Beta-read by Weasley 8799
Song: 'Kibouno saku oka kara' by Aqua Timez
Ch. 24: A Valley of Death
Damnian had closed his eyes blissfully as he held his older brother, but all of a sudden he lifted his head and with his right hand touched the mask Angelus wore. Damnian gently removed the mask to see his brother's entire face, his eyes looking as sad as Angelus'. Then, Damnian tried to touch Angelus' childlike features, but the older brother restrained Damnian, grasping Damnian's arm abruptly. Many eyes were on Angelus' face, including Harry's. The only one among them that had already gazed at Angelus' features before had been Neville, who was currently resting in a room, recovering from his recent evolution. Therefore, the rest of the adventurers were quite surprised by what they were seeing.
"How old are you?" Kroy asked, looking shocked.
"Old enough," was Angelus' vague reply before putting on the white cloth that even covered his nose.
"Beauty and youth should never be covered, brother," Damnian said with a smirk.
"What are you two anyway? You seem to be creatures that don't age like me who will now remain like this for all time, but what exactly are you?" Janryu asked, his expression almost bewildered.
Soshlan sent a suspicious glance in the brothers' direction, but shook his head. Not even the almost know-it-all elven fairy had an answer to what Angelus and Damnian were, but he was startled when Luna stated in a dreamy tone: "Isn't it obvious? They are an--" Luna was unable to finish her statement for the airship shook forcefully just like when the wild dragon attacked.
"What now?" blurted Dianeia.
"Sorry about that," started Kayshi. "We seem to be stuck. I avoided some mountains, but it seems that the Kokoshyon got entangled in something else."
A strange hissing sound came from outside and almost everyone in the ship covered their ears. Soon, they were all kneeling and the sound continued mercilessly. Harry thought he would go mad. Something in the sound was telling him to crash his head against the nearest wall until he died. He almost felt like it was the correct thing to do, reminding him of the Imperius Curse. He tried to get a grip and clenched his teeth trying to control himself, but he could hear now a voice in his head saying clearly in whispers, "Take your life. Take your life." Harry screamed wanting to get rid of the voice. It was truly worse than the Imperius Curse because the hissing noise wouldn't stop. Harry wasn't going to crash his head against anything, but his right hand went to his scabbard and removed the silver sword. Harry pointed the sword at his own chest, but the hissing stopped.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief along with his companions. He looked around and saw Janryu looking pale with two knives in his hands, Luna had a sore neck from pressing her staff against it, Dianeia had a concussion on her forehead from hitting herself with her rod, Kroy was bleeding from his wrists, and Soshlan was unconscious because he had knocked himself with one of his boomerangs. Nemaisse looked frightened, but was unharmed like Harry and Janryu. Harry also noticed that Aklashya, Kayshi, Angelus, and Damnian looked perfectly fine. "Why weren't you affected? And who stopped it?"
"I stopped it," Damnian's effeminate voice spoke. He had a smirk plastered on his face.
"I believe my son and I weren't affected because we are not magical beings," said Aklashya matter of factly in her usual nasal tone. "But we could hear a strange hissing sound, right Kayshi?"
"Yeah, it was almost like a snake's, but at the same time different," Kayshi muttered. "It hurt my ears!" The boy placed his hands over his ears to indicate how it had hurt as if it were needed.
Harry started towards a door and Dia asked, "Where are you going?"
"To check on Neville."
"I'll go with you," Dia said resolutely.
When they opened the door to the room where Neville was, they were immediately on alert. Neville was motionless on the bed, but Harry was relieved to see his friend was breathing. "He stupefied himself."
"He what?" Dianeia was genuinely confused with Harry's conclusion.
"He stupefied himself. He used a spell to get himself unconscious through it all."
When Harry came back to the main cabin with Dianeia, Soshlan was already awake and Luna was using healing magic on Kroy's injured wrists. Kroy looked extremely pale due to blood loss and Dianeia quickly produced a blood sphere for the half-Draconian. The sphere wasn't dark red but golden. "Here."
"Thanks Dianeia." Kroy was terribly embarrassed. He had been the one to cause the worst damage on his body.
"Can I?" Luna surprised Dianeia by placing a healing hand on the young woman's swollen forehead, healing it fast.
