Many thanks to some of my fellow fanfiction lovers on the facebook group, for giving me some tips on the general flow of the fight!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter; nor do I own any other fandom that may appear in this fiction.
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Lightning Dragon's Roar
A Harry Potter Fanfiction
By Zero Rewind
© 2015
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"Now you've really crossed the line,
Your hate for me is Divine!"
Devil May Cry 3 - Divine Hate
Chapter 28: Three Way
I remember reading an anonymous quote, at some point of time during my epic tryst in the very depths of the Internet. It went something like: "fortune does not always favor the bold."
I felt it applied to this situation all too well.
Tristan, Sirius and I had boldly entered the Demon infested city of Prato in order to confront the Devil Lilith; a powerful succubus who was supposedly a Lieutenant in the Demon Emperor's Army.
Honestly, just wrapping my head around the whole "Demon Emperor" concept was difficult enough. What's next, aliens with glowing eyes? Even my humorous idea of Voldemort leading his army whilst on the back of a Nundu sounded more plausible than that!
Anyway, where was I?
Oh, that's right! Luck. I would say ours was pretty terrible, from the look of things.
I stared at the colossal three headed ferocious hound, then at Lilith, who was surrounded by a large pack of Hell Prides; I wondered how we would get out of this one.
Cerberus growled threateningly towards the mischievous Lilith.
"Ha ha ha ha!" Cerberus suddenly laughed, a loud, booming noise. "You come back when the master is away? I would have expected nothing less from the likes of you."
The master? Tristan, Sirius and I shared a look, but said nothing.
"Yes." Lilith looked a little disgruntled, her demonic tail swaying in agitation. "His arrival put a small wrench in my plans, but no matter. As a matter of fact..."
She smiled insanely, the facial shift not detracting from her wondrous beauty.
"I have Him… occupied with other things, at the moment." She waved her hand dismissively at the gigantic dog.
I wondered who "He" was. I hated pronoun games with a passion. In my mind's eye, I imagined some gigantic, ugly Demon sitting on a throne and doling out orders.
Cerberus laughed again.
"I doubt any of your puny plans could hold Him for long!"
"Enough talk!" Lilith suddenly burst out, before her hands were wreathed in unholy crimson fire.
She took flight, looking down at us with a haughty expression.
"You will all die, here and now. By the time He comes back, it wouldn't even matter!" She said, before throwing one of her signature fireball bombs straight at me. It moved with great speed, but I was ready for it, this time.
I charged my palm with copious amounts of Lightning, and smacked the fireball as if I was hitting a volleyball.
The fireball flew right back at the beautiful Demoness, but she merely shifted to the side, letting the attack pass by her form, eventually hitting one of the walls, creating a small explosion.
A small shock wave slightly rattled the room.
That seemed to be the cue everyone in the large chamber was waiting for.
With a loud howl, Cerberus lunged forward, tearing into the Hell Prides with extreme prejudice. Their lifeblood flew everywhere, spattering the walls, as well as the other occupants of the room.
The hell hound swung its left paw in a downward arc that smashed into Sirius, who simply switched places with his shadow, completely unaffected by the Demon's attack. Sirius smirked at it, but did not attack, not seeing a reason to do so.
Our plan was to stop Lilith, not get to the top of the tower. If we could do it here, then all the better.
Instead, the man turned his attention on the Hell Prides, cutting through them like hell was right on his heels, filling the chamber with their pain filled shrieks. Cerberus quietly regarded the laughing Sirius, not sure what to make of the human who was killing his enemies.
Tristan wasted no time, either. Intense purple flames began to form around his body, condensing themselves to such a degree that I began to feel extremely uncomfortable standing next to him.
From his back, wings of purple fire erupted, and he immediately took to the air. In almost no time, he was on Lilith's eye level, regarding her with some anger and… was that a little excitement?
...Also, I really want to go back to that stupid golden statue and learn how to fly, damn it! Then again, the statue sold techniques in exchange for the blood of Demons. I could just as easily create the technique myself.
Hell, Tristan just handed the idea to me on a silver platter. Wings made out of my Lightning Dragonslayer magic! It would be somewhat tricky to replicate, but I was confident in my skills with shape manipulation.
