Hogwarts Raven

Chapter 380, page 379: The Second Stage of the Evil God

"You are nothing but a monster pieced together from countless broken souls!" Ian's words, like the sharpest sword, pierced through Set-Appepp's flawless divine disguise. At that moment, the entire frozen spacetime seemed like glass shattered by a heavy hammer, and for the first time, real cracks appeared on the evil god's golden, cast-like face.

"Shut up!" Seth-Appepp's voice suddenly split into countless tones, some sharp, some deep. "I am who I am! I am perfect! I am eternal! I am—"

“You are nothing,” Ian interrupted him coldly. “You are merely a monster pieced together from countless broken souls. I am all beings, and all beings are not me—this is the truth contained within the sun!”

This sentence seemed to trigger some kind of mechanism.

The evil god suddenly clutched his head and let out a howl that was not human. His body began to expand and twist erratically, sometimes turning into a multi-armed monster, and sometimes returning to a perfect human form.

The faces on the wings behind him all opened their eyes and made different sounds; some cried, some laughed wildly, and some chanted long-forgotten incantations.

These subtle changes confirmed Ian's suspicions—that this so-called "perfect being" was simply unable to control the myriad souls it devoured.

“You can’t even maintain your own form anymore, Seth-Appepp.” Ian continued to press, his wand subtly drawing a complex magic circle behind him. “Or should I call you ‘they’?”

Ian's ability to skillfully use language is one of his most outstanding abilities as a Hogwarts orator. Don't forget that he was able to debate with Slytherin and Voldemort.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

The evil god's roar was like a thousand thunderbolts exploding simultaneously. His body suddenly swelled and deformed, dozens of struggling human faces emerging from beneath his skin. Twelve wings of light flapped wildly, each strike unleashing a destructive energy storm. The massive stones of the pyramids were swept into the sky, and the waters of the Nile River flowed back into the city.

The entire city trembled in the wrath of the gods.

Ian was prepared, drawing a complete circle forward with his wand: "Magic Matrix Defense System - Activate!"

Seven layers of magical barriers of different colors unfolded before him, each layer inscribed with rotating ancient runes. This was a composite defense system he had spent three years developing—the outermost layer was a modified "armor protection," followed by "anti-magic barrier," "elemental deflection," "mental protection," "physical isolation," "magic reflection," and the innermost layer, "absolute domain."

It's far more powerful than the protective measures Ian used before.

after all.

It's not just evil gods that can grow stronger through battle.

Ian is the same.

The evil god's first wave of attacks arrived in an instant. The golden storm generated by the flapping of the light wings crashed into the first barrier, and spiderweb-like cracks immediately appeared on the blue protective shield, but the energy was successfully dispersed throughout the matrix system. The second wave of attacks followed immediately—hundreds of miniature suns shot out from the evil god's palm.

However, it exploded in front of the third barrier, and the hot plasma was "deflected" underground.

"It's no use! It's no use!" Seth-Appepp's voice was distorted, sometimes male and sometimes female. "I will tear you to pieces and nail your soul to the eternal sun to be roasted!"

The third wave of attacks was the most terrifying. The evil god opened its mouth and spat out a beam of pure white light. Wherever this light passed, space itself distorted and dissolved. It easily pierced through the first five layers of barriers, and was only barely deflected by the sixth layer, "magical reflection"—the refracted beam swept across the northwest corner of the city, and the entire urban area instantly vaporized, leaving only a lava crater glowing red.

Cold sweat beaded on Ian's forehead. His magic matrix could withstand conventional forbidden spells, but under the full force of the evil god's attack, the innermost "absolute domain" was already showing signs of instability.

We must switch from defense to offense!

Taking advantage of a lull in the evil god's attack, Ian suddenly withdrew his defenses, pointing his wand straight at the sky: "Elemental Torrent - Full Release!"

This was the ultimate elemental magic he had developed under Dumbledore's guidance of "The Way of Hell." In an instant, the four basic elements went berserk simultaneously—the Nile River surged into the sky, forming a giant waterspout; the earth cracked open, spewing forth pillars of lava and fire; and the evaporated water vapor condensed in the air into countless ice blades.

The scattered pyramid stones transformed into stone giants rising from the ground.

The waterspout struck the evil god first, engulfing it in the turbulent center. Immediately afterwards, a pillar of lava fire poured into the water, creating a violent explosion. Amidst billowing steam, thousands of ice blades rained down on the blast's epicenter, while the stone giant's massive fist slammed down from above. The entire city trembled visibly from this attack.

