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As a fair warning, from here on out, things aren't going to be so pleasant for Harry and Hermione anymore, they've had it pretty easy so far, and this is where the 'meat and potatoes' of the story really starts.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I've just taken them and dropped them into a hellish future with little resources, and now, even less hope.
Chapter 10 Now the Gloves Come Off
My companions are silent. I doubt Selena knows what I'm talking about when I mention that name, but I can almost hear the cogs turning in Hermione's mind, like a well oiled machine. A sense of disbelief floods me. I can't believe he'd do this; as evil as he is, as dark as some of the acts he's committed have been... He swore he'd never bring another one into the world, not after last time.
Rage replaces the disbelief. I throw my head back and roar in anger and a wave of pure magical hatred boils from my hands, obliterating a path before me nearly ten feet wide, and a hundred long. The trees rip up and disintegrate, I extinguish the lives of over a dozen animals in less than a second, but for all my power, it pales in comparison to what I'd need to end the Abomination once more.
A sob escapes my lips as the power tapers off and disappears, my arms fall, burning in pain and smoking but I don't care. A tear escapes my eye and I wipe it away harshly. I feel Hermione crouch behind me and wrap her arms around me. "It's not fair Mione, after what that thing did last time... I don't know if I can stop it again."
"Harry... what is it?" I feel her shaking in fear, either from my reaction or that the thing was so awful it caused me to do it, I don't know. I reach up gently and squeeze her hands.
"The only time he ever summoned that thing before, countless deaths. Its a parasite Hermione, it feeds off of the life force of the living to draw strength, the more it feeds, the stronger it becomes. When I finally found it last time, it had drained the life of over two billion souls, nearly wiping out an entire race of people. It made it easy pickings for the Europeans when they colonized America, compared to what it would have been anyway." I stood on shaky legs and turned to face them both. Selena had fallen, pale and looking scared at what I had done, and I immediately regretted my outburst. "The last time I stopped it, I killed myself in the process. I had to channel so much power... I burnt up. There was nothing left of me, and then, I'd just barely managed to stop it. I can do incredible things with magic Mione, but what I had to do to get the power to end it... I can't do that again." I clammed up, not wanting to explain anymore, not wanting her to look at me differently, if she'd known what I'd had to do...
"The next time I saw him, the next time I woke up, he apologized Hermione, he fucking apologized. I didn't realize it at the time, but the thing's first act in this world was to kill its summoner, He didn't stand a chance, the ritual to summon such a monstrosity had nearly drained him completely. One enemy gone, but something far worse left in his wake. He told me he thought he could guide it, like a missile. It detonated like a bomb instead, right in his face." I shook myself a little, feeling my energy return. "That he's done it again, well, things don't look good. He's found a way to control it, it mentioned a master, that alone scares the hell out of me. I just don't understand, he's always wanted to rule the world, came damn close to it on a few occasions, but to be this desperate? I just don't fucking understand."
I was quiet then, Selena regained her footing but was watching me warily. "What happens now? Is Malaki really dead now? Or just turned into that thing?"
I turned sharply, catching her by surprise, and looked her in the eye. "To summon it. There must be a willing sacrifice, a brethren of the undead. The most common being werewolves and vampires. They must go through a ritual that removes their natural weaknesses, and increases their power. Then they much die in combat with the summoner's worst enemy. The abomination is born from the corpse of the sacrifice." My own voice sounds hollow in my ears, a passage I memorized from a book eons ago, when I first had to encounter this thing. "It is an arch demon, given physical form." I rub my eyes and motion at Selena. "For all his faults... Tom has always wanted to rule the world, never destroy it completely. That is what this thing does. It just destroys, everything.
"We need to get you back to your people, let them know what happened here. And have them pray." after a few moments of awkward silence Selena motioned for us to follow her. The least I could do was make sure she got home safely, after that, no one was safe any longer. We walked in silence, Hermione reached out and took my hand as we walked and I squeezed it. I guess she wasn't going to let my outburst bother her.
We walked for nearly an hour before anyone said a thing. The deeper into the forest we went, the quieter it seemed to be. Selena stopped after a while and looked back at the two of us. "I'll go alone from here. Its not much farther, and there are certain people that wouldn't be to happy to find out I'd brought outsiders with me."
I frowned. "I know what you've seen is horrible. And I'm sorry for what happened to your... friend. I'd much prefer it if we could escort you the whole way. I'll take responsibility over any anger. Besides, I thought you were something of a leader to them."
