He didn't dwell on the thought for long. Right now, the most important thing was figuring out where he was and how to leave.
"I'll still need to find someone I can communicate with. Even if I don't know their language, the mental connection should work."
After a moment of thought, Ian pulled out his flying cloak again.
His body shot upward into the air.
The wind howled past his ears, his silhouette carving a graceful arc through the sky…
He looked cool doing it, and, well, was cool doing it.
Except… this sky was nothing like the one in his own era. Here, the skies were crowded with creatures that could fly. Sure enough, suddenly, a massive pterosaur burst from the clouds above him, diving straight down. Its huge wings blotted out the sunlight.
Its gaping maw opened wide, aimed right at Ian!
Clearly, it thought the airborne wizard was some kind of gift from nature, a free meal falling from the sky.
"Tch. What a glutton. Didn't your mother ever teach you not to eat things you don't recognize?"
Ian raised his wand. A flash of Diffindo burst forth… and in the next instant, a brilliant beam shot from the wand's tip, piercing the pterosaur's chest. The entire beast exploded midair, showering the sky with flesh and bone shards that rained down into the clouds below.
"Good thing I'm too exhausted to be hungry right now, otherwise, I'd definitely try a bite of that dino-dragon meat."
Still, he did catch a few chunks of meat, tucking them neatly into his extra-dimensional wallet.
Stabilizing himself midair, Ian gazed off into the distance and continued flying. After a while, he began to lower his altitude… After all, staying above the cloud layer made it nearly impossible to spot any sign of civilization.
As he descended, the view below slowly sharpened:
A vast, primeval jungle stretched out endlessly beneath him. Towering ferns stood like giants, with trunks so thick it would take a dozen people to encircle one.
The air trembled with the distant bellows and roars of colossal beasts, dinosaurs.
Ian recognized several familiar shapes at once: Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus, Brachiosaurus…
All species he'd only ever seen before on TV.
The overall appearance was roughly the same… only the colors and skin texture were different from how scientists had reconstructed them.
Other than that, there were even more bizarre creatures that he had never seen before.
There were beings floating in the air like giant dandelions, with countless tiny mouths hidden among their fluffy filaments; enormous beetles with bat wings whose wing cases screeched like metal scraping when they opened and closed.
A lizard-like creature, its entire body transparent as if made of crystal, darted through the forest, each step refracting rainbow-colored light. Another enormous beast, seemingly a hybrid of whale and crocodile, moved slowly through the swamps. Vents on its back spouted jets of scalding steam like miniature volcanic eruptions.
All of them carried traces of magic in their aura.
Magical beasts?
Of course not!
They were the magical creatures that had long vanished from history!
"How interesting."
Ian decided to land on the ground for now. If Newt were here, he would probably be ecstatic. Ian, too, was astonished, but he didn't choose to hunt or tame any of them.
Not because of respect for nature, but rather…
"Who knows if I can even bring anything back with me."
The roasted meat he'd saved was only for eating later; he had no intention of wasting effort on something that might prove pointless.
Those endlessly respawning ancient Ancient Dragons at the bronze gate had already exhausted his patience.
Ian hadn't planned on making a move… but the magical creatures, sensing his presence, all turned to look at him. Then, one after another, they began to flee in terror, as though the sight of someone shaped like Ian was enough to fill them with instinctive dread.
"The black-robed wizards must've hunted magical creatures too," Ian thought. "Just like how a bear fears the sound of a shotgun, terror ingrained deep in their genes, influencing their behavior."
Of course, there were always a few who didn't know fear.
Just then…
"Ssshhh… Sss… Sss!"
A rustling sound stirred through the newly grown forest. A dark shadow shot out from a hollow tree… a giant serpent covered in glowing stripes.
Its forked tongue had split into three, each tip crackling with electricity like whips of lightning.
This was unmistakably a magical creature.
The kind Voldemort, or rather, Tom, would have been overjoyed to see.
"You're another greedy little one, huh?"
Ian treated such hostile magical creatures no differently than ordinary beasts that attacked him. He loved magical creatures, but not the kind that weren't friendly.
If it wanted to eat people, then it had to be prepared to be eaten by people.
Ian flicked his wand.
Immediately… the serpent, which might've had considerable magic resistance, froze where it was, then split neatly apart, transforming into perfectly cubed chunks of snake meat.
Its hide remained entirely intact.
Ian thought he might as well test if this snakeskin could be taken back with him, it was obvious he'd used a spell Grindelwald once demonstrated during a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson involving a Centaur.
He was quite practiced at it.
Ian began stewing the snake meat right there on the spot, tossing it together with the earlier pterosaur meat into a cauldron. He added a few potion ingredients, not as proper magic reagents, but simply as seasoning.
"Strange... I've seen all these magical creatures, yet not a single potion ingredient. Why?"
Ian had searched carefully, looking everywhere, but not only did he find no familiar herbs, he hadn't discovered any plant that carried magical energy.
"How odd."
Lost in thought, Ian finished off his snake-and-dragon-meat stew.
Then… he took to the skies again.
"This doesn't match any history I know. Maybe it's not the Cretaceous, nor the Jurassic… who knows what era this is? Or maybe, it's a blend of countless eras all fused together?"
As he pondered this, the reason for his thought became clear… for reflected in his eyes was the image of a city floating in the distant sky.
A city of steel.
It stood utterly out of place amid this ancient world of dinosaurs and Ancient Dragons, jarringly discordant, yet there it was, silently suspended in the heavens, as though it had existed there since time immemorial.
Massive metallic towers intertwined with one another, streets arranged in precise order, the architecture old yet steeped in mystery.
There were no visible runes glowing upon its walls, nor any trace of modern technology and yet it hung defying gravity, radiating an indescribable solemnity.
It was obvious that this must be where the wizards gathered.
A city in the sky.
No flying creature dared to approach it.
"Unbelievable…" Ian muttered.
Just as he was debating whether to get closer…
"BZZZZZZZZZ…!"
A sharp alarm shattered the silence.
He looked up abruptly, only to see a pale blue light curtain rise around the city's perimeter, rippling outward like water waves, enveloping everything within.
"The Raven! Damn it! It's that cursed Raven!"
Voices rang out in alarm.
The first cries were full of panic… but to Ian's ears, it just sounded like a bunch of people shouting nonsense.
(End of Chapter)
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