Loki desperately wanted to say something, but his body had been cut in half, so naturally he could not make a sound.
All he could do was float in midair and listen to Slytherin and Ravenclaw talk.
"Now that the boundary between life and death is no longer so clear, it won't be difficult for the dead to return to the living world anymore, provided the dead person is powerful enough. Killing someone can no longer be considered an ending the way it once was, because they might simply return from the Underworld after a while."
Rhys freely shared his understanding of life and death with his two old friends, and Rowena and Helga nodded repeatedly as they listened.
Rhys lowered his head and glanced at Loki, who had been restrained by him and Helga together, then revealed a cheerful smile.
"So sealing someone away is what truly counts as 'killing' them now. Though in this case, I mean social death."
In Rhys's view, now that the boundary around the Underworld had been broken, someone like Loki was basically like a stone in a cesspit, both foul and stubbornly hard to get rid of.
The key issue lay in the mechanism of reincarnation.
Rhys had only managed to bring this taboo knowledge back to the living world because he had personally died once.
On the train leading to the Underworld, that white mist would erode a person's soul.
The souls of ordinary living beings were not strong enough to resist the corrosion. All memories from their previous lives would be stripped away, after which they would reincarnate.
But for beings who had already been extremely powerful in life, the corrosive effect of the white mist was not enough.
They could successfully remain on the train and reach the Underworld.
If Rhys had not acted quickly enough back then, his reincarnation plan would definitely have failed.
And because he had taken action himself, he had even managed to preserve his memories of what happened on the train.
It had been an enormous success.
As one of the gods, Loki's soul was unquestionably powerful.
He would definitely be able to reach the Underworld intact.
In the past, the Underworld and the living world had been clearly separated.
Once Loki entered it, he would have been trapped there forever.
But now that the boundary between the two realms was no longer so distinct, Loki might very well slip back out after spending some time there.
How could Rhys allow that?!
So he chose to seal Loki instead, leaving him in a state that was neither truly dead nor truly alive.
Loki, forget about dying.
Just stay obediently in the living world and enjoy a life sentence!
That was precisely why Loki had reacted with such panic when Slytherin refused to kill him.
Helga and Rowena both understood what Salazar meant.
But this approach created one very obvious problem.
Loki was still occupying Godric's body.
If Loki remained alive, how were they supposed to free that body?
Wouldn't Godric's resurrection plan have to be suspended?
"Then Godric can wait a little longer. We'll definitely find a way to have the best of both worlds."
Rhys would rather delay Godric's resurrection than let Loki escape.
As long as they studied the matter properly, there had to be a solution.
For example, they could find a way to extract Loki's soul from Godric's body.
Since Salazar himself had no objection, Helga and Rowena did not say anything more.
After a brief discussion, the three decided how to deal with Loki.
First, they rejoined the two halves of Loki's body.
Then they wrapped his body in the power of three domains: water, earth, and wind.
The combined forces firmly suppressed the domain within Loki's body, completely stripping him of the ability to use both magic and his domain.
Since Rhys had already performed a similar procedure on Voldemort before, he was highly experienced.
He quickly guided his two companions through the process and completed Loki's seal.
After being treated this way, Loki was now no different from a Muggle.
But Rhys knew very well that Loki's most terrifying weapons were not limited to his domain and magic.
His mind and tongue were equally dangerous.
So Rhys directly used a potion to put him into a deep sleep.
With that, the seal was complete.
Once Rhys eventually found a way to separate a soul from its body, they could deal with Loki more thoroughly.
After sealing Loki, the three looked at one another.
After a brief silence, Helga took the initiative to speak.
"Is there any possibility of repairing the seal on the Underworld?"
Helga already knew the answer in her heart, but she still asked her two friends while clinging to the faintest hope.
Rhys and Rowena both answered with silence.
Although the destruction of the Underworld seal happened to align with their interests, the fact that it could not be repaired was still an objective reality.
"It can't be done," Rowena finally answered after a while, perhaps feeling that Helga deserved a response.
"Without Godric's power, we can't construct the seal the way we did before."
Compared with Rowena's concise answer, Rhys phrased his response much more gently.
"Then once Godric returns, will it be possible?" Helga hurriedly asked.
"It would still be extremely difficult. Back then, we were standing on the shoulders of those who came before us."
Rhys shook his head helplessly.
The reason they had been able to successfully construct the seal back then was because others had already been working toward the same goal.
By the time it fell to the four of them, only the final step remained.
That was the true reason the four Founders had managed to completely separate the two realms.
Now that the seal had been utterly destroyed, the two worlds had effectively been reset to their original state.
If they wanted to build another seal, they would have to start from scratch.
The amount of work involved was on an entirely different scale.
Helga was about to say something else when Rowena suddenly interrupted.
"This isn't the time to discuss this. There's still a battle going on at Hogwarts!"
With Rowena's reminder, Rhys and Helga also lost the urge to continue discussing the seal.
The three of them hurried toward the surface together.
No matter what, the first priority was to deal with the Society Mages who had infiltrated Hogwarts.
On the duelling platform, Voldemort was struggling to hold his own against Dumbledore.
He was absolutely furious.
He had originally gained the upper hand in his battle with Dumbledore. If they had continued fighting for a while longer, he might actually have defeated him.
Then some madwoman had suddenly appeared halfway through the fight and hit him with a devastating attack, wiping out all the advantage he had built up beforehand!
He was both furious and terrified.
Voldemort had completely lost the confidence and arrogance he had possessed when he first appeared.
Now, all he wanted was to escape this miserable place.
But how could Dumbledore possibly allow that?
With the advantage now firmly in his hands, Dumbledore strengthened the wall of fire surrounding the duelling arena to ensure Voldemort had no way to escape.
"Dumbledore!"
Realising that he had no route of retreat, Voldemort's eyes turned blood-red, his expression nearly mad.
"Do you really think these little tricks can stop me? Without that lunatic's help just now, you'd already be dead! It's time I started getting serious..."
The wounds that Voldemort had barely sealed using the power of his death domain began to break open again.
At the same time, the domain he had spread across the duelling platform began to fluctuate violently.
Dumbledore had originally intended to call upon the power of his own domain to counterattack.
But out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of two figures.
The words already on his lips changed slightly.
"Tom, there is a limit to what one person can accomplish, so...
"It's time for you to experience a combined attack of love and justice!"
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI