"An immortal lays a hand upon my crown and grants me longevity?"
Confusion appeared in Ollivander's eyes.
But very quickly, he felt death drawing close.
"This child… in the end, he's still only a little wizard…"
"I only hope my death won't leave some bad mark on him."
Such thoughts passed through his mind as Ollivander slowly closed his eyes, preparing to welcome Death's arrival.
But Theodore's own eyes were full of absolute resolve.
He called upon the power of the Five-Element Reversal Origin Sea.
A single strand of Origin Sea force reversed itself into incomparably pure spiritual energy and began pouring into Ollivander's body.
The moment Theodore had placed his palm atop Ollivander's head, he had already understood why the old man's lifespan was on the verge of running out.
His research into the Elder Wand's secrets had been too exhausting.
Even a young man in the prime of life might have worked himself into a grave illness under such strain.
For Ollivander, at his age, it had practically burned away what little life force he had left.
By the methods of the magical world, the only thing that could truly extend Ollivander's life would be the Elixir of Life brewed from the Philosopher's Stone.
But even Nicolas Flamel would need a long time to make that elixir. It was not something one could improvise at a moment's notice.
Fortunately, Theodore at this moment possessed more than enough spiritual energy.
And the greatest reason cultivators could prolong their years was precisely because spiritual energy nourished life.
Its effect was exactly suited to fill the emptiness inside Ollivander and perhaps extend his span of years.
As that spiritual energy poured in, Ollivander—who had been lying there with eyes shut, waiting to die—suddenly felt streams of warmth moving from the crown of his head down through his whole body.
The sensation was more comfortable than anything he had known in years.
The weakness, chill, and exhaustion that had wrapped around him began to recede beneath the washing of that warmth.
In their place came a vital force he had not felt for a very long time.
Ollivander's eyes snapped open in shock.
He stared at Theodore, utterly shaken.
"Theodore—you?!"
"What sort of magic is this?!"
Theodore shook his head.
"This is not the time to explain."
"Ollivander, your trouble isn't over yet."
Ollivander stared blankly for a moment.
Then an icy coldness spread all over him.
Even though new vitality was stirring inside his body, he could still feel the threat of death.
It was as though some invisible existence was slowly pressing a scythe toward his neck.
"Could this be…"
"Death itself?!"
His expression changed drastically.
Yes—his soul ought already to have been harvested by Death.
Now Theodore had apparently used some unknown magic to pull him back from the edge of death itself.
But once Death's scythe had already begun to swing, how could it simply let matters rest?
These days, Ollivander had researched almost every legend related to the Elder Wand from top to bottom, and naturally that included the tale of the Deathly Hallows.
Death—the being said to have forged the Hallows.
When Death set its sights on someone, even powerful wizards like the three Peverell brothers had all met grim ends.
How much less could Theodore resist it?
Thinking of this, Ollivander hurriedly spoke.
"Theodore, don't oppose Death. Let it take me."
At that moment, lines of text appeared on the System screen.
[You cannot bear to see Ou Yezi's lifespan run dry, and so you circulate a Chan-lineage profound art to defy heaven and rewrite his fate.]
[In an instant, heaven and earth change color. Dark clouds gather overhead, and thunder rolls in waves.]
[Ou Yezi cries out that this act runs counter to heavenly order and begs you not to throw away your own bright future for him.]
[The System also advises the host: the reward has already been obtained, so why go to such trouble?]
But Theodore's eyes were full of cold light, and at their corners there was even a trace of a mocking smile.
"Death?"
He did not know what exactly the magical world's so-called Death was.
From the look of it, perhaps it was not one of the twisted horrors after all.
But regardless of what it was, so long as it came from the underworld, then before Theodore—the Judge of the Underworld—it had absolutely no right to overstep its bounds.
The next moment, the Judge's Brush appeared in Theodore's hand.
Dim black radiance shone at the tip.
