In the center of the city stood an enormous, palace-like complex that seemed to have been carved out of a mountain. Further away, an unusual tower pierced the clouds. At its peak, a massive glass sphere floated, rotating slowly and emitting faint, ominous energy fluctuations.
The entire city resembled a precise yet merciless machine, with every component operating according to predetermined rules.
This was the heart of the Empire in this corrupted timeline.
It was a place where totalitarianism, terror, and twisted technology had been taken to their absolute limits.
"Attention passengers, please fasten your seatbelts and prepare for landing."
The airship slowly descended through the high skies. The drone of its propellers sounded dull and weary in the thin atmosphere, while its massive shadow swept across the perfectly ordered streets below, laid out like a giant chessboard.
"I need to find what I'm looking for as quickly as possible."
Through the porthole, Ian gazed at the oppressive imperial capital, calculating how to infiltrate the ruler's treasure vault to search for materials to repair the time machine, as well as for clues to the secret of immortality.
He slowly closed his eyes.
Magic power circulated silently as he sensed the city's energy field.
He could feel the omnipresent anti-magic interference waves, like an invisible iron net suppressing all supernatural power. Yet deep within the black spire at the city's center, he also sensed an extremely faint but extraordinarily ancient magical fluctuation.
Something no technology could imitate.
It felt more like a sealed wizard relic.
"Perhaps that's the place."
Ian was prepared to start moving the moment he stepped off the airship.
However...
Just as the vessel was about to dock with the airport tower, the passengers had begun gathering their belongings...
RUMBLE!
Without warning, a deadly white bolt of lightning tore through the dark sky!
It did not come from the clouds. Instead, it seemed to erupt directly from the void itself, striking the airship's enormous gas envelope with terrifying precision. As thick as an ancient serpent, the lightning instantly pierced both the helium balloon and the metal hull.
There was no sign of an impending explosion.
Only destruction descended without warning.
BOOM!
The deafening blast nearly shattered everyone's eardrums.
This was no ordinary fiery explosion.
It was a bizarre detonation accompanied by spatial distortion!
The gas envelope was ripped apart in less than a thousandth of a second. Pressurized helium burst outwards violently, triggering a catastrophic chain reaction. The metal framework twisted and snapped, and the cabin walls were torn open like paper.
The entire airship disintegrated in mid-air, raining countless burning fragments towards the ground below.
The metallic skeleton groaned and screamed as it bent and broke.
But what came next was even more terrifying.
The lightning did not dissipate.
Instead, it exploded outwards into the sky, ripping space itself open into an ever-expanding vortex of shimmering, chaotic colors!
It resembled a wound torn open in the universe. Purple-black light flickered along its unstable edges, while inside swirled distorted galaxies and shattered fragments of time itself.
An irresistible force erupted from within.
Everything within a thousand meters, the airship wreckage, the passengers, and even the air itself, was dragged into the vortex.
"Damn it!" Ian only had time for a single shout.
An overwhelming and terrifying suction force erupted from the vortex. His pupils contracted sharply. He tried to Apparate instinctively, but the force was far too powerful, completely sealing off spatial magic itself.
He could only watch helplessly as he was dragged deep into the vortex.
The porthole glass shattered instantly. The air in the cabin was ripped away violently, and the passengers' screams stretched and distorted into inhuman sounds.
Ian felt as though an invisible giant's hand had seized him and was dragging him towards the source of the destruction.
At the very moment his body was about to be completely swallowed by the vortex, he suddenly turned his head.
Through the flames of the explosion and the distorted space, he saw a pair of eyes...
Gigantic, cold eyes floating within the void itself.
There was no emotion within them, only pure, detached observation.
It was as though they were examining an insect that had accidentally wandered into the wrong place.
The next moment, heaven and earth spun upside down, and all color vanished.
Ian was completely swept into the raging turbulence of spacetime.
This was no longer a stable time corridor but an uncontrollable storm of chaos.
Colors ceased to be colors.
Sounds ceased to be sounds.
Time and space had shattered and been violently stirred together.
"Entering a spacetime tunnel without any protective equipment is definitely not survivable."
Ian could see the horrifying fate of the other passengers around him.
One by one, their bodies were withering at a visible rate.
A middle-aged man's skin instantly became covered in wrinkles. His hair turned grey and fell out, his muscles shriveled, and his bones became brittle. Within mere seconds, he collapsed into a pile of yellow dust, which was swept away by the current.
A young woman screamed as her face caved inwards and her eyeballs sank into their sockets.
Her entire body shrank into a dried husk of skin before crumbling into dust.
This was the ultimate punishment of spacetime turbulence upon mortal flesh...
To be forcibly accelerated towards death in the torrent of time itself.
