AN-1: The next chapter of The War of Titans, i.e, Chapter 13 can be read in advance on my discord server. That is also the best place to chat with me and the other readers there. To join, simply type the invite code on my profile into the join server box of Discord.
AN-2: I have a P*T*R*N now, and you can read the NEXT TWO chapters right now by joining up there, which means advance content up to two months in advance, and more chapters will be added there as I type them. To find it, simply type PP092 in front of P*T*R*N URL.
A great big thanks to LordLexx, Rezurex and Bakkughan for their amazing work as Editors!
Ducking underneath the punch, Harry immediately emitted a flash of light from his whole body, managing to blind the Juggernaut before any more blows could come his way. With a single thought, his two swords merged into a single bastard sword, and with the now free hand, he shot a blasting curse at the armor.
The curse, powerful enough to completely destroy a tank into nothing but scrap metal, harmlessly splashed against the crimson metal with the Juggernaut seemingly not even registering the attack as he flailed his arms around with his eyes closed. Harry swore at that and waved his hand above him in a circle, pushing the mutants and everyone else towards the mansion, knowing that his heavy spells could very well cause serious harm to any of them except for Logan. One problem taken care of, Harry took a deep breath and grit his teeth as his free hand transformed. His skin from elbow-down turned slightly scaly with patches of dark grey fur upon it, black cracks running over his forearm until they all converged at the tips of his wickedly sharp claws, each one a gleaming, 4-inch weapon capable of ripping apart anything in its path.
"Damn lightbulb!" Juggernaut snarled as he finally opened his eyes and glared at him, "Now who the fuck are you supposed to be? Another mutant Charles picked up to feed his bullshit?"
"Harry Potter," he replied and started walking forwards, making Cain grin broadly. He raised his giant hand into the air and ran forwards towards Harry, each step shaking the earth and making everyone tremble in their boots. When they were just about to collide, the Juggernaut brought his fist down, only for Harry to apparate out at the last possible moment. Before the Juggernaut could even realize his prey had vanished, he felt a stinging sensation on his hand. More curious than anything, he lifted his hand up, only to notice a drop of blood flow down his hand, and the teleporter looking at him with shock on his face.
"Hah!" Juggernaut scoffed as he glared down at the man before him. "Nice try, but I heal faster than you can wound me you little bug. Teleporting away from the mansion might have saved you, but I think I will use that fancy sword of yours to cut you up and then piss on the remains now."
With his piece said, Juggernaut stomped on the ground once again, making the whole earth heave up around him. Harry apparated away instantly and appeared right above Juggernaut, only disapparate again as a fist as large as a torso came towards him instantly.
'Morgana's tits, he is fast!' Harry thought as he reappeared a few feet away, having barely escaped what was sure to be a crippling blow from the Juggernaut. Deciding to finish it as soon as possible, Harry raised his palm towards the Juggernaut and with an ease that would have impressed Lord Voldemort even, shot a killing curse at his foe with a whisper of 'Avada Kedavra'.
The bolt of pale-emerald light left his fingers and slammed into Juggernaut's chest, but much to his shock, nothing happened. He didn't actually expect it to kill him, his own instincts told him that. But he did expect it to have some effect. His expression must have screamed out his thoughts to the world, as the Juggernaut stopped his advance and looked down at the shining surface of his armor and then grinned at him.
Cursing at his situation, Harry ran forwards and ducked to avoid the heavy swing that came his way, only for his world to flash black for a moment as he got kicked halfway through the grounds with half of his ribs cracked or outright broken as blood erupted from his mouth. He tumbled through the meadow before coming to stop with his back against a tree, jostling his damaged bones even more. The front of his armor was shining and dripping with his blood, and he weakly raised his hand to his mouth, wiping away some of it as he glared at the Juggernaut, the mutant leisurely strolling forwards towards him.
"HARRY!" Jean and Kitty screamed in despair, and he gave them a shaky wave in response as his healing factor went to work, assisted by a healthy dose of healing enchantments laid into his armor. But even with all that, it took him concentrating most of his magic on the task, and a healing charm added to the work for his bones and muscles to be completely healed in the precious few seconds he had.
