Hogwarts Raven

Chapter 370, Page 369: The Unkillable Bride

The rain hadn't stopped all night, and Ian and Karan hid in a corner of an abandoned clock tower in the east of the city.

The area was shrouded in a pale blue magical barrier—a concealment barrier personally set up by Ian, which could not only shield one's aura but also distort vision and perception.

Even high-level mages would find it difficult to detect its existence without special detection methods.

“She only collects wizards… but why ‘alive’ ones?” Karan was still gripped by fear, her voice trembling. “Where is she sending them? Under the temple? What’s there?”

Ian frowned, about to answer, when suddenly he felt a chill run down his spine.

He sensed it—an indescribable "gaze".

He looked up sharply, peering through the barrier towards the end of the street. The ghost bride was dragging five black coffins, moving slowly forward. Her steps remained silent, her red veil fluttering gently in the wind. However, in that instant, she suddenly stopped.

Then, she slowly turned her head.

That pale, paper-white face, those empty yet burning red eyes, precisely locked onto the direction of the clock tower—as if piercing through barriers, shadows, and distance, directly stabbing into Ian's soul.

“Impossible… Triple Concealment Charm plus the Spatial Distortion Barrier, even Dumbledore himself would need at least three minutes to break my magic.” Ian whispered, his tone filled with disbelief and astonishment. “The barrier wasn’t triggered, and there was no magical fluctuation… How did she find out?”

"Found you. I've found you." The ghost bride's mouth was torn to her ears, and golden sand gushed from her eye sockets, forming countless tiny eye patterns in the air.

Her face cracked open like rotting flesh, her mouth extending all the way to her ears, revealing a gaping, blood-red maw with no teeth, only a bottomless abyss of darkness.

It resembled an entrance to the River Styx, eerily terrifying.

Kam's breath caught in his throat at the sight: "How...how could she..."

...sacrifice...

Her voice, like the whispers of a thousand people, resounded directly in Ian and Karan's minds.

"Get out of the way!" Ian roared, shoving Karan aside.

Just as he finished speaking—

The ghost bride disappeared.

It wasn't teleportation, nor an illusion, but rather like a "frame skipping"—one second she was a hundred meters away, the next she had abruptly appeared inside the barrier, standing before the two, a stench of blood assaulting their senses! Yes, the ghost bride's figure suddenly blurred. Without a movement trajectory, without spatial fluctuations, she simply appeared out of thin air, directly inside the barrier from a hundred meters away!

The guy's appearance was extremely abrupt and unexpected. The hem of his rotten wedding dress brushed against the corner of Ian's robe, and the black slime instantly corroded a smoking hole.

“Stand back!”

Ian's wand emitted a blinding white light.

"Crushed to pieces!"

The blast spell struck the ghost bride precisely in the chest, instantly exploding her upper body into a shower of golden sand. But the sand grains didn't dissipate; instead, they hovered in the air, reforming into a distorted human shape. In less than the time it takes for a heartbeat to pass, she was completely restored, even the holes in her wedding dress were perfectly healed.

"The useless groom likes me whole."

The ghost bride's song turned into an eerie duet, with male and female voices alternately squeezed from the depths of her throat. She raised her withered, branch-like arms, and black liquid dripping from her fingertips corroded the stone floor, creating spiderweb-like patterns.

"How can it be?!"

Karan screamed, fell to the ground, and dropped his wand.

Ian reacted quickly, waving his wand.

"Thunderbolt explosion!"

He cast another spell.

A burst of intense fire exploded, striking the ghost bride squarely in the chest. Her body was instantly torn apart; her left arm blew off, her chest was pierced, and black mist spilled out. However, no blood flowed from the wound; instead, more black mist rapidly surged forth, and her body reformed within seconds, completely intact.

"Invalid?" Ian's pupils contracted.

The ghost bride didn't answer, but raised her hand to grab. Ian immediately cast a "Shield Spell," and a golden barrier instantly formed. However, the blood-red thread pierced through the shield, slicing towards his throat like a sharp blade. Ian dodged to the side, the thread grazing his cheek, leaving a bloody mark.

“Slow down time!” Ian whispered, trying to slow her movements.

The ghost bride's movements did slow down, but her existence itself seemed unaffected by time.

Her body could still launch attacks even in slow motion, and once Ian dispelled the magic, her movements returned to normal, as if the "slow flow" had never happened.

"Petrify them all!" Ian switched to a spell with a negative effect. A silver light struck the ghost bride, and her body instantly turned to stone, even her red veil freezing in mid-air.

