Hogwarts Raven

Chapter 382, ​​Section 381: Ian's Test
The second phase of the evil god is indeed quite wicked.

Those chaotic tentacles, eyeballs, and mouthparts seemed to be organized and regulated by an invisible force. Although their forms remained ferocious and terrifying, they formed a non-human, geometric "harmony." It was no longer merely a chaotic collection, but had become a conscious, self-perfecting, and ultimate "existence."

This ancient evil god hovered in the center of the distorted heaven and earth, like a living, blasphemous cosmic singularity, radiating a pressure that could freeze one's soul.

"As expected, the bosses in the second phase are even harder to beat." Ian looked at the "perfected" ultimate evil god in front of him, feeling the oppressive feeling that almost crushed his soul.

he knows.

The opponent is no longer someone that a wizard can defeat; perhaps even the gods of ancient Egypt would find it difficult to defeat. Otherwise, why haven't the gods of ancient Egypt appeared yet?

Of course, understanding this and seeing through it is one thing, but whether or not one yields is another. Ian's hand remained firmly gripping the elder wand.

"Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"

The evil god, confident of his victory, spoke calmly to Ian. This wasn't just about toying with his prey; he also wanted to extract more magical knowledge from Ian.

That is power.

"My methods are so numerous that I could fight you until the end of the world and still not run out."

Ian Prince stood atop the ruins, his robes fluttering in the twisted energy emanating from the evil god. Facing Set-Appep, who had entered his terrifying second form, the legendary wizard knew he had to use all his power. He raised his wand high, ancient runes gleaming in the air.

Destructive spells erupted simultaneously.

As Ian Prince pointed his wand at the earth, countless cracks instantly appeared in the ground, and scorching lava gushed out like an enraged beast.

This was no ordinary volcanic magic, but an advanced version he had modified from the elemental power deep underground—arcane runes shimmered within the lava, and every splash of magma possessed an auto-tracking magical property. Dozens of lava pillars rose from the ground, attacking the evil god from all directions, staining the sky blood red.

However, Seth Appepp only let out a harsh sneer.

"Heh, looks like you've run out of tricks." His body, which had turned into a viscous, liquid gold, suddenly hardened, forming prism-like shields. The lava impacted the shields, but instead of causing damage, it was refracted, absorbed, and transformed into the evil god's own energy.

"It's too warm, Ian Prince, not hot enough."

The cacophony of a thousand voices rose once more. Undeterred, Ian Prince had already prepared the second incantation.

The wand traced intricate frost runes, instantly freezing the moisture in the air. This was no ordinary freezing spell, but a unique creation by Ian Prince, combining absolute zero theory with magical imprisonment—the temperature plummeted to a point where even time seemed to freeze. The air around the evil god transformed into a transparent crystalline cage.

Countless ice crystals spun and cut like blades.

This is the dual nature of ice and fire that Ian created by combining scientific research.

It should have worked very well.

However, the evil god insisted on demonstrating that matters of the magical world were not within the purview of science. The evil god's movements did indeed slow for a moment, his body covered in a thick layer of frost. But the next second, the writhing faces on his body simultaneously opened their mouths, emitting silent screams. The ice crystal cage shattered, and the extreme cold energy was greedily devoured by those mouths.

"A cool sensation, but not enough to cool my passion." The evil god's voice carried a mocking pleasure. Cold sweat beaded on Ian's forehead, but he did not stop casting the spell.

Another spell is cast.

A dark light emanated from the tip of the wand; this was no ordinary spatial magic, but a dangerous spell created by Ian after studying the nature of the void. The space around the evil god suddenly collapsed, forming countless miniature black holes. These black holes intertwined, forming a destructive network that tore light apart in their wake.

For the first time, a hint of interest appeared in Seth Appepp's compound eyes.

"Ah, this is interesting."

His tentacles suddenly split into countless fine filaments, each precisely inserting into a miniature black hole. Creepy, those black holes began to turn golden.

Instead, it became the source of power for the evil god.

“Space itself is also submitting to me, don’t you understand, Prince?” Thousands of voices declared triumphantly, this time addressing Ian by his surname instead of his full name.

Ian remained silent.

It's just about unleashing magic.

His next move came suddenly. Ian slammed his wand into the ground, unleashing a gravitational field centered on himself. The gravitational field then increased a hundredfold per second, crushing the surrounding pyramid ruins into powder and causing the ground to cave in into a giant bowl shape.