"Magical armor which is better than anything I have ever seen," he muttered, slowly standing and loosening his stiff muscles with a series of pops as he twisted slightly, "Stronger and faster than anyone I have known or heard about, and he also regenerates stupidly fast."
"What is the problem sorcerer?" The Juggernaut taunted. "You are dead meat already, about time you accepted that."
Frowning slightly, Harry thought about what he could do to put down this rabid dog. His magical attacks would just wash off, and Fiendfyre might work, eventually, but it would also probably just warm the crazed man instead of cooking him into vapor, and the damage and danger to the surroundings that it would cause as well as the difficulty of trying to control the spell while dealing with the behemoth of a man at the same time just made it altogether a bad idea. His elemental attacks were also out because if they could have done anything, then Ororo would have long since roasted the asshole in front of him. As he clenched his sword tightly in anticipation, his eyes strayed to the clawed hand his left arm had transformed into, and he saw the smattering of fur upon the scaled appendage. A small smirk made its way on his face as the cogs in his mind turned. If physical attacks wouldn't do, why not try the metaphysical ones?
Concentrating as much power as he could within the few moments he had, Harry shot off a time-dilating spell at Juggernaut, which didn't slow him but instead slowed the time in a small area around him. Wobbling in place for a moment due to the power depletion, Harry nonetheless strode forwards and looked into the Juggernaut's eyes, and his eyes flared orange before he dove down into the sea of rage and bloodlust that was the Juggernaut's mind.
But it wasn't Legilimency that he had just performed, not in the truest sense of the word. He had utilized the part of Legilimency where one just made contact with the target's mind, but after that, he used his powers over souls to essentially lay the Juggernaut's bare before him. He could feel the very essence of Cain Marko, what had truly turned/twisted him into the kind of thing he was, the rage and hatred inside actually making him, one who had lived and breathed those two emotions for years, feel a throb in his soul for a moment.
Opening his eyes to the astral plane, Harry looked at the Juggernaut's mindscape around him and using his mental strength, simply pushed his way into his mind through his soul. However, as soon as he started to subjugate his mind into stillness, he felt a foreign power resist his attempts.
He reached out with his mind towards the spot from where he could feel it originate, only to pull his probe back immediately as if burned, the energy so much more powerful and primal than anything he had encountered until now. But it was as he was pulling back that he felt something start to pull him towards the center of Juggernaut's soul. Knowing that nothing good awaited him there, Harry concentrated with all of his might and launched a mental attack right at the pulsating ball of power he could detect inside Cain's soul.
But contrary to what he had expected, instead of dividing its energy to deal with the mental attack, the entity simply weathered it as if it was an annoyance, and pulled him towards itself with even more fervor. Before he could even think of doing anything else, he was pulled into the ball of power and suddenly, instead of Juggernaut's mindscape, It was a red landscape that surrounded his mind. Red desert and mountains along with a sky set in what looked to be perpetual sunset, there was not a speck of color in the world he found himself in other than varying shades of red.
"So you are the one who has been meddling with my avatar?" A deep, powerful voice echoed around him, its sound akin to the loudest of thunderclaps, and he felt the being materialize to his left, the power emanating from it akin to a hundred suns to his senses.
"Who are you?" He asked warily, knowing that if it came to a fight, he would be an annoyance at the best to this being. "And I wasn't meddling with anyone, your avatar decided to go on a destructive and murderous rampage, and he had to be stopped. He ruined my afternoon tea."
"Destruction is what my avatar stands for," the voice thundered, the whole realm shaking as power erupted outwards from the entity. "But I think it was for the best that you stopped him. I can feel it inside you, the storm of rage and wrath that you have chained into silence. Oh yes! You will do wonderfully!"
"Right, because that doesn't sound like the epitome of a 'bad idea'. I am not becoming any nameless being's avatar!" He said back, "I have no intention of letting another living thing into my head, especially one which seems hell-bent on destruction for destruction's sake only. I had quite enough of that for one lifetime thank you."
"YOU DARE REFUSE CYTTORAK?!" The now-named being shouted, waves of burning energy erupting from him as he moved a little closer to him. "Become my avatar, and you shall have the strength to break whole worlds into two, but refuse me once again mortal and I shall take over your body simply to make you a puppet of my will and KILL EVERYONE YOU CARE FOR!"