"Th-Thanks!" stammered Dia with flushed cheeks.
Luna eyed Harry carefully, but smiled when she saw he was perfectly fine. She had already cured her own neck and the concussion on Soshlan's head.
The hissing started again, but was cut abruptly and all eyes fell on Damnian. There was a strange glow on his face and he turned to Harry: "We have to kill it. Its tentacles are holding this vehicle."
Harry could have sworn there was glee in both Damnian's eyes and his tone of voice when he used the word 'kill', but Harry chose to ignore it. "Is this airship on land at least?"
Kayshi shook his head. "I don't think so. Whatever got us must be able to fly. You can always go up to the deck... There is a platform you can use, but whatever you do be careful with the blimp! It's connected to the deck!"
Aklashya concurred and even added, "Just remember that if you destroy the blimp not only I'll be furious, but we'll probably die, even if some of you can fly."
Harry laughed nervously and he looked at his friends. "Who will go with me?"
"You will only need me." Damnian sounded bored. "The others can stay behind."
Angelus stood up all of a sudden. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but shook his head. He fixed his eyes on Harry. "Go with him." Angelus' deep voice sounded tired, but confident.
Harry and Damnian got on a platform that Aklashya showed them and after she pressed a button it started to lift them. Harry immediately felt the strong and cold wind from the mountainous area slap him, but what had stopped the airship almost gave him a fright. Scaly brown tentacles had the Kokoshyon trapped, but what startled Harry was the horrid creature that had such tentacles. It was a giant flying head, just a head. Its hair was the tentacles just like in the case of gorgons where their hair was snakes. The flying head had one ruby eye, slits instead of a nose like Voldemort, and an open mouth that showed fangs like those of a vampire's along with a reptilian tongue that hanged from the mouth moving snake-like. The face itself was gray and to Harry it was the most horrible thing he had ever seen.
In seconds, Harry's sword was in his hands and he went against the giant face, but it moved its tongue to produce a force field that sent Harry flying backwards. Damnian caught the teen easily in his arms and smiled almost tenderly. "You are too weak, Harry. Leave it to me."
Disbelief showed on Harry's face as Damnian delicately caressed his hair as if he were a small child. He certainly hadn't enjoyed being called weak and Damnian's tone and treatment were even more offensive than Zheylks' had been. Damnian smirked at the creature and said in a pleasured voice: "You'll die." He raised his arms and Harry saw white shimmery threads come from Damnian's fingers. Harry's eyes went wide when the threads slashed the force field easily and slit the giant head and its tentacles to pieces. A pierced scream and slight hissing were heard before the pieces separated and crumbled to the earth below, freeing the airship. Damnian licked his lips, savouring his kill and turned to Harry with a sly smile. "Did you enjoy seeing it die?"
Harry felt chills all over his body. Even if Damnian was indeed Angelus' younger brother they were nothing alike. Still, there was nothing to prove that Damnian was an enemy even if the young looking man was a queer bloke in every aspect. Harry stared at the other man, dumbfounded. He didn't bother to answer the odd question.
"Should we return inside, Harry? You seem troubled," Damnian spoke with a concerned tone, but his gaze was completely empty of emotion.
"Let's go to the others," Harry agreed, his tone very serious.
XxXxX
Al and Sailka started to look for a spot to use the Rhombus transportation. There was no way they could tele-transport to Mortghre in Apparition fashion and Al wanted to reach the place as soon as possible. He was sure his instincts would lead him to Harry one way or another.
There were rocks already forming a circle in a secluded and semi-desertic area not too far from Shalzra. Al and Sailka got into the circle of rocks and Al lifted his right hand to invoke the required magic. In an instant, there was a glowing rhombus inside the circle of rocks and both elf and human stepped into the center of the rhombus. Al then thought about their destination and they vanished.
Mortghre could be easily identified. To Al, it hadn't changed one bit. It was the same valley of death he remembered. Bones were scattered throughout the earth and the lack of sunlight was evident. By looking at the sky, a person could conclude that the sun never rose in that land. The whole place looked dark and dreary, but Al was already familiar with such a land, even if he had been there more than one century before.