The shockwave swept across an area of ​​several miles, shattering all the remaining windows in the buildings. Ian had to raise the protective shield again and squint at the epicenter of the explosion—where a small mushroom cloud had formed.

The air was filled with the smell of burning ionized metal.

"Did it work?" Ian gasped, his magic power already more than half depleted.

He wasn't particularly happy.

He understood the age-old principle that smoke doesn't cause harm. Sure enough, the smoke was suddenly and forcibly dispelled by some force. Seth-Appepp remained suspended in place, but his form had completely changed—his golden skin was covered with flowing human faces, and three of his twelve wings of light were broken.

The rest are also incomplete. Most chillingly, his head now displays a terrifying sight of seven different faces constantly rotating.

"It hurts so much!"

Seven voices sobbed simultaneously, but the next second they burst into maniacal laughter.

"But that's not enough! Far from enough!"

"You've disturbed my mind! You deserve to die!" The evil god's voice could no longer be calm and composed. The "Eye of Ra" on his chest burst forth with an unprecedentedly intense light.

The light transformed into a thick golden pillar, shooting towards Ian.

“Lies don’t hurt, the truth is the sharpest knife.” Ian knew he had grasped the right direction, and his pressure eased. He immediately waved his wand in response to the other party’s furious attack.

"You can't understand! I am right!" the evil god roared under immense pressure, a crack appearing in his voice for the first time. "My equality is the ultimate salvation! No war, no hunger, no separation of life and death! All souls will attain eternal peace! Is this not the ultimate good?!"

He tried to calm himself down.

"Perfect good?"

"When you deprive them of the right to choose pain and pleasure, the freedom to love and be loved, and the possibility of creation and destruction, the 'peace' you give them is nothing but eternal death! True goodness is allowing imperfection to exist and respecting the possibility of every soul burning its own life! Your 'redemption' is the greatest blasphemy!" Ian's magic, poised to strike, was a response to the evil god's words.

"Starfall - Echoes Across Realms!"

now.

He was wielding the ultimate secrets of ancient British magic, transcending dimensions. Ian combined the essence of the Forbidden Library at Hogwarts with his clearer understanding of the world from the past to create astral magic—yes, he wanted to become Ian Prince, the astral mage in the Harry Potter world.

It's not just the name that's cool.

It's also very powerful.

As Ian cast his spell.

The ruins beneath his feet exploded with a deafening roar, countless ancient runes emerging from the depths of the earth, climbing upwards along his robes like living creatures. The sky, distorted by the crimson aura of the evil god and the light of the "Eye of Ra," was suddenly torn open by a massive, pitch-black rift! Beyond the rift lay not the void of space, but countless shimmering, bizarre, otherworldly scenes. There were reflections of castles floating in a sea of ​​clouds, polar regions burning with ice crystals, rivers flowing with liquid gold… Hogwarts' iconic spires and observatory appeared and disappeared in one of these scenes.

This is the echo of all realms.

It vaguely touches upon the magic of the Creator's sovereignty.

The evil god felt an unprecedented fear.

That converged magic was not merely an accumulation of power, but also contained the will of two worlds and countless beings—a yearning for freedom, a love of life, and an acceptance of imperfection. This power was precisely the ultimate antithesis of his ideal of "absolute equality," the "errors" that his perfect shell could not contain!
"No! This is impossible! Chaos! It must be cleared away!" The evil god let out a hysterical scream, and the seven golden wheels shattered instantly, turning into countless golden fragments. The light of the "Eye of Ra" on his chest surged to its limit, attempting to purify this torrent of "chaos" with absolute "light".

Ian remained unmoved.

Immediately afterward, a "star" a hundred meters in diameter, condensed from pure magic, crashed down from the crack! It was not a physical object, yet it carried world-destroying potential energy. Wherever it passed, space emitted a shrill whistling sound like shattering glass. The air was compressed into a ring-shaped shockwave in liquid form. The ground, like glass struck by a giant hammer, instantly shattered, splitting into huge, spiderweb-like cracks. Even the sand and gravel vaporized under the intense heat, forming a lava ravine leading to the sky!
"boom--!!!"

An indescribable roar swept across the heavens and the earth.

The golden beam of light collided violently with the magical star in mid-air, unleashing a light billions of times more dazzling than the sun. The shockwave swept outwards in a ring in all directions.

Wherever it passed, ancient temples, towering obelisks, and continuous city walls were instantly flattened and reduced to dust, like sandcastles. A layer of the distant desert was forcibly shaved away, revealing the deeply buried rock layers beneath. The massive sandstorm was pushed by the shockwave, forming crystalline walls thousands of meters high.

