Time Will Prove the Path

Orion looked at Regulus, his earlier emotions subsiding, and his gaze regained its composure.

But another thought inevitably popped into my head: what if? What if one day, we actually made it happen?

He didn't press further. Since Regulus had already said all that, he would naturally continue; he just needed to listen.

Regulus didn't rush to speak. He stood up from his chair, walked to the desk, and drew his wand.

"These are some hurdles," he glanced at Orion, "The first one still needs a verification."

Orion's gaze shifted from his face to the wand in his hand, then he stood up, took two steps to the side, and made room for Regulus. Regulus's eyes swept across the table, where there were several items: an ink bottle, a quill pen, several stacks of envelopes, and an empty teacup.

They are made of different materials, have different shapes, and are different sizes, separated by distance, with air in between.

He glanced at Orion, Orion nodded slightly.

Regulus raised his wand and pointed it at the table. "Quassare."

A yellowish-brown beam of incantation, about the thickness of a finger, shot from the tip of the staff and swept across the table.

The moment the ray touched the edge of the ink bottle, the light instantly spread out.

Then the same light flashed on the quill pen barrel beside it, on the edge of the pile of envelopes, and on the rim of the teacup. Almost simultaneously, with a very brief delay, imperceptible to the naked eye, but Orion's Magic Perception caught the sequence. Ink bottle, quill pen, envelopes, teacup—the light leaped from one object to the next, like an invisible thread connecting them. Then they shattered together.

The ink bottle cracked from the inside, glass shards flew outwards, and ink spilled into the broken glass, spreading a deep blue puddle on the table.

The quill pen's shaft broke into several pieces, the cross-sections were uneven, the feathers were scattered in the ink, and the quill tube was split in two.

The envelope turned into scraps of paper, a mixture of white and beige fragments.

The teacup shattered into porcelain shards of varying sizes, the largest being only the size of a fingernail.

All the fragments landed on the table almost simultaneously, making a series of clattering sounds.

Orion looked at the pile of crumbs on the table, said nothing, and frowned slightly.

Glass, feathers, paper, porcelain—the materials and structures are completely different, separated by air. A single spell shattered them all, and they shattered cleanly.

He knew this was cognitive coverage; Regulus was treating everything on the table as a whole, and the accuracy of his perception determined the range of his attack. But he saw that one strike.

The spell jumped from the ink bottle to the quill, from the quill to the envelope, and from the envelope to the teacup.

They are separated by air, by distance, and do not touch.

According to the principle of the Disintegration Charm mentioned earlier, oscillations Conduction highly efficient in dense structures, but should dissipate when they encounter air.

But it didn't dissipate.

He looked at Regulus, waiting for his explanation.

Regulus put away his wand, glanced at the pile of crumbs on the table, and gave a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

The first hurdle, Chain Conduction, has been successfully verified.

He had speculated about this after the sinking of Snell Rock in Cornwall, suggesting that the oscillations traveled through fissures and cavities from one end to the other. At the time, it wasn't clear whether seawater filled the fissures, providing Conduction bridge, or whether cognitive overlay allowed the oscillations to ignore physical discontinuities.

Now I understand.

These things on the table are not connected by any medium, only by air. Air has extremely poor Conduction, so under normal circumstances, it would disperse as soon as it was vibrated in.

But he framed them as a whole; in his mind, they were one thing, and once the vibrations entered, there were no boundaries, moving from one thing to another.

Cognitive coverage itself is a bridge, and oscillations cross the medium.

He looked up at Orion, his tone relaxed. "Those things on the table were made of different materials, had different structures, and were separated by air. Logically, the vibration should have stopped when it reached the boundary of each item. The broken ink bottle shouldn't have affected the quill pen next to it."

He continued, "But I treat them as one thing; no matter how far apart they are, as long as they are within my perception, the spell will take effect simultaneously."

Orion remained silent, his gaze still fixed on the shards of glass on the table.

He understood, but to be honest, he didn't quite understand what was so special about it.

Cognitive coverage, just like Regulus said before, the Spellcasting treats the target as a whole, and the Disintegration Charm acts on the whole, isn't that the same thing? It's just with an extra layer, and things don't have to be physically adjacent.

This is within his understanding and can be considered an advanced application of Cognitive Convergence.

It can break several separate objects at the same time, which increases its usability, but that's about it.

Regulus nodded, his expression relaxing. "This leads to something— Chain Conduction."

