Here is the 31st full chapter in Book 5, released on time as promised. This is it, the climax to Duty, the final great battle for Avatar Harry, and the last of the series is now upon us. There isn't much more to say to get y'all ready for what is to come so I will leave this pre chapter note off here and as there isn't anything to respond to that means that it time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the 31st full installment of Avatar: The Tale of Harry. Book 5: Duty.

Disclaimer: As always I own nothing related to these two great works of fiction.

Chapter 31

"Was it worth it?" Harry asked as all the airbending died down and the only sounds were the chaos of the battle raging all around them could be heard over their conversation. "Well? Was all this worth it Ekrizdis? All this death, all this destruction, this desecration of a nation committed to peace and nonviolence, was it worth ending like this with the worst battle in an Air Temple since Ghazan destroyed the Northern Air Temple?"

"You wouldn't understand Avatar." Ekrizdis said and Harry could hear a mix of pain and resignation in his voice. "I knew you wouldn't, but I had try back at Azkaban. You showed me that you were what I expected. Since then and the start you this war that you and Luna began I've studied your history so as to understand why you wouldn't get that I was only defending the Air Nomads as is my job as the Ekrizdis. From that I learned a lot about you."

"What?" Harry asked. "What did you learn?"

"You're just like all the Avatars of the past." Ekrizdis said. "You're a self-righteous asshole who forces the world to confirm to his views while calling those of us who disagree with you the very things you are, an authoritarian tyrant who always believes that he is right. The power of the Avatar is unquestioned, and many have done great good for the world, including yourself, but at the same time you are still human, you are limited by your own views of the world, and you use your near unmatched power to force them on those who have better and contradictory ones."

"Rationalization." Harry said realizing what Ekrizdis was doing and not giving into it. "You all do it at this point, well the leaders at least do. You know the end in nigh, but you still hold out hope that I'll accept your bullshit or twisted views and if not take your chances against me because you have no way out and would rather die than surrender to me. It's happened in the past and seeing as you've studied my history you should know how that has played out."

"True, the last 3 times this has happened has resulted in two losing their bending and your own son dead by your hand and impaled to an ice sheet." Ekrizdis said. "Though now you are an old man and still limited by the wounds that the Princeps forced you to take in order to defeat him. I think I have a good chance against you compared to a blood mad psychopath, a delusional girl who thought she was much better than she was, and a great metalbender who believed his might and relation to you would carry the day. I am none of those, I am the Ekrizdis, the greatest airbender in the world and holder of secrets about airbending that you can't comprehend. I will defeat you Avatar should you attack me."

"I may not be what I was when I was younger." Harry admitted. "But I am still the Avatar, and you can't beat me when I am at my full power."

"Perhaps but if I can't convince you then I know we will attack me because of your ignorance and desire to fit the world into your own little box." Ekrizdis said with a shrug. "So, for once, open your mind and accept things my way because unlike all the others mine are actually right."

"I understand your views Ekrizdis, more so than most of my enemies' ones in the past." Harry said still maintaining his cool with the man for the moment. "You have a claim, one with more validity than the others ever had, and you represent something we all thought impossible. You are an airbender of old, one who can trace his bending to the days of the old nomads back when airbending was as prevalent as the other elements, back before the genocide of your people. You could have done so much good, but you were stuck in the past and twisted things because of that. Isolation can do that to a person. I'm not surprised that after 300 years you are not what the old nomads once were."

"I am still what they are." Ekrizdis said and Harry could hear the anger come into his voice. "I represent all that they did. That is why I am the one who should lead the Air Nomads because I am the successor to their legacy, I am a true airbender unlike Remus, Luna or Davies."

"If you remembered the old ways you'd know that there never was a leader." Harry said showing that he too knew the history of the Air Nomads. "You're not the only one who has studied this. I have as well, for many years and since the start of this war I have looked over the records more than ever before. You think Aang didn't restore what he could in his day? You think that nothing survived Sozin? Plenty did and the Air Nation was built on that foundation but adapted for the modern world in the wake of Harmonic Convergence and streamlined once the numbers began to return."