With his intent declared, Cyttorak struck his mind with the force of a hundred rampaging nundus, making him cry out at the sudden pressure on his defenses, which were rapidly crumbling away in the face of the Elder God's power. Knowing that he had but a precious few moments, Harry dug deep inside himself and latched onto the ocean of power that was his divinity. Gritting his teeth, Harry let the untamed, unadulterated power suffuse through his being before he struck back at Cyttorak.
"What is this?" the being rumbled, "A mortal? With divinity inside him?" Cyttorak paused his efforts for a moment before he struck back with renewed force and his mad laughter filled the space around him. "This is even better, now my will shall be exercised through a divine shell itself, and my power shan't be hampered by the limits of a mortal form!"
"Keep dreaming you asshole," Harry snarled as he felt his astral form burn from the amount of energy he was using. He knew that despite equaling Cyttorak for the moment, he was still losing solely on the basis of the fact that he couldn't expend energy on such a scale without killing himself, and from what he could sense, Cyttorak wasn't even using his full power at the moment. Red wisps started to form around his legs and he felt a strong desire to destroy as he saw it creep up his legs, a crimson armor forming on his feet as it rose up. He felt Cyttorak latch onto his soul, slowly bringing out the anger and whole slew of destructive emotions he had pushed down over the weeks. Gritting his teeth, Harry pulled even more power from within himself, the progress of the red mist halting slightly, but Cyttorak casually added even more power to his attempt and it started to inch upwards once again.
However, what Cyttorak hadn't accounted for was that Harry was a mutant too, and mutants usually came into their power in a time of high distress or emotions. When the armor had reached upto his navel, Harry gave a roar of defiance and pushed harder against the crimson god, and felt the link connecting him to the well of power inside him snap. A gasp escaped him as he felt something break inside him, something which shouldn't have been broken at all costs.
But before he could devote any of his already strained and stretched thin mind to the problem, Cyttorak laughed as he himself stopped his mist and spoke, "What now mortal? I can feel your divinity still inside you, but you are bereft of its power, aren't you? Agree to my command peacefully, and I will forgive your impertinence and rudeness, and as a boon, even restore your connection to the power inside you."
Exhausted as he was, Harry still had enough sense to feel something change within him as if something hidden inside his body had been revealed to him after all these years. He suddenly felt a little energy flow into him from somewhere and he looked down with confusion as the red wisps of Cyttorak's energy were sucked into his skin, but the armored pants were left on his soul.
"WHAT IS THIS?!" Cyttorak thundered as the pulsing ball of energy that was his presence moved a little closer. "How can you imbibe my essence without your mind crumbling in madness and anger? No mortal should be able to steal a god's energy, let alone the most powerful of the Elder God's!"
"Huh?" Harry muttered as he looked at the burns on his hands heal slightly, but it wasn't magical energy that he was absorbing, otherwise, he would have absorbed the ambient magic in the air too. "Essence? I am absorbing your essence? Oh, this is just fantastic!"
A crazed grin on his face, Harry suddenly shot forwards, taking Cyttorak's manifestation by surprise and before the enraged deity could do anything, his hands fell on the divine entity. Harry felt energy seep into him, powerful, untamed, raw energy which slowly invigorated him. Cyttorak on the other hand, felt scared of the mage for the first time as he felt his core get sapped of strength.
"Oh, yes! That is what amounts to a soul for gods right? The center of your power and thoughts?" Harry said in a whisper as he closed his eyes. "How does it feel, Cyttorak? You caused me to lose my divinity and tried to take me over, but now I am the one sucking your life right out of you."
"WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Came the panicked and furious voice from Cyttorak's physical manifestation. "Stop it mortal! I WILL DESTROY YOU! ERASE YOU FROM EXISTENCE! YOU WILL SUFFER THE WRA-wait? No, No, NO! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY SOME HUMAN!"
Harry opened his mouth to retort back, but despite weakening greatly due to his life being metaphorically sucked out of him, Cyttorak still had control over who he brought into his dimension. He was sent back into his own body, the Crimson Cosmos disappearing from his mind's view as he arrived back in the Juggernaut's mindscape.
