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The world regained its color.
But it didn't transport Ian away from the scene.
Raven had indeed completed the forging!
Or rather, a unique form of bio-alchemy! Unlike traditional bio-alchemy, which creates life, Raven had merely crafted a vessel!
Yes! A vessel!
The body forged from the Twilight Zone contained no soul. It wasn't a natural product of the Twilight Zone either as it radiated vigorous vitality utterly alien to that realm.
Clearly, it was the body of an infant.
"This..."
Ian stood in the distance, watching the scene unfold with an indescribable emotion rising within him.
He didn't know who the infant was.
But he knew that it was an alchemical artifact forged into existence.
It was a special being, born from the Creator's heart, the Titan's body, the Furnace of Fate, and countless other materials Ian couldn't identify.
It was a brand-new life that belonged neither to the past nor the present. Perhaps it couldn't even be called human but rather a completely new species that merely resembled a human infant.
When Raven plucked the infant from the sea of flames, its feathers trembled slightly, as if bearing an unspeakable weight. It lowered its head to gaze at the child cradled in its wings, a complex emotion flickering in its eyes, neither joy nor pity, but a nearly reverent anticipation.
It was anticipation and expectation.
It gently spread its wings, wrapping the infant within, and slowly flew toward the sky. The volcano continued to boil, and the world remained black and white, yet something deeper had quietly changed.
The raven's excited words were clearly loaded with meaning.
"Yes! Yes! Lord Bird has done it! Lord Bird is becoming human again!" Raven's voice boomed through the air, brimming with pride, wild joy, and even a hint of... long-lost humanity.
Countless thoughts flooded Ian's mind: Had Raven grown weary of being a raven? Was it trying to escape the Death God's shackles? Or had it foreseen some grander future? Did it need a vessel capable of truly walking the mortal world?
Perhaps it was none of those.
Perhaps it simply wanted to be a human again?
"So, this is the human body Raven created for himself?" Ian stood frozen, his pupils trembling as he watched the pitch-black raven spread its wings and soar into the sky.
Perched securely on the bird's back was a crystal-clear infant.
His brain crashed instantly, and his face filled with utter disbelief.
The Raven had gone to such lengths—forging magma, infusing it with the heart of the Creator and the organs of Titans, even defying the Death God... all to create a baby body for himself?!
Did this bird want to be human again?
Ian had assumed Raven was forging some divine artifact or delving into deeper realms of existence, only to discover it was merely crafting a new body for itself.
Raven was already a supreme being in the Twilight Zone, a master of fate, an entity beyond mortal comprehension. Yet now, it seemed determined to return to the human world, to reclaim its humanity under a new identity.
No matter how he looked at it, this obsession seemed utterly absurd.
"This is just ridiculous," Ian muttered, his lips twitching. He couldn't decide whether to mock Raven's outlandish plan or marvel at its sheer audacity and the fact that it had succeeded.
His mind was a mess of thoughts.
If he were the reincarnation of Raven, did that mean the infant Raven had just forged was himself? The thought made the corner of Ian's mouth twitch even more.
To be honest, no normal person would willingly accept such a situation. No one wants to believe they weren't born of human parents but rather were manufactured as a "monster" within a volcano.
Watching your own birth...
Just thinking about it was enough to make anyone deeply uncomfortable.
"It's an illusion, a hallucination. I'm clearly a descendant of Prince House, and my bloodline has been verified," Ian mentally reasoned, trying to calm himself.
Indeed, no one had ever doubted his lineage. Professor Snape, his kind uncle, had even conducted multiple bloodline examinations. If there were any irregularities, Snape would have discovered them long ago... or at least informed Professor Albus Dumbledore.
This seemed like the most logical explanation. It was absurd to imagine Raven adding Prince House bones or something to the infant during the forging process.
That made no sense.
Moreover,
Even so, the child had never truly been born, making it unlikely he would be recognized as a descendant of Prince House. Unless Raven had somehow tampered with the memories of all the wizards?
"Hiss."
Ian suddenly realized that this wasn't entirely impossible. Based on what he knew of Raven from Merlin and others, Raven's actions defied conventional logic.
Just like himself.
As Ian's thoughts grew increasingly complex, a deafening roar erupted....
"Boom...!"
A scythe, black as the deepest night, tore through the air.
It cleaved through the interwoven black-and-white world, heading straight for the raven. Wherever the scythe passed, the air shattered, space twisted, and a terrifying aura of death surged forth like a tsunami.
It was as if the entire world were making way for that single strike.
It was the Death God!
He had finally returned.
