In the darkest hour before dawn, the air in the underground laboratory at No. 12 Golden Oak Street was heavy.
Ian sat cross-legged in the center of the Star Guidance Array, fine beads of sweat trickling down his temples.
His Spiritual Power extended from between his brows like millions of fine silver threads, seeping into the violently trembling mass of shadow before him.
Gaga’s body was losing control.
One moment, it would expand to a three-meter wingspan, its dark silver feathers flaring out like blades.
The next, it would shrink to the size of a goose egg, rolling back and forth on the stone slab.
Each shift in form was accompanied by the piercing sound of space tearing apart.
"Gaga, hold on."
Ian’s voice was low, piercing through the chaotic energy fluctuations.
A halo of Witchcraft bloomed at his fingertips as he prepared [Original Blood Origin Tracing].
Through their Soul Link, Gaga’s consciousness was like a small boat in a storm, flickering in and out of existence.
’Ian... I see...’
Gaga’s voice was intermittent, filled with pain and confusion.
’So many shadows... so many versions of myself... flying in different spaces...’
’Which one is real?’
Ian’s pupils constricted slightly.
He could feel two forces tearing at each other from the depths of Gaga’s bloodline.
The agile and mysterious power of a Shadow Messenger was clashing violently with something far more ancient and profound.
That ancient aura carried the chilling cold of the starry sky and the profundity of the shadows.
He carefully observed Gaga’s changes with his Spiritual Power, constantly trying to soothe it.
Time trickled by. Gaga was still groaning and screaming in pain...
’Now.’
Ian’s eyes snapped open, and the golden halo at his fingertips flared violently!
"Awakening, Tracing!"
Pale gold patterns spread from his palm like vines, twining around Gaga’s trembling body.
The shadows in the laboratory suddenly came to life.
The shadows on the walls began to writhe, the dark patches on the floor twisted and deformed, and all darkness converged on Gaga.
An ancient whisper echoed in the air, seeming to originate from the depths of the starry sky, billions of years ago.
A phantom image slowly rose from behind Gaga.
It was the silhouette of a giant bird, its wingspan blotting out the sky, its feathers like a flowing night curtain, and its pupils reflecting shattered stars.
The ancient Shadow Night Kite.
The moment the phantom appeared, the temperature in the laboratory plummeted by dozens of degrees.
Fine ice crystals condensed on the stone slab, each one reflecting a miniature star.
Gaga let out a piercing, agonized cry.
Its body began to disintegrate... in the most literal sense.
Black feathers turned into motes of dark silver light. Its skeleton was revealed and then hidden again, its flesh and blood flickering between shadow and reality.
But amidst the pain, something deeper was fusing together.
Ian gritted his teeth, his Spiritual Power at its absolute maximum.
Through the Soul Link, he could clearly perceive the phantom of the ancient Shadow Night Kite seeping, bit by bit, into Gaga’s original bloodline.
It wasn’t Devouring, nor was it overwriting. It was... resonance.
Two eras, two bloodlines, guided by [Original Blood Origin Tracing], had found their common source.
The first wave of transformation came without warning.
Gaga’s originally gray left eye and cyan right eye suddenly dimmed at the same time.
Then... a silvery-gray light began to shine from the depths of its pupils.
Deep within its pupils, flecks of starlight began to twinkle, like a shattered galaxy.
Ian’s breath hitched.
A brand new perception flooded through the Soul Link.
It wasn’t conventional sight, but a more direct form of "precognition."
He "saw" the path of a spider crawling in the corner of the laboratory.
But ahead of its path, three faint gray, phantom branches appeared.
Those were the possible routes the spider might take in the next three seconds.
’The Omen Eye has evolved.’ Ian was overjoyed.
This Skill, once Gaga’s strongest, was once again displaying its uncanny power.
Not only could it foresee danger, but it could also now briefly glimpse "shadow trajectories."
The potential paths of action for all living beings within the next few seconds.
Gaga turned its head, its silvery-gray pupils looking at Ian.
It blinked, as if in a daze.
In Ian’s mind, three potential actions he might take next instantly appeared.
Raising his hand, standing up, or continuing to maintain the Witchcraft.
Each action was marked with a probability.
’This ability...’
