Moonlight condensed into a pale frost above the Forbidden Forest.
It pierced through the dark clouds, and shone into the perpetually dim depths of the forest. In the clearing in front of the bronze door, a wild storm of magic raged. Two figures collided and crossed at speeds far beyond human capability.
The air was filled with the scents of blazing fire and decay.
Each clash of magic produced tiny fractures in space.
"Kneel! Submit to me! Then let me replace you!"
Before the words had even fallen, a blinding violet light burst from the tip of the old wizard's staff. Lirim tilted his body slightly to the side, avoiding the light. The ground where he had been standing instantly corroded into an enormous crater.
Black smoke curled eerily from its edges.
This was obviously ancient magic, distinct from modern, mainstream charms. It would be unfamiliar to most modern wizards, but as the King of Ancient Wizards, Lirim could not fail to recognize it.
After all...
The opponent was another version of himself.
Or perhaps... not him.
He had never fully understood it.
"Starting off with 'Touch of Decay,' huh?" Lirim whistled. "Looks like you really are me... me who chose a different path. You're certainly ruthless enough."
Lirim's tone carried a hint of genuine emotion as he spoke.
The old wizard did not answer. Instead, he raised both hands high above his head and began chanting an obscure spell. The sky abruptly darkened as clouds gathered at a visible speed.
Lightning flickered faintly within the cloud layer.
"Heaven's Punishment Lightning? How cliché," Lirim thought before he curled his lip, and his wand drew a perfect circle in the air. Countless tiny golden runes shimmered into existence and formed a semi-transparent barrier.
Almost simultaneously, bolts of lightning as thick as water barrels fell from the sky, illuminating the entire Forbidden Forest as if it were daytime.
However, the moment they touched the golden barrier, the terrifying power refracted in all directions. The ancient trees bore the brunt of it... hundreds of thousands of centuries-old giants were reduced to charcoal in an instant.
It was a scene of ruin.
Lirim and the old wizard calling himself the "King of All Worlds" fought fiercely; each exchange shook heaven and earth. Thunder, flames, and spatial cracks danced wildly, uprooting trees and tearing deep chasms in the ground.
Yet, this destruction seemed confined within the strange domain by some mysterious force.
The outside world remained untouched.
After a bout of confrontation...
"That's all you've got?" Lirim hadn't moved from where he stood the entire time. Bathed in golden light, he appeared like a god descending upon the world, and every attack from outside seemed no more than mist before him.
"This is only the beginning, lucky one. You have no idea how powerful I truly am!" The old wizard abruptly raised his arm and began to chant another incomprehensible spell.
Instantly, a streak of violet fire condensed in the air and shot toward Lirim. The destructive light cracked the earth wherever it passed.
Everything turned to ash.
"Mirror Reversal."
Lirim tapped his toes lightly and drifted backward like a specter. His left hand formed a strange hand seal, drawing three silver arcs in the air. The surging violet flame line struck the arcs and rebounded back along its original path.
The hastily conjured black mist barrier before the old wizard sizzled as it burned in his flames.
"Impressive strength."
The wizard wiped the blood from the burn on his cheek. Suddenly, he flipped his staff, turning it into a bone-carved wand, and stabbed it into the ground. The soil began to churn as if alive.
Countless spike-covered vines burst forth, each topped with a crimson flower that exudes a rotting stench.
"Did you learn the forbidden rites of the Dark Wizard Sacraments? No wonder you're the discarded branch of destiny."
Upon seeing this, Lirim clicked his tongue in surprise and released starlike particles from his palm, creating a shimmering galaxy.
"My turn."
He chuckled softly.
Tens of thousands of light specks surged forth in a dazzling torrent, vaporizing every devil vine they touched. The still-raging stream of light slammed into the bronze door, causing the runes on its surface to blaze as brightly as daylight.
Yet it failed to cause even the slightest damage.
This was within Lirim's expectations.
"Void Rend!" The old wizard roared. He thrust both palms forward, and a twisted crack in space split open from nothingness like a ravenous beast lunging to devour Lirim.
Seeing this, Lirim immediately used teleportation, his figure flickering away and reappearing a hundred meters distant.
"That's all you can do?" The old wizard sneered mockingly.
Lirim, slowly descending from midair, remained calm.
