A/N: A random idea I had.
If continued, this story is planned to focus on how the three societies adjust to each other. Ar Tonelico, the wizards and the muggles. In many ways, I wanted to avoid having the leaders be stupid but Harry Potter is full of incompetent leaders.
Updates only sporadically.
EDIT: A calculation of horizon visibility puts the horizon at the top of a 110km tall Tower at ~1200km. So the Tower of Ar Tonelico is not visible from any of the continents. I have retconned the observation from the random muggle businessman to account for this. The initial transition had a much taller beam of light so that was visible over a good portion of Earth.
Notes of interest / background info at the end of the chapter
"Orgel of Origins collapse mode set. "
EXEC_DILINK_INITIALIZE
Symphonic Linker new module registered. Symphonic Linker operational. Orgel power feed shutting down. Tower Service Infrastructure System suspended. Warning, Parameno Discs deactivation failure. Administrator Override acknowledged. Dimensional Field expansion... resonance... locked. Dimensionality Eight achieved.
The voice of the security protocol, Mei Mei, echoed through the SPU and most of the tower's internal zones. Only the staff for this operation were around to hear it however, the tension in the room was thick enough to cut. The Parameno Discs that mediated Song Magic for the Reyvateils had been jury rigged into the new Symphonic Linker that took over the Tower's power supply, similar to the method used for Infel Phira. A failure by the automated suspend program had been expected so no one commented.
"All Tower Systems ready! "
"The cities have undergone full lock down. The citizens will remain in secure areas until the state of emergency has passed. "
"Ready for dimensional transfer. "
Shurelia nodded as the reports each came in to the SPU. The plan was ready, everyone was in position. It was time to leave this dying world in one last desparate gamble.
"Frelia?"
"Yes, sister?"
She looked at her sister in all but name, the Reyvateil Origin who no longer had a Tower to Administrate.
Together, they would lead what was left of this world to another.
Together, they would Sing.
For the third who was no longer with them.
And for everyone else still alive.
EXEC_DILINK
Dimensional resonance amplifying. Dividing Wall established. Musical Corridor shutdown. Grathnode Discs power supply disconnected. Warning Parameno Discs deactivation failure. Quantizer shutdown. Silver Horn shutdown. Beginning Dimensional Transfer.
She could cry once the people were safe again.
The field around the Tower was a curtain of coruscating energy, a shell that reached from the very top of the Rinkernator all the way down to the foundation of the Tower in the inland sea below the Sea of Death.
With a frenetic chiming, the Orgel's tune was heard once more after centuries of concealment beneath the toxic grey clouds. In their bubble of reality, the sea had dissipated once the bubble had cut off from Ar Ciel.
Then with a blast of external power from the collapsing planet behind them, the entire bubble was hurled beyond space and time.
With a blast of symphonic power and a climatic end to the Song, the curtain of energy vanished.
The view outside the windows in the command center at the SPU was a vast blue expanse below them. Further towards the curved horizon was strips of brown to the east and west, with the northern ice cap visible as a thin line of white in the far distance. No plasma fields were there to block their view from the SPU. There was no Blastline, no Sea of Death, it really was another world!
Dimensional Transfer Com- Warning, Tower stability compromised. Warning, Orgel power supply at 0%, connection lost.
Right as Shurelia registered that they had landed in the middle of an ocean, the floor shook.
"Tower tilt at 0.5 degrees! Emergency stabilization!"
Warning, Plasma Bell emergency discharge imminent. Upper Section stability thrusters activated.
"The base of the tower is in the middle of the ocean! Transfer did not place us at the bottom! Landing in 3!"
Shurelia shook against the safety straps of her chair as the SPU shook violently, one hand grasping Frelia's across the gap between their arm rests. She could feel the shockwaves travelling through the Tower as it underwent a sudden elevation change. She could feel the automatic systems fighting to keep the Tower upright.
The Tower was part of her after all.
With a load roar, the Tower foundations settled onto the sea bed, sending shockwaves racing outwards on the ocean's surface.
Warning, Tower integrity compromised in Lower Section.
Shouts and warnings began to fill the air in the SPU while Shurelia closed her eyes to better concentrate on the Tower's systems. The Plasma Bell was trying to both correct the tilt of the Tower while still compensating for the sudden height correction of the Wings of Horus, and suffering overload warnings. The Upper Section of the Tower had thrusters that needed adjustment, both to follow the tilt of the Tower as well as avoid sliding out of alignment with the Frozen Eye and the Middle Section. Some parts of the foundation that had received the greatest shock were receiving integrity warnings.
