I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 318 Fundamentals

The two stopped talking.

Koyatl left the house that belonged to Irving and plunged into the wilderness.

Irving, meanwhile, began to look up, searching his memory palace for a way to leave.

It's not that difficult.

The memories of ancient magic that Dean Bridged gave him.

There are detailed records of the most peculiar aspect of this magic.

The dean also mentioned it.

There is no way for him to get home.

Ancient magical fundamentalism, the principle of regression.

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Gradually, no other sounds could be heard in the room, except for the rustling sound of the breeze blowing through the windows.

But that was only temporary. As Irving calmed down, the wind outside the window also gradually subsided.

There is no concept of time in the illusion; it may be a second or several months.

Sometimes, when Irving was bored, he would chat with Koyatl.

It was just too boring, and the conversation was only for obtaining information about the Outer Gods.

This is a good opportunity because Irving can see that her mental defenses are already very weak.

What does it feel like to be watched by an Outer God?

After thoroughly reviewing the magical knowledge that Dean Bridged had forced into his head, Owen left the house.

He relaxed for a moment, then began trying to crack the environment.

A cool breeze blew across the fields.

He "created" a table just like the coffee tables on the streets of Paris.

There were two armchairs; he sat in one.

He particularly likes this chair now because he can lean against the armrests and the seat cushion is soft enough.

"focus on?"

Owen's voice, like the wind, entered her ears.

This is his biggest concern.

"Imagine a place like this." Her cool voice carried a hint of melancholy as she said, "It's always night there, and you dare not give up hope for a dawn that will never come."

She stood up from the floor and sat down in another armchair. "When I was little, I was terrified of what was lurking in the dark. I was so silly." She laughed self-deprecatingly. "What was actually afraid of in the dark was me."

"." Owen leaned on the armrest, feeling inexplicably moved. This reminded him of the first timeline in his dream. During the days when the Death Eaters were collapsing, he also held onto this expectation, and finally drowned in the abyss of expectation. But when he fell, that world ushered in the light, and the violence of the Death Eaters pushed that world toward normalcy.

So it turns out—he was the darkness.

"When I killed you, your eyes were lifeless, and there was a murderous aura between your brows. You looked like you'd been tormented for days. What? Can an outer god harm you?"

"It can't really affect reality," she continued. "It can only torment your mind and make you sink into illusions."

Have you ever felt your skin wriggling? It's like there are a thousand needles stuck in every pore, and every blood vessel is bleeding—

"Compared to mere torture, this is nothing more than a tickle."

Koyatl, in the most indifferent tone, tore open his most painful, bleeding wounds and told him about them.

This immediately reminded Irving that he had been having nightmares and couldn't sleep lately.

This situation seems to have started after he took the mind of Koyatir!

Could it be that he was also afflicted by the Outer God's curse at that time?

That's very likely.

"I should have died a long time ago," she said. "I don't understand why I'm the only one who survived out of so many test subjects."

"I think it was only because I was given a second life that I was able to endure those torments, because I wouldn't take them for granted."

"Then why are you acting like you're trying to kill yourself?" Owen asked.

"Because survival means never stopping, and I'm tired."

"It's good to be tired, I often feel sleepy!" Irving lay comfortably on the armchair, looking up at the magnificent starry sky.

"But you're wrong about one thing." After a moment, he turned his head. "It wasn't that Outer God who kept you alive."

"It's ancient magic, or rather, it's that some kind of god has recognized you. Although I don't know why the phantom of Quetzalcoatl appears so clearly on you, she has confirmed your identity, which is why you possess ancient magic within you."

Owen continued, "Not everyone can accept ancient magic. Forcibly injecting it into the body will only cause the body to rush towards returning to the furnace of life. Mild cases may result in the growth of fangs, scales, tails, horns, etc., while severe cases will cause the body to collapse and turn into a blood-spurting tumor."

Victor is an expert in this field; he has used ancient magic to modify countless creatures, and the seafood in the second exam was modified in collaboration with the other party.

"I bet your childhood trauma was those tumors!" he said.

She recalled the fragments of her memory that she had seen during her first exam.

Those broken glass jars, the blood and corpses scattered on the ground, must all be remnants of that bio-engineering.

"I'll say it again." He sat up from his chair, the wind blowing across the wasteland, a reflection of the turmoil rising in his heart.

"Give me information about the Outer Gods, and I'll let you live."

"If you don't give it to me, then die!"

The wind suddenly picked up a whirring sound, causing the fragments between Koyatl's eyebrows to flutter wildly. She suddenly stood up, staring blankly at Owen.

"Mortals cannot defeat gods; humans cannot kill gods! Not even you!"

"What are you struggling with?" she asked, her expression agitated. "Aside from the last two, Hufflepuff and Merlin, the average lifespan of all the successors has been less than twenty years!"

