London.
Broken Cauldron Bar.
A few people sat in the shabby and dark shop. One of them was a middle-aged man with a bandage wrapped around his shoulder. His gray hair was messy. The other customers were flipping through the newspapers and chatting with each other.
"This year's Battle of the Top Three is really going to be a big event."
"Yeah, they actually invited people other than the magic schools to watch the competition and even offered such a high reward."
"The tentative number of viewers has risen to 100,000, including fairies, centaurs, and charming children. The number of viewers is twice that of the Quidditch World Cup."
"Wow! How generous. Can the Hogwarts hold so many people? "
"I heard that the principals of the three major magic schools have set up super grandstands at the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest. They can hold more than 300,000 people."
"Are you going? I heard there will be a lucky draw."
"I'm going. I'd be stupid not to go. Everyone who received the news is going."
.....
The conversation of the middle-aged men drilled into Hoffa's brain like an electric drill, waking him up. He couldn't help but ask the owner for a glass of wine and slowly drank it.
It had been three days since Buddy Jr's death. In these three days, Hoffa had lost his powerful combat ability and recovery ability under the influence of the Blood Decay Potion. He had to find a secluded place to treat his wounds.
Mille disappeared, Buddy Jr died, Dumbledore lost his memory, and Nicole Lemay betrayed him. At this moment, he had no other helpers by his side, but his opponents were getting stronger as time passed.
The Lord Voldemort, the Grindelwald, and the faintly discernible yet omnipresent fate.
Although he had no memories of the past, the faintly discernible sense of deja vu still appeared in front of him from time to time, reminding him that this was not the first time it had happened.
Creak.
The stone wall leading to Diagon Alley parted.
A dozen people came out of Diagon Alley in an orderly manner. They carried some daily necessities of a wizard. One after another, they were as orderly as ants.
In just three days, most of the people Hoffa saw had become the same as what he had seen in the Nightmare World. They were cold, numb, heartless, and silent, like walking diamonds.
An inexplicable dream spread across every inch of the world like a plague, turning most of the people he saw into zombie-like existences.
As for why they became like this and what they were dreaming of, Hoffa had a rough idea, but he didn't want to think about it, much less admit it.
He had never felt so alone and helpless before.
At this time, the hunchbacked bar owner placed a glass of strong liquor in front of Hoffa. Hoffa, who never drank, picked up the glass and gulped it down. His throat felt as if it was being burned by a raging fire.
Under the influence of alcohol, he temporarily forgot about the mountain-like pressure around him.
"Another cup."
He said.
So the bartender gave him another glass. He hesitated for a moment, then raised the glass and drank it. The spicy energy rushed into his body, causing the world in front of him to become a little blurry. This was the first time he discovered the joy of drinking.
No, perhaps it wasn't the first time …
Because along with the joy came a strong sense of deja vu.
It was definitely not the first time he sat in a bar and drank. If he guessed correctly, he had probably sat in the Broken Cauldron Bar and drank thousands of times. The alcohol he drank was enough to circle the earth several times, or even fill the entire Lake Baikal.
Gulp. Gulp.
The wine glass was filled again, and filled again.
At this moment, he looked like a middle-aged man who had been overwhelmed by life. The bartender was probably used to such people, so he was familiar with pouring him wine.
After the tenth cup.
The bartender automatically raised the wine pot, intending to refill it.
Hoffa covered the mouth of the cup.
"You don't want it anymore?"
The hunchbacked owner of the Broken Cauldron Bar asked.
"I don't want it anymore."
Hoffa shook his head.
The bald owner of the Broken Cauldron Bar, who was wiping the glasses, stopped and smiled faintly. "As expected of the person I chose, you can still restrain yourself at this time."
Hoffa raised his head and looked at the hunchbacked, bald owner of the Broken Cauldron Bar. He looked much older than he did fifty years ago. He still remembered the first time he came to the Broken Cauldron Bar alone. This old man was even younger than him.
"Have you thought it through?" The bartender asked a strange question.
"Thought about what?" Hoffa asked back.
"Think about accepting my invitation." The bartender shrugged and smiled.
Hoffa looked at him, and his drowsy eyes gradually became clear.