"I know what we once were before Sozin wiped us out." Ekrizdis said darkly. "I know how the cardinal Temples worked, how accepting we were of everything and everyone, how child rearing worked, how the Temples were run and segregated by gender, all of it. The Ekrizdis is the keeper of this knowledge so that it can be reimplemented when we return and then the old ways can be fully restored but you wouldn't let it happen."

"What was there to let happen?" Harry asked. "So, the Temples are co-ed now, they have been for centuries even before Harmonic Convergence with the acolytes that chose to live there, you know, the people who chose to embrace the Air Nomad way of life despite not being airbenders and helped restore the culture by finding many once lost records. Sure, plenty is still lost but with the help of the acolytes Aang restored the Temples to what they were with their Councils the way they used to be. He just adapted it to the modern world to allow for families and mixed Temples. Tenzin just added to it after Harmonic Convergence when airbending returned."

"The acolytes are an abomination, only true airbenders can be nomads." Ekrizdis spat out showing that he wasn't as tolerant as the nomads of yesteryear were. "I am glad they helped but their presence is sacrilege us. I can accept some change like the Temples being mixed, that was a policy the first Ekrizdis opposed and for good reason but that was a compromise that was needed for us to survive. The Archabbot, the Conclave, the way the appointments work, those are aberrations to what we nomads stand for. That is not what the nomads are about. That isn't freedom."

"No, it's modernization." Harry said. "Because even today the Air Nation is still recovering from what Sozin did to it. It can't be what it once was, not even with Harmonic Convergence or the exiles returning. Add in the many who didn't join the Air Nation after getting airbending and passed it on to later generations and it was a clusterfuck. There needed to be a centralized authority, a figure who could lead with the wisdom of age and understood the way of life while also allowing airbenders to do what they want. Tenzin knew this when he set about rebuilding. Jinora understood though she was focused on education as well. Milo was the one who fully codified it for modern times."

"Bit rich an earthbender lecturing me on change." Ekrizdis said with a scoff in his voice. "Your nation is known for its stubborn refusal to do so."

"For the most part yes and I myself am guilty of conserving what works because why break what isn't broken but if something has to change then it should." Harry said. "That is what the Air Nation did under Milo. He realized a need to properly sort it out so that when he died there was a way to continue it beyond his family line and give the nation back to the airbenders who restored it. Filius built on that when he became Archabbot and even with the Principate War Remus too helped continue that legacy. Then you came and fucked it all up with your way of seeing things. How is this the Air Nomad way of life?"

"All you had to do was accept me as the restorer I am and let me bring the Air Nomads truly back and none of this would have happened." Ekrizdis retorted angrily and with the zeal of a true zealot. "I was born to do this; I was the youngest master in history and wise beyond my years. This is why I was elected Ekrizdis despite my age. I am the future, I am the one who was destined to reveal us, to bring us truly back. However, Remus didn't accept that. That is why he had to go."

"So, you did kill him." Harry said restraining his own rage at the admission that his father's last living friend and a man who was like an uncle to him had indeed been murdered. "You finally admit it."

"I didn't kill Remus." Ekrizdis said shaking his head. "I have never killed, I have never gotten my hands dirty like the tainted Black Airbenders, I have never started a fight, but I do end them in self-defense."

"No, you use that as a guise so that you can stay pure in your mind and justify your own actions so that you can continue to live the way a nomad should while ordering those who have already violated the philosophy to do your dirty work because their bending is already tainted in your mind." Harry said. "That is what the Black Airbenders are for, and you just admitted as much. They are not true airbenders so they can do what you can't do for your image or how you see your bending. That is why you had one kill Remus."