"How do you think we'll find that young man you speak about?" asked the elven woman called Sailka. She wasn't the most talkative companion, but a companion nonetheless. The female warrior had boyishly short white blonde hair that allowed a perfect view of her pointy elf ears. She had brown eyes and a pretty face with full pink lips, but her body was well built and squared with broad shoulders, making her look almost manly. She wore a brown headband over her forehead and was dressed with brown trousers and a brown sleeveless shirt under a golden coat of mail. Golden cuffs covered not only her wrists, but also part of her strong and rough hands. Sailka was also heavily armed. She had a sword, quiver, bow, and even a shortened spear that could be magically enlarged on her back. The warrior was also one of the few elves capable of wielding some magic, especially curative spells.
"He is not here yet," replied Al, concentrating on feeling Harry. "We've arrived sooner than them, but it makes sense. We were the ones in a rush to avoid Nebureth's men."
"What should we do then?"
"We wait!" Al answered with a smile, his blue eyes twinkling.
"I guess I have a better answer though. We fight." Sailka got into a fighting stance looking almost joyful at having something to do rather than just stand and wait. Strange floating skeletons in rags had surrounded the pair and Al nodded in agreement with Sailka's statement, preparing his whip. Fawkes, who had been perched on Al's shoulder all along, trilled with excitement.
XxXxX
"We've arrived," Kayshi announced before slightly relaxing in his pilot chair. "And I have to say this place gives me the creeps. I truly hope you guys don't plan to stay here for a long while..."
"We don't," Harry said. "I still have no idea why we had to come here. There are no fragments." Harry even re-checked his internal scanner only to get the same answer that he already knew, that there were indeed no fragments in such obscure land.
"That's because the fragment that you would have found here found you first and went to you," Angelus said expressionlessly.
"Lamorte?" asked Harry raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. Still, you have to level up in this place. You have to experience every type of creature plus one of your companions will soon be evolving."
"Luna?" Harry whispered, but Angelus didn't answer.
Harry was still thinking about how strange Damnian was when they climbed down from the airship. He didn't even notice when Dianeia grabbed his hand and he mechanically closed his hand on hers.
They started their walk through the dark valley, feeling bones crushing under their boots. Nemaisse looked horrified with the scenery and kept clinging to Soshlan who didn't look his best either. Kroy's enormous eyes kept scanning the land with intense curiosity while Neville, who was not feverish anymore, had a quivering lower lip. Luna had her usual dreamy gaze and looked amused, her protuberant eyes studying her surroundings. Janryu looked like he didn't care about the place, Dianeia looked almost frightened as she tightened her hand hold around Harry's hand, Angelus' gaze didn't show any emotion, and Damnian had a smirk on his rosy lips. Harry looked at Damnian through the corner of his eye and didn't like Damnian's expression. The queer bloke seemed to be enjoying Mortghre.
"Isn't this place beautiful?" Everyone except Angelus cringed with Damnian's question. "You have to appreciate the beauty of this land, a land with no life where only the undead dwell, not vampires for they need to feed on the living, but the real undead beings." Damnian smiled blissfully with closed eyes and then opened his golden orbs to look at Janryu. The young vampire was looking at Damnian incredulously even if the incredibly handsome chap was right. Vampires wouldn't be able to survive in Mortghre if the only creatures there were bloodless. "Death is such a beautiful thing, don't you think so, young vampire?"
Janryu blinked confused before saying, "Look, dude. I don't quite agree with that. Vampires may be considered somewhat undead, but I do feel alive and I like feeling alive. I also have blood in me even if it is not like a normal living creature's blood so don't include me in your abnormal way of thinking."
"You are just naïve, young vampire." Damnian placed a hand on Janryu's face and Janryu pulled back from the touch as if he had been stung. "Maybe someday you'll agree with me," Damnian said boringly in his velvety voice. "What about you, Draconian? Don't you find this land to your liking?"
Harry frowned. It almost seemed that Damnian was trying to win the ones that could be considered dark creatures in their group, as if trying to influence them somehow. Kroy glanced at Damnian and shook his head. "It's half-Draconian, and no. I don't like this place at all."
"You looked at this place curiously, Kroy!" Damnian drawled.