With sweeping strokes like a dragon soaring and a phoenix dancing, Theodore wrote line after line in the air.
"Ollivander has amassed deep merit and rendered great service to the magical world."
"I hereby request a formal review of whether Ollivander may be granted an extension of twenty years to his lifespan."
"Applicant: Theodore Ashbourne."
"Upon review, it has been determined that Ollivander's contributions are genuine, and the request for a twenty-year extension is generally approved."
"This is now submitted to the Judge for final decision."
"Submitted by: Theodore Ashbourne."
"Upon this Judge's own examination, the request to grant Ollivander twenty additional years is hereby approved."
"Reviewer: Theodore Ashbourne."
Then Theodore said evenly,
"You see? We're handling this with proper procedures. This isn't something random."
"So then, Death—do you have any objections?"
[The host glares coldly, his eyes resolute, as though nothing in the world could make him change his mind.]
[I intend to rewrite Ou Yezi's fate. And if that means defying heaven, then so be it.]
[It is not the first time I have defied heaven. What can it do to me?]
The cold aura of death in the air flared up at once, as though enraged, becoming denser and denser.
Then Theodore lifted the Judge's Brush again, and the black radiance at its tip deepened further.
"You'd better think this through carefully."
A few moments later, the deathly aura retreated like the ebb of the tide.
Theodore clapped his hands together and bared his teeth in a grin.
"Done."
Ollivander stared blankly at him, his heart in utter turmoil.
Had Theodore just threatened Death?
And succeeded?
Were modern little wizards really this fierce?
But after only a moment, the old wandmaker's expression turned serious.
"What happened here today, I won't speak of it to anyone."
"Even if they tortured me, even if they used the Cruciatus Curse, I wouldn't reveal a single word."
The life-extending effect of Theodore's magic was simply too terrifying.
If word of it got out, there was no telling how many witches and wizards would begin entertaining crooked thoughts.
Theodore merely smiled.
Quite apart from the fact that he and Ollivander had already become life-and-death friends, and Ollivander would never willingly expose him—
even if something somehow leaked out, who in the magical world could actually do anything about it?
Compared with that, Theodore was much more interested in what Ollivander had been about to tell him earlier.
"Ollivander, you said you'd already understood the secret of the Elder Wand?"
The moment that subject came up, Ollivander's eyes lit immediately with burning excitement.
"Yes."
"I performed who knows how many experiments and searched through who knows how many records before I finally found a notebook left behind by one of my ancestors, dating all the way back to the era of the Four Founders."
"Merlin preserve me, that notebook had been hidden under a Concealment Charm. If enough time hadn't passed for the charm to fail, I would probably never have found it."
"And it was the contents of that very notebook that finally made me understand why, even using elder wood and Thestral tail hair, I could never reproduce the Elder Wand's legendary power."
Then Ollivander revealed what he had discovered.
"The magic."
"The problem is the magic itself."
"In the era of the Four Founders—and even earlier—there existed a special kind of magic, one superior to the magical power we use today."
"And it was precisely because of that ancient power that, even though wand-making techniques in those days were nowhere near as refined as ours now, they were still capable of producing astonishingly powerful wands on a regular basis."
"The same applies to enchanted and alchemical objects."
"If one wants to replicate—or even surpass—the Elder Wand, then one has to find that ancient kind of magic."
Ollivander's eyes were blazing.
"In the notebook, I already found mention of a ruin that might still contain traces of such power. I had been planning to go and search for it, but my body was simply too weak."
"Now, I can finally begin preparing."
Theodore listened, then fell into thought.
Suddenly, he asked a question.
"Ollivander… your family's notebook."
"How did the ancestor who wrote it know such secrets in the first place?"
Ollivander thought for a moment, then answered hesitantly.
"The notebook seemed to mention that this knowledge originally came from a book the Four Founders brought back from the Middle East."
"It was called…"
"The Necronomicon?"
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