Things after the troll attack were not quite as devastating as Erebus had expected. Soon after repairing the village using Reparo, he, Alex, and Sebastian went into the Three Broomsticks to get a well-earned butterbeer. There, he met Sirona-who he had instantly recognized as a transgender female due to his System informing him-and had a instant good impression of her.
Erebus had a few friends back home on Terra who were transgender and even though they were people as well, he never thought of them negatively due to their gender identity. He even made his stance clear on that with his friends who were supportive of his ideals.
Even after the heart-wrenching news that the creator of this wonderful mystical world was anti-trans (or a TERF), Erebus had long resolved himself to know that the creation isn't the creator's anymore with the knowledge of various fanfictions set within the Wizarding World. He wouldn't tell Alex, Professor Fig, or anyone from this world about it just yet-at least not until after defeating Ranrok.
In the meantime, Erebus just had to make sure that he learned more about Ancient Magic-which may prove useful in the Battle of Hogwarts in roughly a century later.
'It is clear to me that things aren't going to be easy in this time period,' Erebus thought to himself as he, Alex, and Sebastian were enjoying a butterbeer that Sirona had given them due to their efforts stopping the troll attack. He could already feel the Force surrounding him warn him that there were people with ill-intent coming towards the Three Broomsticks to find Alex-most definitely on Ranrok's orders-but he wanted to see how things would play out first. 'I can only hope that Kreia and Arch will be able to find me in time before things got more difficult. Even though I can respawn indefinitely and thus live forever, I'd wager that even the Ministry of Magic will try to find out more about me.'
Erebus didn't want the Ministry to learn more about him than already necessary since he was aware of a certain Rita Skeeter who'd love to spin her wild tabloid nonsense about him if she learned more about his past within the Wizarding World. Despite his homeworld being gone and traversing through these fantastical worlds that were thought to only be made-up by people to only serve as teaching moral values that can relate to people as they grew up, Erebus knew that there would be darker days ahead for many of these places he'd go to.
In the Star Wars Galaxy, he'd have to deal with Palpatine and the Galactic Empire. In the Wizarding World, he'd have to outwit Voldemort and his cronies.
Even in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he'd have to find a way to deal with Thanos and the time travel shenanigans that the Avengers would get themselves involved with. He also saw that he'd be able to travel to the DC franchise-which meant he'd soon have to play ball with Darkseid and the Justice League.
Erebus didn't know anything about The Spiral nor about the worlds of Overlord and Fairy Tail, but he had a feeling that once he got access to his Voidship again, he'd take a deep dive into the lore of The Spiral and Fairy Tail first. The only problem he had for now was the method of signalling to Arch and Kreia of where he was.
Before he could continue his line of thought, he heard the doors open and a couple of wizards-with what Erebus could sense were tainted souls with the use of Dark Magic-came into the establishment. These were Theophilus Harlow and Victor Rookwood.
Harlow looked like a time period-appropriate working class man from the way he was dressed, but Victor looked like a noble gentleman with his Victorian-style wizarding garments. Fortunately for Erebus, they didn't seem to be here to bother him so much as they were focused on Alex and Sebastian.
However, it didn't take long for the whole establishment to get up in arms to protect both Alex and Sebastian from the dark wizard duo-making Victor remark about how they couldn't drink butterbeer forever. This made Erebus consider using his darkside Force abilities to snuff them out, but he soon felt that their time had not quite yet arrived. That and it'd be more difficult to hide the fact that two dark wizards had suddenly disappeared or had their necks snapped by an invisible spell.
With that business done and the duo leaving the Three Broomsticks, Erebus decided to take some time to analyze the mysterious reward he got after completing the instance. He opened up his inventory to find a mysterious deck of cards that were sealed with an array which seemed System-generated.
==+==
Item: Spell Deck of the Spiral
Type: Spell Card Deck (Universal)
Level Range: Any
Tradeable: No - Soulbound to Erebus Axus
Description:
A spell deck generated by the Remnant Soul System as a quest reward. This is currently Sealed due to being within the wrong world/universe and can only be unsealed upon arriving within Wizard City (The Spiral). After arriving in Wizard City for the first time, this item can be used without restriction.
