Chapter 213: Raven Vs Ian
Inside the empty and eerie church.
Ian felt that his landing was very cool.
However.
A burst of heavy, suppressed breathing, comparable to Batman discovering Robin secretly driving off with the Batmobile, came muffled from under his feet—more precisely, from right where his knee was pressing.
“You know, even if you really like being a rogue, what you’re pinching right now is just my knee joint, right?”
A cold female voice broke the dead silence in the church. The voice was like it had been tempered in ice, yet wrapped in a layer of volcanic lava about to erupt. Though the tone was calm, every word carried the flavor of “burning with wrath.” Only then did Ian realize his hand was still pressing on her knee.
He quickly retracted his hand like he’d been electrocuted, leaning his body back and nearly falling to the ground.
“What! There’s killing intent!”
Ian abruptly lowered his head.
He saw his feet firmly stepping on a maiden.
She was wearing a deep purple hooded robe, silver white long hair hanging from the brim of the hood, her facial features as cold and stern as an ice sculpture—or less poetically, a poker face.
The girl’s purple eyes quietly stared at Ian.
Without a ripple in them.
As if what was being stepped on wasn’t a body of flesh and blood, but a roadside stone tablet. This person was Raven, one of the most mysterious and dangerous demigods in the DC universe, member of the House of Mystery, daughter of the underworld, emotional suppressor, potential host of the soul devourer—this heap of titles already amounted to a tenth of Ian’s aliases.
The air froze for a second.
Raven didn’t strike purely because her temper was good enough. Of course, there was also the reason that she knew how outrageous the other party was, even treating demon gods from the hell dimension as food.
“How is it you? Sister Raven!”
Ian widened his eyes, recognizing the poker-faced girl before him. The mysterious girl from the Sangong Mo minion incident who could summon shadows and casually tear space.
The confusion on Ian’s face was instantly replaced by the joy of meeting a familiar face in a foreign land.
But people’s joys and sorrows are not the same.
Raven’s mouth visibly twitched, and a crack finally flashed in those eyes with little emotional fluctuation—the precursor to wrath about to erupt.
She took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady.
“Please… get off me right now, immediately.” Before the words finished, faint purple energy was already gathering in her raised hands.
Like two clusters of flickering nether flames, glowing with an eerie sheen in the dim light of the church.
This was her usual threat tactic. In the past, as soon as she showed this, even demons from the hell dimension would back off. She was certain this outrageous middle school student would sensibly move away.
However.
Ian’s reaction completely exceeded her expectations.
“Slurp~” Under Raven’s dumbfounded gaze, Ian suddenly leaned forward, opening his mouth to bite at the purple energy in her palm. The motion was as fast as a little beast pouncing on prey; his teeth didn’t even touch her skin before he swallowed the gathered energy whole.
“Gulp.”
A light sound.
The violent purple energy flowed like a docile stream, sucked into Ian’s throat in one gulp, not a drop left!
【Ding! High-level energy intake detected, Entropy Lord experience points +1399】
The cold system prompt rang in Ian’s mind.
He smacked his lips, showing a satisfied expression, and muttered.
“Sure enough, sweet-mouthed little boys get candy.”
“Burp~”
Ian contentedly smacked his lips, some power in his body seemingly growing joyfully.
This remark made Raven want to hit someone, but fortunately Ian wasn’t the type who liked riding on others—he had his own mounts, and more than one at that.
Precisely because of this.
After being a bit slow for a moment, Ian lightly hopped back a step like he’d remembered something, standing steady and looking at Raven lying on the ground as if doubting life.
“????”
Raven was indeed doubting life.
She lay on the ground, her mind almost blank for a second or two. Her magic… eaten? Eaten like jelly by a human middle school student? This completely exceeded her understanding of reality. That power was something even she needed to guide carefully!
And yet, it was just… digested by the other party? Though it was their first meeting, Raven already knew Ian had pica, but this level of pica still shattered her worldview.
“Why aren’t you moving? Need CPR?”
Ian pulled out a sledgehammer.
“!!!!”
Raven jolted.
She quickly sat up from the ground and patted the dust off her body.
