First Law of Time Travel
The instant the crimson spear entered the atmosphere, Murphy detected its presence through the precision radar array.
After the spear split into three, he immediately calculated where all three would land.
Then, he activated the Time Magic Box he carried with him and returned to five hours earlier.
This was one of the plans prepared in advance. Once the lunar offensive failed and there were signs that his side might come under attack, he had to immediately return to the past and prepare a response based on the likely strike.
The timing of this rewind was crucial. He had to confirm that his side was under attack, yet rewind time before the attack truly arrived and caused losses.
Confirming that his side was under attack was naturally meant to obtain more information. Only by knowing the possible method of attack could he make a targeted response.
But the requirement that it had to be "before the attack arrived" was meant to avoid the Time Observer Effect.
The so-called Time Observer Effect meant that once an event had been observed by any observer, then for that observer, the event had undeniably occurred. No matter how they traveled back through time, the occurrence of that event would become inevitable for that observer.
Simply put, it was possible to return to the past using a Time-Turner, but a time traveler could not change facts that had already happened.
In other words, future events were, in fact, already the result of the time traveler's influence.
When Muggle scientists first began researching Time-Turners, they had already observed and confirmed this phenomenon. It was called the First Law of Time Travel.
Under this ironclad rule, if you saw someone die in a car accident, then any attempt to return to the