"Wait a minute," Sebastian said as he attempted to process the information given to him. "What do you mean that you're not from this world?"

Alex was also having some trouble fully understanding everything himself since Erebus told them more than enough about himself for them to put two and two together. Even though he knew--alongside Professor Fig--that Erebus has a System, he had never expected the truth to be far above their own head.

Erebus nodded as he spent roughly the last half an hour explaining his origins with Arch providing video feed--to which Sebastian and Alex roughly compared to a pensieve's effects--that helped give them a clear image of Erebus' homeworld and past. Neither of them expected to find out that Erebus--their mysterious friend--was what Arch called a 'Remnant Soul' and that his very soul was damaged from his first death.

"I know it seems impossible," Arch interrupted Sebastian and Alex's stupor, "but it is the truth. Erebus' soul was damaged and lost not only his entire family, but his whole homeworld despite his governments' best efforts to divert a calamity. Even now, Erebus is prepared to walk through Hell itself to recover from the damage--no matter who or what gets in his way."

"Is that why I can see his entire body shrouded in a dark gray aura?" Alex asked Arch--inquiring about what he can see through his natural vision enhanced by Ancient Magic.

"A dark gray aura?" Arch inquired.

"Alex Fross can see traces of an ancient magic, Arch," Erebus succinctly explained. "While I cannot see this dark gray aura around myself like Alex can, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

"Ah," Arch muttered in surprise before returning to his natural stoic self. "Well, I'd wager he's probably seeing the effects of Shadow Magic on you. Most Umbramancy spells have a dark gray coloration to their spellwork that is even visible to other System Users."

"Never mind all that!" Sebastian muttered aloud as he looked at Erebus with a bit of a hopeful gleam in his eyes. "How can we help you? Wiggenweld potion? Shrivelfig?"

(A/N: In the game, it is mentioned in a small scene during the adventure into Feldcroft that Sebastian's uncle Solomon told off Sebastian that shrivelfigs cannot reverse a curse and that nothing can in response to giving his sister Anne a potential cure for her injury caused by dark magic. I figured I'd add this in as a nod to that event.)

Erebus shook his head in denial. "Neither the Wiggenweld potion or a Shrivelfig can fix my soul, Sebastian. I'm not cursed nor can the Wiggenweld heal a damaged soul."

Sebastian looked down upon hearing that.

"Don't worry, Sebastian," Alex said in a tone meant to cheer him up. "I'm sure that Erebus will find a way to fix it since he's most likely done this far longer than we have."

"Now that we have gotten the issue about me out of the way," Erebus cleared his throat to redirect attention back to him, "there is still the issue of what to do next. If I know Hogwarts students and professors enough, everyone in the whole school will know my secret and this will change far too much of the timeline."

"This would indeed be troublesome," Kreia nodded lightly as she could somewhat feel the distress around Erebus through the Force. While both her and Arch were looking for him, Kreia had read the books and watched the movies for the Wizarding World--giving her a decent idea of what Erebus' worries revolved around.

Sebastian partially understood the underlying meaning of Erebus' words since he was part of the school for four years already. Alex didn't feel like telling anyone else beside Professor Fig about Erebus's secret, but he still swore to himself to make sure no one else knew this secret.

With a soft sigh of disappointment, Erebus waved his empty right hand to use the Force to send both of their wands back to their owners. He had been in Hogwarts for little more than a month already and knew that they both had secrets they could only share with their trusted friends.

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Erebus could only hope that by this time tomorrow, none of the other students found out about his secret. He didn't mind Alex telling Professor Fig about this since he grew rather fond of the old wizard and his friendly personality.

That and he still had business with the old Professor and Alex concerning the quest he was currently on. Erebus had a feeling that it would take the entire year to fully solve that quest, but he also felt how he was soon going to be whisked away again--most likely back to Korriban to join the Sith Academy there and begin his preparations to deal with Palpatine in the intervening time.

