Dauntless Dimensions
Chapter X
Vacation from the Dauntless
Walking through time and space felt kind of odd. Or was it walking through reality? Harry wasn't really-sure on that. But this was the first time he had actually-taken a moment to appreciate the beauty of the creation of time and space. The colours that couldn't have possibly existed outside of this sea of tone and tunes, where colour had sound – this Sea of Dimensions.
Harry just needed a small break from the hectic goings on back at the cottage, so he snuck away before anyone else had the chance to move in, as the Greengrass's and Davis's had finally turned up, and though he loved Daphne and Tracey, and was sure he could fall for Astoria, he needed a break from his 'scheming'.
Then, the 'adults' were annoyingly organising a huge party for some reason, and Harry hoped it had nothing to do with him, but as he had technically gotten engaged to several girls, and they talked about that, with the party; so, he didn't hold out much hope, so decided he would just take a walk through the Sea of Reality itself and see where he ended up. Maybe he would spend a week or two away from home? That could be fun. Maybe he would meet some cool people with more worries on their plate than he had. That would certainly be super awesome in his eyes.
There just had to be someone in the multiverse that had it worse than him, and yes, he knew he was being silly as he had it great. Though, he figured he could do them a solid and help them out. That way he would feel better that he wasn't the centre of attention and admiration.
Harry yawned slightly as the world started forming around him. Taking his time during a jump was highly unusual. He ended up outside in what looked like an old ruin in the middle of a desert, and wondered what appearing in a city looked like.
The ruins were made of white stone leading up the side of a crevice on either side, and the sun was baking down on him, and the air was much too clean. He had gotten too used to living on a polluted world. Though, his birth world was nothing compared with the world he was raised.
"Okay, whoever I'm here for has it worse than me!" Harry commented as he groaned and quickly checked himself over. He was only wearing a white tee shirt with beige combat trousers, brown walking boots, and his sword strapped to the back of his waist with necklace inside his shirt with three materia, materia in his sword and on his left armed gauntlet: age seventeen.
"Stuck in the middle of a desert!" Harry continued, but he groaned as he could sense life everywhere on both of his Earths, he could sense very little on this world. "Damn, I hope the whole place isn't like this!" he suggested as he had an odd feeling in his chest – this was something else entirely.
Harry startled a moment later as he heard a slight rattling breath behind him. "Oh, come on… here for less than two minutes and already I stumble across a boss monster. Like my life couldn't get any better!" he said smiling as he turned round and looked up at the. "What the hell do we have here!?" he asked curiously as he wasn't quite sure what he was seeing. "Like hell you're going to breach my mind… daemon-like thingy!"
It was kind of creepy, and huge. It towered over him like a form-shifting giant with transparent everything glaring down at him like he personally offended it with his presence.
"You don't seem to belong to this world and you're too pathetically weak to make me think about running!" Harry Potter: Hīrō Yevon commented as he drew his sword as a huge grin spread to his lips. "Your kind ruined this world didn't you!?" he demanded and he could hear its voice screaming at him in rage within his mind. "You might be able to burn through a humans mind buddy, but you'll find out that I'm far more than your ordinary human! And it's been a while since I've had a good fight!"
Harry jumped up and back several feet and to the right as a huge transparent tentacle shattered down in the sand where he stood a moment before. "Nice try… well it wasn't or you would have actually hit me! I was just being nice because you are much too slow to hit me like that; it's almost like you're moving in slow motion!" he mocked as he jumped left then right, skidding round and out-of-the-way of two more attacks.
"Is it my turn now?" Harry asked as he rose his left arm and a green gem started glowing. "Thundraga!" he roared out as sparks of blue light burst around him blazing with strength, sparks of electricity bursting up around his hand. He fired and the beast roared out in earth shattering pain as it lit up like a power station hit by lightning.
The monster fell back and crashed down. Harry moved fast jumping up into the air and landed on the beast, slicing his sword down across what he assumed to be its neck. His sword blade lit up red, and buzzed with energy and magic, and he could feel the fear from this monster, but he could also sense its crimes, too vast for reason.
"Crimson Slash!" he roared out as his blade slid over its potential throat, and a blade of red light sliced through, ripping a huge gorge into the sand underneath it, and a ploom of sand clouded his sight.
However, Harry jumped up and back off the monster and landed several feet back, skipping back further away from it, as it started glowing a murky yellow while its roars echoed throughout the world before it imploded, sucking in the air and sand for several seconds causing Harry to hold on by stabbing his sword into the ground for leverage before it was over and the monster was gone.
