Chapter Summaries

Murphy pursued the wizard who had derailed the train, but the man escaped his attacks using strange earth and wood magic. Murphy set the forest ablaze to flush him out, only for a Great Shaman to extinguish the fire and appear beside the injured wizard.

• The wizard used a drum and a death-substitution doll to raise tree roots and derail the train, while Murphy saved Felix and summoned lightning crows to secure the wreck.
• Murphy found the wizard escaping underground and through a tree, then destroyed a wooden decoy but lost track of him.
• Murphy cast Fiendfyre around the forest to trap the wizard, who used drumbeats to warn the animals to flee.
• Murphy spotted a giant oak and sent the firebird crashing into it, setting off an enormous blast.
• A drumbeat pulled back the spreading flames, revealing a unharmed oak, a hunched old man, and the injured wizard, who greeted him as the Great Shaman.

Murphy fought Alexei Romanov, a shaman who refused to let him erase Vitaly Pizhegud’s memories or leave the forest. Murphy trapped the wizards and attacked, and the chapter ended with Vitaly’s raised-earth trail stopping after a longsword struck the ground ahead of him.

• Alexei Romanov ordered Murphy to leave, but refused to help him erase Vitaly Pizhegud’s memories because he would not abandon his own people.
• Murphy used Space Anchor to prevent the wizards from escaping and attacked Alexei with lightning-fast sword strikes, grenades, a rocket launcher, and gunfire.
• Alexei defended himself with stone pillars and walls, wind blades, fire, and roots that burst from the ground.
• Murphy cast Avada Kedavra at Alexei, who blocked it with a stone wall, while a falling longsword struck the ground ahead of Vitaly’s trail and stopped it.

Murphy killed Vitaly, enraging Alexei, who used a ritual to seal Murphy’s access to ordinary magic and summon elemental and ancestral spirits. Forced to transform into his horned demon form, Murphy fought back against the spirits and unleashed lightning as the battle continued.

• Murphy’s levitating longswords killed Vitaly, and Alexei abandoned his plan to retreat and attacked Murphy.
• Alexei invoked the spirits of the sky, earth, rivers, and forest, sealing the territory and disrupting Murphy’s ability to cast wand magic.
• Murphy dodged Alexei’s attacks with his lightning ability, then transformed into his horned demon form when he could no longer rely on spells.
• Alexei summoned a giant bear spirit that blocked Murphy’s attack, then called forth a wolf, a water crab, and a fire eagle.
• Alexei sang an ancient hymn that strengthened the spirits, and Murphy struck the fire eagle and wolf while releasing lightning.

Murphy fought Alexei and his giant spirits while Alexei used a blood-bound ritual to curse him with escalating injuries. Murphy survived the apparent fatal blow by tricking the curse, then struck Alexei down with his greatsword.

• Murphy fought the giant wolf, but Alexei dispersed his thunderstorm and the wolf wounded him before Murphy killed it with lightning.
• The giant crab pinned Murphy while Alexei used Murphy’s blood and a clay doll to curse his arm, and Murphy escaped by burning the crab’s eyes with a flamethrower.
• Alexei cursed Murphy’s abdomen, and Murphy realized the ritual depended on making him expect its next stages to happen.
• Alexei stabbed a stone needle into the doll and seemingly punched a hole through Murphy’s chest, but Murphy’s heart remained unharmed.
• Murphy’s corpse turned into lightning, his hidden crows blew up the firebird’s head, and Murphy reappeared beside Alexei to slash his neck with a greatsword.

Murphy defeated Alexei’s apparent double, then used a vast array of lightning ravens to break the magical blockade and locate him. Murphy unleashed an amplified Avada Kedavra into the forest, leaving Alexei’s fate unknown.

• The Werewolf mercenaries subdued the remaining wizard and brought the fighting beside the train under control.
• Murphy healed his wounds after decapitating Alexei, then discovered that the shaman and elemental giants had been disguising Alexei’s escape with an earth double.
• Murphy summoned thousands of lightning ravens and arranged them into enormous antenna arrays to amplify his magic and scan the area.
• The amplified magic broke through Alexei’s five-part magical prohibition, but the flood of information nearly overwhelmed Murphy.
• Murphy located Alexei’s magical signature and fired an immense green Avada Kedavra into the forest.

At Arkaim, Grand Duke Ivan learned that Great Shaman Alexei had died while fighting a terrible power in the Bryansk Forest and ordered Azir to investigate. Azir reached the corrupted forest with a mysterious boy, who identified the deadly magic in a strange tree as the Killing Curse.