"It's just a game, the game of the Outer God. He finds it amusing to watch ants struggle. And his enjoyment is steadily diminishing."

"It won't be long, very long, before he returns from exile. Sanchez, if I were yours, I would never reveal my identity, and then find a secluded place with your brown-haired girl to live a peaceful life."

"If you still have a life left!" Koyatl said coldly, stating a fact that the world was heading towards its end.

But Irving's expression didn't change much upon hearing the sound. He still had that nonchalant look on his face.

"Is that so?" he suddenly said mockingly.

"At least before the world ends, I can give that trashy Outer God the middle finger! While you just run away."

"If some visitor from another world were to dig up my corpse someday, he would surely be moved by my powerful fighting spirit and indomitable will, and then he would return the favor by giving me the middle finger!"

"Ha!" Irving spread his arms wide. "What an interesting soul! Perhaps someone will even shed tears for my noble soul!"

"A madman!" Koyatl said.

"Mad? Madness is great, no worries." He sang in a strange tone, then walked briskly back to the house not far away.

"I love that I walk alone in the dark alley, I love that I don't kneel, I love that I confront despair—and then laugh it off."

Go? Do you deserve it? That dashing cape...

To the sobs and roars early in the morning

"I am definitely a hero when I'm in the light!"

His voice carried far, echoing throughout this small space.

It is filled with a morbid arrogance and fearlessness.

Koyatl couldn't understand why he could mock God's incompetence before the end of the world.

Who gave him the courage?

Haven't I made myself clear enough?

Such methods, those torturous methods, are absolutely unbearable for ordinary people.

Why? This guy is still the same.

Why?

She couldn't understand it, and she probably never would!

Back in his room, Owen quickly threw away the trash and grime.

This is one of his unique skills. After being tormented by the cringe-worthy things in his first playthrough, he learned a lesson: expired emotions and memories are like junk files. If you can't bear to delete them, all that's left are troubles and entanglements.

If he couldn't let go of the story from the first playthrough, he would never have chatted and laughed with Harry and the others.

If he were worried about Outer Gods destroying the world, he wouldn't have pursued Miss Granger.

If—if only!

There are no such "what ifs" in the world.

If an alien god comes, just fuck him!

If you can't beat them, then fucking die!

What's the point of thinking so much!

It would be better to learn a couple more spells to use.

Therefore, the memory palace—activated!

Next, Owen began to devote himself to studying the fundamentals of ancient magic.

This is a profound subject.

Fundamentalism has two main principles: the principle of causality and the principle of regression.

This knowledge is extremely obscure and difficult to understand. If any other wizard were to study it thoroughly, it would take at least several years. But Owen is different; he stands on the shoulders of giants.

Muggle's shoulder.

Compared to the slow development of wizards, Muggles' philosophical progress was rapid and dramatic. In Thomas Aquinas's "Five Ways" of proof regarding the existence of God, he used causal relationships—b is the cause of a, c is the cause of b, d is the cause of c—to demonstrate that if such a causal chain exists, then there must be a first mover, the so-called necessary ultimate cause, namely, God. (This differs from our understanding of causal loops; his should be described as a causal chain.)

In the principle of causality, everything is interconnected, leaving room for the first cause.

And then bring it into magic.

Ancient magic is the First Cause deduced by the inheritors.

Everything begins with the great One, and from the One, distinctions arise.

The principle of regression means that all things eternally tend to converge, that is, magic always tends to converge, it is moving closer to ancient magic. This is a trend, an objective phenomenon. Just as Muggles discovered why apples fall to the ground instead of the sky, and thus summarized the law of universal gravitation, wizards have also discovered from magic that they are all moving closer to ancient magic, this principle of regression.

No wonder—he can add ancient magic into ordinary spells; he messed up the cause and effect. Magic originally originated from ancient magic—of course it would aggregate.

Therefore, it seems that this should not be called ancient magic at all, but rather primordial magic, source magic, origin magic, or something similar to better reflect its characteristics.

After understanding this principle within the illusion.

Owen began to focus on learning how to use these two characteristics of ancient magic to deduce the magic he wanted.

This is a very interesting process.

In this process, he began to discover that he no longer needed to recite spells, but could directly deduce any spell by using the causal principles of ancient magic. Of course, this would be very troublesome and impractical, but the pleasure of this research was intoxicating.

He soon became engrossed in experimenting with deducing spells.

In this process, Owen was able to deduce almost the entire evolution of the spell over thousands of years, taking the simplest unlocking spell—the Alohomor Opening—as an example.

He could deduce the original appearance of the spell before it was cast—the door was wide open, and the spell could break the lock, but sometimes it would leave a smoking hole in the keyhole.

In its previous form, it was called "Open Sesame." It involved tearing the door off the hinge and chopping it into firewood.