"Falling Stars!" His eyes snapped open. With his palm facing upward, dozens of radiant orbs carrying the aura of total annihilation descended from above and crashed toward the old wizard.
"Pathetic."
The old wizard let out a cold laugh, crossed his arms, and murmured a defensive spell.
A dense energy barrier formed instantly, blocking every falling orb of light. Yet, at that very moment, Lirim silently appeared behind the old wizard.
"You're too focused on defending," Lirim murmured. A mass of eerie blue magic condensed in his right palm and blasted into the old wizard's back.
"Ever heard of dual cultivation of magic and combat?"
The force of the blow was astonishing.
BOOM!
A massive explosion swept outward. The old wizard's body was sent flying and smashed through several towering trees before he managed to stabilize himself. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth; anger flickered in his eyes.
"Do you think you can defeat me that easily?" He snorted coldly, raising both hands high. The air around him twisted violently as numerous purple-black shields circled his body.
They crackled with sharp snapping sounds.
"Then...let me see your limits." Lirim's lips curved slightly, and curiosity gleamed in his eyes. He clearly wanted to know how far this discarded fragment of fate—this version of himself—had managed to go.
In truth...
Even now, he was only daring to unleash a small portion of his power within this special pocket realm. Fortunately, they were fighting here; otherwise, he wouldn't dare cast these "simple" spells in the real dimension.
As for the reason...
Only Lirim knew. Ian had long suspected that Lirim... Merlin had experienced something unusual since returning to Hogwarts.
In fact, in the normal dimension, he could not cast spells freely like an ordinary wizard. Even simple magic required extreme caution, as if he were restrained or weakened.
Clearly, there was something he feared, or something that restricted him.
Of course, in this strange world, Lirim's shackles had loosened slightly. The fact that he could cast spells on Snape and maintain them for so long proved it.
"I am the King of All Worlds! I have no limits!"
It was unclear whether he had watched Ultraman, but he was certainly stealing someone's catchphrase. As he spoke, the shields around him suddenly transformed into dozens of black serpents that shot toward Lirim.
"At least I didn't sink into the mire of black magic. King of All Worlds? Now that's a joke."
Lirim snapped his fingers, and every black serpent froze instantly, turning into ice sculptures that shattered into glittering shards.
"Frost's Kiss?" The old wizard's expression shifted.
"You actually mastered the Northern Witch's secret art..."
He looked utterly incredulous.
"If you lived in a world with the Raven, you'd know that becoming stronger by sleeping with two witches is fine, but black magic will lead to your downfall."
"Unfortunately, you're not that lucky. The surprise comes next."
Suddenly, Lirim spread his arms wide, and his robes snapped violently in the wind. His eyes turned completely silver-white.
Countless tiny spatial fissures appeared around his body. The land within a hundred-meter radius began to bulge unnaturally, and muffled thunder rumbled from beneath the earth.
The old wizard finally showed true fear.
"You're insane! Summoning a leyline tide here? Do you have any idea how unstable this place is? You might bring down..."
He didn't finish.
The whole world seemed to be wrinkled by an invisible giant's hand. The ground heaved and collapsed. Trees were flung skyward like toy blocks and shredded by an unseen force.
"This is the Fourfold Seal. I can tell you've never learned proper magic." Lirim sighed with pity. He bit down hard on his tongue, spraying blood mist into the air, which condensed into a complex sigil.
Pillars of light rose simultaneously in the east, south, west, and north, forming a pyramid-shaped barrier. Almost at the same moment, the earth surged like a stormy sea, and tens of tons of soil erupted a hundred meters into the air.
More than two square kilometers of the Forbidden Forest disintegrated into ash within the turbulent magical currents. But this was merely an external illusion; the true force barreling toward the old wizard was far more terrifying.
"You want to trap me in your power?"
"Damn it!"
"You won't succeed!"
Seizing the moment, the old wizard tore apart the chains around him. The top of his bone staff shimmered with a mirror-like reflection.
"Taste your own masterpiece!"
He tried to reflect Lirim's magic back at him.
However...
Lirim suddenly laughed. Instead of evading, he stepped forward with his hands crossed.
"This is what you failed to reach—the raven's magic, the art of reverse entropy."
The reflected sealing magic went berserk for an instant, then collapsed backward as if someone had pressed the rewind button.
At the same time, the reflected spell cast by the old wizard began moving in reverse.
