Not dead." After a long moment, Dudley murmured. "As expected, unkillable."
The moment he spoke, he waved his hand and cast another spell.
"Confringo."
Harry's corpse exploded instantly, fragmenting into countless pieces.
"And you two." Dudley cast the Killing Curse on Ron and Hermione without hesitation, then obliterated their corpses.
"Good, much quieter now." Dudley withdrew his gaze.
"Dudley, may you die horribly! You even killed your best friends. You're completely inhuman. You'll face retribution..."
Voices echoed from the void, reverberating in Dudley's ears. Phantom forms of Harry, Ron, and Hermione materialized, as if transformed into spirits, surrounding Dudley and cursing him relentlessly.
Simultaneously, many blurred figures appeared in midair, watching Dudley with cold indifference. Many had incomplete bodies, missing limbs, or parts transformed into grotesque monstrosities...
Overlapping distorted voices continuously assaulted Dudley's mind.
"Enough!" Dudley shouted.
His expression gradually contorted. The extraordinary characteristics within him showed faint signs of losing control.
He looked at those phantoms, recognizing some of them. They all seemed to be people who'd died by his hand, an endless procession.
Of course, these people hadn't been killed by Dudley in the magical world but in that other realm. In that place, to survive and obtain potions, he'd eliminated those who obstructed him, climbing toward power step by step...
But in the process, his hands had long been stained with blood.
These people all manifested here at this moment, extending their hands, trying to tear Dudley apart and drag him into the endless abyss.
"Stop and come with us," a phantom voice called.
Dudley looked up. He saw a blurred figure whose features remained unclear, yet evoked an overwhelming sense of intimacy.
"You are..." Dudley whispered.
He felt he should know this person intimately, but couldn't recall their name. Stabbing pain spread through Dudley's body. He sensed this person had died because of him, that he'd failed to protect those close to him.
That profound sense of powerlessness invaded Dudley's very bones, making him feel as if his entire being would shatter.
"Give up and come with us," another familiar voice called. Still recognizable, but Dudley couldn't remember who.
These people had either died because of Dudley or been killed by his own hands. They gathered at this moment, surrounding Dudley, constantly repeating those words, trying to make him surrender.
"If giving up can achieve everything, wouldn't that be a beautiful ending?" Harry suddenly appeared beside Dudley, speaking softly. "Sometimes, persisting won't bring results. What's lost won't return."
Dudley took a deep breath. The Trunsoest Brass Book fell to the ground with a sharp crack and scattered open. Dudley seemed to have lost all strength.
He felt himself sinking, grabbed by countless hands, falling toward endless darkness. His resistance kept diminishing, growing weaker, until he completely fell into darkness...
"Alas..." Suddenly, a sigh materialized, causing the surrounding illusions to freeze instantly.
"Hmm?" Dudley's expression shifted abruptly as he slowly opened his eyes from the darkness.
He recognized this voice. It was incredibly familiar.
"Go back," the voice rang out again.
Boom!
The next moment, everything collapsed instantly. Golden light erupted from within Dudley's body, sweeping across his entire being and dispersing all the strangeness.
Dudley jolted awake. He found himself still standing in that eerie cave.
"Klein?" Dudley blurted out.