[Where I stand becomes the brightest point in the cosmos.]
When two brilliant 'stars' appeared within the void, the surrounding constellations dimmed in comparison.
"My power..."
The whisper resonated across the starscape.
The twin 'stars' shifted direction, as if gazing across immeasurable distances—piercing through time, traversing countless universes.
Even this majestic being could only faintly sense that familiar presence through their shared origin. Under the starlight, a colossal dragon form gradually emerged—the "Creator God" of this universe, the Star Forger, Aurelion Sol.
In this cosmos, he stood as the pinnacle of existence, even surpassing the likes of the celestial wanderer Bard.
"Great Dragon" was merely a reverent title bestowed upon him by mortals, for words could scarcely capture his magnificence. His current form was but a manifestation, not his true essence.
Aurelion Sol was the embodiment of a concept itself.
Yet this supreme being had been betrayed by the Aspects while traversing the cosmos, admiring his own creations. Initially, curiosity alone had drawn him to Runeterra—a continent near one of his suns, a world not of his making.
A single glance was all it took before he prepared to depart. But the Aspects led Runeterra's inhabitants in worship, begging for his continued gaze.
Having roamed the stars without engaging lesser beings, the Star Forger was unaccustomed to such flattery. Pleased, he manifested his form to receive their offerings.
Among the treasures presented by the Aspects was a magnificent crown that captivated him. Upon placing it upon his head, disaster struck.
The crown possessed unfathomable magical power, binding itself to him. His cosmic might and star-forging knowledge were being siphoned away.
Enraged, Sol struggled to remove the crown, but its power hurled him back to the celestial realm, barring him from Runeterra.
Since then, Sol had grown acutely sensitive to any leakage of his power.
Initially suspecting another plot to steal his radiance and omnipotence, he prepared to unleash his wrath.
Yet upon closer inspection, Sol sensed something amiss.
Beyond the rusty crown's relentless drain, no other conduit siphoned his power. Moreover, this energy felt... feeble, like a newborn dragonling.
'A dragonling?'
Sol's eyes—twin stars—flared with renewed brilliance.
'Could distant reaches of the cosmos have birthed my kin?'
Though mighty, the "Great Dragon" was not unique, but a species.
Believing he'd solved the mystery, Sol's entire form quivered with joy. He surged upward, upending countless starry rivers.
The crown erupted with restraining energy, conjuring chains of cosmic law, yet proved futile against his movement.
Enduring tremendous pressure, shattering surrounding stars, the Star Forger reared half his body and loosed a sky-rending roar.
"RRRRRROOOAAAHHH!"
The draconic cry echoed across the cosmos, transcending light and sound, hurtling toward the source of kindred energy.
Beyond the celestial realm, Runeterra trembled under the roar's impact, plunging into fresh chaos.
Watching the Ascended slaughter each other, Sol smirked.
Every Runeterran war weakened his crown's grip—from its former splendour to its current rusted state. Soon, without resistance, it would fall.
"Fight on," he mused. "The day approaches when I'll shatter this trinket and exact vengeance upon those wretched Aspects."
Yet...Such an exquisite 'figure' would be a shame to crush.
Perhaps in the future, it could be gifted to that newly born kin as a present for his arrival?
...
The greatest music has no sound; the greatest form is formless.
Aurelion Sol's dragon roar could truly be called a divine resonance. When it reached Wayne's world, almost no one could hear it.
Yet even so, in that instant, nearly everyone in the world froze for a moment before carrying on as if nothing had happened.
Only a handful of people instinctively sensed the strangeness that had just occurred.
...
Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts.
Dumbledore, who had been organising documents, frowned and rose from his desk, walking to the window.
Blue skies and white clouds—the sky remained unchanged, the earth just as it was.
Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something had shifted.
Indescribable, intangible, with no discernible good or ill.
Dumbledore closed his eyes, concentrating deeply, but still detected nothing. Yet there was a peculiar... lightness?
The old man chuckled wryly, dismissing it as his imagination, and returned to his desk to continue compiling all available information on Voldemort.
...
Nurmengard.
Grindelwald gazed at the scenery beyond the tower, his lips moving faintly before his eyes settled on the crystal skull in the corner.
After Dumbledore and Wayne's last visit, the skull had been left here—Dumbledore hadn't taken it back.
After a moment's hesitation, he approached and picked it up.