He murmured under his breath, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curl upward.
Immediately, the second wave of transformation followed.
Gaga suddenly spread its wings, though they were still flickering between corporeal and incorporeal.
It made a simple flapping motion.
A storm erupted out of thin air in the laboratory—not a real wind, but one made of shadow.
Hundreds of ink-black, blade-like shadows burst from its wingtips. Each was as thin as a cicada’s wing, yet its edges glowed with a strange silver light.
They spun silently, neatly slicing through the air wherever they passed.
A shadow blade grazed the edge of the lab table.
The thirty-centimeter-thick Iron Wood tabletop was severed silently into two pieces, as if cut by a hot knife through butter.
The cut was as smooth as a mirror, without even distorting the wood grain.
The storm of Wind Blades had evolved: [Shadow Storm].
Each shadow blade was imbued with a faint Shadow Rule, no longer a simple energy cut but possessing the characteristic to "ignore parts of an Energy Structure."
Ian casually flicked out a walnut-sized Gravity Collapse Ball.
The moment a shadow blade collided with the Collapse Ball, the Gravity Field actually experienced a brief disturbance.
Although it was ultimately crushed, that momentary resistance spoke volumes.
A conventional Level Two Energy Shield probably wouldn’t last three seconds against these shadow blades.
Just as the third wave of transformation began, Gaga suddenly vanished.
Its body faded like a drop of ink in water, melting bit by bit into the shadows on the floor.
Then, from the shadow of a candelabra on the stone wall, a dark silver beak poked out.
Gaga emerged halfway from the shadow on the wall, and with a flap of its wings, a faint black shockwave erupted around it.
The shockwave swept through the laboratory, causing all the candle flames to flicker simultaneously, sending light and shadow dancing wildly.
Then, it vanished again.
This time, it appeared in the shadow behind Ian.
Another shadow shockwave.
It jumped five consecutive times, its location unpredictable with each appearance, and every jump was inevitably followed by a shockwave.
On its final jump, it burst out of the shadow of a hanging potion rack and landed steadily on Ian’s shoulder.
Shadow Jump upgraded to [Shadow Shuttling].
Continuous jumps between any shadows within a five-hundred-meter radius, with each shuttle automatically triggering a shadow shockwave to disrupt the surroundings.
Ian’s lips curled up. He knew exactly what this meant.
From now on, on a complex battlefield, Gaga could perpetually exist in a state of "you can’t hit me, but I can hit you at any time."
Ian reached out and gently stroked the little one’s head on his shoulder.
Its feathers were cool to the touch, carrying the residual warmth of its breakthrough.
"Gaga, you always surprise me."
Gaga nodded, then suddenly flew off Ian’s shoulder to hover in the center of the laboratory.
It closed its eyes and then spread its wings.
There was no sound, no light, no violent energy fluctuation.
The light in the laboratory began to vanish. Starting from the corners, darkness spread like a tide.
The candles were still burning, but their flames couldn’t illuminate anything beyond three feet.
Light was devoured, absorbed, twisted into an invisible Chaos.
Ian raised his hand.
He could clearly feel his own palm, yet he couldn’t see it. This wasn’t ordinary darkness, but a more absolute "lightlessness."
Even his Spiritual Perception became sluggish and confused in here.
A hundred-meter radius, completely shrouded in shadow... a Tier Two Shadow Domain.
Within the Domain, all light was forcibly devoured, completely nullifying an enemy’s vision.
Spiritual Perception was severely disrupted, sense of direction was thrown into disarray, and even the flow of Energy became difficult to track.
And the Controller of the Domain... Gaga’s figure flickered wildly within it.
Through their Link, Ian saw it appear one moment in the east corner, the next by the west wall.
Every appearance was silent, every disappearance untraceable.
Inside this Domain, it could launch an attack from any shadow.
’This... is a true Shadow Messenger.’
The Domain lasted for about ten seconds before slowly receding.
When light returned to the laboratory, Gaga landed gently in the center of the Array.
It opened its eyes. Its silvery-gray pupils were clear and bright, the starlight within them twinkling steadily.
On its dark silver feathers, faint shadow patterns flowed, and in the center of its back, a phantom star-vortex slowly rotated.