Harry looked up into the horizon as he heard more roars, disjointed and full of rage. "That doesn't sound too good!" he muttered to himself as he could sense several more of those monsters.
"Well, nobody that I've ever heard of has ever destroyed one before!" someone interrupted from behind. "Let alone the fact you actually made that look too easy! Who are you? Or am I hallucinating again?" he said quite calmly.
"I-I saw it too!" a girl quickly said.
Harry finally turned as he placed his sword back on the back of his waist. "Umm… a talking skeleton… now that possibility had never crossed my mind before," he said as there he was wearing a black pinstripe suit; that was in tatters, but suit non-the-less. "But a cute girl… has skin and flesh… beautiful, much better. And a cute Irish accent!" he commented as he looked the girl over while she frown-pouted while trying her hardest to stave off her blushing cheeks, unsuccessfully. She looked like she must have been about fourteen, maybe fifteen at the most. She was slender and athletic, small chested, but looked like she had some muscle; nothing like his, but enough to be defined even under her black leather trousers, tunic and long coat hanging to her lower thighs.
The girls' hair was smooth and to her mid back, hanging loose, and her eyes were dark brown, near black, and she was supporting the skeleton's weight as he seemed to be exhausted. Though, exhausted, or not the skeleton's bony right hand still managed to create and hold a powerful looking fireball.
"My name is Hīrō Yevon!" Hīrō said as he decided that neither of them were a threat to him. "You kind of seem familiar," he said looking the black-haired girl over more thoughtfully. "But I'm sure I would remember meeting a Goth girl who looks as good as you, and with that sexy Irish accent too?!"
The girls' cheeks lit up more while she tried glaring at him while sweaty and out of breath, and holding up her odd friend; it kind of bounced off.
"I'm Valkyrie Cain," she said after a moment more to glare, "and this is Skulduggery Pleasant!" she said after a few moments of thoughtfully observing Hīrō. "I don't think I've met you before, but you do seem kinda familiar! Hang on… what the hell. You're wearing clothes from our world, and you're speaking English. How did you get here?" she stated and demanded.
"Sea of Dimensions!" he answered with a shrug, but they both looked at him confused. "And I'm not from your dimension!" he said thoughtfully. "I would have sensed it if I was from the same reality as either of you. If you give me twenty-four hours to recharge, I can get us out of here and take you home!"
"Just like…!" Skulduggery began but trailed off as he looked up over Hīrō and quickly turned away. "Valkyrie, don't look at it. It will destroy your mind!"
However, Hīrō looked round and stared the thing down. "Hmm… this one is bigger than the last!" he commented offhandedly. "Do you guys know what the hell these things are?" he asked curiously as he drew his sword.
"The Faceless Ones!" Skulduggery said. "The old gods from our world. A few Millennia ago, they ruled our world. But the Ancient Sorcerers of the time built a powerful weapon and tricked them… sending them away!"
"Okay, so your ancestors committed mass genocide on this whole planet!" Hīrō commented. "Nice going… okay I guess I can't really blame a bunch of ignorant mages who likely didn't know the consequences of what they were doing. Then again, sometimes people do bad things to protect the people they love, and I wouldn't be able to blame them for a desperate and selfish act to get rid of monsters like these."
"They ended up destroying themselves fighting a war over the weapon!" Skulduggery added sheepishly.
"Figures!" Hīrō said coolly while sighing. "Its human nature to want the biggest and worst weapons!" he said. "And is that another one of these so-called gods!?" he asked as another huge transparent form-shifting beast approached from the side!"
"Oh crap. We're so screwed!" Valkyrie said as she helped Skulduggery stagger backwards. "Hīrō! You already destroyed one of these things, so you can take two at once, right?"
"No problem…I think," he replied.
"You think?" she demanded as she had to let Skulduggery support himself as she ignited a fireball in each hand and looked up at the two towering monsters.
"Valkyrie!" Skulduggery warned in concern.
"I feel fine, but there's this weird tingling around my eyes!" she commented, frowning. "I am a direct descendant of the Ancients, right, maybe they were immune?"
"I don't think so," he replied thoughtfully. "The reason we know not to look at them are because of the legends from the Ancients! And it burns me to look at them."
Hīrō looked back at Valkyrie as she didn't take her eyes off the monsters before turning back to them. "I got this. No worries, beautiful!" he said as he rose his right hand out towards the first beast before it attacked, and smirked as Valkyrie blushed and glared at him, but she did stand down to watch, letting her fireballs snuff out and continued to support her skeleton friend.