"Remus was an enemy combatant who declared war on me the moment he refused my generous offer." Ekrizdis said and Harry knew that the man was way to far gone for reason, he was almost as delusional as Hermione was, which was saying something given her delusions, and justifying his actions any way he could. "All I did was act in self-defense by removing a man who had started the first war in Air Nomad history. I felt that one death would save countless others when I was elected at Conclave and could restore the Air Nomads to what they once were so yes, I had Insomnus legal kill Remus under the laws of war."

"If that is what you have to say to justify your actions to yourself and others then so be it but we both know you're smarter than that." Harry said. "You knew that you had no hope at Conclave. The best you had was a stalled Conclave that led to a comprise for Wroxton, but Luna won despite the efforts of your puppets and faster than you expected."

"Yes it showed how deep the treason had gone that she won on the second ballot." Ekrizdis said. "And who was right and wrong in this conflict. All Luna did was continue the war that Remus began and now Davies is doing the same as the false claimant. All I ever did was act in self-defense. The death and destruction around you was brought by you and the blood is on your hands Avatar."

"You're delusional." Harry said bluntly. "You started this war by not accepting Remus's offer, by not adapting to the modern age, by ordering his assassination, and not doing the great good you could have done by bringing the Exiled Nomads back into the fold. You could have revealed yourself with peace, rejoined the Air Nation and the knowledge that you posses but you couldn't do that could you? No, you had to have things your way the way that Voldemort, Hermione, and James did when they tried to take what they wrongly believed to be theirs. You saw yourself as right and rather than work to make the world better little by little, you attacked to take over and force your views on others."

"And how is that different to you." Ekrizdis spat back. "You fought Voldemort because he disagreed with you. You took down Hermione because her views weren't yours. You killed your own son because you differed from him on what was best for the world. Yes those three turned out to be monsters who committed heinous crimes for philosophies that brough nothing but death and suffering to all they inflicted their views upon. In their cases you were right in taking them out, it is why you have done good Avatar, but as I've said, I am different. I am right and you didn't accept that, so you attacked me, and I responded in self-defense."

"I offered a compromise, multiple times as Remus did it before me and Luna did constantly during the war." Harry said shaking his head but knowing that it was no good with Ekrizdis, he wouldn't listen. "To bring you back, to give you a chance in time to become Archabbot, all of that but you didn't take it."

"I'd never take what wasn't right." Ekrizdis said angrily. "Only what is mine by right, but you never understood that because of those past enemies of yours who were in the wrong and thus made you think that I was as well despite the fact that I was always in the right."

"Voldemort was not my enemy, he was Korra's, and I was cleaning it up as was my duty." Harry said simply. "Hermione was an intolerant bigot who wanted everything her way and oppressed those who disagreed with even slightly with extreme violence so I did what I could, and I am still haunted by the nearly 2 million who died because I took 5 years to act, as well as the countless who suffered but survived under her. My son, he tried to take the world by force in his twisted philosophies on unity. They couldn't be reasoned with, and neither could you in the end because despite your claims you're just like them in your own right only with your own kind of zealotry just as they had their own kinds."

"I was perfectly reasonable; you were the one who couldn't accept what I was offering because you are blinded by past correct acts wrongly applied to me." Ekrizdis countered. "But I should have seen and the war you started coming."

"We didn't start this war; you did when you attacked the Southern Air Temple after your schism that Luna didn't oppose." Harry said. "And you are the one who has violated the Air Nomads by doing what was for millennia unthinkable to them. You, Ekrizdis XIII, started the first ever Airbending Civil War. The most peaceful nation in history, a nation so committed to non-violence that it ultimately led to their near destruction by a warmongering nation at the time, a nation that didn't know war and reviled any who killed even in self-defense, until you, the heir to that nation, started one. For two years, the longest conflict of my tenure, a war between airbenders and their proxies has been raging."

"And it wouldn't have happened if you had accepted what I had offered." Ekrizdis said clearly on the point of completely cracking. "Everything in this war is your fault, all I did was defend myself and all airbenders."