"Oh, it's you." Lilith gave Tristan a cursory glance, before looking right at me with unnerving, hungry eyes. "I'm not interested in you, right now, my darling Tristan."
Ouch.
"Well, allow me to change your mind!" Tristan waved his hand, and grinned savagely as Lilith was engulfed in his intense purple flames.
His good spirits didn't last long, as Lilith simply flew straight at the man, his flames not harming her gorgeous body in the least. A few more shots managed to slow her down, but she still reached him.
"I've already had my fun with you, before…" She pouted, forming claws made out of crimson flame. "Go away!"
She shot several fireballs at the man, but he managed to counter them with a barrage of his own. He snapped his fingers and caused the air around Lilith to spontaneously combust in a bright, purple of show of unholy light.
Lilith emerged from the inferno, with an angry burn mark on her right arm, but none the worse for wear.
"You wound me, Lilith." Tristan grinned at the Demoness. "Didn't you miss me, at all?"
She glared silently at the man, before she made to swipe at him with her fire claws, but he simply let himself fall, easily avoiding her strikes. He grabbed her long legs and held them in place.
"Now!" He called out for me, as Lilith attempted to squirm out of his hold.
I shot a concentrated bolt of lightning at the beautiful succubus, who simply copied Tristan's tactic and let her body fall backwards; the bolt harmlessly flew through the hole in the ceiling, straight into the sky.
Lilith's wings folded in on themselves as she contorted her body in ways I didn't think were possible. She bent backwards so much, she was able to claw at Tristan's shocked face with ease.
The man in question immediately let go of her ankles, but suffered a good deal of damage from the maneuver.
He was taken completely by surprise.
Immediately, Lilith's wings unfolded as she fluidly un-contorted her body, gazing wickedly at her opponent. She gave him no time to recover, cruelly whipping his face with her demonic tail, laughing insanely as she did so.
Tristan was forced to touch down, his hand cradling his damaged face. Likely, he hadn't been expecting her to pull such a maneuver. His flames dissipated into nothingness.
"Now I've wounded you. Ha!"
She laughed at her downed opponent contemptuously, before suddenly looking towards Cerberus, feeling a shift in his energy. Recognizing the energy surge for what it was, she summoned crimson fire and shielded herself from the hell hound's icy breath.
The icy beam impacted her shield of flame with a loud hiss, filling the room with a thick fog. It was a repeat performance of Voldemort's attempt at countering her fire with Fiendwæter back at Azkaban.
At the very least, it bought us a short reprieve.
"Are you okay?" I was immediately by the man's side.
"I'll live." Tristan ground out, blood pouring down his face. "She got one of my eyes. It hurts, I can't even open it."
Not good.
"Was it her fire claws or her tail?" I asked quickly, dreading the answer.
"I'm not sure. I— look out!" Tristan pulled me out of the way of one of Cerberus' ice attacks, a gigantic boulder of ice which had torn through a group of Hell Prides, before coming straight at me.
I felt my fingertips flare in pain as the attack barely missed me. A few centimeters more and my fingers would've snapped backwards from the impact. I took a deep, shuddering breath.
"Thanks!"
"No problem." Tristan waved it off, before motioning to Lilith, who was keeping Cerberus busy for the moment; at least, I think she was. It was so hard to see in this mist.
"Listen, Harry." Tristan said urgently. "I'm no good to you, like this. It's up to you, now."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that you have to stop her."
"Me?" I said incredulously. "The last time I went against her, she took everything I had with barely any damage!"
The sounds of battle were intensifying once more, Sirius' glee apparent as I heard consecutive cracks of Apparition, immediately followed by the howls of Hell Prides. At least he seemed to be having fun.
We heard Cerberus howl, before Lilith's surprised shout, followed by a loud thud. Mocking words were exchanged between the two formidable demons before their fight resumed.
"From what I understand." I focused back onto Tristan, who gently wiped at his face, wincing. "You were almost completely spent before being forced to fight her. Give yourself a little credit."
"Still..." I wasn't convinced.
"Get ahold of yourself, Potter." Tristan bit out harshly.
