HPxLOTM: A Wizard's Path to Divinity-Chapter 729: Homeland

Edward froze for a moment.

"I...don’t quite understand..."

Before he could finish speaking, his spirituality stirred, and in an instant, he perceived the entire chain of causes and effects.

The Klein and Amanises before him both came from the future—but not from the future of this spacetime. Instead, they originated from another universal dimension.

Put simply, they came from a parallel world.

They were from the spacetime of the original Lord of the Mysteries.

This conclusion genuinely surprised Edward. The authority of the Oldest One, combined with the imagination derived from the Harry Potter world, had actually brushed against the level of the multiverse.

Edward calmed himself and focused for several seconds. He soon discovered that he could only faintly sense the existence of another parallel world. At most, he was only capable of pulling out projections of a very small number of individuals from that world.

At this moment, Amanises spoke.

"Now that things are settled here, I’ll be heading back first. We’ve only just gone through the apocalypse war not long ago, and my condition still isn’t very stable. You two can talk."

With that, She gave a slight nod. Her figure faded away, as though erased by an invisible eraser.

A few seconds later, the Evernight Goddess Amanises emerged from a mass of darkness. Her eyes were gently closed, her eyelashes trembling faintly.

After quite some time, She opened her eyes. A trace of understanding flashed through her gaze—it was clear that the other Amanises had left behind certain information for Her upon departure.

The Evernight Goddess’s expression became somewhat complicated.

She had never expected that, in another world, the apocalypse war would end in such a manner. Though it was far more tragic than the present timeline, She herself had ultimately become one of the greatest beneficiaries.

But now...

She looked at Edward and asked, "What do you plan to do next with your authority as the ’Creator’?"

"I don’t know," Edward replied with a shrug. "Why don’t you go back and think about it for me, and give me a suggestion later?"

"That works."

Amanises smiled faintly and vanished once more.

And so, only Edward and Klein—from another parallel world—remained at the scene.

Klein stared steadily at Edward.

"Can you take me to see it once more...the world I lived in before I was hung on the Sefirah Castle?"

"Sure."

Edward naturally had no reason to refuse. He shrugged and smiled.

"Since we’re going anyway, we might as well bring Roselle along."

As he spoke, Edward reached out and pulled forth Roselle’s historical projection. Within seconds, the projection was replaced by Roselle’s true body. Roselle looked around in astonishment.

"It’s over?"

"Damn, I’m seriously impressed," he blurted out. "I thought once I reached Sequence 0, I’d be fearless. Turns out, when facing those Outer Deities, all I could do was fire off a few long-range abilities. I didn’t even dare get close. I was already preparing to run."

"Oh, and by the way, the others weren’t doing much better than me..."

He was rambling on when he suddenly paused, frowning in confusion.

"What’s with the looks on your faces?"

A smile appeared on Klein’s face.

"Roselle, it’s really good to see you alive."

"???"

Roselle crossed his arms.

"Why do I feel like you’re insulting me?"

"Alright, save the talk for the road. It’s time to leave."

"Where to?"

"Home."

Edward led the two of them into the starry sky. He stepped beyond the current dimension and traced backwards along the river of time.

The three of them passed through the Fifth Epoch—the Age of Iron—where they saw the Southern and Northern Continents flourish under humanity’s stewardship after the gods had departed.

They arrived at the Fourth Epoch—the Age of the Gods—witnessing deities constantly shifting alliances for their own interests, triggering one brutal war after another, drowning the world in bloodshed and death.

They continued traversing the vast currents of time and reached the Third Epoch—the Cataclysm Epoch—where they saw the Ancient Sun God lead humanity in hunting down the mad ancient gods one by one, allowing mankind to regain its vitality.

Next, they stepped into the Second Epoch—the Dark Epoch—and beheld a world ruled by ancient gods, filled with frenzied slaughter and rampant loss of control, where all civilisation had been extinguished.

Finally, they arrived at the First Epoch—the Chaos Epoch.

They witnessed the awakening of the Oldest One and the destruction it brought. They saw the separation of the twenty-two pathways and the birth of the Outer Deities. They saw the emergence of Primordial One and Celestial Worthy—and saw how, in their struggle to the death, they once again triggered an apocalypse.

No one knew how much time passed.

After another wave of disorientation, the three of them stood shoulder to shoulder on a familiar street.

This was the era in which Klein and Roselle had once lived.

There were no Beyonders.

No gods.

Everything was plain, simple, and peaceful.

This scene had replayed countless times in their memories. Yet when they truly saw it with their own eyes, their minds went blank. Perhaps this was what it meant to have one’s emotions fully realized.

"You can look," Edward reminded them at this moment, "but you can’t interfere too much."

"The principle is the same as using a Time-Turner. You must not disrupt the flow of time. Changes to the past directly affect the future—and once you interfere, you must do your utmost to repair the damage."

Although Edward was now able to move freely along the timeline, he still could not arbitrarily toy with time itself. Once temporal disorder reached a certain threshold, the best possible outcome would be the birth of a new worldline—or, put another way, a new parallel world.

In that case, any changes made to the past would only affect another world entirely unrelated to one’s own.

