Harry stared at the man before a growling could be heard down the tunnel. "You've got to be kidding me," said the former Commander. "How did that not kill them?!"
"Ghouls have lost all sense of physical pain due to the artificial means they were turned," said Harry before turning to the tunnel. "Gonna need another jolt!" The woman turned to her leader who nodded to her. Harry felt a surge of energy enter his body and he placed his hand on the wall of the tunnel.
"It's made of concrete, kid. You won't shock them that way."
"Not shocking them. Pulling them in."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Harry grinned before his Circuits shined bright green and data shot from his hand along the wall to the rushing ghouls. The First Sons, Heinkel and Yumie looked around as the tunnel around them turned black with green wireframe surrounding them and lines of code flashing briefly in front of them like a screen in the Matrix.
"Welcome to Cyber Space, assholes!" Harry stood up straight and grinned as he launched a line of code into the chest of one of them. Harry grinned as he jumped into the code before ripping apart the ghoul. Harry converted the weapons carried by the ghouls into code before one reappeared in his hand.
"What the hell?"
"Combined Digitization with the concept of a pocket dimension. Cyber Space, my realm and dimension. Here…" Harry grinned as multiple copies of him formed from the wireframe before they stabbed into the ghouls. "…I'm God."
"Watch it," growled Heinkel.
"Nah. I make the laws of this place, and I can control everything here. Just like God does to Earth. He has no reach here." Harry ripped a ghoul in half before the others ripped themselves from their attackers. Harry's Wireframe Clones fired pieces of code like a machinegun as walls of wireframe blocked the ghoul's bullets. Harry grinned sadistically as he used the gun he took from one of the dead ghouls and fired himself as Heinkel fired off a few shots, the Commander's soldiers still baffled from Harry's spell, stood still. Once the ghouls were weakened from sustained fire, the clones cut them down and converted the ghouls into code before Harry dropped Cyber Space. He collapsed on his back and groaned. "Problem is I need to switch to an Alternating Current in the form of Alpha Technomancy in order to maintain it, otherwise I lose my strength."
"God you must have learned that recklessness from Izzy…" muttered the Commander.
"That's Isabel Daniels to you, asshole." Harry sat up and blinked as Yumie draped him over her shoulder. "Put me down!"
"No," said the half-vampire. She turned to the former Commander. "Where are our people?"
"Dead. They ran right into an ambush," said the woman.
"How did Millennium know where the exit was," asked Heinkel.
"Kessler," said Harry and the former Commander.
"Always has a plan," finished Harry. "Put me down."
"No," said Yumie again.
"Now come on," said the Commander. "We need to get out of here." Yumie climbed out of the tunnel with Harry first and Harry looked around as he spotted they were on a platform out in the Mediterranean.
"You guys suck," muttered Harry. "Who makes an escape tunnel out in the middle of the fucking sea?!"
"Quiet down, you," said Heinkel as she pinched his cheek.
"Stop it!"
"You must be her friends," muttered the Commander. He looked up and flagged down a speed boat. "This will take us to the mainland. Then Harry will…"
"Leave you people here and take Heinkel and Yumi with me to Hogwarts." Harry stared him down. "If you think I'm going to allow you in Hogwarts, you're a fucking dumbass."
"I have information as well as something to help with your magical binds."
"Bullshit."
"I'm not lying to you, kid. Evelyn, give it to him." The woman in the tattered uniform reached into a pack she was carrying and pulled out a jagged metal cylinder that was glowing faintly with a blue light. "Kessler called it a Blast Core. It's filled with some kind of chemical that effects magic…"
"Element Zero," asked Harry, Heinkel and Yumi.
"What?"
"Element Zero," said Harry. "It's a unique chemical compound Iscariot discovered. It has anti-gravity properties when a current is run through it and when mixed with a specific potion can grant…" Harry turned to the two girls. "Your supply of Element Zero. What happened to it?"
"Destroying it was too dangerous, it has a unique radioactive signature," said Heinkel. "We didn't know exactly if it was safe to destroy. It was still in storage when we were attacked."
"Hopefully it didn't get into their hands then. But my luck is never that good." Harry looked at the cylinder before Digitizing it. He looked at the former Commander. "I'm still not taking you back to the school."
"Then just listen to me. The person who is going around masquerading as me for the last year is trying to start a war. He hasn't attacked the Mundane World as much because his focus has been on the Hidden World." Harry flinched slightly as his thoughts turned to the half-elf girl who tried killing him on the Express and her accusations of him being the reason for her home being attacked.