The spells used before were all quite crude, lacking the subtlety of "Open the Cave of Arahomon".

This deductive spell allows him to clearly understand the development process of a spell. It is absolutely the most powerful aid in inventing new spells and countering other spells.

For example, he can now try to deduce the counter-curse of the Divine Edge Without Shadow.

Or perhaps—a killing curse?

Hmm—this is a big project, let's talk about it later.

The most important thing now is to get out of here.

Then Owen began to devote all his energy to returning his spiritual world to ancient magic.

As long as this world belongs to ancient magic, it will naturally collapse and disappear.

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Farewell—friends, family, lovers, and all the names in the world that point to you.

In reality...

In the secluded room of the kitchen, where Mrs. Hufflepuff rests in peace, a simple yet heartwarming funeral is taking place.

Farewell—you have rested from the toil of this world, bid farewell to humanity, and returned to your heavenly home. My beloved, may you be forever happy on the other side.

In a solemn atmosphere, the red-haired Weasleys formed a circle.

They stood quietly where the malt had sprouted and grown, mourning the sorrowful people who had lived in the earth.

It was a mutilated body inside the coffin.

Besides the Weasley family members, even Ron's parents and grandfather were there.

Harry, Hermione, and the other professors were all watching from the sidelines.

After all, the wizard buried here is not just someone's mother or ancestor; she is also a hero who saved Hogwarts and the wizarding world.

Her achievements should not be forgotten, but rather engraved in stone so that they will still be remembered by the world ten thousand years from now.

"Shane Mave Weasley." Mr. Septimius Weasley held a yellowed parchment scroll in his hands and recounted her achievements in a solemn and sorrowful voice.

From her account, the wizards around her learned what this hero from hundreds of years ago had done for them.

"Your body may decay, but your spirit will live on forever."

May your descendants find solace in their grief.

Then all the wizards present raised their wands.

The glow on the top of the wand was like stars fallen to earth.

Amidst the somber atmosphere, Mr. Septimus scooped up a handful of soil and sprinkled it onto the pure white coffin.

The wizard's funeral was very simple.

Compared to Muggle methods, they simplified almost all unnecessary procedures.

The only difference is that at the funeral, relatives will break the wizard's wand and place it on the coffin. This is a long-standing tradition, and the broken wand signifies that the wizard is saying goodbye to this world forever.

This has continued from a thousand years ago to the present day.

However, since it is a tradition, not all wizards will abide by it.

Some wizards will keep the wands of their ancestors as a form of solace.

Some of them have no descendants, and no one has the right to break the wand of the deceased.

Some wizards would place their wands intact into the hands of the deceased, allowing them to rest in peace.

This conceals their hope that the deceased can be resurrected.

In short, a wand represents a certain connection between a wizard and this world. In the magical world, the wand is the most important weapon, ritual object, and funerary object. It almost connects the wizard's life and death, existence and nothingness.

As for Shani's crystal wand, Dumbledore would naturally not allow it to be broken or buried.

After all, it was the wand of the previous heir, and perhaps it held deeper secrets, secrets that they urgently needed.

And so, the simple funeral came to a hasty end.

Without lingering, Dumbledore turned and left.

The wizarding world has been far from peaceful during this period. Since Grindelwald arrived in North America, more and more intelligence has been sent back to Hogwarts.

It was then that they realized that attacks targeting wizards were not unique to Britain.

The whole of North America was in chaos. The Purifiers were an even more evil organization than the Death Eaters, because what they wanted was to cleanse all the wizards in North America, while the Death Eaters were just trying to rule.

In comparison, the Death Eaters seem to have become righteous.

In addition, The Daily Prophet published several disturbing reports.

Muggles discovered many Muggle corpses along the eastern coast of the island of Britain.

The new Muggle prime minister also contacted the Minister of Magic several times because many people had disappeared without a trace.

In any case, the Prime Minister placed all the blame on the minister.

I heard that Mr. Crouch also lost a verbal battle with a knight who was then the Cabinet Secretary, and in any case, he got a bad experience at Downing Street.

The Auror command had to resume high-intensity operations, marking another long period of overtime work since the World Cup.

"professor!"

Dumbledore wasn't fast, so it wasn't difficult for Hermione to catch up with him.

"I want to visit the St. Gomans Hospital for Magical Injuries."

"Miss Granger, didn't you go there yesterday?" The principal stopped and said with a hint of worry on his face.

"Yesterday—it was yesterday, today."

"Alright, Miss Granger, I think the healers at St. Goman's Hospital for Magical Injuries and Sicknesses will have a solution; they're professionals," the old headmaster reassured Hermione, though he probably didn't even believe it himself.

The curse rebound incident that happened to Irving and Koyatl is far from simple.

There has only been one instance in history where the Killing Curse bounced back: Harry's mother's love bounced back Voldemort's Killing Curse.

(End of this chapter)