[Five Days Later]
[Hogwarts]
Dumbledore sat alone on a bench beside the grounds, staring blankly at the Black Lake.
Grindelwald stood beside him, looking at him with a smile.
A gentle breeze blew over, carrying a faint sweetness with it.
Dumbledore closed his eyes in intoxication, took a deep breath, and said, "Looks like we're having pumpkin stew for lunch today. It smells great."
As soon as he finished speaking, Dumbledore suddenly began coughing, his face turning deathly pale.
Grindelwald helped him pat his back, somewhat pained, and murmured, "Time really flies! I can still remember when the two of us traveled around Europe to study. And now, we're already old men."
Dumbledore could not help chuckling.
"Rather than calling it traveling to study, weren't we more like going around causing trouble back then?"
"You can't put it that way. Although it certainly looked like we were fooling around back then, at least we discovered the 'Grim Reaper' in Nurmengard." Grindelwald said seriously. "That 'ghost' sealed by the three Deathly Hallows would destroy the entire world if left alone.
"So, we saved the world!"
Dumbledore responded noncommittally, but his gaze gradually grew distant.
That portal, along with the 'Grim Reaper' sealed inside it, had indeed been discovered by the two of them while they were following clues in their search for the Deathly Hallows.
And the so-called 'Grim Reaper' was actually a 'ghost' restricted, or rather sealed, by the three Deathly Hallows.
It was like a gigantic and terrifying curse, possessing unimaginable power, enough to fulfill any wish for someone, but at the same time, enough to destroy the entire world.
Put that way, the 'Grim Reaper' seemed more like something akin to Pandora's Box.
But in reality, the two were completely incomparable.
At least Pandora's Box left people with hope.
But the 'Grim Reaper' was pure destruction and disaster. Its so-called 'fulfillment of any wish' took a highly twisted form. It could not bring any hope at all. It was merely desire.
As for the origin of the 'Grim Reaper', he and Grindelwald had conducted a great deal of investigation, but had only found a handful of clues.
Combining those clues with their own speculation, they could only guess that the 'Grim Reaper', along with the Deathly Hallows, were ancient tools developed thousands of years ago, during Earth's most prosperous era of supernatural power, by the Peverell family in an attempt to defeat the Grim Reaper and achieve immortality.
This explanation sounded somewhat absurd.
But in reality, because supernatural resources had been extremely abundant during that period, wizards often did bizarre things like that.
For example, the Basilisk.
That completely unreasonable creature had been created during that period.
So it was not strange at all that someone would conduct such research.
Of course, the Peverell family had definitely failed.
There was no doubt about that. Otherwise, the world right now would be ruled by the three old Peverell brothers.
Now, the three Deathly Hallows had changed from artifacts used to complete the immortality ritual into tools for sealing the 'Grim Reaper'.
And the magic power possessed by the 'Grim Reaper' had continued to dissipate over the long years, eventually forming another world within the sealed space from that terrifying magic power.
A world that was like a dream, where everything seemed both real and illusory, allowing those who entered to do as they pleased and revealing the truest desires hidden deep within their hearts.
Both of them had been affected by that world and had seen certain things.
After that, many more things happened.
In the end, what they had seen in that world strengthened their convictions, causing Dumbledore to become the headmaster of Hogwarts and Grindelwald to become the first Dark Lord.
The brothers turned against each other and fought one another, yet both continued pursuing their respective dreams.
Countless lives died along the road as they pursued those dreams.
Then, at some point, they suddenly discovered that along with their struggles, a terrifying thing had suddenly surged into the real world from beyond the 'door'.
That was King's Blood!
It was a completely unprecedented yet incredibly powerful force.
It was born from the bloodshed and chaos Grindelwald had stirred up across the world.
Sorrow, anger, fear, ecstasy...
All kinds of extreme emotions became intertwined, absorbed by the 'Grim Reaper' beyond the door, and ultimately transformed into King's Blood, which was then fed back into this world.
This was sweet death, a fragrant curse.
It could greatly enhance a wizard's strength, but it also contained countless insane thoughts, enough to turn those with weak wills into slaves of King's Blood.
They first found Grindelwald and Dumbledore, the two strongest people in the world, attempting to use these two legendary wizards as their own incubators.
At first, Grindelwald and Dumbledore gladly accepted it.
After all, with the strength of their minds, suppressing King's Blood was far too easy.
But they soon discovered that something was wrong.
Because as their power grew stronger and the amount of King's Blood within their bodies increased, the portal sealing the 'Grim Reaper' was also becoming increasingly fragile.