"I understand," Klein said, nodding slightly. "I just wanted to take another look at this place."

Only then did Roselle react. For once, he wasn’t being flippant. Instead, his emotions surged as he looked at Edward, seeking confirmation.

"This...this place, could it be...?"

"That’s right."

The instant Edward nodded, Roselle vanished in a spatial jump. When he reappeared, he was already standing in an old residential compound with visible age to it.

All around were elderly uncles and aunties chatting away in thick Sichuan accents. Among them was a fashionably dressed old man in his sixties, his hair permed, performing flashy tricks on a set of parallel bars. His movements drew admiring exclamations from several nearby aunties.

Roselle stared at him fixedly. His emotions were no longer as turbulent as before, yet his eyes flickered incessantly.

Edward and Klein walked over.

"That’s your father?" Edward said. "Mm, the old man’s still vigorous in his later years—impressive. From the looks of it, finding you a stepmother wouldn’t be difficult."

Roselle replied flatly, "My biological mother is still alive and well..."

He added silently in his heart: At least, at this moment, she’s still fine.

"Uh..."

Edward and Klein exchanged a glance.

"Your old man does have a bit of an Emperor-ish bearing," Edward said tactfully.

"Like father, like son, huh?" Roselle sneered coldly, then turned and strode away.

The three of them soon entered a unit building and went up to the third floor. Without making a sound, they slipped into an apartment.

A kindly-looking elderly woman was bustling about in the kitchen, following along with a short cooking video. She glanced at her phone, then at the pot, then rummaged around for seasonings.

After hesitating for a moment, Roselle looked at Edward.

"Can I...meet her?"

"Yes," Edward replied. "Something like this won’t affect anything. Besides, her memories can always be altered."

As he spoke, the armour on Roselle’s body transformed into an ordinary shirt and jeans.

"Thank you."

Roselle took a deep breath and slowly walked forward. The distance of just a few meters took him more than half a minute to cross. When he stopped two or three meters away from his mother, he froze, suddenly at a loss for what to do next.

At that moment, the old woman suddenly turned around. Seeing Roselle behind her, she jumped in fright and smacked him lightly on the head with her chopsticks.

"You brat! How’d you come home without making a single sound?"

"I...I just...wanted to give you a surprise."

"Oh please, with your sorry state," she said, rolling her eyes. "We see each other day in and day out. You’re already this old and still living with your parents—what surprise could there possibly be?"

As she spoke, she suddenly thought of something. Picking up a piece of chicken with her chopsticks, she said, "Come on, try this. I just learned to make this Three Cup Chicken from Douyin."

Roselle opened his mouth and swallowed the chicken, chewing slowly.

"Is it good?" the old woman asked expectantly.

Roselle nodded. "Next time, let Dad cook instead."

"Hey, you little—!"

The old woman immediately raised her chopsticks and swatted at him. Roselle bolted, running off instinctively. He had felt awkward being watched by Edward and Klein—but when he glanced back, he found that the two of them had already disappeared.

———

Elsewhere, Edward and Klein walked side by side, watching a video on Edward’s phone of Roselle getting beaten. Both wore thoroughly satisfied smiles.

"Next is your turn," Edward said. "Do you want to go back and see your parents as well?"

Klein frowned slightly. "Let’s first take a look at me in this era."

"Alright. Lead the way."

With a single step, the two arrived in another city.

In a state invisible to ordinary people, they entered an office building. Through rows of cubicle desks resembling birdcages, they saw a young man in his early twenties sitting in a corner.

It was Klein before his transmigration—Zhou Mingrui.

He was staring at his computer, pen in hand, scribbling on paper. From time to time, he rubbed his hair in frustration, then cautiously typed a few lines on the keyboard.

Edward was about to step closer when Klein chuckled softly.

"I remember...I should’ve been worrying about expense reimbursements that month."

He smiled faintly.

"This company might be small, but it strictly follows procedures—especially reimbursements. Everything needs a receipt. The problem is, many small miscellaneous expenses don’t come with receipts at all."

"So I had to use other receipts to offset them, make up various reasons, list detailed breakdowns, and submit them to accounting." He shook his head with a smile. "It was better back when I was with the Nighthawks. As long as the captain approved it, reimbursement was no issue."

At that point, his tone suddenly paused.

"Thank you."

"Uh...for what?" Edward asked.

"Because of you," Klein said quietly, "the captain and the others were able to live good lives."

He let out a soft sigh.

"Even though I became the Lord of the Mysteries, without souls, true resurrection is still impossible. And the captain’s soul...theirs had long since been completely eroded. There was nothing left to find."

Edward remained silent for several seconds before replying, "You did very well already."

"Heh."

Klein laughed self-mockingly and said nothing more.

Watching Zhou Mingrui finally sort out the reimbursement, let out a sigh of relief, and walk toward the finance office, Klein turned and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. He gazed out at the familiar yet unfamiliar cityscape.

After a long while, he turned to Edward.

"That’s enough. I should go back now. Leave the rest to the real Klein. This world...ultimately belongs to him."

"Thank you, Edward."

———

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