Chapter 54: Dazzlingly Brilliant

Understanding Helga's state, Tver relaxed. He certainly didn't want to contend with the four founders in the future.

"Since that's the case, where is Lady Ravenclaw then?" he asked.

Helga tilted her head playfully again, her demeanor youthful, almost like an elf active in the woods. "Guess?"

However, she handed the badge back to Tver, hinting at something. "Are you suggesting that the badge will reveal the locations of the other three founders?"

Tver took the badge and examined it closely. Compared to the other three animals which were static, the Hufflepuff badger was now much more animated, its eyes even twinkling as if truly alive.

But this time, there was no guiding thread of will, not even from Hufflepuff's line.

Seeing Tver's puzzled look, Helga chuckled, "You need to activate the magic in it to sense the guiding lines."

"How do I activate the magic then? In the past, the badge was activated automatically as I deepened my understanding of magic."

Helga's expression turned peculiar, and her question even more so. "Are you a normal person?"

"?"

Tver's confusion materialized metaphorically above his head. "What do you mean by that?"

She looked even more puzzled than Tver, slowly explaining, "Based on my understanding, to purely rely on the understanding of magic to activate this badge, one must have made tremendous progress. If a normal person's study of magic is like walking, then you like flying in the sky, and not just flying, but flying so fast that your shadow can't be seen."

Helga suddenly stood up and walked over to Tver, looking at him more intently than before. "Such speed is not achievable through ordinary magic. It would require an exploration of dark magic, and at an extremely advanced level, to make such exaggerated progress."

Faced with this gaze, Tver averted his eyes, speaking softly, "If it were you, you'd make the same choices I did."

She placed her hand on Tver's shoulder. "Don't mind that, child. In our times, studying dark magic was quite normal. But if you want to continue to activate the badge's magic, you need to focus on other aspects, which is the correct way to use it. For example, do you know the legend of the four elements?"

Tver's surprise lifted his head sharply, his gaze fixed on Helga as he tried to discern something from her eyes. Noticing his intent look, Helga softly explained, "The four elements are the key to activating the badge. Once you grasp their essence, the badge will respond to you."

"But," Tver hesitated before speaking, "I have found several books that only describe the characteristics of the four elements. There is nothing about how to actually learn or understand them."

Helga leaned closer, whispering in his ear, "Because this isn't something that can be learned through study." Then, with a force that didn't match her gentle demeanor, she pushed him unexpectedly.

Caught off guard, Tver stumbled backward and fell. But as his back touched the ground, it felt as if he plunged into the soil, seeing the world beneath the land.

Black, brown, white—all colors of soil intertwined like entangled fabric.

Fabric?

Only then did Tver realize he was in a void, and the world beneath the soil seemed sliced open, forming a canvas before him. Helga's figure appeared beside him, her expression now more solemn and serious.

"Do you see? This is the earth. When still, it's like a giant, but when this giant awakes—" She waved her hand, and the piece of fabric seemed to flutter in the wind.

With just that gesture, the entire land rolled with Helga's motion, making Tver feel the earth-shattering force. Layers of earthy magic surged towards him, washing over every cell in his body.

Though he was physically still, surrounded by nothingness, he felt an overwhelming, suffocating heaviness. It was literal suffocation.

Tver struggled to breathe, his mouth agape but unable to draw in any fresh air. He looked at Helga in astonishment.

His body's magic instinctively resisted this pressure, merging with Helga's magic, absorbing it into his system. Helga herself was taken aback; she had not anticipated such resilience from the young Tver in these conditions.

This was no ordinary space; more accurately, it wasn't a space at all but a manifestation of her consciousness. Everything happening here was her way of demonstrating her magical insights to Tver.

This meant all of Tver's sensations were under her control. She was only a fragment of consciousness, and maintaining Tver here relied on her home field advantage.

Despite this, Tver continued to dismantle her magic bit by bit, understanding her sea of consciousness, and absorbing her power into his own.

Helga shook her head in resignation, "I had suspected you were extraordinary, but I never imagined you could achieve this extent."

Tver then realized that Helga's actions were not hostile; she was using this method to help him comprehend the four elements. Yet, he couldn't stop the spontaneous surge of his own power, helplessly watching as Helga's magic diminished.

"What should I do then?" Tver asked, bewildered.

Helga, unable to hold back a laugh, looked at him and said, "How was I to know your body would resist so strongly? Let it be, then."

Before Tver could respond, she pushed on his chest again. Just like when he arrived, his vision swirled and he found himself lying back in the real world—not in Helga's cabin, but in the Forbidden Forest, the prickling sensation of grass on his back.

Helga's voice faintly echoed through the air, "From now on, you'll have to figure it out on your own. I need to conserve the little magic I have left to take care of the forest. Really, what kind of situation is this..." Her voice faded away, becoming barely audible.

Just then, a cute little rabbit appeared before Tver. It smacked its lips as if realizing that this bipedal creature was not a potential meal, and hopped away discontentedly.

Tver chuckled as he watched the rabbit's tail bounce away. It was said that a rabbit's tail is not as short as one might think—if pulled out, it could be surprisingly long. Before, he might not have cared about such trivial matters, but now—

Tver extended his right wrist. The curse was still there but now compressed by the vitality within him to just a tiny fraction, waiting for him to unravel the secret of the badge to finally dissolve it completely.

Tver lay sprawled out on the forest floor, his face breaking into a broad smile. The warm sunlight beamed down on his face, shining on this eighteen-year-old youth.

Dazzlingly brilliant.