Chapter 212: The Stygian Ferry
He fled, and he pursued. But in the end, both of their grasping hands tumbled back into the world of present time.
Snap!
Lockhart collapsed on the floor, struggling to get up. He gritted his teeth, enduring the disordered signals from his countless nerves—a bizarre maelstrom of sensations, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty, all impossibly present at once. Finally, he fell back down. With his neck twisted at a grotesque angle, he tried to turn his head, but his cheek remained pressed to the stone floor as he gasped for breath.
Exhilarating!
This was bloody exhilarating!
A cold sweat broke out all over him. In an instant, beads of it dripped from his hair and stung his diffused eyes. In his pupils, faintly reflected, was a multicolored whirlpool river of time, and within it, a bloodline stretched into the unknowable beyond, where countless versions of himself surfaced.
The version of him that had completely merged with Tom's Patronus during the three-Voldemort duel...
The him who, during his experiment with Tom, was influenced and had merged with the magical bloodline of the "serpent"...
The him in Nurmengard who was influenced by Grindelwald and merged with a part of his Patronus...
The him who had fully digested and devoured the adventurous life of the original Gilderoy Lockhart...
The him who had fully digested and devoured the Forest Witch...
The him who, during an adventure, had been misaligned to become Tom, thus gaining the magical bloodline of Parseltongue...
The him who had locked up all his inner darkness during an adventure, giving rise to a vicious werewolf...
The him who had successfully cast the Patronus Charm and summoned a white horse to resist Voldemort's curse on the Hogwarts professorship...
The him who, in a magical experiment, had merged with a part of the Forest Witch...
The purest him, the one without magical power at the beginning of his transmigration...
And, his past life...
Lockhart's head spun violently. He felt these figures overlapping, as if they were exploring his core will, asking a question: You have been blessed to wander the river of time. Which version of yourself will you ultimately choose to salvage?
To use the words from the notebook Voldemort had traded him, Everlasting Life Flame, which stage would he use as a template to refresh his physical body?
"No!"
His will sent out a strong, unwavering signal, shouting, "NO!"
No! The me of this reality is the truest me! Whether old or sick, that is who I am—the one suited to this state of time!
Lockhart felt his will transform into a long, silver serpent that snaked along the river of time, subjugating each version of himself.
In a trance, he saw a phantom ship—old, decayed, and silent, drifting quietly in the river of time, seemingly without consciousness. He was moved. The serpent coiled around the boat, and its massive tail lashed out, pulling it, like a fisherman with his catch, back along the river of time.
BANG!
A violent tremor echoed through his mind.
The multicolored whirlpool of time burst open. Lockhart, back in the material world, was violently thrown against the wall of the Chamber of Secrets, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Cough, cough, cough…
After a few more coughs, he finally shook off the terrible effects of time travel. The long history of the wizarding world was filled with strange and eerie domains, and time travel was one of them—always full of the unknown and the terrifying.
And in this era, Lockhart was undoubtedly at the forefront of that domain.
It proved that a wizard could enter the past not just with an alchemical Time-Turner, but with raw magic! He started with the already-advanced Obliviation Charm as a foundation, delving into the field of memory and constantly expanding its possibilities—defense against and breeding of dark magical creatures, the exploration of magical bloodlines, the relationship between wizards and nature, the relationship between wizards and society. All of this ultimately led him on a journey through time, with his memory as the anchor.
This adventurous journey was so wonderfully thrilling that Lockhart felt it was worth his transmigration. It was interesting. So very interesting! He laughed, a mad, cackling sound, knowing that he had finally stepped into the realm of a true magical master.
He was now on the same level as Voldemort, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Nicolas Flamel—only their areas of focus were different. This didn't mean he could necessarily beat Dumbledore or Voldemort in a fight. It meant that if any of those top-tier magical masters decided to deal with him, he had the power to pull them into the river of time, and then fight them on a battlefield where he held a decisive advantage.
This was his domain!
Take Dumbledore, for instance. Although he knew he probably wouldn't become Dumbledore's complete adversary, if the Headmaster ever truly decided to kill him, he had the power to drag him back to the day Dumbledore's sister, Ariana, died. In that environment, in that situation, would a Dumbledore who was emotionally compromised and restrained truly be able to fight him with all his might?
It would be a difficult battle.
Lockhart now felt like Voldemort after successfully creating his Horcruxes: he could finally face a magical powerhouse of Dumbledore's caliber. He could make his demands, and he had the power to retaliate if his needs were not met.
He wouldn't act like Voldemort, of course. But not doing something was one thing; not having the ability to do it was quite another.
