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Yes.
Albus Dumbledore had arrived.
It was the same Dumbledore who, without a moment's hesitation, had stepped into the yawning abyss of the Bronze Gate the moment it swallowed Ian.
Whether he had shattered the gate's internal trials through sheer force of will or simply outpaced the cycle of its magic mattered little now. The reality remained: he had emerged, blinking into the light of an age long forgotten by history.
In the ancient era.
He stood now above an island wreathed in eternal storms. For a wizard of his caliber, the tempest was a trifle. Between the grand designs of his youth and the temporal chess matches he had played alongside Gellert Grindelwald, Dumbledore had long since achieved a mastery over fate and time that bordered on the legendary.
With such power, Albus Dumbledore could never be trapped by a storm. Even among Legendary Wizards, he was unquestionably one of the most outstanding.
Of course.
The storm, and the things within it, did cause Albus Dumbledore a bit of trouble, but it was nothing more than a mild inconvenience.
And it could hardly be called danger.
There was no heart-pounding thrill, either. Not even Albus Dumbledore's hairstyle was disturbed, and his clothes were not touched by a single drop of rain.
This showed that he was completely at ease the entire time. The "Rayquaza" in the storm was a Legendary magical creature, but it was no match for a Legendary wizard.
They were on the same level.
But humans have always been stronger than animals at the same level. This could be seen in many cases throughout history.
According to Ian, this was perfectly reasonable. Of course, Ian was not present, so Albus Dumbledore had no way of knowing the earth-shattering truth: that humans were created in the image of the Creator.
However,
This did not stop Albus from crossing the storm, especially since, even among humans, he had always been among the very best.
The sea was calm, like a mirror. It reflected the flowing auroras in the sky.
"What a marvelous enclosed environment."
Dumbledore hovered a few feet above the water, the hem of his deep blue robes brushing against the air. The sea beneath him acted as a vast looking glass, reflecting his tall, thin silhouette and the flowing silver of his beard. Fawkes, having appeared with a soft flare of heat, settled onto his shoulder. The phoenix's golden-red tail feathers flickered like embers against the old man's cheek.
.
"It seems we've found the right path at last, old friend," Dumbledore said softly, his blue eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles as he peered toward the mist-shrouded island in the distance.
Fawkes let out a low, uneasy trill. The phoenix, who had followed his master through the Bronze Gate by means known only to his kind, seemed to bristle at the atmosphere of this strange land.
It was obvious.
"Ian is here," Dumbledore stated, his voice ringing with absolute certainty.
He didn't look away from the island. It sat in the water like a misplaced jewel, vivid and beautiful, yet vibrating with an alien frequency that felt fundamentally wrong.
The scent of the air was a strange cocktail of lush vegetation and sharp brine, punctuated by the distant, rhythmic roars of creatures that had never appeared in any Bestiary.
"Gah~ gah~ gah~ gah~"
Faced with this unfamiliar environment, the phoenix grew restless for no apparent reason. Fawkes shifted restlessly, his talons digging slightly into Dumbledore's shoulder as his wings gave a sharp, nervous flutter.
Dumbledore reached out and stroked its feathers; his fingertips sensed a faint warmth.
"It is only another adventure, Fawkes," Dumbledore said softly. He gently patted the top of the phoenix's head, soothing his companion with a calm, reassuring voice.
Naturally, his wand slid into his palm from within his sleeve. As for time travel, the present Albus Dumbledore was no stranger to it.
Time travel was an old acquaintance of his. He and Gellert had spent years poking at the seams of reality, and Dumbledore had spent the decades following verifying the more dangerous of their hypotheses.
Even realizing he was standing in a pre-recorded epoch of history didn't dampen his spirit. If anything, there was a spark of Gryffindorish anticipation in his chest.
After all, what was life without a bit of the unknown?
"Gah~ gah~ gah~ gah~" Fawkes seemed to understand. After calling out a few more times, he fell silent and nuzzled Dumbledore's cheek.
"Let's go find that child."
The next moment...
With a soft crack that sounded like the snapping of a dry twig, Dumbledore's form dissolved into a swirl of mist. A heartbeat later, he materialized on the island's shore.