“What exactly is in your stomach?” Raven stared at Ian putting away the sledgehammer before daring to pat the folds on her cloak, her face showing lingering fear.
Of course, there was also confusion. She’d lived this long, but it was the first time she’d met someone treating her shadow energy like “candy.” This was beyond outrageous.
Simply outrageous.
If not for her temper being tempered tough through years of fighting inner demons and self-suppression, there would probably be one less person between Ian and her right now, turned into a firework.
“I have a stomach in my belly.”
Ian stated a medical fact, then his eyes fixed straight on Raven’s forehead.
“Your complexion doesn’t look good. Are you sick? Any recent dizziness, fatigue, emotional instability?” Ian seemed completely unaware of Raven’s displeasure.
He showed his warm guy side.
Of course.
The purposeful kind of warm guy.
At the center of Raven’s forehead—there was a faint purple pattern, like a closed eye, containing rich energy Ian didn’t even dare imagine.
“Let me take a look. Maybe I can cure it.” As he spoke, he reached out to touch the third “eye” on Raven’s forehead, already scheming in his mind: that one gulp earlier added nearly 1400 experience points; the energy hidden in her forehead must be even purer. If he could “graze” a few more mouthfuls, it would be wonderful.
Maybe he could even level up directly.
To achieve the goal, playing dumb and silly wasn’t stingy.
“Don’t come over!”
Raven’s eyes sharpened.
Her body instantly slid back half a meter.
Barely dodging Ian’s wandering hand.
She really hadn’t expected this middle school student to be not only bold but so opportunistic.
“I’m not sick.”
Raven emphasized.
“That’s even more dangerous!” Ian shook his head solemnly. “Not being able to detect your own changes means your internal balance mechanism is broken.”
“I suggest immediate Entropy Annihilation therapy.” Ian’s other hand went straight for the third “eye” on Raven’s forehead—that was the core seal where she imprisoned her demon father Sangong Mo’s power.
It was also the source of all her abilities.
“Don’t come over for real!”
Raven flashed away, retreating to the corner.
Deep, ominous purple energy rapidly gathered between her raised hands, like two miniature dark stars, emitting heart-palpitating energy fluctuations.
Full of deterrence.
But thinking of what happened to the energy she gathered earlier, Raven deflated the next moment. She just made a serious request, but Ian was relentless like a persistent salesman: “No need to be polite, I’m a legit certified doctor! Found a master at forging fakes, spent a full three thousand US dollars! As professional as it gets—physician license, psychotherapy license, even interstellar medical permit! All complete!”
Ian had no intention of giving up, sticking like taffy.
One chased, one dodged.
Ian shadowed her like a ghost, movements comical yet precise—sometimes rolling, sometimes teleporting—while Raven kept maneuvering, flashing purple light to create barriers, distort space, even briefly opening underworld rifts to shake him off.
“Just one touch! One touch!! One suck is fine too!” To outsiders, it might sound like lewd words, but actually he just purely longed for leveling up.
“You…”
Raven was nearly dizzy from Ian’s nonsense, dodging again.
Ian desperately tried to touch Raven’s third eye; the scene was like an immortal battle. No one could guess it was a “doctor” trying to “help” a “patient” who wanted to progress.
At this moment.
A suppressed cough suddenly came from the church, breaking the bizarre chase—Jonathan, Jordan, and Damian were tightly bound but it didn’t stop their communication. They’d been hanging here for a while, not daring to make a sound earlier, but now couldn’t hold back.
“Seriously, can’t they slow down a bit?” Damian was dizzy from being swung around, his gaze switching between Ian and Raven, finally leaning to Jonathan’s ear and whispering so only they could hear: “Idol… he knows this crazy woman?”
Damian furrowed the brows he inherited from Father; in his view, anyone who could casually grab and hang them three here was definitely not normal.
“This…” Jonathan frowned and shook his head, full of confusion. He’d known Ian for fifteen years and never heard him mention anything about a purple sister.
You know.
Whoever gave Ian high blood pressure outside, he’d come home and tell his eldest brother.
“I don’t know… Ian never mentioned… but they seem to know each other?” He racked his brain, with a vague impression but couldn’t recall.