Staggering slightly from the sudden metaphysical travel his soul underwent, Harry looked at what he now recognized to be Cyttorak's presence inside Cain's mind, only to grin as he noticed the ball of power had diminished greatly. Now that Cyttorak wasn't aiding his avatar any longer, Harry was easily able to shut down Cain's motor functions before he decided to come back to his mind, but a sudden burst of lust and bloodthirstiness from the Juggernaut caught him by surprise. Deciding to see what the Juggernaut was thinking about in his unconscious state, Harry exerted his control over his mind and suddenly he wished he hadn't thought of viewing Cain's dream. A terrible, dark rage coursed through his being as he watched what the Juggernaut intended to do with the female members of the team before he would kill them in front of Charles.
He shook with rage as he saw the Juggernaut throw Jean's used and broken body aside, blood leaking from her mouth and nether regions as she gasped with each breath before dying painfully. Trembling with anger, Harry went back into his body, but not before waking Juggernaut's mind up.
Everyone else gasped or screamed at the sight, and Jean started to fly towards Harry's still body, with the other not far behind.
"Stop!" the Professor shouted, making each of them turn their incredulous gazes upon him, silently asking him to explain. "Remove the helmet first, I can feel Harry keeping Cain's mind at bay, but he is losing rapidly. Remove the helmet, and I will be able to shut down the non-essential activities within his body."
Nodding at him, Jean, Logan, and Scott went towards the downed pair, where Scott started to focus his beams on the latches while Logan and Jean pulled at them with brute strength and telekinesis at the same time.
"Wait," Tony suddenly spoke, confusion palpable in his voice as his faceplate retracted. "If you cannot enter your brother's mind with that helmet in the way, then how is Potter 'keeping his mind at bay' as you put it?"
"That is something I would like to know myself," the professor responded. "But only after my brother has been taken away to a place from where he can't escape or hurt anyone anymore."
"Yeah, I will probably help in that regard. I really don't want a person who can just break Vibranium running lose every second Monday," Stark said, only to stumble at the small kick Spiderman gave him the next moment. When everyone around him gave him reproachful looks and nodded in the direction of his fellow Avenger, Tony looked at the Captain and saw his expressionless face looking down at the broken remnant of his shield, one that had been with him ever since he had decided to be Captain America.
"Hey Cap'n," he said, lightly tapping Steve's arm. "I can repair that, reverse engineering it shouldn't be too difficult, so chin up and wipe that gloomy look from your face."
"Thank you, Tony," Steve said with a small nod before a shout from Cyclops made them look at the young mutant, only to see Harry Potter standing above Cain with his hand pointed at the Juggernaut, and the next second Cain started howling with pain as his giant body contorted this way and that. But the sight of Juggernaut screaming in pain didn't scare them as much as the murderous, mad rage in Harry's eyes did. He twisted his hand slightly and the screams reached a new pitch as the Juggernaut's left leg simply shattered with a horrible crunching sound.
"Charles," Harry spoke aloud and Tony felt he was surprisingly calm for a man torturing someone as strong and fearsome as Juggernaut into a mental mess. But then again, he had arrived in their Universe with the scent of blood upon him, so maybe it wasn't that surprising? His further thoughts were derailed as the Ravager continued, "Give me one reason why I should stop this?"
"Because he has been defeated, and there will be no killing in my home." Charles retorted as he moved forwards.
"Charles," Harry spoke, his voice practically oozing anger as he looked at the Professor, letting up on the Cruciatus for the moment, "See for yourself."
A moment later all blood drained from the bald man's face before he looked away from the scene. No doubt whatever Ravager had shown him had shaken the man to his bones.
"Excuse me, Professor Xavier," Spiderman interjected as he crossed his arms over his chest, and despite his eyes being hidden behind the tatters of his mask, there was no doubt that the web-slinger was glaring at the telepath. "Times Square is nothing but a smoking piece of land, positively covered in blood and bodies and while I don't support killing him off, he also can't be left with his powers intact. We were lucky that Ravager was here today to help us out, otherwise, we may have very well been preparing coffins—if all of us weren't being mopped off the ground that is."
"Spiderman is speaking the truth, Professor Xavier," Steve said, "Can you put him in a permanent coma or something like that?"