"I was simply studying and I admit I'm not intimidated with this land, but it's not a place I would choose to live in."
"You are all so boring. You cannot accept the beauty of a land of darkness."
A dreamy voice surprised everyone then as it was so unexpected. "It is indeed beautiful. Every single place has its own unique beauty, but not everyone can see it. This place may appear lacking brightness, but the solitude it shows, its saddened emotions, what it will never be; that's beautiful." Luna smiled at Damnian, but the gesture seemed to take him aback.
"Trouble," blurted Kroy and Janryu at the same time. In seconds, howling gray spirits surrounded them. The undead beings floated looking like mantles with faces.
Neville started to shoot at the spirits, but it was useless. The same happened with every other weapon like Harry's sword, Luna's staff, Soshlan's boomerang; all weapons were completely useless. Janryu used ice magic, but frozen spirits easily unfroze themselves. Dianeia then used fire magic with her rod, but the spirits cackled as they easily extinguished the fire by absorbing it into their ghastly bodies.
Angelus looked almost annoyed and yelled in a very strong voice: "They can only be defeated with holy magic! Stop wasting your time!"
Damnian had been enjoying the show and was literally giggling next to his older brother. Harry produced a wave of holy magic, being imitated by Dianeia and Kroy. Kroy could wield a little bit of holy magic even when he was a half-blood. Nemaisse also had a little holy magic and created small spheres that she sent against the spirits, making holes on them as if the spheres were bullets. Soshlan, who was the other one with strong holy magic besides Harry and Dianeia, flew upwards, allowed his rune star to glow bright golden, extended his hands to both sides, and produced an extremely powerful holy barrier that consumed all of the remaining spirits. He then landed, his pastel yellow eyes glowing with happiness. "I learned something new!" he muttered with excitement.
Angelus placed a hand on the happy boy's left shoulder. "It's part of what comes after evolving."
Damnian fixed his eyes on Soshlan with a look of pure hatred. and exactly at that moment, Harry looked at the man that was Angelus' younger brother, but the expression in Damnian's eyes immediately changed and he smiled cockily at Harry. He then approached Soshlan. "That's great magic you have there. I do hope Lord Nebureth doesn't get you. Your racial combination is... amusing." Damnian softly caressed Soshlan's left cheek, but quickly removed his hand as if trying to avoid contamination with the light being. "Let's continue. Harry has someone to find, right Harry?"
"That's true, but I don't know how I'll be able to find Al in this place." Harry's eyes studied the whole dark expansion in front of him and sighed.
"He will find you," Angelus said. "We walk."
For one whole hour, the adventurers journeyed through the bone filled roads, occasionally fighting spirits, wraiths, floating skeletons, zombies that were like the Inferi in the Wizarding world, and specters. All of those creatures had to be defeated exclusively with holy magic.
Dianeia finished three specters with a strong holy magic wave and turned to Harry, looking tired. "Using too much holy magic depletes our magical reserve! We can't go on like this!"
Harry didn't look tired, but Nemaisse hadn't been able to fight anymore and Soshlan was looking faint. Kroy tried not to appear exhausted, but he was feeling the strain of using that holy magic too much.
Luna smiled at them and removed a vial from one of her sacks. "We have vials to replenish our magic. You can drink them."
"Great idea, Luna!" Harry said approvingly. He drank a vial and gave one to Dianeia, Neville provided vials for Kroy and Soshlan, and Luna gave a vial to Nemaisse. Damnian gave them a look of disgust that went unnoticed by all except by Angelus, who didn't utter one word about it. Harry and his friends had to discover the truth about Damnian by themselves, eventually.
After another hour, Harry stopped, looking around. "What's wrong?" Neville asked him.
"I hear screams." Just then flying creatures that weren't of the undead type surrounded them. The creatures looked like scaly greenish females with bird wings, had circular red eyes, small horns above their heads, fangs, and bird-talons instead of feet. Harry prepared his sword and glanced at Angelus questioningly, but it wasn't Angelus who answered.
"Those are harpies! They probably want whatever food and potions we have!" Soshlan shouted.