§He's right, you know.§ Balthazar piped in. §We can take her.§
§What do you mean "we"?§ I retorted, my voice coming out as a sibilant hiss.
§Check this out.§ With that, Balthazar began to sink into my skin. I started in surprise, as I felt a strange shift in my energy. It was as if something had linked with my inner energies, giving me additional power.
I felt my right arm tingle, and heard a strange clicking sound as the porous skin was covered in Balthazar's familiar smooth, hexagonal black scales, my fingertips sharpening to form claws that looked like they were dipped in a strange, purple liquid.
More of the liquid seeped out of a hole resting in my palm. It dropped onto the ground, easily dissolving the earth. A poisonous liquid, then? I willed the hole to close, and to my satisfaction, it did.
Tristan merely stared at the process in fascination.
"Incredible."
I nodded distractedly, taking the moment to stare at my hand.
§What do you think?§ I heard Balthazar speak, but where was the sound coming from?
§Is this… Dragon Force?§ I hissed, feeling awed at witnessing Balthazar's feat of magic.
§Not really. I guess you could call it Snake Arm? I'm not a dragon, you doofus.§
I was going to say more, but shook my head instead.
There was no time for the "how" or the "why". The mist was beginning to dissipate, revealing the contents of the chamber we stood in once more.
The number of Hell Prides had dwindled immensely, due to Sirius tearing through them like there was no tomorrow. The man in question looked as happy as a fat kid in a candy store, tearing through Prides with a ruthlessness that amazed me.
The remainder of the Hell Prides stood in a protective formation around a no longer airborne Lilith, who was taking the time to thaw out her wings, while the Hell Prides protected her at any cost.
Likely, Cerberus had tagged her wings with its icy breath, in order to bring her down on the ground so it can finish her off with a single crushing bite.
So why hadn't it? I turned my gaze to the hell hound, and started with surprise.
Two of its heads were lying on the ground, generous amounts of blood flowing from the stumps left behind. Somehow, Lilith had fatally wounded the creature in the time it took for Tristan and I to have that short conversation.
"You have done well to keep me at bay, Cerberus." Lilith praised as she spread her wings wide and took to the air once more. "Truly worthy of your title of Ice Guardian."
The hell hound responded by glaring heatedly at the female Devil, incapable of forming words in its exhausted state.
"But," She grinned wickedly, before diving towards the creature, slitting its remaining throat in a single strike. "It is time for you to sleep."
The beast gurgled, choking on its own blood, before slumping on the ground with a loud crash. It was dead.
"Now, where were we?" Lilith immediately turned to our direction. She gave the downed Tristan a disinterested glance, before fully focusing her attention on me.
Her eyes were wide with surprise at what she saw.
"My, my..." She sensually walked towards me, getting a better view of my form. "What have you come up with, this time?"
I kept my mouth shut, and watched her every move, summoning as much Lightning as my body could hold, prepared for any surprise attack she might have.
"You are, by far, one of the more interesting mortals I have met." She eyed me with interest, and what seemed to be regret.
She hummed thoughtfully, pressing a single delicate, blood covered finger to her lips and licking it sensually. "It's such a shame that I have to kill you..."
"You speak as if you can!" I bristled.
"Oh?" She seemed faintly amused at my reaction.
"I'll send you packing, just like I did last time!"
Her smile turned feral. "Except this time, there is no Voldemort, no Dumbledore, and no thunderstorm to power your desperate attack! Even with this… arm, how do you expect to fight me?"
Looks like she was underestimating old Balthazar's skills. I guessed I had to teach her a lesson.
I answered by closing the distance between us in a few instants, a furiously spinning drill of Lightning already on my jabbing hand. Lilith parried my deadly strike, and countered with a well placed swipe at my arm. The sound of grinding was heard as my armored arm took the blow with ease.
I grinned savagely, before twisting with the momentum from Lilith's parry, sending a Lightning enhanced elbow at her face. She ducked underneath the strike, and made a wide sweep, catching my legs.
I fell on my back, and immediately began to roll away from Lilith's follow up; a powerful, steady stream of intense, crimson flames. Sadly, I wasn't able to avoid it all, judging from the sharp pain coming from my side.