This was still not a simple gravity spell, but a composite magic he created by combining the laws of celestial motion. Under a hundred times the gravity, the evil god's body was indeed deformed, and the writhing faces twisted into grotesque shapes. But just three seconds later, the evil god Set-Appepp began to adapt once again.

The divine authority he represented was also a kind of chronic skin disease. His bones emitted eerie cracking sounds as they readjusted their structure to support his body. Under Ian's increasingly solemn gaze, the evil god slowly straightened his body in the gravitational field powerful enough to crush steel, and even gracefully stretched his limbs, which had become like a support frame.

"Useless! Useless! Embrace nothingness, Prince! All your efforts will ultimately become a part of me!" Countless voices mocked from all directions, as if every cell of the evil god was scoffing. Just as Ian Prince was briefly exhausted from continuously casting super-level magic...

A tentacle hidden in the shadows suddenly sprang into action. The tentacle was covered with eyes that opened and closed constantly, and its tip sharpened into a needle-like point. It coiled around Ian's ankle at a speed beyond the reach of sight.

"Damn it!"

Ian's magical shield activated automatically, seven-colored light swirling around his body. But the eyes on the tentacles blinked simultaneously, emitting waves that could break magic—this was the anti-spell ability the evil god had gained after absorbing countless wizards. The shield shattered like glass, and the tentacles made direct contact with Ian Prince's skin.

"what!!!"

Ian Prince let out a bloodcurdling scream. It wasn't ordinary physical damage; it was a conceptual corrosion—his left leg was instantly carbonized from ankle to knee, every cell dying in an instant, before the pain could even fully register. Even more terrifying, the carbonization was spreading upwards.

It harbors some evil will and wants to devour the entire body.

“I won’t die in a place like this.” In this life-or-death situation, the legendary wizard displayed astonishing decisiveness. Ian Prince unhesitatingly pointed his staff at his groin.

A sharp light flashed, and his entire left leg was severed at the root, blood gushing out like a waterfall. He staggered backward, his face ashen from the excruciating pain and blood loss, but he still managed to cast a hemostatic spell in time.

"The ultimate cure!"

A white light enveloped the wound, the bleeding from the severed limb stopped, and the muscle tissue rapidly healed, forming a smooth wound. But the lost limb could not regenerate immediately—the malevolent, corrosive energy prevented any form of regenerative magic.

"Hmm, this is new knowledge. Perhaps I should call you teacher."

At this moment, all the evil god's avatars merged back into one and slowly walked towards the heavily wounded wizard. Each step he took left corrosive footprints on the ground.

The air was filled with a sweet, rotten smell.

"do you know?"

Seth-Appepp's voice suddenly became unusually calm, a calmness more terrifying than his previous madness. "I originally loathed my current form. As a newly born god, I yearned for perfection, for symmetry, for beauty that lower beings could understand—the kind of beauty you wanted to instill in me."

He displayed his constantly writhing body, the protruding faces, the ever-changing limbs. "But you made me understand, Prince, this is true perfection—embracing all possibilities, adapting to all environments. Ugliness and beauty, symmetry and distortion, these inferior binary oppositions have no meaning for me."

"You are nothing but inferior beings, what right do you have to define beauty and ugliness?" The evil god's logic was flawed; Ian Prince slumped against a broken stone pillar, breathing heavily. His magic was nearly exhausted, his body was severely injured, and he had used all his trump cards. It seemed that even Hogwarts' most legendary wizard felt an unprecedented powerlessness in the face of such an incomprehensible being. Of course, this might only appear to be the case.

The evil god did not notice anything unusual.

"Thank you, Ian Prince."

The evil god's compound eyes gleamed with an eerie light, and the blinking frequency of those eyes suddenly became synchronized, as if playing some ancient rhythm.

"Now, I have perfected all the flaws. I no longer resist any form, no longer deny any possibility—I am everything, and everything will eventually be me."

"I will become the only god in the world, infinitely close to the creator who may never have existed." All the knowledge of this evil god comes from the wizards.

Therefore.

Like most wizards, this evil god clearly didn't believe in the existence of a creator. He extended an arm that had transformed into a petal and gently stroked Ian Prince's cheek. The touch was both icy and burning, carrying a kind of blasphemous energy. The spot touched by this evil god immediately began to crystallize.

Ian's skin turned into a transparent, crystalline structure, and the infection spread rapidly.

