Chapter 45 - History

Hermione Granger: Why are you so focused on who I chose in the end? We have more important matters to attend to! Death Eaters and...

Hermione Granger: And even the Ministry, which only worsens the situation!

Hermione Granger: Why is that? Wasn't there a precursor to the appearance of the Dark Wizard? Even Harry told everyone he had returned, but no one believed him and even tried to silence him! Why? It won't help!

Anthony (Administrator): They were afraid, and Cornelius Fudge, the current Minister of Magic in Great Britain, lives in his own world where everything is fine and there are no Dark Wizards. He did nothing until the last moment, hoping for the best... not the best qualities for someone whose responsibility is people's fate.

Anthony (Administrator): And when Dumbledore supported Harry, Fudge somehow decided that it was an attempt to remove him from office... in general, wizards often have problems with logic. Shinoa Hiragi: And most importantly, you became the girlfriend of the ginger...

Hermione Granger: Why do you keep bringing up Ron to me? We won't be together, period! This is another reality, another world, and another Hermione who liked Ron!

Rias Gremory: Hermione, no one will accuse you of anything. Tastes differ...

Shinoa Hiragi: Says the one who liked a pervert obsessed with boobs.

Rias Gremory: Hey! That's another me!

"Hmm..." Hermione clenched her fists after reading the chat. "They don't take this situation seriously at all," the girl exhaled.

A couple of days ago, Dumbledore had assured her that he would be ready if You-Know-Who appeared at the end of the Triwizard Tournament... although now there were four of them. But it didn't calm the girl down, so she decided to do something to blow off steam. Usually, she reads books for that, but she already noticed that she started reading much faster than before, so she had already read everything important about dragons.

"Okay, this seems to be the place. I need to walk by three times and feel the need for help... and I do," the young witch nodded and hugged her sixth-year spellbooks tighter.

With an excited expression on her face, the fourth-year student passed by the place where the Room of Requirement was supposed to be located. And after she passed by for the third time, a door appeared on the wall where there was nothing before.

"Got it!" she exclaimed, and then, gasping, she closed her mouth and looked around stealthily. Quickly approaching the door and reaching for the doorknob, she began to open the door with excitement.

"A huge... library... with all the knowledge of Hogwarts," at that moment anyone who would have prevented her from entering the room would have been subjected to very unpleasant curses, and possibly broken bones.

***

The ninth metal exists in our reality in a very small concentration, as it comes from the Dark Multiverse. Therefore, its constant appearance and "dissolution" in the world can lead to destabilization of reality, at least that is one of the possible scenarios. And that is precisely why I used a magical seal to better control this metal.

As soon as it appeared in the center of the seal, it became immediately visible due to various changes that caused ripples in reality. It immediately became somewhat liquid and it was no longer grams, but milligrams. After that, it flew into the air and simply floated.

Right now, I was using my Will to keep it in this position and prevent it from dissolving into reality, not to say that it was easy. I also instinctively understood that it was not dangerous to me, or rather, I already knew it from Arion's book. Very powerful Archmages are quite capable of materializing the energy of the Eighth Metal in reality, and this is what the gods do for the Metal of the Gods. Arion, on the other hand, was able to materialize energy from the ninth dimension, albeit in a tiny amount compared to the Eighth Metal.

"Yes, I clearly don't have enough power," I gave it a solid form of a small bead, although it was much smaller in size. In this form, the metal became less malleable, but it did not rush to disappear. Nevertheless, I decided to put it back in the Chat Shop, and I immediately saw that I could retrieve it at any time.

"Cortana, did you get any data from the Ninth Metal?"

"No, the sensors detected radiation from the Eighth Metal, but not from the Ninth," came the concise answer.

"Okay," I nodded, expecting this answer. With the help of alchemy, I am definitely unable to create the Ninth Metal, I simply do not have the power or understanding. The Eighth Metal is slightly more understandable, but still difficult. Its entire structure is from another dimension with a very complex structure, and it is too heavy for my alchemy.

"I have almost finished the calculations," I said aloud, and only after a few seconds did the AI reply.

"Thank you..."

Overall, the longer you read the history of Atlantis, and in particular of Arion, the more you understand how complex everything was. It turns out that over one hundred and forty-five thousand years ago there were two very powerful godlike "mystics," and they were the strongest magicians in the world at that time. Calculta and Majistra, those were their names, possessed opposite powers and paths in mystical arts. Calculta was a follower of light and manipulated White Magic, while the only female magician who was equal to him in strength at that time, Majistra, was a practitioner of dark arts.

Calculta was not born in this world, but in the spatial realm of the "Dark World," although by the name you could say that he was supposed to become dark, but this is not so. That dimension was the consciousness of some entity, and he was its protector for some time. When he ended up on Earth, he helped Atlantis to break free from the tyrants of that time and became its king, and made Majistra his queen. And it was from that moment that the rise of Atlantis began and the country became the most advanced in the world. Magic became an integral part of the world, and soon there were those who began to consider science no less important way. Atlantis became the first country on Earth to develop to the point where they were able to build spaceships.

They managed to unite science and magic and begin to populate other planets, namely... the planets Ran, Krypton, and Tanagar, as Arion himself later found out. The king and queen decided to unite their magical arts and from their union two children were born - Arion and Garn Daanuth. The first was taken for education by Calculta himself, and the second by his spouse. The king and queen were not together for long, and after the birth of their sons, Majistra "left the light," that is, she fell completely into darkness and quarreled with her husband. Because of this, the two children became bitter enemies.