She shrugged. "I am the figure head for one of the prominent families on the council, but I'm just one voice in many." She seemed to think about it for a moment before answering. "If you want to take me the whole way then fine. But I did warn you."
I nod my head and we started walking again. Its very quiet in this part of the forest. I don't know if its because we're close to the Lycan's camp, or if the animals are all still scared over what happened in their home not so long ago. Either way its disconcerting.
Hermione spoke to me in a soft voice as we walked. "Harry, I want you to start teaching me magic. Like the kind you used on that thing back there." I nearly stopped walking, but kept my footing.
"You are a very powerful witch Mione. I know you could learn it. It isn't easy, and like with all things, there is a price to pay for using it." She was quiet as I explained. "It can burn you out. That kind of power is very dangerous. You have to know your magic, your body, inside and out, before you try channeling it through yourself like I do. I will teach you if you want, but I suggest you think about it carefully first. At the very least I promise to get you up to speed on wandless magic. Its always handy if you happen to get disarmed."
She nodded and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Harry, how did you beat that thing last time? I know you said it... killed you. But what did you do exactly?"
I'm quiet for some time. I don't want to tell her the complete truth, I'm afraid she'd leave me if I did. "I found a way to boost my own power, sort of like a ritual but not exactly. I used it right before I fought it the last time. When I saw that I couldn't kill it with what my body could handle... I just used it all, I poured everything I had into myself, and detonated. I wiped out an area five miles wide, and incinerated the beast along with it."
She was quiet for some time, just looking at her feet as we walked before turning back to me. She leaned up and gave me a kiss on the cheek, and smiled with watering eyes. "You're the bravest man alive Harry, probably the bravest there's every been." I smile at her, it warms me to hear her say it. Even if I don't agree.
We're in the forest for around twenty minutes longer before the trees break into a large clearing. A tall fence of wood outlines the compound, each of the posts topped with a point. Many dwellings can be seen between the gaps, all of them made of wood. Fires burn as people go about cooking and their daily chores. I can hear children laughing as they play and I smile. Such thoughts give me strength against the darkness that's to come.
We approach the main gates, and with a little magic I hide Hermione and myself from the guards. Just to make things easier on us. Selena looks like she's about to argue to get us in and stops in puzzlement as the guards seem to pay us no attention. I motioned her inside and Hermione and I followed.
We walk through the twisting paths between the houses, the smell of smoking meats and dried vegetables floats around us. It is a pleasant place. We stop at one of the larger houses and walk inside with Selena. She looks at us as she starts to prepare a fire. "this is my home, and we will defend it valiantly if that thing arrives." She looks at both of us warily. I don't believe I've made a friend from her.
"I don't know if I should thank you for your help or not. I'd almost be happier not knowing what now stalks the Earth." She sinks down on a wicker chair and sighs, holding her face in her hands. "Just kill this thing, if you can, kill it." She doesn't beg me, doesn't plead. Merely asks.
I nod my head. "I will do all I can to stop it. I just needed to make sure you got home safe, after everything you've been through today." She nods at me and stretches in the chair, looking exhausted. I pull something out from one of my pockets. Its a simple mirror, no bigger than my palm, and it has a red wooden frame. "If you need us, or if that thing comes here, hold the mirror up to your face and say my name."
She took it and looked at it curiously, before turning back to me with a genuine smile on her face. "Thank you, now, go on home. I have much to do, and a family to break the news of death to."
Hermione and I nod to her one last time, A sad smile on Mione's lips. We grasp hands, holding onto each other like our lives depend on it, and apparate away.
As soon as we reappeared I knew something was wrong. It had come here. Dark rolling smoke blotted out the sun over the small walled village, screaming and the crackling of fire fought to drown each other out. I looked at Hermione and the two of us sprinted towards the chaos. I didn't pause to try to open the gates, I raised both of my hands and made a wrenching motion, ripping them wide open and off their hinges. The smoke that billowed out of the new opening was thick, near impossible to see through, and acrid, burning our eyes and throats.
"Get Daniel! I think that thing is still here, we might need to use him like a battery, he doesn't know much, but he's powerful. We can use his energy if we have to!" Hermione nodded, slipping into the old role of following orders in a war zone. I just hoped she didn't realize I was trying to get her out of the way. It was already close by. With a shout, power flooded my veins and I raised both hands over my head, twisting them and causing a wind so fierce it tore away most of the smoke, like a hurricane of anger.
My body burned and I felt my muscles bulge under the strain of harnessing so much magic. I hated channeling this type of power, ancient, primordial, not for mortal souls. If I wasn't careful I could burn myself up and blow away in a pile of ash; but I had little choice anymore. I'd need every ounce I could take to drive this thing away.
