Hogwarts Raven

Chapter 444, Section 443: In the Mysterious Darkness

Ian is the kind of person who never shortchanges himself, so he had already planned how to make it up to himself when he got back.

This is perhaps the true meaning of an invincible mind.

No matter what situation I face, I absolutely do not believe that I could be defeated here. I always believe that I will eventually find a way to overcome the difficulties and return to my own era.

So-called self-confidence.

It's about believing you'll always be the one to survive. Ian had that kind of faith, and of course, he also found it difficult to deal with this undead, twisted monster that grew stronger with each battle.

"Try more." Ian knew that conventional methods were no longer effective, and he had to use more of his secret techniques and ingenious ideas to try to find more loopholes.

This process is actually also a process of waiting to verify his guess.

"Time-space shackles!"

Ian's wand traced intricate silver runes, attempting to slow the flow of time in the area where the monster was located to a minimum, or even bring it to a standstill.

However, the moment the runes took effect, the dark purple light in that area fluctuated violently, as if a higher-level spacetime rule was forcibly intervening and affecting Ian's power. The silver runes melted away rapidly, like snow exposed to the scorching sun, and the time domain shattered before it could fully unfold.

"Roar! Join us! Join us! Join eternity!" The monster even took this opportunity to send a tentacle through the still unstable ripples of spacetime.

It almost drew Ian.

However, it was only a close call.

Ian remained calm and composed, leaving himself plenty of room for error. Those who know Ian's habits understand that in battle, his primary concern is always how to avoid damage.

"Mirror Legion!"

Ian's figure flickered, instantly creating dozens of mirror images that perfectly matched his main body's magical energy fluctuations and aura, launching feint attacks on the monster from different directions.

He wanted to try this method to see if he could break through the limitations of the power borrowed by the other party.

Because there are many targets.

The mindless monster's countless crazed eyes seemed to momentarily lose focus, but then it emitted a high-frequency vibration. Invisible ripples swept across, and the magical images burst and dissipated like soap bubbles, unable to deceive its perception based on the nature of pollution.

"Life forms are distorted!"

Ian risked unleashing a high-level shapeshifting spell that touched upon the very essence of life, targeting the monster's core life code. The magic beam struck the monster, and its massive, fleshy body indeed underwent violent, unstable expansion and contraction, as if it were about to split or transform into other forms.

Even a pure-blooded dragon cannot withstand Ian's current magic.

The monster was initially unable to resist, but just two seconds later, a more powerful, foul force originating from the entire space forcibly suppressed the distortion. The monster not only returned to its original state, but its body also evolved a layer of keratin that shimmered with an oily sheen and was highly resistant to shapeshifting magic.

"Law: Regeneration is forbidden here!" Ian attempted to simulate the rules with his own magic, issuing a law imbued with a powerful will. A light, imbued with the power of his words, enveloped the monster, and its regeneration visibly slowed for a moment. But then, the distorted patterns on the walls of the chaotic space seemed to come alive.

They emitted a stronger dark purple light.

A tyrannical force of rules, imbued with the meaning of "proliferation" and "mutation," directly overwhelmed Ian's temporary decree, and the monster's regeneration speed even rebounded faster than before!

In this regard.

Ian was completely unconcerned, which was not unexpected.

"Then let's try Soul Echo Piercing again."

Ian focused his mental energy, transforming it into an invisible attack—a spike specifically designed to strike at the soul connection point, attempting to find and sever the monster's mental link with this space.

The spikes successfully pierced the monster's chaotic sea of ​​consciousness.

But what returned was a torrent of billions of frantic soul fragments roaring together, almost overwhelming Ian's mental backlash. He groaned and, pale-faced, severed the connection.

"Damn it! Whenever an attack involves the soul level, the force this guy reflects back is absolutely vicious." Ian's injuries were fully healed in an instant.

Through today's battles, he felt he had maxed out all the magic skills he needed for a healer, and had truly put a lot of new things into practice.

"I can't use mental attacks anymore, it's almost turning into a mental attack targeting me, so—Elemental Disintegration Sequence!" Ian clenched his hands, guiding the four basic elements of earth, water, fire, and wind to form a reverse vortex within the monster's body, attempting to disintegrate it from the most basic structural level of matter.

