Don't be fooled by how at ease Cappadocia seemed in that cave. It was entirely because of his overwhelming strength.
If an ordinary wizard had come here, they would have lost blood first, then lost magic summoning and riding the boat, and then, after drinking the potion in the basin, they would basically have been finished.
Unless they had brought along some unlucky victim to take every step for them. Bleed for the door, use magic to summon the boat, and then be forced to drink that vicious potion.
After seeing the layer upon layer of traps Voldemort had arranged, Cappadocia grew even more wary of him. He even had the urge to kill him outright and find another dog to replace him.
Voldemort shivered. He had the distinct feeling that someone was eyeing him.
It was not his imagination. Cappadocia really was staring at him with a malicious look, and there was something off about the way he seemed ready to act.
Luckily for Voldemort, Cappadocia ultimately gave up on the idea of abandoning him. Time was short, and he had no patience to go looking for a replacement now.
Seeing Cappadocia look away, Voldemort let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Then suddenly, Cappadocia roared in fury, "How dare you lie to me!"
Before Voldemort could react, a lava-covered arm smashed into his face. His whole body shot off like a meteor, and halfway through the flight, the strange pull of the lake dragged him down into the water.
In the freezing lake, Voldemort thrashed desperately. Cappadocia stood at the shore, watching him struggle up and down in the water, while casting a dark look at the locket in his hand, which was rapidly turning to char.
Cappadocia had not expected that even now, Voldemort would still dare try to deceive him.
How could this possibly be a Horcrux? Since when did a Horcrux get burned into charcoal by ordinary fire?
This was obviously a fake.
Voldemort truly was dishonest to the core. He was just a soul, yet he was still pretending to drown.
Did he really think Cappadocia was that easy to fool? Since he loved acting so much, he could stay in the water a little longer.
Cappadocia crushed the badly charred fake in his hand. Just as he was thinking about how best to torture Voldemort later, he suddenly noticed a note tucked inside the locket.
The note had been baked so thoroughly by the heat that it had become extremely fragile, but fortunately it had not been touched directly by the flames, so the writing was still legible.
Cappadocia hurriedly ended his Flame Titan transformation, carefully held the note in both hands, and read what was written on it.
I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as possible. I face death willingly, in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be killed.
R.A.B.
"R.A.B.? Who is that?"
Cappadocia froze for a moment, then suddenly understood.
So Voldemort had not lied to him after all. He himself had also been kept in the dark.
Which meant... was his drowning real or fake?
Cappadocia stared intently at the dark surface of the lake. Voldemort's struggle was already slowing, as though something were gripping his legs and dragging him down into the abyss.
"Damn it, there's something wrong with this lake!"
Cursing under his breath, Cappadocia raised a stone pillar from the lakebed and ran across it toward Voldemort.
By now, Voldemort was almost fully submerged. To him, the water felt like a swamp, thick and viscous, pulling at him so strongly that even as a soul he could not rise above the surface.
Cappadocia raised another stone pillar skimming the lake's surface, landed on it, and grabbed Voldemort by the arm, trying to haul him out.
To his surprise, the pull of the lake was absurdly strong. Even with Cappadocia's monstrous physique, he failed to yank Voldemort up in one go. Instead, his grip slipped, and he pitched backward.
Splash!
The water behind Cappadocia suddenly exploded upward. One after another, souls full of resentment and malice burst from the lake, wrapped themselves around his neck, and dragged him down into the water.
"What the hell is this?"
Cappadocia was shocked and enraged. He immediately tried to turn into a Titan, only to find that the freezing lake water soaking into him made the magic inside his body crawl to a near halt.
Almost at the same time, the Resurrection Stone ring on his hand flared again with black curse energy. The curse spread up his arm and, in the blink of an eye, had consumed half his body.
Cappadocia's eyes widened.
The curse on the ring? Damn it, hadn't that already been triggered long ago?
No. This was a hidden curse. The curse on the ring had reacted with the curse in the potion.
Cappadocia might have burned away that vile potion, but its curse had not dispersed so easily. The two had combined into an entirely new curse.
This curse caused no direct harm. Its sole effect was to obstruct magic and leave the victim too weak to move.
This had all been part of Voldemort's design from the very beginning.
"No..."
Cappadocia let out an unwilling roar and plunged headfirst into the lake, his shout swallowed by the black water.
In the freezing darkness below, Cappadocia struggled desperately to break free of the souls dragging him down.
Those souls had belonged to the Inferi. Inferi were vicious dark creatures that bound souls to bodies and denied them peace forever.
But for some reason, after the Inferi had been destroyed, those souls had not disappeared with them. Instead, they had remained in this eerie lake.
Cappadocia fought wildly, but one frail soul after another coiled around his throat and limbs, locking him in place.
Under normal circumstances, such weak restraints would never have held him for even an instant.
But now, weakened by the curse and drained of strength, he could do nothing but be dragged helplessly toward the lakebed.
Was he really about to drown here?
Cappadocia refused to accept it. He desperately activated the mark on Voldemort's neck, trying to force him to save him.
That mark had been branded with Titan power. It was powerful enough to destroy Voldemort's soul.
The mark activated.
In the dark water, a faint red glow rapidly approached.
Voldemort had come.
The burning mark was scorching his soul, twisting his face into a grimace.
"Hurry up. Get me out of here. Otherwise you'll die here with me!" Cappadocia's voice traveled directly into Voldemort's mind through the mark.
The threat did not seem to do much. Voldemort stared coldly at Cappadocia without moving, as if he fully intended to watch him drown.
"Don't think having Horcruxes means you can do whatever you like. If you die under this mark, then even if you return through a Horcrux, your soul will never fully heal. Your magic will stagnate forever. You'll never improve again!"
Cappadocia kept pressing the threat.
That seemed to work. Hesitation appeared on Voldemort's face, and then he slowly moved closer.
Cappadocia let out a breath of relief, carefully hiding the venom in his eyes.
He swore to himself that once he got out of this place, he would make sure Voldemort received a lesson he would never forget.