booktalesy Chapter 279-278: Ian's Great Adventure
Chapter 279-278: Ian's Great Adventure
Chapter 279-278: Ian's Great Adventure
When everything returned to calm.
The real Dumbledore thanked him.
For the greater good.
This is definitely not just a slogan.
Rather, it was a choice that Dumbledore knew he would make in any of the possible scenarios.
Look back.
The real Dumbledore looked at the two people beside him.
"Leech from Senses." Snape's voice was laced with venom as he turned to the real Dumbledore, his eyes burning with cold fury. "Is this other version of you so unscrupulous? Do you care about nothing anymore?"
Compared to Hermione.
At this moment, Snape seemed to have guessed something as well.
There weren't many things I guessed.
So he wanted to verify with Dumbledore, who was suspicious but not yet so suspicious, but his method of verification was slightly peculiar and very characteristic of him.
Dumbledore gave a wry smile.
"Professor..." Hermione's voice was as light as a feather.
"Who exactly is that person?"
She still thought she had encountered a bootleg Dumbledore.
The doubts are the same as Snape's.
"Every wrong choice creates another version of myself." Dumbledore put away his wand and turned to face the bronze door that no longer spun out into another version of himself.
"In a sense, he is indeed me—another possible version of myself." Hermione might not quite understand this answer.
But Snape's mind was in turmoil.
The surging emotions were so intense that even a poker face couldn't hide them.
"How could such a thing happen!"
Snape's voice trembled, as if his worldview was being reshaped. He couldn't understand it before the explanation, but now that Dumbledore had given him one, he understood immediately. The Potions professors at Hogwarts were simply at a lower level; they weren't unintelligent, nor did they lack the mindset expected of wizards.
"This world is vast, and the universe is vast. There are always many things we don't know hidden there—to be honest, I'm just as surprised as you are right now."
Albus Dumbledore's voice carried his usual gentleness, and it was indeed impossible to discern his true emotions from his expression and demeanor alone.
"This is more than just surprise."
Snape clutched his head, desperately hoping he was dreaming. If there weren't other people around, he probably would have slapped himself a few times to see if that would wake him up.
of course.
Although he couldn't do it because there were people around, Snape still secretly pinched his thigh, and his skillful manner showed that he had mastered it.
no way.
With a nephew like Ian around, it's natural to wonder from time to time if you're living in a dream. The young wizards at Hogwarts simply don't understand the torment Snape has endured for over a year.
"Hiss~"
Due to excessive force.
Snape gasped.
"What's wrong, Professor?"
Hermione looked at him in confusion. The perceptive little witch noticed the unusual behavior of the Potions professor beside her, but she didn't know what had caused Snape's strange behavior.
The series of events made Hermione a little jittery.
"It's nothing."
Snape answered expressionlessly, having confirmed that he was not dreaming. He looked at Dumbledore and said, "I simply don't want to believe this right now."
"I'm not surprised, I'm shocked, I'm horrified." He voiced his inner thoughts. Hermione was easily frightened, and he was no exception, feeling lingering fear about what had just happened.
Me too.
Dumbledore returned a gentle smile.
"......"
Snape wanted to hit someone.
But he knew he couldn't beat Dumbledore and would only end up getting beaten up. So, after taking a deep breath, he changed the subject.
"What did that other version of you mean by 'abandonment'?" This was something Snape still hadn't figured out, and he was sure he could get the answer from Dumbledore.
This is true.
Dumbledore did not answer immediately. His gaze fell on Snape, who was still silently rubbing his temples—the imposter's intrusion had clearly left its aftereffects.
and this.
It's another version of what he did.
"Among countless possibilities," Dumbledore finally said softly, "there are moments when even our strongest convictions begin to waver."
"And these fluctuations could give rise to countless different possibilities." As he spoke, he turned to the bronze door, his eyes flickering slightly before pausing for a moment before continuing.
"This door seems to be able to materialize those wavering possibilities." It must be said that this is not a theory of parallel universes, but it is far more difficult to understand than the theory of parallel universes.
Hermione, for one, looked absolutely disgusted.
