When Victor was communicating with Voldemort just now, they were speaking within their minds, so the angel and demon couldn't hear anything.
"It's a Communication Stone for long-distance contact. I finally managed to make it. In this era... sending letters by owl is just too slow," Victor said casually as he put the stone away.
"Then why don't you buy a mobile phone?" Crowley asked.
"Oh... Crowley! This world's era is behind our own. In this time, smartphones don't exist yet!" Aziraphale interjected.
"Well, I mean, wasn't this kid a coder before? I just wanted to know if he could build one. You know, smartphones were quite fun..."
"Not now. I have other things to handle. Once everything is settled, we can find a way to make some for fun," Victor chuckled.
"Oh! Then you definitely have to make those interesting little games, like—"
"Crowley! Don't get sidetracked! Don't forget why Victor called us today!"
Aziraphale forcefully steered the conversation back.
Otherwise, if he let his rascal of a friend keep talking, the topic would stray a hundred thousand miles off course.
"Fine, fine... what was your question again?"
"Whether Death exists," Aziraphale reminded him.
"Oh, right. He actually does exist. At least, we can sense a powerful subjective will of that nature." Crowley dropped his playful grin.
"True. However, there's no need to worry. This 'Death' seems to be... not very strict with his management," Aziraphale said after a moment's thought.
"Not very strict?" Victor looked at him with confusion.
"At least not as strict as Heaven and Hell are in our world," Crowley nodded.
"His gaze seems broader... which is why we said that if you want to resurrect someone, you must exchange another soul for it," Aziraphale sighed. "That way, with something given for something taken, the rules aren't broken too badly, the balance is maintained, and his attention isn't drawn."
Victor understood. In other words, regarding minor violations like resurrecting one or two people, as long as you filled the hole, he would turn a blind eye.
Or to put it more vividly—this was just a small bug in the world's program. As long as you didn't constantly use the bug for personal gain, its existence wouldn't catch the administrator's eye, and thus, it wouldn't be patched.
Thinking like a programmer, it was normal for a program to have some minor bugs.
As long as these minor bugs didn't affect the program's normal operation, it was best not to touch them... otherwise, it might trigger even more severe bugs.
With that thought, Victor suddenly understood the deity's perspective.
"In that case, I'm relieved." Victor stood up. "Thank you both for clarifying. My first phase of experiments will begin soon. Would you two be interested in coming to watch when the time comes?"
"Oh... absolutely!" Crowley said excitedly.
Aziraphale hesitated. Because such a resurrection ritual was a life for a life, the thought of watching someone be killed—even if they deserved it—made him very uncomfortable.
"The first phase is just summoning the spirit, not direct resurrection," Victor said, seeing Aziraphale's concern.
"Oh... if that's the case, then I'll come along," Aziraphale said, relieved.
The first phase of the experiment was scheduled for three days later.
Victor had the Knights Templar set up the laboratory completely, then returned to Hogwarts to find Severus Snape, who was still moping in the castle.
"I want to be alone."
"Fine. I was planning to start the first phase of the experiment to summon Lily's soul. Since you don't want to go—"
"I've had enough quiet. I'm ready to leave anytime." Snape stood up, his face dark.
Victor shrugged. "There's still time. Maybe you should tidy up your appearance. Wash your hair, wash your face, maybe put on some blush..."
"Shut up!" Snape snapped, flustered with rage.
An hour later, Victor and Snape appeared at the entrance of Knockturn Alley.
He didn't intend to reveal the existence of the Vanishing Cabinet to anyone else, so he had to take the conventional route to the experimental site.
Snape's appearance was indeed much better than before. At the very least, his greasy black hair had been meticulously washed, even carrying a faint scent of shampoo...
At the entrance of Knockturn Alley, Aziraphale and Crowley were already waiting.
After a brief introduction, the group walked through the long alleyway to the lab in the underground base.
"This place, and those people outside... does Dumbledore know about this?" Snape asked with a sneer.
"I provided the Galleons, and Dumbledore signed the permits. Do you think he knows?" Victor smiled. "Have you forgotten? I told you about their origins before."
Snape remembered now and fell silent. He just hadn't expected Dumbledore to actually leave all these people to Victor and even prepare a legal settlement for them...
Aziraphale and Crowley didn't join the conversation, instead looking around the laboratory.
The lab was quite sophisticated.
Large white magic lamps hung from the ceiling, illuminating the entire space.
All the necessary equipment was ready, and the corresponding rune arrays were drawn on the floor.
After leading them in, the young people gradually vacated the lab, closing the doors and standing guard outside.
"Alright, no one will disturb us now. Let's go over the procedure one last time, and once we're sure everything's correct, we'll begin." Victor handed over several sheets of parchment.
Snape didn't take them; he wasn't well-versed in this field, as his expertise was Potions.
Aziraphale and Crowley, however, took the parchment.
After confirming everything was correct, the group joined Victor in checking the preparations for any flaws.
"Alright, we can begin now..."
Victor took a small box from a nearby table and slowly opened it.
Inside lay a small fragment of bone... it appeared to be human.
Snape's body suddenly tensed. "This is... this is..."
"It's Lily's phalange, Severus," Victor said calmly.
"You dug up Lily's grave!?" Snape was furious.
But Victor just looked at him quietly. "Without a medium, how do you expect me to summon Lily's spirit? The moment this experiment was decided, such an offense to the deceased was inevitable... I thought you had already mentally prepared yourself?"
Snape fell silent, but his eyes reddened as he stared at the small piece of Lily's bone.