My hair floated from static, bolts of plasma, pure magical exhaust, sparked and danced around me in an aura of magic. As the smoke cleared I let the wind die down, hopefully it was strong enough to put out most of the fires. A woman ran screaming across the street, bloody and missing half her face. She almost made it into a doorway when the monster struck. Fast as a bolt of lightning, the disgusting abomination jumped on her and pushed her into the dirt. With a single bite it tore off her head, grinning wickedly as it swallowed it, its throat stretching grotesquely. It licked its lips and noticed me.
Channeling primordial magic does odd things to one's senses. Normally I'd have to concentrate to sense someone's life force, but with my body and magic in such a heightened state, I could literally see the thing's magic. Like a black hole, sucking all the light from around it. Always hungry and ready to feed. How could you do this Tom? How could you summon another one after last time?
"Greetings old one. You returned sooner than I anticipated." It stood, the molted gray skin stretched over powerful cords of muscles and protruding bone. "No matter. My master has made it clear to me. I am to end you." It smiled then, and was upon me.
In less time than it took to blink, the Abomination was right in front of me, and swiped out with a glowing claw, charged with some dark curse designed to spread rot and infection. I stepped back as fast as I could, pushing my reflexes and was rewarded when the attack missed by a hair's width. The aura of magic around me pooled and focused in my hands as I pushed out a ball of light and heat nearly equal to the sun. The beast spun and my attack just nicked its shoulder causing it to burn and smoke. It shrugged off the injury that was already healing and opened its mouth. A spray of needle like spikes of ice screamed towards me like buck shot. I raised a shield of fire, melting the ice before I transfigured the liquid into a ball of spikes an spinning blades and sent it back at the monstrosity.
I was either lucky, or it was still weak from its summoning, but the beast took it full on the chest and snarled in pain. The claws on its right hand elongated and shot outwards, strait towards me. I twisted, dodging a few and summoned a shield to deflect more, but one of them by passed my defenses and imbedded itself into my left shoulder. My arm went numb instantly and felt lifeless. It had hit a nerve and deadened the entire limb. I saw it smile and knew then that it had done it on purpose. It came at me again, casting magic from its hands and mouth at close range as it swiped at me, attacking me both physically and magically at the same time.
With one of my arms out of commission until I had a chance to remove that claw I was forced onto the defense. I shielded and blocked, dove and twisted out of the way of everything it through at me, trying desperately to counter attack as best as I could. A sword of flame sprung to life in my right hand and I raised it block another attack, feeling a slight amount of satisfaction that I'd burned the monster, causing a finger to fall to the ground before crumbling to black sand.
Loosing the appendage distracted it for just long enough for me to pull the spike from me arm. Sensation returned instantly, along with it came pain. It hurt so bad I nearly fell to my knees as It took my breath away. I poured healing magic into the wound but it was slow work. The abomination took the opportunity to kick me in the teeth, busting both my lips and tearing a gouge under my left eye with its clawed foot. It pounced on me. It looked into my eyes as it dug its claws into my side, drawing blood and a scream from my lips as it smiled. "You have grown weak in your old age. Yet I am still strong." Its breath was terrible, sulfur and putrid meat. I gathered a wad of spit in my mouth and hocked it into the beast's eye, transfiguring the bloody saliva into acid halfway to the target. It roared, grabbing at its face as the bile like substance ate away at it's eye. I kicked it in the chest with magically fueled muscles, sending it sprawling in the dirt. I heaved myself into a sitting position, gasping in pain at the wounds in my side. Luckily it tended to be sadistic, enjoying the torture and liking to draw it out, sparing me from any internal injuries.
I staggered to my feet and grit my teeth. It was still on its back but would recover in seconds. It healed phenomenally fast, the eye would be good as new in no time at all. I raised both my arms, weak from fighting and injury. Weak from channeling such magics. In my left hand, lightning swirled and crackled, in my right, a dark green fire with the ghosts of monsters formed. I brought them both together and yelled as the swirling elemental attack leapt forward with enough force to make me stumble.
At the last second it rolled away, nothing but its right arm getting caught in the blast. It jumped to its feet. I panted from exhaustion, running on fumes and shacking. The thing looked at the stump where its arm once was, almost as if it were studying some interesting animal. And then it smiled at me, both eyes healed. With barely a grunt, bone muscle and sinew grew from the stump, weaving together to form a new, whole arm. I felt my shoulders sag. It had been toying with me from the beginning. It appeared before me in another blink, and held up both of its hands, catching me in an invisible net of magic.