Her onslaught would've continued even further, if my Lightning Blades didn't force her to discontinue her attack and dodge, lest she be impaled through the skull.
I winced as I ran my hand over the burn wound. It was time for a change of tactics. I rushed towards the silvery-blonde haired demon once more, charging up another Edge.
I would only have a single chance at this.
She had a disappointed expression on her face as she parried my strike in the exact same fashion she did before. I backed away for an instant, before sending a left hook in her direction. Scales hit flesh as she parried this strike as well. She retaliated with a few swipes of her own, but I managed to dodge every single one.
After yet another failed swipe, she huffed.
"Enough of this. Level Two!" I felt a drastic shift in her energy as her fire claws increased in intensity and heat.
This was it.
She fully committed to the strike, knowing that it would put me down for good.
I waited until she got as close as she could, before spraying her with Balthazar's poison
I felt a savage satisfaction when I heard her yell out in great pain, most of her frontal body sizzling when it came into contact with Balthazar's potent poison. I knew the fight was far from over, deciding to pepper her with a stream of Lightning Blades.
As before, she began to dodge, but not before two of the blades had hit their mark, one embedding itself in her left arm, the other in her right femur, spilling her precious lifeblood onto the floor.
"You hurt me! How dare you!" She shrieked painfully and withdrew the blades, further aggravating her wounds.
It was almost worth the injuries I received.
Almost.
I made to finish her off, but Lilith moved away with a powerful flex of her wings. She flew right to the door behind Cerberus, hoping to make an escape, while at the same time grabbing a light blue, tripartite nunchaku that had appeared next to the hell hound's dead body.
"Get back here!"
I tried to give chase, but merely got two steps in before the door was frozen by… something. What?
Then, the floor beneath me turned a bluish black and began to ripple, as if something was about to emerge.
I wasted no time and immediately dove to the right, as yet another demon emerged, its scythe spinning like a windmill, threatening to shred anything that came close to it. The even stranger part was that it was cackling as it did so.
Could I catch a break, already?
I stood up, and took in its form. It was like an even bigger version of the Hell Prides, though this one bore an even more uncanny resemblance to the Grim Reaper of legend. Its black, tattered cloak moved of its own accord, as if there was some unseen breeze rolling in.
It took a few steps, taking in its surroundings, before its soulless blue eyes rested on me.
Then, it straight up disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, before reappearing to my left, its weapon swinging down with enough force to break large boulders. I managed to avoid it thanks to my heightened senses, the scythe cutting a large swath through the earth, as if it presented little resistance.
Ugh, I didn't have time for this. Lilith was getting away!
I ducked underneath a horizontal swipe of its scythe, and let loose a Roar right in its face. The creature disappeared in a puff of black smoke, the attack harmlessly passing through and crashing into the dead Cerberus, sending its large canine body flying into the wall, before it dropped to the ground with a loud thump, the ground rumbling slightly from the impact.
I jumped back, looking around wildly for the Demon's next avenue of attack. Gongs were heard all around me, along with the insane cackles of the teleporting scythe wielding Demon.
It finally appeared from behind me, but I had expected such a tactic, and rewarded the Demon with a spray of acid to the face.
The monster in question howled in pure agony as Balthazar's potent acid dissolved its body into a puddle in a matter of seconds.
I wasn't sure if that had done it in, or if this was only a trick, so I let loose another Roar on the puddle, destroying it completely in a flash of bluish, white light.
I backed away from the remains of the Demon, taking a moment to collect myself and to assess my surroundings. The remainder of the Hell Prides had been totally wiped out by Sirius, who was attending to the wounded Tristan.
I winced, the nerves under my burn wounds pulsing in pain. I stared at my black scaled arm, wondering how exactly to undo the change. Immediately after that thought, the armor began to sink into my skin like Balthazar had done before.
At the same time, Balthazar emerged from the middle of my back, wrapping himself around my torso while minding the wounds, and resting his head on my shoulder.
§How… Are you feeling?§ I asked, not really sure of what to say to the black viper.