• A Pentagon officer showed a colonel a blurred satellite image of six storm-like shapes over the Soviet Union, and the matter was classified as a state secret.
• Azir told Grand Duke Ivan that Great Shaman Alexei had died in the Bryansk Forest, prompting Ivan to order a swift investigation.
• Azir was about to travel to the forest when someone called out to him.
• Azir arrived in the Bryansk Forest with a beautiful boy and found its trees, earth, and elemental spirits warped by strange power.
• The boy stopped Azir from touching an eerie green-cracked tree and warned him that it carried the Killing Curse.

Azir and the young ruler discovered that a foreign power had killed the great shaman and tampered with the Muggle president, while Murphy explained how he planned to use Qin Yeli to keep the Soviet Union united. The ruler chose to conceal the incident and seek the foreigner's power against Ivan, revealing that she was Arkaim’s empress and believed her beauty would ensure his cooperation.

• The youth saw visions of a horned god, ravens, and the great shaman’s death at the pit, then told Azir he had also glimpsed the god’s handsome face and thoughts.
• Azir learned that Vitaly Pizhegud and Ninel Belinsky were missing from the president’s train, whose surviving passengers had fragmented memories and whose president claimed to have received a divine revelation.
• Radwan questioned Murphy about Qin Yeli, and Murphy said the Seed of the Mind had made Qin a fanatic who would treat keeping the Soviet Union united as a sacred mission.
• The youth and Azir found no trace of magic on the Muggle president, and the youth ordered the witnesses’ memories erased and Ivan kept uninformed.
• The youth told Azir she intended to use the foreigner against Ivan, dispelled her disguise, and revealed herself as Arkaim’s beautiful empress.

After learning that his transformation had worsened his illness, Murphy accepted conservative treatment and began considering more direct ways to obtain the Elixir of Life. Back at Hogwarts, he discussed the principles of magic with Dumbledore, who praised Murphy’s paper even though Magic Weekly had rejected it as garbage.

• Murphy examined the Soviet Union’s silence about Qin Yeli’s arrival in Bryansk, then left the matter to Little Barty and returned to the Magic Research Institute.
• A doctor found several small primary cysts and warned that CAR-T therapy could exhaust Murphy’s remaining immune cells, so Murphy accepted conservative radiotherapy.
• Murphy told Rasim Selwyn that the stolen object belonged to Nicolas Flamel and ordered him to find Flamel; Murphy also considered asking Dumbledore for the Philosopher’s Stone or taking it by force.
• Murphy returned to Hogwarts, submitted his paper on the mental world’s influence on magic to Magic Weekly, and received a scathing rejection.
• Murphy invited Dumbledore to walk by the Black Lake and asked about magic’s fundamental principle; Dumbledore suggested belief and praised Murphy’s paper after reading it.
• Murphy told Dumbledore that Magic Weekly had already rejected the paper as worthless garbage.

Murphy asked Dumbledore to help him obtain the Philosopher’s Stone research and the Elixir of Life formula, but Dumbledore refused because he feared the dangerous knowledge would be abused. Murphy confronted him over his distrust and the secrecy surrounding Voldemort, leaving Dumbledore with Murphy’s reminder that belief could bring miracles.

• Dumbledore recalled a poisonous Crying-Face Tree from his student days and reflected on how memories and time had become burdensome.
• Murphy said he wanted to study the Philosopher’s Stone and asked Dumbledore to seek Nicolas Flamel’s refining method and Elixir of Life formula.
• Dumbledore refused, warning that the Stone and Elixir could tempt people and destabilize wizarding society.
• Murphy accused Dumbledore of distrusting him just as he had distrusted Tom Riddle, and questioned why Dumbledore kept the enemy’s identity secret from those risking their lives.
• Dumbledore said trust was a luxury, and Murphy accepted his caution before invoking Dumbledore’s belief that sincere faith in magic could create a miracle.

Dumbledore and McGonagall discussed why they could not trust Murphy with the Philosopher’s Stone, while Murphy turned to other ways of finding the Elixir of Life formula. Tom’s Book of Guidance then offered Legilimency as a quest reward, giving him hope of recovering his memories.

• Dumbledore told McGonagall that Murphy’s unusual knowledge and maturity made him difficult to understand, and admitted he could not bring himself to trust him.
• McGonagall reminded Dumbledore that trust required time and that he should not blame himself for what had happened with Riddle.
• Murphy accepted Dumbledore’s refusal and continued with his plan to find the Philosopher’s Stone, while considering asking Snape about the Elixir of Life.
• Tom’s Book of Guidance updated its main quest to search for clues about Nicolas Flamel and offered increased magic power, Flight Spell, and Legilimency as rewards.
• Tom was excited by the Legilimency reward because he hoped it would help him recover his lost memories.