Their bodies aged at a horrifying speed under the violent fluctuations of temporal flow. Their skin instantly became covered in wrinkles and age spots. Their hair turned snow-white and fell out. Muscles shrivelled and bones weakened.
Within mere seconds, people were transformed one after another into scattered piles of brittle bones and dust right before Ian's eyes.
In the end, even the dust itself was swallowed by the turbulence and erased from existence.
Inside the vortex, absolute chaos reigned.
Time no longer flowed linearly. Instead, fragmentation, reversal, acceleration, and stagnation coexisted simultaneously.
"Damn it!"
Ian roared as the blessing of the Sun God erupted from within him instantly.
Golden flames burst from every pore of his body, forming a thin protective barrier. This shield could not completely resist the turbulence, but it stabilized his personal flow of time, preventing him from dying instantly of old age like the others.
"Protego! Protego Maxima!"
Ian drove his magical power into overdrive.
This time, he had entered the temporal passageway without the protection of a Time-Turner or time machine. The danger was beyond imagination.
His magic power fused with a divine blessing, and the Sun God's golden radiance manifested around his body, forming a sturdy halo that barely resisted the erosion of spacetime turbulence.
He could feel his strength draining away at an incredible speed. The Sun God's blessing violently clashed with the destructive energy of spacetime itself, producing sizzling noises.
Sharp, needle-like pains spread across his skin, signs that time was attempting to accelerate or reverse itself upon his body, yet each attempt was forcibly neutralised by the divine power.
This felt even more terrifying than facing the evil gods Set and Apep.
At least that had been a tangible attack.
This was the shaking of existence itself.
Sometimes, Ian felt himself stretched out into an infinitely thin line. At others, he felt compressed into a single point. One moment he felt as though he had lived through a thousand years; the next, it lasted only an instant.
"I have to… stabilize myself!"
Ian clenched his teeth and pushed every defensive spell he had ever learned to its absolute limit.
He was like a tiny boat struggling amidst a raging sea.
At any moment, he could capsize.
And yet, he stubbornly endured.
He did not know how much time had passed.
Perhaps an instant.
Or perhaps an eternity.
Eventually, the violent turbulence began to weaken. Ian felt as though he had been spat back out by an enormous force.
After another nauseating sensation of falling...
BAM!
...he crashed heavily onto a soft patch of earth thick with decaying humus, rolling several times before finally stopping.
"Urgh… no matter what, at least I landed intact instead of being torn apart."
Ian lay sprawled on the ground, coughing violently. Every bone in his body ached, and his magical power was almost depleted.
With great effort, he raised his head.
Before him stood ancient trees stretching endlessly into the distance.
"Merlin's beard…"
Ian weakly collapsed back onto the ground and let out a pained groan.
"Why is it always a forest?! Couldn't I ever land somewhere with soft beds, hot soup, and house-elves serving me in a luxury hotel?"
He missed the four-poster bed in the Hogwarts tower. He missed the endless feasts in the Great Hall. He missed the adoring gaze of the house-elves and the delicious snacks they were always eager to present to him.
Grrrrrr…
His stomach growled loudly at the perfect moment, dragging him back to reality from his nostalgia.
Hunger surged over him, reminding him of his current situation.
He struggled to his feet and checked his condition. His robes were torn in several places. His body was covered in bruises and grazes. Fortunately, he had suffered no serious injuries, but his magic power was nearly exhausted. The pouch he was carrying was still intact. The time machine components and the Fragment of Ra's Eye inside were completely unharmed.
"Those eyes…"
Ian recalled the sight he had witnessed before being dragged into the turbulence, and a lingering fear rose in his heart.
Was the owner of those eyes the one who launched the attack? Were they trying to drive him away? Or was my arrival in that distorted timeline an accident, and did that existence merely come to correct an outside variable like me?"
He shook his head, dismissing questions he could not currently answer.
His immediate priority was to recover his stamina and magic power.
The forest was extremely quiet. Only the rustling of the wind through the treetops and the distant cries of unknown birds could be heard.
Ian took a deep breath.
The magical atmosphere in the air... was perfectly normal.
In fact, it was even denser than in the era he was familiar with, which eased his mind slightly.
Despite having suffered through spacetime turbulence, the blessing of the Sun God had miraculously preserved his life and magic power. He could still feel the warm, powerful flow of golden light within his body, though it was somewhat unstable and required time to recover.
"At the very least, I need to get some food first."
He stood up, brushed the dirt off his clothes, and started looking for prey.
As an experienced wizard, survival in the wilderness posed no difficulty.
Ian scanned his surroundings, using magic to sense living things.
Very quickly, he found a stag grazing in a forest clearing.
It had a strong body and elegant antlers and was completely unaware of the approaching danger.
