The Old Ones of Hogwarts

Chapter 285, Section 284: The Gods and Ian

The dome of the Sky City was swallowed by dark clouds.

Thick, heavy clouds hung low like leaden weights, as if they might fall at any moment. Thunder rumbled deep within the clouds, as if foreshadowing the emergence of some force that should not have appeared in this era.

Streaks of purple lightning, like snakes, snaked through the clouds, illuminating the city suspended high in the sky—the sky city of the black-robed wizards. It looked so precarious amidst the storm.

"What a laughable power!"

Unaware of what was about to happen, the Titans stood atop the ruins, their skin gleaming like rock in the dim light, looking down at Ian with disdain in their eyes.

It was as if Ian before them was nothing more than a speck of dust.

"You think you can harm us with something created by our own creations?" The Titan King's voice echoed like thunder throughout the heavens and earth, a mocking smile curving his lips. "What wishful thinking... I can't understand why someone like you can instill fear in them."

The God-King's voice echoed through the valley like thunder, while the eleven Titans behind him simultaneously roared mockingly, the sound waves causing ripples to spread through the air around Ian.

"Perhaps those despicable creatures simply don't understand what courage is!"

"They imprisoned us with insidious and cunning means. In reality, we are nothing but a bunch of ants. This power called magic is far too weak for an individual."

"They're nothing but a bunch of maggots!"

The Titans emitted low, guttural laughs, like the roars of ancient beasts, causing the ground to tremble slightly. Surprisingly, after being imprisoned for so many years, they still knew how to play the role of a straight man to their leader.

That's impressive emotional intelligence.

However, the shackles and chains that could not be removed from their bodies seemed rather ironic in light of their words; they were clearly a group of prisoners, yet they could still be so arrogant.

"Laugh, laugh, and see how much you can laugh."

A black-robed wizard, having witnessed this from the shadows, muttered a few curses under his breath before quickly catching up with the main force. They truly hadn't expected the Titans to withstand their greatest fear of countless years.

"Let me strangle him... at least it will lessen the resentment in my heart."

The leading Titan, a hundred feet tall, rubbed his hands on his head and, in a self-deprecating manner, placed a crown on his head—the kind of ornament made of raging lava.

talking.

He walked toward Ian.

The earth is shaking and the mountains are shaking.

The wind howled from all directions, making everything around it rattle and even messing up Ian's neatly styled hair.

"This is absolutely unacceptable, messing up my hair." He stood at the edge of the city, wand gripped tightly in his hand, his gaze coldly fixed on the group of behemoths opposite him.

"Crush me to death? You're not qualified."

Ian spoke loudly.

"Soon, you'll find out why you, and they... should all fear me." Ian slowly raised his wand, his tone calm yet carrying an undeniable authority.

hiss.

He was just a little angry because his hair was messed up, but now that he's saying these things, Ian suddenly feels that his villainous aura has intensified.

"..."

It's all Voldemort's fault!

Ian felt that he had been corrupted by Tom. He had spent some time with Tom before, and it must have been during that time that some of Tom's bad traits were transmitted to him.

"Damn it, villain it is. Anyway, this is ancient times. When I get back to Hogwarts, I'll be a model student again." The tip of his wand glowed with a ghostly blue light, but this time, it wasn't ordinary magical radiance—it was a deeper, more twisted power. Paradoxical authority was constantly appearing.

It doesn't belong to this era.

It could even be said that these are rules that shouldn't belong to this world. You see, this power was originally a loophole that Helbo had exploited in his journey to become a god.

After being killed by Ian, Ian's legendary ability absorbed this power. Although he couldn't unleash its full potential, it was still very effective against most creatures.

Just as these Titans said.

In the context of this world.

Even the Titans are but a tiny, insignificant part of it all. Ian cannot shake the world, but he could easily shake the very essence of the Titans for a brief moment. Suddenly, an unusual fluctuation began to rise in the air, as if time and space themselves were distorted at that moment.

Magic flowed around him, but it wasn't just the familiar magical energy; it was a more terrifying and dangerous force that was being released from Ian's body.

