"Everyone, be sure to give this story a Powerstone! Also, 30 advanced chapters of this story are uploaded on my Patreon—you can go there and read them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
for 30 advanced chapter, visit my patreon
'patreon.com/fatimasoomro123'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
Chapter 137
Kate looked at George with a trace of fear in her eyes. At last, she understood why George had said this research was even more meaningful than ancient spells.
If ancient curses merely represented the restoration of the power once possessed by ancient wizards, then the birth of these "ghosts" marked the beginning of George opening an entirely new magical era. Its significance was no less than that of alchemists inventing the Philosopher's Stone, or ancient wizards creating modern spellcraft.
"Don't imagine it too beautifully," George said, noticing the strange thoughts forming in Kate's mind. "We haven't even fully deciphered the ancient curses yet. And leaving even the slightest mark in a completely blank field is far harder than restoring ancient magic."
Kate nodded thoughtfully, finally calming down a little.
Restoring ancient magic was already unimaginably difficult—creating an entirely new field was even more absurd. Compared to that, hidden arts and ancient curses seemed far less extraordinary.
In truth, for most wizards, ghosts were meaningless.
Even after living alongside ghosts for centuries, few had ever cared about the deeper significance behind their existence. It wasn't because they were foolish, nor because they failed to notice the implications.
Rather, most people would simply ask:
"What's the point of this?"
For wizards, power came far too easily.
Of course, they still needed to study and practice, but their learning translated directly into visible strength. To someone who had once lived in an apocalyptic world, that alone felt unbelievable.
Power that could be seen with one's own eyes and felt personally was intoxicating. It drove people toward obsession and fanaticism, but at the same time, it made them indifferent toward distant or abstract possibilities.
Spells and curses could make a person stronger almost instantly. So who would bother caring about powerless ghosts that could barely affect reality?
To those born into the magical world, the true significance of ghosts was almost impossible to perceive.
But George was different.
As a soul from the internet age—an era overflowing with information and ideas—George could see countless possibilities hidden within ghosts.
Through his interactions with spirits, George gradually realized that ghostly power was a kind of force capable of twisting reality through belief.
Ghostly objects were not created through manufacturing, crafting, planting, or gathering.
Instead, they originated from desire, imagination, and obsession.
It was an incredibly strange and distorted concept.
Take Professor Binns, for example—the ghost who taught History of Magic.
When he died, he simply drifted away from his body without realizing it. He carried away his clothes and lecture notes with him.
After death, he continued going to class every day exactly as before. He still believed he could sit in the staff room chairs.
But in reality, he had already become a ghost. He could no longer touch physical objects, nor truly sit upon that chair.
And yet, as long as he continued "thinking" and "believing," he could distort his own senses and perceptions.
He believed he was alive.
He believed he could still sit down.
And so, to him, that became reality.
As long as Professor Binns wished it, as long as he continued believing, he might never realize he had died—even after decades had passed.
It sounded irrational and contradictory, but that was the logic of ghosts.
Their perception was not based on reality itself, but on their own distorted spiritual force.
Of course, ghostly power was not limitless.
In fact, most ghosts were extremely weak. Their abilities froze at the moment of death, and there was no known method to strengthen themselves afterward.
Many ghosts lived in misery. They could touch nothing, taste nothing, hear no music. Aside from the clothes they died wearing, weaker ghosts possessed almost nothing at all.
But powerful spirits—like the members of the Headless Hunt—were different.
They possessed far greater ghostly abilities. Through their distorted spiritual powers, they could create ghostly objects and conveniences that made their existence resemble life itself.
They could play games, play pranks, travel together with companions, and even ride spectral horses of their own.
So just how powerful could ghostly force become?
How far could this ability to distort reality go?
George was fascinated.
Could ghostly power continue growing stronger?
Could ghosts someday surpass wizards?
Could spectral energy exceed magical power?
If ghosts could be attacked, then could sufficiently powerful ghosts attack wizards in return?
Could they eventually distort reality itself—or perhaps evolve into an entirely different kind of wizard?
So far, even the strongest ghosts seemed incapable of truly interfering with reality.
But perhaps that was only because they had lost their existence in the physical world, preventing their power from growing any further.
An ordinary ghost could not accomplish such things.
But what about a living wizard?
A wizard who mastered ghostly energy while still alive?
A wizard who combined light and darkness, reality and illusion, and ultimately crossed the boundary between life and death?
Ghosts themselves could not grow stronger after death—their power became fixed forever.
They could not create true physical matter, nor produce anything capable of genuinely interfering with reality.
But a living wizard wielding spectral power would not share those limitations.
All these possibilities and hypotheses filled George with excitement.
And during the time he spent wandering the Void, he had truly succeeded in creating something from nothing:
A ghostly book that belonged entirely to him.
The more he explored the concept, the more fascinated he became.
Unfortunately, every great beginning was only the first step of a long journey.
George no longer lacked direction.
What he lacked was time.
When he first discovered ancient spells, he had been overjoyed. But joy alone solved nothing.
Perhaps ten years later, if he focused entirely on ancient magic, his power would become great enough to defeat Voldemort. At that point, he would only be twenty-two years old—still incredibly young.
But before those ten years passed, he first had to survive long enough to face Voldemort.
Otherwise, he would inevitably be forced into confrontation long before reaching that future.
Under such circumstances, ancient magic simply wasn't as practical as modern spellcraft.
By contrast, if spectral energy could truly be used freely, then at the very least he would gain countless invisible eyes and ears throughout the world.
That alone would be invaluable—for searching hidden treasures, gathering intelligence, and uncovering secrets.
No matter how wonderful the theories sounded, no matter how brilliant the future appeared, everything still had to be advanced one step at a time.
(To be continued.)