Silently, Ian raised his wand.
He cast a Bewitching Spell. A low-level illusion spell capable of briefly influencing an animal's senses. At the same time, Ian used wind magic to create faint disturbances in the airflow around the stag, making it believe a predator was approaching.
The stag raised its head alertly, its ears standing upright, as a look of panic flashed through its eyes.
"Directional confusion."
He whispered, sending a faint glimmer of light towards the stag.
The grazing stag suddenly lifted its head, its gaze becoming unfocused and bewildered. Confused, it began to turn in circles, seemingly having lost its sense of direction completely, wandering aimlessly through the clearing.
"Vine Growth."
Ian waved his wand again, this time at the branches of a large tree above the stag. Several tough vines that had originally hung loosely suddenly came alive, rapidly extending and intertwining into a noose-shaped snare.
The disoriented stag remained completely unaware and continued wandering until its antlers slipped neatly into the loop of vines.
"Tighten!"
Ian snapped his fingers.
The vine snare suddenly contracted upwards, locking tightly around the antlers. Startled, the stag jerked and struggled violently, but this only tightened the noose further.
Its hooves kicked frantically, and the more it struggled, the higher it was hoisted into the air, until it eventually suffocated.
The entire process was quiet and swift.
Ian stepped forward and looked at the stag hanging in mid-air, nodding without the slightest psychological burden.
'Very admirable self-sacrifice. To keep me from starving, you voluntarily hanged yourself for the greater good. Truly worthy of praise."
He displayed Western hypocrisy to perfection.
"Rest in peace, brave Mr. Deer."
Ian spoke solemnly as he began skillfully processing the prey. Using flame magic, he scorched away the hide and separated the meat, then cleansed it with purification spells.
Soon, a bonfire crackled to life. Golden pieces of venison, skewered on branches, roasted above the flames, the fat dripping down with sizzling sounds, filling the air with an irresistible aroma.
Ian bit into a piece.
It was crispy on the outside, tender within, and deliciously juicy.
"Mmm… Still nowhere near Hogwarts quality, but better than starving."
As he chewed contentedly, his gaze drifted towards the depths of the forest, and his thoughts turned inwards once again.
Those eyes just now...
Who exactly did they belong to?
He recalled that brief glimpse within the spacetime vortex, the eyes had been cold and emotionless, as though performing some predetermined function.
Perhaps driving him away hadn't been malicious after all.
Maybe it was simply a preventative mechanism.
"Some Ancient Law?"
Ian's imagination ran wild.
The bonfire crackled, illuminating his contemplative face. Once again, he had been thrown into an unknown spacetime , very likely by a terrifying existence that had cast him out manually.
That distorted universe ran far deeper than he had originally imagined.
The campfire continued to crackle as fat dripped from the roasting venison, scattering tiny sparks into the night. Ian Prince gnawed on a deer leg, but his thoughts were already elsewhere.
That distorted universe was simply too absurd.
Everything about it felt artificially distorted, as though an invisible hand had twisted history in an extreme and irrational direction.
"Perhaps there's more than one distorted timeline like that…"
A bold hypothesis gradually formed in his mind.
"What if some existence, perhaps something that disappeared or failed within the normal timeline, used some unknown method to advance or preserve itself, thereby forcibly opening up a twisted timeline belonging solely to itself?"
"Some… vanished gods?"
Ian murmured quietly, feeling as though he had brushed against the edge of an enormous conspiracy.
Could the ancient gods of myth and legend, said to have fallen and been forgotten, be attempting to return in this way?
Or was some existence trying to ascend to godhood manipulating time itself?
Just as he sank deeper into thought, an unusual sound emerged from the forest in the distance. It was neither the wind rustling through the branches nor small animals moving through the bushes.
Instead, it was a steady, orderly rhythm of footsteps with a strange cadence, accompanied by low snorts and the faint clinking of metal.
Ian immediately became alert.
He swiftly extinguished the bonfire, cast a Disillusionment Charm to conceal himself, and tightened his grip on his wand.
The sounds drew closer and closer.
Through the gaps in the trees, Ian finally caught sight of several figures moving towards him.
Tall and powerfully built, with muscular human torsos above and strong horse bodies below.
"Centaurs?" Ian relaxed slightly.
He had encountered creatures like these before in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, and Grindelwald's Defense Against the Dark Arts classes had covered them in detail.
But he quickly realized that something was different about these centaurs.
These centaurs appeared far older and more primitive than any he had ever seen.
Most were nearly naked, wearing only rough animal hides draped over their shoulders. Their bronze skin was covered in mysterious white tribal markings, and wild hair and beards hung down their bodies.
And every single centaur was carrying...
An AK-47.
(End of Chapter)
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