"Impossible!" The old wizard's eyes bulged and his face twisted in disbelief. Yes, he could feel the meaning woven into the spell.
"This is...the Law of Time."
He knew time magic, of course, but this kind of magic shouldn't be used so casually or freely. Such forces touched the very essence of the world.
"Study more, and you'll never be wrong. Too bad you seem to have stopped learning. You can't even clearly recognize my power anymore."
A nacre-like glow radiated from Lirim's entire body, and his hair lifted in a windless tremor.
"Welcome... to my domain. I stand above the clouds, a mimicry of the gods. You may call me the King of Myriad Forms."
Yes, he was indulging in a chūni moment.
That was just how Merlin was—always a dramatic, self-indulgent fool.
He snapped his fingers lightly. Suddenly, the old wizard's left arm was severed cleanly at the elbow, as if removed by space itself.
Strangely, not a drop of blood flowed. The severed arm floated in midair, then broke apart into glowing butterflies that fluttered toward the bronze door. The old wizard staggered back dozens of meters; the stump of his left arm squirmed with fresh growth.
Within a single breath, the arm had completely regenerated.
Clearly…
He had undergone magical self-modifications far beyond anything Voldemort had attempted: biological transformation.
"Do you think I don't have trump cards?" The old wizard laughed darkly, ripped out a strand of his white hair, and tossed it upward.
The hair ignited into a ghastly green flame that lit the night like the realm of the dead. Before his voice finished echoing, the entire sky cracked open with a monstrous rift, and murky Underworld water poured down like a waterfall.
Wherever it touched, space twisted and transformed.
Just a few splashing droplets were enough to corrode the ground into bottomless holes.
In that moment...
Lirim's brows finally furrowed.
"The River of the Dead? I really underestimated you, underestimated your limits. So, are you me, or are you that Merlin I always imagined myself to be?"
Muttering softly, Lirim lifted his hand and cast a spell.
What he summoned was not the discarded version of himself but the chance to break through his inner demons.
The battle continued.
The two ancient beings clashed violently within this twisted domain, each collision of magic causing small-scale spatial collapses.
Yet, at the center of this chaos, the bronze door remained utterly unmoved. The runes carved upon it flickered with an eerie light, as if admiring a battle that no one else would ever witness.
The battle was ferocious.
Everything in this strange corner of the Forbidden Forest had already been erased.
However the outside world remained completely oblivious.
Inside Hogwarts Castle, everything was peaceful as always.
In the Gryffindor Tower common room, a few lower-year students played wizard chess by the fireplace.
In the kitchens, house-elves were busy preparing breakfast for the next morning. Only atop the Astronomy Tower was Professor Trelawney murmuring in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.
"There… lies misfortune. A great misfortune…"
Not that anyone was there to hear it. Even if someone had been, they wouldn't have believed the Divination professor.
From the outside, looking toward the Forbidden Forest the forest appeared serene.
As though nothing had happened at all.
No one knew that a terrifying battle raged deep within its heart. Moonlight continued to fall gently on the castle as if nothing in the world had gone amiss.
…
The instant he stepped through the bronze door's vortex, time stretched like drawn silk. When Dumbledore's boots touched solid earth, the damp scent of morning dew washed over him.
Upon entering the door, for the old man, barely any time seemed to have passed. He stared blankly at the valley before him. His blue eyes, hidden behind half-moon glasses, trembled with rare emotion.
The rising sun gilded the thatched rooftops, and the creaking of the mill wheel echoed faintly through the mist.
This was Godric's Hollow in 1899—every cobblestone was in its rightful place in his memory. Near the house with blue window frames, a boy sat under an apple tree reading.
"It is myself... yet this is not the past." He thought clearly, yet his body took an involuntary step forward, which he forced himself to halt.
His nails dug deep into his palm, yet he felt no pain. A robin with a red breast landed on his shoulder and chirped a melody that overlapped perfectly with a distant memory from long ago.
The next moment...
The wild rose bushes outside the fence rustled, and a freckle-faced little girl popped out.
"Albus!" She held up a dandelion covered in dirt. "Look what I found!"
Dumbledore felt as if he had been struck by lightning. This voice—Ariana's childish voice—haunted every nightmare he had ever had. In a daze, he saw his younger self raise his wand.
"Don't bother me!"
The voice was cold.
(End of Chapter)
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