Any further information on this item must be accessed in its unsealed state.
==+==
'Well,' Erebus thought as he sighed a bit from seeing the item's description. 'At least I know I can access this later.'
With that, he soon left the Three Broomsticks alongside Alex and Sebastian to return to Hogwarts.
<~=+=~>
A little while later...
"What do you mean?" Alex asked Erebus. They both had just completed learning Incendio from Professor Hecat as part of a task given to them by Professor Fig.
It had come at no spare expense to learn that Professor Fig and discovered a map after reading the locket they obtained at Gringotts, but required Alex's help to decipher the map's meaning since he could see traces of Ancient Magic. Erebus had come along to Professor Fig's office too, but for a slightly different reason. Fig wished to learn more about his System since he had been skillfully keeping it secret from Professor Weasley and seemingly didn't require the Field Guide like Alex had obtained the first day. They had gotten a decent idea of what it could do and its near-limitless potential, but Fig wished to try and help Erebus get a better handle on his magical abilities since he didn't have much foundational knowledge in terms of spellcasting.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Their discussion came at an end for the time being when Alex came in and their talks turned towards the Restricted Section. This strangely got Erebus involved as Fig asked them both to learn Incendio from Hecat before they continued.
To summarize, it had gotten them involved with Lucan Brattleby's little 'secret' duelling club and it came as no surprise that both Erebus and Alex dominated the competition. In the present time, Alex had gotten to know Erebus a tad more and he revealed that while he had no idea why he was in the current time period (though he had some theories), he only knew that this would give him enough time to train against a series of events that would take place in roughly a century later.
Thus led to Alex asking him the question.
"I'm saying that there are events happening in the next century I have to prepare for," Erebus sighed as they walked back towards Professor Hecat's office, "events that I can't tell you about quite yet."
"Are they about the goblins?" Alex inquired-his Ravenclaw nature peeking through.
Erebus shook his head in denial. "No, the events I talk about do not concern the goblins like Ranrok."
Alex sighed because he figured that there was something else about his words and determined look, but that Erebus wasn't willing to talk about that just yet. Even now in his vision, Alex could see how that strange gray aura around him got denser along with his determined gaze as if fighting an unseen battle.
As for Erebus, he knew he had to learn the Unforgiveable Curses far before Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts so that he could devise ways against Voldemort. He knew that not even Alex nor Professor Fig could understand his reasons to learn dark magic, but Erebus knew there were far worse things out there lurking just beyond their perception that he alone must face.
This soon led to the encounter within Fig's classroom where Phineas Black (the headmaster during this time and Erebus' least favorite character from the books aside from the fandom's least favorite character Delores Jane Umbridge aka "Umbitch") came in and took Fig away-resorting to Alex going to look for Sebastian to find a way into the restricted section. As for Erebus?
Well, he had business with Professor Hecat to learn a few spells that he felt like Alex wouldn't be able to learn or just won't during this year. He had politely asked Hecat to teach him the Disillusionment Charm (although his Cloak of Shadows skill was better), the Patronus Charm, the Disarming Charm, and Bombarda.
Strangely enough, this request was partially successful. He had learned the Disillusionment Charm, the Patronus Charm, and the Disarming Charm, but the last one-Bombarda-was left up to the Beasts Class teacher to teach him later on in the year. Hecat had explained to Erebus that while she had not seen a level of his skill in magic in her entire life, she was worried about teaching him a spell that he'd learn from another professor.
He took that in his stride since there were other ways to learn the rest of the spells before completing his quest. Now that he learned twelve spells so far, there were only three spells left for him to learn.
The three Unforgiveable Curses were now awaiting for him in the Restricted Section.
<~[+]~>
Meanwhile, in Central Hall...
