Cinder nuzzled Maurise with its freezing face, immediately demonstrating its new post-evolution ability.
It suddenly dissolved into a pool of flowing blackness, spreading down Maurise's forearm—it had transformed its physical body into pure shadow.
Immediately after, the shadow dripped from Maurise's body, pooled at his feet, and began to reshape itself. Within two breaths, a pitch-black owl reappeared in front of him.
At this moment, Cinder was no longer a solid entity; its entire body was composed of continuously shifting shadows.
Maurise crouched down and reached out toward Cinder, but his hand passed straight through its body.
He conjured a bone spike, but it passed harmlessly through Cinder's shadow form, leaving only a few faint ripples in its wake.
'Fascinating.'
In this state, Cinder was completely immune to physical attacks. What about magical attacks, then?
He flicked his wand. "Stupefy!"
The spell struck dead on, but the moment the red light touched Cinder's body, it sank into the shadows silently and vanished. Equally ineffective.
At that same moment, Cinder reverted to its original form, letting out a few exhausted hoots. Its meaning was perfectly clear: utilizing this ability was incredibly draining.
Maurise paused, then checked Cinder's condition through their magical link.
Sure enough, nearly a fifth of its mana reserves had already been depleted. The entire sequence—from turning into a shadow to the brief series of tests—had taken no more than a minute or two.
"Five minutes..." Maurise pondered for a moment before nodding. "That is enough."
Although it couldn't maintain the shadow state permanently, it was more than enough time for Cinder to evade lethal damage.
"Meow! Meow~"
Tin bounded up and down around Maurise's feet. It was incredibly impatient and eager to undergo its own evolution ritual.
"Patience." Maurise scooped Tin up and tossed the cat into another prepared magic circle nearby.
The procedure for Tin's evolution was fundamentally the same as Cinder's. The difference was that Cinder had only consumed two hundred Gap Energy Crystals, whereas Tin...
Maurise had already thrown in nearly eight hundred energy crystals, yet Tin remained an absolute bottomless pit in the center of the array, greedily absorbing the energy.
'This prodigal cat!'
Even the undead unicorn, which was vastly larger, had only consumed around five hundred crystals. What on earth gave this foolish furball the right to demand so much?
Complaints aside, a consumption rate this massive implied that the abilities Tin would acquire post-evolution would likely be extraordinarily powerful. Yes, that had to be it.
Maurise tossed another handful of energy crystals into the circle.
Bang!
In the next second, just like Cinder before it, Tin exploded.
However, the commotion this time was vastly more violent. The magic circle on the floor flickered before more than half of it was obliterated. A shockwave, laced with turbulent air currents, swept violently across the room.
Maurise instinctively summoned a bone shield, blocking the blast from hitting himself and Cinder.
Once the chaos subsided, he dismissed the spell and looked toward the center of the array.
Tin had finished reconstructing its body. Its outward appearance hadn't changed in the slightest. It was currently sitting on the floor with a blank expression, seemingly entirely unaware of what had just happened.
"Tin?" Maurise called out tentatively.
Tin jolted and blinked rapidly. "Meow!"
It gave a cheerful cry and launched itself off the floor, intending to sprint toward Maurise. However, it completely misjudged its center of gravity, tumbling head over paws twice before finally skidding to a halt at Maurise's feet.
Maurise's mouth twitched. 'Alright. It probably hasn't adapted to its new body yet.'
"Tell me, what has changed?" Maurise asked.
Tin steadied itself. A flicker of confusion passed through its eyes before it seemingly realized something. Tilting its head, it stared at a small stain on the hem of Maurise's trousers that he hadn't noticed acquiring.
It raised its right paw and gave the stain a gentle swipe.
"Meow— (Scourgify!)"
The stain vanished instantly.
Maurise raised an eyebrow. That was a Scouring Charm.
Tin grew even more excited and swiped its paws a few more times. Two more spells shot out—this time, a Stunning Spell and a Disarming Charm. The spells struck the wall of the room, leaving behind two shallow scorch marks.
"You no longer need a wand to cast magic?" Maurise asked.
Tin nodded its little head, sporting an incredibly proud expression.
"I see." Maurise stroked his chin.
Tin had experienced bouts of accidental magic in the past. Maurise deduced that this evolution ritual had completely reconstructed its physical form, perfectly adapting it to channel and release magic without the need for a wand as a conduit. It was akin to the innate magic of house-elves.
'Not bad at all.'
The man, the cat, and the owl returned to the living room. Maurise lay back on the sofa and let out a long sigh of relief.
The evolution rituals had gone smoothly, putting his mind at ease. After all, Tin and Cinder were his very first undead creations; he had been genuinely worried something terrible might happen to them.
Watching Cinder rest quietly on its perch and Tin dart frantically around the room, occasionally firing random beams of light from its paws, Maurise suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of peace. His undead companions had added a great deal of color to his life.
"Tin!" Maurise called out.
Tin immediately bounded eagerly onto the sofa, looking at him with eyes full of anticipation.
"I am going to teach you a spell," Maurise said. "It is called Bone Summoning. Learn it well."
Since Tin had already mastered meditation, picking up Bone Summoning shouldn't be too difficult.
"Meow!" Tin stood on its hind legs and offered a crisp salute. 'Mission accepted!'
An hour later, Maurise stared at Tin, utterly speechless.
Tin had already mastered Bone Summoning. Its aptitude for magic was incredibly strong—no, "terrifying" would be a more accurate descriptor.
At this very moment, sitting neatly on the living room rug and occupying a full half of the floor space, was a massive scale model of Hogwarts Castle.
The main keep, the towers, the Astronomy Tower, the Great Hall... every single detail had been painstakingly recreated.
And it was all constructed entirely out of bone.
This was what Tin had just meticulously built, piece by piece, using Bone Summoning. In fact, the cat was still actively expanding it, looking for all the world like a child gleefully playing with building blocks.
Just then, two red-headed figures appeared in the doorway of the living room.
"Oooooh~" Fred drew out the syllable. "What is this? A miniature Hogwarts?"
"No, Fred. There is absolutely nothing miniature about this," George replied, sounding equally astonished.
"Don't mind it. It is just a model," Maurise answered casually.
Fred and George exchanged a look, stepped carefully around the sprawling bone castle, and sat down on the sofa opposite Maurise.
The moment they sat down, Champion the skeleton trotted over from the hallway.
Fred blinked in surprise. "What happened to your skeleton? Oh, its new outfit looks remarkably dashing."
"Champion now serves as the butler as well," Maurise replied offhandedly. "If you would like something to drink, just let him know."
"I'll have a coffee."
"Me as well."
Receiving its orders, Champion turned and entered the kitchen, swiftly returning with two steaming mugs of coffee.
"Brilliant," Fred accepted the mug, his expression turning highly peculiar. "Though it would be significantly better if the cups weren't also made of bone."