Soon, smoke once again filled the room, forming a hazy screen through which nothing could be seen.
Grindelwald's expression darkened. He clutched his chest as a trickle of blood seeped from his lips, his hair growing more brittle and white.
"What on earth has happened..." Grindelwald felt a chill of dread.
He had seen... nothing.
And it was precisely because he'd seen nothing that it felt so terrifying.
...
Albania.
A rat hunting for prey suddenly froze, allowing its quarry to escape.
After warily scanning its surroundings and finding nothing amiss, it resumed its activities.
It had no time for sudden intuitions—survival and gathering strength were its only concerns.
'Just wait, Dumbledore, Lawrence, Potter.'
'I'll return one day.'
...
Meanwhile, deep within Hogwarts Castle, in an empty, dark space, a quill and a thick notebook materialised.
The notebook flipped open to its final page, already bearing over a hundred names.
The quill hovered, and moments later, dozens more names appeared.
Once the recording was complete, both objects vanished without a trace.
...
Inside the suitcase world, Wayne's eyes fluttered open.
"Gardevoir!"
"Young Master Wayne!"
Two exclamations rang out simultaneously. He closed his eyes again, then reopened them and sat up abruptly.
Meeting Gardevoir and Nagini's anxious gazes, Wayne asked softly, "How long was I unconscious?"
"Nearly twelve hours," Nagini replied, summoning a glass of water for him.
Wayne drained it in one gulp, rubbing his temples. "Hermione and Cho—"
He'd had so much planned—tutoring the Greengrass sisters in the afternoon, accompanying Hermione to the library, taking a walk with Cho.
Oh, and teaching Harry and Malfoy in the evening, though that hardly mattered.
"Gardevoir!" The Pokémon transmitted a mental message.
She'd already contacted Hermione and Cho to handle matters when Wayne failed to wake.
"Well done, Gardevoir." Wayne exhaled in relief.
She was truly considerate.
"I'm fine—just suddenly... mastered a spell and fainted from excitement. No need to worry."
Nagini knew this was Wayne's excuse, but didn't press further.
After gently advising him to rest properly, she left the room with her Gardevoir.
Once they'd gone, Wayne lay back down, taking considerable time for his mind to fully recover.
"Bloody system, are you trying to turn me into an idiot?"
He cursed inwardly.
[Calculations confirm the host's cerebral development can withstand inheritance impact. Unconsciousness was merely the body's protective mechanism for faster information assimilation and storage.]
"Could you warn me next time?"
[Further optimisations will be implemented in future updates.]
Wayne had to admit defeat against this artificial imbecile.
Though grumbling internally, he couldn't suppress the grin spreading across his face - harder to control than an AK-47's recoil.
If future rewards maintained this calibre, he'd gladly endure more unconscious episodes.
[Inheritance - The Star Forger (1%) (Divine Tier)]
A primordial legacy from a cosmic sovereign beyond our universe, containing unfathomable mysteries with immeasurable potential.
Evaluation: Stars aren't born - they're forged by divine craftsmanship, by my will.
[Treasure this reward, host. Future divine-tier rewards may progressively unlock more inheritance fragments (1% for Demigod-tier, 2% for Divine-tier).]
This reward utterly surpassed Wayne's expectations.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined obtaining the Star Forger's legacy from a mere divine-tier reward.
Not that divine-tier was inadequate - the celestial dragon's stature was simply too exalted.
Though merely one per cent, context mattered profoundly.
For an entity that treated planets as collectable figurines and marbles...
Even this fractional inheritance left him awestruck.
Most knowledge now embedded in his mind induced splitting headaches upon mere glance.
A necessary safeguard.
Some mysteries shouldn't be touched before reaching appropriate thresholds.
"Ho-Oh, let's go," Wayne murmured.
A fiery path materialised. Stepping through, he instantly arrived at a wilderness three hundred miles from campus.
The suitcase world was too confined for testing his new abilities, and the Forbidden Forest risked alerting Dumbledore and other professors.
Only uninhabited regions would suffice.
Wayne hovered mid-air, starlight swirling beneath his feet, gazing motionless at the firmament.
While most of the inheritance remained inaccessible, foundational abilities had integrated as instinctive magic.
As creator of constellations, the Star Forger's primordial power was cosmic forging.
Current Wayne couldn't wield such world-shaping might, but stellar energy - the forging power's subsidiary force - had lower requirements.