Victor ignored the poor man sinking into memories again. Waving his wand, he manipulated the bone fragment, making it float into the center of the rune array on the floor.
Aziraphale and Crowley stepped back, watching Victor's movements with slight tension. This method currently only existed in theory; whether it would work depended on this experiment.
Victor tapped his toe lightly on the ground, and the rune array flared to life. Beams of white light flowed along the lines of the array, converging onto the bone fragment.
In an instant, the pristine white bone turned blood-red!
Snape shivered and involuntarily took several steps back. He suddenly felt the room temperature, which had been warm, plummet by more than ten degrees!
Even the distant walls began to gather a thin layer of frost...
Victor pointed his wand, and a miniature palace filled with various rune sequences suddenly emerged!
Simultaneously, the equipment enveloped by the miniature palace began to operate, injecting new energy into it!
Minutes passed. Just as Snape thought the experiment might have failed, he felt a slight dampness on his feet.
He looked down and discovered that a thin layer of white mist had appeared on the floor at some point!
Joy appeared on Aziraphale and Crowley's faces, and even Victor's solemn expression relaxed.
The appearance of the Lost Mist proved they had knocked a crack into that tightly closed door!
The mist grew thicker! Soon, it enveloped the entire laboratory!
Victor looked around; he could see Snape and the others just moments ago, but now they were obscured.
A few more minutes passed, and Victor suddenly sensed something was wrong.
He realized the floor had changed beneath him!
The ground where the rune array had been drawn had turned into a surface of water as clear as a mirror!
He was standing on the water!
Victor tentatively took a step, and ripples spread across the surface...
When Victor looked up in surprise, he found the miniature palace that had surrounded him had completely vanished!
The white mist gradually thinned, but Snape, Aziraphale, and the others were nowhere to be found!
'Where am I...?' Victor frowned, looking around. Clearly, he was no longer in the lab.
"You have arrived at Limbo," a gentle voice spoke from behind him.
Victor spun around to see a kind-looking old man standing there.
He had white hair and a long white beard, wearing spotless white wizard robes. He stood there calmly, as if he had been there for a very long time. He looked just like Gandalf the White.
"Who are you?!" Victor asked warily.
He had already guessed this was Limbo, but he hadn't figured out how he had ended up here.
"Are you asking for my name? Hmm... in life, I was called Merlin."
"Merlin? The one who guided King Arthur to unify England?"
"Yes. Someone told me to wait for you here. In fact, I've been waiting for quite some time." Merlin smiled.
"You knew I was coming?" In that instant, many thoughts crossed Victor's mind.
"You aren't the only one who can feel the changes in this world, Mr. Wick," Merlin said softly.
"You mean... Death..."
"Precisely." Merlin walked over slowly. "There are some issues with this world... He is naturally aware of you outsiders. In fact, among the many outsiders, He felt your abilities could help Him the most. And it seems He was right; you have seen the core of this world..."
Victor had a sudden realization. If this world was a massive program, then that deity was likely the administrator.
There was no way He hadn't noticed them, the outsiders...
Just as a programmer treats a bug, He hadn't used forceful methods to fix it. Instead, He applied some patches—for instance, arranging backgrounds and identities for them...
That way, even if the bugs remained and the code was a mountain of spaghetti, it wouldn't impact the overall operation of the program too much.
"Then what does He want me to do?" Victor asked cautiously.
"As long as it doesn't affect the world's operation, He won't interfere with your actions... After all, getting rid of you people isn't a simple task. One mistake, and the world itself might break," Merlin replied.
Victor sighed. It was exactly as he thought.
"Compared to the others, you truly possess the ability to affect the world's operation. Thus, He felt you needed some guidance—to ensure that when you exploit certain loopholes, you won't cause too much damage. And I am the one sent to provide that guidance," Merlin explained further.
"So He knows I'll cause trouble, but to stop me from breaking the world, He gave me you as an instruction manual. To remind me of the precautions..." Victor summarized.
"Instruction manual? Hmm... that's more or less it. A very incisive summary," Merlin praised.
"Then you must already know what I intend to do."
"Of course we know, and we have no intention of stopping you... However, as those two outsiders mentioned, to maintain the balance, it must be a life for a life." Merlin waved his hand.
An ethereal figure appeared beside Merlin. It was Lily's spirit, but her eyes were tightly closed, and she seemed unconscious.
"Can you wake her and bring her to the outside world?" Victor asked.
"No. The rule is a life for a life. Without another soul to take the place she should occupy, she cannot leave," Merlin said kindly.
Victor was silent for a moment. "Was my method today incorrect?"
"It was not. However, due to the interference of the rules of balance, your experiment cannot summon her spirit to the living world unless you provide another soul in exchange. In fact, if I hadn't appeared today, your experiment would have been a failure. To prevent you from taking more drastic measures in the future, I had to appear as your guide."
Victor fell silent again.
"However, I will give you something that allows you to speak with the dead directly from the living world." As Merlin spoke, an exquisite mirror rose from the water, floating quietly in front of Victor.
Victor reached out and took the mirror. It was cold to the touch.
"Of course, you can also use this mirror to find me. If you want to make any small moves in the future, please ask me first. As long as it doesn't impact the world, I won't stop you—I might even provide help. Also, to avoid unnecessary trouble, do not speak of what happened here."
Merlin waved his hand, and Victor felt his surroundings change once more. In an instant, he was back in the laboratory.
Snape, Aziraphale, and Crowley were still looking at him anxiously, as if he had never left.
But the icy touch of the mirror in Victor's hand told him that what had just occurred was not a hallucination.
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