"Some fine defense you've managed there then." Harry said gesturing around him at the chaotic battle that was going on outside the little area they were currently in. "And really defensive attacking a Temple during a ceasefire and the most sacred Festival to all Air Nomads. There was just so much defense in the lives you took at the Western Air Temple and yes those who die on your orders are on you."

"I have showed how that attack was legal and within the bounds of the ceasefire, I was as always acting in self-defense of all airbenders, and I grieve for those you let die in the Western Air Temple because of your aggression." Ekrizdis said somehow going back to a calm demeanor that was eerie to Harry as it was starting to sound detached which wasn't good. "It is you who has violated the laws of war by attacking with the other World Leaders and thus conquered the Air Nomads illegally."

"I'll let the legal authorities of the independent tribunal that is being created for when this is over determine that after the war." Harry said. "I would thank you if it hadn't caused so much death because your actions allowed us to launch this attack, and we acknowledge that it is an attack to liberate the last occupied Temple, and thus beat you and bring you to justice. Look around Ekrizdis, you've lost. There is no way you can win that war. Surrender and I'll make sure you live."

"I'll never go to prison and the Air Nation doesn't have the death penalty, so you have no leverage over me." Ekrizdis said backing up to the edge of the entrance. "As such I will never surrender to you. I am and always will be the rightful leader of all airbenders even if you have taken what is mine by force today. It is time for me though. As Guru Laghima said, let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty and become wind."

With that Ekrizdis closed his eyes and let himself fall back and out of the tower. Harry's eyes went wide as he rushed to the edge to try and stop him, but he was too far away to have any hope. Everything he knew about this man did not indicate that he was a coward who'd take his own life. When Harry looked out and down his mouth fell open at the sight.

"You've taken my people from me Avatar, my last earthly tether has been severed so I have released it and unlocked the skill first discovered by Guru Laghima." Ekrizdis said from where he was floating in midair a few feet away and below the tower showing he had achieved flight. "If you want our final battle Avatar and a chance to kill me then it will be in my element."

With that Ekrizdis turned and flew off just as Harry sent a blast of fire at him that easily missed. Swearing, Harry backed up a little and ran at the opening before using earthbending on the ledged to launch himself into the air and after the fleeing Ekrizdis.

"I'm coming for you with all I got." Harry yelled as fire jets shot out of his feet and he propelled himself at Ekrizdis. "Unlike the others, you get it all you bastard."

With that Harry entered the Avatar State and the battle was on. Thankfully Korra had faced Zaheer like this, so he had an experience to work on as his power boosted and he tore after Ekrizdis, ripping apart an enemy hummingbird with his metalbending in the process.

Ekrizdis was flying to the north so Harry followed him. He had never understood how flight actually worked as Zaheer had never explained it after his second arrest while Dhillon, the only flyer Harry knew of in his own lifetime, had died in battle before he and Harry could ever meet. Harry was going to make sure that Ekrizdis didn't die however, and he intensified the fire from his feet, discarding his metal boots in the process to make things easier for his firebending, to close in on Ekrizdis.

As soon as Harry was in range, he whipped his right arm forward and sent out the metal wire from the spool on his right hip. The wire shot out, clipped the wing of a Northern Mercenary hummingbird sending it careening away to crash into one of its own allies in a fiery explosion, and continued until it reached Ekrizdis. With a flick of his wrist, Harry wrapped it around Ekrizdis's ankle. He had him and pulling his arm back he yanked Ekrizdis towards him.

Harry saw Ekrizdis turn in shock at the move before pulling something from inside his robes. With a flick of his wrist and a little airbending, Harry saw something flash past him and lodge in the mechanism of the spool.

Instantly it jammed and Harry looked down to see a needle like knife had hit it with pinpoint accuracy, almost certainly because of the airbending that Ekrizdis had done after throwing it, and lodge there. Stopping and staying aloft with fire jets, Harry tried to get it out. That was the moment Ekrizdis capitalized.