In the end, they could even hear the enormous booming sound of the 'Grim Reaper' hammering against the portal from the real world!
That sound awakened them from their beautiful dreams.
If the 'Grim Reaper' truly broke free from its seal.
Then this world would be finished!
They quickly stopped the war, returned to that portal, and began working to make up for their mistake.
Nurmengard was built, and Grindelwald imprisoned himself within it in the name of a prisoner, taking on the role of gatekeeper and suppressing the increasingly rampant 'Grim Reaper'.
Meanwhile, Dumbledore remained at Hogwarts, searching for a way to solve the problem once and for all.
"Was that child Link Foley the method you found?"
Grindelwald asked softly.
Dumbledore shook his head.
"Not really. In fact, at first, I only felt pity for Link. You can understand that, right? Link's father subjected him to an inhumane bloodline ritual, turning him from a smart and beautiful child into a monster.
"Faced with such a tragedy, I simply couldn't bring myself to be cruel. So even though Link's father had stolen and used King's Blood, I didn't punish Link or the Foley family. I even allowed Link to enter Hogwarts to study.
"But later, things developed to the point where everything completely got out of control."
"Out of control? Even you can lose control of things?" Grindelwald sneered. "Stop pretending! From the moment that child appeared before me carrying the 'blood pact' between you and me, I understood what you were thinking. You wanted to rely on him to solve the problem of the 'Grim Reaper'!"
Dumbledore finally turned his head and said with an extremely serious expression, "I swear to you, I absolutely never used Link Foley. Link Foley was originally supposed to be an ordinary wizard who would live an ordinary life honestly. I also put enough seals and arrangements in place for the King's Blood inside his body. That King's Blood could only fuse the mixed bloodlines within Link's body together and keep his body from collapsing. It had no way to display its proper effects, nor could it continue to grow.
"But Voldemort No. 1's fragment of soul hidden inside the 'Tom Riddle's Diary' stole some of the King's Blood hidden inside Link's body and began continuously cultivating King's Blood in an attempt to gain power!
"And Link himself also began to change.
"He became smarter and stronger. That strength caused King's Blood to display its true power!
"Everything went out of control! Do you understand?"
Seeing how serious Dumbledore was, Grindelwald finally nodded and continued asking, "Then what's going on now? The 'Grim Reaper' I guarded at Nurmengard has disappeared, yet this world hasn't been destroyed. I really can't understand it."
"I can't understand it either!"
Dumbledore laughed.
"But my guess is that Link rushed into the sealed space and killed the 'Grim Reaper'."
"And then he got trapped in that world himself, right?"
Grindelwald continued.
It was not impossible.
When the Peverell family sealed the 'Grim Reaper', they took a shortcut. They used the three Deathly Hallows as tools, drawing the 'Grim Reaper's' own energy and using it as the energy source for the seal, thereby forming a positive cycle.
This directly caused the 'Grim Reaper' to be unable to break the seal using its own energy of the same origin. Since there was no higher-level energy than it in this world, theoretically speaking, the 'Grim Reaper' could never break free from the seal.
Unless the 'Grim Reaper' could create an energy that was higher-level than itself and possessed the ability to restrain and destroy the energy it controlled.
The 'Grim Reaper' had indeed done exactly that.
Its final creation was King's Blood, a powerful energy ultimately formed by combining various extreme emotions with the 'Grim Reaper's' power.
According to the 'Grim Reaper's' original plan, King's Blood would grant people power while controlling their minds. Then, once the total amount of King's Blood reached a certain level, it would reach exactly the amount needed to break the seal and free it.
It should have been a perfect plan, because as the amount of King's Blood increased, its power to influence people's minds would also grow stronger.
No one in the world could withstand this ever-growing power of temptation, and in the end, they would become vessels for King's Blood.
But Link endured it by force.
The amount of King's Blood he gathered far exceeded the level needed to break the Deathly Hallows' seal.
Then Link rushed into the sealed world and used the 'weapon' forged by the 'Grim Reaper' itself to kill the 'Grim Reaper'.
And he replaced the 'Grim Reaper' as the true master of the sealed world, becoming the energy source of the entire sealed world. The three Deathly Hallows drew the energy of King's Blood to form a new seal, sealing him in the same way.
"Sigh... For such a powerful person to end up in such a state. But this should also count as a good thing for him, right? After all, in that world, his deceased mother and fiancée can both be resurrected and stay by his side."
After sighing several times, Grindelwald continued. "But I still don't understand. Link's actions and goals were very clear. But what about No. 1, that fragment of Voldemort's soul who originally stole the King's Blood? What's his deal?
"To be honest, none of the things he did make any sense at all.