The hunchbacked man in front of him had a pair of deep eyes that could almost suck a person's soul. Those eyes were definitely not something a bartender could have.
"You are … a little monster?"
He was slightly surprised.
"That's right," the bartender said calmly. "As expected, you are not blinded by a body."
"Ha!"
Hoffa couldn't help but push the cup aside. He was completely different from the last time he saw the God of Nightmares. Last time, she was enchanting like a mortal, but this time, she was as ugly as a beggar.
"These …" Hoffa pointed at the people wandering around like walking corpses. "Did you do this?"
"Not me. This is the result of the world's interference."
The God of Nightmares took away Hoffa's empty cup and wiped it. "I told you before that this time and space was built on the basis that you stopped Silby Spencer.
But you still haven't returned to the past. No one stopped the half-human king in the past. The entire normal time and space will become a paradox.
The result of Silby Spencer's victory will gradually devour the result of your victory.
The world of the past will cover the normal world that you see, and that will be everything that you see. "
"No one can escape?"
Hoffa couldn't help but think of Dumbledore. The first time he saw him, he was clearing his memories. When he saw him again, he couldn't recognize him.
"No matter how powerful a wizard is, he can't escape fate. Accept reality, Hoffa, Bach." The God of Nightmares asked in a vicissitude tone, "Have you thought it through?"
"What if I have?" Hoffa asked.
"You will become my spokesperson. I will give you the power to defeat everything. Riddle, Grindelwald, Spencer. Anyone who dares to stop you will be dragged into an eternal nightmare. "
"Make me the God of Nightmares?"
"You can say that, but it won't be for long."
"What's the price?"
Hoffa asked bitterly.
"You understand."
The God of Nightmares said calmly.
"Return to fifty years ago and defeat Silby."
"Of course."
Bang!
Holding back his anger, Huo Fa slammed the table.
"Why does it have to be me?"
The God of Nightmares wiped his wine cup calmly and looked at Hoffa with his deep eyes without saying a word until Hoffa no longer wanted to look at him.
Huo Fa stood up and walked out the door without paying.
The sunlight outside the door was cold and glaring. The cold wind of winter swept across his neck like a knife.
Memories from a long time ago flooded his mind. He suddenly wanted to walk. Mirage, he disappeared on the spot.
.....
.....
When he reappeared, he was in a graveyard near Grasmere and Ryder Lake.
Here, the priest was digging a hole and digging out piles of brown soil. There was also a group of men in long robes with serious faces. They wore unusually tall hats and Sparkle shimmering black boots. They were even carrying a black wooden box. At this moment, the man in the priest's robes was talking loudly. The women were crying.
The crying made Hoffa feel calm. It was as if only at this moment did he feel the end of all things. He looked at the thorny forest under his feet and began his long journey.
After crushing countless branches and brambles, he came to the vicinity of a hillside. The place was covered in frost. The thorns and tall shrubs were withered on the hillside. The withered roses were crushed under the harsh winter.
He rubbed his hands and exhaled a breath of white air. He searched according to his memory. Not long after, he found a collapsed rusted metal fence on the hillside. Two tombstones could be vaguely seen inside the fence.
Yellow moss grew on the tombstones. He cleared the branches and moss in this area, revealing the blurry names of Fatir and Aglaia.
This was the first time in 50 years that he could face the past so honestly.
In a sense, his life had long been complete. The old man had left him a huge amount of wealth, enough for him to do anything he wanted in the world. Ironically, the only thing he really wanted was something he would never be able to obtain.
From the moment he was born in this world until now, he had been alone.
If he could, he really wanted to sit by the beach with his loved ones and watch the sun set, revealing the stars in the sky. He wanted to listen to the sound of the waves and not say anything else. However, he told himself clearly that he was no longer alone.
But no.
Definitely not.
Just not.
But not.
Absolutely not.
The god above him was as eccentric and crazy as a child. He would rather see him die six thousand times, or even sixty thousand times, six hundred million times, or six trillion times than let him get what he wanted.
He touched the tombstones and sat down. He leaned against the tombstones and began to think. He thought about the past, the future, the meaning of his life, and why life was so difficult.