Erebus used his Cloak of Shadows skill to hide outside of the perception of the school prefects as he followed Alex and Sebastian who were far more noticeable to his eyes than they realized. He had explored with the Disillusionment Charm alongside Professor Hecat to discover than while one could bend light around them-appearing as a "trick of the light" as Sebastian put it to Alex-Erebus could somehow see right through the charm. This surprised Hecat when he mentioned how, aside from a faint white barrier around the body, he could still see the cloaked person without any trouble.
After that, he realized that this was useful to know since this meant little Barty Crouch couldn't escape his sight during the 422nd Quidditch World Cup final during the end of that year's summer. Erebus would keep that in mind for later.
Back to the present time, he followed them to the bookshelves where Alex and Sebastian were whispering about how to get into the Restricted Section. Unintentionally, Erebus heard Sebastian mention the Unlocking Charm-triggering his System to unlock the spell at its highest proficiency while using Erebus' memory of the films' portrayal of the spell-as Sebastian explained to Alex that the charm wouldn't work on the lock. That meant Alex was left with the task of getting the key while Sebastian distracted the librarian.
Since Erebus unlocked the spell at its highest proficiency, he figured that he could break open the lock without much issue-even with the dispelling charm around the lock-but he wanted Alex to unlock it for him.
Before anyone knew it, the Restricted Section was unlocked and the trio went into the area. While Alex and Sebastian took their time to avoid being caught, Erebus had already wandered past them and the ghost lady. His System was leading him down towards his goal and it wasn't long before he did reach the shelf it wanted him to reach-finding a familiar book.
It was Voldemort's favorite book: the Secrets of the Darkest Arte.
》Congratulations! You have discovered the infamous book in the Wizarding World lore: Secrets of the Darkest Arte. It is through this book that the future Heir of Slytherin himself-Tom Riddle/Voldemort-will be set in his destiny as the greatest threat to the modern day Wizarding World and be defeated by Harry Potter in his seventh year. Through this book, he will learn the Unforgiveable Curses, make his Horcruxes, and other dark things he will be known for.《
Erebus didn't care about the System's announcement as he went to touch the book with his right index finger. He didn't know why, but the Force seemed to guide him in this way as if he only needed to touch the book...
》Congratulations! Upon touching this book, you have successfully met the requirements to learn the Unforgiveable Curses.《
》In the original timeline, the protagonist of the game Hogwarts Legacy (or in this case Alex Fross) would learn the Unforgiveable Curses during the Sebastian Sallow relationship questline in the following order: Crucio, Imperio, and Avada Kedavra. Since you have begun to build a relation with Alex Fross, Sebastian Sallow, Natsai Onai, and Poppy Sweeting, you have been awarded for your efforts.《
Erebus was shocked to read the notice in his System when it popped up. He had no idea-aside from the description of his original quest-that he was in the plotline of Hogwarts Legacy although he had no idea of what the plot was about. He attributed this lack of knowledge to it possibly slated for release far after the unexpected extinction-level event, so he couldn't play it. His shocked stupor didn't last for long though when a series of announcements hit his vision.
》The Torture Curse (Crucio) has been added to your Spell List.《
》The Imperius Curse (Imperio) has been added to your Spell List.《
》The Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra) has been added to your Spell List.《
》You have completed the objective: Attain knowledge of the Unforgiveable Curses: 3/3《
》Upon completing the objective, you have received +10,000 Galleons, +30,000 EXP, and a piece of relevant information.《
Erebus being shocked once more was just expected at this point-despite him hearing Alex and Sebastian nearing his location. He didn't care anymore about the curses since he learned them and that meant he could test their capabilities and weaknesses in due time, but despite the MASSIVE experience reward and galleons in his Money Pouch, the piece of information got his curious.
'What piece of relevant information?' he thought to himself.
》EXP: 32,000/81,000 (Level 20)《
》Money Pouch: 20,000 Galleons《
》After you were teleported into the Wizarding World from the Void itself and used the Force against the trolls in Hogsmeade, it had given your Voidship a suitable fix onto your location. It will arrive in two weeks' time.《
This made Erebus excited to the point that as soon as Peeves and a couple of seconds later Sebastian passed by him, he went to go after Alex.
This revelation gave him the confidence to get back into the fight.