"For the time being," Erebus began, "it is best to trust you both. I'm not angry at you both for being curious, but I hope you understand that some things about me cannot be told to others. Not when everything you know can be changed like this."

Unbeknownst to Alex and Sebastian--who were unable to sense the Force itself--Erebus didn't express all of his emotions to them at that moment. Even Kreia--who could sense the Force on her student--felt a disturbing sense of something wrong with him since leaving Korriban for this strange new world.

Something that neither side of the Force itself liked though were forced into subservience.

Back on Dromund Kaas--when he first reincarnated into the Galaxy--his soul was still very highly unstable. The lingering emotions from his death and knowing he had lost his entire world had been especially damaging to the young man's psyche--causing him to lash out through the Force itself at the very slightest hint of killing intent.

Not even Cipher Nine--who was the first person Erebus established contact with back then and not Force-sensitive--could've realized just how fortunate during that brief interaction that he hadn't shown any killing intent unlike those who were laying in wait outside of the Dark Temple. Although she came in roughly a few days later, Kreia could sense from the very start that Erebus' mind was teetering on the very edge of sanity.

Comparing then to now, Kreia had a feeling that in the future, Erebus was not ever going to be truly sane again. He was gaining too much power far too quickly despite cultivating and slowly repairing his soul in this fashion.

'These boys,' Kreia thought to herself as she probed them using the Force, 'have no true inkling of what Erebus can do. They have no idea that he is truly a monster driven by insanity and madness far beyond any form of selfishness that even my former students were capable of doing. Even if they were showed what his homeworld was like now due to Arch showing them, they never could understand how utterly insane Erebus has become.'

Feeling roughly thankful for their wands being returned to them, Alex and Sebastian promised to not tell anyone else about Erebus' secret--unaware that Kreia made sure of that through her actions in the Force. After hearing their affirming words, Erebus let them go free and both of them returned to their dorms.

Alex had used his Field Guide to floo flame back to his dorm (A/N: Floo Flames are the game's version of fast travel) while Sebastian used Apparate to return to the castle. As for Erebus, he stayed in his Voidship and returned to his far more familiar and comfortable quarters to rest up.

==+==

Meanwhile...

Arch had reconnected to Erebus' System and went through all of the events that he had experienced since their abrupt disconnection during the Voidstorm. He now understood that Erebus was experiencing the subtle influences of Shadow Magic on his soul without truly understanding its nature, yet Arch knew that in one of the places Erebus was going to in the future, he could learn the basics of Umbramancy.

After all, the nature of Umbramancy is to bend and reshape reality at an extreme cost of the user's sanity--or at least that is what he understands of it from the main universe both he and Erebus came from. Unlike the three Unforgivable Curses whose purpose were rather single-minded in their design, there were entire schools of Arcane Magic devoted to such things.

Umbramancy being a destructive school classified under the Eternal System wholly devoted to creating reality-bending spells and innate abilities at the cost of expending one's sanity the deeper into their studies. It had been designed that way long ago and it was a fact that people who wield Shadow Magic were inevitably going to turn insane--albeit at a very slow pace.

From what Arch understood of the Shadow School and its users, it was a certainty that as Erebus grew more proficient in Umbramancy, so too would his mental defenses--making two of the three so-called Unforgivable Curses be rendered inert against him. That only left the last of the three Unforgivables: Avada Kedavra.

Either due to his sheer luck or Providence within the Variant Timelines, Erebus had claimed a Grandmaster skill from his adventure in the Void. Erebus' System didn't know how to read it since it showed up as a series of question marks, but Arch was able to read it due to his Mastery in the Abyssal School. What he learned shocked him to the point he immediately classified it while sending a copy of it directly to the Elder Courts.

The reason why he sent it off like this?

It's because it was a special skill that not even a [Spiritual Rebirth] could cleanse away. This kind of skill was one that would immediately classify Erebus Axus (after rebirthing his spirit to trigger reincarnation back into the main universe) as a Progenitor for a new bloodline.

And as it was, the current progress was only at 0.01% to fully awakening.

<===+===>