Chapter 213. Return to the Outer World.
The soul division was completed without incident, unsurprisingly, given that this particular ritual was over five thousand years old and had not once failed in that entire time.
One thing did mildly surprise Severus: the old man's knowledge, especially his familiarity with rune theory. During the ritual, Severus had used symbols from his own world, and the spirit had read them with ease.
On the way out of the mountains, Severus asked about it, and the elderly wizard explained that he had found records using those same symbols in the same place where he had discovered the Sacred Water. He had spent a few decades translating every character and learning the runic language, though applying it in practice had always been a struggle, which was why the runes inscribed on the altar and the diamond containing his soul belonged to this world's own tradition.
Severus was more than satisfied with what the journey had yielded overall. Beyond the crystals saturated with pure magic, he had come away with Sacred Spring water. With that in hand, the odds for whatever battle lay ahead could be considerably improved. The question of how exactly to use it remained unresolved. Two options presented themselves, and both had merit. He could forge it into a blade as a component material, giving him a weapon that would continuously suppress regeneration and make dark creatures far easier to kill, though against the strongest, like Higher Devils, it would only reduce their regenerative capacity rather than eliminate it. Alternatively, he could preserve it for the final battle and use it directly against the most powerful Devil, which would fully suppress regeneration for a short window of time. Neither option was easy to dismiss, and until he had gathered all the materials for the blade, he put the question aside.
The idea of keeping it as a personal emergency reserve and drinking it if he ever found himself near death didn't cross his mind. He still had the honey and the potions derived from the Heart of the King of Ents. Those were comparable in effect.
Aside from the water, Severus was genuinely glad to have found such a valuable companion: someone with deep knowledge of both the wizarding world's history and that of the Muggle world, even if his expertise lay mainly in China. More importantly, the spirit would be able to teach the Qilin to channel light magic, which would certainly prove useful in a battle against those creatures. And Severus was very curious about the location where the old man had found both the water and the runes.
Moving through the quiet evening streets of the magical market belonging to the Fire Phoenix faction, Severus paid almost no attention to the goods displayed behind the still-glowing shop windows and walked steadily toward the nearest inn.
The spirit's voice carried genuine sorrow as he watched the wizards passing by; the pain in it was real. "What a disheartening sight. Wizards have fallen so far behind in every respect over these two thousand years. This was my homeland, once one of the most advanced magical nations in the world, and now it is painful to see what it has become." He paused. "Even the density of magic has decreased. What is happening to this world? Where is it going?"
Severus stopped before the entrance to a small two-story building with a sign depicting a bed, waited for three women to pass, two of them with Phoenix marks on their throats, and stepped inside.
"If the density has only dropped by twenty percent over two thousand years, as you said, there's no immediate cause for alarm. And I think I might have an answer to your question. Though to be certain of it, one would have to do the impossible."
He approached the bar counter, behind which two men were arguing. He placed a gold Qian on the counter. The elderly Asian proprietor gave a faint nod, passed his hand over it, and a tagged key appeared in its place.
"Room two hundred and three. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner on schedule." He indicated a posted notice to the right of the bar, beside a cabinet holding grey and white stoppered vials. "Do not leave the room at night, and do not open the door to anyone until morning, not even if they knock and beg for help."
"Understood. Thank you." Severus gave a slightly delayed nod, mildly puzzled by these particular house rules, but he made no comment. He had stayed in stranger places.
He turned and scanned the room. Women made up the overwhelming majority of the guests. He passed between the tables and made his way to the stairs.
"What did you mean by that? Do you genuinely know why the magic is diminishing, and where it's going?" The spirit's voice carried real urgency. This was a question that truly weighed on him. Even as a spirit, sustaining this form required magic.
"Yes, though in that case the density shouldn't be decreasing at all, which means that beyond that particular place, it's flowing somewhere else as well," Severus answered thoughtfully, stepping off the landing and glancing at a door marked "151," then at the next one to the right, marked "152." He turned toward it and continued down the corridor, completely alone. In the finest horror film tradition, floorboards creaked underfoot with every step, the flames in the candelabras flickering wildly from some draft that had no business existing in an interior hallway. Well. Cozy.
"You still haven't answered my question," the old wizard reminded him, seeming entirely unaware of what was happening outside.
"Do you know anything about the Magical Jungle?"
"A very dangerous place. I never dared approach it even in my time," he began, then stopped abruptly, as though something had clicked.
"Precisely where the majority of the magic is flowing. At the center of that place, creatures are sealed away, far more powerful than whatever is in that crystal. If they break free, humanity ends."
That revelation genuinely shook the spirit inside the watch. He had always considered the creature sealed at the bottom of the ravine the most powerful monster in existence. To contain and seal it had required three hundred of the strongest wizards in the world working in concert, half of whom had given their lives in the effort, and even then they had not managed to kill it.
If the Magical Jungle held creatures so formidable that containing them required that much constant magic, he simply could not bring himself to imagine the scale of what that meant, or whether humanity would have any chance at all if they were ever freed.
Severus chose not to disturb the old man's thoughts and finally reached the correct door. Setting aside the general strangeness of this inn, he simply walked in. The room was unremarkable.
Like the corridor outside, the walls were plain wood, no wallpaper, no patterns. At the far end stood a double bed with clean white linen. A small window above it to the left, a chest of drawers by the headboard, a large wardrobe to the right of the entrance.
Simple. Bare. Not particularly welcoming, a sentiment Nagini shared with him almost immediately upon arrival.
"The last hotel was much better. This one is bleak, grey, and..." She glanced back toward the door, remembering the proprietor's words. "Unsettling."
When Severus sat on the bed and pushed back his hood, Nagini uncoiled from him, slid across the blanket, and made her way toward the window, which offered a pleasant view of the magical market below.
"We won't be here long. Tomorrow morning I'll go and collect the last thing I need. After that I suggest we move to a Muggle hotel. Far better rooms, and the food is excellent."
"I completely agree!" She nodded enthusiastically, her tongue darting out briefly as she recalled the five-star hotel in Brazil. "But why are we staying here at all? Why not go back to the other one?"
"The person I'm looking for only appears near this area. Rather than waste time on the journey back and forth, I decided one night here was simpler." He snapped his fingers, and the bed linen refreshed itself instantly, settling into neat order. "Shall we continue where we left off?" He glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Something else from those comedies we were watching."
"All right."
After another late-night film session, which the old man didn't join but watched with genuine interest, they finally went to sleep at three in the morning. Four hours later, Severus had to get up and prepare for the meeting ahead.
This time he did not leave Nagini in the room. The inn was too peculiar for that, even if nothing concrete had happened to justify the feeling. He moved her to the tent, onto the large double bed, and left the pocket watch and its occupant there with her as well.
The card the magical creature dealer had given him specified a location and time where the person he was looking for could be found, and the arrangement was straightforward.
By twenty to eight, he was approaching a narrow side alley. Just outside it, a man in a robe stood waiting, seemingly for someone. The man glanced around now and then but did nothing else.
"Good morning," Severus greeted him with a smile. The Asian man frowned slightly but said nothing. "The Phoenix does not grant rest to those who burn in its flame." Only after those words did the man's expression ease. A hint of a smile appeared, and he extended his hand. "A colleague of yours recommended I come to you before he was apprehended. I'm looking for something specific that you should be able to provide." He placed a scroll in the man's hand, the one the old spirit had given him earlier.
"Very well. Follow me." Without unrolling it, the man tucked the scroll under his robe and turned into the alley. Severus followed in silence.
How is it that I'm always this lucky?
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