Long minutes passed as her mind raced around the Tower, fighting the problems that had cropped up everywhere at once. All throughout the Tower, Tenba, Elemia and Platina personnel fought with her, along with the emergency power sent from Metafalica and the Wings of Horus where the Reyvateils had started their chorus.
In a feat of cooperation so rarely seen on their war torn world, all the peoples fought together to keep the Tower standing, to stay alive.
Tower stability restored. Plasma Bell integrity warning, output at 64%. Upper Tower stability thrusters deactivated. Lower Section integrity warning, structural stress at 20% of safe limits. Warning, Orgel power supply at 0%, connection lost. 315 critical warnings remain, 11 561 non-critical warnings remain.
Shurelia opened her eyes and wiped away the sweat running down her forehead. That half an hour of ensuring the Tower did not collapse was not the hardest thing she had ever done, but it was close.
The Wings of Horus had lost significant altitude, now resting some distance below the Plasma Bell instead of above it. The outlying detached islands had been dropped. But the main continent was still flying. The Plasma Bell had suffered further damage, they were lucky the shock had only reduced output by as little as it had. The Tower foundations needed to be checked for serious problems, however unlikely that was. The damage was great, but they had survived.
"Reboot Tower Infrastructure Systems," she commanded.
EXEC_RE=NATION
Basic Infrastructure System reboot. Warning, Orgel power supply at 0%, connection lost. Plasma Bell online, integrity warning, output at 64%. Musical Corridor online, integrity warning, output at 85%. Grathnode Discs power supply connected, warning verification error, no feedback received. Service Infrastructure System reboot. Parameno Discs activation, warning Parameno Discs already activated. Quantizer online. Silver Horn online. Observatory online. Collision warning!
"Incoming orbital impactor to Observatory! Sol Marta meteor defence firing!"
A flash from above as a coruscating beam of light, pencil thin at its minimum power level, shot off into the distance. There was no feedback from the target of course, the distance was too great to see with the naked eye.
"Observatory reports orbital debris destroyed. "
Leard shot off an order, "start an analysis of the orbitals. That object's orbital path was circular. And someone tell Tenba to send an airship to pick up the debris. "
"Sir! Tenba is saying they're detecting lower order harmonics in the atmosphere! It's not Symphonic Power but has complex bands and patterns! They're beginning analysis now but they think it's artificial!"
The command center went silent.
This planet already had intelligent life on it.
"The shockwave!" Shurelia would have shot out of her seat if she wasn't still strapped in. The shockwave travelling through the ocean from their impact would flood all the coastlines when it reached them! "We have to stop it!"
Leard turned to her, "how? We don't have enough power to push the Plasma Bell's field out far enough. The wave is... seventy thousand stons away by now according to the Musical Corridor sensors. "
"We can tune Tower Connection to remove heat! Freeze a barrier to stop the wave!"
He just looked at her, "certainly the Tower broadcast range will reach that distance but we don't have enough symphonic power to use Tower Connection. "
"Then I'll ask for the power! A large enough chorus will be able to boost the available power temporarily. " Shurelia might have later explained that she felt that greeting the natives with a massive tsunami was not the best of introductions but at the time, all she had wanted to do was save lives.
He gestured behind his back at Sasha sitting at her station who immediately started typing away. The genius inventor spoke up a few seconds later, "you need maybe 29% of all the reyvateils. 35% to be safe. "
Shurelia glared at Leard, Frelia beside her, who merely matched the gazes of the two Administrators calmly before nodding. "Do it," he said and a flurry of messages went out from the communication stations to all parts of the Tower where the people were still sheltering.
The combined chorus, just starting to relax from the exhausting dimensional transfer and stabilization of the Tower, was suddenly asked to continue singing again. Complaints and confusion arose but gradually, the reyvateils took up the song again.
It took agonizing minutes of waiting, but eventually, Shurelia could feel the power building up in the grathnode discs as the Tower wide chorus began.
The shattered Grathnode Discs might be unresponsive to Tower commands, but they still served as symphonic power projection devices despite their damage. Now, without a Blastline to shade it, the glow of a Tower Connection shone with the roar of a hundred thousand voices. A rising star visible from a good quarter of the planet.