Calculta foresaw that agents of chaos would be able to make a deal with his ex-wife and create chaos in the world, which he could not allow, so he raised his son to be like himself, that is, a very well-trained godlike magician. Majistra wanted to get the Zodiac Crystals very much. These crystals are the crystallized access to the energy of the whole Earth, and both godlike archmages created them to more effectively use the mystical energy of the planet. There are twelve of them in total, based on the signs of the zodiac.

The conflict between the husband and wife, light and darkness, passed on to their children. The former queen of Atlantis managed to seize the crystals and vaporized her husband and part of the "Dark World," but the adult Arion was able to intervene in the magical flow of the Zodiac Crystals and did the same to his mother, although at that moment he did not know she was his mother, and also vaporized his brother. Later, his mother was able to return, as someone helped her in the Dark Multiverse, but he still managed to defeat her.

"And all of this was ruined by the depressive fish-king, whose brother killed his family and seized the throne," I concluded. It's that simple: one of the greatest kingdoms in the world was destroyed by flooding caused by the king of the same kingdom due to disagreements with his brother. This happened after Arion's death; I don't think he would have wanted to come back to life after hearing such news.

The book also mentioned various magical artifacts that the kings of Atlantis possessed, especially in the book of Thoth, where the artifacts of the "Dead King" were listed: the Scepter of Atlantis, the Helmet of Atlantis, the Key of Atlantis, the Transport Sphere, the Shackles of Power, the Gloves of Power, and the Seal of Clarity. He forged all of these after his brother usurped the throne of Atlantis and killed his wife and children. To create these artifacts, he used stolen "Legacy Gold," which was the Eighth Metal with a small amount of the Ninth. Most likely, the Ninth Metal remained after Arion, since the power of Atlantis or the "Dead King" would not have been enough for this. After all, Arion forged the Trident of Neptune, a weapon that showed the power of Atlantis, and Atlant took it with him and used it to flood Atlantis.

The exact location of all of these artifacts was not specified in the books, but there is a clue that the Trident of Neptune, a symbol of the power of Atlantis, was taken by Atlant and he died with it so as not to leave such a powerful weapon to anyone. He himself should not be too far from the flooded Atlantis, and if my memory serves me right, his tomb is located in some forbidden depths or something like that.

I decided to divide the fifty grams of God Metal into thirty-five and fifteen. I immediately merged the fifteen grams with my sword, which made me sweat due to the metal's properties. I decided to use the thirty-five grams to improve the vessel's ability to contain souls, which I immediately began to create.

I can't call myself an excellent artifactor, but Albedo had to create things using alchemy and embodiment of drawings in his years, so I had some experience. However, it was still complicated by hundreds of seals that needed to be embedded in the vessel to make it work the way I needed it to. And just the Philosopher's Stone should help him work more correctly and, according to my estimates, he should be able to contain about three thousand human souls.

"I hope it doesn't explode," I said after a double-check. It took me five days to create this medallion, taking into account that I could create components out of thin air, except for the Eighth Metal. But even so, it can't be considered a completely finished work until it's complete.

And of course, I was not only working on that, but also on other matters for LutorCorp, especially reactor matters. My doctorate, as I thought, was reviewed by some professors and other very intelligent people, and because of their words, my photos started to circulate in the news again.

"Mr. Celebrity," teased a young magician who had deigned to visit me in my office in the engineering department. "How's the young genius feeling?"

"Good, and you, as I can see, decided to dress more modestly? I was expecting to see you half-naked," I replied to her, taking my eyes off the monitor.

"For your information, I can still dress like an ordinary girl," she replied, creating a chair in front of me and sitting down. "I just don't usually need to, but now I decided to visit you in this way," she explained. "What's this?" she noticed the medallion hanging around my neck.

"I said, it's a complex magical artifact whose purpose is to contain souls," I explained.

"I see... my father had something like that," she easily accepted the fact that I had such an artifact capable of containing souls.

"Did you come for an important question or for training?" I asked her the reason for her visit.

"Both. Don't ask me how, but I managed to talk to Madame Xanadu, and she predicted a lot of things to me, and you were in those visions," Zatanna began to tell me. "Usually she doesn't call people to tell them about her visions, but the situation was... ambiguous. She predicted a possible outcome for the world, and we were involved in it."

"It's too dangerous to trust divinations," I replied. "There are too many possible outcomes, so it's not worth fully trusting them."

"I thought the same thing," the sorceress smiled slightly. "But she also told me about my father, and according to her vision, you'll definitely help me with that in the future! It's just unclear when and how. So yes, I still want to learn magic. Well, the Cult of the Cold Flame won't leave me alone either, according to her, anyway."

"Did she say what it was for?" I asked.

"No," the magician shook her head. "But maybe for some ritual or for the demon Neron," she shrugged.

"Do you have a place where we can practice magic? I mean a well-protected place, otherwise we could end up here on the lower floors."

"Hmm, near my house? My father put up many different barriers there, so we can practice there. Can you show me spells with magical seals?"

"Why do you need them? Mnemonic spells will be better..."

"For experience," she stood up and vaporized the chair. "Let's go now or are you busy?"

"Oh, a demon worshipper is calling me to her abode," I said, changing my tone of voice slightly. "Let's go, just let Lena know that I won't be back until evening and she can leave."

Meanwhile, interesting conversations were also taking place in the Chat, especially Shinoa's fame. Her newly formed squad would soon receive cursed weapons for fighting vampires, of which there were many there. So there was an alternative where you could get souls and not feel like a maniac-genocidal. These vampires consider humans as cattle, rather as toys, or as funny animals, so my hand shouldn't tremble.