"You have taken one of my hands, so I shall take one of yours." I fought and struggled, trying to get loose but I couldn't. I was afraid if I channeled anymore of this magic through me that I might burn up from it. I'd be no good to anyone if I were dead. It ran a long nail down my arms, almost gently and grabbed my left hand. It smiled out me, revealing three rows of strained pointed teeth, and grasped my forearm with its other hand. Then It began to pull.
I grit my teeth, trying to hold in a scream, but I couldn't. The pain made me delirious. The pulling as my tendons snapped, the grinding crunch of bone, and the sound, the sound may have been the worst of all. I had lost a limb before, several times throughout the eons. But never had one been torn clean off my body.
Nausea rolled in my stomach as with one last wet pop, the whole hand came free. Blood squirted from the wound in small jets that matched my rapidly beating heart. I was dazed, and in so much pain, my entire left arm ached, up to the shoulder, and my brain insisted that my hand was doused in rolling flame, even though it wasn't there at all.
With a grin the Abomination tossed my hand up into air and opened its mouth. He swallowed it in one bite, the bastard even licked his lips. "Mmm, a bit tough, like old leather." It laughed and let go of me, apparently content to let me bleed to death. I lost my lunch at the sight of it eating my hand, and had coated the ground in front of me in sickness. I felt dizzy, confused. Very fuzzy. I was losing to much blood... to much.
I turned my head, watching it squirt out of my stump, trying to will my hand back into existence. The beast approached once more, smiling wickedly at me. "You are finished old one. Lay down your sword, you have lost." That gave me an idea...
I counted by half seconds, trying to time it just right. As my blood rushed out of me I pumped it full as much magic as I could, and changed it. It solidified, still attached to my stump and looped back around in on itself, forming a twisting red blade that reconnected back to the bloody ruin of my wrist. With one last yell of defiance I pushed against the magic holding me and my left arm broke free. I swung with all the strength I had left.
The monster's eyes widened in surprise as the blade connected at its right temple and traveled strait through, severing the top of its head. It fell backwards twitching and the magic holding me up let go. I dropped into a heap, mindful not to impale myself on the crude blade I'd forged out of desperation. I was spent, between the fight earlier today and this, I didn't know if I could even move, much less stand.
The beast wasn't dead. It took a lot more than that to kill it. But I had bought myself some time. "Hermione! Where are you!?" For a moment I heard nothing. The battle felt like it had taken ages, but I suspect less than ten minutes had went by. People were still panicking, but most of them had fled now. The one's that hadn't were staring open mouthed. If I'd had the energy I'd have smacked every one of them.
"Harry!, I'm here, Daniel was hurt, but I think he'll be fine, just knocked out, is the thing still-" She rounded the corner of the street just behind me and I heard her stop in her tracks. "My god! Harry what happened?!" She ran up to me an knelt down beside me. "What happened to your hand?! Where's the Abomination?" I pointed in front of me. She'd been so distracted at my injuries she'd scarcely noticed the demon twitching in the dirt; the top of its head and brain already starting to grow back.
"I don't have the time right now Hermione. I'm spent and that thing will be up and stand any second now. We have to get it away from here before it recovers!" She paused for only the smallest moment before hefting a rock and casting a spell on it. She threw it right at the monster as it glowed blue and in a flash the beast was gone.
I sagged after that, finally relaxing now that the immediate danger was over. I collapsed in the dirt, lying out completely, feeling dizzy and faint. "W-where did you.. send it?" She ran a hand over my abused face frowning.
"To the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. I hope it can't swim." That nearly made me laugh.
"You're brilliant... you know that? I'd have never thought of a portkey." She smiled down at me and turned towards my stump, where the blood blade was still attached.
"Your poor hand... what happened Harry?" She examined my arm closely and pulled out her wand, wanting to fix any damage that she could.
"Bugger bit the thing off. Said I was chewy. You believe that? Nasty bastard..." My vision was starting to fade and a pleasant numbness washed over me where ever Hermione touched me with her wand.
"Hush now, save your strength. Me and you will be having a talk about making me leave you alone to fight that thing when you get up." He look was stern but warm, and I swear I saw tears pooling in her eyes.
I just nodded my head, knowing I'd be getting an earful when I awoke, and tried to relax as I floated away in darkness.
Well, there you go everybody. Chapter 10. I know not a whole lot happened but we got a bit more information on the nasty bastard that's now roaming the Earth. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Next time we'll have a bit of a time skip, then things start to get really interesting.
Until Next time folks,
-Harkon.