You know, now that I actually think about it, this is the first time I've talked with someone for a prolonged period of time—and no, the old man doesn't count.
Still, to think my first friend is a soul stuck between life and death.
It reminds me of that saying, "Birds of a feather flock together," hahahahaha.
Seeing me laugh, Harry suddenly looked at me and asked, "Why are you laughing?"
"It just occurred to me that my first friend, much like me, is a soul that didn't want to stay alive," I said with a grin, which he matched before laughing as well.
"Still, how long have we been here?" I asked him.
It's true; we've shared everything about ourselves, inspected our souls, and even reviewed our memories and read some of the stories I know.
We also figured out how to sense emotions simply because we thought it would be funny to feel secondhand embarrassment after a funny story.
*Guess what? It was*, I thought, but now I'm starting to get confused about what to do next.
"I don't know, but I'm starting to think your theory about me willingly giving you my identity was what we were supposed to do," he said.
That was indeed what we were meant to do, and I knew it from the moment I arrived here.
I just wanted to see what would happen and if there was another way because, as a soul with a partial identity myself, I understand what having no identity entails much better.
"Yeah, so before we start, is there anything you want me to do in your stead?" I asked him.
"Oh yes, just pull Dumbledore's beard for me once," he replied… I knew he was going to say that.
"So let's get this over with. I, Harry James Potter, willingly give you my identity with all that it entails. May you have a better life than I," he said.
Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by memories, feelings, and other things that I couldn't quite place. They vanished as quickly as they came, but apparently being momentarily disoriented was enough for me to miss my first friend's last moments here—and now he was truly gone.
You know, I thought I would be sad, but I don't know what I feel. Looking around, I realized I was still in the same place, so I began searching for the soul shred that was here, which after a while of walking, I found it still at the foot of the chair where it had been from the start.
Crouching down and touching it, I used my energy to scan it. It was a piece of the soul of one Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Voldemort, that Harry had spoken about.
Seizing the opportunity, I devoured it like I had done with the other soul by shredding it to pieces and absorbing it—still not before using my energy to filter out everything else.
What was left was a black blob that I discarded.
I was then shifted into a dark, gloomy room where I found the body of Harry Potter—or my body now.
I really need to solve this dissociation problem, and fast.
I touched the body, and that's how I found myself in a dark, fractured space that looked like a failed imitation of the void. After looking around for a bit, I instinctively knew I was in my mindscape, so I started observing, probing, and studying it for a while.
Mindscapes for wizards are metaphysical places that represent one of the two connection points between the soul and the body; the other one is the magical core. If the knowledge I gained from Voldemort is anything to go by…
I know this because he had done some sacrificial ritual that forcefully connected his magical core with his mindscape and body to achieve something called "the Trifecta"…
Now, with this new discovery, I started to work on how I would achieve that without relying on said ritual…
Since my mindscape already had a rudimentary level of formation, I began what I'd called "Project Void Mind"—a sophisticated way of saying I tried my hardest to make my mindscape a real representation of the void I had been in before coming here.
Some might ask why; the answer isn't that complicated.
Just because I survived there for a little while by what I now know was luck doesn't mean others can.
Consider the confusion and panic of someone entering my mindscape only to be trapped there, trying to navigate a place where sense—common or otherwise—is on vacation.
I mean, I did try my hardest to transform my mindscape into the void as I perceived it: no space, time, gravity, or direction—just a massive black void of nothingness and confusion.
After completing that, the only thing left was to make it more refined and harder to access.
What remained was sorting my memories, feelings, and stuff in between, so that's what I did.
I created an office table with a chair in the middle of my void, sat down, and started to create a book.
The book took many attempts to create because I was trying to make it using void energy while also hoping it would become semi-physical.
In the end, I succeeded. God, having intuitive aptitude is fantastic! After creating my book, which I dubbed *The Book of Knowledge*, I redesigned the desk and chair for maximum comfort.
Once I was done, I began sorting my memories, separating mine and Harry's from Voldemort's.
I did weaken the connection to the memories I had while deleting any emotions attached to Voldemort's memories…
My intention was for the life I lived before waking up to exist only as an informational reference and nothing more, though I don't know how that would work out.