“Ask me, ask me.” Jordan was the only one showing an “enlightened” expression. Insight flashed in his eyes, and he spoke with a look of having seen through everything.
“Ah… it all makes sense.”
He brain-supplemented a full plot and even voiced it.
“This woman! Irrationally grabbed us, scared us various ways, interrogated with bizarre questions! Turns out the real goal wasn’t us!”
Jordan had some of Homelander’s traits, confidence being one. He gazed intently at Ian chasing again, his voice ringing with firm conviction.
“This woman was luring out Ian! Definitely!” His voice echoed in the church, oblivious to Raven’s darkening face and Ian’s amused expression.
Jordan continued his mini-drama brain-supplement: “Truth is only one! Ian must’ve been fooling around outside, racked up romantic debts! Now she’s come knocking! Look at his panicked ‘inspection’—maybe… maybe there’s a child! She’s here to confront the heartless man!”
“Oh! My super vision didn’t see through this sooner!” Jordan said, trying to focus, but found his eyes like hit by an invisible fist.
Eyes spinning, swollen eyelids wrapping the eyeballs.
This was Ian’s doing.
“Evil Jordan! You’re definitely gonna tattle to Mom that I got pregnant before marriage!” What Ian said clearly wasn’t the same as what Jordan said.
But prevention before it happens.
Between brothers, this consideration was needed.
“I knew it!”
Jordan clearly misunderstood why Ian “struck.”
“Shut up!”
Raven’s wrath finally hit critical. She abruptly stopped dodging, brilliant purple light blazing in her eyes like burning purple flames.
She instantly locked onto Jordan nearby, still blabbering and wild-imagining.
Next moment, Jordan horrifiedly found his throat gripped by invisible hands—no, more precisely, the area around his mouth twisted slightly in space, then… his upper and lower lips vanished completely, smooth as if never grown any organs!
“Mmph?! Mmmph!!!” Jordan could only make terrified muffled hums, eyes bulging, frantically trying to push with his tongue but only touching smooth skin.
He was forcibly silenced.
And almost simultaneously.
“Damn! Jordan, you distracted me from checking my baby!”
Ian, jumping again to dodge Raven’s sudden energy burst, found a spinning purple mini portal had appeared where he landed.
He “whoa”ed and fell in, then the next second, his head poked out from a stone carving decoration high on the church ceiling.
His body from the neck down was stuck on the other side.
Thus, a bizarre sight in the church: Jordan mouthless, mmphing in terror; Ian’s head dangling upside-down from the ceiling while his body was stuck on the ground.
“But honestly, this feels really novel.”
Ian’s head dangled like a decoration. He swung twice, not panicking but first marveling at Raven with praise.
“Wow! Space manipulation? Forced reality modification? Sister, your moves are fancy. I knew our DC universe could produce its own Scarlet Witch… Purple Witch!”
This was sincere appreciation and praise, but of course, Ian’s attitude didn’t last long. Soon, he shifted to a guarded tone.
“Oh, right, to prevent you from getting ideas from my words and boldly wanting to take responsibility for me, I should explain a bit.”
“I’ve evolved to the point where I can go out and find embryos myself, gestating whatever kind of baby I want, completely independent.”
“So, don’t get the wrong idea.” Ian gave Raven a preventive shot, then his upside-down head awkwardly turned to Jordan below, panicking from losing his mouth.
“See, Jordan, told you to read less of those novels. Now it’s terminal, hallucinating and babbling. Now you gotta pick one from these golden mouth and silver mouth.”
Ian spoke in a earnest tone.
Under the gaze of Jordan, who was mmphing aggrievedly and unable to say he’d only read novels Ian wrote, looking frantic enough to jump, Ian’s body on the ground kept moving, pulling a real golden mouth and silver mouth from his pocket.
Plug-and-play.
Brotherhood made Ian generously pick the golden mouth for Jordan.
“Damn! My mouth is full of static!”
Jordan could finally speak.
“Nonsense! This is clearly pure gold!”
Ian felt a bit guilty, so his voice automatically pitched up eight degrees.
This scene.
Was hard to evaluate.
“????”
Raven was completely dumbfounded.
She didn’t understand.
It’d only been two weeks since she last saw him, how did Ian suddenly have so many tricks?