Suddenly, Harry felt himself yanked forward and looked up to see that Ekrizdis hadn't bother to try and untangle the wire around his ankle, he couldn't as far as Harry knew, so instead he had decided to drag Harry through the air with it. Harry could see the man's impressive strength as he flew fast even with Harry and his metal cable as an improvised anchor.

Harry had no idea what Ekrizdis had planned and was too busy trying to figure out what to do when Ekrizdis suddenly banked before coming to an abrupt halt, and Harry saw that he was on a collision course for the tower atop the northern Temple peak. This was not good.

"Fuck." Harry swore as he slammed into the Temple about 3/4ths of the way up it at full speed.

As he hit it, Harry thanked the ancient airbenders for building their Temples out of stone as he used his earthbending to soften the impact and proceed through the wall, a room, that room's door, the hollow stairwell in the middle of the tower, another door and into the far wall where Harry used his bending to lodge himself in it rather than continue through it. The air was driven from his lungs, and he knew that he was bleeding in several places, but he was still alive, and nothing felt broken, so he was good. What was more, the cable was now taut.

Looking along it and through several Harry shaped holes that he had put in the tower he saw Ekrizdis floating at the end and out of the Temple trying to get out of cable that had ensnared his ankle. This was his shot and Harry pointed two fingers at him and the lighting crackled as he found his center. At the last moment Ekrizdis looked up and saw Harry fire the bolt.

Ekrizdis twisted to the side to avoid the lightning and rather than fight Harry, he was suddenly speeding towards him. Ekrizdis was taking the fight to him for the first-time which Harry hadn't expected that. Still, he sent a fire punch at Ekrizdis. Ekrizdis just blasted through it with a powerful jet of air that continued on to hit Harry and cracked the wall more and then Ekrizdis slammed into him at full speed, his head hitting Harry's gut where he didn't have any armor to protect himself.

The force of it, as well as a little earthbending from Harry, sent them exploding out of the tower and to the north of the Temple and taking out a few aerial fighters in the process. Harry was dazed but slammed his right fist into Ekrizdis's side as they flew causing him to grunt in pain.

"Let's get rid of this thing." Ekrizdis snarled grabbing Harry's spool with his left hand and ripping it off his belt. "It's pissing me off."

He tossed it away and then righted himself so that he could knee Harry in the gut as he centered himself. He then pushed Harry back and blasted him downwards with a powerful twister of air from his feet. The last thing Harry saw before he hit the mists surrounding an untainted mountain to the north was Ekrizdis falling down thanks to the metal spool and doing his best to dislodge it with airbending.

Then Harry was in the mists and entered the Avatar State once again to protect himself. It wasn't a moment too soon as he slammed into the side of the mountain that was there, his earthbending protecting him as he cratered into the mountain causing a stream of water that had been in the mountain to shoot out.

"You're old Avatar." Ekrizdis taunted from the mist in front of Harry as he recovered, still in the Avatar State. "A remnant of a bygone era that the world doesn't need anymore. I'll take you out and end the world of your like, it's the least I can do so that a future Ekrizdis, one with the next Air Nomad Avatar, can finish what I have started."

Harry gritted his teeth and raised his arms. A tornado shot out as the rubble around him rose into the air and the mists cleared to reveal Ekrizdis floating there in front of him. He'd removed his boot to get rid of the metal write and mad glint was in his eyes as he easily cut the tornado in two and sent it to either side of him with a slice of air.

"You're going to have to better to best me with air." Ekrizdis taunted.

Harry didn't respond as he punched out the rubble in fast, small pieces. This got Ekrizdis's attention as he formed a ball of air around himself to deflect the rocks away. Harry just kept it up as he leapt into the stream and onto a ledge he created. Then he stook hold of the water.

Four tendrils if water shot us from around him as the rocks stopped. Instinctively Ekrizdis stopped the air bubble the moment the rocks stopped to preserve his strength and that gave Harry the split second he needed to freeze the tips of the ice just as the water hit and encased Ekrizdis's hands and feet. The ice quickly spread along the tendrils and back to the mountain holding Ekrizdis in place, spread eagled in midair.