Snape frowned and couldn't figure it out for a long time.
What does "the possibility of wavering" mean?
He asked again.
Dumbledore wasn't in a hurry at all and patiently replied, "You can understand it this way: every choice we make in our lives has another path to development. We just didn't choose it, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen. And this door is where those unchosen possibilities are collected."
"It brings together and condenses these possibilities, resulting in the other 'me' we just faced, or rather, the aggregate of all the possibilities that I didn't choose."
Dumbledore has now made his point very clear.
Even Hermione suddenly realized.
"How can there be such magic?!"
She was horrified.
Snape's emotions were also fluctuating constantly.
Compared to Hermione.
Snape felt a growing sense of dread—he couldn't help but feel a chill, after all, it meant that if Dumbledore had made a different choice back then, the current Dumbledore might be far more terrifying than he had previously thought. The world would eventually give birth to a Dark Lord, and who knows, perhaps Dumbledore himself?
to be frank.
Snape had sensed the terrifying power of a true Dark Lord in Dumbledore, which is why he still felt terrified when he thought about it.
That's right.
Dumbledore nodded calmly.
"So, all your shameful thoughts are imprisoned inside?" Snape suddenly sneered, still unable to grasp the true purpose of the bronze door.
"To be more precise," Dumbledore sighed, "it's those possibilities that each of us, every single life, has rejected—the part that has been abandoned by this universe."
His words made Hermione's eyes widen, while Snape's eyes flickered.
"I feel like you're not telling the truth."
Snape's intuition prompted him to give Dumbledore a deep look, but the silent Dumbledore simply met his gaze calmly.
In the end, it was this double agent who couldn't hold on any longer.
"Whatever you're hiding, I just want to know if that damned brat Ian has sneaked in here?" Snape looked worriedly at the bronze door.
Well, how should I put it?
He has definitely wronged Ian.
Ian did not enter the bronze door voluntarily.
While Dumbledore and Snape were still talking outside the gate.
Ian had been sucked into the bronze gate for a while now. Time was clearly flowing at different rates on both sides, and Ian had no idea how long he had been lying on the ground.
"Uh, they even launched a mental attack upon entering?"
Ian's fingers twitched slightly.
Salty rainwater trickled down his neck and into his collar. He struggled to prop himself up, his fingertips sinking into the damp moss, the sensation as nauseating as grasping some kind of old phlegm.
Thinking about this...
Ian instantly regained his senses and got up from the ground. He quickly cast several cleansing spells on his hands, and when he cleaned himself up and looked up...
The vision was crystal clear.
Because the sun is shining brightly.
The light shone into his suddenly contracting pupils, reflecting an unbelievable scene—thirty-meter-tall ferns like giant emerald umbrellas, with vines hanging from their canopies thicker than his waist.
The air currents created by a dragonfly flapping its wings could even mess up his hair!
The dragonfly's membranous wingspan is a full four meters wide!
It felt like the whole world had been magnified!
Ping Yien took a deep breath, even feeling a little dizzy from the oxygen. Then, in the distance, came the sound of earthquake-like footsteps, and a group of sauropod dinosaurs, as large as a train, were using their long necks to pull down tender leaves from the treetops.
"Oh my god!"
Ian was stunned because he saw a huge dinosaur. Was this really the Jurassic period? He regretted not looking at the dinosaur encyclopedia Hermione had given him earlier.
of course.
Regardless of whether this was the Jurassic period or not, the dinosaurs they saw were absolutely real. Before Ian could even process the information, still filled with astonishment and uncertainty, he suddenly felt the sky darken.
The moment shadows fell upon the earth, all the dinosaurs let out terrified screams.
And the next moment.
A colossal ancient dragon swooped down from the clouds, its dark golden scales gleaming coldly in the rain, its outstretched wings obscuring half the sky. It precisely seized a fleeing giant dinosaur, its barbed tongue coiling around its prey before violently lashing it—the Tyrannosaurus Rex's spine cracked with a teeth-grinding sound.
"Ugh, another dragon."
