Time-Turner

In Flamel's workshop, Xiwen and Flamel were intently studying an oval object covered in runes.

"This alchemical artifact looks very old," Flamel murmured, examining the inscribed runes with a magnifying glass. "I'm certain that the person who made it was a remarkable alchemist, and the alchemical system behind this product is unlike any I've ever seen."

"Strange, I should have heard of someone like that before," Flamel asked, puzzled. "Xiwen, how did you discover it?"

"When I saw it, it was a Christmas present under the Christmas tree outside my room, wrapped in a tattered cloth bag," Xiwen explained. "I'm not sure if it's dangerous, so I brought it here to have you take a look."

"It's not dangerous at all. The runes on this item are clearly aboveboard," Flamel said, shaking Xiwen head slightly. "The runes inscribed on it indicate that it's a container for storing other forms of energy, and it should also possess many powerful magical functions."

"However, using it requires specific incantations and gestures, and I don't have the ability to crack these key-like usage methods. If this is indeed a Christmas present for you, perhaps there will be some clues or something in the package. Think about it carefully?"

The simple package contained no clues whatsoever; the real clues came from the memories of Kamar-Taj.

Xiwen took the Eye of Agamotto from Flamel, thought about it carefully, and then pinned it to his chest.

Then, he formed a mudra with his hands in front of Eye of Agamotto and silently recited the spell he had seen in the Kamar-Taj Library.

As Xiwen's hands slowly opened in front of him, the four arcs that formed the structure in front of him separated, revealing a strange eye within a perfectly round structure—its eyeball was very hollow, emitting a strong emerald green light.

"This is... the power of time?!" Flamel, sensing the power sealed within the Eye of Agamotto, widened his eyes in astonishment and exclaimed. "Isn't this a power that's only controlled by the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic in the England?"

"Are you very familiar with the Department of Mysteries?" Xiwen asked curiously, intrigued. At the same time, he silently dispelled the spell, sealing the power of time back into place.

"I know a little bit about it." Flamel nodded and explained to Xiwen, "The Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic in England once invited me to assist in some research, including a magical alchemical item called Time-Turner. I learned quite a bit about time from there."

"In the Hall of Time of the Department of Mysteries, there's a cabinet containing quite a few Time-Turner."

"Time-Turner?" Xiwen paused, then asked doubtfully. "What's it for? It can't actually convert time, can it...?"

"It's not as dramatic as time travel, but it can send a person back in time," Flamel said softly.

"Being able to go back in time, does that mean you can change history, or even alter the course of the future?" Xiwen thought for a moment, then frowned and asked. "If the Time-Turner is so powerful, how come there are so many of them in one cabinet?"

Xiwen felt this was unreasonable.

He fully understood the power of the Time Stone in the previous world; the power of time could practically bring the dead back to life and alter the very laws governing things! If Time-Turner could be mass-produced in this world, the chances of them falling into the hands of treacherous dark wizards would be even greater, wouldn't that throw the entire world into chaos?

"Actually, the Time-Turner isn't as unsolvable as you think," Flamel explained to Xiwen, giving him a deep look. "Time travel also has its own rules. A person can go back to the past, but cannot change the course of history."

"Even if someone uses Time-Turner to travel through time, the history they alter is only the established history that has already happened. Everything this person accomplished forms a closed loop, and our world is the final outcome that has already been changed."

"So, does that mean there's only one timeline in this world?" Xiwen asked, frowning.

"That's one way to understand it," Flamel nodded with a smile.

"I still don't quite understand," Xiwen shook his head and then asked.

"Since it's possible to change the past, let's make an assumption: if someone with the Time-Turner went back in time and killed their young grandfather, and if the grandfather died, their father wouldn't have been born, and without a father, there would be no one with the Time-Turner. So, who actually killed the grandfather?"

Xiwen asked the question about the Grandfather Paradox that he had heard about in the last world.

This paradox is impossible within the same timeline. It was only after the emergence of the parallel universe theory that everything that happens in this paradox became even slightly possible.

However, according to Flamel's explanation, this world possesses something like Time-Turner, yet it only has one timeline. This doesn't seem very logical.

"A very profound question." Flamel nodded thoughtfully and said to Xiwen, "Actually, similar situations have indeed occurred."

"At the end of the last century, the Department of Mysteries had an Unspeakables who used Time-Turner in an experiment to travel back in time, but died because she stayed in the past for too long. In the experiment to travel back in time, Eloise was trapped in 1402 for five days."

"Her travels altered the life trajectories of everyone she encountered in the past; at least 25 of her descendants vanished from the modern world, becoming beings that were never born!" Flamel said solemnly. "This is also why the Ministry of Magic established hundreds of laws concerning the use of Time-Turner."

"But doesn't this conflict with the time-transformation rules you mentioned before?" Xiwen frowned deeply and asked, puzzled.

"You're right, these two points do indeed create a significant conflict," Flamel sighed, speaking to Xiwen. "So this involves the self-correcting ability of the time-transformation rules."

"If the actions that occur during a time shift do not have a significant impact, then the rules of time can correct them, pulling the world line back to the altered final outcome and making the logic of the time shift self-consistent."

"However, if someone causes too much impact during time travel, a portion of the timeline will completely collapse, making it impossible to pull time back to the main timeline, resulting in catastrophic consequences!"