At Hogwarts, the story begins with deconstructing Avada Kedavra.

Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office.

"Albus, are you sure you want to let him face the 'Fivefold Torture' alone?" Professor Flitwick nervously rubbed his hands. "After all, this is the ultimate trial that Lady Rowena left for her most core successor. No one has ever done it in a thousand years... Besides, the loser will be left in the tower."

"Felius, trust your student."

What we see are merely remnants of the past. But he, perhaps, can see the future.

……

Before Lucian's consciousness had fully recovered from the dizziness of traversing space, his ears were filled with a deafening roar that could crush eardrums.

Lucien found himself standing on a spiral corridor with no end in sight. Above, below, left, and right were bottomless darkness, with only hundreds of millions of books like a flock of startled birds, swirling and swooping wildly in this infinite space.

Every book is roaring.

Some were reciting incorrect black magic spells, some were arguing about contradictory historical dates, and others were screaming false truths in shrill high-pitched voices.

Countless glowing runes, like a blizzard, filled every inch of space, frantically drilling into Lucian's eyes and ears.

"Truth is often drowned out by noise."

Rowena Ravenclaw's voice echoed through the hall, only to be instantly shattered by the roar of the sea of ​​books: "In infinite information, fill the only void."

Lucian didn't cover his ears, because it would be futile.

An ordinary wizard would probably be frantically grabbing at those books by now, trying to discern Rowena's hints, only to exhaust their energy amidst endless errors.

But he simply lowered his eyes slightly.

In an instant, the noisy world lost its color in his eyes.

The screaming books and the wildly dancing runes all turned into gray noise. That was background noise that had to be filtered out.

He was looking for that "point".

The eye of a typhoon is always calm. No matter how violent the magical turbulence within this library may be, it always revolves around an absolutely still axis.

Within the horizon, a vacuum zone appeared amidst the gray turmoil.

There was nothing there. No light, no books, only a silence enveloped by turbulent currents.

Lucian took his first steps.

A gold-embossed copy of "The Secret After Merlin's Death" flew past his cheek, screaming alluring lies at him; a copy of "The Elixir of Immortality" struck him, trying to get his attention.

He ignored them, walked straight past the priceless fakes, and headed towards the seemingly empty corner.

Then, he stretched out his hand into the void.

The moment your fingers close, you feel the texture of leather.

He pulled an invisible book out of thin air.

Lucian opened the cover.

The pages are blank.

The moment the book was opened, the swirling books seemed to be choked, instantly falling silent. Like weary birds returning to their nests, the wildly swirling books flew neatly back to the bookshelf.

The world returned to silence.

Only that book lay quietly in his hands, the only blank space amidst endless information.

The ground began to tremble, the spiral corridor collapsed, and he was pulled down to the next level of the trial.

……

When both feet touch the ground again

A huge domed stone chamber came into view.

A magnificent brass celestial globe floated in the center of the room. Dozens of metal spheres representing the stars were orbiting in complex paths, but this sophisticated machine was clearly malfunctioning.

"Fix it."

The voice rang out again, "Let the stars begin to turn."

Lucian approaches the globe.

Every part is perfect, every component conforms to the blueprints. But when they are assembled, they fail to function.

Why?

Lucian's gaze followed the flow of magic backwards, finally settling on the thick main axis at the very center.

That axis represents the earth, and all the orbits of the stars are centered on it, forcibly designed to revolve around it.

The geocentric model.

Lucian scoffed.

This was a truth from a thousand years ago, but it is now a fallacy.

As long as this central axis representing absolute authority remains, no matter how many times it's repaired, this machine is destined to malfunction. Because its fundamental axioms are flawed.

This is a test of courage: do you dare to overthrow the pedestals of your predecessors?

Lucian raised his wand and aimed it at the main axis that symbolized the unshakeable foundation.

"Reducto (to be completely destroyed)."

Without the slightest hesitation.

A blinding blue light exploded, and the brass main shaft turned to dust with a deafening roar. Without its support, all the star spheres plummeted instantly.

"Wingardium Leviosa (Lingering Spell)".

Lucian waved his wand, and his immense mental power took over all the stars.

In his vision, the lines of magic finally broke free of their knots. Following the laws of universal gravitation, he pushed the golden sphere representing the sun toward the center, then pulled the other planets into their new orbits.

The first one returned to orbit.

Then came the second one, and the third one.

Without any correction, once the order is restored, operation becomes instinctive.

The celestial globe emitted a pleasant hum, and the stars glided smoothly along their new trajectories, projecting a dazzling star map onto the dome.

"Wisdom is not just about repairing, but about reshaping."

The door to the ultimate end slowly opened, and Rowena's afterimage nodded slightly behind it. "You are not bound by my era."

……

The last layer.

There were no traps, no monsters, only pure white.

This is a minimalist circular hall. In the center of the hall stands a stone platform about half a person's height.

On the stone platform, there was a crown.

That is Ravenclaw's crown, or rather, its perfect phantom embodied in the rules.

As Lucian approached, the crown did not glow, but a voice rang directly in his mind.

The voice was gentle and knowledgeable, like a mother's murmur.

It is answering.

Before Lucien could even ask a question, it began to answer all his questions: the reasons for the gaps in ancient magic, the eighteen ways to dismantle Horcruxes, and even the ultimate evolutionary direction of the gray vortex within him...

A wealth of knowledge poured into his brain like sweet dew.

The thrill of "omniscience" is enough to make one forget to breathe. Once you wear it, there are no mysteries, no unknowns; the truth of the entire world will grovel at your feet.

Lucian reached for the crown.

Simply touch it, and you can ascend to godhood.

However, at that very moment, he stopped.

The gray vortex in my eyes reversed wildly, and the vision of my mind tore a hole in this beautiful illusion.

If one were to gain omniscience at this point, the rest of one's life would simply be a boring series of spoilers.

Moreover, is this omniscience the omniscience that comes from merging with the world?

Has Rowena already attained communion with the heavens?

"Don't you want to know everything?" Rowena's afterimage appeared on the opposite side of the stone platform, her eyes filled with pity.

Lucian withdrew his hand.

"Everyone has their limits."

He looked at the tempting crown as if it were a spoiled cake.

"To know everything is to know nothing. If I already know the ending of the story, then the process of turning the pages of the book loses its meaning."

He turned around, his back to the crown that countless people dreamed of, and walked towards the exit.

"I only need what I know and what I can deduce. The rest is the joy of exploration."

Behind him, the crown emitted a resentful hum before dissipating into countless points of light.

This is precisely the quality that Rowena Ravenclaw most hoped her daughter Helena would learn, but was unable to teach her until her death—restraint.