Is it just not swap time yet?
Wait! This... isn't my hand!
The thought had barely surfaced before Vincent froze again: No, wait — this really is my hand. My own hand!
This is my hand, from my body in the Harry Potter world!
I'm back?
Back in the Harry Potter world?
Vincent lifted his head, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings — a small room, maybe ten-some square meters, built from grayed stone blocks, its decor sparse, sparser even than some cheap inn.
Whoosh~
The sound of waves reached him. He climbed out of bed and walked to the window, pulling open the wooden shutters, sunlight striking his face, an endless expanse of blue ocean stretching out in the distance.
After a moment's hesitation, he waved a hand toward the mirror on the desk, casting a Summoning Charm, a bit clumsily, but successfully pulling it into his grip.
"So I really am back."
But... why?
Why so suddenly?
Was it because he'd advanced to demigod?
Or had the Nation of Disorder itself changed somehow, because of his advancement?
If I've swapped back now, then what about Bernadette on the other side? Did she go back to the Lord of Mysteries world too?
"Bernadette, are you still there?"
"Bernadette, can you hear me?"
Vincent first tried it silently in his mind, then called out loud — but no one answered.
She really had gone back too, then.
For a moment, Vincent felt genuinely lost.
Just last night, they'd been discussing their next steps together — and now, opening his eyes again, they were already split across two different worlds.
After a moment, Vincent smacked his forehead. "Ugh, what am I even worried about? There's still the Nation of Disorder. She's probably already trying to reach me through it."
Besides, this was really just a return to their original arrangement — swapping bodies once every three days. Nothing worth panicking over.
...
The Lord of Mysteries world.
As sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains, spilling across her face, Bernadette's eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes.
It felt like she'd just woken from some long, drawn-out dream — the details already fading, blurred, leaving only a deep sense of exhaustion, both physical and mental.
Was this leftover fatigue from the events of two days ago? The aftereffects of Vincent's advancement to Sequence 4 yesterday? Or the pressure of her own advancement to Sequence 2, coming up today?
Bernadette pushed herself upright, her head foggy, feeling as though she'd slept far too long — though that shouldn't have been possible at all; ever since ascending to demigod, her body had undergone a divine transformation that should have made such a feeling impossible.
Just as the thought crossed her mind, a swelling pressure suddenly built in her head, and image after image, memory after memory, flooded into her consciousness like a tidal wave.
Those were... scenes from the other world. Memories belonging to her other self.
She was back?
Bernadette caught on immediately, and without pausing to properly process what those memories contained, called out urgently in her mind: "Vincent! Vincent! Charles Chen! Are you still there? Can you hear me?"
The only answer was her own breathing, her own heartbeat.
Vincent had vanished — or, more precisely, returned to his own original world.
This had to be said plainly: it was sudden. Sudden enough that, for a moment, Bernadette genuinely didn't know how to react. That was the power of habit — used to swapping control of the body every three days, used to conversing across their shared mind at any moment — suddenly being reduced to just one person again inevitably left her thrown off balance.
After a moment, she settled herself, silently thinking: enter the Nation of Disorder.
Nothing happened.
Her spirit remained locked within her body, never once slipping into that "living room," never entering the Nation of Disorder at all.
"..."
Bernadette tried again, several times — still nothing. Her chest tightened slightly, and, on a thought, she tried using a "Broker" Pathway ability, dissolving into a patch of shadow and leaping into the corner of the room.
Thank goodness — her abilities were all still intact, at least.
She thought it over for a moment, then spoke Lord of Chaos's honorific, sincere and deliberate:
"Sovereign of the Realm of Chaos...
"Restorer of the Unbalanced Scale to Order,
"Shadow of Order and Rules.
"Vincent, can you hear my prayer?"
She repeated Lord of Chaos's honorific several times over, but rather than simply waiting idly, Bernadette closed her eyes and began "reviewing" the memories her other self had brought back.
From her very first arrival in that other world, teaching at Hogwarts, all the way up to just before the return — serving as the temporary squad leader of Hit Wizards at Azkaban.
The bulk of the memories centered on her research and study of various forms of magic, interspersed with classes and teaching.
Somewhere along the way, she'd tracked down Lucius Malfoy and killed the Voldemort-controlled Quirrell.
To play the role of "Black Box," she'd used Lucius's connections to secure a position at the Ministry of Magic, becoming a Hit Wizard at Azkaban. In the days right before the swap, she'd been researching the relationship between dementors, the Patronus Charm, and Obscurials.
A few minutes later, having finished processing these memories, Bernadette arched an eyebrow, a note of exasperation creeping in. "Here we are, both of us fully digested the 'Black Box' potion and advanced to Sequence 4, and you're still dawdling around Azkaban."
Though, truthfully, her other self's real motivation had been slightly different: taking the position at the Ministry, playing "Black Box," had only ever been a convenient side benefit — what she'd really been after were the Time-Turners kept within the Ministry itself.
Bernadette: No wonder — that really is me.
Since "she," on the other side, hadn't done anything particularly unusual, that meant whatever was going on had to originate with Vincent. Because he'd advanced to Sequence 4?
Sequence 4 meant gaining divinity — so was the root cause tied to that divinity itself?
Bernadette didn't dwell too much on the question, since it was all pure speculation on her part — which only highlighted, immediately, how useful having Vincent around had been. They could talk things through, debate them together.
After a moment of quiet, she got up, went to the washroom to freshen up, then slipped straight through the Spirit World toward Intis: according to yesterday's plan, the first step was still to have the Sage's Diadem shattered into a Beyonder Characteristic, then advance to Sequence 2.
As for Vincent — if he'd swapped back, he'd swapped back. If she couldn't reach him, so be it. Either way, in three days, they'd swap again, and until then, they could still communicate through their original method — leaving letters.
Except, right as she stepped out of the Spirit World, a sudden question surfaced in her mind:
Will we actually still swap back, in three days?
...
The Harry Potter world.
Vincent entered the Nation of Disorder, settling into his own personal stone chair — but the scale before him sat perfectly still, no one praying to him at all.
"Could this be because of a difference in how time flows?"
Vincent leaned back, waiting patiently.
Five minutes. Ten minutes. Thirty minutes... a full hour.
The ancient scale never so much as stirred.
Vincent let out a slow breath and returned to reality. Either it really was a difference in time flow, or... something had happened on Bernadette's end.
Too early to draw conclusions, though. Better to wait and see.
He walked slowly over to the desk and picked up a notebook filled with handwriting, flipping through it quickly, and found it full of Bernadette's own recent observations and research on dementors:
"Dementors aren't physical entities, nor spirits — they're living beings composed entirely of negative emotion. That's why they feed on happiness, and why they fear a Patronus formed from 'happiness' itself."
"This seems similar, in some ways, to an Obscurus."
"A dementor's birth is tied to suffering and despair, which is why it hungers to feed on happiness. The Patronus Charm, meanwhile, is born from happiness — a physical manifestation of emotion. It's practically dementors' mirror opposite."
"No wonder they say magic's true nature is emotion, the heart itself — even this world's magical creations seem to be born from emotion."
"What about time magic, then?"
Bernadette's notes ended there.
She hadn't reached any clear conclusion — it read more like thoughts jotted down as they occurred to her, ending on that one final, open question — and it was that last question that sent Vincent into a deep, sudden thoughtfulness.
My future self's ability to travel through time back into the past — could this be where it all started, right here?
To be continued…
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