The world regained its color.
But Ian was not taken out of the scene.
The Raven had indeed completed the forging!
Or rather, it was a rather unusual form of Bio-Alchemy! Traditional Bio-Alchemy created life, but what the Raven had created was merely a shell!
Yes! A shell!
The body forged from within the Misty Illusion contained no soul. It was not something that should have existed in the Misty Illusion, and it radiated a vigorous life force that did not belong there.
It was clearly the shell of a baby!
"This..."
Ian stood in the distance, watching the scene as an indescribable feeling rose within him.
He did not know who this baby was.
But he knew.
It was an Alchemical Creation that had been forged.
A special existence nurtured jointly by the Creator's Heart, Titan's Body, Forge of Fate, and a whole assortment of things Ian could not even recognize.
A brand-new life that belonged neither to the past nor the present. Perhaps it could not even be called human, but rather some entirely new species identical to a human infant.
When the Raven fished the baby from the sea of fire.
Its feathers trembled slightly.
As though they bore some indescribable weight.
It lowered its head and stared at the child cradled in its wings, a complicated emotion flashing through its eyes—not joy, nor pity, but an almost devout anticipation.
It was expectation.
It gently spread its wings, wrapping the baby within them, then slowly flew toward the skyline. The volcano still boiled, and the world was still black and white, but something deeper had quietly changed.
The Raven's excited words were clearly packed with information.
"Good, good, good! Bird Lord did it! Bird Lord is going to be human again!" The Raven's voice exploded through the