Linear Time

Manus's pupils contracted. At a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow, he tore the Time-Turner from around his neck and hurled it away, retreating rapidly at the same time.

Throughout the process, Manus kept his attention fixed on the Time-Turner and saw its magical structure changing at a terrifying speed.

Its structure altered, new runes emerged, old runes vanished...

The most obvious outward sign was that the entire Time-Turner, like a stone battered by wind, sun, and rain for tens of millions of years, gradually drifted apart under Manus's gaze. Most of it vanished directly into thin air, leaving only a tiny pinch of dust to fall.

"Whirlwind Scour."

Manus swung the Elder Wand, controlling his magic to create wind and exert an indirect influence. In the end, a faint breeze gathered the dust together.

"Was that... time's backlash? Time's self-correcting ability? Or something else?"

Manus did not know. He had never experienced it himself, nor did he have any desire to try. He only knew that a Time-Turner had vanished before his eyes in a bizarre manner under the influence of temporal power.

What he had just witnessed was shocking even to Manus, but he did not forget what mattered. He immediately pulled out his pocket watch.

He did not use magic to check the time. At a moment like this, a mechanical pocket watch was more reliable than magic—

Manus's Pocket Watch

The time was exactly when he should have used the Time-Turner. Since he had prepared for this experiment, Manus had noted the time when he used it.

"The Time-Turner that should have appeared only because the current me used it to return to two hours ago vanished because I did not use it, and temporal power was involved in the process."