A beam of power, dwarfing the anti-meteoroid defence of Sol Marta. Piercing through the cloud of Grathnode Disc fragments, the beam swept around in a circle 300 kilometers across. Everywhere it touched, ocean water flashed into ice, the slanted barrier of jagged ice stretching from the surface down to the seafloor. Then before the wave could reach it, the beam swept out again, freezing a second barrier behind the first, trapping the shockwave between them.
Many minutes later, the massive shockwave hit the outer circle and shattered it. Ice crumbled and broke apart into massive icebergs that were swept outwards by the wave's power. However, the force of the tsunami was broken and reflected. The rebound hit the inner circle and the same shattering happened, only less furious. The floating ice churned in the fury of the ocean and was not impressed. Spent and broken, the massive wave subsidized into a less dangerous series of smaller rebounds.
Back in the Tower SPU, Shurelia collapsed with relief.
The people were safe. They could start much needed repairs to the Tower and deal with the world. Later.
"Administrator, unauthorized hacking attempt detected at Dividing Gate B Zero. "
Oh what now...
"Oi! There's a light?"
"What the hell is that?!"
"Oh my god, did it just shoot a beam?"
"Aliens?!"
The strange pillar of light that appeared in the early afternoon was all anyone could talk about. High in the sky, in the general direction of southwest, the light was visible from his London office window. The light must be visible across all of the British isles and most of Europe. The manager sighed to himself, there would be no salvaging this meeting. Not that he had high hopes for cooperation from the oil companies anyway.
When the diffuse glare died down, the sky went back to looking just like it always had been.
What in the world could that be? That was probably the foremost question on everyone's minds.
Very little work got done for the rest of the day, both in the company and everywhere across London and probably the world. The radio and TV were doing emergency broadcasts, telling the people not to panic and that the government would handle it.
Hours later, just before dinner time in London, the first special news was beginning to go out across the world.
Yes, it was aliens. There was now what looked like a tower that was over a hundred kilometers tall, all the way to low orbit, situated in the middle of the Atlantic at the equator. On arrival, the aliens had apparently shot down a weather satellite that was too close to their tower and then "claimed" a 300 kilometer radius of ocean around their tower by freezing the perimeter. The resulting ice floes in the equator was disrupting ship traffic between South America and Europe, one ship had already sunk from collision with an iceberg where icebergs were never expected.
That tower also somehow output massive energy in radio and microwaves at all frequencies, energy that was akin to the power consumption of a large human city. The radio static across the entire planet had increased significantly and radio communications and radar were disrupted in a huge spot close to five hundred kilometers in radius. It was suspected that close to the tower, the radio energy would be so great that electronic equipment not hardened against EMP attack would simply fail.
Naval and air taskforces from NATO were scrambling to investigate. Russian and Chinese forces were a little too far away, but Russia had dispatched a few ships anyway. No one knew what the aliens were, or what they wanted. There was speculation that the nuclear arsenals might be employed if the aliens proved to be hostile.
However, the one thing that stuck in everyone's mind was the final picture the weather satellite had sent.
There was a flying landmass close to the tower. One the size of a small country. Just hovering in the air around ten kilometers from the sea surface. As if gravity was an afterthought.
And if the aliens could float a piece of land the size of a country and freeze oceans at a whim, just what else could they do?
The International Confederation of Wizards was in emergency session.
A few hours prior to the arrival of the Tower, magical sensors all across the world had started going haywire. Even devices that were normally only local detectors were picking up spurious signals and the more magically sensitive animals were agitated and hard to control. Many potential breaches to the Statute of Secrecy had resulted, quite a few were severe, and the magical interference was only increasing. The only saving grace was that the muggles were completely oblivious to this.
The disturbance was quickly resolved to a particular spot in the middle of the Atlantic, but the only thing the best cursebreakers had been able to tell was that something was trying to travel to that spot. Something big. Huge. Enormous. Titanic.
One of them had been quoted in the report, "You normally can't tell a portkey is being used from the destination. But imagine someone turning Britain into a massive portkey. That's how big it is. It's impossible to miss. "
The poor man had no idea his words would be immortalized in history and newspapers afterwards.
