Philosopher's Stone

After that came another long silence.

Hermione seemed to be carefully chewing over Tierra's words, savoring the meaning of the people's violence.

For some reason, Hermione liked those words—the meaning within them, the bloodshed and carnage within them, the violence within them.

It made Hermione even less able to calmly watch Horace Slughorn's Heimworth refining technique.

"Um... Tierra?" Hermione asked again.

"What is it?" Tierra replied.

"Um... it's just... one last question..." Hermione was beginning to feel that she had so many questions that even she was becoming annoyed with herself.

"What question, Hermione?" As if he had seen through Hermione's little thoughts, Tierra answered gently. "Don't be afraid of having too many questions, Hermione. The more questions you have, the more you think, and the more solid the knowledge you learn will be."

"Mm..." Hermione nodded silently. "It's just... you said before... um... before we come into contact with the Divine Dimension, we still exist within the three dimensions of matter, spirit, and mind. We ourselves change along with changes in the material, spiritual, and mental dimensions, right?"

"That's right, Hermione." Tierra nodded in agreement.

"But your premise is... that we have never come into contact with the Divine Dimension... Yet haven't you already become a Divine Being? Why can't you directly create a Philosopher's Stone?"

"I can, and I can't." Tierra slowly turned around as he spoke.

"You can... and you can't?" Hermione asked in confusion.

"Come, follow me." Tierra smiled as he walked backward, then beckoned to Hermione.

Tierra led Hermione through the door and out of the Room of Requirement—

Then Tierra took a slight step back and extended one finger toward Hermione.

"W-what are you doing?" Hermione asked nervously. But out of trust in Tierra, she did not move at all, allowing his index finger