Murphy reviewed the research groups’ progress and guided Cho Chang’s group toward using shamanic Ancestral Spirits to stabilize an Animal Transformation Potion. As class ended, Hermione Granger’s Hero Group asked Murphy about Nicolas Flamel, with Tom hiding behind the others.

• Draco Malfoy’s group found that pure-blood ancestry did not correlate with better academic performance, submitted its report, and received Raven-marked coins from Murphy.
• The Weasley twins abandoned their Super Dung Fireworks plan and proposed researching improvements to Goblin Coins.
• Murphy guided Cho Chang’s group to consider Ancestral Spirits as a stabilizing substitute for Patronuses in their Animal Transformation Potion experiments.
• Murphy recalled what the institute had learned about Soviet Union wizards and shamans, including their Ancestral Spirit rituals and true-name magic.
• Hermione Granger led the Hero Group to ask Murphy whether he knew Nicolas Flamel, while Tom stayed at the back.

Murphy’s health sharply deteriorated, and he learned that his body might be nearing collapse after the strain of his battle with the shaman. He turned to the Magic Research Institute’s vampire gene-therapy research for a way to stabilize himself and agreed to personally oversee an experiment using the Seed of the Mind to control viral vectors.

• Murphy suffered a sudden recurrence of severe pain and weakness, injected himself with medicine, and realized his condition had worsened sooner than expected.
• Murphy contacted Andrew Tuke, who reported that vampire genes had increased mouse-cell divisions by about 30% and that the team was developing adenovirus vectors for gene therapy.
• Andrew told Murphy that the team planned to begin animal testing of modified adenoviruses within the month.
• Funes Bachmann and Omid Abbott proposed using the Seed of the Mind to control gene-transfer viruses and direct them to repair cells.
• Murphy agreed to return and conduct the experiment himself once the viral vector was ready.

Murphy tested whether the Seed of the Mind could improve a transgenic adenovirus’s anti-aging effects and control its behavior in Gnomes. He discovered that the Seed could make the virus act like a biological nanomachine, leaving him to consider whether it could be directed to target cancer cells.

• Andrew Tuke reported that the transgenic adenovirus reduced aging in elderly mice by about 9%, and Murphy arranged tests with replicating viruses in Gnomes.
• Murphy divided forty Gnomes into dose and spell groups, finding that a medium virus dose paired with the command to disintegrate after treating aging produced promising results.
• Murphy gave a Gnome the command to escape its cage or die, and the Gnome died as the virus in its body was also inactivated.
• Murphy tested commands to make a Gnome write a number and concluded that the Seed translated instructions into actions the virus could carry out through its host.
• Murphy realized the viruses might function as biological nanomachines and wondered how to make them identify and destroy cancer cells.

Murphy realized training viruses to identify and kill cancer cells required millions of labeled samples, so he devised a centralized Seed of the Mind network to coordinate many experimenters. He formed a test network with three researchers and began checking whether its broadcast communication worked.

• Murphy calculated that training specialized cancer-cell killers would require over five million sessions and nearly ninety thousand sessions a day.
• Murphy decided to outsource the cell-labeling work by creating a centralized Seed of the Mind network relayed through himself.
• Murphy summoned Funes Bachmann, Omid Abbott, and Yolt Lynch to test the network and gave them communication protocols to sign.
• Funes Bachmann, Omid Abbott, and Yolt Lynch signed the protocols, forming a four-person mental network with Murphy.
• Murphy closed his eyes and broadcast a greeting to test whether the others could hear him.

Murphy arranged cancer research and received a purified adenovirus treatment that left him feverish and aching. At Hogwarts, Tom discovered that the secret behind the fourth-floor corridor was the Philosopher’s Stone, received powerful quest rewards, and decided to try Legilimency alone.

• Murphy arranged for Boris to establish a cancer research center that secretly collected tagged samples for the Magic Research Institute.
• Andrew Tuke reported that the Group A Gnomes’ aging index had fallen by an average of 17%, then gave Murphy purified adenovirus from the Group C Gnomes.
• Murphy injected himself with the virus under medical monitoring and developed a fever and body aches by evening.
• During Christmas break, Tom found Nicolas Flamel’s name in a book and realized that the Philosopher’s Stone was behind the trapdoor.
• The Book of Guidance rewarded Tom with increased magic power, a Flight Spell, and Legilimency after he completed his quest.
• Unable to sleep, Tom got up and decided to try Legilimency on himself.