Orion frowned slightly. It was Regulus's way of using words again; he couldn't understand it, but he didn't interrupt and waited.

"The oscillation Conduction from one object to another, crossing a medium in between; just now it crossed the air."

Regulus explained, "The Conduction can cross the gap means one thing: after the target is broken, the fragments are still part of the whole at the moment the vibration passes through them."

The oscillations are not only determined by the state of mind at the time of Spellcasting; they follow the cognition. As long as the cognition remains, the Conduction continues.

Orion's brow furrowed even deeper. He understood what Regulus was saying, but he didn't know where it led.

He looked at Regulus: "So what you just did was create an obstacle?"

"The first hurdle," Regulus nodded, a slight smile playing on his lips, "Has been successfully overcome."

Orion looked at him but said nothing more.

He didn't quite understand the key point, but Regulus said it was a success, so it was a success.

Regulus looked at his father and continued, "The next one, Camby, is more difficult. The Chain Conduction solves the first step: whether the oscillation can be transmitted from one fragment to the next."

"But transmitting light isn't enough."

He held up one finger. "It passes through one layer, the vibration decreases a bit, then it passes through another layer, and it decreases again. After three or four layers, it's gone."

For the chain to keep running on its own, the energy released at each layer must exceed the Conduction loss. The excess energy drives the next layer, and so on.

"Self-sustaining."

Orion nodded; it's the same logic as the Muggle weapons he just mentioned.

"The problem is," Regulus added, "That to achieve that condition, the initial Magic Power output must be extremely high, possibly exceeding the Magic Power limit of any wizard."

He spread his hands. "When I attacked that island, I used up two-thirds of my Magic Power. To achieve the conditions for the chain to be self-sustaining, the initial investment might be tens or even hundreds of times greater."

"Dumbledore couldn't do it, and neither could Grindelwald."

Orion's brow furrowed again. "Then how do we solve this?"

"Two paths." Regulus held up two fingers.

"First, don't draw Magic Power from the Spellcasting; let the target provide its own energy."

Orion's eyes narrowed.

"When matter shatters, it releases energy. If the energy released from the shattering can directly drive the next round of oscillations, the Spellcasting only needs to provide the first burst."

He continued, "But to achieve this, a conversion point needs to be generated within the target to absorb mass and release Magic Power."

Magic Power drives the oscillations, which shatter more mass, feeding more mass into the conversion points.

Mass becomes Magic Power, Magic Power becomes vibration, vibration becomes shattering, and shattering releases more mass.

A cycle.

Orion didn't speak; he was thinking to himself, mass converted into Magic Power —this wasn't ordinary Magical Theory.

Regulus, as if knowing what he was thinking, said directly, "This is the realm of Alchemy."

"Do you have a direction?" Orion asked.

"Yes," Regulus said, "the Philosopher's Stone. Flamel's Philosopher's Stone can convert Magic Power into mass, and the reverse should work too. Mass is converted back into Magic Power, used in the chain of the Disintegration Charm. The target's mass is the source of Magic Power; the target provides itself with the energy for destruction." He added, "The Philosopher's Stone might also solve the problem of the total amount of Magic Power."

Orion's fingers twitched slightly on the table.

Nicolas Flamel.

He knew that Regulus had met this over six-hundred-year-old wizard before, at the wedding in Andromeda, when Dumbledore took him to meet Flamel. Flamel gave Regulus a Metal Ball as a token.

Flamel was Dumbledore's longtime partner, a relationship that dates back to the beginning of this century.

For someone so deeply connected to Dumbledore to extend an olive branch to Regulus, offering tokens and opening back doors, the implications are far more complex than simply appreciating a talented child.

He had thought about this issue at the time, but didn't intervene.

The Black family were neither vassals of the Death Eaters nor followers of Dumbledore.

Orion has always given Regulus a lot of space to do what he wants, with his family backing him up.

But Flamel's presence does make the situation delicate.

Flamel's Philosopher's Stone represents the pinnacle of Alchemy and is unique in the world. The only person likely capable of lending it to Regulus is Flamel himself. Whether Flamel is willing to lend it depends on many factors.

Dumbledore's attitude was the first to be affected.

If Regulus were to become deeply associated with Flamel, Voldemort would see it as the Black family moving closer to Dumbledore.

Of course, the Black family has already made its public stance clear: Pure-blood Faction, Voldemort's sphere of influence.

