Time passed...
No, that was not quite right. This was the end of the timeline, so in theory, the concept of "the passage of time" should not even exist here. As for why Avada could still think and move here as if everything were normal, the most likely reason was that his real body still remained in the real world, wrapped within time. Only his spiritual power had extended up along the thread of a Seer's gift.
So in essence, Avada was still under the influence of time. His spirit entering the timeline did not mean he had somehow "stepped outside the Three Realms."
But right now, Avada no longer cared about the passage of time.
As the last trace of pain gradually faded from his perception, nothing obstructed his progress in deciphering the soul-related information within the sphere any longer. And the absolute silence around him allowed him to focus with absolute concentration on the sphere before him. Every thread of his mind was immersed in the endless mysteries of the soul, greedily absorbing that knowledge like a starving man.
Love... remorse... Horcruxes... the Resurrection Stone... the power of Death...
More and more phenomena were gradually understood and mastered, while the many questions that had long lingered in the depths of his mind were being unraveled one by one.
His memories contained a great deal of soul-related information seen through his magical senses, including but not limited to ordinary Horcruxes, the dual soul inside Harry, the sacrificial protection, Dumbledore's soul when using the Elder Wand, the soul magic on the Chamber of Secrets, and much, much more. At the time, the memories of seeing those things had been firmly stored in his mind, but the old him could not understand any of it. At most, whenever he researched the soul, he would occasionally pull those memories out from some corner and air them out, just to see whether they might spark a new inspiration...
But now, everything was different!
The new knowledge being poured into him, in relation to his original memories, was like a single spark landing in a barrel of gasoline. The once-frozen memories suddenly became incomparably vivid and intense. Every tiny change, every single phenomenon related to the soul, had now become understandable and knowable. And those memories, in turn, became the perfect practical archive for him while he learned soul knowledge, pushing his progress forward at astonishing speed...
"So that's how it is, so that's how it is..."
He felt like his muttering now made him sound exactly like some newly evolved final villain, but he no longer had the leisure to care about such details. He had to say something, had to express the joy flowing through every one of his thoughts!
"The so-called power of Death is actually the unique 'gravitational pull' between this sphere and every soul in the real world. It has no effect on any substance other than souls, which is why it can't be observed by physical or magical means... No wonder that dark wizard thought the power of Death appeared and vanished in an instant."
"And Grindelwald's guess was correct too. 'Remorse' really is a form of love, which is why it possesses the ability to repair the soul. At its core, that is also one way of using soul power..."
"And furthermore, soul fragments that lose their protection may still be drawn by the power of Death, but they can no longer merge back into the sphere. Or rather, any soul that is broken past a certain extent is the same... That's why remorse can call vanished soul fragments back again. That's why Voldemort's soul in the original story was forever trapped at King's Cross Station, unable to move forward or back! Everything makes sense now!"
Avada shifted his gaze toward the tiny, almost inconspicuous fragments of light scattered around the giant sphere. They drifted up and down like duckweed, trying to draw closer to the sphere, but were completely unable to merge back in like the larger, more complete motes around them...
Those ought to be the soul fragments left behind by every destroyed Horcrux throughout history, perhaps even including dark wizards like Voldemort, whose souls had been shattered too badly.
And the number did not surprise him in the least. The dark wizard from the book alone had contributed well over a hundred dark wizards with Horcruxes, and the total accumulated over the thousand years since Herpo first invented the Horcrux would inevitably be far greater.
"And then there's the Resurrection Stone... Before learning all this, I never would have imagined that its principles were actually so simple!"
That thing was essentially just a reversed "Seer's thread." When the user turned the Resurrection Stone, the mechanism activated, allowing a soul separated from the sphere to be "launched" into the real world the way Avada's spiritual power had been when he came here.
Of course, that was only the most basic principle. The actual details were far more complicated: how exactly that thread was constructed, how a soul could enter the real world without being immediately pulled back out by the power of Death... all of that was its own field of study.
And the Resurrection Stone proved once again that the Peverell brothers absolutely must have come here and studied the knowledge of the soul—he just had no idea how they had managed it back then.
"The me of now... could already handcraft a low-grade version of the Deathly Hallows!"
Avada excitedly sorted through the knowledge in his mind.
"Whether it's soul magic like that used in the Chamber of Secrets or the sacrificial protection, or even that bowl of potion Voldemort left behind, I could easily reproduce them all now. In terms of the soul alone, even if I'm still below the Peverell brothers... I've already reached the point where I could make Dumbledore sit down obediently and listen to my lecture!"
That really was not arrogance on his part.
The Peverell brothers had produced the three Deathly Hallows and thereby become legendary beings, unmatched even after a thousand years. And now, he had already touched the threshold of creating the Deathly Hallows.
In this age, where the field of the soul was almost entirely blank, the knowledge in his head was practically a dimensionality-reduction strike!
If he returned to the real world right now, then at minimum, within two weeks, he could successfully separate the soul fragment that had coexisted with Harry for thirteen years and send Voldemort to his final end—
The ultimate goal he had pursued with painstaking effort over the past four years had, in such a short...
"Oh, right. How much time has passed?"
Just as he was about to marvel at how fast his progress had been, he realized that he had become so immersed in studying knowledge that he had long since forgotten the passage of time...
"Though it probably hasn't been that long. Otherwise, I should be feeling spiritual fatigue by now."
Avada shook himself back into focus and adjusted his state to its best condition.
"All right. Time to return to the real world."
Although he still had not discovered a direct method of returning to reality—and likely would not find one without waiting who knew how much longer—fortunately, his predecessors, the Peverell brothers, had already paved the way for him.
That way was the "reverse thread" constructed by the Resurrection Stone.
"So the true function of the Resurrection Stone is actually to guarantee a return passage?"
As Avada quietly marveled at the enormous gap that still remained between himself and the Peverell brothers, he also secretly steadied his own mindset.
This trip had brought him enormous gains in knowledge of the soul, but it had not directly improved his personal combat strength. Dumbledore might have to sit down properly and listen to him lecture now, but that did not stop him from still being perfectly capable of cleaning Avada up with one hand.
"Off we go."
As the Resurrection Stone passage activated, Avada felt as though he were once again going through the process of entering the timeline. After a bizarre sequence of shifting sensations, bodily awareness finally returned to his perception...
Satisfied, he controlled his eyes to open—
And was nearly blinded by the soft natural light outside.
"?!"
(End of Chapter)