"As a thank you, I will be the last to devour you." Thousands of voices whispered gently, a gentleness more chilling than any threat, "to let you witness the birth of a new world. You will see how your kin joyfully integrate into the whole, how they transcend individual limitations and become an eternal part."

Finally, I believe you will be happy to join me.

The evil god was extremely confident.

Ian Prince tried to resist, but the crystallization had spread to his neck, making it impossible for him to even speak.

He could only watch helplessly as the evil god turned to face the kneeling crowd and unfurled its terrifying, sky-covering body.

"Awaken, my people." The voice of the evil god was filled with a twisted kind of love, a love that was nauseating. "Open your blinded eyes and see your true destiny. Embrace eternal unity and be free from the pain and loneliness of the individual."

The crowd looked up in bewilderment, and when they saw the true form of the evil god, their reactions varied—half of them went completely mad, their eyes bursting out and oozing colorful liquid, emitting screams that were not human; the other half began to mutate, their bodies growing extra limbs, their skin peeling off to reveal constantly writhing flesh, but they wore eerie, blissful smiles on their faces.

The pseudo-solar pulses in the sky intensified, and a thick rain of light began to drip onto the ground.

Every drop of rain corrodes reality, transforming matter into a nightmarish creation with a non-Euclidean structure. Stone becomes soft flesh, rivers solidify into crystals, air alternates between solid and liquid—the laws of physics are being completely rewritten. Crystallization has covered his entire body.

Ian Prince had become a completely transparent statue, with only his eyes retaining a final look of astonishment as he stared at the reality that was being utterly distorted.

The evil god spread his wings, which blotted out the sky, and began to chant a blasphemous creation hymn, each note reshaping the fundamental rules of the world. And those people who were not yet completely corrupted were merging into his ever-expanding body one by one, becoming new members among the myriad faces.

A new era is dawning, in the most terrifying way.

however.

Even in the apocalyptic moment when heaven and earth collapsed, the gods of ancient Egypt remained silent. The distorted, false sun in the sky cast a morbid light, staining this once glorious land with a color of despair.

The pyramids hummed in the distance, the last vestiges of divine power within the ancient shrines, their mournful cries echoing, yet no god answered their final prayers. The priestess Karina knelt on the crumbling temple steps, her black robes riddled with holes by the rain of light cast by the evil god.

As she looked up at the completely crystallized statue, the last glimmer of light in her amber eyes finally faded. Ian Prince—the legendary wizard from a foreign land, the one she had placed her last hope in—was now nothing more than a transparent monument, retaining only her final astonishment and resentment.

"So... there really is no savior?" Karina's murmur was almost swallowed by the wind, but the priests behind her heard it. These words were like a final death knell, shattering the last pillar of support in everyone's hearts. Several young priests began to sob softly, but there was an eerie calm above all else.

They were so tired that even despair seemed superfluous. Karina slowly stood up, drew a ceremonial dagger from her waist, the Eye of Horus engraved on the blade seeming to weep silently.

“Prepare for the ritual to reach the other side.” Her voice was eerily calm. “We cannot be devoured by that monster. We would rather choose eternal rest than become a part of it.”

The priests nodded silently and began setting up the final magic circle around her. The incense burner was relit, releasing the bitter scent of myrrh and frankincense. They chanted eulogies to open the underworld, their voices trembling yet resolute in the distorted air. Each of them drew their ritual dagger.

The sharp tip of the knife was aimed at the heart.

“At least you tried, foreign wizard. May Osiris guide your soul.” Karina glanced one last time at the crystal statue of Ian Prince, a poignant smile tugging at her lips. She raised her dagger high, its tip gleaming coldly in the pseudo-sunlight. The other priests did the same.

The whole scene was tragic and desperate. Just as the knife was about to pierce through—in the shadows not far away, a raven silently folded its wings.

Its eyes were unusually bright, gleaming with an intelligence far beyond what one would expect from a bird. As it tilted its head to observe the priests' collective suicide ritual, a hint of helplessness even flickered in its eyes.

Yes.

He is Ian.

How could someone as cunning as Ian Prince possibly use his true form to fight an evil god whose background is completely unknown? From the day he started attending Hogwarts, he was known throughout the school for his love of using clones. This might not be a novel technique at Hogwarts, but it was something no one in ancient times could discover.

Surprisingly, the wizards here are more skilled in sacrificial rituals and elemental magic.

Rather than this branch of transfiguration that requires extremely high skill.

(End of this chapter)