It turned out there was no escaping Madam Pomfrey's care. She sent a house-elf for me, which I really should have anticipated. I ended up listening to a thirty-minute lecture about stupid decision-making and recklessness.
She bluntly told me I was mentally unstable and should consider visiting a mind healer.
As if I would even entertain the idea of visiting some obviously unqualified wizard! I respect her, and I'm a little scared of her for some reason, but she's clearly a bit crazy—Anyway, once I was done with all that, I went to the Room of Requirement and slept like a baby.
I woke up sometime later to the somewhat playful nudging of Hogwarts—she was using our connection to create this tugging feeling—I have no idea where she learned to do that, but I suspect Luna somehow taught her.
I asked her what she wanted, but... nothing. She wanted nothing. I wanted to be mad, believe me, but I couldn't—it was a truly ridiculous situation that I'm sure, if I told someone, they'd laugh and call me crazy.
Now that I'm awake, I went into meditation to check on what I gained after yesterday's duel. There wasn't much—just a little magic that I don't think would have taken me more than two weeks of sitting around to acquire, along with the spell that Death gave me in exchange for Voldemort's soul.
Now that I think about it, that spell is quite self-serving; it just uses me as a medium to enable Death to directly intervene and kill whoever I use the spell on, as long as they are not stronger than her—and let's face it, there probably couldn't be more than two or three beings stronger than her...
And oh, how could I forget that I gained control over Voldemort's slaves? Hahaha! These fools won't know what hit them.
After that, I entered my soulscape to see if there was still any lingering connection to Fate, and I'm glad to say I found none.
Also, my soul feels somehow stronger. I still haven't studied souls enough to know the reason, but I'll start doing that after I'm done with today's ritual.
Oh, yeah, the ritual! Susan's question caught me off guard yesterday—I couldn't admit that I forgot when the ritual was supposed to begin, so I just decided it would last 24 hours—the results will still be the same, but the feelings of hunger, thirst, and exhaustion that everyone will experience during these 24 hours will be very beneficial.
I don't need them to be more arrogant than they already are—and after they go through twenty-four hours of no food, no water, no energy, and just constant struggle to stay awake—they will feel they have earned whatever benefits they're going to receive, and this is good.
Now let's start doing my job as a sage and purify the nature around us.
I lost track of time, only waking up because Dobby was calling for me—there was food on the table, so I started eating while listening to him complain about my unhealthy lifestyle—maybe making him my butler wasn't the best choice after all.
Ah, who am I kidding, it's a great choice.
I made my way to the Great Hall, where everyone was already gathered and waiting. The hall had been reconfigured—it was now just a huge room with ritual circles on the ground, runes and symbols scattered everywhere.
We were gathering in the central circle, meaning the first one; there's still two more outer circles. The one in the middle is connected to seven other circles where each has a different function, while the last circle works as a boundary line, ensuring no interruptions. This is all connected by lines, where the shape of a star is visible in the middle of the first but fades the longer these lines stretch out…
After checking the runes and symbols one last time, I finally shifted my attention to the people who hadn't shut up since I arrived.
My god, do they talk too much!
"Okay, everyone, shut up, sit down, and listen. The ritual will start in five minutes and continue for the next twenty-four hours. Everyone will be here the entire time. The longer you stay awake, persist, and persevere, the better the benefits. But no matter what, you will not be leaving here until it's all over. I will be handing you the ritual incantation in English and in Latin. Don't pretend to be smart and read the one you're absolutely sure you won't fail in pronouncing—you start the incantation after you poke your finger with the needle Hogwarts will provide each and every one of you—after that, you just keep repeating the incantation as many times as you can," I stated with finality in my voice.
Doing the whole incantation thing was actually useless, but they didn't need to know that…
I snapped my fingers, and papers began falling from the ceiling, creating a bit of chaos, but that was fine…
Each person grabbed a paper and began reading and familiarizing themselves with what was written inside…
____xxxxxx_____xxxxxx____\_\
* Per gratiam nature et magie,
Voco virtutes.
Ab terra et aere, igne et mari,
Magiam evocans, liberi esse possim.
Tenebras purga, me purifica,
Lumina affer et gratiam concede.
Per voluntatem et verba nunc accendo,
Fluxus potentiae, pura et clara.
Sicuti loquor, sic fiat,
Magia naturae per me fluit.*
*By the grace of nature and magic,
I invoke the forces.
From the earth and air, fire and sea,
Calling forth magic, I may be free.
Cleanse the darkness, purify me,
Bring forth light, and grant me grace.
By will and words, I now ignite,
The flow of power, pure and bright.
As I speak, so shall it be,
The magic of nature flows through me.*
__xxxxxxx___xxxxx_____
"Now then, any questions before we start?" I asked, and a Gryffindor first-year student raised his hand nervously. Arching an eyebrow, I gestured for him to ask his question.
"Um, what happens when we want to go to the bathroom?" he asked, and I felt like a double idiot—one for hearing the question and the other for not having explained about this beforehand.
"Oh, well, you don't," I replied with a crooked smile. He froze as if I had just told him it was the end of the world, and so did the rest. I couldn't help but start laughing….
"Ah, that was a good laugh. Don't worry about anything like that during the ritual. All you have to focus on is sitting on your knees, pointing your wand to the ground in front of you, and chanting what I just gave you with full concentration. Don't look at your friends, don't get distracted, just chant and chant until you can't anymore," I said seriously.
"Also, do not at any point try to talk to anyone because you will ruin your effort and the effort of those closest to you. Just keep chanting, channeling magic again and again until I tell you to stop."
