The pearly-white Astoria floated above the green cocoon, her expression still dazed, instinctively trying to drift toward the "door" above.
Milky-white ripples spread through the matrix again, stopping her and temporarily holding her soul in place.
When Wenge and Daphne saw Astoria's soul leave her body, they both cried out in alarm.
"My daughter!"
"My sister!"
Dumbledore reassured them from the side.
"Don't worry. With the array protecting her, Astoria's soul won't go to the Realm of the Dead anytime soon, as long as she doesn't want to die.
Well, for now, you can think of her as a ghost who lingers out of attachment to the living world."
Shawn had already given Wenge and Daphne a rough description of what would happen, but when a loved one was involved, a few words could hardly put them at ease.
Wenge and Daphne were now like relatives waiting outside an emergency room, pacing like cats on hot bricks, worried and tense.
Dumbledore said nothing more, watching Shawn's movements intently.
By then, the incoming blood mist had stained the green cocoon with a reddish glow.
Shawn took something else out of his ring, spread it with both hands, and draped it over the green cocoon in the center. The cocoon vanished at once.
The Old Beekeeper blinked. When his magical senses detected nothing either, he knew it was Harry's Invisibility Cloak.
With his extensive knowledge, after watching Shawn's actions, he realized that Shawn had put all his earlier conjectures from the Chamber of Secrets on the Fourth Floor into practice.
This highly advanced alchemy matrix served a whole host of functions.
The initial green light had actually been similar to the Killing Curse, directly "killing" Astoria and separating her soul from her body.
Her soul had then been confined by the matrix's