Avada's consciousness froze in bewilderment for a moment.
That magnificent sphere was clearly floating quietly before him, just as it had last time, and the light it radiated seemed to be washing over his spirit. At this distance, he could even make out slight fluctuations on the sphere's surface, like burning fire, as well as the matter that was occasionally expelled from it and then drawn back inside by some unknown force.
Those phenomena made it look even more like a star.
But why was he still able to stare at it like this and think so clearly?
He distinctly remembered that the last time he was inside the timeline, he had almost instantly lost consciousness the moment he sensed the first ray of light. The sphere itself had only left behind the final image in his mind, all so quickly that he had barely had time to form even a single thought...
But now?
Did this thing really let you build up resistance after just one exposure?
Yet when he woke up last time, he had also confirmed that his spiritual power had suffered extremely violent damage, and the reason had been nothing more than taking a single look at that enormous sphere.
But compared with a year ago, his spiritual power had not grown all that much.
So how could he possibly withstand that level of attack now, to the point that he did not even feel anything at all?!
Could it be that the sphere had some sort of recognition function built into it? Familiar after the first meeting?
"No, that's not what I should be thinking about right now..."
After quietly admiring the enormous sphere for a while, and after the initial shock gradually faded, Avada slowly became aware of another, even more serious problem—
"How am I supposed to get back?"
Being knocked unconscious by the giant sphere and waking up again in reality was currently the only known way he had of returning from the timeline to the real world—
And now he had already been staring at the sphere for almost two full minutes!
Still, this time he was not too worried that he would simply become trapped here and never return. After all, he had just confirmed from the converged timeline that, at the very least, from the start of next term up until the beginning of the Triwizard Tournament, he was still living perfectly normally at Hogwarts.
"All right. First, calm down and study this sphere. Maybe the key to returning to the real world lies in it."
Once he sorted that out, Avada began controlling his spirit to move closer to the sphere.
The "distance" between him and the sphere was still very great, but even so, the sphere already occupied his entire field of vision.
And to be honest, he himself had long been intensely curious about this sphere—the one that had granted him the ability to see souls. He had just never dared explore it again because he was afraid of being injured. Now that he could finally observe it without restraint, how could he not seize such a rare opportunity?
"As with what I saw in that split second last time, the material of this sphere really is exactly the same as a soul... such an enormous soul essence?"
As the "distance" gradually narrowed, every detail on the giant sphere became clearer and clearer in his eyes.
"A gigantic sphere of soul existing at the end of time, one that can even grant me the ability to see souls... what could it be? Some kind of deity? The true source of magic? Or even the so-called 'origin' of the entire world?"
As he advanced, he watched halos like solar flares erupt from the surface of the sphere from time to time, scattering into the void as countless pale blue motes of light. And at every moment, identical motes would emerge from the void, drift closer, and merge back into it again.
Last time he had seen the same phenomenon too, but only for an instant. This time he was closer, and could see it more clearly...
"Wait, those motes?!"
The sheer size of the sphere made it hard for Avada to judge the distance between them, but he was certain that by now he had come quite close.
He could no longer see where the sphere's edges were at all, and every detail on its surface had become so distinct that it felt as if he could touch it simply by reaching out.
And it was precisely this degree of clarity that finally let him notice something he had missed last time...
"Those motes that are constantly being expelled, constantly appearing out of nowhere, and then being drawn back in... aren't they souls?!"
A chilling thought suddenly flashed through Avada's mind.
"This thing... is the source of souls?!"
"Or rather... is this the place souls ultimately return to after disappearing from the world? In other words, is this sphere the source of the power of Death itself?!"
Avada abruptly realized just how extraordinary this discovery was.
What he was facing now was very likely the greatest, most mysterious, and most fundamental thing in the entire world...
"Wait, I still can't jump to conclusions that easily..."
Suddenly, another question surfaced in his mind and pulled him out of his shock.
"If this is truly the source and final destination of all souls... then where do the souls produced by the Resurrection Stone come from?"
"I specifically confirmed it before—the souls produced by the Resurrection Stone are real souls, exactly the same material as the deepest part of every person's spiritual power!"
"So what does that mean? Is there some other source of souls, and this is merely a place where souls gather? Or... do the souls produced by the Resurrection Stone also come from here?"
"And if the answer is the latter... then what exactly did the Peverell brothers do back then? Were they able to discover this place too? And not just discover it, but actually connect it to the Resurrection Stone, allowing the Stone to 'draw' souls out of here at any time? Did they directly influence, or even alter, the very source of souls?"
"Isn't that a little too terrifying?"
"I should go a bit closer and see..."
The fear in his heart did not stop Avada from moving forward. After all, he had nowhere else to go anyway.
Then, perhaps after a second, or perhaps after a hundred years, he finally felt that he was now "standing" before the sphere.
The light it radiated had all but pierced through his spirit, yet the feeling was not painful. On the contrary, it felt strangely comfortable, almost like soaking in a bath.
He had the sense that if he concentrated just a little, he could make his spiritual power truly touch that mysterious sphere of light.
"Should I try it?"
Avada hesitated.
The consequences of touching something so mysterious and powerful without permission were absolutely impossible to predict.
But if he only kept observing, he was no longer going to gain any more useful information. He had already memorized every visible detail on the sphere's surface.
And more importantly, even at this distance, he still had not sensed the slightest possibility of returning to the real world.
"I'll try it."
After hesitating for what felt like ages, he finally gritted his teeth and made up his mind.
"Other than touching it, there's nothing else I can do anyway... And since this time I wasn't heavily injured the instant I looked at it like last semester, then maybe, for the me of now, this sphere is already harmless?"
Avada practically hypnotized himself with that thought, half deceiving himself into finding a little courage at last, and slowly extended his spiritual power forward.
(End of Chapter)