"You possess immortality, which is a paradox."

His voice was soft, yet it seemed to pierce through time and space, resounding clearly in the ears of every Titan.

-

An invisible force began to spread.

The instant the words fell, it was as if an invisible thread between heaven and earth had been quietly snapped.

"You are nothing but a lowly creation of us Titans! How dare you question the existence of our immortality? You will never understand how supreme such a life truly is!"

"Experience? He couldn't even imagine it. I didn't give them that kind of imagination back then, so naturally they couldn't understand what it meant for our lives to never end."

"Perhaps that's why they dared to defy us? But... it's too late now. Time will wash everything away. The day they all perish will be the day we reappear in this world."

"Yes, we can wait."

"Don't say anything, let me laugh at this guy for three minutes first."

The Titans were still laughing maniacally at first.

They couldn't sense any magical aura, nor even detect any energy fluctuations. However, in the next second—their connection with this world abruptly ended.

An interruption without warning.

"Um?"

A Titan suddenly looked down at his arm. His skin was losing its luster at a visible rate, and more importantly, some kind of power was being stripped away.

Changes in skin color are simply a manifestation of this power being stripped away.

"What's going on...?" Another Titan reached out and touched his chest, where the flesh was no longer writhing and healing, but... beginning to decay.

Its once indestructible body crumbled like corroded steel. It was destined to decay like this, given that Ian's curse magic also included the power of transformation.

The viruses and infections he could imagine were the effects of his curse—losing immortality and self-healing, even the Titans were struggling to withstand this overwhelming magical imagination.

"No...impossible!" A roar of shock and rage suddenly erupted, and the Titans finally realized what was wrong. Their immortality was being eroded by some incomprehensible force.

"How could this happen! How could this happen!"

Another Titan roared and raised its mountain-like iron fist, only to have its own stiffened fingertips pierce its palm. As its laughter turned to pain, its body froze in mid-air like a statue whose pause button had been pressed.

"I told you your bodies couldn't withstand any magic, and it seems that's true." Ian lowered his hand; he was the one who had just cast the petrification spell on the Titan not far away.

Having lost their immortality and connection to the natural world, the Titans' true magical resistance was immediately exposed—without relying on nature, their magical resistance was practically negative.

"You steal time with immortality and oppress all living beings with your status as creators—it's laughable that even time itself mocks your arrogance."

Ian saw some Titans that he hadn't cast spells on decaying.

He couldn't help but sigh.

"What kind of power is this?! This is not magic!" the Titan King roared, fear appearing in his eyes for the first time, and the lava crown of the merchant guild above his head shattered with a "crack".

He seemed to be the one who suffered the most from the backlash.

The purple blood flowing through the enormous veins was constantly congealing into crystals—the change was so fast that he couldn't react in time, and even his roar was stuck in his throat.

"No! What is this! It's not a bird!"

The Titan King suddenly turned around.

Looking towards where the black-robed wizards had once stood—at this moment, the God-King discovered that the other side of the floating island was empty, with only a few fallen fragments of black robes proving their existence.

No one is empty.

Those people had already vanished without a trace.

Immortality was taken away.

The Titans' bodies began to disintegrate.

This is a backlash.

A way to achieve immortality.

Their skin was cracked, their flesh dried up, and their once indestructible bodies were now as fragile as rotten wood. They struggled, roared, and tried to fight back with their remaining strength.

The latest novel is first published here!

But it was all too late.

"It seems your creations are smarter than you," Ian sneered. Although he still didn't understand why those wizards feared him, it didn't stop him from appreciating the Titans' current panic.

"What have you done to us?!" The Titan King struggled to his feet, veins bulging on his forehead, his wrinkled skin covered with spiderweb-like cracks.

"I am merely proving that your lives should not have lasted so long. You are not born immortal; rather, you are using the power within you to steal time that does not belong to you."

Ian's suspicions were confirmed.

The fact that his paradoxical authority could be exercised so clearly proves that the immortality of these Titans is truly something that should not exist.

"Repent in the flames!"

Ian's wand swung down suddenly.