Tom used Legilimency on the Book of Guidance and relived memories that suggested his identity was tied to both Lucas Tom Brightson and Tom Riddle. The spell ended abruptly, and Tom collapsed unconscious.

• Tom searched his own mind with Legilimency but found no memories earlier than waking in the orphanage.
• Tom used both wands to cast Legilimency on the Book of Guidance, opening a passage of memories.
• Tom relived memories of being bullied by Bilich and discussing soul-splitting with a Hogwarts professor.
• Tom saw memories of Mrs. Cole questioning him about Bilich's broken leg and Pedra's dead rabbit, while he smiled cruelly.
• Tom remembered reporting Hagrid over the attacks at Hogwarts and began to question whether he was Lucas Tom Brightson or Tom Riddle.
• The Book of Guidance flashed and cut off the memory passage, and Tom collapsed unconscious.

Tom confronted the Book of Guidance and learned it contained Voldemort’s soul fragment, had stolen his memories, and claimed he was already dead. After questioning his identity, Tom broke down when Harry and Ron found him and tried to comfort him.

• Tom tried to force the Book of Guidance to explain its connection to Tom Riddle, then concluded it contained a piece of Riddle’s soul and sought the Philosopher’s Stone to resurrect him.
• The Book of Guidance gave Tom a quest to seize the Philosopher’s Stone and warned that he was already dead, pointing to his abnormal resistance to pain and injury.
• The Book of Guidance revealed that Tom’s spellcasting memories came from Tom Riddle and declared that it was now Voldemort.
• Tom demanded to know who he was and who Lucas was, but the Book of Guidance fell silent.
• Harry and Ron surprised Tom with Christmas crackers and invited him to the feast, prompting Tom to call himself a fake and a puppet before Ron hugged him.

After recovering from a fever, Murphy learned that his cellular damage had eased but remained dangerous, and he turned back to plans for the Philosopher's Stone. Meanwhile, Tom remained convinced he might be a soul trapped in a living corpse until Harry and Ron Weasley persuaded him to meet them that night.

• Medical tests showed that Murphy’s cellular aging had eased, though his genetic defects continued to cause accumulating damage.
• Murphy expanded the Vampire Gene Research Group and prepared microbes and workflows for Umbrella’s cancer cell labelers.
• Tom tried and failed to destroy the notebook, then investigated why the Draught of Living Death left his body senseless while his soul remained awake.
• Tom feared that Voldemort had imprisoned his soul in a living corpse and that the Philosopher’s Stone might be his only way to live again.
• Harry and Ron Weasley invited Tom to meet them outside the Slytherin Common Room at ten, and Tom agreed.

Tom discovered that the Mirror of Erised showed him a chained Tom Riddle who urged him to seek freedom, while Harry saw his parents and Ron imagined success. After Tom identified Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher’s Stone, he proposed taking it before Snape, and Hermione realized he intended to give it to Professor Murphy.

• Harry, Ron, and Tom returned to the abandoned classroom, where Tom saw a chained Tom Riddle in the mirror and heard him call for freedom.
• At breakfast, Tom told Harry and Ron that Nicolas Flamel had created the Philosopher’s Stone, which could make gold and produce the Elixir of Life.
• Harry suspected Snape wanted the Stone, and Tom proposed stealing it first, but Harry and Ron rejected the plan.
• Dumbledore told Harry that the Mirror of Erised revealed a person’s deepest desire and warned him not to seek it again.
• Hermione returned to school, heard about Tom’s plan, and realized he meant to give the Stone to Professor Murphy.

Harry and his friends told Professor Murphy that they suspected Snape was after the Philosopher’s Stone, and Murphy questioned their assumptions about Snape’s motives. Tom decided to ask Snape about the Elixir of Life and body-restoration formulas, leaving the group’s suspicions unresolved.

• The Weasley twins improved their Goblin Coin and began researching how to enchant objects, while Murphy funded their work and put them in charge of a larger group.
• Cho Chang’s group neared the threshold of summoning an Ancestral Spirit, and her team reported developing a potion that still needed testing.
• Harry and his friends told Murphy they suspected Snape wanted the Philosopher’s Stone, and Murphy asked why Snape would seek it.
• Murphy suggested that a wizard secretly seeking the Stone might want its power to reshape a body rather than wealth or immortality, and Tom wondered whether Snape knew the relevant formulas.
• Hermione challenged Harry’s suspicion of Snape, and Tom proposed asking Snape about the Elixir of Life directly.