Lockhart slumped on the floor, wiping the sweat from his face and casting a spell to heal himself, happily taking stock of the rewards from his adventurous journey.
First, his exploration of the temporal domain was a complete success. He had grasped the key in the complex timeline of the older Voldemort, the younger Tom, and himself as a combination of their magical bloodlines. He had fully digested and merged Tom's Patronus, acquiring a very unique one—the Time-Serpent. If a Pegasus was a Patronus that protected the mind, the Time-Serpent was a Patronus of memory and time. In the river of time, the Time-Serpent would be his most powerful force.
Second, he had salvaged a phantom ship from the river of time on his way back.
Lockhart's gaze grew distant again, as if he could see a gigantic white serpent coiled around him in a kaleidoscope of colors. Its massive head was holding Tom's corpse in its jaws, and its long, raised tail was wrapped around a grotesque-looking phantom ship.
The phantom ship was likely a unique type of dark magical creature. But what it was, Lockhart couldn't tell, even after searching his memories and reviewing the contents of all the memories he had collected.
He released the serpent's tail, letting the phantom ship float in mid-air. He looked up at it, his eyes full of wonder. It seemed to have no concept of space; when he looked up, it was as big as two football fields, yet it existed within the confines of the Chamber of Secrets, which couldn't hold two football fields.
It was both there and not there. The non-existence concept of dark magical creatures was perfectly embodied in it.
This was the first time Lockhart had encountered a dark magical creature that was not in an animal form. He was naturally curious, and he held his wand, trying to sense the information it transmitted to its surroundings. He found that the thing had no interaction with its environment whatsoever; it seemed to be a completely independent entity.
After much thought, he finally decided to try something.
"Mind-Link!"
This was a little magical trick taught by Dumbledore, used to enhance the mental connection between a wizard and their Patronus or even other magical creatures, while also having the ability to improve the effect of a spell.
Buzz, buzz, buzz…
His mind swayed, and he felt as if he were bobbing on the surface of the sea.
It worked on the first try?
Does this thing have no sentience at all?
Lockhart curiously sensed its abilities, and then, with a thought, he waved his wand at the corpse of Tom held in the serpent's mouth.
His attempt was successful!
A chain clattered with a metallic sound, echoing not through his ears, but in his mind. As the ship's windlass creaked, the chain extended towards Tom's corpse. Soon, the end of the chain embedded itself in the body, and the windlass turned again, pulling out a semi-transparent figure.
It was Tom!
"!!!" Tom's eyes snapped open. He frantically touched his spine, feeling a chain there, and shrieked in terror, "What's happened to me?!!!"
Then he saw his own corpse in the mouth of the white serpent.
"I…"
"I'm dead?"
Tom's face instantly turned pale. He looked back at the phantom ship, his expression full of helplessness and despair. "Is this the Grim Reaper's ferry? Is it here to take me to the land of the dead?"
The phantom ship didn't respond. It just kept turning the windlass, eventually pulling him onto the ship.
Thump.
The thick metal chain fell onto the deck with a dull crash, and Tom fell to the side.
He struggled to his feet, staring at his surroundings in a daze, with a sense of loss. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything. He could only feel an indescribable coldness, as if he were soaking in icy sea water. After waiting for a while, he felt no change. He held the chain that had grown from his spine and stumbled forward on the ship.
There seemed to be no other living thing on this huge ship, and a vast, boundless loneliness quietly swallowed him.
"He can't see us, can he?"
The phantom ship had now become like a miniature model, only half a meter long, floating in front of them. Lockhart and his companions were looking at it curiously.
The wailing fairy peered at the moving figure of Tom on the boat, then gently moved a finger in the air above it, looking at Lockhart in awe. "He really can't see us!"
Lockhart nodded with a strange expression, vaguely feeling that he had some kind of connection with Tom on the ship through the chain extending from the phantom ship.
"This seems to be some kind of power of Death!"
Of course, no one knew if the Grim Reaper actually existed, but this thing's ability was a little too similar to the Grim Reaper's abilities in wizarding fairy tales.
The Stygian Ferry?
Lockhart couldn't help but recall the Deathly Hallows. The Resurrection Stone, which could summon the dead; the Elder Wand, which was said to help a wizard always win a duel; and the Invisibility Cloak, which could help a wizard escape death and never be found by the Grim Reaper. The legend in The Tales of Beedle the Bard said that the three brothers obtained these treasures after crossing a river and escaping death.
"I can't be sure if it's from the same series as the Deathly Hallows."
Lockhart shrugged. "The wizarding world is always full of amazing unknowns, always so wonderfully magical."
It was…
intoxicating.
(End of Chapter)
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