"You're done fucker." Harry panted as the water bent around him. "Surrender so that we can end all this needless bloodshed."

"I am not the greatest airbender since Aang for nothing Avatar." Ekrizdis said with a smile. "Let me show a long-forgotten move that I've been saving just in case I need it."

Ekrizdis took a deep breath and then blew a narrow, powerful stream of air at his right hand destroying the ice holding it and freeing his hand. That wasn't good. Harry had never seen airbending like that and it gave Ekrizdis enough mobility to possibly free himself. Harry couldn't let that happen and it was now at the point where he could restrain himself to ensure that he caught his enemy alive. He had to end Ekrizdis any way possible.

With a rumble, Harry blasted off the mountain with his earthbending using so much power that he cracked it all the way up to its peak and then shot out fire jets to speed himself up as the tore at Ekrizdis as water boiled and evaporated from the intensity of his fire. As he did, Harry reached up and drew his swords ready to cut Ekrizdis down.

Ekrizdis clearly had other things in mind as he blasted Harry in the face with a jet of air that temporarily blinded him, slowed him down a fraction, and cause Harry to lower his blades. Rather than pass Ekrizdis and slash him on the way, Harry ended up shoulder charging Ekrizdis in the gut. The force of the impact drove the breathe from Ekrizdis's lungs and shattered the ice at the points they held Ekrizdis as they flew back towards the Temple in a reverse of how they had left it though the airbender still had ice on him.

"I don't like these disgusting things, get them away from me." Ekrizdis roared and he used his left hand, still encased in the ice that Harry had put there, to slam it into Harry's right hand shattering the ice and causing him to drop his sword. "They have no place in the sacred air around the Eastern Air Temple!"

Harry pushed away from Ekrizdis with his now free right hand and his remaining sword scored a line along Ekrizdis's right side thought it was only deep enough to cut an that was it. Ekrizdis still grunted in pain and used his hands as he fell away with ice on his feet to blast Harry up and away from him with a lot of force, enough to cause Harry to drop his other sword from the impact.

With the break, Ekrizdis fired a few quick blasts of air at his feet to destroy the ice there. Harry wasn't done though and used the break to send a jet of fire at Ekrizdis, but he dodged it with a graceful spin.

"I think I will end this Avatar and do so in front of everyone." Ekrizdis said. "Then they will see who is the best. That should cripple your invasion force and allow me to finally claim my birthright!"

Before Harry could react Ekrizdis flew up at full speed and slammed into Harry's side again. This time was different though as he wrapped his arms around Harry's waist and flew up and to the Temple with the winded Avatar in his arms.

"Let me remind you again why I am the best airbender alive." Ekrizdis hissed into Harry's ear as they flew past the northern tower and Ekrizdis began to spin and generate wind in the process. "Flying only make me stronger."

Harry didn't have a chance to say anything as suddenly they were in a vortex of wind that blew everything around them away and it only got faster and faster. Harry knew things weren't good and he was going to have to enter the Avatar State to survive this, whatever it was.

"Survive this Avatar." Ekrizdis yelled over the wind as he suddenly moved his grip to Harry's arm and then threw him down using all the speed and wind he'd built up to accelerate Harry away from him as fast as possible.

Harry almost instantly went into the Avatar State as he was thrown down faster than he'd ever moved in his life. Barely a second later he hit the upper of the two bridges between the middle and northern Temple structures and exploded it. Not only did Harry punch through it with his earth bending, but he also destroyed the whole bridge with the force of his impact into it as he continued down and into the second one.

Harry knew that he'd have to disperse his earthbending to avoid destroying this one as well and also avoid falling down to the ground at the base of the mountain. He did just that as soon as he hit the second bridge.

His bending went everywhere, and the bridge cracked, the walls on the side shattered and the people on it were thrown from it but it had worked. Harry was now imbedded in the bridge on his back and spread eagled in it, but he didn't go through it which had been the goal. With a little effort his bent the stone beneath him up so that he wasn't stuck in it as that could be fatal.

