In the laboratory, a terrified Orc, bound to the spot by a petrification spell, watched Sylas approach him. Sylas covered his nose in disgust. These Orcs were like wild beasts, dirty and slly. He quickly cast several cleansing spells to remove the odor from the Orc before daring to approach. Then he raised his wand, pointed it at the Orc, and cast a Transfiguration Charm.
The Orc’s body expanded and deford rapidly and uncontrollably, turning into a small dragon resembling Smaug. Although it was a small dragon, it was still dozens of ters long and many tis larger than Sylas in front of it. The Orc, who had transford into a giant dragon, resud his movents. He was a little panicked at first, but looking at the tiny Sylas in front of him, he beca more and more fearless and bit toward him.
"Crucio."
Sylas raised his hand expressionlessly and cast a Cruciatus Curse. The Orc, who had turned into a dragon, collapsed to the ground in pain, roaring in agony. Sylas had no interest in torturing the other party. After teaching it a lesson, he turned the dragon back into an Orc with so disappointnt.
Although he knew that Transfiguration could not truly transform one creature into another, the result before him still disappointed him. Although the Orc transford into the appearance of a dragon, this dragon was only in form. It had neither the ability to breathe fire nor the power of a dragon. In essence, it was still an Orc with the appearance of a dragon.
However, Sylas had already been ntally prepared, so he was not too disappointed. After all, if he could use Transfiguration to transform an Orc into a real dragon, then he would probably be close to becoming a god.
He then cast the Transfiguration Charm on the Orc once again. However, this ti, when he cast the spell, he was not only trying to deform the Orc’s appearance, but also trying to forcibly break the magic cycle within the Orc’s body and transform it into Beorn’s magic cycle.
However, as soon as he broke the cycle of magic in the Orc’s body, the magic beca chaotic and violent. The next second, the Orc was torn into pieces by the violent magic power within him, and blood and flesh splattered everywhere. Sylas cast a charm just in ti to avoid being covered in blood.
Seeing the first test subject disappear like that, Sylas frowned and waved his hand to clean up the sticky ss on the ground. Then he went to the cell where the Orcs were imprisoned and brought out two more. Throwing one of them aside and petrifying it, Sylas cast another Transfiguration spell on the other Orc.
This ti, he did not rashly break the magic cycle in the Orc’s body. Instead, he chose a small loop and tried to turn it into part of Beorn’s loop. This ti, the magic within the Orc was not disordered, and the deford magic cycle was replaced by Beorn’s magic cycle.
Sylas was delighted and continued to change the magic circuit in the Orc’s body bit by bit. This was a very delicate task. Sylas not only needed to concentrate fully without any distraction, but also had to maintain a continuous flow of magic power to prevent the magical balance in the Orc’s body from breaking. Otherwise, its fate would probably be the sa as the previous Orc, exploding and dying.
As ti passed, sweat began to appear on Sylas’s forehead. With a mont of distraction, the circulation of magic in the Orc’s body suddenly beca unbalanced. The magical cycle belonging to the Orc itself coexisted with the magical cycle of Beorn, and a conflict arose. Sylas instinctively sensed sothing was wrong and imdiately cast a shield in front of him.
The Orc beca extrely pained, his body twisting and deforming as he writhed in agony. However, contrary to Sylas’s expectations, the Orc did not explode. Instead, it transford. Its body arched, its limbs twisted until it crawled on the ground, sharp claws sprouting from its hands. Its ugly face elongated into a protruding snout lined with fangs.
Eventually, it turned into a deford, extrely ugly-looking half-orc, half-bear monster. If the Orcs before were still humanoid creatures, the Orc now could truly be called a beast. Sylas tried to cast a transformation and recovery spell, but it had no effect.
The magic circulation in its body had beco a hybrid mutation of the Skin-changer and Orc magic patterns. Sylas shook his head and waved his wand to freeze the mindless Orc that was roaring at him like a wild beast. With another wave, he sent it to the giant spider breeding room to be given to the newly hatched giant spiders as food.
Then he looked at another Orc, whose eyes were filled with fear and despair, and with a wave of his hand summoned it over to continue the next round of experints.
In the days that followed, he spent most of his ti in the laboratory. Under the transformation spell, all kinds of strange-looking Orcs appeared, so covered with bear fur, so with bear heads and Orc bodies, so half-bear and half-orc, so with bear-like limbs, and so even with bear bodies but Orc skin. Without exception, all of these failed products were given to the giant spiders as food.