"Let me guess. I'm getting the blame for it."
"The entire Magical World is getting the blame for it. And with Revelation Day within months, it looks like exposure to magic will be the last thing he needs to spark a war."
"If all three Worlds go to war, it'll wipe everyone out. Is he fucking insane?!"
"I think so. You need as much help as you can get. And as much intel as we have." Harry contemplated his words and growled.
"I hate when logic works against me."
"Join the club, kid. And I'm not asking for all of my team to go to Hogwarts. Just those in the immediate vicinity. They're to act as your bodyguards for the time being until Revelation Day. I have to stay on the front and halt my former soldiers however I can, but I can go with you now to explain a few things, including how to access the Blast Core. And to prove I'm a valuable ally, call your mentor. Ask her if she's heard of the Constant of Magic. I'll wait." Harry eyed him warily before dialing Isabel's phone using the burner he was handed.
"Isabel?"
"Kid," she exclaimed. "What the hell is going on?! The news just showed a massive explosion in Vatican City!"
"Izzy," Harry said. "What's the Constant of Magic?" Isabel stayed silent for a moment.
"Where did you hear that?"
"Can you answer the question?" Isabel stared at her phone for a moment before turning off the speaker and stepping out of the Bunker where the others were watching the news of the attack on Vatican City.
"The Constant of Magic is a theory Eli had back in Ilvermorny. Magic always acts in a balancing sense. For every person born with powerful magic, someone is born with a countering magic. A sort of Counter Force. Fire is Ice, Lightning is Earth, Light is Darkness. Even Eli's Soul Magic had a theoretical balance in Anti-Magic. In a sense, Technomancy will soon have a balance of its own if it already isn't one, hell the different colors of your electricity for different spells could be the balancing force since Technomancy is unique among magic. Now where did you hear that term?" Harry stared at the Commander who stood nearby with a hard gaze fixed on him.
"Izzy, I have to call you back."
"Harry, don't you dare…" Harry hung up and faced the man.
"You better not be who I think you are, or there will be hell to pay."
"Noted," said the Commander. "Send those two back first. Let them tell your friends what happened, especially Izzy and the Moon orphan."
"You don't get to call her that."
"We don't have time, kid. Just do it!" Harry turned to Heinkel and Yumiko.
"We need to get Heinkel's' leg healed up properly," said Yumiko.
"I don't like this," said Heinkel.
"What choice do we have," asked Harry.
"Have you sent something ahead of you before?"
"No."
"Great… Make sure we get there in one piece."
"I'll try." Harry dialed the Bunker phone and sent Heinkel and Yumi through the line. Harry turned to the soldiers as they stood in front of him while hanging up. "I take it since you wanted me to send them ahead first, there's something only I need to hear?"
"Your mother," said the Commander.
"You're gonna need to be specific. My adoptive mother? Or my birth mother who, spoilers if you don't already know, is somehow alive and is apparently the adoptive mother of a friend of mine!" Harry's arms sparked with yellow electricity as he shouted. He stared at his arms in confusion.
"Yellow lightning without the Iscariot nanobots is anger and envy mixed with confusion. And I'm talking about your birth mother. The Lazarus Experiment was Crouch's first attempt at trying to revive Riddle by recreating a body he could use. The plan was to start with your mother's body and revive that to see if it was possible. Then he would recreate your father and have his master possess the body."
"Banking on the fact I wouldn't try to kill him, no doubt. But I don't have any emotional attachment to my parents."
"And yet you're confused about the fact that your mother is alive."
"My mother is Cindy MacGrath. Not Lily Potter. That woman gave birth to me and was killed a year later. And that woman in Hogwarts wearing her face is nothing but a copy. A fake."
"The soul is the same."
"I doubt that very much. The soul can't be reclaimed after you die. A fact you of all people should know."
"I won't go down that line of discussion with a kid. Just listen. Try not to bring her memories to the forefront."
"Miranda already explained before I left. Violent fits as her mind can't handle the memories that lead up to her dying while protecting me."
"Good. Then let's go."
"You're not gonna put on a mask?"
"I figure I've got what's coming to me. I resigned myself to my fate when I agreed to follow Kessler. He didn't tell me everything. Just enough. I didn't need to know every plan. Just the ones involving me." Harry turned to the phone again and looked up in the sky.
"Shit."
"Language, kid. And what is it?"