A ghostly blue flame surged forth like a tsunami, engulfing the sky and obscuring the heavens. Wherever the flames passed, the air distorted, the earth turned scorched black, and even the dark clouds were stained an eerie blue.

The Titans howled in the sea of ​​fire, their bodies consumed by the flames. Their once eternal lives were now truly overwhelmed by the dual erosion of self-retribution and demonic flames.

The sky was dyed a dark blue by the raging flames, and the entire city groaned uncontrollably in the distorted heat. The Titan King's body was also twisted and deformed in the flames.

His skin cracked inch by inch like a dried-up riverbed, revealing the burning muscle tissue beneath. That once indestructible flesh was now melting and dripping like candle wax.

"Despicable thief!" the Titan King roared deafeningly, his vocal cords burned by the flames, his voice hoarse and grating like sandpaper. Despite being engulfed in flames, he was incredibly tough; his massive foot crushed a clock tower to pieces.

"You think you can kill us like this? We are eternal! We can return!" The Titan King roared with his last ounce of strength, trying to resist this irresistible fate.

Ian stood amidst the flames.

The black robe fluttered in the heat.

He calmly watched the Titans' futile struggles, his wand twirling gently between his fingers.

"Eternity?"

The young wizard chuckled softly.

"Then what is being burned to ashes right now?"

He looked around.

The other Titans had become moving torches, frantically beating at the flames on their bodies, only to make the fire burn even more fiercely. One Titan tried to summon rain, but his power had long since vanished with the loss of his immortality. Another Titan knelt on the ground, digging at the earth with his burning hands.

It seems they want to crawl back into the cage that imprisoned them for countless years.

"Even if we die! You will die with us!" The Titan King suddenly let out a chilling laugh, his burning eyes fixed on Ian.

"Then let's perish together!" As expected of a god-king, even when the firewood was burning, the fiery flames would burn for an unknown amount of time. The Titan god-king, whose body was corroded by the fiery flames, charged directly at Ian.

He raised his arms.

The remaining flesh and blood began to swell violently.

The blood vessels under the skin wriggle like earthworms.

"In the name of the Titans—die!"

The enormous fist slammed directly towards Ian.

"You want me dead? You're dreaming!"

Ian scoffed.

As the Titan King's body erupted in a final burst of energy, Ian transformed into a jet-black raven and soared into the sky. The explosions from the Titan's fist razed buildings for miles around to the ground.

inside.

Along with the hot, raw flesh fragments from his fist, they rained down in all directions. The raven gracefully flapped its wings and soared into the clouds, coldly watching the city below being burned.

"No! You monster! You have destroyed our supreme race!"

The remains of the Titans are still burning.

They stretched out their arms in vain, as if trying to grasp that unattainable figure. Half of a Titan's body struggled to crawl out of the sea of ​​fire, only to be completely reduced to ashes just before touching the outer edge.

"Farewell, Creators, you are the monsters."

Ian said softly.

The sound dissipated in the howling hot wind.

As the last Titan perished, Sky City began to crumble. The buildings collapsed in flames, fragments falling into the endless void, while Ian stood silently, letting the firelight illuminate his face. Burning debris mingled with Titan remains as they plunged into the abyss, blasting waves of heat up the clouds.

The raging fire did not stop spreading; instead, it burned even more fiercely, as if it wanted to completely purify the sky.

The moment the flames blotted out the sky, the whole world seemed to be plunged into an apocalyptic crimson, with only Ian's figure appearing and disappearing in the firelight, like a god who controlled life and death.

distance.

The black-robed wizards hid in a hidden spatial rift. They gazed at the burning sky, their faces pale, but their concern was not for the lost city.

"Titans can actually die..."

One of them murmured.

"What kind of power did that damned raven use?"

Another black-robed wizard also spoke in shock.

"I sensed that fluctuation before; it might be the final form of our magic," an old man said thoughtfully, his tone resolute.

"Really? Zeus?"

"I promise!"

In the exchange of questions and answers.

Perhaps the prelude to the gods began at this very moment.

(End of this chapter)