Until one day, Sylas chose the Orc leader, Salzog, as an experintal subject. Salzog looked at the wizard before him in horror. He knew that all the Orcs taken away in recent days had been used for experints, and without exception, they never returned. Their fate was self-evident.
He wanted to beg for rcy and was even willing to beco a slave, but Sylas gave him no chance, simply freezing him so he could not make a sound. To Salzog, the wizard before him was even more terrifying than his forr master, the Dark Lord. If there had been a way to turn back ti, he would have fled Mount Gram early and hidden far away.
Sylas did not care what Salzog thought. After days of experintation and the consumption of more than fifty Orcs, he had gained a certain mastery of magical transformation. He was confident in this experint.
With ease, he cast the Transfiguration Spell again, his eyes focused and attentive. Patiently and little by little, he changed the magic cycle in Salzog’s body. Even though his face was covered in sweat and exhaustion weighed on him, he did not dare relax for an instant.
Only when Beorn’s magic cycle had completely replaced the Orc’s did Sylas finally breathe a sigh of relief. Salzog’s face twisted in pain as his body swelled and contorted. In Sylas’s expectant gaze, he transford into an ugly and ferocious giant bear.
The giant bear was smaller than Beorn, but still as massive as a mountain and able to crush an Orc with a single paw. A dark aura radiated from it, making it seem like a demon bear. A smile appeared on Sylas’s face.
He felt the magic radiating from the giant bear. Although it leaned toward darkness, far from Beorn’s natural affinity, it was no longer an ordinary bear.
Sylas fired a spell at the creature. The giant bear roared in pain and, driven by its wild instincts, lunged toward its attacker. The spell, which would have killed an Orc outright, only left a shallow wound that healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Crucio!" Sylas cast the Cruciatus Curse without hesitation. As the giant bear writhed in agony, he followed with the Imperius Curse, bending its will to his command.
"Now, change back to your original form."
The giant bear’s vacant eyes showed no thought, only obedience. Its massive fra shrank, bones shifting and twisting until, at last, it returned to the form of an Orc.
Thus, the first skin-changer of the Orc race was born.
In the days that followed, Sylas focused entirely on this perfect specin, studying the alterations in its magic cycle during transformation and pinpointing the exact monts when the change could be controlled. When there was nothing more to learn from Salzog, he killed him with a spell and fed the corpse to the giant spiders.
Having mastered the secret of Beorn’s transformation, Sylas did not imdiately attempt the magic on himself. His goal was not rely to beco a giant bear but to advance the Animagus art to a higher form.
He turned his research toward the magic circulation systems of Smaug the Dragon, Herpo, and Thorondor, analyzing the subtle differences between them.
One experint attempted to reshape an Orc’s magic cycle into that of a dragon. But the ager magic in the Orc’s body could not sustain such a form. Before the transformation was complete, the Orc’s magical reserves were drained entirely, along with its life, leaving nothing but a dried husk.
Next, Sylas experinted with basilisk and giant eagle transformations. The results were grotesque, Orcs covered in serpent scales, human torsos with snake heads, Orc heads atop snake bodies, winged Orcs, eagle-headed humanoids, and other unnatural hybrids. Yet in every case, the Orc’s magic was insufficient to support a full transformation into either basilisk or eagle.
Still, Sylas noted a critical insight: whether dragon, basilisk, or eagle, the fundantal operation of their magic cycles was almost identical, with only the finest details setting them apart.
Seeing this, Sylas ventured into the Troll Forest to capture trolls, then traveled to the Misty Mountains to seize a number of wolves, expanding his pool of experintal subjects.
He analyzed and compared the magic circulation systems of all his samples, then began crafting entirely new circulation thods of his own design.
In the days that followed, the Orc population in his captivity dwindled at an alarming rate. So exploded in violent magical backlash, while others warped into hideous, unrecognizable monsters. When only a handful of Orcs remained, Sylas considered whether he should capture more.
Perhaps by chance, while attempting a new transformation on one Orc, he decided to weave a runic symbol representing fire into the magic. To his astonishnt, the Orc transford into a giant firebird.
The firebird was half the size of a full-grown Great Eagle, its feathers a shimring mix of red and black, and it could spit streams of fla.
Sylas stared at the creature with wide-eyed wonder. This was the unplanned outco of fusing the magic circulation patterns of a dragon and a Great Eagle, then adding the fire rune.
Although the firebird was far inferior to the phoenix of his imagination, it had already surpassed his original expectations. Without wasting a mont, Sylas ticulously recorded the unique magic cycle coursing through the firebird’s body.
His future in advancing the art of Animagus would now depend on this discovery.
Reviews
All reviews (0)