Immediately afterward, Fawkes spread his wings and took flight, as if conducting a reconnaissance of the area. After circling once, he settled back onto Dumbledore's shoulder.
The sand beneath his boots was silver-white, shimmering with a pearlescent glow that left luminous footprints in his wake.
"An artificial world... or perhaps a divine one," Dumbledore observed, tilting his head as he watched several boulders drift ten feet above the ground, completely indifferent to the laws of gravity. Luminous ferns sprouted from their cracks, glowing with a soft, pulsing light. "The alchemy at work here is staggering."
In the distance, a lush forest stretched out. The trees were impossibly tall, their trunks entwined with glowing vines. A few small lizard-like creatures with transparent wings peered at him from cracks in the rocks. Their eyes gleamed with curiosity and wariness.
"Interesting," Dumbledore murmured.
He surveyed the environment briefly.
Oddly shaped magical creatures of all kinds wandered leisurely across the beach, among the rocks, and through the grass. They were brightly colored and strangely formed—species that Dumbledore had never seen before. A small, blue-winged lizard basked lazily in the sun. A fluffy, ball-like creature rolled about on the sand. Several tentacled fish frolicked in the shallows.
"Newt would be quite cross to have missed this," Dumbledore chuckled, his mood lifting as he thought of his former student. "He'd probably try to smuggle the entire island home in that suitcase of his."
He was not at all tense... he even had the leisure to jokingly tease an old friend from afar.
Of course.
There was no way Newt could hear him. Like Ian, Albus Dumbledore's first instinct was that Newt would love this island.
Fawkes flapped his wings once and let out a clear cry, once again appearing somewhat uneasy. That was only natural as phoenixes possessed extremely keen senses. This island was beautiful, yes, but every form of life upon it seemed to be telling a story that had been rewoven anew.
These were lives created through alchemy. To a phoenix, a symbol of life itself, such existence would naturally feel uncomfortable, perhaps this also had something to do with the enormous phoenix that had taken Ian away earlier.
Unfortunately, Fawkes could not speak, nor could it foresee what had happened here in the past. So even when it tried to communicate with Dumbledore, it could not truly make itself understood.
All it could do was express the lingering unease in its heart.
"Don't worry, I'm here," Dumbledore murmured, his fingers tracing the silk of the bird's wing. "And we shall find him. We have to... if there is even a way back for us at all."
He drew his wand from his robes, raised it slowly, closed his eyes, and softly recited an ancient spell. A faint, pale blue glow appeared at the tip of the wand and spread outward like ripples on water.
"Aparecium Vestigium"
It was a detection spell, attempting to capture the magical traces Ian had left behind.
There was no helping it.
Directly tracking Ian was still far too difficult for Dumbledore. If Ian were simply acting as a human wizard, it would have been easy enough.
But who could blame Ian for frequently shifting into his Animagus form after arriving in this world? Albus Dumbledore could not track a raven.
The Raven is immune to ordinary offensive magic and completely immune to investigative and divination-type spells. Even the legendary headmaster was powerless in that regard.
The only reason Dumbledore had been able to follow the trail all the way there was because of his flexible mindset. When tracking Ian directly proved impossible, Dumbledore switched to following the magical traces Ian had left behind.
More precisely...
He was tracking traces of magical structures from the future era, deliberately bypassing Ian himself as the target. It was an excellent solution, one must say.
After all,
In this era, aside from Albus Dumbledore, Ian was the only one who would use magic from a later era to achieve his goals.
Although this place was home to many magical creatures, wizards' magic was fundamentally different from magical creatures' magic, and from all other forms of superhuman power.
It stood out distinctly.
Just as Dumbledore was casting his spell...
Suddenly, Fawkes let out a warning cry. Dumbledore turned toward the jungle, his wand already raised slightly. At that moment, a round stone sphere rolled out of the bushes and stopped right beside his boot. The object was brimming with magical aura.
"It seems someone lives here."
The old man bent down, picked up the smooth stone sphere, and discovered that its surface was covered with tiny runes. Just as he was about to examine it with his wand, there was a rustling sound from within the bushes.
"Ah! I missed!" A little girl with horn-shaped braids dashed out, her cheeks flushed red and a few leaves stuck to her forehead.