Ian's throat was dry; he was now experiencing a bit of dragon phobia.
Fortunately, the dragon's vertical pupils suddenly turned to the ferns where he was standing, and the sulfurous breath from its nostrils instantly evaporated the rain within a hundred meters, but it still seemed completely uninterested in such a tiny creature as him.
This saved it from a fatal disaster.
Ian is now incredibly adept at slaying ancient dragons.
"Crunch, crunch!"
The dragon kept eating, and when its head swept across the ground, Ian could see the bits of dinosaur meat stuck between its teeth. He didn't know whether dragon meat or dinosaur meat tasted better.
As the saying goes, curiosity can arise in an instant.
There's just something about a foodie's soul that's hard to suppress.
"I've already entered the gate, so these creatures shouldn't respawn after they die, right?" Ian said thoughtfully, looking at the dinosaur killed by the ancient dragon.
Unlike the reconstructions he had seen on TV before, the dinosaur didn't have smooth skin; it also had a lot of feathers, making it look like a super, super, super large chicken.
I'm craving roasted chicken legs.
Ian was indeed hungry.
He was trapped in the Forbidden Forest for quite some time.
Just as he was about to snatch food from the dragon's mouth, and the ancient dragon dared to roar at him, so he would eat the ancient dragon along with him, suddenly, the ancient dragon stopped eating.
It looked around somewhat uneasily.
The sky began to change.
Ian sensed a strong aura of demonic energy.
"Wizards? Fantastic creatures?"
Ian looked up at the sky.
A crimson halo, like blood, stained the clouds as thousands of meteors tore through the atmosphere. These meteorites were not natural; Ian could see ancient runes on them that he couldn't understand.
"wizard!"
Ian was able to figure that out.
"Houichi!!"
The first runic meteorite struck the dragon's back, instantly vaporizing its dark gold scales and revealing charred bones. The dragon unleashed a deafening roar, its wings whipping up a terrifying hurricane.
just.
But it did not take flight.
There was nothing that could stop the onslaught that followed.
Ian stood behind the rotting tree trunk, watching the overwhelming barrage of magical energy. The rune meteorites even suffered secondary damage upon impact, beginning to writhe and reassemble like living things.
The peace together transformed into burning chains that bound the dragon's limbs.
next moment.
The red light in the sky coalesced into a giant hand, and ancient runes made of lightning appeared on its palm—a type of rune that Ian had only seen on the bronze gate.
It is an ancient incantation that he has not fully deciphered.
"Bang!"
A giant hand grabbed the dragon's tail.
He slammed the mountain of flesh toward the ground. The shockwave from the impact ripped away vegetation within a kilometer radius, and Ian felt as if he himself was about to be thrown into the air by the blast.
"Armor for protection!"
He quickly applied the medicine.
That's how he managed to steady himself.
It also blocked the impact of the falling rocks that were about to hit it.
And it was in that moment of confusion that...
Seven runic chains pierced the dragon's spine, pinning it to the chasm where the lake water surged.
The dragon's dying pupils suddenly turned in one direction, reflecting a dozen or so black-robed figures floating in the air. Ian was about to cry out in alarm.
The dragon and the wizard had both vanished without a trace.
It's not a complete reset.
It seemed that the group of black-robed wizards who had hunted down the dragon had left with their spoils—it was a magical energy even more concealed than Phantom Form, which made it impossible for Ian to catch them again in the blink of an eye.
"What kind of damn prefect is this?!"
Does Ian remember the era in which humans were born? Even wizards couldn't have existed before humans. Perhaps those who hunted dragons were the earliest so-called gods?
"I remember, I remember hearing before that I, as Medivh, would go to the Age of Gods!" Ian suddenly remembered something.
Somewhat.
Are those black-robed figures still gods?
The wizard was bewildered.
At this time, as the weather gradually returned to normal, the rain started again—this was perhaps an era that even the Hogwarts Library and any historical books had never recorded.
In ancient times, gods and dragons danced together.
And Ian.
It was as if they had discovered a secret that the gods knew absolutely nothing about.
They were the earliest.
He was also a wizard.