"Shiva!" Hīrō roared out as a blue gem lit up on his sword with a light of frost and snowflakes around his feet in a rune as ice exploded outwards and up, forward into a tower where a slender well-endowed woman of pure white burst out of a tower of sparkling ice crystals.
She was beautiful and perfectly proportioned even though she was twice as tall as Skulduggery, and he was taller than Hīrō, who was taller than Valkyrie. She had long frosted blue hair and vivid icy blue eyes. She wore a blue top over her breasts but leaving her tummy bare – with blue sleeves separate from her top, starting at her upper biceps and ending at her wrists where her hands had sharp blue nails. Shiva wore a long flowing blue skirt hanging to her ankles with a slit down her long smooth legs either side, and bare feet with sharp blue toenails, as she stood on the glass like icy ground as the glow around Hīrō faded away.
"Shiva! Please destroy them!" Hīrō commanded.
The icy goddess looked back at him and nodded before her cold gaze returned to the closest monster, and it had stopped roaring and surprisingly moved back away from the dangerous being. Hīrō knew from the sense of uncertainty he picked up from the Faceless Ones that they had never sensed magic anything like her before.
"A summoner!" Skulduggery muttered in awe. "There are stories, but I just thought they were just children's tales… but then if Hīrō isn't from our world that could still be true. But then the Faceless Ones aren't supposed to be real either, but here they are."
"So alternate realities really exist!?" Valkyrie asked while she watched as the icy summon dodged as the first Faceless One seemed to attack rashly. Valkyrie was surprised as she could almost feel it's fear. However, Shiva seemed to burst away in a fog of cold air, letting the tentacles hit where she had previously stood and reformed to its side where it quickly turned to her, towering over her but she showed no concern.
"We are in another reality now, aren't we?" Skulduggery asked rhetorically. "So other dimensions like ours should be possible too," he said calmly, after a few moments of watching the spectacle without looking directly at the Faceless One. "It is in fact speculated that every single possibility that could, should, and would happen – for every choice and action in the universe an alternate timeline exists… and through that infinite we can summarise that if that is true then well... we have crossed into one of those alternate possibilities."
Valkyrie looked away from Skulduggery to Shiva and watched as her lips moved as if speaking, chanting, and then ice exploded up and around the Faceless One in just a few seconds, exploding outwards the Faceless One was gone, and shards of ice burst away into a domed shield from Hīrō as a green gem on his arm glowed with misty energy.
Shiva turned to the other monster, and it turned and moved faster than any of them would have thought possible for its size as it fled for its life.
"Fascinating!" Skulduggery said in awe. "It must be an unusual experience for a god to be afraid of anything, much less a mortal summoner."
"A god?" Hīrō asked mockingly. "Those things are no gods. Those things are daemons. Nothing more! Nothing less!" he said while Shiva gave him a nod of agreement before she burst away into icy dust crystals. "let's just find somewhere to hide out until I can get us out of here?"
"Wait… my portal should still be open!" Valkyrie said quickly. "But the Sanctuary could have already found it. China, Tanith, and the others won't be able to hold them off for long! We used an anchor of magic to get through to save, Skulduggery!"
"Okay, lets… well, here!" Hīrō said as he moved over to Skulduggery and rose his left hand concentrating. "I've never tried to use healing magic on a living skeleton before, but it should restore some of your strength," he said. "You'll have to explain this to me sometime. Cura!" he muttered as one of his other green gems, one on his neckless lit up, and a blue glow spread from his hand encompassing Skulduggery for a second before fading away.
"Wow. That is quite the useful magic!" Skulduggery said as he stood up straighter and flexed his bony fingers. "Right, you two, let's get to that portal and out of here before any more Faceless Ones try their luck!" he said as he started running.
Hīrō and Valkyrie shared a looked before giving chase. "It should be this way!" Valkyrie said quickly speeding off to lead the way through a row of buildings and up some stairs.
"So, Hīrō – why are you here?" Skulduggery asked quickly as they ran after Valkyrie side by side.
"Oh, just needed to get away for a bit, just followed my instincts while walking through the Sea of Dimensions," he replied with a shrug as he finally re-sheathed his sword. "My life on my birth dimension was getting a little hectic. You see my parents died when I was a baby during a war with a Dark Wizard and his racist band of losers.
