Chapter 53: The Unbreakable Vow

Time quickly arrived at Saturday again, and Allen Finis came to Professor Qiluo's office on time.

"How have you considered it, my boy?" Professor Qiluo, still hidden in the shadows, asked Allen in a low voice.

"I have considered it, and I understand the effect of the Unbreakable Vow." Allen looked calmly at Professor Qiluo in the shadows and said.

"Then what is your choice?" Professor Qiluo's tone remained so low, without a single change.

Allen pondered for a moment, then voiced his decision: "I need more powerful strength now; I am too weak now!" Allen's tone was filled with a thirst for power.

"Good, my boy, you have made a correct decision; now extend your hand!" Professor Qiluo said in a low voice from the shadows.

Allen was stunned for a moment; he asked somewhat blankly: "Doesn't making an Unbreakable Vow require a witness? There are only the two of us here; where is our witness?"

"You need not worry about that; I have a way; now make your choice!" Professor Qiluo remained shrouded in shadows, his voice as low as ever.

Allen hesitated; he did not know whether he could trust Professor Qiluo, but seeing that the book said the final vow still required confirmation by the vow-maker, he decided to try it first; anyway, if the vow seemed wrong, he would run immediately.

So he slowly extended his right hand.

Professor Qiluo let out a gloomy laugh in the darkness.

The next second, Allen felt the chair beneath his buttocks lurch forward suddenly, sliding rapidly to the opposite side of Professor Qiluo; their knees were basically knee-to-knee, but Allen was still under the light's illumination while Professor Qiluo remained shrouded in shadows.

The light clearly divided the boundary between the two, one bright and one dark.

From the darkness, a pale, slender hand extended and tightly grasped Allen's right wrist.

Allen only felt that hand was very cold, with a somewhat slippery sensation, as if holding a snake...

Allen tried hard to drive this thought out of his mind and to shift his attention away from the other person's hand.

"It is about to begin! Be prepared!" Professor Qiluo commanded.

Allen quickly grasped Professor Qiluo's right wrist.

Only then did Professor Qiluo's left hand, holding a wand, reach out from the darkness and wave the wand once over their tightly clasped right hands.

Immediately, a sparse net of light appeared where their right hands were clasped, binding them tightly together; Allen knew this was the manifestation of the Unbreakable Vow taking effect; he strove to calm his mood, because he knew that every word he spoke next had to be carefully considered and thought through before being said.

Allen strained to look at Professor Qiluo in the shadows, wanting to see the expression on his face clearly, but this was destined to be futile; yet, since they were face-to-face, although Allen did not see his expression clearly, he discovered that Professor Qiluo was not wearing his purple turban today.

At this moment, that same gloomy voice, now somewhat shrill, spoke: "You, Allen Finis, are you willing to keep Quirinus Qiluo's secrets?"

Allen breathed a sigh of relief in his heart; this vow was much better than imagined, but he dared not show it at all, and he dared not relax his mouth either.

"No, this vow is too broad; I need to narrow the scope!" Allen said quickly.

Professor Qiluo in the darkness let out a gloomy, cold snort.

"As you wish!"

The net of light on both their wrists remained unchanged; Professor Qiluo said gloomily once more: "You, Allen Finis, are you willing to keep the secrets between Quirinus Qiluo and you?"

Allen's brain was operating at high speed: this vow seemed to have nothing disadvantageous to himself; although the scope was still a bit large, he himself was a person with quite a few secrets.

But he was still somewhat uneasy,

since matters concerning his own life were better handled with caution.

"I need you to swear an equivalent vow!" Allen said firmly, looking at Professor Qiluo in the darkness.

"You swear first!" Allen quickly added.

Professor Qiluo fell silent; when Allen thought Professor Qiluo was angry, he spoke:

"As you wish!"

"You, Quirinus Qiluo, are you willing to keep the secrets between Allen Finis and you?" The gloomy, shrill voice appeared once more.

"I will!" This was a young voice, carrying a hint of reluctance in its tone.

Allen was stunned; could this witness be Professor Qiluo's cold personality? And was the one swearing the vow with him another personality? Was Professor Qiluo switching personalities back and forth? Could one play like this?

Allen was somewhat worried that the vow sworn with Professor Qiluo would only bind one of his personalities, but then he thought: the vow acts upon the body; multiple personalities would be useless anyway; moreover, this vow did not seem difficult for him to fulfill; after all, he was asking a favor of someone, so how could he not pay a price? Besides, Professor Qiluo had already yielded twice; if he pushed further, he would probably anger him.

Thinking this, Allen suppressed his impulse to interrupt the ritual again.

"You, Allen Finis, are you willing to keep the secrets between Quirinus Qiluo and you?" The voice of Professor Qiluo's cold personality became even more shrill.

Allen hesitated for a moment, chewed over the sentence once more carefully, found no trap, and then solemnly said: "I will!"

Then Allen was surprised to find that the net of light on both their wrists had vanished; a cold current flowed along his arm to the position of his heart and then disappeared, causing him to shiver involuntarily.

He knew the Unbreakable Vow had been successfully established.

"Very well, now the vow is complete; I am very tired now; you may leave first; next week I will begin teaching you to master true strength!" Professor Qiluo's voice was somewhat weary, but his mood was clearly quite good.

Allen left, somewhat apprehensive.

Professor Qiluo's office fell back into silence.

For a long time.

The young voice appeared again: "Master, why did we only swear such a loose vow with him? This way we cannot control him!"

The cold, shrill voice appeared once more; the owner of the voice let out a terrible cold laugh: "Foolish! That boy Finis is shrewd; he will not let you control him easily; rash action will only produce the opposite result."

"Attacking Harry Potter last time was still a bit too hasty; it has already made Snape and Dumbledore start to become alert, so we must lie low for a while; this thread of Finis is even more important!" A trace of weariness appeared in the cold, shrill voice.

"Master, it is all my fault for not mastering the Confundus Charm deeply enough; this allowed Snape to interfere successfully and let that boy Potter escape with his life!" The young voice carried some panic.

"The matter is in the past; let us not mention it again; our ultimate goal is still to obtain the Philosopher's Stone; when to kill Potter, I am not in a hurry."

"Swearing an Unbreakable Vow with that boy Finis was only to prevent him from reporting us; before, we could not care about his reporting, because they would not investigate us based on the words of an eleven-year-old young wizard, but now Dumbledore and the others have raised their alertness; I do not want Finis to ruin my plan!" The cold, shrill voice rested for quite a while before continuing to add.

"Besides, I still need him to do things for me; arousing his rebellious psychology would not be good!"

"Master is wise!"