Ian breathed a sigh of relief and was about to examine it when he saw the surface of the stone statue begin to crack. Black mist surged from the cracks, and pieces of stone peeled away one by one, her body reforming itself unharmed.

“This is impossible…” Karan collapsed to the ground, her voice trembling, “She…she’s impossible to kill!”

It wasn't just this ancient wizard who felt horrified.

Even Ian had actually experienced the situation that the captured wizards were facing.

"Not only can't I kill her, but I can't even apply negative status effects for long?" Ian's pupils contracted to pinpoints. He had never seen such bizarre regenerative abilities—usually even undead creatures have casting intervals. But this thing's regeneration completely disregarded the laws of time and space!
"Flames are raging!"

Blazing white flames erupted from the tip of the staff, enveloping the ghost bride in a human torch-like shape. The flames crackled with the sound of burning oil, but the next second, all the flames were drawn back into her body, transforming into crimson specks of light flowing within golden sand. Cam slumped to the ground, his wand pointed at the ghost bride, yet he couldn't utter a single spell.

Ian seized the opportunity to throw out a silver chain.

"Imprisonment and shackles!"

The magical chains coiled around the ghost bride's limbs like living snakes, but in the blink of an eye, they transformed from physical objects into illusory shadows, piercing directly through her body.

"Physical attacks are ineffective, elemental absorption is possible, and even spatial confinement can be rendered intangible." Ian's brain raced as he constantly changed spells. He tried at least twelve different systems of magic, from standard Hogwarts spells to ancient Egyptian witchcraft, and even risked using two half-finished self-created spells.

The closest she came was with the "Time Freeze Spell." When the silver-blue net of light enveloped the ghost bride, she did freeze for about two seconds. But then the golden sand within her body suddenly began to rotate counterclockwise.

It completely negated the time magic!

"Useless, useless." The ghost bride's limbs began to stretch unnaturally, extending towards the two like rubber bands. "The bride needs bridesmaids."

Ian suddenly noticed a detail—each time the Ghost Bride was restored, the vortex above the distant temple would shimmer slightly. And before the golden sand could reassemble, it would always form that familiar pattern of three concentric circles.

"Cam!" Ian shouted as he dodged the golden threads, "Look at her golden sand!"

Cam struggled to concentrate, then his eyes widened suddenly: "That's... the temple's mark?" "More than just a mark!" Ian dodged the piercing golden thread with a side somersault, his wand drawing intricate runes in the air. "It's a state of being neither fully alive nor dying!"

The young wizard sensed that something was wrong.

Even though Ian's strength is overwhelming, the Ghost Bride can still recover from being shattered to pieces or from other states, as if she is fixed in a complete state, and all changes are meaningless, she will always return to her original state.

"Hee hee~"

The ghost bride froze for a moment, as if reacting to the word. Ian seized this fleeting opportunity, a blinding blue light flashing from the tip of his wand: "Reveal your true form!"

The magical beam shone on the ghost bride, revealing a chilling truth—her physical form did not exist! Those seemingly solid parts were actually superimposed states of countless microscopic grains of gold. Each grain was a miniature sun totem, their forms maintained through magical resonance with the temple embryo.

“Like Schrödinger’s cat,” Ian finally understood. “She exists in a superposition of existence and non-existence, and only the observer’s consciousness can temporarily solidify her form!”

Kam was unlikely to understand such a scientific, and somewhat AI-like, explanation, after all, Kam was just an ordinary ancient wizard.

but.

Ian knew his judgment was correct. As if confirming his prediction, the Ghost Bride suddenly split into three phantoms, each attacking from a different angle. Ian instinctively swung his staff to defend, only to discover that two of them were illusions—but the instant he realized this, the illusions solidified!
"Multiple Bindings! Thunderstorm Strike! Soul Shock!"

Ian gritted his teeth and waved his wand repeatedly.

Three high-level spells were unleashed simultaneously. Lightning exploded, chains entangled, and soul fluctuations impacted her core. The ghost bride's body was blasted into pieces, her head flew off, her limbs were severed, and black mist filled the entire clock tower.

However, just three seconds later, all the fragments floated in the air, as if pieced together by an invisible hand. Her body reformed, her wedding dress intact, her red veil fluttering gently, as if the destruction had never happened.

She remained standing, her crimson eyes fixed on Ian, her blood-red mouth slowly opening: "...Sacrifice...Irreversible..."

It still looks the same.

Ian realized once again that his judgment was indeed correct—her "wholeness" was constant. No matter if she was blown to pieces, petrified, frozen, or even had her soul stripped away, she would instantly "return to her place." Her existence seemed to be anchored by some higher-level rule, unaffected by physical or magical changes.