She wore crude clothing woven from the fibers of some kind of glowing plant and had several empty cloth pouches hanging at her waist. When she saw the stone sphere in Dumbledore's hand, she looked a little embarrassed.
Of course, Albus Dumbledore could not understand what the little girl was saying. However, he was an old hand at this sort of thing; wandering through different eras had cultivated some very useful habits.
He used Legilimency to quietly read the girl's emotions and linguistic structure.
It was an extremely advanced magical technique that was almost impossible to detect. In just a few seconds, he had grasped the basic framework of her language.
And the little girl noticed nothing at all.
Albus Dumbledore was even more proficient in this kind of magic than Ian.
"It seems this was a misunderstanding." After acquiring the linguistic information, Dumbledore understood what the girl had said earlier.
He then smoothly began speaking in her language.
The little girl grew even more embarrassed.
"I just wanted to catch them and make them my friends." This little girl was Bud, whom Ian had encountered before. After Ian left, she continued searching for companions.
Of course.
Bud was not trying to catch Dumbledore. Following the direction she pointed, Albus Dumbledore could see several oddly shaped creatures.
They looked like the product of crossing a Sniffer with a Bowtruckle.
But judging by the timeline…
They might well have been their ancestors.
These little creatures had round, plump bodies covered in silver scales, while their forelimbs branched like twigs. They were using some kind of glowing seaweed to build nests. Sensing Dumbledore's gaze, all of the little creatures lifted their heads at once, black bean–like eyes gleaming with wary light.
"Is that so?"
Albus Dumbledore did not mind at all. He had not been struck, and the magic on the stone sphere was not something that had to be studied right away. He returned the stone ball to the girl.
"Thank you," Bud said quickly, then examined the unfamiliar old man before her with a thoughtful expression. "Are you also a trainer from outside?"
The girl maintained her politeness.
Albus Dumbledore responded with a gentle nod.
"I am a wizard," He replied mildly.
"A wizard?" The girl blinked. Before she could say anything else, a boy suddenly burst out of the grass, his voice firm and excited: "He's a wizard! Just like Elder Brother Ian, he also has that little stick!"
Dumbledore's gaze shifted to the boy. The child was small and thin, dressed in crude clothes, but his eyes burned with fierce curiosity and admiration.
"The Ian you're talking about…" Dumbledore smiled faintly, his tone calm. "Is it this boy?"
As he spoke, he gave his wand a light flick, and a lifelike image of Ian appeared in midair, running, smiling, waving, and releasing strange fluctuations of energy. The projection was so vivid that it seemed as if Ian were truly standing before them.
The two children immediately widened their eyes, their mouths forming perfect "O" shapes.
"Oh, it's magic!" The boy shouted excitedly. "It's the kind of magic Elder Brother Ian talked about!"
"That's amazing!" The little girl couldn't help clapping and cheering as well.
The boy then ran up to Dumbledore, staring at him eagerly. "Can you teach me magic? I want to learn too!"
Dumbledore's expression remained gentle, but he shook his head. "I'm very sorry, child. To learn magic, the first requirement is talent, you must possess magical power."
He paused, then added, "Unfortunately, neither you nor your elder sister has such power."
The smile on the boy's face faded instantly. He muttered in disappointment, "Looks like wizards are stronger the younger they are… Elder Brother Ian clearly said I could learn magic someday."
"Perhaps," Dumbledore said with a faint smile, a trace of thoughtful light flashing through his eyes. "But Ian… he truly does have some remarkable methods."
At that moment, the little girl tugged on her younger brother's hand and said with a smile, "Odin, Mother taught you not to lose your manners in front of others."
Bud was scolding her younger brother.
However…
That single sentence made Albus Dumbledore's pupils abruptly dilate. He had heard a sound that was extremely familiar to him.
Yes.
A single syllable.
"Wait."
Dumbledore suddenly spoke, his expression turning noticeably more serious. He fixed his gaze on the little girl and asked slowly, "Just now… what did you call your younger brother?"
The little girl tilted her head, her face full of innocence.
"Odin."
She gave her answer.
"So that's how it is…"
No one knew what Albus Dumbledore had understood at that moment.
He raised his head and looked up at the sky.
His gaze was deep and unfathomable.
(End of chapter)