Harbinger Bird

Chapter 227: Harbinger Bird

In an instant, countless bizarre creations filled Zhang Ye’s mind.

How to find a suitable vessel for a giant eyeball was quite a fascinating subject. Zhang Ye’s head filled with all kinds of grotesque Cthulhu-like aberrations.

Cyclopean aliens, Cyclopes, corrupted one-eyed queen bees, degraded one-eyed fish-man mutants, and so on.

His thoughts gradually went astray. Zhang Ye could not help shaking his head and clearing those wild, flashy monstrosities from his mind.

It could not be helped. In a world with superheroes, such strange beings were still far too avant-garde aesthetically.

Zhang Ye believed that if any of the creations he imagined were truly brought into existence, pulling out just one would be enough to trigger a grand Avengers assembly.

That ran contrary to his longstanding desire to keep a low profile. So it could be grotesque, but on the surface, he still had to make it look a little more normal.

There were certainly plenty of choices when it came to finding a vessel for an all-knowing, all-seeing eye.

As he thought that, an image suddenly surfaced in Zhang Ye’s mind: someone dressed in a black robe patterned with red clouds. In memories from his previous life, there seemed to have been a similar scene in some anime.

Zhang Ye raised his right hand, and ghostly green flames instantly leaped from his fingertips. The next moment, the basketball-sized Eye of the Watcher was also engulfed in green fire.

Burned by those flames, the Eye of the Watcher underwent an instinctive change for the first time. It continuously writhed, and Agatha did not know whether her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she actually saw pain and fear in its gaze!

"It has begun."

Zhang Ye spoke calmly. At the same time, he discussed the precise steps for modifying the Eye of the Watcher with Miss Minutes in his mind. Manual work was difficult, after all; calculations were much easier with a large-scale intelligent creation like Miss Minutes.

The ghostly green flames continued to surge. Sparks burst from the eyeball as it struggled, while its surface began to undergo dramatic changes amid the ceaseless burning.

Silver fish scales abruptly appeared, covering the rear half of the eyeball. The bizarre sight made Agatha’s expression stiffen.

But Zhang Ye merely frowned slightly and flicked his finger, causing the flames to blaze even fiercer.

"Not this."

Octopus tentacles emerged from the green inferno, while slimy, bloody lumps continuously grew from the eyeball’s surface, making Agatha’s eyelid twitch.

"Not this either." Zhang Ye flicked his finger again.

Sparks sprayed out, and the tentacles gradually retracted. This time, the eyeball underwent an even greater transformation.

Tiny eyes slowly opened all over the massive eyeball. They blinked like stars, twinkling as they curiously examined their surroundings.

Under those gazes, Agatha felt as if her soul were trembling. Goosebumps spread all over her body.

"Uh, definitely not this."

Zhang Ye found it a little hard to accept as well. He hurriedly continued driving the flames in his hand, wrapping the entire eyeball within them.

Perhaps because Zhang Ye was now exerting his full power, the giant eyeball struggled more violently. It convulsed and shifted in midair, revealing all manner of deformed appearances in fleeting flashes. Agatha even saw praying mantis arms and butterfly wings.

At last, as Zhang Ye continually increased the power of his Abstract Magic, the eyeball’s struggles gradually weakened. Several flaming feathers drifted through the air, accompanied by the fluttering sound of wings beating overhead.

Zhang Ye and Agatha stared intently at the scene. Within the flames, an inky black bird beat its wings again and again.

"Caw! Caw! Caw!"

Three piercing cries rang out. The black bird shot from the flames and circled through the sky.

Seeing the magical life-form he had personally created, Zhang Ye’s eyes held a trace of delight. Through the magical connection between them, he began communicating with the black bird in the sky.

Sensing Zhang Ye’s summons, the black bird circled once before immediately diving down and landing steadily on his shoulder.

That was right. Since his codename was Witch Raven, his summoned creature naturally ought to be a raven. Moreover, this was a raven possessing the Eye of the Watcher. In a sense, it truly counted as a Harbinger Bird.

Seeing how affectionate the raven was toward Zhang Ye, Agatha could not help taking two steps back.

She had not forgotten what this seemingly harmless raven had been before. Who knew what indescribable things that Black Wizard had stuffed inside its body? What terrified Agatha most was that she could not see through the raven at all.

No matter what it concealed within its raven body, it had now become impossible to peer into. To everyone else, it was simply a raven—a normal raven.

Having no desire to remain any longer, Agatha turned and left without another word. She had completed Zhang Ye’s request, and at that moment, she had absolutely no wish to stay in this godforsaken place any longer.

She did not even intend to say goodbye to Zhang Ye. Perhaps, to her, the fewer ties she had with an eerie, unknown existence like him, the better.

Zhang Ye watched Agatha leave, but he did not speak to stop her. Agatha might have been one of the wasteland’s few remaining top-tier fighters, but he had more important matters to deal with now.

With a faint smile, Zhang Ye stroked the raven’s sleek feathers and spoke slowly.

"Harbinger Bird, show me what you can do. Tell me, where has that rat gone into hiding?"

Elsewhere.

On the reverse side of the real dimension, within the cracks of material shadows, Baron Mordo was in a terrible state.

Without the magical red thread Agatha had woven for him, his body was suffering the ravages of time. Without magic’s aid, the years he had rejected were now catching up to him.

"No! It should not be like this!"

Baron Mordo painfully knocked over a bookshelf. The books on it were all the wasteland’s remaining records concerning magic.

In the past, Baron Mordo had handled such things with the utmost care. But now, he could no longer worry about such external possessions. Struggling to his feet, he staggered step by difficult step toward the Darkhold.

He knew that only the Darkhold could help him now. If he could not use its spells to stop the time descending upon him, then before long, he would become a decrepit old man on the verge of death.

Strands of white hair sprouted from Baron Mordo’s head. In the blink of an eye, he changed from a valiant man of around forty into an old man with a head full of white hair and a face covered in wrinkles. Even his battle suit had become considerably looser.

But he could no longer care about any of that. Looking at the Darkhold within reach, Baron Mordo’s eyes were filled with fervor. He slowly extended his hand toward it.

However, another hand was faster.

A purple portal abruptly opened, and a large hand wearing a rubber glove shot out. Before Baron Mordo could reach it, the hand firmly seized the Darkhold.