Death and the Old Man

The three golden coffins gradually disappeared into the distance.

Death made no move; he simply stood near the bridge railing, gazing at the quietly flowing river, ceaselessly flowing day and night.

This monotonous and eternal scenery has accompanied him through the long years.

Now, another millennium has arrived, and he is still Death, still standing here, like a statue enshrined high.

It will last forever, eternally... yet it has no trace of life.

He looked more like a dead person than a dead person himself.

As the thick fog gradually dissipated, an old man suddenly appeared on the bridge.

Surprisingly, he wasn't wearing those strange religious garments; he was simply dressed in a moon-white robe, sitting cross-legged, facing the River Styx.

The old man was holding an Elder Wood fishing rod, seemingly fishing.

The Elder Wood pole and long line sink to the bottom of the river; with each cast, countless souls are stirred up.

The saying "A fisherman can catch anything but fish" applies even in the Underworld.

The old man had been fishing for a while when he suddenly spoke:

"Your finger bone is in that boy named Stark."

"Ravenclaw has been hidden for many years, and I have been searching for it for many years. Finally, it has come to light."

Do you need it?

Death gave a curt "Oh," his voice neither too loud nor too soft, and, dressed in an old black robe, placed his hands behind his back.

Through the robe, one could see a corner of her hands peeking out:

It was all bones; a section of the right index finger was missing.

This finger bone was taken by the youngest of the Three Brothers and made into the Time Ring, one of the Deathly Hallows.

Death could sense that the finger bone was very close to him now, closer than ever before.

Unfortunately, Ravenclaw's magic severed that connection.

She destroyed the Bronze Ring, but not completely; she retained some of its power.

Just like what she did for the Diadem of wisdom.

What's the point of taking back a finger bone that's beyond repair and can't be reattached?

As Death reminisced about the past, his brow furrowed, as if recalling many heavy, unbearable memories.

The old man sat upright on the bridge, gazing at the silent Grim Death, trying, as he had done countless times before, to guess what the Death was thinking.

Silence is the best form of refusal.

Having already guessed what he meant by tentatively asking, he didn't press further, but simply smiled and changed the subject:

"Stark rode in a golden coffin, heading in what seemed to be the Resting Place of the dead."

He gazed westward and said, "Is it guided by the golden coffin to find Ravenclaw and the others?"

Although the old man had lived for many years, he had never been there.

He had always acted as Death's representative, walking among mortals, and was not very familiar with what lay at the end of the River Styx.

All we know is that... powerful wizards once crossed the Resting Place and went to even more distant worlds.

"They're not going to the Resting Place," Death explained. "At the end of the River Styx, there's a whirlpool; from there, you can return directly to the mortal realm."

"There are places like this?" The old man raised his eyebrows.

In his mind, there was only one way out of the Underworld:

Follow the path of the Three Brothers' trials, then return the same way.

No matter how you get in, you can't go back the same way.

I never imagined the Underworld had an exit.

Over the years, Death has only had this one listener, so he rarely speaks more than he used to, and he said softly:

"That exit wasn't formed naturally; it was created when I blasted a hole through the River Styx during my battle with Merlin."

To pierce through the River Styx, creating a passage connecting the human world and the Underworld... how terrifying must that battle have been?!

The old man stood there, sighing softly.

To be on par with gods with a mortal body... truly worthy of being called Merlin!

Death, however, showed little emotion, and simply said in a deep voice:

"I'm very satisfied with that child. I've given him what you wanted."

The old man narrowed his eyes. Although the robe appeared calm on the surface, a closer look revealed ripples of excitement within it.

"Thank you so much." He calmed himself, gazed into the distance, and after a moment said:

"One of your daughters went and killed another daughter, aren't you worried?"

"Isn't it you who's here?" Death said. "They're Elaine's sisters, after all. You can't just stand by and do nothing, can you?"

Go and release Morgan; she's been imprisoned for fifteen hundred years.

"I tried my best... but that's Merlin's magic." The old man smiled, then feigned surprise and asked tentatively:

"Have you found Grindelwald? He wanders in the Underworld, and we don't know what his goal is."

Death, with an indifferent expression, said, "He is insignificant."

That means there isn't any left.

The old man frowned, his eyes filled with complex emotions—doubt, surprise, and finally, realization and further confirmation.

Death, who is no longer omniscient and omnipotent, still a god?

The old man concealed his emotions well, and with a slight flick of his arm, he cast his fishing rod. Suddenly, a cabinet leaped out of the water and crashed heavily onto the bridge.

Tom's... Ark of the Covenant.

The old man smiled knowingly, stood up, picked up the cabinet, walked down the bridge, and headed west without looking back.

The figure vanished completely, and Death remained motionless, merely gazing at the River Styx beneath his feet, its waters shimmering with light and shadow.

Like the border between two countries, or like the separation between the living and the dead.

Don't overstep even half a point.

He suddenly burst into laughter, his voice filled with utter desolation:

"Death, Death... the dream of a desperate man!"

After leaving Death Island, the three golden coffins traveled along the river without encountering any danger.

The only thrilling part was a certain mountain range where two towering peaks faced each other.

The cliffs are steep and precipitous, less than ten meters apart, forming a gateway, with extremely rapid water flow.

After leaving the mountains, the view suddenly opened up, and the river widened, as if we had entered another world, from the underworld to the world of the living.

But the current did not slow down; instead, it became even more turbulent.

Hermione stood on the golden coffin, looking into the distance through binoculars, and suddenly shouted:

"William, it's a waterfall!"

Yes, it's a waterfall, a vast and boundless waterfall.

The enormous roar of the water was like thunder and lightning filling the sky.

This sound can be easily heard from tens of kilometers away.

The cliffs stretch endlessly to both sides, and the waves, like white rainbows, sweep across the river, covering the sky and the earth.

All the River Styx flow from this waterfall straight into the Resting Place, carrying with them the spirits of the dead.

William stood at the bow of the ship, struggling to control the golden coffin as it drifted to one side.

Just before the waterfall ends, the river is split open, revealing a gap that stretches for 500 meters.

It's as if someone drew a chasm between heaven and earth.

The closer they got, the more terrifying the magic within the chasm became.

These are definitely traces left by a battle.

It not only cut through the River Styx, but also broke through the entrance to the Underworld and the magical world.

It's hard to imagine what kind of powerful wizard could have caused this.

The golden coffin slowly approached; any undead that appeared nearby would be instantly torn apart by its fierce attack.

"Get into the coffin, we're going in!" William shouted.

All three golden coffins were covered.

William and Hermione lay in a coffin, embracing each other tightly, feeling dizzy as if an earthquake had struck.

After spinning once in the vortex, the golden coffin was completely swallowed up by the dark, gaping hole.