"Loads of people lost property, and businesses were destroyed. You get the point?" he asked and the skeleton nodded. "Well, when I came back to join the magical community, it turned out that the blasted headmaster of my school and 'leader of the light' managed to scam the goblins that run the Magical World bank into loaning out my inheritance… which is still pretty vast, as mage on my world of pourer blood, tend to save, and make fairly good investments here and there… well, he used my money to repair a lot of the wars damage, and all that. Apparently, because of all the douchebags, insurance premiums for mage were just too high for anyone, or insurance companies just wouldn't cover anyone for Dark Wizard attacks… thankfully, mage are hidden on my world, yours?"
"Yes, we would rather the mortals not know about us," Skulduggery agreed with a nod for Hīrō to continue.
"Okay, well, anyway, it was unfortunate for those who my money helped; that the old man never collected on debts or set up any repayment plans or such, and he wasn't allowed by lore of magic, and the T.O.S of Gringotts Wizarding Bank to just give the money away. Now I pretty much have half of the magical UK, by the balls in debt to me, and the Ministry of magic freaking out because I could singlehandedly cash the UK magical's economy. I'm pretty sure I'm owe by a few people that moved to other countries, since, like the US. Though, I do hear that MACUSA aren't as stupid as the Ministry, but I'll believe that when I see it...!"
"MACUSA!?" Skulduggery asked curiously.
"The Magical Congress of the United States of America," he answered shrugging, and could tell the skeleton and Valkyrie were majorly impressed and awed, which gave Hīrō the impression that their magical governments weren't as in control. "Anyway… with all this debt because of interest, and all that, families have been handing over their daughters' hands in there's this whole magical lore tradition honour crap, I have to adhere to, to keep and make family alliances for when the Dark Wizard returns, and rebuilds his armies because it appears that he isn't quite dead… I should know, I know the Goddess of Death… well… families have been betrothing their daughters to me, so that they can continue their lines as they are, or better off even, and to allow me to pay off the debts, because magical's take all this stuff much too seriously… so this summer holiday… well some of my betrothal's families were organising some kind of engagement party thing or some such… so I needed a vacation; it's so stressful, not to mention, I have to be eleven there.
"But whatever. It's kind of amusing fucking with my enemies!" he said with a shrug. "And messing with the incompetent Ministry, and the headmaster… well it's not all bad I suppose. They deserve all they get, and so far, all the girls are rather nice-!"
"No offense, but your world seems stupid! But I suppose you already know that," Valkyrie said as she stopped at an alley. They looked in to see a glowing yellow vortex. "I know guys are weird and probably think having loads of girlfriends is a good thing, but that seems like a lot of work just to keep a bunch of idiots happily in your pocket. Sounds like you should have just buggered off and hid out at this MACUSA place and went to school there!"
"I'll admit I didn't think about going to Ilvermorny until recently," he replied. "I suppose Hogwarts is kind of fun though, and I have made a few normal friends too. So do you have a Hogwarts on your world?"
"We tried to build a few magical schools through the centuries," Skulduggery admitted. "And there is one that is still around… but it only takes a select few from well-off families in Germany, so kids like Valkyrie find dopes like me to… apprentice under. I'm a detective for the Irish Sanctuary...! Our magical government… not as seemingly in control as your magical governments seem to be, but they do what needs to be done… sometimes-."
"Hey, you two, can we leave and talk for later – before some arse shuts down the magic of the portal?" Valkyrie demanded coolly. "Or worse and a whole army of jerky Faceless Ones turn up to squish us, and force the portal open wide enough to fit through and go on a rampage through our world, murdering everyone we know and love!"
"Right, you are Valkyrie," Skulduggery said quickly. "Let's get moving before something else happens!"
"Like scary dudes ridding flying dinosaurs!" Hīrō suggested as he started shoving them both towards the portal as they startled as they saw the savages flying towards them and made quick haste to the portal.
"I feel kinda bad about what my ancestors did to this world," Valkyrie said. "But I've still come to hate this planet!"
"Couldn't agree more, dear!" Skulduggery said. "Now you first," he said and she turned to him for a moment before looking over at Hīrō and running through the light and disappearing with Hīrō and Skulduggery rushing through seconds later.
They were in a vortex of light, but Hīrō could feel the Sea of Dimensions all around them. But tremors shook the bridge of light they were on within moments of entering. They could see an opening in front of them as it was quickly sealing closed. Valkyrie tried to get to it; reaching for the last gap but Hīrō grabbed her hand and pulled her back into his arms where she looked up at him, blushing, and glad she didn't lose her hand.
