Chapter Summaries

Li Weide feared that repairing his system would let his powerful former self be absorbed and trigger an immediate war, so he tried to convince the Fake Death God that the stalled repair progress was not his fault. She accepted his explanation and stopped pressuring him, leaving him free to delay the repair while hiding his true intentions.

• Li Weide realized his Ancient Magic power grew when he was happy, but worried that his equally powerful opponent had a centuries-long head start.
• Li Weide reasoned that repairing the system would let him absorb the power of his peak former self and become mature enough to provoke the enemy into war, so he decided he could not repair it yet.
• The Fake Death God questioned Li Weide about why his system repair progress had stalled, and he claimed repeated actions in other Parallel Worlds no longer earned enough Merit Points.
• The Fake Death God concluded that Li Weide needed to change important historical events to gain repair progress, but she could not teach him how to use Ancient Magic.
• Li Weide proposed increasingly extreme historical interventions, then claimed anxiety and hair loss had caused his behavior and asked to see the Fake Death God's legs.
• The Fake Death God fled and resolved to pressure Li Weide less, while Li Weide remained calm and recognized that playing the fool had worked.

Li Weide used a staged test to confirm that Raven was copying his letters for the fake Death God, then decided to tell Dumbledore and other allies more of the truth by inviting them to a movie. At the Floating City cinema, the guests began watching a film showing a parallel future, and Dumbledore and Grindelwald recognized the people on screen.

• Li Weide sent Toby a mixture of genuine and false orders, and the fake Death God identified which documents contained real measures while warning Raven not to make the same mistake again.
• Li Weide realized that every letter had been copied, but Hydra Corporation carried out his orders without incident, so he discussed revealing the truth to more people with Tom and Miravia.
• Li Weide invited Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Headmaster Dippet, and other sharp minds to a movie screening, telling Tom that the film was called Harry Potter and would feature him defeating Voldemort.
• A week later, the guests gathered at the Floating City's cinema, where Li Weide began a film depicting events more than forty years in the future.
• Dumbledore recognized the future versions of McGonagall and himself on screen and concluded the film showed a parallel timeline, while Grindelwald realized Li Weide had access to Parallel Worlds.

Li Weide showed Dumbledore and the others films depicting a Parallel World where Tom became Voldemort and Harry’s story unfolded without Li Weide’s influence. As the films reached Dumbledore’s death, Tom had thanked Li Weide for helping him become himself, while Dumbledore and Grindelwald reflected on the choices that led to the events on screen.

• Li Weide explained that the Parallel World’s Tom had grown up without him, and Dumbledore realized his own actions had helped steer Tom toward power.
• As the Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets films played, Grindelwald criticized Dumbledore’s teaching, and the founders reproached Slytherin for leaving the Basilisk behind.
• Grace comforted Tom by telling him he was not Voldemort, and Tom thanked Li Weide for helping him become a different person.
• Dumbledore and Grindelwald recognized the diary as a Horcrux as Harry destroyed it, then watched the films continue through Sirius’s escape, Voldemort’s return, and the later school years.
• When Snape killed Dumbledore in the Half-Blood Prince film, Grindelwald accused him of calculating his own death into his plans, and Dumbledore said he had made it meaningful.

As the film revealed Grindelwald’s death and his refusal to expose the Elder Wand’s location, Li Weide and Tom confronted their fears about how their choices had changed the future. After Dumbledore mourned what Grindelwald had once been, Grindelwald finally admitted his mistakes and agreed to make amends.

• Snape revealed that he had created Sectumsempra, prompting Tom to question Li Weide about his knowledge of the future; Li Weide said he was a variable who knew the original future.
• Tom argued that Li Weide’s intervention had kept both of them from becoming monsters, and Li Weide wondered aloud what would happen if he became another Voldemort.
• The film showed Harry and his companions captured at Malfoy Manor, then depicted Voldemort confronting Grindelwald in Nurmengard over the Elder Wand.
• Grindelwald refused to reveal the wand’s location and told Voldemort that some things mattered more than power, before Voldemort killed him.
• Dumbledore grieved that Grindelwald had not spoken sooner, and Li Weide urged Grindelwald to stop being stubborn; Grindelwald admitted his wrongdoing and offered to make amends.

After the film screening, Li Weide revealed that a vastly stronger, ruthless version of himself from another Parallel World threatened their world and that he planned to leave and face him alone. Miravia and Tom refused to let him go without them.

• Li Weide arranged a duel between Tom and Grindelwald, and Tom defeated Grindelwald with a single spell, demonstrating the strength he had gained by absorbing Voldemort's power from a Parallel World.
• Li Weide told the guests that a spell could absorb power from counterparts in Parallel Worlds and that a mad version of himself had killed every other version until only he remained.
• Li Weide explained that the Fake Death God had watched and restricted him, and said he had contacted the real Death God for protection while preparing to leave the world and confront the madman alone.
• Dumbledore urged Li Weide not to sacrifice himself, but Li Weide argued that his death could protect everyone else and invoked Dumbledore's lesson about the Greater Good.
• Miravia and Tom each declared that they would accompany Li Weide, despite his objections.