Dumbledore made it very clear this time.
Even Hermione suddenly understood.
"How could such magic exist..."
She felt greatly horrified.
Snape's emotions were also fluctuating.
Compared to Hermione.
Snape felt a few more shivers down his spine—with good reason. After all, it meant if Dumbledore had made different choices back then, today's Dumbledore could be far scarier than he previously thought. The world would inevitably produce a Black Demon King, and could the Black Demon King be Dumbledore?
Honestly speaking.
Snape felt a genuine fear from that earlier version of Dumbledore, fear that only a true Black Demon King would have, and this is why he felt intensely frightened even now.
"That's exactly the case."
Dumbledore nodded calmly.
"So, does it hold all of your unspeakable thoughts?" Snape suddenly sneered; he still hadn't realized the true purpose of the Bronze Gate.
"More accurately," Dumbledore sighed, "it's the possibilities each of us, every life has rejected—it's the part of the universe that has been discarded."
His words caused Hermione's eyes to widen, while Snape's gaze flickered.
"I feel like you're not being truthful."
Snape's intuition made him look deeply at Dumbledore, but Dumbledore just matched his stare calmly, and eventually, it was he, the double agent, who couldn't hold out.
"No matter what you're hiding, I just want to know, did that damn little brat Ian get inside?" Snape looked worriedly at the Bronze Gate.
In some ways.
He was indeed falsely accusing Ian.
Ian didn't enter the Bronze Gate voluntarily.
...
As Dumbledore and Snape continued their conversation outside the gate.
Ian had already been absorbed into the Bronze Gate for a while. Time flowed differently on both sides, and Ian couldn't tell how long he had been lying on the ground.
"Huh, entering the gate even brings mental attacks?"
Ian's fingers twitched slightly.
Salty rainwater trickled down his neck into his collar. Struggling to prop himself up, his fingertips sank into the damp moss, a touch feeling as disgustingly old phlegm.
Thinking about this.
Ian immediately awoke and scrambled up from the ground, quickly applying several Scouring Charms to his hands, and when he had cleaned off all the dirt and looked up.
His vision was incredibly clear.
Because the sunlight shone brightly.
It struck his abruptly constricted pupils, reflecting an unbelievable scene—thirty-meter tall fern plants like emerald umbrellas, vines hanging from the canopy thicker than his waist.
The air stirred by dragonfly's wings fluttering past was enough to mess his hair!
The dragonfly's membrane wings spanned four meters!
It seemed like the whole world was magnified!
"Whew~"
Ian took a deep breath, even feeling a bit oxygen-drunk. Then, from a distance came footsteps like earthquakes; a group of sauropod dinosaurs, as large as trains, were looping their long necks to pluck tender leaves from the treetops.
"Oh... my God!"
Ian was astonished because he saw enormous dinosaurs—was this really the Jurassic Era? He regretted not reading the dinosaur encyclopedia Hermione had given him earlier.
Certainly.
Whether or not it was the Jurassic Era, the dinosaurs he saw were definitely real. Still processing the information, Ian suddenly noticed the sky darkening.
As shadows enveloped the earth, all dinosaurs screamed in terror.
And then.
An absolutely gigantic ancient giant dragon swooped down from the clouds, its dark golden scales gleaming coldly in the rain, and its wings spread to cover half the sky. It precisely snatched a fleeing giant dinosaur, wrapping its spiny tongue around the prey and brutally snapping it—the Tyrannosaurus' spine cracked with a tooth-grating sound.
"Ugh, it's another dragon."
Ian's throat felt dry; he had developed a bit of fear for dragons now.
Luckily, the dragon's vertical pupils suddenly turned towards the fern grove where he stood, the sulfuric breath from its nostrils evaporating rain within a hundred meters, yet it seemingly showed no interest in a tiny creature like him.
This prevented a life-threatening disaster.
Ian now skillfully handled ancient giant dragons.
"Crunch, crunch.~"
The dragon continuously feasted, its head sweeping close to the ground, Ian could see dinosaur chunks stuck between its teeth—wondering whether dragon meat or dinosaur meat tasted better.
The curiosity sparked a thought.
The foodie soul felt a bit uncontrollable.
"I've already entered inside the gate... wouldn't these creatures respawn once dead?" Ian mused, looking at the dinosaur killed by the ancient dragon.
Unlike what he saw on TV reconstruction, the dinosaur didn't have smooth skin but feathers, like incredibly, incredibly, incredibly large chickens.
He yearned for some roast chicken legs.
Indeed, Ian was starving.
He'd been stuck in the Forbidden Forest for quite a while.
And just as he contemplated a plan to snatch food from the dragon, ready to eat both the dinosaur and dragon if it dared to roar at him—suddenly, the ancient dragon stopped feeding.
It looked around somewhat anxiously.
The sky began to change.
Ian sensed intense magical energy.
"Wizard? Fantastic Beasts?"
Ian looked up at the sky.
A crimson glow spread like blood through the clouds, thousands of meteors tearing through the atmosphere. These weren't natural meteors; Ian saw ancient runes inscribed on them, ones he didn't understand.
"Wizard!"
Ian could still judge this much.
"Boom——!!"
The first rune meteor struck the dragon's back, instantly vaporizing its dark gold scales, exposing charred bones. The dragon let out a deafening roar; its wings stirred terrifying hurricanes.
However.
It couldn't take flight.
Nor could it withstand the successive attacks.
Ian stood behind a decaying trunk, watching this magical bombardment beyond his comprehension. After landing, the rune meteors even dealt secondary damage, twisting like living creatures to reorganize.
Merging into burning chains, binding the dragon's limbs.
Then.
The red light in the sky condensed into a giant hand, with lightning-formed runes in its palm—runes Ian had only seen on the Bronze Gate.
They were ancient spells he couldn't fully decipher.
"Bang!"
The giant hand grasped the dragon's tail.
Swung the creature, resembling a mountain of flesh, towards the ground. The impact's shockwave upheaved vegetation kilometers around; Ian felt himself being tossed into the air by the current.
"Armor Protection!"
He quickly cast a spell.
Stabilizing himself.
And shielding against incoming debris impacts.
But amidst this confusion.
Seven rune chains pierced through the dragon's spine, pinning it into the water-churning chasm.
The dragon's dying pupils suddenly turned in a direction, reflecting numerous black-robed figures floating in mid-air, and Ian just wanted to exclaim.
The dragon, wizard, all vanished without a trace.
Not a refresh reset.
It seemed the black-robed wizards who hunted the dragon had left with their spoils—magic stealthier than Apparition, disappearing in the blink of an eye, leaving Ian unable to trace them.
"What kind of place is this..."
Ian still remembered the era humans emerged; wizards couldn't have predated mankind. Maybe those who hunted dragons were the earliest... Gods?
"I remember, I heard before, as Medivh, I would come to the Age of Gods!" Ian suddenly recalled something.
He was astonished.
Could those black-robed people truly be Gods?
The Little Wizard was puzzled.
As weather gradually returned, rain began again—perhaps this was an era not recorded in the Hogwarts Library or any history book.
The ancient where Gods and dragons danced.
And Ian.
Seemed to have discovered secrets of the Gods never known.
At their onset.
They were also wizards.