This was already the thirteenth time Noah had gone into the forest. Each time he pushed farther, deeper into the darkness of the trees.
Leaving behind the more inhabited areas, he hadn't had trouble with centaurs or spiders for quite a while.
A werewolf here, a lethifold there. The occasional man-eating hallucinogenic mushroom. It was peaceful.
Without being interrupted by centaurs or giant spiders, this time Noah reached the deepest parts of the forest. Places where light barely touched and the darkness felt like a living entity, bringing dread to any living being who dared enter.
But he did not fear the darkness—only the creatures he might encounter within it. The silence there was dreadful, and even the sound of his own breathing began to annoy him.
"I'm starting to miss the spiders," he thought with a trace of humor, his right eye glowing more intensely as he swept his vision around.
That was how he searched for the stone: walking, scanning with his right eye. Perhaps he'd be lucky—once he got close enough, maybe the stone would call out to him, the same way the tapestry had.
Of course, it wasn't that easy. The night dragged on slowly.
"Shouldn't I have found this by now?" he muttered, annoyed.
His eye was starting to ache from being activated so long, but he didn't want to return empty-handed. Knowing it was pushing himself, he poured even more power into his right eye. Nothing. Finally, he gave up.
But before heading back, he had a strange idea.
With a sigh, he entered his emotionless mode. Then he shut off his pain inhibition.
It was a bad choice, since it meant he wouldn't notice injuries—but it would serve his purpose.
"This is the second time I'm doing this."
Focusing his magic into his right eye, Noah mapped out all the layers of his ocular ability.
There were still layers beyond his reach, but the current one would suffice.
His right eye shifted, glowing with an even deeper blue. Then he skipped past the initial layers of his ability straight to the maximum level he could currently reach.
Suddenly, the world changed colors.
The dark forest was now as bright as day—yet bathed entirely in shades of blue.
Noah saw every thread of magic, every web spun by spiders, every centaur, every werewolf, every magical creature revealed before his sight.
His vision stretched across vast swathes of the forest. A torrent of information crashed into his mind.
Without wasting time, he shot forward at top speed, running in wide sweeps to cover as much ground as possible.
Without pain to stop him, he had no sense of his limits. The only signs were the blood dripping from his right eye and the crushing pressure building in his head.
Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.
By the time a full minute passed, Noah's vision was blurring.
"Seriously?" His body pitched forward, darkness swallowing him.
But before he collapsed, he smiled. A few kilometers to his left, he had seen something.
A golden light, shining like a giant firefly.
His body hit the ground, and the last thing he managed before blacking out was to weave a spell. A wooden cocoon grew around him, sinking into the earth with only a thin, camouflaged tube left above the surface for air.
…
By the time the cocoon resurfaced, night had already given way to day.
Noah sighed and conjured a mirror. Removing his mask, he examined himself.
His right eye was so swollen it looked as though he'd been stung by a bee—or punched in a fight.
Burst blood vessels painted the sclera crimson. His vision was blurred. In truth, he could barely open it at all.
"I am the biggest idiot."
He brushed off the dirt and ignored the eye for now. With a swift run, he reached the place where he had seen the light.
And at last, he found the stone.
It looked different from the image he had seen in the tapestry, but he knew it was the same thing—only dirtier, more abandoned.
The stone was covered in moss, a fallen tree resting across its front. To any ordinary onlooker, it was nothing more than a dirty rock in the middle of the forest.
But Noah knew the truth.
At last, he stood before the stone inscribed with golden markings. A moment long awaited since he had first seen that vision on the fourth-floor tapestry.
"Never thought it would take this long to find. Though, I suppose it makes sense—this place clearly hides a great secret."
He raised a hand, nearly touching the stone. But a flash of clarity stopped him.
"I don't know what dangers I might trigger here. And I'm not exactly in top condition."
He decided to return later. First, he needed to ensure he could find this spot again.
He was confident he could remember the location. But in case the stone had power to erase his memory of the place—or anything similar—he took precautions.
First, he summoned a scroll and sketched a rough map.
Then, stomping the ground, he conjured a pillar of earth beneath his feet, lifting him high above the trees.
From up there, he surveyed the entire forest, spotting the castle in the distance.
With multiple landmarks for reference, he refined his map.
Lastly, he crafted a small totem the size of a finger and pressed it into the ground, marking it with his magic. With his right eye, he could track it easily later.
"I'll be back tomorrow," he murmured as he left.
Back at the castle, he cloaked his injured eye with an illusion so no one would notice.
Then, in his laboratory trunk, he applied several ointments and downed a potion.
Like a baby, he collapsed into bed and slept.
Noah dreamed.
He was watching a man walk.
The man walked in a strange place where time did not exist.
Each step he took, thousands of moments in history rushed past around him.
He walked toward the past. When he reached the moment he sought, he stopped.
It was a wizarding village. The atmosphere was calm, peaceful.
He took only two steps forward before another man appeared before him.
An old man with a long white beard.
"Time is not something to be toyed with," Dumbledore said, studying the stranger.
The stranger looked no older than twenty. Yet he gave the impression of someone who had lived thousands of years.
His body was scarred all over. His left eye had been gouged out. One arm was missing. And his right eye was completely opaque.
The man was blind.
Yet he seemed to see everything.
"It's been a long time since I last saw you," he said.
Dumbledore frowned, puzzled. He had never seen this man in his life.
"Do we know each other?" he asked, wand at the ready, every sense sharpened.
The man before him radiated no hostility, no power. And that, perhaps, was the most terrifying thing of all.
"Not yet."
"Not yet…" Dumbledore repeated, a strange look crossing his face.
His defenses on high alert, he carefully channeled his magic.
The man took a few steps closer.
"Stop," Dumbledore ordered, slashing his wand.
A tornado of flames erupted, engulfing the man. The fire was so fierce it melted the ground itself.
Yet, astonishingly, the man simply walked through the inferno.
"Who are you?" Dumbledore demanded, retreating.
The man did not answer. Instead, he pinched the air between his fingers. The world shattered like glass.
They had been inside a mirrored dimension from the start. They were never in the real world.
Dumbledore had prepared this spell long ago. Any new visitor would come to this place first. But he never imagined it would be so easily discovered.
And with a single pinch, it all dissolved.
"Who am I?" the man repeated, stepping forward.
They had been twenty meters apart. But with that single step, the distance vanished.
He stood before Dumbledore.
"I am nothing but a selfish man." His voice was the lament of a dying soul.
"A selfish man trying to atone for his mistakes."
Dumbledore braced himself, but he could not anticipate anything that followed.
I need to end this, he thought—then felt his mind blur.
When he lifted his head again, a fragment of reality had shifted.
Who's coming?
He saw a scarred man appear.
"Time is not something to be toyed with," Dumbledore repeated, facing the stranger.
And then it all happened again… and again.
Without realizing it, he had already lost. The man he confronted hundreds of times in a single fraction of a second—or in the span of infinity—had already entered the house Dumbledore was meant to protect.
No spell, no charm, no ward could stop him.
He walked to the second floor, where a couple slept.
The woman, stunningly beautiful, her long red hair spread across the pillow, was pregnant.
The man stood in silence.
He remained there, unmoving. Time itself held still, and eternity passed.
Then, with a sigh that carried ten thousand years, he reached into a pocket of spatial storage.
From within, he drew a small, gleaming fragment. Dim, nearly extinguished.
"In the end… I really am the most selfish."
…
When Noah awoke, he remembered none of it.
But if he had, he might have disagreed with the man. Or repeated the very same mistakes.
Perhaps the future held the answer.
Or the present.
Perhaps the past.
Time was a terrifying thing.
But no worse than Destiny