This strike was aimed directly at the infant on Raven's back!
The Death God would not allow Raven to succeed!
"Gah?!" The raven whipped its head around, its crimson pupils shrinking as its wings snapped shut. Its body shifted sideways like a flash of lightning.
"Whoosh..."
The scythe's blade grazed the infant's nose, the gale-force wind tearing a jagged gash through the surrounding black-and-white world.
"You son of a bitch! A sneak attack, huh?!" Raven cursed vehemently, its beak snapping open to unleash a torrent of foul-mouthed avian obscenities.
The Death God did not respond.
He slowly stepped out of the crack, his figure appearing at the edge of the sky. His outline was blurred yet radiated overwhelming pressure. A tattered cloak shrouded his massive form, and his crimson eyes were firmly locked on the infant.
He did not speak and he did not make any unnecessary movements.
He merely swung his scythe.
That was his will.
That was his judgment.
"Kā-chā..."
The instant the scythe descended, a piercing tearing sound ripped through the air. The laws of death coalesced along the blade's edge, promising to sever all life with this strike.
However...
The Raven moved faster than the Death God. With a violent flap of its wings, it dodged at the last possible moment, the scythe grazing its wing and sending a shower of black feathers fluttering to the ground.
So close... so incredibly close!
But the raven had dodged it in the end.
"Ha!" The raven laughed loudly, thick with mockery. "Old bastard, you're scared, aren't you? Afraid I'll really come back to life? That's how old geezers are... terrified of being replaced."
The Death God gave no reply. He only raised his scythe once more, his gaze as cold as the abyss.
"Rip...!"
Countless Dementors surged in from all directions, their rotting cloaks flooding toward the Death God like a tide. They had no reason, no fear... only absolute obedience to the raven.
But who was the Death God?
He was the embodiment of all endings and the ruler of every soul's final destination.
Dementors were powerful, but they were nothing more than shadows of the Twilight Zone, a servant race stolen from him. With a single sweep of the scythe, hundreds of Dementors were reduced to nothingness in its light.
The Death God continued to sweep his scythe, unleashing a wave of death that shattered the front ranks of Dementors into wisps of black mist, which dissipated into the air.
The Dementors, who struck terror into the hearts of wizards, seemed utterly defenseless here.
No matter how many there were, they were nothing more than ants.
Yet, even more Dementors surged forward relentlessly, like a black tide, enveloping the Death God in layer upon layer, swarming around Him like an ever-tightening net…
They trapped the Death God within their ranks.
Their figures transformed into swirling black vortexes, circling the Death God berserkly. Bony claws tore at His cloak, and hollow bellies devoured the aura of death.
Some even detonated themselves, using their decaying bodies to impede the Death God's advance.
It was clear:
The Dementors feared no death.
They sought to overwhelm this supreme being with sheer numbers.
"Get out of the way." The Death God
Death God roared, completely submerged. His massive form struggled to move even an inch under the Dementors' relentless assault. Though these creatures of the underworld couldn't inflict any real harm, their sheer numbers, dense and suffocating, left Him virtually immobile. They couldn't truly harm the Death God, but they could delay His movements.
And every second of delay was time the raven bought for itself.
"Gahahaha! Is that all you've got? Is that all you've got?!"
The raven flapped its wings smugly as it carried the infant into the distance, mocking Him aloud the whole time.
"Death God, you're really slacking on the job!"
"Lord Bird will teach you a trick or two someday!"
As it spoke... The raven looked once more toward Ian.
"See that? Control fate, control everything. It's all within my plans. I'm like the author of this script... this is the shameless part of destiny."
It wasn't asking Ian for help.
It felt more like pure bragging.
Ian stood frozen in the distance, witnessing the scene unfold, feeling utterly speechless.
He stared numbly at the scene.
Suddenly, he felt as though his worldview had been shattered and reconstructed countless times in the span of a single day.
'Had the raven really used the Creator's heart and Titan organs to forge an infant body for itself?'
'And then it ran off right in front of the Death God.'
'What even was this?'
'The strongest reincarnation technique in the magical world?'
As his thoughts spiraled into chaos, the raven had already become a black speck on the horizon. Only its arrogant voice echoed through the sky.
"Lord Bird's out of here! Death God, have fun playing catch-up!"
A furious roar erupted from the Dementor horde, but it was quickly swallowed by the swarm. Ian stood motionless for a long moment before finally muttering, "That damn bird is a fucking genius."
He had finally understood something.
The Death God didn't just want to destroy the volcano or prevent Raven's forging.
It feared Raven's true rebirth as a human.
