The white mist receded like a tide, and the virtual Data Palace Victor Wick had manifested gradually dissipated along with it.
"Hmm? What happened? Did it fail?" Crowley asked curiously.
"What did you see just now?" Victor didn't answer, instead looking at the group and asking a question of his own.
"Other than that eerie mist, we didn't see anything at all," Crowley said, shaking his head.
Snape and Aziraphale shared the same sentiment.
"So, in your eyes, I've just been standing here the whole time without moving?" Victor asked thoughtfully.
"Yes... you just stood there maintaining those rune arrays, and then the mist suddenly vanished. So... was it a failure?" Snape asked urgently.
"It wasn't exactly a failure. In fact, I just took a trip to Limbo and saw Lily's soul there." Victor didn't mention anything about Merlin, but he had to give them a plausible reason.
"How is she? Why didn't you bring her back?" Snape's expression had turned frantic.
"Huh? This Lily person... is she your wife?" Crowley's tone turned gossipy.
However, those words were like a knife stabbing into Snape's heart, leaving him unable to speak.
However, his silence didn't mean a certain shameless fellow would stop talking.
"No, she's someone else's wife."
"Oh—" Crowley understood instantly, a sly smirk playing on his face. "Wives, as they say, are always better when they belong to someone else..."
"Crowley!" Aziraphale quickly interrupted him. Anyone could see that Snape was in an extremely foul mood. If Crowley, that chatterbox, kept on blathering, this new wizard might just draw his wand.
Snape glared at Crowley before turning his gaze back to Victor.
Victor still hadn't answered his question!
"I couldn't bring her out. My guess is that once a soul enters Limbo, they can never leave, unless... they are exchanged for another soul," Victor explained in simple terms.
Death in the wizarding world didn't mean a soul immediately entered Limbo and then proceeded to the world of the dead.
Even at Hogwarts, there were many ghosts who were unwilling to enter Limbo and remained in the living world.
Therefore, it was easy to conclude that before a soul entered Limbo, they weren't yet considered part of that side.
Only after going there did they occupy a specific slot. As long as they hadn't gone, they weren't counted, much like a group of alternate officials who had yet to take office.
This perfectly explained a paradox—why the soul of a person who had already been killed could still be used as a bargaining chip for exchange.
The world of the dead didn't force souls to proceed. If a soul had lingering attachments to the living world, they could choose to stay until their obsession was resolved. From this perspective, that Death was actually quite lenient in his management.
Hearing Victor's words, Snape said nothing more. He pulled his wand and headed straight for the exit.
"Severus, where are you going?"
Snape's figure paused. "There are plenty of people in Knockturn Alley who deserve to die, and I happen to know a few who are particularly deserving."
"There's no need. I've already made the necessary preparations," Victor chuckled.
Snape turned to look at him, a flicker of surprise crossing his face. But on second thought, it seemed only reasonable.
Since someone like Victor said he had made full preparations, how could there be any oversight?
Victor turned to Aziraphale, whose expression was a bit uneasy. "Azi, if you have other matters to attend to, you may leave first."
Hearing this, Aziraphale felt a warmth in his heart and nodded gratefully toward Victor.
He knew very well that Victor understood he couldn't bear to see someone's life being stripped away, even if that person was irredeemably evil.
He was truly grateful that Victor could be so considerate of him; this was what a true friend was like.
"What matters could he possibly have..." Crowley grumbled, dissatisfied.
"I didn't ask you to come with me!" Aziraphale glared at Crowley in annoyance, then bid Victor farewell and departed.
Seeing Aziraphale leave in a huff, Crowley followed, even though he really wanted to stay and watch.
He had no choice; he'd made the angel angry. If he stayed here now, it would be very difficult to coax him later.
Seeing the two leave, Victor clapped his hands.
A moment later, Brian walked in from outside. Floating beside him was an unconscious witch.
"Therese Merrick, a dark witch. She enjoyed kidnapping children to use their internal organs for Dark Arts experiments and brewing potions. We caught her in Scotland," Brian said with a look of disgust.
"Mm, thank you, Brian." Victor drew his wand and dropped the witch onto the floor.
Brian bowed slightly and turned to leave.
Snape frowned at the evil witch. Even if he wasn't exactly a saint, he would never brew such potions; it was a pure desecration of the art of Potions.
He looked at Victor again, feeling another wave of astonishment.