The screaming harpies lunged themselves at them and one of them lifted Nemaisse with its talons. Soshlan immediately used one of his boomerangs, hitting the harpy's talons and making it drop Nemaisse, who was easily caught by Janryu. Harry swung his sword at a harpy who attacked him and sliced it in two, Kroy sent scales against another of the creatures and melted it in its own blood, and Neville shot another harpy until it dropped to the ground and vanished. The others got ready to defend themselves too, but only Janryu managed to defeat one of the harpies with his knives before Damnian stepped forward and used his sharp threads to trap the remaining harpies, eight in total. He whispered, "Die!" Damnian pulled the threads, a look of delight on his face as the pulled threads sliced the screaming creatures to pieces. Damnian turned to Harry and the rest, but they gave him shocked stares. "It is easier to destroy them all at once, isn't it?" Damnian's golden eyes shimmered with glee.
Everyone was silent and Harry kept having a bad feeling about Angelus' younger brother. He didn't like how that man enjoyed seeing creatures die even if they were enemies. Harry certainly didn't enjoy killing and the way that Damnian used for killing was horrid.
"There you are!" a voice exclaimed from their right side. Al jogged towards Harry with Sailka next to him. "I traced you! Glad it actually worked! But I have to say Miss Lovegood was the easiest to trace!"
Harry thought that made perfect sense because Luna was the only one from Earth that hadn't evolved yet. "I'm glad you're all right, professor, I mean, Al."
"Were you able to defeat undead creatures without major trouble?" asked Al.
"Yes, no problems at all," Harry answered with a smile.
Al seemed relieved, but he then frowned as he looked at the green haired man. He shook his head, ignoring his worry about the man he knew was evil and spoke to Harry, "Harry, Ron and Hermione are here in Larakain. Nebureth has them."
Harry's eyes went wide. Of all things, he would have never expected such terrible news.
XxXxX
Ron and Hermione were pulled with chains toward an enormous chamber that was bigger than Hogwarts' Great Hall. Hermione's eyes stared in horror at the many coffin-like capsules that contained children throughout the chamber. She approached one of the capsules and saw through a circular window the face of a small child that had to be five years old at the most. She glared at Nebureth and yelled: "This is horrible! How can you do something like this?"
Ron gaped while gazing at the same scenery that Hermione had studied. He also checked several capsules' windows and saw a girl that could be ten, a boy that could be twelve, and a young woman that could be eighteen.
Hermione saw Nebureth's permanent smirk, turned to another capsule and screamed, covering her face. The tiny face in that capsule had to be a slumbering baby and she couldn't control the tears forming on her eyes.
"Do you like it, my dear?"
Hermione sobbed in gasps, but raised her face and noticed that there were luminous strings that went from the capsules to a tri-dimensional octagon that was connected to the ceiling. "What is--"
"That?" Nebureth completed for her. "That is the source absorbing all the youthful energy."
The girl's eyes followed what looked like a white hose until they locked with a piece of machinery. Her teary gaze turned to Nebureth inquisitively and he laughed. "Want to see how it works?" Nebureth approached the machine, magically produced a goblet in his right hand, pressed a button in an almost comedic act, and a strange diamond white elixir filled the goblet. "Cheers!" he said to Ron and Hermione before swallowing the whole contents. He lifted the goblet. "This is what they provide me with. Now, follow me."
The two Hogwarts students didn't really have a choice. The chains pulled them after Nebureth because he summoned them to follow him. There were two capsules that were empty and Ron and Hermione looked at each other confused. "These have no children."
"That's because..." The capsules opened on their own. "...these are for you." He snapped his fingers and the chains dropped to the ground, but both Ron and Hermione were lifted into the air.
"You can't do this!" Ron yelled bewildered.
"Oh, I actually can! Sleep tight!" Nebureth said before starting to laugh maniacally. Hermione was placed in one capsule and Ron in the other. They both screamed, but the screams ceased when the capsules shut themselves. Everything had gone quiet and both Ron and Hermione were in deep sleep.
A/N: I wasn't very happy with this chapter as I felt it came out with too much dialogue. That happens when you try to write while being blocked, I guess. Any suggestions and constructive criticism will be appreciated. Thank you. :)
Thanks to: bandgsecurtiyaw, HitoshirenzuKage, Rainbow Phoenix, and lovenotknown (hope you won't be too lost!)