"Damn Avatar, you are one tough son of a bitch." Ekrizdis said and Harry saw him floating down towards him. "You're still breathing but that won't be for long. You cost me my birthright, you destroyed the Air Nomads, all that I am doing now is a justifiable act of self-defense."

"Don't count me out just yet." Harry said as he formed a fire whip in his right hand and whipped it up at Ekrizdis, still in the Avatar State as he doubted he had the strength normally to keep fighting. Well, that and so that he could bend the small metal wire that made up his under suit and allowed him to move without much a problem in battle.

Ekrizdis swore avoiding the fire with some skillful flying as tried to blast it away with his powerful airbending. He was distracted and the thought of the wire gave Harry a crazy idea, but he was currently on his back in the Avatar State on a badly damaged stone bridge with limited strength left and waving a fire whip, crazy worked just fine.

Harry kept the whip up and distracting Ekrizdis with its wild motions as he used his left side to metalbend the fine wire out of the suit and tie it all together in a long, narrow, wire. It was only because he was in the Avatar State that he could do this, but he had it, he just needed the opening to present itself so that he could strike.

"Enough!" Ekrizdis roared as he sent out a blast of powerful air that extinguished the fire and drove Harry's right arm into the ground. "This ends now Avatar!"

"Yes it does." Harry said as the thin, nearly invisible wire shot up from where he'd formed it. "For you."

Rather than wrap it around Ekrizdis's ankle, Harry used it to pierce his calf and then wrapped it around, the thinness easily cutting into Ekrizdis's skin. The airbender roared in pain and looked down in horror at the wire in his now bleeding leg. It took finesse to do so without causing serious injury to Ekrizdis, but Harry had that with metal as he yanked Ekrizdis down and into the bridge with a jarring thud.

As soon as Ekrizdis hit the ground, Harry closed his eyes and used his right hand to see with his seismic sense. He let go of his hold on the metal wire and still using his right hand to bend the earth up and around Ekrizdis so that he was encased in it up to his shoulders and shifter into an upright position not unlike what Bolin did to capture Zaheer. It was done, Ekrizdis was capture but it wasn't over yet.

With a grunt, Harry bent the earth from under him and used it to set him back up and on his feet as he opened his eyes and looked at the captured man who had started the civil war. Ekrizdis was just coming to from the impact as Harry bent the earth back into the bridge.

"No!" Ekrizdis yelled the moment he realized the predicament he was in as he began to struggle fruitless against his bonds. "It can't end like this! I am the Ekrizdis, the true leader of all airbenders. I am the restorer of the old way. I cannot lose!"

"But you have." Harry said wearily as he staggered forward and walked towards Ekrizdis, his years of physical therapy ensuring that he could move without a brace, but it was still tough and painful as the adrenalin began to leave his system and the pain returned. "You challenge me and lost but that isn't what's at hand here. You perverted airbending and the nomadic culture for your own ends and twisted views of what was once the old way of the Air Nomads. You plunged a nation who's very philosophy, the philosophy you claim to represent, is about peace and non-violence into a civil war that killed countless lives you are supposed to hold sacred."

"I was only defending the Air Nomads from the corruption you and the Air Nation did to us." Ekrizdis said his eyes wild. "You attacked first by not accepting me as the rightful leader. I didn't do anything wrong, and you know it Avatar."

"Yes you did." Harry said as he reached Ekrizdis and entered the Avatar State, Raava speaking through him as they spoke in tandem. "You became the antithesis of what a nomad truly is. For that you do not deserve to have your bending after what you did to the very nature of airbending. This is your punishment from Raava for crimes against bending, you will face the human punishment for your human crimes."

Ekrizdis's eyes went wide with fear as he began to plead with Harry, but his pleas fell on deaf ears as Harry placed his right hand over the man's heart and his left hand on his head. Then, still in the Avatar State, he reached into the man's soul and found his energy. It was corrupted and it had been 62 years since Harry had done this, but he remembered how it worked as he bent the energy within Ekrizdis. It resisted but it wasn't as bad as Voldemort's, no one's could, and Harry was a lot stronger so in short order he had imposed his will and won out.