"Firewall. It's covering all of Vatican City and looks like it's about to expand to cover Rome. This you're doing?"
"What do you think?"
"Commander," shouted a voice over his radio. "Come in!"
"What's going on?"
"Giant roaming the streets! We can fucking see it!" The Commander winced before turning to his soldiers. "Get that boat here, now. Kid, hope you know how to fight a giant."
"Crap baskets," muttered Harry as he glanced at the water surrounding them.
Harry winced as the speed boat raced for the shore. "I fucking hate this!"
"Deal with it!" Harry looked to the shore and frantically held his hand out before lightning shot towards a concrete barrier and pulled him to the shore. Harry groaned as he dropped to his knees. A few thudding sounds brought his attention upwards and into the face of the giant as it stood over him.
"Oh… Dude, can you give me a minute, I'm still reeling from…" Harry rolled to the side as the giant tried stomping on him. "Never mind! We're back in business!" Harry called down lightning and grunted as the giant's arms slammed him into a building. He coughed up blood as he drained a nearby lamppost to heal his internal injuries.
"Giants are immune to lightning," shouted the Commander from the boat as they docked. "They're earth based!"
"Now you fucking tell me!" Harry shouted and sent out an Ionic Freeze. The giant icicles stabbed into the giant and it roared before charging forward at Harry who Charged into the powerline above him and out of danger.
"Open fire!" The soldiers fired their assault rifles at the giant as it shook the rubble from the building it ran into. The Commander pulled out a wand before lifting up the speed boat and shot it towards the giant after the soldiers clambered out. Carlyle fired a rocket at the boat as it collided with the giant and assessed the damage.
"Did that do it," she asked.
"Watch out," shouted Harry from above. The Commander pulled his soldiers aside as a car landed right where they were standing a moment before. The giant glared at them, face burned and smoking from the explosion. "Hey, we got company!" The Commander looked up and spotted a news helicopter flying overhead.
"Son of a bitch," he muttered. "He's jumping the gun. Kid! Do what you can to disrupt that camera! Everyone else, focus fire on the giant!" Harry sent a Lightning Tether to the helicopter and hung from the landing bars under the vehicle. He reached out and drained the camera of its energy while staying hidden from the news crew, draining the microphone as well. Harry looked down at the battle and spotted another rocket impact with the giant's stomach before spotting the ghouls from the Vatican rushing towards the soldiers.
'Those ghouls will rip the soldiers apart with the giant on their side.,' thought Harry. 'I could just let both sides hash it out. Not like I trust them, anyways. But then I lose out on powerful allies and knowledge I can use to help fight the Darkness.' Harry groaned as he shook his head before Thunder Dropping to the ghouls as he materialized his katana and decapitated the closest ones that were still standing, simultaneously draining an abandoned electric car. "Come on, assholes! This is for Anderson!" Harry lobbed an Ice Grenade out and froze over a group of them before rolling off to the side to avoid gunfire. He heard German shouting and slashed out; katana covered in lightning as it sliced through a rifle. Harry kneed the ghoul in the face before Neural Blasting a group of them and following with an Alpha Blast. Harry grabbed the rifle of one ghoul and made the bullets in the magazine explode before bisecting another. Harry groaned as a shotgun blasted him backwards and drained the electric car to heal up before blasting a grenade back at the ghouls. Harry growled as he spotted a civilian get gunned down and grabbed the ghoul who did so, draining his bioelectric energy. Harry's lightning turned red as he fired a Rocket outward. Harry saw it split up with a tripwire connecting the two ends. He grinned as ghouls were electrocuted by the tripwire before it exploded behind them. He chucked a Cluster Grenade at those still remaining. Harry grunted as his back was hit by a sniper round and hid behind an exploded car, thankful for his Kingsmen special-made uniform. Time slowed down for the boy as he peaked out from cover and sent a controlled red bolt at the ghoul, taking his head off.
The Commander transfigured the ground into tar before dropping a flare into it, lighting the giant on fire. He lifted his hands and concentrated the fire onto the giant's head. The giant roared in anger and pain and tried batting out the flames. He looked towards the ghouls and spotted Harry using red lightning with malicious intent. He concentrated his magic before moving the flames and burning a hole through its head. It fell with a large thud and the Commander ran for Harry. The First Technomancer grinned before Mass Draining. Along with the ghouls, any injured Mundanes were caught in the Mass Draining as well. "Harry!" The Commander grabbed the boy and put him into a sleeper hold, stopping the Mass Draining. "Stop! There's civilians in there!" Harry blinked as he snapped out of it and stopped struggling against the Commander's hold. He picked up the boy before knocking him out and slinging him over his shoulder. He made his way back over to the soldiers and sighed. He activated his radio as he noticed a few people recording the event. "Wrap up and make sure the locals can fight them off alone before falling back. We're pulling out." Carlyle placed her hand on his shoulder and the Commander put his hand of Carlyle before Apparating out with Carlyle pressing a button to discharge electricity from her belt before they did.