A muffled explosion emanated from within the monster's massive body, and in some areas, elemental chaos and even annihilation did occur. However, those annihilated parts were quickly filled by a more primordial, non-elemental dark substance, as if the monster had long transcended the realm of conventional matter.

"The threads of fate are being stripped away!"

Ian used a forbidden spell of extreme danger, involving cause and effect and destiny, in an attempt to find and sever the "thread of fate" that sustains the monster's existence.

In his perception, countless tangled, chaotic, and ominous dark red threads did indeed appear before him.

This is the power that manipulates the fate of life.

Even the gods were not spared.

But when he tried to touch it.

Those threads seemed to be woven together with the "fate" of the entire space, incredibly strong. With the slightest force, they instead attracted the subtle repulsion and backlash of the rules of the entire space.

Fearing that he might cause more trouble, Ian had no choice but to stop.

"The mysterious entity this guy is associated with, does it possess a destiny so powerful that even I can't shake it?" Ian also used this situation to glean some new information.

he mused.

However, the attacks did not stop.

"Summon Ancient Heroic Spirits!" Ian chanted an ancient pact, attempting to summon ancient heroic spirits with the power to restrain evil to aid him in battle. The space rippled slightly, and several blurry figures radiating holy light had just appeared, not yet fully solidified, when the foul aura of this chaotic space swarmed in like sharks smelling blood.

They frantically eroded the bodies of the heroic spirits.

The radiance quickly dimmed, and the heroic spirits let out silent cries of despair, instantly forced back into nothingness—this was magic that Ian had concocted after visiting the River Styx and meeting Anubis.

Its core design borrowed some elements from the Guardian Deity Spell, so it should have been able to become the nemesis of all evil. Unexpectedly, it died before it even got off the ground.

The magic was not fully unleashed when it was first revealed to the human world.

how to say.

It's not Ian's fault.

The main problem is that the opponent is indeed too sinister. "Dream Cage!" This is to investigate whether the monster still has consciousness, and whether it can still be called a life in the conventional sense, since every life should have dreams.

Ian wove his powerful mental energy into a dream world, attempting to pull the monster's consciousness into it and trap it. The monster's movements did indeed stiffen for a moment, a flicker of confusion crossing its crimson eyes. But the next second, its consciousness, purely composed of madness, violently shattered the dream's prison, instead sending back an even more chaotic and nauseating fragment of nightmare through the mental connection to Ian.

"It's so disgusting."

Time and again, Ian changed his tactics, from the most orthodox white magic to the most bizarre black magic, from elements to time and space, from souls to fate, from summoning to illusions...

He practically turned his vast magical knowledge base upside down.

Each attempt showcased astonishing magical wisdom and creativity; in the outside world, any one of them would be a textbook example of a classic battle.

However, in this bizarre and chaotic space, all efforts were in vain in the face of this rule-level monster. The monster was like a constantly evolving "magic tester," able to withstand any form of attack and then respond with a more twisted form, stronger resistance, and faster regeneration.

It itself seems to have become a concrete manifestation of the "chaos," "proliferation," and "immortality" rules of this space.

"It's completely immune to all magic, this damn thing."

The continuous high-intensity spellcasting and mental struggle caused Ian's mana reserves to decrease at an alarming rate, and his mental strength also felt unprecedentedly exhausted. The whisper of "join us" was like a leech, and even though he blocked it with his strong willpower, the constant impact still made him uneasy.

Just when it seemed like he was at his wit's end, with his magic and spirit almost depleted, Ian's tired and slightly unfocused gaze, after narrowly avoiding the monster's acidic spray with spatial corrosive properties, inadvertently swept over the absolute darkness behind the monster that had remained untouched.

Yes, in this brief standoff, Ian keenly noticed a detail that had been overlooked in the fierce battle; he seemed to have discovered something strange about the monster.

"I see!"

He suddenly jolted awake, and the detail about the monster's range of activity that he had vaguely sensed before suddenly became crystal clear, like a lightning bolt flashing in the darkness!
As the monster pursued and attacked, its massive body and countless waving tentacles seemed to have an invisible boundary in their range of movement. It was frenzied and savage, but all its attacks instinctively avoided the deepest, most concentrated area of ​​this chaotic space.