Harry exited the Avatar State and staggered back but managed to remain on his feet, the earth around Ekrizdis crumbled and he fell to the ground drained of energy. Still, Harry knew that he had one more thing to do as he looked around and noticed that the battle had stopped at some point during his battle with Ekrizdis, likely when the man created that great whirlwind before he threw Harry, to watch it and wait for the outcome.

"It's over, relay this to everyone." Harry said as loudly as he could, his voice augmented by airbending to ensure that it traveled farther. "I have taken Ekrizdis's bending for his crimes against the very nature of airbending. He is now a nonbender and no longer a nomad. Please, stand down. This war is over."

Harry sighed as he finished speaking and turned to see what was going on. He saw the clearing on the other side, the lowest one in the central Temple and saw that his words were being heeded. They were already on the brink of victory before he'd taken Ekrizdis's bending and with his proclamation and win over Ekrizdis his forces were broken and they were standing down and surrendering peacefully.

As Harry looked he saw Ron, Ginny, Lily, Sirius, and Lorcan running out of the crowd and towards him. All looked banged up and bloody but otherwise were fine and much better than him. Harry smiled at them as he closed his eyes and took a step forward, vibrations coming from his feet so that he could still see. That was when he saw it.

Ekrizdis had recovered and was reaching behind his back for a knife strapped there that Harry hadn't noticed before. He was drawing it as Harry watched and he knew what was coming.

"I may have lost but I'll still kill you Avatar!" Ekrizdis roared as he leapt at Harry with the knife in his right hand. "I have nothing left now so I'll take you with me!"

Using earthbending, Harry spun in place and slightly to the right to avoid the knife. He then slammed his left fist into Ekrizdis's forearm to knock it away before slamming his right palm into Ekrizdis's chest to push him away. Harry didn't realize until it was too late that he'd used a little airbending with the blow to throw Ekrizdis back. The problem was that they were on a bridge over a massive drop and Harry's impact had destroyed what passed as a wall for it.

Ekrizdis let out a shocked yelp as he stumbled back and pitched backwards over the edge of the bridge. All Harry could do was watch as he plunged down and disappeared into the mists around the mountain. Without his bending, there was no way that Ekrizdis could survive the fall.

That was also the last of Harry's energy as he collapsed to his knees and a second later he felt Ron steady him and prevent him from falling down. That was good, he could use the support as Ginny joined them, but the others held back to give Team Avatar this final moment of the war.

"Make sure you find his body." Harry said as he felt consciousness slipping from him. "We can't confirm that this is over until we have it."

"We'll get it, don't worry Harry." Ginny said softly. "Now rest, you need it my love."

Harry just nodded as everything that had happened finally caught up to him and consciousness slipped from him. However, before he lost it, one last thing passed through his mind that he knew was true and he hoped that this would be the case for the final time.

They had won.

Well, there it is, the final great battle for Avatar Harry has concluded and in epic fashion he has defeated Ekrizdis, ended the Air Nation Civil War, and brought peace and balance back to the nation and thus the world as is his duty as the Avatar. There is still one more full chapter left to wrap everything up from this war and take care of the final part of it in a sense as well as mention what has and is going to happen to fully reunite the Air Nation, but the general fighting is now done. I hope y'all enjoyed that battle, it is inspired by the one between Korra and Zaheer and is the most bending intensive battle Harry has ever engaged in with a major foe. It is now over though, and we are nearing the close of Harry's tale and of this series as a whole. There is but one more thing left to tie up Book 5 before the final epilogue of the series so I will leave this chapter off here. As always any questions in PMs or reviews will be answered before the start of the next chapter (as well as replied to if possible). Please follow, favorite and review, all are greatly appreciated. Until next time.

Stringdog