Surprisingly, this whole process took the longest.
Who would've thought sorting memories would be so bothersome? You have to go through every single memory, double-check for lingering feelings, put them in memory books, sort them in the drawer, and then repeat the process all over again three times.
After sorting through everything, including the new memories I gained with the identity of Harry Potter—which, let me tell you, took the most time and hassle—it was finally time to fix my emotional center.
The representation of my emotional center in my mindscape is a small, cracked ball the size of a baseball, with different colors swirling around.
I took all the emotions I had siphoned from my memories and started injecting them into my emotional center.
After a while, I was done. The ball of emotions was now bigger, and most of the cracks had started to mend.
Relief washed over me, and I finally felt complete. I'm now Harry Potter, and I'm going to turn the world upside down.
Now then, let's go check on my soul to see what's happening there.
So I went into my soul; you know, now that I think about it, shifting between my mindscape and what I dubbed as "soulscape" is like what I imagine shifting perspectives in stories feels like.
Heh, if my life is being written as a story, this information would be very interesting for all the isekai enthusiasts.
Anyway, now that I'm looking at my soul, I can safely say that with a few finishing touches, my soul would be able to start healing.
But first, I want to organize this place. There are still some memories I took from Voldemort locked here—those with the heaviest feelings that I have to thoroughly check again before sending a copy to my mindscape.
Some might ask why? I'll explain. You see, usually all memories are stored in the subconscious of a person, and when I say all, I mean every single one from birth to death.
Now, how does the soul of a normal person carry these memories after death? The answer is that when a person dies and "they see their life flash before their eyes," that's the process of memory transfer from the body to the soul—thus answering one of the mysteries of death, memories, identities, and souls.
Now, I'm not a normal person, not by a long shot, and that complicates the situation of my soulscape.
My soul is damaged, and thus I only had very limited access to this place. But now that my soul has started healing, this will turn into almost complete access.
I say "almost" because I still need to do some things to gain full control over my soulscape and thus manipulate my soul as I please while alive—but that's for later.
Still, my soulscape now looked more vivid and real. It mirrored my mindscape in design but had a bookshelf behind the chair where my memory books are sorted, instead of them being inside three endless drawers on a desk.
Now that I've finished my job here, I'll go check on the emotional center in my soul before starting the shielding process.
The emotional center here in my soul looked just like the one in my mindscape and was almost repaired too, so all is good.
What I need to do from now on is continue strengthening my soul by saturating it with every energy I gain access to in the future and have it adapt.
Hehehe… having a soul that can adapt is cheating.
Now, for protection, the shield I put on my soul has to be the best, so I let my instincts—which have been strengthened after acquiring intuitive aptitude—take the wheel.
The result was a thin layer of void energy directly connected to and enveloping my soul, with two simple functions: adaptation and upgrade.
It will adapt to anything and shield from everything.
So as long as the shield isn't obliterated in one blow, it will adapt to the attack and upgrade—which in turn will strengthen my soul…
Looking at the result, I can only marvel at what you can do with this void energy.
*This energy is still a mystery to me even now, but using something and figuring out how it works are two different things*.
I don't know if this would be possible with any other energy, but I guess I'll know more in the future.
Now that this is done, it's time to check if my magical core is ready.
Having two magical cores merge together is suicidal, but my own magical core is just better. Now that I've stopped using void energy, the process is smoother and faster than before.
Observing the process in which my void core all but devoured the other core was a fascinating experience that gave me a lot of insight into magic.
Firstly, from my perspective, magic is a piece of creation. Now, most would argue, "How can that be?" Well, it just is.
Now, if you ask about different kinds of magic and the like, then I'll say that's just the aspect it takes depending on who uses it.
Secondly, different people understand and use magic differently depending on factors like talent, age, knowledge, species, etc.
Lastly, wizards have access to an aspect of magic that, in the right hands, can be considered either overpowered or weak—with no middle ground.
Still, that's just what I've managed to understand until now. My definition of magic could change with more knowledge… maybe?
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hunter20
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