The Old Ones of Hogwarts

Chapter 217, Section 216: Ian, the Myth and the Mutation

Ian and Merlin stood before the mysterious coffin, the lid of which had been slowly pushed open, releasing an ancient yet strange aura.

Their gazes were fixed on the coffin, where a raven's carcass lay silently. The raven's appearance was extremely peculiar; though dead, it remained lifelike, its feathers glossy and smooth, as if it were merely asleep, ready to take flight at any moment, indistinguishable from when it was alive.

The raven's eyelids seemed to be only slightly closed, as if it would open its sharp eyes at any moment. The passage of time and years had not affected its body in the slightest.

"That bird is really beautiful."

The multicolored black truly exists.

It was on the black raven in the coffin that Ian had seen. The raven's body remained in its last pose, its right claw still tightly gripping half of a broken crystal.

There was no trace of magic left on the crystal. Of course, what Ian cared about most was not this, but why there was a bird lying in his tomb.

Why is it a raven?

Moreover, the raven's appearance seemed strangely familiar to Ian. He racked his brains, trying to find clues related to the raven.

And at this time.

Merlin's tirade showed no signs of stopping.

"This damned thing! I had to see it! Damn it!" His face turned red, his eyes wide with rage, as if they were about to spit fire.

"What exactly is your relationship with this raven?"

Just as Ian was lost in his own thoughts, unable to figure it out, Merlin suddenly turned around and looked at the young wizard Ian beside him with a furious expression—if Merlin remembered correctly, this should be Medivh's tomb, which is the tomb of the person in front of him.

Faced with the menacing Merlin, Ian shrank back, feeling inexplicably uneasy, as if he were somehow in the wrong.

"I don't know either, I just think this bird looks familiar." Ian's voice was very soft as he continued to think hard. He felt that this raven looked familiar, especially its tightly closed eyes, as if he had seen it somewhere before. But no matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn't piece together a complete picture in his mind.

"look familiar?"

Merlin's annoyed expression faltered slightly.

He spoke in astonishment.

"You've been tricked by this bird before?"

This was almost Merlin's subconscious reaction. The reason for this thought was very simple: according to his knowledge, almost every famous figure in history had been tricked by this bird.

It's not limited to wizards.

And it's not impossible that Medivh, as a great figure hidden in history, would have some connection with this bird... Thinking of this, Merlin suddenly became thoughtful.

Ian was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

"Had it been scammed? No... it just looks a bit like one of my pet phoenixes, they look pretty much the same overall." That was the only reason Ian could think of that it looked familiar.

The black phoenix he owns is about 80 percent similar to this raven.

"Phoenix?" Merlin frowned, puzzled.

"How come I remember the phoenix not looking like this? Don't think I've never seen a phoenix before!" As he spoke, Merlin's emotions became agitated again, and his expression and emotional control were not even as strong as when he was afraid of death earlier.

"The phoenix is such a sacred being, surrounded by flames and dazzling light. How could it possibly be such an evil, despicable, and shameless creature?"

It's hard to imagine what Merlin had gone through.

"But I'm raising a black phoenix!" Seeing Merlin getting more and more agitated, Ian delivered a fatal blow with a single sentence, silencing Merlin before he could finish his rant.

"Are there black phoenixes?"

Merlin seemed to have been stumped. Because of his special bloodline, he had traveled to many wondrous spaces, yet in all his years, he had never seen, let alone heard of, a Black Phoenix. Could it be just something he made up? Merlin stared at the young wizard for a long time, his white eyes gleaming.

His gaze seemed to pierce through Ian's soul, searching for the truth in his words. After a long while, a look of surprise appeared on Merlin's face.

"Strange, there really is a Black Phoenix?" He didn't have the ability to enter Ian's mind, but he still possessed the magic to judge whether Ian was telling the truth. Merlin's tone was filled with disbelief, as if in his understanding, the Black Phoenix that Ian spoke of was an extremely incredible thing.

"I love telling the truth the most." Ian blinked, without the slightest hint of guilt, after all, this time he not only told the truth, but also told the whole truth for the first time in a long time.

"If I have the chance, I'd like to meet your phoenix... I remember you told me you came from a thousand years in the future?" Merlin seemed to suddenly become curious and interested.

"That's right."

Ian nodded.

"What kind of era was that?"