"Unfortunately not," came the reply as he sighed. "Cain's mind will eventually break free of the bonds due to the unexplainable energy inside him, which somehow even permeates through the astral plane around his mind."
"There is no energy inside him now," Harry said as he kneeled down by the Juggernaut's shaking and quivering form. "I dealt with the thing that was giving him his power."
"Truly?" Charles gasped," But he wa-"
"I know what he was," Harry cut him off, "What matters is that now I can deal with this waste of space in a manner that agrees with me as well as you."
"What do you mean, Harry?" Ororo asked, a frown on her face.
"I discovered my mutation recently," he replied as he put his hands on Cain's head, "and it seems I have turned into a sort of creature I had once despised the most."
"And what is that creature," Jean asked as she moved forwards, her slight empathic abilities easily telling her about the frayed state of mind he was in, "Something slimy or hairy?"
Harry smiled at her attempt to lighten the mood, and a few chuckles sprang out from various sources at the joke before Harry shook his head.
"No, Jean," he paused for a moment, "I seem to have the powers of a Dementor or at least one of them."
The words flew past everyone's heads, confusion visible on their faces as Harry closed his eyes for a moment. A buildup of necrotic magic happened inside his body, not that anyone noticed it, but they definitely noticed when the Juggernaut once started screaming in agony as glowing white lines appeared on his head, and started to move towards Harry's hands. Steve and Tony both attempted to move forwards and stop him, but Spiderman and Logan stopped them respectively with a raised hand, knowing that whatever Harry may be doing to Juggernaut, the monster deserved every bit of it, especially when his own half-brother was keeping silent and ignoring his soul-wrenching screams.
Charles on the other hand was busy taking the brunt of horror Kitty, Rogue, Scott, and Kurt were feeling, dampening their reactions to Harry's actions to fear and realization of one's mortality at the best instead of the all-encompassing terror they had been bound to feel. It wasn't ethical or even remotely decent, invading their minds and controlling their thoughts like this, but when the alternative was them being permanently traumatized and affected by such a thing, then he would choose to blacken his soul any day of his life. He would have done so for Jean too, but as a telepath herself, she was susceptible to such things and while he had finesse in spades after decades of honing his power, Jean was easily capable of detecting his intrusions after the years of mental training she had undergone under him.
After several seconds of this, his brother's screams finally petered off into silence and he finally dared to look at the scene in front of him. Harry stood in front of Cain, his eyes emitting a faint white glow before he fainted on the spot, and beside him his brother laid on the ground, his face utterly devoid of emotion as he looked at the sky blankly.
Everyone ran towards Harry at once, but knowing that he was simply suffering from exhaustion Charles instead reached with his mind towards Cain, and immediately recoiled violently at what he found. Instead of the ever-present anger and destructive desire that was his brother's psyche, all he had found was an empty shell. Harry had literally sucked his brother's soul or mind or whatever one wanted to call it, straight out of the man's body, leaving him a husk of his former self. The fearsome Juggernaut couldn't as much as hurt a fly now, and he still wasn't dead, fulfilling both of their desires. Cain was alive, but only in the medical sense.
'Charles,' Harry's voice echoed in his head, making him startle slightly,' I am not sorry for what I did to your brother, but for what it's worth, I am sorry.'
'I know, Harry,' he replied as he started to wheel himself back towards the mansion with Scott, Logan, and the other three Superheroes following behind him, 'He went too far this time, and while I regret that this happened, I also realize the necessity of it.'
'For now, let Rogue drain his body. Despite Cyttorak's influence being purged from it, his body is still very strong and his mutant gene is probably still active. This way Rogue gets a useful power up and there is no way of his body falling into wrong hands. Also, I am about to sleep like the dead now, thankfully isn't time for my eternal sleep so I'll be up sooner or later. Tell Hank not to panic. Or Jean..'
With that, Harry's voice faded back into silence and Charles sighed as he looked back at his brother's still form.
"Kurt, please bring Rogue back here, I need her to do something. And Scott?"
"Yes, Professor?"
"Tell Logan to take out the bottles. I can feel another headache arriving."
"Sir, are you sure it is a good idea to go into the mansion right now?" Maria asked over the comms as their helicopter stopped above the forest beside Xavier's manse, "Tensions are sure to be high, Juggernaut's comatose body isn't exactly imparting hope to me."