Because once Raven possessed a new body, it would become a genuine "variable." To the Death God, this meant losing control, and it meant... the collapse of a certain order.
The Death God's authority was about to crumble.
Of course, it wouldn't allow such a thing to happen. Though perhaps there was more to it than that; this was all Ian could discern.
"Or maybe after Raven's reincarnation, it would gain infinite potential? A higher future?" Ian could only speculate as he watched Raven soar higher and higher.
Raven's wings sliced through the sky, disappearing into the lead-gray clouds.
The Death God stood amid the ruins as his black robes billowed behind him.
Eerie green flames burned within his hollow eye sockets.
His roar became a tangible shockwave. Black ripples spread like a tide, and Dementors exploded one after another wherever they passed, turning into black ash that scattered across the sky.
Yet...
Before the ash could settle, new forms coalesced from the void.
The shattered Dementors were somehow able to "return from death." No wonder Raven showed no concern for his minions' demise. From beneath the Dementors' hollow hoods came even more piercing shrieks.
"This authority belongs to me," The Death God's voice rasped like rusted blades grinding against each other.
"What utter blasphemy."
Suddenly, he opened its skeletal hand and vomited forth countless rusty chains. The chains writhed like living serpents, coiling out from its mouth in a writhing mass.
They wove through the air into a vast, inescapable net.
Entangling tens of thousands of Dementors.
Each chain was etched with ancient death runes, and every tightening emitted a teeth-grinding metallic screech. Within moments, the sky was filled with a densely packed "rice cake" of bound Dementors.
Neither dead nor alive, the Dementors hung suspended in mid-air, struggling weakly.
The Death God retracted his chains, his black robes billowing as he prepared to descend to the crashed plane below.
"Hold." The raven's voice echoed from the clouds. He materialized once more, his pitch-black wings obscuring half the sky. Yet the infant he had carried earlier was now gone.
The Death God slowly turned, confronting Raven across the void.
"For my plan," Raven's eyes shimmered with starlight, "you must fall into slumber."
The air froze for an instant.
The next moment...
"BOOM!!!"
Two divine powers collided violently!
Two divine forces collided with earth-shattering force! The Death God swung his scythe, unleashing a black arc that cleaved across the heavens. Space shattered in its wake, revealing the primordial chaos beyond.
"Daring to flaunt such crude skill before a master?" Raven roared, his wings summoning a silver-gray tempest. Each feather transformed into a razor-sharp blade, clashing fiercely against the arc of death.
Sparks rained down like fire.
The earth groaned in agony.
The sky tore asunder.
Their battle transcended magic.
Each clash rewrote the very rules of reality.
Faced with the Death God's overwhelming torrent of death energy, Raven immediately spread his wings, summoning countless temporal-spatial rifts to divert the lethal flow across different timelines.
Then he discarded them, transforming them into abandoned Fates.
What a shameless fighting style!
The raven locked onto a future in which it was guaranteed to win.
This was likely the primary reason the Death God had repeatedly suffered setbacks, unable to defeat Raven. After all, battles between Ancient Gods were ultimately decided by whose rules defied the natural order more profoundly.
"You tamper with life and death, Outlander! You will face retribution!" The Death God roared, shattering the clouds.
The Raven remained silent, a flicker of resolve in his eyes. He suddenly folded his wings, transforming into a black streak that hurtled straight toward the Death God's chest! The Death God swung his scythe to parry, but at the moment of impact, Raven's form turned ethereal.
The Raven pierced through the Death God's chest, seemingly extracting something Ian couldn't comprehend from within the deity's body. The Death God's entire form froze.
His movements slowed abruptly, and the green flames in his eyes flickered erratically.
"Sleep." The raven whispered softly.
"You think... this will be enough...?" The Death God's scythe crashed to the ground, creating a deep crater.
"It is," Raven replied, his wings completely enveloping the Death God. "By the time you awaken, it will all be over."
The Death God's body began to crystallize, gradually being sealed within a massive, dark purple crystal. His final words echoed through the crystal, carrying a chilling prophecy:
"You will regret this... Raven... Death... never truly... sleeps..." The crystal solidified completely, hovering in mid-air, trapping the Death God in a state of suspended animation.
"Time is running out," Raven said, glancing at Ian.
"Yeah, looking good, Lord Bird's off to reincarnate now."
With a powerful flap of his wings, he soared away, showing no trace of attachment to the Twilight Zone.
Time continued to flow.
The empty volcanic crater.
Ian was about to examine the crystal containing the Death God when suddenly, he felt the Death God's gaze shift toward him.
(End of Chapter)