"Death?!"
Grindelwald's pupils instantly widened when he heard that word.
He was hardly unfamiliar with it. Long before he and Dumbledore had sparked the idea of ruling the world together, back when he had not even left Durmstrang, he had already been obsessed with studying death, the legendary Deathly Hallows, and...
The existence of Death.
No one could be uninterested in that subject. Voldemort, who had once stirred up storms in Britain, had turned himself into something neither human nor ghost just to escape death.
As the first Dark Lord, Grindelwald had once entertained the same thought.
Back then, or even now, the wizarding world's most direct description of death was the three Deathly Hallows.
According to legend, after the three Peverell brothers crossed a river, Death set his eyes on them, but each of them also received one of the Deathly Hallows.
The eldest, Antioch, wielded the Elder Wand, said to be the most powerful wand of all.
The second, Cadmus, obtained the Resurrection Stone, which was later passed down to the Gaunt family.
The youngest, Ignotus, possessed the Cloak of Invisibility, and the Potter family were his descendants.
Although the legend said that the youngest brother was the one who lived to the end, Grindelwald had clearly been more interested in the Elder Wand, which could enhance his combat strength, and he had once possessed it.
But after he lost to Dumbledore, the Elder Wand became Dumbledore's.
More importantly, after obtaining the Elder Wand, even though he had used the symbol of the Deathly Hallows as the mark of his followers, he had not continued searching for the other Hallows.
It was not because he had lost interest in studying death, the ultimate question, but because after spending most of his time and energy on it, he had only ever been able to reach one conclusion.
The Elder Wand was simply a powerful wand. It had nothing to do with death.
After failing to find a breakthrough for so long, and with the reform of the magical world pressing urgently before him, he naturally no longer had the heart to keep studying those things.
So now, hearing the subject of death again and having those sealed memories awakened, even Grindelwald did not know what he was feeling.
Confusion, surprise, astonishment, and even a trace of anger.
"Are you certain Death truly exists? And why would he set his sights on Tver?" Grindelwald asked with a frown.
"I don't know..."
Munter shook his head bluntly.
"Is it because I escaped the threat of death brought by the Curse?"
"Tver?"
Hearing that voice, Grindelwald turned back in pleasant surprise and saw Tver walking slowly toward him.
"Long time no see, Professor," Tver said with a somewhat strained smile.
After hearing that his professor had appeared at Durmstrang, he had rushed back overnight, intending to give his professor a surprise.
In the end, the surprise had not reached his professor. He himself had been startled first.
No one could remain calm after hearing that Death had set his eyes on them.
But Munter, inside the portrait, suddenly seemed to realize something and struck the frame.
"So that's why. I was wondering why Death would set his sights on a child like you for no reason. Just like in the legend, anyone who has escaped death will be targeted by Death."
"Unless you possess something like Ignotus's Cloak of Invisibility, the death crises you encounter will keep affecting you without pause until you truly die."
Silence.
Never mind Tver, the person directly involved. Even Grindelwald, feeling this near-despairing threat of death, was pressed into silence.
"That doesn't make sense. I only escaped death after I came into contact with the Curse. Before that, I shouldn't have provoked Death at all," Tver said, both aggrieved and furious.
He knew that the real escape from death should have been after the original body touched the Curse and he crossed over, thereby saving a life.
But the problem was that all of this had happened after contact with the Curse. Surely the original owner, a child who had not even started school yet, could not have escaped death himself?
Munter did not want to admit this fact either, so he could only sigh and say, "Have you heard of prophecies?"
Tver's puzzled expression froze.
"You mean Death foresaw that I would escape death, so he created a death crisis, which caused me to successfully escape death and thus fulfilled that fact?"
That was clearly entrapment.
Still, anger aside, deep down, he found himself believing this guess more and more.
The prophecy about Voldemort's defeat had actually been the same.
Voldemort learned that he would be defeated by a child born in July, but there had been two children who fit the conditions, Harry and Neville.
In the end, Voldemort chose Harry, and by coincidence, it was the magic on Harry that successfully rebounded the Killing Curse.
In other words, Voldemort had personally brought about the prophecy.
That was the power of prophecy. Even if those who knew tried their best to prevent what the prophecy described, even if it was an existence like Death, it would eventually circle back in a subtle way to the predetermined fact described by the prophecy.
It was just that what had targeted Tver was a little, just a little, more powerful.
It was Death.
Seeing Tver's dejected expression, Grindelwald patted his shoulder comfortingly and looked toward the equally silent Munter.
"Does something like Death truly exist? Back then, even Dumbledore and I spent countless efforts on it, but we never found the slightest proof of Death's existence."
"Everyone who has seen Death is dead, obviously," Munter said irresponsibly, even though he, a portrait, had been the first to sense Death's existence on Tver.
"That's too much of a cheat," Tver said with a bitter smile.
But even with bitterness in his heart, he still forced himself to pull his spirits together.
"Since Ignotus was able to avoid the trap Death set by relying on the Cloak of Invisibility, then if I gather all three Hallows, wouldn't I be able to survive safely too?"
"There is some logic to that."
Though Munter said so, his expression did not look quite so optimistic.
"But I think the story of the Cloak of Invisibility is meant to tell you to keep a low profile."
"In other words, you cannot be as conspicuous as what the Elder Wand symbolizes, and you cannot lose yourself in the false illusion represented by the Resurrection Stone."
"..."
Tver also knew that simply having the three Hallows was not enough to avoid death. After all, in the original story, Dumbledore had gathered all three Hallows, but clearly, he had not escaped death.
But...
"If keeping a low profile is what's required, then I might as well face Death directly. At least before I truly die, I can still create a grand and magnificent undertaking."
He had figured it out.
Although it felt somewhat unfair, the fact had already been established, and complaining would not help.
In any case, it was not as if he had never faced the threat of death. One could even say he was far too skilled at dealing with the pressure of walking along the edge of death.
"But it's not as if you have no chance at all against Death's threat," Munter suddenly said with a mysterious smile. "Stopping will let you see more clearly. The way to deal with it lies within you, little Tver..."