"The bridge is collapsing!" Skulduggery warned as he got to them. "And we were so close I could see our world!" he said in frustration as the yellow tunnel like bridge around them started falling apart. "What will happen when the bridge is completely gone?" he asked looking to Hīrō as he held Valkyrie and she held onto him tightly, as he seemed to know much more about this than them.
Hīrō reached out and grabbed Skulduggery's wrist before looking into Valkyrie's eyes, as they were soon floating through the nothingness of colours.
"Just concentrate on your reality Val," Hīrō said calmly, "and demand the Sea of Dimensions send us there!"
"W-what? I don't have dimension travelling powers!" she said, but she wasn't sure that was true. However, she was starting to feel fear as the yellow was soon a sea of every colour imagined or not swirling around them.
"Okay, probably not the best of times anyway!" Hīrō said, "and I don't know how long we can actually stay in here. I think I can pull us out, but the problem is, it will be wherever we are, or were… maybe one of my worlds if we're lucky, and we'll have to wait twenty-four hours before I can get us to your world. And we could potentially end up landing on a world without air, or ruled by octopus or something messed up like that."
"Just do it!" Valkyrie ordered in worry.
"Okay, just don't panic. All will be fine," he said. "I'm just pissed off that I can't reverse time while in the Sea of Dimensions! That would have been highly useful."
Valkyrie gave him a startled look before the world burst in around them and their feet hit the ground. The three of them fell and rolled down a slope before coming to a quick stop feeling dizzy as they pulled themselves to sit up and look around.
"A… over sized cottage?" Valkyrie asked in surprise.
Hīrō laughed out loud. "My house, Val," he said in relief.
Valkyrie looked somewhat reassured, before she asked something. "What are you… and how are you powerful enough to travel through reality?"
He looked at her in surprise, and smiled. "My real… er, given name is Harry Potter," he said sheepishly, "but I am the God of Heroes!" he said shocking Valkyrie and Skulduggery into freezing. "I'm kind of new at this to be honest, but I can travel through time and space to guide heroes throughout the multiverse. Thankfully, gods like us tend to come in pairs, or eternity would be extremely lonely."
"I-I'm the Goddess of Heroes?" Valkyrie asked, but the way she said it with such confidence and certainty, meant she already knew the answer.
Hīrō shrugged sheepishly. "I felt a connection the first moment I saws you," he replied sheepishly. "I just didn't realise it until we were in the Sea of Dimensions."
"This feels weird," Valkyrie said slowly. "Its like I've always known you!"
"Your power has woken," Hīrō said with a smile. "Your name is taken, right?" he asked and she nodded sheepishly.
"Stephanie Edgley," she answered the unasked question. "I don't know how to feel about this."
"You can stay for a while," Hīrō suggested. "Time doesn't mean anything to us, so we can travel back to your world before the portal collapses. You can go to Hogwarts, learn my kind of magic… I take it you don't use wands on your world?" he asked and she nodded in agreement. "We're different from them… other magical's… we can use the powers of other worlds… learn their magics."
"But I-."
"Let's stay for a while, Stephanie," Skulduggery said, startling her as it had been a while since he used her given name. He looked to Harry. "Names have no power over people here, do they… and… Stephanie said that she had broken free before she chose her name, from China trying to stop her saving me… they have no power over real gods."
"A-are you sure its okay to stay here?" Valkyrie asked confusedly.
Skulduggery nodded. "If time has no baring, then yes. It would be wise for us to stay here, and for you to learn all the magic you can, and then we can return home, and save our friends."
"I'll even come with you," Hīrō said with a grin.
Valkyrie grinned back, and for the next month, she would learn too much, but she was pretty sure that Skulduggery had the most fun as he enjoyed a good banter with Sirius while Remus tried and failed to reel them in. However, Valkyrie was excited to start real magical school, and make some new friends, as the other girls would be arriving the day after they picked up Hermione, Ginny, and Luna.
However, the day she and Hīrō were to meet up with Hermione, Ginny, and Luna was the most exciting for Valkyrie, as she would actually-get a wand to help her with actual spells, and witchcraft, and she could barely wait, as using Hīrō's wand, didn't feel as right, as it wasn't her very own. She had received a letter of invitation to Hogwarts, and everything. Valkyrie was practically buzzing as she squeezed Hīrō's arm into her body, as he had taught her to revert her age, so while he was twelve, she was eleven, and after Skulduggery mocked them a little for being too adorable, they were off to Diagon Alley, thankfully leaving the skeleton behind.
to be continued...