It wasn't that simple of course, the portkey zone was far too huge, hundreds of kilometers across. And the magical traces were baffling, containing patterns and pulses that made everyone who examined it think of songs. Only everyone disagreed on what the song was. Whatever the spell was, was inefficient but also genius in its construction. Just the examination of some of the arithmancy was enough to make academic careers.
After the build up was suspected of becoming too great to allow Apparition, everyone had been removed from the area.
At precisely 2 hours, 22 minutes and 22 seconds past GMT noon, the magical interference had built into an overwhelming crescendo that had magical governments shutting down their accidental magic detection networks due to the flood of false alarms rendering them useless. Several poorly designed wards overloaded or fired their defenses mistakenly. The Tower arrived.
And not just arrived, but also arrived in an unmistakably magical fashion. The Tower's very existence was magical, from it's impossible floating continent to the huge structured ward boundary that worked like a massive complicated Bubblehead charm. The observers had panicked at the sight and the sheer magical pressure that the Tower was exerting.
Indeed, even all the way in Britain, the accidental magic detection leyline grid in the ministry was still picking up odd flares. The Tower was exuding magic across a significant portion of the world, its zone of influence stretched from the middle of the USA to over most of Europe. Virtually all of South America and Africa was within its zone.
Some more superstitious magicals had wondered if Avalon, or another mythical land, had reappeared.
There was no way to keep the Tower a secret. Warding such a huge structure was totally impossible even with the ridiculous magical energies the Tower itself was employing. It would be like trying to hide Europe. Even if successful, any Unplottability ward would still leave the muggles wondering about the huge hundred odd kilometer hole in their maps. Besides, the muggles had already seen it appear and fire its weapon, a huge portion of the world already knew of its existence.
The Statute of Secrecy was dead.
Any intelligent witch or wizard would be able to conclude that much, so of course the rest of the ICW was burying their heads in the sand and squabbling about what to do about the Tower. Not that any conclusion could be reached of course, since one satisfactory to the Warlocks, namely protecting the Statute, was impossible.
What was worse was that one group of the observation party had decided to try confronting the Tower and had apparated to it in direct contradiction of ICW orders.
They did not see what Albus had seen at the floating observation post. The Tower was not whole. It bore scars, damage and its magic, while strong compared to anything else on Earth, was wounded and full of grief. Fully trusting one's magical senses was foolish, but he was rather optimistic about its friendliness. After all, there was also a tenuous thread of hope. He had not mentioned this, knowing that it would be treated as just more of his battiness and old age.
Dumbledore sighed to himself at his podium, somewhat wishing that he hadn't accepted the Supreme Mugwump position all those years ago.
Background information:
The Planet Regeneration Project (AT3) has failed, Tyria is dead and the Tower of Harvestasha collapsed. What few refugees survived now exist on the 1st Tower. A plan is hatched to help everyone survive by transferring the 1st Tower to another world.
Metafalica (name of the land Infel Phira was turned into at the end of AT2) now supports the entirety of the Metafalss (AT2) population. Frelia and most of the 2nd Tower's vital functions have been moved to Metafalica and the entire Metafalica was moved to the 1st Tower. The 2nd Tower was then deconstructed to repair the 1st Tower as much as possible.
The Orgel of Origins (and Ar Ciel) is sacrificed in this dimensional transfer.
To power the 1st Tower's functions, all the Reyvateils are now connected through the Parameno Discs, which have been remodeled into the new Symphonic Linker module. Yes, this means they did engineering below the Sea of Death at very high cost.
Symphonic Linker provides power the same way Infel Phira provides power, only it is much more powerful as it draws from the entire reyvateil population, not just the IPDs. Shurelia is the Administrator for this, the same way Cloche is for Infel Phira.
Chorus mentioned here is a new function of the Symphonic Linker, a Song that does nothing but boost the power a reyvateil is contributing through the Symphonic Linker.
Symphonic Linker power means that all reyvateils feel a bit more exhausted as if they have been doing some singing, even if they have done nothing the whole day. Additionally, all reyvateils are under Song Magic rationing, as any Song Magic imposes a burden on the system that other reyvateils have to pay for. Major Tower actions like the Tower Connection beam, increasing Plasma Bell power, etc. all require at least some proportion of the total reyvateil population to sing in chorus.
A new Orgel could potentially be built from the fragments of their dimensional transfer, much the same way the original Orgel was built from the remnants of Ra Ciel Fusor. This would become important later as it would be the primary goal of the AT peoples.