Flight was one such derivative ability.
With a thought, Wayne became a streak of light hurtling toward the coastline, outpacing even Firebolts as he streaked meteor-like across the sky.
Only above the boundless Atlantic did he halt.
"Stellar Surge."
His jade-white palm extended, condensing starlight into a radiant beam. The ocean erupted, its surface depressed dozens of metres at the impact epicentre.
"Galactic Renewal."
BOOM!
Layers of shockwaves swept outward, causing the seawater to surge upward as if the Milky Way itself were cascading from the heavens.
"Starlight Convergence."
The young man slowly clasped his hands together, transforming the shockwaves into an immense gravitational force that seemed to distort space itself. The retreating seawater formed a massive whirlpool upon returning to the ocean's surface.
"One more technique..." Wayne gazed at the stars, shaking his head regretfully.
"Can't use it yet. Still not enough magical power."
Within his inheritance lay another offensive technique - Starfall Cascade, also known as Heavenly Obstruction Meteor. It involved using one's authority to pull stars from the sky and hurl them towards the earth.
This was currently his ultimate killing move, indiscriminate in its destruction and rather troublesome to employ.
Just those casual techniques moments ago had consumed six Snapes' worth of magical power. Wayne feared that forcing out this technique might plunge him into unconsciousness again.
Best to use such moves sparingly.
Mother Earth was already suffering enough - no need to inflict further damage.
"Must earn more points and strive to unlock 100% of the inheritance!" Wayne transformed his joy into a fighting spirit.
One day, he too would treat the stars as playthings, becoming a humanoid dragon king.
"Chirp chirp!"
"Alright, alright, I know. Time to sleep, though I just woke up."
"Chirp!"
"Fine, fine. As you say."
Flames flickered as the man and bird vanished from mid-air.
The lapping waves seemed to bid farewell to the harbinger of calamity.
...
The next morning, Wayne appeared in the Great Hall, immediately surrounded by several girls who pushed aside nearby badgers.
"Wayne, Gardevoir said you had a fever. Are you better now?" Cho asked with concern, placing a small hand on his forehead.
Though she couldn't discern anything unusual.
Hermione followed suit, then Astoria, each taking their turn to check.
"Ah!" the wealthy girl exclaimed. "So hot!"
"No kidding," Wayne swatted her hand away, expertly ruffling her white hair. "After being touched that long, anyone would feel hot."
"I'm completely fine now. Slept the whole day yesterday and now I'm bursting with energy."
Wayne smiled, causing several girls' hearts to race.
Not just them - throughout the Great Hall, numerous young witches observing Wayne developed flushed faces and rapid breathing.
Seeing Hermione, Cho, Astoria and Penelope by his side, the witches felt equal parts envy and jealousy.
"Are you sure you slept all day yesterday and didn't get cosmetic treatment?" Hermione stared intently at Wayne's face, leaning closer and closer.
'How could anyone look this good?'
"Why would I get cosmetic treatment?" Wayne said helplessly. "Really just researched some new magic and slept all day."
"No potions? Beauty elixirs?" Penelope eyed him suspiciously.
The youth's appearance hadn't changed dramatically, yet it ignited something primal—a flame born of desire.
'Have I become corrupted?'
Penelope questioned her life choices, recalling her roommates' blush-inducing conversations. The more she looked at Wayne, the more she suspected something was wrong with herself.
'Oh no. Have I finally lost control?'
After much persuasion, Wayne finally convinced the girls that he hadn't secretly hoarded any beauty potions. After finishing his meal, he took them to the Room of Requirement, inviting Daphne along to make up for the missed lesson the previous day.
By now, Astoria could proficiently cast basic offensive spells like the Body-Bind Curse, Stunning Spell, and Disarming Charm, though their power remained modest.
Neither Wayne nor the Greengrass family harboured ambitions of making her a powerful witch—they simply wanted her to be happy.
Daphne's progress was also noticeable. Her talent was considerable; with proper training, she had the potential to become an Auror in the future.
When parting ways, Wayne asked Hermione and Daphne to inform Harry and Malfoy about their evening remedial session.
Having stood them up several times recently due to various commitments, Wayne felt rather embarrassed.
Moreover, with the Star Forger Dragon now being a major gold sink, he needed more points.
Thus, Wayne decided to teach them some exclusive tricks tonight—an enticement to keep them willingly paying.