(Hogwarts)
Isabel stared at the livestreaming footage of the battle in Vatican City and frowned as Harry started a Mass Drain. "Whoa," said Draco. "What the hell is that?"
"Mass Drain," said Luna. "Potent Red Lightning Spell that drains anything within a twenty-foot radius. A Technomancer in Brazil used it two years ago."
"Is no one going to question how a fucking giant managed to get this far into Rome without anyone noticing, or why it's rampaging," asked Pansy.
"Or how Millennium is still around," muttered Isabel as she glanced outside where Blaise, Yumi, and Heinkel were comforting a crying Lily. "Bastards." Isabel kept a tear from falling from her own eyes as she watched a man pull Harry away from the group and stop the Mass Drain while the soldiers wiped out the weakened ghouls. She gasped as she briefly saw the face before he and Harry disappeared.
"What's wrong," asked Padma.
"No. No, no, no. It can't be him…" Holly ran a facial scan of the man with Harry, not alerting anyone else as she did. When the scan came back a match for an old military file, Holly tilted her head in confusion before glancing at Isabel who was shaking her head in disbelief at what she saw. Isabel turned to Padma. "Come on. We're going to Harry."
"We don't even know where that guy's taken him."
"I think I have a feeling of where… Just you, Pads. Let's go."
(Harry's Mind- Precipice Node)
Harry looked around as he found himself on a long beach facing the ocean. The tide was low, and the breeze was light. Harry looked up and spotted the sky was experiencing the half shades of sunset or sunrise with the half on his left being darkened by night and clouds and the half on his right being slightly orange because of the sun. "By this point in time," came the voice of Kessler behind the First Technomancer. "You're control over your magic should be astounding even in spite of the block only being 20% undone." Harry turned around and spotted the cloaked man standing behind him, eyes to the sky. Harry noted that he looked more worn and more like the Kessler he and Cole fought in Empire City. "Cyber Space. A cyberized reality marble that takes an understanding of Digitization, Energy Compression, and pocket dimensions. In my life, I could never dream to achieve something like that, and yet you have, Apprentice."
Kessler turned to where Harry would be when picturing this Node. "The Blast Cores are a creation of mine that I worked on with a friend of mine, Dr. Sebastian Wolfe. He is a scientist outside of the First Sons working in New Marais. After discovering what you will call Element Zero and what it did when in contact with your mother's Hecate potion, a recipe I gleamed from your future, we developed the Blast Cores. Their purpose is to evolve magic beyond what it is currently. Magic has remained stagnant for years with the basic concepts being researched to no end and no new forms of magic. Humans have only barely started studying the Anti-Magic capabilities of radiation. The Hidden World has never even thought to explore the stars. Our future is dependent on outward expansion. Your generation will be known for the New Age of Discovery."
"Lot of help this will bring me," muttered Harry. "Grindelwald is trying to start a war, Revelation Day is in a few months, and I still have no idea what the hell it is that I need to fight!" In time with his outburst, lightning crashed in the clouds in the darkened sky. "Just let me know what the hell the Darkness is and when it's coming, old man! You named me your post-mortem apprentice and yet you tell me nothing!"
"A year after Revelation Day, Earth will face its first test. After the Revelation comes Unity. After Unity, comes the Darkness." Kessler stood beside Harry. "There are ten Blast Cores in total, Apprentice. Use them to evolve. Use them to grow. I don't know how many more of these Nodes you have left before the Darkness makes itself known. You are supposed to expand the understanding of magic beyond what I and those before could never achieve. And the Beacons shall help you. Good luck, Apprentice. God bless. God Speed."
Kessler watched as Harry's mental form disappeared from his Reality Marble within Harry's mind and turned his eye back to the sky. "The future depends on the choices made by you and your family, Apprentice. Whichever you choose, may it stop the Darkness before it claims us all." Kessler looked to the clouds as thunder sounded and a faint outline could be seen among the clouds with the flash of lightning.