The ones Kyle selected to be the primary combat power were the Deva Path and the Asura Path among the Six Paths.
Among them, the Deva Path, acting as the APC (Ability Power Carry) and the core magical damage dealer of the team, would inherit the vast majority of Kyle's magical abilities.
The first thing he transferred to the Deva Path was the Grindelwald family's traditional signature technique—Protego Diabolica, which was built upon the foundation of the Fiendfyre Curse.
Various fire magic spells derived from the Fiendfyre Curse would serve as the Deva Path's primary offensive skills.
Of course, to prevent the Deva Path from being targeted by enemies due to a monotonous skill set when fighting alone, Kyle also unreservedly instilled into it his shadow magic—which he was most proficient in besides Fiendfyre—as well as Water and Lightning Release ninjutsu.
Aside from that, the attractive and repulsive forces mastered by the Deva Path were naturally indispensable.
Strands of silvery light were extracted from Kyle's brain, coalescing at the tip of his wand to form a glowing orb roughly the size of a soybean.
These were the memories Kyle had duplicated.
As the wand pressed against the Deva Path's temple, the silver strands wrapped around the wand bored straight into its head, like eels slipping into a hole.
Because the Asura Path required human body modification to be crafted into something akin to a Human Puppet, Kyle chose to leave it for last.
As for the remaining four paths, Kyle's attitude was much more casual.
He simply followed the division of labor for the other four paths and instilled the corresponding categories of magic he had mastered into each of them, and that was that.
After this came the final step of creating the Six Paths of Pain—implanting receivers into each Pain's body to connect thought signals and conduct magical energy.
Based on the long-distance communication principles of the Two-Way Mirror, combined with a series of magic such as Horcruxes, Legilimacy, and the Imperius Curse, Kyle had successfully used alchemy to forge the Akatsuki ring he wore on his hand, which was primarily crafted from mythril.
With the help of the ring, Kyle could descend his consciousness onto the Six Paths of Pain, thereby controlling their movements.
This specific function belonged exclusively to the master ring on Kyle's hand.
That's right, he had also forged a batch of rings in the same style, though they weren't as powerful as the one on his finger.
The other rings only retained the function of casting the Magic Lantern Body Technique through the connection between the rings to contact other members of the Akatsuki.
After completing this series of tasks, Kyle was completely exhausted.
With only the final Asura Path left, he decided to put it on hold for now.
Glancing over at the wall clock, the hour hand was already pointing halfway between the numbers 11 and 12.
Lunchtime was fast approaching. As Hufflepuff's ultimate foodie, nothing in the world was more important than eating.
Furthermore, regarding the modification of the Asura Path, Kyle planned to enlist a powerful outside helper to assist him.
Although biological modification was his area of expertise, that referred to modifying living creatures using Transfiguration.
When it came to something like a Human Puppet, truth be told, George was slightly more adept at it, even though George had no experience modifying human bodies.
But a Human Puppet, after all, had the word "puppet" in its name.
Compared to magical transfiguration modification, it fell much closer to the domain of Puppetry.
By the time Kyle arrived in the Great Hall, the students, already famished after a morning of classes, were already eating.
Ignoring the death glare floating over from the staff table from his Head of House, Professor Sprout, Kyle walked straight toward the Gryffindor table.
Watching Kyle blend into the pride of lions once again, Professor Sprout let out a resentful sigh.
Although this young Dark Lord of the Dumbledore family was quite a handful—having broken basically every single school rule at Hogwarts—Kyle's excellence was obvious to all. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him the most outstanding student Hufflepuff House had seen in a thousand years.
Yet, despite being such an outstanding young wizard, ever since he established a romantic relationship with Miss Hermione Granger, the Know-It-All from neighboring Gryffindor, Kyle had barely spent any time at his own house table.
He mingled with the little lions all day long, looking for all the world like a member of Gryffindor House.
Even if young couples in the honeymoon phase of love were always stuck together like glue, wasn't this a bit too much?
Was he even a Hufflepuff anymore?!
Professor Sprout wallowed in her despair.
However, she completely misunderstood Kyle this time.
Kyle hadn't come to find Hermione; he was looking for George—even though the seat he took was still right next to Hermione.
But who could blame him when George happened to be sitting diagonally opposite Hermione?
By sitting next to Hermione, he ended up face-to-face with George.
This could only be described as a stroke of destiny.
"George, I need your help with something," Kyle said, cutting straight to the chase.
George, who was practicing using chopsticks, paused in his movements. "What's up?"
Ever since the Hogwarts kitchens underwent a massive upgrade and introduced hot pot to the Great Hall's dining tables, quite a few students at Hogwarts had spontaneously started imitating the young Dark Lord by practicing how to use chopsticks.
Although many delicacies from the great culinary empire did not suit the palates of these "foreigners," hot pot was definitely an exception.
Hot pot was merely a way of eating that could accommodate many different flavors; there was bound to be a variety that satisfied the Hogwarts students.
Furthermore, in the dead of winter right now, eating a piping hot, steaming hot pot was absolutely perfect.
Thus, one could witness such a sight in the Great Hall—among those dining, seventy percent had a steaming copper pot placed right in front of them.
George was one of them.
"I need you to help me build a puppet. To be precise, a modification."
Opening his mouth, George popped a slice of sliced beef he had fished out with his chopsticks right in.
As he chewed his food, he said indistinctly, "No problem at all."
Kyle had helped the two brothers a lot, and they had long wanted to repay him, but they just never had much of an opportunity.
Now that Kyle was actively seeking his help, George naturally wouldn't refuse his request.
Busy cooking his hot pot, George didn't follow up by asking what exactly he needed to do to help Kyle. In front of the little beaver, Kyle didn't plan to elaborate further either.
Modifying a living human being into a Human Puppet—even if it was a soulless clone—was still far too much of a taboo-shattering act.
The little beaver would absolutely never tolerate this kind of behavior from Kyle.
As for George... well, it wasn't like this guy was some saint either.
A guy who had raised his wand and slaughtered his way from one end of Knockturn Alley to the other, killing for three days and three nights without blinking, and his eyes didn't even get dry... Cough, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.
Although the twin brothers didn't have several human lives on their hands like Kyle did, their engagement in "entrapment operations" in Knockturn Alley to grind for cash was a concrete reality. Otherwise, where would the money for their alchemy research come from?
Relying purely on Gringotts' annual exchange limit per person wouldn't even be enough, even if they asked others to help them exchange currency.
According to rough estimates, George's expenses alone on crafting puppets had reached around seven to eight thousand Galleons.
And precisely by burning through money like mad, the puppets needed for the Secret Red Move: Performance of a Hundred Puppets were already close to half-completed.
The puppets under George's command now ranged from Mark 1 all the way to Mark 42. Calling him "Scorpion of the Red Sand" might not be quite fitting anymore; he really ought to be called the Iron Man of Hogwarts instead.
After casually mentioning the favor to George, Kyle turned to Hermione.
"Hermione."
"Hmm?"
"This is for you."
Kyle reached into his pocket, pulled out an unassuming black box, and handed it to Hermione.
When the box was opened, Hermione's eyes widened in utter disbelief.
Resting inside the box was a glittering silver ring, set with a massive ruby.
Was Kyle about to... propose?!
————
Supporting me on Pa-treon to gain early access to advanced chapters and enjoy expedited updates. Your support is greatly appreciated.
pat-reon .c-om/Dragonhair
(Just remove the hyphen - and space, to access Pa-treon normally.)