Victor had truly made such thorough preparations... It seemed his subordinates had captured this witch a long time ago.
Next, Victor didn't choose to contact Merlin through the mirror, as Snape was still in the room.
He activated the rune array and entered Limbo once more.
"Back so soon?" Merlin was a bit surprised to see Victor return.
"I've prepared a soul. What do I need to do to swap Lily out?" Victor asked very directly.
In the set of methods he had researched, there were naturally ways to swap souls, and more than one.
But now that the 'instruction manual' was right in front of him, Merlin surely had the best method. He would be a fool not to ask.
Merlin nodded with satisfaction. "I'm glad you asked me directly instead of messing around on your own. This is exactly what that Lord most wanted to see when he sent me here."
Snape saw Victor standing still again and guessed that his consciousness might have entered Limbo once more.
In fact, if it were possible, Snape would have loved to go in himself to see the person he'd dreamed of sooner.
Suddenly, the previously motionless Victor moved. He raised his wand, and a beam of light struck the witch on the ground.
Then, he reached out and grabbed at the air, forcibly tearing an ethereal figure out of the witch's body!
Victor extended his wand and tapped lightly on the air in front of him.
Two white vortexes appeared abruptly, suspended side-by-side in mid-air.
The ethereal figure in Victor's hand was forcibly pulled into one of the vortexes. Before long, half of it had been sucked in.
Simultaneously, Victor's wand in his right hand tapped outside the other vortex, pulling outward with a gentle motion.
As the dark witch's soul was gradually pulled in, an ethereal figure was slowly drawn out of the second vortex by Victor.
Watching that familiar silhouette, Snape's body suddenly tensed, and his breathing hitched!
Before long, the figure Snape had dreamed of for so long appeared fully before him.
Lily floated quietly in mid-air, her eyes tightly closed, seemingly in a state of deep unconsciousness.
Victor flicked his hand, releasing his magic.
"She... what's wrong with her..." Snape felt his throat go dry, his words coming out disjointed.
"She's in a deep sleep. Don't worry, this is normal. I can wake her at any time." Victor waved his wand, and a flash of Fiendfyre incinerated the witch's corpse on the floor.
"Then wake her up, quickly." Snape stared intently at Lily, his expression incredibly complex.
Sorrow, longing, guilt, fear... a series of expressions flashed rapidly across his face, leaving Victor stunned.
He had to admit, this was even more fascinating to watch than a professional face-changing performance.
"Are you sure you want me to wake her up?" Victor asked meaningfully.
"Yes." Snape took a deep breath.
"Let me be clear beforehand, Severus. I don't know the situation in the world of the dead, so I don't know how much she knows about the events of the living world..."
"I understand what you mean... wake her up. Some things must be faced sooner or later." Snape's face was full of sorrow and remorse. "I don't ask for much. I just want to... confess my sins to her face. I know she can never forgive me, but... that's not important."
He naturally knew why Victor was reminding him. If Lily knew he was the one who sold the prophecy to Voldemort, causing the destruction of her family... he didn't dare imagine how much she would hate him.
But even so, he still had to explain everything to Lily in person. No matter how she reacted, he had already prepared himself mentally.
In fact, from the moment he learned there was a way to resurrect Lily, he had anticipated this moment.
"Alright, since you insist." Victor knew that Snape never expected Lily to forgive him. His lifelong obsession was simply to apologize to her in person.
Victor raised his wand and tapped Lily's forehead lightly.
A second later, Lily's tightly closed eyes slowly fluttered open.
At first, she looked around in confusion, her gaze sweeping past Victor's face before finally landing on Snape's!
Lily had never met Victor, but she recognized Snape instantly.
"You... how can I see you? Where is this?" Lily's ghost-like voice carried an ethereal, hollow quality.
Victor stepped aside and sat down, pouring himself a cup of tea. He then took a plate of sliced watermelon out of the nearby magical freshness-preserving cabinet.
Snape took a deep breath and walked slowly toward Lily.
Lily watched him quietly, her eyes filled with detachment and a hint of loathing.
Snape's face went pale. Before he could even speak, he felt his broken heart being shattered once more.
Victor, munching on his watermelon, shook his head repeatedly.
Snape must have seen that look in Harry's eyes before, but this time he was seeing the original version.
Clearly, the original look was a thousand-percent critical hit to Snape.
Of course, it might even be worse than that.