“She is not ‘restored’…” A thought flashed through Ian’s mind, “She is… never changed.”

Like Schrödinger's cat—before observation, she was both broken and whole. But her "observer" was not us, but the embryonic evil god. As long as the embryo was still developing, her "state" was constant as "whole," and any harm done to her would be "corrected" at the level of rules.

“So that’s it, she’s an extension of the embryo’s will. To kill her, we must first kill the source of ‘why she exists,’” Ian muttered to himself.

The ghost bride also seized the opportunity.

The ghost bride raised her hand again, and the blood-red threads lashed out like whips. Ian barely dodged, but a thread sliced ​​across his arm, drawing blood.

"Mr. Ian!" Cam suddenly lunged forward and shoved Ian, who had been on guard the whole time. A golden thread grazed the young man's cheek, leaving a deep, bone-revealing bloodstain.

The moment the blood dripped, the ghost bride suddenly went berserk.

She stopped singing and instead emitted a high-frequency howl that shattered the tiles of the surrounding buildings. Countless golden threads burst forth from her body, weaving a vast, inescapable net.

Karan raised his wand in a fierce struggle.

"Spear of Flames!"

He cast a very weak ancient spell.

The fiery spear shot out, but the Ghost Bride didn't even turn her head. With a backhand flick, the fiery spear was extinguished instantly. She turned around, her red eyes locking onto Karan, her blood-red mouth opening as if to pounce.

"Grab me!" Ian grabbed Cam's arm, his wand tracing a fiery white arc through the air. The Ghost Bride's golden threads rained down, but missed their mark just before touching them—

"Apparition!"

In the agonizing, distorted space, Ian's last sight was of the Ghost Bride angrily tearing open her chest, revealing the pulsating crystal core within. Engraved on that core were the very runes on the face of the woman in the black robe. When their vision cleared, the two were standing on the sand dunes outside Memphis.

The swirling black smoke above the city was clearly visible in the distance, and the figures of the seven ghost brides were moving through different blocks. Kam collapsed to the ground, golden liquid seeping from the wounds on his face.

"What...what is she?" the young man asked, his voice trembling.

“A manifestation of a belief.” Ian examined his wound, his brow furrowed. “As long as the embryo in the temple still ‘believes’ in her existence, no attack can truly destroy her.”

Cam's pupils began to dilate, and golden liquid was spreading from the wound throughout his body. Ian acted decisively, pressing his wand against the wound: "Purify!" The silver light and the golden liquid clashed fiercely, emitting a corrosive hiss.

"What should we do?" Kam asked weakly.

Ian gazed at the distant temple, a dangerous glint in his grey-green eyes: "Solve the source of the belief." He retrieved a knowledge crystal he'd collected in the library, which displayed a map of seven points of light. "First, find the other members of the Hermit Society, then—"

A sudden pang of heart palpitation interrupted him.

Ian turned his head sharply and saw a series of wet footprints that had appeared on the sand and were stretching towards them. There was nothing at the end of the footprints.

But a faint singing voice drifted through the air.

"The groom couldn't wait and came to fetch his bride in person."

The wet footprints on the sand suddenly accelerated, each step carving steaming pits into the dry sand. Ian's wand instantly emitted a blinding silver light, creating seven layers of protective barriers in front of him. Cam struggled to get up, but the golden lines spreading across his legs had already reached his knees.

"How could she have chased him out of the city?" Kam's voice trembled with fear.

“A spacetime anchor.” Ian’s pupils contracted to pinpoints, his wand tracing complex monitoring runes in the air. “That embryo planted a tracking mark on her, as long as she remains in this era.”

Before the words were even finished, the air in front of them suddenly twisted and spun, as if an invisible stone had shattered the surface of water. A pale hand reached out from the void, its nails as black as ink, the liquid dripping from its fingertips corroding the sand into honeycomb-like holes. Then came a second hand, both palms gripping the "cracks" in the air and violently tearing it apart to the sides—

The ghost bride's head emerged from the crack, and golden sand cascaded down her empty eye sockets like a waterfall. Her mouth was torn to the roots of her ears, revealing spiraled rows of sharp teeth.

Each tooth is engraved with a miniature sun totem.

"Found you."

Her voice suddenly became excited.

Ian's protective barrier shattered like glass. He grabbed Cam by the collar and retreated rapidly, his wand lashing out with a series of ancient runes. The golden runes formed chains in the air, but disintegrated before even touching the Ghost Bride—as if her very existence negated the legitimacy of the surrounding magic.

"That's the only way!"

no way.

Ian had no choice but to resort to his trump card.

(End of this chapter)