Chapter 496
: Eternal Life is Just a Curse
Chapter 496: Eternal Life is Just a Curse
Vader twirled a truly magnificent quill in his hand.
The light golden pen holder was engraved with fine and dense magic patterns, and the slender and straight feathers were as white as snow. The joints were inlaid with a ring of silver threads, and the whole thing formed the shape of a flying bird circling around the pen holder.
This is the result of the work of Wade and Nick Lemay in the past few days.
Because it was a toy made on a whim, the two did not consider the cost at all. Nick Flamel had collected all kinds of alchemical materials, and he did not mind using extremely expensive and rare materials on this small feather pen.
The brand new Daydream Feather Pen lived up to its high cost. The dreams it wove were extremely realistic. If it weren't for the spell that always brought a hint of lucidity to people, it would be impossible to find the difference between dreams and reality with just the five senses.
But truth is only its superficial advantage. In fact, the biggest feature of this feather pen is that it can write automatically and continuously to maintain the time for daydreaming.
An excellent alchemist cannot resist the urge to make the newly created magic item in front of him more perfect.
Although Flamel and Wade designed a series of "anti-addiction" measures, the result of Flamel's modification of this quill pen is that daydreaming can be maintained until the stored ink runs out.
Before the dream ends, the user is almost living in a completely real world.
Of course, there is only one such quill pen, and the rest of the Daydream Quill Pens are ordinary versions with a maximum duration of no more than thirty minutes.
After the transformation was completed, Nick Flamel reluctantly gave the feather pen to Wade.
"Why?" Wade asked, "This is your work. You can keep it."
"No..." Flamel shook his head and said, "I have the gift you gave me, and that's enough. This one...it will keep me from returning to reality."
The old man looked at Wade with a helpless yet carefree smile.
"I'm old, Vader... too old to fight my inner desires anymore. It's easy for me to fall in love with this kind of imaginary fantasy."
He stood up slowly, walked shakily to the wall, and gently touched the two long wooden boxes on the shelf. One of them was Wade's gift, and the other was one of their trial works in the past few days.
"I will keep these two, but even these, I will not use them normally... I will save them until the last moment, and then, together with Per, we will set off into the long night in the most beautiful dream."
Per, Flamel's wife Perenelle, also lived to be over six hundred years old.
Wade also met this long-lived lady yesterday. Although she was a few years younger than Flamel, perhaps because her magic power was not as strong as her husband's, she looked a little older than Flamel.
The elixir of life could not really make them immortal. With skin as pale as paper, Perenelle looked like she had one foot in the underworld.
Although she tried to be hospitable and friendly, she seemed to have exhausted all her strength after just a few words.
Hearing Flamel's words, Vader raised his eyebrows in surprise, and wanted to say something, but held back.
Flamel understood immediately and said with a smile: "Did that guy Mori tell you not to ask me about the Philosopher's Stone? It doesn't matter, you can ask, Wade - which alchemist would not be curious about the Philosopher's Stone?"
Since he said so, Wade asked boldly.
"Sir, did you really destroy it?" Wade asked curiously, "What if... at that time, you regret it?"
Flamel laughed, and held out his hand, showing it front and back. His palm looked like it was made of white plasticine, bloodless, and his nails looked like paper shells being peeled off layer by layer.
"Look at me, child, look at me..."
Flamel whispered: "Even if no one says it, I feel more and more that I am not a living person... but an alchemical creature that has been infused with a soul."
"No...I should say that your puppets are more alive than mine."
“I am like a ghost living in six hundred years ago. Although I have stolen some time from the cracks of time, death has always been standing behind me and has never left… I am the ash left after the coal is burned out. I have no heat and I don’t even know if I am real.”
"For Per and me, immortality is no longer a gift. It is more like a curse from God."
"So... yes, I destroyed the Philosopher's Stone. Because - as you said - I knew very well how greedy I was for 'living', and I was afraid that in the end, I would suddenly lose the courage to move forward."
"So you didn't leave yourself any way out." Wade said with emotion: "But isn't this also a kind of bravery?"
"No, Wade." Nick Flamel shook his head and said, "True courage should be like Albus Dumbledore, never afraid of what is waiting ahead. Even if the road is completely dark, he will be a beacon to guide the way...but I chose to escape."
The flickering candlelight reflected in Nick Flamel's eyes, and Wade saw sighs and awe in his eyes.
Vader whispered, "Professor Dumbledore?"
"Yes." Flamel smiled. "You know what? I once wanted to give him the Philosopher's Stone. He is only one sixth of my age. In my opinion, he is still a young man with a long way to go. But... do you know what Dumbledore said?"
Vader: "... death is a great adventure?"
"Ah, you've heard that, haven't you?" Flamel laughed. "He also said... that he had found something more precious than immortality..."
The old man looked into the boy's clear eyes, as if he had heard Dumbledore's answer without hesitation again -
"I don't need eternal life, Nick."
"The continuation of life lies not in cold stones, but in those young eyes..."
"Looking at them with light in their eyes, flipping through books in the library, running on the grass, and watching them learn to make the light of spells burst out from the tip of their wands, I felt as if I saw my own life and thoughts continuing in another way."
Vader waited for a while, and seeing that Flamel seemed to be in a daze, he couldn't help but ask: "The thing more precious than eternal life... is 'love'?"
Flamel said softly, "No, it is you... and children like you... who are the real 'Philosopher's Stone' in Albus' eyes."
Vader was stunned.
"He made me realize how foolish and arrogant I was in trying to avoid death - that true immortality lies in passing on legacy."
Flamel smiled and said, "Wade, I once wanted to give all my books and research results to Dumbledore, but then I thought, he has enough troubles. So... are you willing to accept this gift?"
(End of this chapter)