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What was once just a mass of clouds now churned and surged violently. The cloud base pressed down extremely low, its color shifting from gray-black to a heart-palpitating ink-black.
Within the cloud layer, light flickered continuously, and the rumble of thunder was no longer intermittent but had become a continuous, unbroken roar.
The electric charge in the air was so strong that it made one's skin tingle; the hair of the four individuals involuntarily lifted slightly.
Hmm... Dodo had no hair, so nothing could float.
The wind had stopped at some point.
A deathly stillness enveloped the sky above Hogwarts, so oppressive that it made it hard to breathe. The light rapidly dimmed, as if night had fallen early.
At that moment—
CRACK—!!!
An unprecedented thunderclap erupted without warning from the cloud layer overhead. This lightning was no longer white like before, but a blinding blue-purple that instantly illuminated the entire Forbidden Forest as bright as day.
Edgar and the others were shaken all over, instinctively shrinking their necks.
With that thunderclap, the feeling of extreme oppression was completely shattered.
Whoosh—whoooosh—!!!
A gale rose abruptly from the ground, no longer a mere "breeze" but instantly reaching a violent intensity.
It howled from all directions, whipping the trees in the Forbidden Forest into a frenzy, swaying so violently they seemed on the verge of breaking. Some branches were directly snapped off and swept into the sky.
Fallen leaves, dust, and pebbles on the ground were easily picked up by the gale, swirling chaotically through the air.
Especially Edgar and the others, who were blown directly off the ground by the violent wind.
Lynn looked at the scene and suddenly wondered if he had gone a little too far with the cannon fire.
"Dodo, take them back to the Castle first."
Edgar and the others instinctively wanted to refuse, but after glancing at themselves floating helplessly in the air and realizing they couldn't help much, they said nothing more.
With a snap of Dodo's fingers, they vanished on the spot.
Raindrops the size of beans pelted down, initially just a sparse few, hitting the scorching cannon barrels with a hiss and emitting white smoke.
But in the blink of an eye, the rain intensified abruptly, turning from scattered raindrops into a torrential downpour.
The rain no longer fell vertically but was torn apart by the violent gale into sheets of white mist. Visibility instantly blurred, making it hard to see anything beyond a few meters.
Lynn stood there alone, letting the rain wash over him. He waited quietly for a while, allowing his mind to relax.
Then, he resolutely turned and dug into the ground, soon touching a cold crystal vial with his fingertips.
Lynn retrieved it; the potion had now turned blood-red.
Without a moment's hesitation, Lynn tilted his head back and drank the blood-red liquid in one gulp!
The moment the potion entered his throat, a strange sensation of numbness and stinging pain intertwined and instantly spread throughout his body.
Almost simultaneously, he recited that familiar incantation again:
"Amato Animo Animato Animagus!"
The moment the last syllable of the incantation fell—
Thump! Thump!
A powerful second heartbeat suddenly pounded within his chest. Each beat was heavy and forceful, forming a vibrant duet with his original heartbeat.
Immediately afterward, a heart-wrenching, excruciating pain swept over him without warning.
The pain felt as though countless hands were simultaneously pulling, twisting, and reshaping his bones, muscles, nerves, and even his soul from within.
Lynn grunted, his body involuntarily trembling violently. His knees gave way, and he dropped to one knee in the mud.
The rain blurred his vision, and cold sweat instantly soaked his inner clothes. Lynn gritted his teeth, desperately focusing his fading consciousness to resist the pain and faintness threatening to consume him.
Just as his consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse, a series of rapidly flashing images exploded before his eyes:
Lynn "saw" himself as though he were standing in a forest, surrounded by countless birds of various forms—from agile eagles to nimble swallows, from magnificent peacocks to inconspicuous sparrows.
They flapped their wings, passing by in various postures through the "sky" before him, each feather's texture clearly visible.
The scene abruptly sank, his vision pulling back to the ground, where all sorts of land creatures appeared—strolling stags, darting foxes, feigning felines, even slowly crawling lizards.
Their outlines, fur colors, and the gleam in their eyes flashed by like a revolving lantern.
The scene changed again, as if sinking underwater, surrounded by a bizarre and colorful aquatic world: fish swishing their tails, jellyfish pulsating, turtles paddling their limbs, and even a vague, colossal shadow swimming in the depths...
The intense pain intertwined with these surging illusions, and a vague thought uncontrollably surfaced:
"Am I... about to die?"
Lynn let out a low roar, struggling to straighten his back again. He abruptly reached out, clenching his five fingers inward fiercely!
With that clench, the excruciating pain and chaotic energy within him seemed to find an outlet for release!
Hum—
A vibration originating from within his body spread outward.
Lynn felt with crystal clarity that his form had begun to contract uncontrollably.
His bones emitted faint but dense crackling sounds; muscle fibers rewove themselves; his skin tingled and stretched intensely.
His already soaked school robe, along with his inner clothes, seeped thread by thread into his rapidly changing body, becoming part of the material foundation for his new form. The process was magical and natural, without any hindrance.
The speed of transformation accelerated!
A strong sense of soreness and tearing erupted near his shoulder blades, followed by pitch-black feathers breaking through his skin!
The feathers grew rapidly beneath the heavy rain. Amid the ink-black plumage, a few strands of differently colored feathers quietly appeared.
BOOM—!!!
Another bolt of lightning tore through the sky, its light instantly illuminating the world.
An intense twisting sensation came from Lynn's legs as his bones reshaped, muscles tightened, and the form of his feet completely changed.
His skin was covered in black scales.
His toes elongated, curved, and grew sharp talons, digging deeply into the muddy ground.
Finally, the transformation spread to his head.
The bone structure of his face underwent a drastic adjustment; the shape of his skull changed, while his mouth and nose protruded forward, narrowed, hardened, and finally took shape.
His vision, hearing, and sense of smell were reconstructed in a completely new way.
When the last feather finished growing, when the last inch of skin was covered in scales or feathers—the transformation was complete.
Lynn's consciousness gradually cleared from the chaotic illusions during the transformation. He instinctively moved, tilting his neck to the side with a flexibility far beyond that of a human.
Without a mirror, he "looked" at his own body.
The first thing that caught his eye was the pitch-black feathered coat covering his entire body, though within the black plumage were interspersed a few deep blue and purple feathers that gave off a metallic sheen beneath the lightning.
Lynn's gaze moved downward, landing on the "feet" supporting his stance.
His human feet had vanished, replaced by a pair of feet covered in dark gray, tough skin.
The rain hitting his body felt different from when he was human. The feathers formed an excellent protective layer; most of the rainwater slid off the tightly arranged plumage, with only a little soaking through the surface.
"Have I... turned into a Raven?"