With that settled, I began coordinating with the teachers, urging them along until the ritual finally started….
xxxx
24 hours later~
The air in the Great Hall hung thick and heavy, a mist of light blue magical energy visible to the naked eye.
It was accompanied by the smells of sweat and the tired murmurs of incantations, rugged voices, bloodshot eyes, and the hunched backs of everyone—students and professors alike—painting a vivid picture of just how exhausting this entire ritual ordeal was.
It had been 24 hours of continuous magic depletion and incantations—the only reason no one had given up or even messed things up was the support circles I had prepared previously for an entirely different purpose, and the very subtle and frequent use of mass compulsion—the actual ritual had just begun, bringing with it an urgent and overwhelming need for sleep, making everyone here finally lose their senses and slumber...
While they slept, I began checking the results of this entire endeavor—all parasitic entities had been extracted and contained, just as I had intended. The ritual was still ongoing, and purification was starting to take effect on the castle first; soon, it would be everyone else's turn.
This whole situation hadn't been needed or even planned, but it had worked out wonderfully. I had already informed the house-elves to transfer everyone to their beds after the ritual was done and tasked them with preparing plenty of juice to be ready by everyone's bedside when they first woke up and more than plenty of food for later…
I think this whole situation might just yield many unexpected results…
I was starting to feel heavy; I needed to sleep too, I guess...
Suddenly, I found myself standing in the same colorful place where I had first met the old man.
What happened? Had I died already? No, I hadn't. I hadn't even begun my job yet, so what was the reason for being here? I started walking and looking around, hoping to find the old man so he could clarify the situation.
"Hello! Old man? Are you in here?" I shouted after a while—it was boring to keep walking without finding anyone, plus I had things to do.
"Ah, right. I forgot that I brought you here," I heard the old man say—we both knew he was lying, but at the same time, I myself couldn't find anything to say back…
"Yeah, sure. So lay it on me, old man. What happened that made you bring me here without any prior notice? And at a critical time, no less?" I asked, my voice somewhat agitated.
"Ah, don't worry about anything else while with me—and I brought you here to discuss all your questionable decisions so far," he said, his voice sounding smug for some reason, as if he had just won something I wasn't aware of.
"Okay then. Tell me," I replied. I was ready to argue that all my decisions had been impeccable, but even I knew better than to engage him on that topic.
Despite his laid-back demeanor, he was still the creator.
"Okay, let's start with some of the side effects of you being in the $&@$@—or as you call it, the void—while being a mortal. Maybe I should have told you this the first time we met, but I wanted to see what would happen to you, so I didn't…
You see, your soul adapted to that place, which has left you with a lot of advantages such as your ever-growing potential and disadvantages like you being time-challenged.
This means that until your soul adapts to being within time laws once again, you will find yourself losing track of how long it has been or how long it's going to be, etc." Hmm, I can work with this…
"You've also developed an arrogant, ignorant, and somewhat skewed sense of existence. I won't elaborate on this one because I find it amusing and want to see what it will make you do." Great, that's what I was missing—being entertainment for the creator…
"There's also the fact that you made the foolish decision to manipulate your emotions without considering the repercussions or having sufficient information on the topic. Your only references were a megalomaniac, a depressed teen, and your own skewed train of thought. Are you with me so far?" This one felt like a personal attack on me…
I couldn't answer him. I wanted to refute him, especially on the topic of emotions, but I knew better, so I simply wanted to know why he thought so.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm with you, but can you elaborate on what you said last?" I asked.
"Hmm, oh, well, you see, you're a mortal. You were damaged, you survived, and you fixed the damage, but that didn't mean everything was fine. So when you played with your emotions and memories, you made small mistakes. You were arrogant enough not to find more sources of information about the topic, and you failed to notice that after fixing your emotional center, it would do its job and regulate your emotions—this means the memories you have with loose emotional connections—your emotional center is now randomly strengthening and weakening them.
You've been lucky so far, but you will need to rework everything you've done. It will be long and tedious; it will require real-life references that you do not have, and you might not even succeed in the end," he said. All I could take from his words was that I had messed up.
"Okay, I still don't understand why I'm here, though. I get it, I messed up, but I'm sure I'll find a way to fix it," I said confidently.
"If you think that, then you still don't get it, but that's okay. You haven't tested how much of a mistake you made," the old man told me, then continued, "Anyway, I'll be helping you with this by sending you to another reality for a job. No, you cannot refuse it. Yes, it's necessary. Yes, you will get the details later." Ah, I had forgotten just how annoying it was to talk to him.
"Okay, but what about my current job? You know I still haven't started it," I asked.
"Oh, right now, you have no chance of winning. Thus, completing this job will be very hard—that's also one of the reasons I'm sending you on this job—to make you stronger. Everything that's happened until now was just to help you anchor yourself into my multiverse and to solve the immediate problem. Or do you think everything went your way just because?" he told me; his last line hit especially hard... I guess that answered another question I had…
"Okay, I get it. Everything that's happened until now had nothing to do with me and everything to do with you," I said with a resigned tone.
"Good, you understand. Anyway, you'll first return to your body. Your ritual will do what it's supposed to do, and then when the time comes, you will be transported to your new reality. You will know everything when the time comes—for now, goodbye," he said with a smile and snapped his fingers while giving me a smug grin the whole time...
The next thing I knew, I felt very pure wisps of magical energy—I believed to be from the ritual—entering my body as I drifted off to sleep.
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