Chapter 179: The Second Horcrux, Destroyed!

A shrill, agonizing scream tore through the air, slicing into Lupin's mind like a steel blade. For a moment, his thoughts went blank from the shock.

Then, they saw it: a massive humanoid shadow engulfed in flames burst forth, writhing and howling in pain. Suddenly, it noticed both Lupin and Wade.

"You… how dare you…"

It roared furiously and charged straight at them. Stunned, Lupin snapped back to his senses and drove his wand into the ground with force, creating a massive, transparent barrier in front of him.

The fiery figure collided with the barrier, and its flames scattered like shattered glass. Just then, the fiery bird swooped down, attacked the flaming shadow and tangled with it in mid-air.

Roars and screams echoed back and forth. The shadow tried several times to break free of the fiery bird's attacks to strike at Lupin and Wade, but each time, Lupin's barrier held firm.

In one particularly dangerous moment, the barrier was on the verge of shattering under its assault. But then, the fiery bird suddenly grew several times larger and crashed down on the shadow from above. Its razor-sharp claws nearly tore the shadow to pieces.

Sparks flew in every direction, yet quickly died down due to the lack of fuel. The Gaunt family's old house and the nearby tree were almost completely scorched to white ash.

Suddenly, the shadow let out a soul-wrenching wail of despair before vanishing abruptly.

Only the fiery bird remained, standing alone on the ground, looking around as if in confusion.

Then, under Wade's control, the fiery bird gathered all the remaining fierce flames, and nestled among the ruins of the Gaunt house until it had burned through the last blade of grass, the final brick fragment.

Lupin lowered his wand, his face was as pale as paper, and his fingertips seemed to tremble slightly.

First, the diadem burned in that cave, and now, the old Gaunt family home… 

Each time, a similar shadow appeared, screaming… almost as if it had a consciousness, and it attacked the one attempting to destroy it…

This can't possibly be a coincidence.

Dark suspicions began forming in Lupin's mind.

He recalled the magical books he had read, and tried to deduce what kind of magic could produce such an effect.

The fiery bird's form began to shrink.

Finally, it lay in the ashes, now as small as an egg. It tilted its head up to Wade, opened its beak, and seemed to let out a faint, silent cry.

After a moment of thought, Wade approached it. He crouched down, but never loosened his control over the fierce flames.

Then, a thin layer of silvery mist emerged from the tip of his wand and wrapped around the fiery bird. Strangely, the mist was not consumed by the flames but gradually seeped into the bird's body.

This is of course.

Because pure thought has no physical form and cannot burn.

As the mist gradually dissipated, the fiery bird's gaze became more animated. It no longer looked like it was eager to set Wade ablaze, but instead, it lowered itself submissively and bowed its head.

Wade murmured an incantation softly, and glowing magic runes began to flash on the fiery bird's body, layer upon layer of intricate magic rune circles overlapping each other. 

Complex magic rune scripts moved along specific paths, embedding themselves into the fiery bird's form.

The fading Fiendfyre flames absorbed the ambient magical energy from nature, and gradually stabilized its form. On its ethereal body, the patterns of feathers began to emerge.

Lupin held his breath beside him, afraid to disturb the process.

It was his first time witnessing alchemical creation of a creature. Even as a wizard, Lupin found the process deeply mysterious and mesmerizing, making him nearly forget to breathe.

Faintly, he thought he could hear a heartbeat, though he wasn't sure if it was just his imagination.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Wade lowered his wand.

The fiery bird hopped a few times on the ground, then suddenly spread its wings and soared into the sky. 

It flapped its wings rapidly, sometimes folding them to dive, other times darting back and forth like lightning, and occasionally landing gracefully on a branch to perform an elegant dance.

When it landed, Lupin tensed slightly, fearing it might ignite the nearby trees. But, to his surprise, the dry branches didn't catch fire; they only bore a few charred marks when the fiery bird flew away.

After flying around for a while, the fiery bird landed before Wade. It opened its beak, stretched out its neck, and after a few seconds of effort, finally made its first sound—

"Chirp, chirp!"

A small flame dropped onto the dry leaves in front of it, causing them to ignite instantly.

The fiery bird jumped back in surprise, then after watching for a moment, opened its beak and swallowed the flames, and then hopped back to Wade's side.

Wade held out his hand.

"Be careful!" Lupin gasped, and quickly tried to stop him.

But the fiery bird had already perched on Wade's palm, and it carefully controlled its flames, though wisps of white steam still rose from where it touched.

Lupin noticed a thin film of water on Wade's hand. Though the boy was unharmed, Lupin shook his head disapprovingly and said, "That's too risky."

"It's fine," Wade replied. "I created it with a sense of protection and loyalty, so it would never harm me. It's no longer a mindless, hostile flame—it's a sentient being."

"Then make sure to keep a close watch on it. If this little creature flies off, it could cause massive destruction."

"Of course. It'll always stay by my side." Wade thought for a moment and said, "How about calling it Mikael? The Sword of Flame… the light born from darkness."

Lupin looked at the little creature tilting its head as if studying him and said, "A very good name."

Perhaps by coincidence, the bird nodded as well, seeming to agree with him.

Lupin couldn't help but smile.

He had seen magical pets crafted by Wade before and had even gone to the Aslan Magic Workshop himself to participate in designing and creating them on Wade's behalf, so he wasn't particularly surprised by Mikael.

But Lupin hadn't fully realized that Mikael was different from Wade's previous magical pet.

The difference wasn't just in the physical form but also in the very essence of life.

Conventional alchemy creates thoughts within inanimate objects. Even though Wade's magical pets are more agile and capable of growth than, say, wizard's chess pieces, they don't truly possess life; they're more like magical versions of AI.

But Mikael was different.

When Wade discovered that traditional alchemy couldn't be applied to this Fiendfyre-flame creature, he had a sudden insight and recalled Professor Murray's teachings about the true essence of life alchemy.

Although Professor Murray had said that creating life was a forbidden magic, he had nevertheless imparted fragments of this knowledge to Wade over time.

Now, as Wade gazed into Mikael's golden eyes, he couldn't help but wonder:

Are you truly alive?

Or… do you just appear to be?

In his mind, life alchemy should be a long and arduous process, not something that could be completed in mere minutes.

Wade continued to observe closely, and his eyes reflected an intricate pattern of golden lines of magic.

Although all of Mikael's magic had been imbued by Wade, he still found the patterns complex and profound.

It was as if this fiery bird hadn't been created by him at all but was a miraculous life form that had emerged naturally from the world.

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