"The Captain and Stark are still in there, Hill," came the reply as Fury looked at the agents rappelling down, "and he or Stark haven't contacted us even once. And I will personally see to that body's destruction."
Fury didn't wait for a response and jumped out of the helicopter. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he and the eighteen heavily armed agents moved towards the mansion. They made it to the back doors unimpeded, and Fury once again thanked the anti-telepath tech they had discovered in one of their raids in Europe before with a signal of his hands, the door was blown apart into splinters from a small charge.
However, as soon as he took a step into the room ahead, a hand gripped him by his throat and he saw three gleaming metallic claws sharper than any knife come dangerously close to his face. Guns were immediately pointed at the Wolverine, but the feral mutant just grinned at all of them.
"Give it a try," he said and tightened his grip a little, enough to remind them that Fury's life was literally in his hands, "Your boss will be dead before you can fire off a bullet, and there ain't anything in those toys which will put me down. Already having a bad day here dipshits, don't make me mincemeat the fuck outta you."
A snap of his fingers had the agents lowering their guns, all of them knowing that Wolverine was easily capable of making his words a reality. Ignoring the slight bruising on his neck, Fury looked the grizzled mutant right in the eye and spoke, "We weren't here for a fight. I just want to take Stark, Rogers, and the Juggernaut's body with us."
"And the guns?" Wolverine nodded towards the rifles and handguns all around him.
"Standard security detail when handling a superhuman threat, you never know when someone might attack you for possession of something or someone."
"Hmm" came the reply before the mutant started waking deeper into the mansion, and Fury wordlessly began following him, his agents spreading out evenly behind him as they moved from room to room. They didn't see even a single soul as they walked onwards, and a shake of the head from the agent at his left told him about the failure of their scanners too.
However, Fury knew better than to assume that the 'students' of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters weren't lurking around them, ready to unleash a shitstorm upon them if they so much as twitched their fingers. Wolverine stopped abruptly and turned towards him, his lips curled into a smirk as if he could tell his thoughts.
"Through that door," he nodded at the polished oak door behind him. "Charles, Stark, and the Captain are all inside."
As Fury pushed the doors open and strode into the room, all he was able to see was the grim face of Charles Xavier, before his world faded into black.
"When you said you could feel a headache coming in, I didn't think you meant that literally."
"My mind passively scours the places of interest like SHIELD's headquarters and the UN's New York branch at all times," Charles answered after a few moments, his eyes fixed on the diminishing helicopter and Stark's armor beside it, both of them slowly getting lost in the clouds above, "Fury wanted to come here for Cain after Tony sent him a message that he had been defeated, but the children aren't ready to be recognized publicly at this stage."
"So you manipulated them," Ororo said, leaning back into her chair.
"So I manipulated them," he nodded, "I made both of them drink the strongest rum we have, which was already spiked with a minor drug that emulates the mental effects of high alcohol consumption, which made confounding their minds much easier."
"What did you make them believe?" Hank asked as he walked into the room.
"I first had Tony delete the recording of the fight that happened here," Charles responded before he took a sip of the brandy in front of him, "For the reason, I had him believe that it was due to the damage his armor sustained before he arrived here. Other than that, I removed Harry's fight from their minds. Ravager is being hunted by Ross, and despite what Fury may believe, there is no way that Ross wouldn't find out about it if his presence among us was known to SHIELD."
"One thing I don't understand," Logan said as he took a sip from his beer, "How the fuck did the kiddies not panic today or even turn into shaking messes with how much I got pulped?"
"I dampened their reactions," Charles admitted, avoiding everyone's eyes as he did so, "I knew that they don't have any real-life combat experience, unlike Jean and Scott, and even they both needed a little counseling and alone time after they fought that day. I knew that if any of them felt the proper reaction to the blood and the simple fact that Juggernaut could end their lives with a simple bat of his hand, then they would freeze up and end up dying anyways."
"You saved their lives, Charles," Ororo said as she laid her hand on his and squeezed it slightly, "Don't blame yourself for a situation out of your control. Now, all we can do to avoid this situation is teach them how combat in real and fatal situations happens and looks."