"It's as if he deliberately gave all the King's Blood he had cultivated to Link, ultimately offering even his own life along with it."
"Of course, it was for love."
Dumbledore answered without hesitation.
"For love?" Grindelwald frowned.
"Of course it was for love." Dumbledore nodded. "He did indeed learn a lot from the failure of Voldemort's main soul. He also developed that theory of 'great love'. Although his great love is extremely evil, a crooked and twisted path, I have to admit that it is indeed a kind of love. He truly loves everything in the world, just as he said.
"Then the question naturally follows.
"If he loves everything in the world, do you think he loves himself?
"After all, he is also a part of everything in the world."
Grindelwald was no fool, and he also had his own sources of information.
Hearing Dumbledore say this, he immediately formed a guess, both eyes suddenly widening.
"You mean, he went through all this just to enter that sealed world, use the power within it to fulfill his wish, and make up for his regrets?"
Dumbledore snapped his fingers and said with a smile, "No. 1, or rather, Voldemort's wish when he was young, was immortality, while his regret was that he never received his mother's love. Coincidentally, both of these things could be fulfilled in the sealed space, so his ultimate goal was to enter the sealed space.
"And he did indeed succeed.
"His original plan was to cultivate enough King's Blood, then gather the Deathly Hallows, break the seal, kill the Grim Reaper, and become the master of the sealed world.
"But Link's sudden emergence disrupted his plan.
"So he adjusted his plan. After confirming that he could not kill Link, he began cooperating, handing all the King's Blood, along with part of his own soul, over to Link and guiding Link to kill the Grim Reaper.
"At the same time, part of his soul was hidden within the King's Blood and entered the sealed world, fulfilling his wish."
Grindelwald frowned repeatedly as he listened, then slowly said, "Was it really worth it for those illusory shadows?"
Dumbledore said, "How do you know that everything appearing in the sealed world is an illusory shadow? Why can't they be real?"
"What kind of joke are you making?" Grindelwald said. "You and I both know very well that everything in that world is an illusion, because we both experienced it ourselves!"
"No, no, no. Your understanding and mine are different. Let me ask you a few questions." Dumbledore shook his head. "How do you define illusion and reality? And how do you know that the world we're in now is real? Maybe the world we're in now is fictional, and we're characters in someone else's book."
Grindelwald was about to argue, but Dumbledore continued, "Also, have you noticed what's been happening outside recently?
"Link has been gone for a full five days. Without his suppression, the English Ministry of Magic should have fallen into chaos, and the Foley family should have been wiped out.
"But what about now?
"The English Ministry of Magic is still doing fine. The committee system created by Link hasn't disappeared. Barty and Percy haven't chosen new committee members either. Instead, they've continued managing the English Ministry of Magic and annexing other magical societies.
"I heard that Neilan and Skiffin have already taken advantage of the weakness of those Ministries of Magic and gained control of the entire European magical world, and they're still advancing toward the Americas.
"And the Department of Mysteries of the English Ministry of Magic has also absorbed the technology of Sky City and cooperated with Muggles to develop technology that allows wizards to break through spatial limitations and enter outer space for exploration.
"Oh! All right, to be honest, I don't really agree with this. I still think cooperating with Muggles and breaking the Statute of Secrecy is far too risky.
"But it doesn't matter anymore. I'm old anyway, so none of these things have anything to do with me. They won't listen to a weak old man like me rambling.
"All right, back to the point.
"Let's talk about the Foley family.
"After Link disappeared, the Foley family didn't perish either.
"Beckman quickly adjusted his mindset and, with an overwhelming force, wiped out the small rebellion that had broken out within the Foley family hunter group. Then, the Foley family became more and more prosperous.
"The strangest thing is that recently, Beckman has also been constantly purchasing all kinds of precious gems and supplies, happily saying that he is going to hold an unprecedented grand wedding!
"Guess who this wedding is for?"
Grindelwald felt a chill run down his spine. He shuddered and said, "You mean Link Foley came out of the sealed world? He even resurrected his fiancée, as well as..."
Dumbledore stood up, smiling as he waved his hand and interrupted Grindelwald.
"Who cares? None of these things have anything to do with us anymore. Let the new world be handled by the young people. As for an old wreck like me, I should have a good sleep and get some rest."
As Dumbledore spoke, he trudged forward with difficulty.
Hearing this, Grindelwald also smiled and shook his head before quickly catching up.
The two of them slowly walked along a small path.
At the end of the path stood a tomb made of pure white marble.
At this moment, the tomb door was wide open, seemingly waiting for its owners to arrive.