I didn't leave my lab for days.
Not for food. Not for sleep—well, barely. Not for anything.
Herpo's work consumed me.
His notes were… overwhelming.
Stacks upon stacks of parchment, bound manuscripts, loose pages filled with jagged handwriting and complex diagrams. Some were neat, almost scholarly. Others looked like they'd been written mid-madness—ink smeared, lines erratic, thoughts spiraling into obsession.
And yet… every single page held value.
"Genius," I murmured, flipping through another notebook. "Absolute genius."
Dark, twisted genius—but genius nonetheless.
Herpo's primary focus had been clear.
Immortality.
Not the crude kind. Not survival through artifacts or rituals alone.
He wanted true immortality.
And his approach?
It fascinated me.
He understood something fundamental—something most wizards barely even touched.
The soul.
According to his research, the soul was far more stable than the body. It could persist, endure, even resist decay over incredible spans of time.
"The body is the flaw," I whispered, tracing one of his diagrams. "Not the soul…"
That was his conclusion.
So instead of focusing purely on preserving the soul—like with a Horcrux—he initially tried to perfect the body.
Bloodline enhancement.Magical reinforcement of cells.Alchemical augmentation.
There were entire sections dedicated to strengthening the body's ability to contain magic. Increasing lifespan by reinforcing the connection between soul and flesh.
And honestly?
"He was close," I admitted quietly.
Some of his theories… I could see the logic. The structure. The potential.
He had made leaps—massive ones—in understanding how magic interacted with biology.
But then…
Everything changed.
I flipped to another section.
The tone shifted immediately.
The writing became sharper. Faster. Almost frantic.
That was where he discovered it.
The Horcrux.
I leaned back in my chair, exhaling slowly.
"…Of course you did," I muttered.
Herpo had realized something terrifyingly simple.
If the soul could survive without the body…
Why bother fixing the body at all?
That was where he went wrong.
Or right.
Depending on how you looked at it.
His research after that point became almost entirely focused on soul manipulation.
Fragmentation.Anchoring.Separation.
Ways to tether existence to the world without relying on fragile flesh.
But I could also see the flaws.
The instability.The degradation.
The cost.
"…Yeah," I said quietly. "No wonder history paints this as a bad idea."
I wasn't stupid.
I had seen enough, studied enough—even from my past life—to understand that splitting the soul was… dangerous. Not just physically, but mentally.
Identity erosion.Emotional instability.Loss of self.
It wasn't immortality.
It was survival at the cost of being you.
I closed the notebook slowly.
"I'm not doing that," I said firmly.
No hesitation.
No temptation.
That wasn't the path I wanted.
But that didn't mean I stopped.
Not even close.
"I want to live," I whispered, staring down at the mountain of knowledge in front of me.
More than that—
"I want to live forever."
And why shouldn't I?
I had already died once.
Reincarnated.
Thrown into a completely different world with no guarantees, no explanations.
What happened if I died again?
Nothing?Another life?Or something worse?
"…I don't like unknown variables," I muttered.
And death… was the biggest unknown of all.
So I made a decision.
A clear one.
A logical one.
"I'll surpass him."
Herpo had taken one path.
A flawed one.
An incomplete one.
But his early research?
His understanding of the body, bloodlines, magic, and the soul?
That was the foundation.
I leaned forward, eyes gleaming with focus.
"I don't need to choose between body and soul."
Why not both?
Perfect the body.Stabilize the soul.Strengthen the connection between them.
Create something… better.
My quill moved rapidly across fresh parchment.
New theories.New structures.New magic.
Not copied.
Not borrowed.
Mine.
"Why should I rely on someone else's magic," I muttered with a small, dangerous smile, "when I can create something superior?"
Herpo had started the journey.
I would finish it.
And this time…
There would be no flaws.