Merlin pressed on with his questions.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Ian borrowed the famous quote almost without thinking. "At least wizards no longer need to learn magic in isolation, nor do they have to wander from place to place with their teachers. The survival rate is many times higher, and every wizard child can enter a school taught by several powerful wizards."

He gave a brief introduction to the education system of later generations and mentioned some data he had seen comparing the two, showing that the survival rate of young wizards in the era of magic schools was indeed much higher than that of this era.

"interesting."

Merlin touched his chin.

"Hogwarts?"

He suddenly spoke up out of the blue.

Ian was suddenly taken aback.

He recalled that he had never mentioned the name Hogwarts.

How did you know?

Ian looked at Merlin with great surprise.

Merlin simply chuckled softly.

"It really is Hogwarts. It seems I have quite a connection with this school." He didn't directly answer Ian's question, but confirmed his guess based on Ian's reaction.

"Have you met the founder of our school?" Ian couldn't help but speculate as well. If they could find a way to travel through such a long period of time, there was no reason why the founder of Hogwarts couldn't. Moreover, judging from Dumbledore's memories, Dumbledore only obtained that broken ancient time converter after becoming the headmaster.

It's hard to say that the broken ancient time converter wasn't something left behind by the founder.

"This isn't information I told you." Merlin still didn't answer directly, but his response was quite obvious; it was possible that he had signed a contract that prevented him from revealing this specific information.

"To be honest, Madam Ravenclaw also mentioned in her notes that she had seen this bird, but she didn't seem to have the same hostility you have towards it."

As Ian spoke, he looked at the raven in the coffin again, his doubts growing stronger. He wasn't quite sure if this raven was the same one Ravenclaw had seen.

after all.

The idea that a raven could live for a thousand years is truly astonishing. Thinking of this, Ian unconsciously looked up again at the line of gleaming text.

Death is a great gift.

The words shimmered and gleamed.

It seemed to express a longing for death. Ian wasn't sure if the writing was his own or a veiled reference to the magical raven that might have lived for many years in the coffin.

"Ha, am I that hostile?"

Upon hearing Ian's question, Merlin's anger resurfaced. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, saying, "I was tricked by that bird! It was absolutely the most terrifying and extremely painful experience of my life. It pretended to be harmless on the surface, but in reality, it wanted to..."

Merlin stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence.

It's like not wanting to recall one's old scars.

"What do I want from you?"

Ian's curiosity was piqued, so he immediately pressed for details. However, Merlin remained silent, only sighing and showing a relieved expression on his face.

"I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels schadenfreude. Maybe this bird tricked you too, which is why you killed it and buried it in this empty grave."

"Believe me, if Medivh is truly your future, then you must have been targeted by this bird in the past." Merlin had a fairly reasonable guess in his mind.

He felt that Ian must have accomplished what he couldn't—killed the Shadow Raven. Based on his understanding of Medivh, this little guy was bound to have a bad temper in the future.

Like a raven, they hold grudges.

When two vengeful people meet, one of them will inevitably be unable to hold a grudge anymore... Merlin felt that even without using prophecy, he had still glimpsed the truth.

The young wizard remained noncommittal.

"Perhaps."

He had a feeling that Merlin's guess might be wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong. Just then, Merlin's gaze returned to the coffin.

"In any case, this raven holds a great secret. Its status is equivalent to that of a god, and even the King of Gods is wary of it. Its corpse is an absolutely rare and precious alchemical material." Merlin's tone was somewhat amazed, but he did not make a move. Instead, he gestured to Ian with his eyes to collect the raven's corpse.

"You say it's so precious, don't you want to keep some for yourself? No problem, we can split it equally. I want the crow's body, you can have the crow's neck, crow's buttocks, or something like that."

Ian's gaze also fell on the raven's corpse. As an alchemy enthusiast, how could he not know how precious this corpse was? The fact that it could not be eroded by time was one of the ultimate pursuits of alchemy.

"Keep it for yourself." Merlin rolled his eyes, seemingly unconcerned about this rare alchemical material, and even seemed to have a vague sense of bad luck about it.

"As I said, I came here only to find the direction of the future. And now, I have found the answer." Although he didn't find any treasure, Merlin was very satisfied with the adventure.

"Answer?"

Ian had just heard Merlin mention this, and he thought it was just a lie made up by Merlin's survival instinct. He never expected that Merlin would actually find the so-called path ahead that he was looking for.

"What is it?"