The more he thought, the more he felt that he was insignificant. The more he thought, the more he felt that what he was doing was meaningless.
But the more it was so, the more he was unwilling and the more he wanted to do something.
"Little monster," he whispered softly.
As soon as he said that, in the shadows of the swaying trees, the priest who was reciting the eulogy a hundred meters away suddenly stopped talking. The crowd quieted down. The women stopped crying, and the men stopped digging. The crowd parted to the sides in unison.
The leading priest tidied his robe, parted the bushes, and stepped on the thorns to Hoffa's side. With an unfathomable smile, he asked again, "Have you thought it through?"
"Is this world a dream?" Hoffa asked the God of Nightmares.
"I can't answer that, but from your perspective, it's not. At least, it's not Silby Spencer's creation. "
Hoffa slowly turned his head. "You know my future, don't you? You know about my reincarnation, don't you? "
"Sorry, I don't know."
The priest shook his head. "But I've learned from thousands of years of experience that your future has no other choice but to bear the responsibility."
"If I go back, how do you want me to go back?" Hoffa couldn't help but ask.
"Dreams can take you across the world of time illusions and the cryptic world of causality." The priest walked around Hoffa with light footsteps. "Like a dancer, you can jump from one point to another as long as you don't pollute the principles of this world."
"I don't understand. Hoffa said.
"To put it simply, as long as you follow your fate, I can take you back to the past."
"Can I still come back?"
"No, I'll only help you until the moment you defeat the Half-Human King. After that, you're meaningless to me."
"Ha, you're honest." Hoffa couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly. He then asked, "But Grindelwald is stopping me. He wants to destroy this world directly. If he succeeds, the existence of both worlds will lose its meaning, won't it? "
"Of course, if you don't want that to happen, you can be like Silby."
"Like?"
"Drag Gelert Grindelwald into the dream and seal him. I have the ability to do that. As long as you agree to go back to the past, I can help you defeat Grindelwald and avenge you. "
"I'm not like Silby. I'm not like anyone else," Hoffa denied without hesitation.
"Words are meaningless. I only believe in actions," the God of Nightmares said.
Hoffa didn't say anything. He thought of his future form that he saw in the Underworld.
His future self agreed to the God of Nightmares' deal and became the new God of Nightmares. He dragged Grindelwald into the nightmare and returned to the past, waiting for his future self to visit.
Death saw such an ending, so he didn't care and let him leave. His fate had formed a complete circle. As long as someone was related to his fate, they wouldn't be able to escape this circle. They were in this cycle with him again and again, losing their memories over and over again, including himself. The only one who remembered everything was Aglaia in the Underworld.
"Other than this, do I have no other choice?"
Hoffa asked the God of Nightmares.
"No, at least I can't see it."
The priest in the long robe said with certainty.
"You will accept your fate. You will."
Facing his certainty, this time, Hoffa couldn't happily say, "But I refuse."
He felt like a gray rabbit being chased by a hunting dog in the wilderness. No matter how fast he ran, no matter how far he ran, the hunting dog would always catch up with him, find him, and eat him.
But his heart was filled with unwillingness. The unwillingness was so strong that he couldn't agree to the priest in front of him and accept his fate.
So he took a step back and tried to leave the God of Nightmares' gaze.
However, it didn't seem to be of any help. The men who were digging and the crying women in the distance surrounded him one after another.
He retreated and bumped into a woman in black silk. The woman said, "We are destined to be related. This is why you feel close to me, and why I came to you for help."
Therefore, Huo Fa immediately changed direction, but this time, he bumped into a man with a shovel.
The man with the shovel said, "Resistance is an extremely painful thing, and most of the time it's meaningless. If you have to obey sooner or later, you can avoid many detours by obeying earlier."
The God of Nightmares had countless clones. Each of them could speak, but they all had the same deep eyes that were as deep as the universe.
The crowd gathered here made Hoffa feel uneasy and pressured. He pushed away the woman and priest beside him, found a random direction, and strode away. The crowd strolled behind him, neither fast nor slow.
He walked faster and faster along the road. Finally, when he entered the city, the people who were chasing him finally disappeared.
But then, all the pedestrians on the road turned to look at him and said expressionlessly,
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