The Tower lost 1 kilometer of height after the transfer due to the mountain that is its foundation sinking into the ocean.
AT non-canon (or unconfirmed) interpretations:
The 1st Tower is 110 km high. This places the Observatory in "space".
The Metafalica (Infel Phira) and Sol Marta satellites can hover through internal power.
The collected Dynamic H-waves provide sufficient power for not just Song Magic but also the Plasma Bell and Musical Corridor. This is obviously not the case for Infel Phira so this is a major non-canon thing.
Healing Song Magic that can raise in the game will work on the recently dead (a few seconds) that do not have special conditions.
Crossover interpretations:
The usual alien problems (disease, food, atmosphere) don't apply. Ar Tonelico biochemistry is assumed to be compatible with Earth's.
All of Ar Tonelico technology uses Symphonic Power. Electricity is employed as a power source, nothing more.
Earth does not have a Heart of the Land. This makes the planet much more stable than Ar Ciel, but also disables magical manipulation of the planet itself. The planet is in a magically neutral state, to do anything to it, you'll have to provide all the power instead of getting help from the Planet Wills.
The Tower appears mid-way through Harry's 1st Year. Events of AT1 & AT2 go more or less as canon.
Harry Potter magic is a lot like Teru magic in fundamentals, but can't be employed by each other. In essence, the Teru would be classified as magical non-humans by HP wizards.
Song Magic operates in the same domain as Harry Potter magic (Static H-waves = HP soul; Dynamic H-waves = HP magical energy), but the structure is completely different. Song Magic is fundamentally technological and would appear to Harry Potter wizards as essentially magitech. Insanely complicated, very inefficient and contains unneeded complexity. A bit like the difference between programming in assembler vs in a higher order language.
The same applies to Grathmelding in comparison to HP enchanting. Grathmelding is mediated through the Silver Horn and thus also a technologically guided process.
HP magic is much faster than Song magic, but any individual Reyvateil can easily channel far more power than any HP wizard even in ritual. In many ways, HP magic can find a way to exploit gaps in Song magic defences given sufficient analysis (which could be hard!) but Song magic can be adjusted far more rapidly (even on the fly!) than HP wizards can craft spells. Since Song magic operates at a higher abstraction level than HP magic, HP magic can always find vulnerabilities; but Song magic is much easier to change, being sing and wish hard.
Ar Tonelico peoples are not significantly hardier than Earth peoples, meaning they're like muggles. HP wizards thus enjoy a certain level of physical robustness advantage compared to Ar Tonelico peoples (and reyvateils are even more fragile than most). On the other hand, Harmonics projects a forcefield when raised, this is the manifestation of hitpoints in the AT games, and that forcefield is far more powerful than shields cast by HP wizards plus also assists the benefactor's efforts. The greater feats in combat are all due to Harmonics. Harmonics can happen whenever a reyvateil recognizes an ally is present and tension increases above a low threshold. Weapons or combat are not required for Harmonics, just a sense of danger.
The Killing Curse is unblockable by any magical defence (including Harmonics, Song magic, etc.), indeed it will pass through a Song magic manifestation as if it wasn't there. It will kill you if it hits (but the note on Healing Song Magic and raising applies). On the other hand, it's slow and you can always throw a cloak at it.
Powerful wizards like Dumbledore and Voldemort would be roughly evenly matched a regular reyvateil in power output (but far faster in speed and precision). Any reyvateil who has progressed to L5 or higher in the cosmosphere (True Self worlds) would be more powerful than any wizard on Earth.
HP wizards do not get exhausted by casting normal spells (any more than chanting and waving a stick might for anyone else), special spells might demand more from the caster. Reyvateils recover their energy relatively quickly when not singing too.
Reyvateils are not innately magical. Indeed, none of the Ar Tonelico people will be wizards and likewise, none of the Earth people would be Reyvateils. At least until crosses happen.
Spoilers since continuation not guaranteed:
Certain plot important Harry Potter magical artifacts, especially the sort that are unreproducible, are actually Sound Science devices. Eg. the Philosopher's Stone, Veil of Death, and the Deathly Hallows.
(Philosopher's Stone in particular is the core of a generalized D-Wave converter, and is actually able to transmute anything into anything else with sufficient power)