But in Pure-bloods politics, it's not a big deal for an heir to be close to Dumbledore's old partner in private. Friendship is friendship, and political stance is political stance. And what family doesn't have a few foreign friends?

As long as Voldemort doesn't openly side with Dumbledore, he won't turn against a teenager just because he chatted with Flamel about Alchemy a few times. There is a risk, but it's not significant.

Regulus knew what he was doing, and Orion, recalling his son's conversation about Legilimency and Voldemort, made his own judgment.

Let him walk this path himself.

"As for Flamel," Orion said casually, "You decide for yourself."

Regulus looked at his father and nodded.

He leaned back, his expression more relaxed than before. "There's another hurdle ahead, the precision of Magic Manipulation."

Maintaining both the conversion point and oscillation Conduction within the target simultaneously requires a level of precision higher than almost any spell, but I have a direction, no rush."Orion looked at him and remained silent for a while.

Regulus has said everything that needed to be said, he has made all the obstacles clear, and he has even just overcome the first hurdle.

The following steps also have direction, steps, and a clear approach.

But what reassured Orion the most was Regulus's statement that there was no rush.

The fact that a thirteen-year-old child can say he's not in a hurry when standing at the threshold of this level of Magic shows that he knows what he's doing and what he still needs.

Orion leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.

The Study remained quiet for a long time.

The fire in the fireplace burned a little lower, and the light in the Study was dimmer than before, casting two shadows on the wall.

He looked at Regulus across from him, his voice regaining its normal composure. "What can my family do to help?"

Regulus thought for a moment, and indeed there was one.

The Rowle family.

Dolphin Rowle targeted him twice, first in the Arnold Belmont incident and second in the Geoffrey Selwyn incident, but he remained behind the scenes and did not personally take action.

Regardless of the reason, this has created enmity.

He originally intended to prevent Dolphin Rowle from graduating, but later changed his mind.

The core path to illuminating Saiph and strengthening the soul highly overlap, proactively revealing its brilliance and exerting a decisive influence.

Killing Dolphin Rowle alone would be a waste.

Was wiping out the entire Rowle family enough? Would that be a decisive blow? Would it demonstrate our power more effectively than defeating Bellatrix?

But there's a problem.

The core image of Saiph is its unseen sharpness.

Most of that star's energy Radiation in the ultraviolet band, which is invisible to the naked eye, so it appears dim, but its actual luminosity is extremely high.

An unseen edge.

This directly determines how he should handle the matter.

If being unable to see is one of the conditions, then he cannot do it openly.

Hiding behind the scenes and letting the outcome happen, without anyone knowing it was him, that's a form of unseen brilliance.

But if "unseen" doesn't mean hidden, but rather refers to the form of influence, like Ultraviolet light, illuminating everything but invisible to the naked eye, then the approach is different.

He wasn't sure.

If you're unsure, you shouldn't take action. If you act in the wrong direction, Saiph might become even harder to illuminate.

First, figure out exactly what the Invisible Edge wants, then decide how to deal with the Rowle family, and then confide in Orion.

If he were to launch a sneak attack from behind the scenes, given his current abilities, time, and preparation, he could do it alone.

If an overt operation is needed, but the true instigator remains hidden, then the family's resources must be mobilized, requiring Orion's cooperation. It's too early to say anything before we understand the situation.

Regulus shook his head. "Not for now."

Orion could tell that the boy was preoccupied with something, pondering something in his mind, but he didn't ask any further questions.

Regulus has his own rhythm; he speaks when he needs to, and a father shouldn't rush him.

The necessary space has been given, the necessary support has been provided, and the rest is up to him.

There was a moment of silence.

The fire in the fireplace had been burning for a long time; the charcoal had collapsed, and the dark red flames reflected on the shards on the table. The ink was half-dry, and deep blue smoke seeped into the wood grain.

Orion looked at him, his voice slightly soft. "Regulus, Time will prove the path."

Regulus paused for a moment.

Then he reached into his robe and pulled out the pocket Pocket Watch.

He pressed open the dark metal case; the dial had no numbers, only star patterns, and a slender silver arrow pointed to an angle, circling around and around.

A line of small text is engraved on the inside of the watch case: Time will prove the path.

He looked at it for a while, then closed the watch, stuffed it back into the inner pocket of his robe, and pressed it against his chest.

Then he stood up, a slight smile playing on his lips, "Goodnight, Father."

Orion looked at him, her gaze softening, and a slight smile appeared on her lips, "Goodnight."

Regulus nodded, pushed open the door, and went out.