It tilted its head and looked at Ian.
Then, it opened its beak and uttered a sentence that stunned Ian.
"Ian, I’m hungry."
The voice was crisp and clear, with the distinct, tender tone of a five or six-year-old child, yet it also carried a hint of the starry sky’s ethereal quality.
Ian froze for a moment, then blinked.
"Gaga, your voice... I guess it changes when you grow up."
Gaga flapped its wings and dove headfirst into his arms.
It nuzzled its head against his palm, the motion identical to when they first formed their contract, only its body was much larger now.
"Is it over? How do you feel?"
Ian instinctively stroked its head.
The feathers felt smoother, and their temperature was a bit lower than before, but that familiar sense of affection hadn’t changed at all.
"I feel great. Just very hungry."
Gaga repeated, looking up at him with seriousness filling its silvery-gray pupils.
Ian finally let out a laugh.
He took out a pile of Demon Beast Blood Essence from his Dimensional Ring, which he had prepared for Gaga’s breakthrough.
Gaga’s eyes lit up. It snatched a few pieces in its beak, tilted its head back, and swallowed them with a GULP.
After eating, it let out a small, satisfied burp, and with a flap of its wings, its body began to change.
"Ian, look at my transformation now."
First, it shrank down to the size of a goose egg and landed lightly in Ian’s palm, looking like an exquisite dark silver artifact.
Then it expanded... its wings unfurled—one meter, three meters, ten meters... twenty meters.
And then... Gaga looked around the laboratory and finally stopped.
"It’s too small in here. I feel like... I can transform to a maximum of one hundred meters."
At this moment, although Gaga was only twenty meters in size, one could already glimpse some of the ancient Shadow Night Kite’s majesty.
Dark silver feathers covered its entire body, the edge of each one gleaming with starlight. With its wings spread, its shadow nearly covered the entire laboratory.
Its pupils reflected a shattered river of stars, and its breathing caused faint spatial ripples.
It lowered its head and gently touched Ian’s shoulder with its enormous beak.
The movement was cautious, as if afraid of hurting him.
Ian raised a hand and stroked its cold, sharp beak.
"How long can you maintain your maximum form?"
’About a quarter of an hour if I’m fighting at full power,’ Gaga’s childlike voice echoed in his mind. ’In my normal state, I can stay in my small form indefinitely.’
As it spoke, its body rapidly shrank, returning to the size of an ordinary Raven before landing back on Ian’s shoulder.
A clearer perception flooded through the Soul Link.
Ian closed his eyes to experience it. It was Gaga’s vision.
He could "see" the structure behind the walls, "see" the crawling paths of insects three meters underground, and "see" the weak points in the flow of Energy in the air.
After its evolution, Gaga could now coordinate its vision with Ian’s for combat.
As long as Gaga was willing, it could proactively share its own vision, giving Ian a nearly omniscient perspective in battle.
"Excellent."
Ian opened his eyes, a sharp glint flashing within them.
Outside the window, dawn finally pierced through the night.
The first ray of sunlight shone into the room, but it quietly dimmed as it came within three feet of Ian.
It was as if even light itself feared the shadow of the bird on his shoulder.
Gaga tilted its head, its silvery-gray pupils reflecting Ian’s calm face.
"Ian, the next time assassins come, I can help you eat them all."
Ian smiled and pushed open the door.
The morning light flooded in, illuminating the cold anticipation deep in his eyes.
"There will be a chance soon enough."
Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps came from outside.
Old Finn had a grave expression, fine beads of sweat on his forehead, and his breathing was slightly rushed. He had clearly jogged all the way here.
"Wizard Marcus."
He paused, his eyes flashing with surprise as he glanced at Gaga on Ian’s shoulder, but he quickly suppressed it.
"The young lady is here. And she brought... quite a few people."
Ian’s brow twitched slightly.
He stood up and patted the non-existent dust from his Wizard Robe.
Gaga instinctively retracted its aura. The starlight in its pupils dimmed, making it look no different from an ordinary Raven.
But Ian knew that the little one on his shoulder was now a true Tier Two Shadow Messenger.
He walked toward the door, his footsteps echoing in the empty laboratory.
He hoped that this time, Aidele would bring him some good news.