That area of ​​absolute darkness seemed impenetrable even to the faint purple light.

Ian recalled that when he first entered, the monster "pounced" out of that dark area. And in the ensuing battle, no matter how frantically it attacked, its true form never retreated back into that darkness, even when some of Ian's area-of-effect spells reached the edge of that area.

This monster exhibits an instinctive reaction—an avoidance posture mixed with fear and rage—preferring to withstand the damage from Ian's magic rather than allow its tentacles or secreted slime to taint the edge of that darkness. This is clearly not a normal situation.

"It dares not go near there?" A thought flashed through Ian's mind like lightning.

To verify this hypothesis.

In the ensuing battle, Ian began to consciously steer the fight towards that area of ​​absolute darkness. He deliberately created several openings and fought while retreating.

really!

When he retreated to within fifty meters of the dark area, the monster's attacks, though still fierce, had clearly become somewhat... agitated?
Its tentacles no longer covered all the space as recklessly as before, but instead attacked Ian's body more intently, as if trying its best to prevent him from retreating further.

When Ian attempted to engulf the monster with a wide-range "dimensional cut," the monster even let out a roar that was different from one of pain.

With a sharp, warning screech, the massive body recoiled slightly! Even when facing Ian's attack, the monster refused to push itself into the darkness.

this moment.

Ian confirmed it!
This absolutely dark area beside them is a taboo for this immortal monster! It's a place it dares not, or rather, cannot set foot in!
"Its creator is hidden inside, so it dares not offend it?"

Various speculations surfaced in Ian's mind, and his heart began to pound. In this desperate situation, he finally saw a glimmer of something unusual!

Whether that darkness conceals a greater danger or some kind of "loophole" in the rules of this bizarre space, it's better than him staying here and wasting his time fighting this endlessly resurrecting monster!
"Perhaps that mysterious being is very weak right now, otherwise, it wouldn't have sent this monster to assimilate me. If it could do that so easily, it should have been able to kill me."

“There’s absolutely no need to use such a servant to fight—besides, judging from his eagerness to have this monster assimilate me, assimilating high-quality human life might be helpful for his recovery or healing?”

Thinking of this.

What is there to hesitate about?

Ian has never been an indecisive person.

He hesitated no more.

After blocking a combined attack from several of the monster's tentacles, Ian used the force to glide backward while suddenly changing direction, pouring the remaining magic power into the flight cloak behind him!

"Whoosh-!"

The Starlight Cloak burst forth with unprecedented light, carrying Ian into a shooting star, ignoring the monster's frenzied roars and the increasingly dense tentacles blocking their path.

He charged headlong into the absolute darkness that swallowed all light!

"Roar!! No—!! Come back!! Join us!!!"

The monster's roar reached its peak, filled with indescribable panic and rage. It was quite unexpected that it uttered words it had never used before.

Perhaps this situation also illustrates that no matter what kind of life it is, it will definitely unleash some potential when pushed to the limit.

"return!"

To stop Ian, the monster fought with all its might. Countless tentacles stretched out frantically, trying to grab Ian, even colliding with the several delayed magical traps Ian had hastily set up, exploding into a bloody mess. But no matter how fast it regenerated, it couldn't outrun Ian's resolute charge!

Just as the most sticky tentacle was about to wrap around Ian's ankle, his figure had already completely disappeared into the area where even the light from the illuminating spell at the tip of the wand was instantly swallowed up.

It was in absolute, deathly darkness.

No matter how eager they were, they dared not enter the monster's tentacles.

It roared.

But nothing can be done.

Ian had already made his escape. It was as if he had passed through a layer of icy water, or leaped into nothingness. The monster's deafening roar, the sound of its tentacles slicing through the air, and the endless whispers of "Join us" behind him all vanished in an instant.

It wasn't that the sound became quieter; it was complete, absolute silence.

Just as if.

this area.

It's not just that light cannot reach the surface.

Everything else... is being rejected by it.

(End of this chapter)