The scene looked extremely impressive.

"The power you are using does not belong to mortals."

The evil god hovered at the center of the shockwave, its body trembling violently. Two of the seven golden wheels developed fine cracks, and the "Eye of Ra" on its chest flickered with light.

They were clearly under tremendous pressure.

For the first time, he felt a real "threat".

of course.

This guy didn't live much to begin with, so it's only natural that he hasn't seen much of the world.

"What's the difference between you and me?"

For the first time, the evil god's voice carried a hint of solemnity, as if he had seen through the raven-like nature of Ian's [plundering] power. His gaze swept over Ian for a moment before transforming into a deeper greed, "Such pure magical essence is enough to allow me to advance further! All... are mine!"

He spread his arms.

The crimson "sun" merged with the light of the "Eye of Ra," forming a massive, swirling vortex of devouring energy. It was attempting to completely engulf the falling "star" and the rift connecting to the other world! Ian's face was pale, and more blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes burned with intensity.

Ian's wand pointed at the otherworldly rift that the evil god was trying to devour. The space at the edge of the rift began to twist and fold, like a piece of paper being kneaded by an invisible giant hand.

The falling "star" did not disappear. Instead, it accelerated in the distorted space, and its shape underwent a bizarre change. It was no longer a sphere, but transformed into a roaring magical dragon composed of countless runes and stardust. Its head was ferocious, and its eyes were like two supernovae. With the power to annihilate everything, it rushed straight at the evil god!
The evil god unleashed the full power of its devouring vortex, its golden light intertwining with a crimson halo to create a force field powerful enough to tear space itself apart. The magical dragon crashed into the force field, unleashing a deafening roar. The two were locked in a stalemate, the space around them twisting and shattering wildly, forming countless tiny black holes shimmering with destructive light.

It devours the surrounding matter and then vanishes in an instant.

but.

Because of a vulnerability in one's heart.

The evil god is still finding it difficult to display his invincible demeanor.

The instant the beam struck the evil god, there was no earth-shattering explosion, but rather an eerie silence. The evil god's flawless body, like a wax figure thrown into strong acid, rapidly developed countless spiderweb-like black cracks starting from the point of impact. The "Eye of Ra" on his chest emitted a piercing wail.

Then, the light dimmed rapidly, and countless phantoms of souls seemed to struggle and scream within it.

In the storm, countless tiny points of light break free—these are the swallowed sparks of an artist's inspiration, fragments of a philosopher's contemplation, the warrior's valiant spirit, and the lover's infatuation…

Like fireflies on a summer night, they flickered with a faint yet stubborn light, scattering in all directions. Some merged into the desert sands, while others seeped into the dried-up riverbeds.

"Why...my light...cannot..."

The evil god's voice was filled with incomprehensible confusion and fear. He looked down at his disintegrating body, his handsome, Apollo-like face contorted in pain. "Equality... harmony... could it be... wrong?"

“The idea itself is wrong,” Ian’s voice was weary yet firm, like a morning bell echoing in the silent space. “What’s wrong is the way you achieve it. Pursuing equality through devouring and annihilation is the greatest injustice. True harmony is born from the dance of differences, not from the grave of uniformity.”

Ian's words remain a sharp blade.

It seems there's a trend toward undermining the very existence of evil gods.

only.

"No, no, no, no! You're bewitching me! You're no different from me! You're also... an evil god!" This evil god seemed to be staring directly into the very essence of Ian's existence.

His gaze hardened once more.

The tattered wings of light suddenly expanded to their full extent, countless filaments of light shooting out from the wingtips and connecting with the kneeling crowd on the ground. Those connected immediately screamed in agony.

The body shrank at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Meanwhile, the evil god's injuries began to heal rapidly.

"Stop!" Ian roared, firing a cutting spell at the light filaments, but new light filaments kept emerging. In just a few seconds, hundreds of people were drained of their life force and turned into dried corpses, collapsing to the ground.

Even more terrifying, the evil god began to transform. New fleshy growths appeared on his back, which soon burst open and sprouted four new wings of light; twisted horns emerged from his head; and a serpentine tail extended from his waist. Now, Seth-Apep had completely transformed into a sixteen-winged monster, radiating a suffocating aura.

He seemed to be under Ian's verbal onslaught.

Begin to accept your true self.

They are trying to make up for their psychological flaws through "evolution".

He began to show his true colors.

That is, the second phase of the villain that Ian doesn't particularly like.

(End of this chapter)