The little wizard immediately became curious as well.

He is also a legend.

The latest novel is first published here!

They also yearn to continue making progress.

Merlin didn't answer directly, but instead asked, "Have you ever wondered why you keep going back in time and getting involved in history related to God?"

He was clearly convinced that Medivh was simply Ian's future.

"Um... because I need to go back? It can't be because of love, can it?" Ian could only ponder and guess, but he couldn't really think of a plausible reason.

Merlin, on the other hand, seemed to have glimpsed the future.

"That's because you've seen the path ahead. A twelve-year-old legend, you certainly have enough time and ability to explore higher levels. To become a legend, you need to leave behind your own story, to become a part of history. So, what lies beyond legend?"

He spoke slowly and deliberately, with a mysterious smile reminiscent of Detective Conan.

Ian seemed to be deep in thought.

But Merlin didn't give him much time to think.

"In my opinion, you've taken the path to legend to a whole new level. You've chosen to intervene in a higher level of story, to become part of the myth. This, perhaps, is the path to godhood you've found," Merlin said directly, at least in a way that seemed most likely to him.

"To become part of the mythology?"

Ian raised an eyebrow.

That does sound like it.

"Yes, merging into mythology and becoming mythology might naturally open the path to godhood. However, one thing still confuses me. I haven't found any evidence of Medivh collecting faith, which clearly contradicts my understanding of the necessary conditions for godhood. Without the support of faith, the divine fire cannot be ignited."

After Merlin finished speaking, he himself fell into confusion. He frowned, looking completely puzzled, and tried his best to recall if he had missed any key issues.

"Forehead……"

Ian's eyes flickered slightly upon hearing this.

"Perhaps, the path to legend... isn't to godhood?"

Ian said in a low voice.

There was a hint of uncertainty in his tone.

"How so?"

Merlin looked at the little wizard again with considerable surprise.

"I don't know how to describe it, but I feel that what I see ahead is still the wizard... The wizard is the direction that truly has infinite possibilities."

"My teacher once told me that wizards are gods, but now I see that the ultimate goal of wizards is definitely not limited to gods; infinite possibilities also mean..."

Ian paused for a moment.

"My will is the will of Heaven."

That was still a slightly euphemistic way of putting it.

after all.

Wizards believe in making wishes come true, and this ability, throughout history and even in countless legends and myths, has always belonged to only one being standing at the very top—the Creator.

No one knows whether it exists or not.

"Hiss~"

Merlin was taken aback when he heard Ian's point of view. His pupils contracted slightly, and then he gasped. He had always considered himself a rather arrogant wizard.

however.

At this moment.

He was utterly astonished, realizing that there was no limit to how outrageous things could get.

"To act on behalf of Heaven, you could be any bolder..." Merlin dared not even think of such a thing, and he also felt that no wizard should be so arrogant and audacious. If he didn't know that the young wizard in front of him would eventually become a myth, a legend, he would really want to criticize the other's unrealistic views.

It's not that Merlin looks down on Ian.

Rather, the more he learned and the more he understood, the more he realized the profound truths of this world. Defying the heavens to become a god is already a human delusion, let alone surpassing all the gods.

"What a coward, what kind of wizard are you?" Ian rolled his eyes and reached out to collect the spoils of war, his hand gently stroking the raven's corpse.

Residual warmth.

It seems to still be there.

Just as Ian was about to pick up the raven's carcass...

A sudden change occurred.

A strange surge of magical energy emanated from the raven's corpse, quickly connecting with Ian's magic. Ian felt as if his magic was being drawn by some force.

Its magic flowed uncontrollably toward the raven's carcass.

"What's going on!?" Ian tried to sever the magical connection, but found that he couldn't control it at all. It seemed that he and the raven's corpse had formed a strange loop.

His magic.

Automatically parsing ravens!

"What's wrong with you?"

Merlin was startled by Ian's reaction, but seemed not to have sensed anything. He just looked at Ian with a look of surprise and uncertainty, raising his hand but not knowing how to help Ian.

"I……"

Ian felt his whole body was restless.

The cells are abnormally active.

This was an experience he had seen mentioned in Professor McGonagall's notes.

"I'm transforming!"

The little wizard realized something.

I couldn't help but gasp in surprise.

"??????"

Merlin was stunned.

Under his bewildered gaze.

All I saw was...

Feathers began to grow on the little wizard's body.