§A little drained.§ Balthazar answered. §But otherwise all right.§
§Tell me, Balthazar; just when did you learn how to do that?§
§You didn't think I was just lounging around the past few months, did you?§ The viper chided good-naturedly. §Ever since I became your familiar, I've felt myself changing. Don't ask me how I learned how to do this. I just knew how, all of a sudden, and I practiced it ever since.§
§You just… Knew.§ I repeated dumbly, before shaking my head and walking towards my two partners. §Right. Okay.§
Balthazar said not to ask, but I simply couldn't help but wonder. I had never heard of any snake being capable of something like this. Hell, before meeting the black viper, I didn't even know snakes could be intelligent enough to learn how to read and write!
And yet, Balthazar had shown me he could do so in seven different languages.
Why shouldn't he be able to do something like this?
As for the 'how' in the equation, I could only speculate. Maybe the influx of my Dragonslayer magic had provoked a change in him. Maybe he was a rare breed of snake, that transformed when they bonded with someone.
I briefly considered the Watcher of Time granting Balthazar this power, but dismissed it immediately, considering Balthazar's words of this happening in a gradual sense, when he became my familiar.
Like I said, I had never heard of anything remotely close to what just happened.
Wait.
§What did you practice this on?§
§You.§ Balthazar nonchalantly replied.
§When could you have possibly tried this out? I don't remember us ever training with it.§ I said, feeling a little disturbed at this information.
§I did it when you were asleep.§
That did very little to relieve my worries. In fact, I was even more disturbed by this.
I opened my mouth to answer, but shook my head, knowing that this line of conversation would likely lead to a very dark place. Instead, I turned my attention to my two friends.
Sirius himself looked more or less okay. His robes were torn and shredded in places, and it seemed as if he had suffered a few wounds, but most were shallow in nature and presented no large threat.
Tristan, on the other hand, had received quite a beating from Lilith's sudden onslaught. His bleeding had lessened considerably, which I hoped was a good sign. His teeth were gritted in pain and he was still firmly pressing on his damaged eye.
It just goes to show that, no matter how strong you are, a surprise attack is a surprise attack and will almost always end up with you receiving a great deal of damage in a short amount of time.
It was a sobering thought.
"You guys all right?" I made sure to ask.
"I'm fine, just a few scratches." Sirius waved me off, before turning to Tristan. "Tristan isn't faring so well, on the other hand."
The man in question grunted and got to his feet, still firmly pressing his hand on his wounded eye.
"I'll live."
"Well of course, you'll live." Sirius said, looking annoyed as he steadied the man. "But we need to get your eye checked, as soon as we can."
"Then, who will go up the floors of the Temen Ni Gru, if not us?" Tristan said, annoyed. Sirius glared back.
"Me, of course." I answered immediately, getting two sharp looks in return. "What?"
"No way!" Sirius denied.
"And why not?" I said, a little heatedly.
"Not only do we have to get Tristan some medical attention, we also have to call for reinforcements! Someone like Dumbledore, for instance!" Sirius explained, his voice raised.
It was a decent argument, all things considered.
Between having to fight the guardians of this tower, having to deal with Lilith— who had now somehow acquired Cerberus' power over ice if I'm right about why exactly the path is blocked using that very element— and the unknown Demon that greeted us when we first came to Prato...
Not to mention the "Master" of this place.
"Yeah, and how long would that take?" I retorted easily. "You can't just Apparate into Hogwarts grounds, and I doubt my Patronus would get there quick enough from here. Likely you'd have to go to Hogsmeade, and get to the castle the hard way."
"...He's got a point, Black." Tristan conceded. "By that time, who knows what kind of damage Lilith will have caused?"
Sirius sighed, looking troubled, but nodded anyway.
"You're right." Sirius ground out angrily. "I don't have to like it. But you're right."
Tristan made a few steps forward, hand alight with unholy purple fire.
"Let me get rid of that ice." And with that, the blonde man engulfed the icy door in fire, melting it slowly. Sirius and I joined in with a shout of "Incendio!" but we barely added to Tristan's onslaught.
It made sense, since our conjured flames were likely much weaker than the cursed purple flames that Tristan wielded. Eventually, we ended our onslaught, revealing an ice-free door.
"There." Tristan said tiredly. "The path is now open. Stop her, Harry."
"I will." I looked at both men. "You'd better bring those reinforcements."
It looked like I would need them.