"Thank you Ororo," Charles sighed and looked at Hank, "How is Harry?"
"He is physically fine, but his brain waves are all over the place. One second he is on the verge of being declared brain dead, and the next his mind is as active as a five-year-old child in a candy store."
"And how is Rogue?" Ororo asked, "I had not thought you would have her drain him completely."
"Harry made a compelling point," Charles responded with a shake of his head, "and besides, Rogue only took half his strength the first time, now she is easily more than one and a half times as strong as she was when she punched him into the forest. On that note, what abou-"
"Cain's body?" Hank interjected, receiving a nod from the telepath, "His death is inevitable, I would give him about a week or so before his organs stop functioning at the rate he is deteriorating."
"I don't know what he did in the end," Ororo said softly as she closed her eyes, "But I am thankful for it. My strongest bolts, Jean's best efforts, Scott's strongest attack, and Logan's unparalleled brutality, all could not even land a single scratch on him and the damned armor he wore."
"We survived, whole and more experienced than yesterday. Now, all we have to do is prepare and learn from the mistakes and missteps of today, so that we never repeat them tomorrow." Logan said, making all three look at the Canadian in surprise.
"Didn't know you could be anything other than a grouching sour-faced wolf," Hank said with a quirk of his eyebrow, making Logan roll his eyes.
"I also don't know many things about myself," he replied, "Amnesia hides who knows what else from my own brain. The words just popped into my head."
"Well, you are more than a century old," Charles said with a laugh, making Logan grumble at the reminder of his age, "Who knows what else is swimming around in that brain."
"Yeah Grandpa," Ororo drawled, making Charles and Hank burst out into chuckles before she continued, "Tell us some stories won't you?"
"You are all cunts."
He had fucked up, and on such a big level that fucked up wasn't even enough to cover the shit he was in now. That was the thought that went through Harry's mind as he looked at the broken connection between his soul and the power of gods he had gained from the Swords of Trinity. It wasn't lost in the wind or anything like that, but instead of slowly bleeding into his soul as they had been, the powers were floating just out of reach.
He had pulled too hard and too fast on the ocean of energy, and instead of combusting into nothingness due to the overload of magic, the threads connecting him to the divine energy had snapped. Harry reached out to the power and felt it respond to him, but it didn't flow into him like it had done the first time or the times after that. Knowing that there wasn't anything he could do currently, Harry looked away from the edges of his mindscape, where the Thunderbird still flew around in circles inside a storm, but it was much smaller and slower than before, no doubt symbolizing the diminished divine energy inside him.
But while he had lost a part of his power today, he had gained something in equal measure. Absorbing Cyttorak's essence and Cain's soul had done wonders to both his magic and body. He could feel the significant increase in his reserves and despite being in a trance for Merlin knows how many hours, Harry could feel his body become more than one and a half times half as strong as it was previously. It didn't put him on the level of beings like the Hulk or even Loki, but with his animagus forms augmenting his body, Harry was pretty sure that he could lift about fifteen to twenty tons now instead of the ten to eleven he had been capable of.
But the highlight of the day was the revelation of his mutation. He had thought of many abilities as his possible mutation, ranging from absorbing magic to telepathy to even another elemental ability, but he never could have imagined that he would get the power to absorb souls of magical individuals or like in the case of Juggernaut, those with magic in their souls.
And as the cherry on the cake, he could even adopt some properties of their magic, like how his body was physically enhanced after he absorbed Juggernaut's soul.
But the time for thinking about powers and abilities would come later, Harry thought as he looked around at his devastated mindscape. For now, he had to piece his mind together and build his mindscape back into the ordered structure it had been, and if the surrounding area was any indication, then he was going to be asleep for a long time.
'Merlin help me'
This was a tough chapter to write, particularly because I didn't want to make Harry seem like he was too strong and neither that he was too weak. Those who have a problem with how strong Juggernaut was, for them...Juggernaut is strong enough to break a planet in two and take the strongest version of Thor's strongest attack without falling to the ground.
As I said above, I have a P*T*R*N now, so please consider supporting me there if you can and like my work enough to do so. It will only help me, as I need to buy a new laptop, and lemme tell you those don't come cheap. and in the end, more money means more motivation right? :)