Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any other fandom I manage to squeeze in this story.
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Lightning Dragon's Roar
A Harry Potter Fanfiction
By Zero Rewind
© 2015
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Chapter 46: Red Court
Have you ever tried to drill through something in your life?
A drill bit pierces your target, and voilà! Instant hole. I saw Uncle Vernon do it to install shelves, assemble furniture, and a whole other slew of things, the least of which is the company he works for.
Anyway, I'm getting a little off track.
So, what exactly happens to whatever you just drilled through? The matter doesn't just suddenly disappear, does it?
The quick answer, is no. There's something called the law of conservation of mass which states that, for any system closed to all transfers of matter and energy, the mass of the system must remain constant over time, as system mass cannot change quantity if it not added or removed.
In layman's terms, matter doesn't just appear or disappear.
So what happens?
It's simply transformed and displaced. Sometimes quietly, sometimes not.
I was drilling a hole in the concrete large enough to fit me.
So it didn't surprise me when my ears got assaulted with an uncomfortably high pitched noise as I drove the massive Edge through the floor below me.
Hurt my ears like you wouldn't believe, though.
Eventually, the noise ceased, and I was greeted with the sight of a large, circular hole large enough for me to fit through. Chunks of concrete littered the room I stood in.
I coughed, the fine dust of shredded concrete entering my lungs.
I covered my face, a mostly futile gesture as my lungs expelled the unwanted particles of dust, and stared through the hole.
I could hear the chanting of the vampires standing in the large chamber below me.
I didn't know what language it was; they were also waving their arms around in quick, precise manners.
As if they were channeling power through every motion, word, every action they made.
And all of that power was going to the center, to the old—no, ancient— being I had felt.
I wasn't sure how tall he was, at this distance, but I could tell that he overshadowed everyone else in height.
Easily over seven feet tall, as far as I could tell.
The large being wore no armor whatsoever, preferring to wear what seemed to be garments made out of cloth, cotton, and hemp fiber. The clothes looked tribal-like, in comparison to the more modern clothing the Red Court vampires wore around him.
But the most peculiar part of the whole getup was the golden mask on the large creature's face.
§A Lord of Outer Night? Here? § I heard Balthazar hissing in surprise.
§You know who this is? § I asked my companion curiously. Lord of Outer Night, of course it had to be a lord having to do with dark related things. §And you're saying he's *a* lord of outer night? How many of these lords are there? §
§Ancient Red Court vampires. § Balthazar was explaining. §Thirteen of them, they're the Red King's inner circle. §
§How could you possibly know all of that? § I asked him incredulously. How would someone's pet snake know such things, anyway?
§My previous master, § Balthazar said, and gave me the mental equivalent of a shrug. §He kept himself well informed, I guess. He said there were rumors that the Lords of Outer Night were actually ancient, retired gods. §
Wait…
§W-wait. What? That's possible? § I stuttered for a second, looking down at the figure in question with infinitely more scrutiny.
It slowly lifted its head to meet my eyes.
I got a better look at its mask— the familiar, frontal cranial structure of a Thestral. Behind its eye-holes, there was only blackness staring back at me.
I suppressed a shiver. §What do you mean, retired god? §
§I suppose it was is expression made specifically to indicate the being's level of power. § My viper-arm answered back in a nonchalant tone. §You've felt out his power. It is old, and large, but we have dealt with beings stronger than this. §
And we had. Names like Mundus, Lilith, Dante and Vergil came to mind.
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to pull out all the stops, so soon after I returned." I muttered to myself, gripping Erebus hard. "But it can't be helped, huh?"
Erebus vibrated even more strongly, eager to fight. To kill.
"Settle down, dingus; you'll get your stinking fight, you overgrown baby." I said irritably, ignoring the Devil Arm's not-so-nice reply.
I steeled my nerves, and jumped down into the large ritual chamber. Lightning appeared underneath my black combat boots, forming into solid footholds which I used to run down.
It wouldn't do to smash right into the middle of them. I'd likely break half the bones in my body with that little maneuver.
As I ran down at an angle, I toyed with the idea of throwing all of my power behind a Roar and ending things right at the beginning.
"Direct energy attacks will be useless against a ritual of this magnitude. He will either absorb it, or it will destabilize the ritual and explode violently." Erebus said.
"How violently are we talking?" I asked as I my feet hit some kind of barrier.
I noted a few of the vampires veered off from the main circle, and had their arms out, forming a barrier.
A steadily growing barrier, that forced me to backtrack a few dozen feet back, at least.
"Enough to level the city we are in, I'd say." Erebus supplied, and I palmed my face in exasperation at yet another terrible crisis, before looking around.
The chamber we were in was huge.
I wouldn't even call it a chamber, to be honest. It was more like a large cavern, complete with stalactites and stalagmites, with a concrete building built right on top of it.
How long had the vampires owned this land?
The sound of low growling and hissing came from below me.
I looked down, and saw more of the bat-like creatures, almost frothing at the mouth at the chance to tear me to shreds. They were different from the ones I had dealt with, previously.
"Mindless killing machines." Erebus almost purred. "Guard dogs, as it were."
"One, two…" I muttered, counting them all as fast as I could, the Lightning in my nerves speeding up my perception of the reality around me. "Thirty six. Three dozens of these things."
So, basically, I had to get past them, get to the center, and hope I win a fight against the Lord of Outer Night. Basically, a god.
Oh, and his non-mindless cronies.
Could I even do this?
"The most you'll achieve is a slaughter of these mindless grunts below us before that being, or one of its many minions grinds us into a fine paste." Erebus informed me of my odds.
"I thought as much." I sighed, standing in midair as if I did it every day.
"Welcome, young mage."
I felt the words slam into me. The words carried a sort of heavy weight to them.
I had clearly heard them, but at the same time it was as if they were a more tangible, physical thing— aside from the minute vibration of air that sound is.
The being— the Lord of Outer Night— was talking to me. Civilly.
Mundus never did something like this in our fight between Realms.
He didn't need to; his power was so overwhelming that he let it speak for itself, choosing to simply mock his enemies instead of physically incapacitate them with his voice.
It made sense; this voice trick probably only meant one thing.
An intimidation measure meant to put me off my game, so I'd make stupid mistakes and eventually get crushed by the enemy.
Or maybe he was trying to stall me.
I didn't know which was worse.
"Yo." I said back.
"My compliments on making it past the guard and for that… explosive entrance."
The noise coming from the mindless beasts was getting a little annoying.
Well, since I was outside of the magic circle, there was no way I could disrupt its energy flow and blow us up.
I lifted Erebus high into the air, channeling Lightning into the demonic blade.
The dark sword crackled with the bluish black Dark Lightning I had become so familiar with, and the monsters below me actually stopped, staring at the source of energy like deer in front of headlights.
"Lightning Dark Stream." I almost whispered, and pointed the sword downwards, moving it in a spiral.
"Leave nothing behind." I almost snarled. Darkness and Lightning erupted from the tip of the blade, falling onto the monsters like a torrent made out of bluish black water, engulfing them whole within a split second, their cries instantly cut short.
The energy followed the path I had set it to, a downward spiral which completely annihilated anything in its path.
A few seconds later, I stood above the empty ground. No sign of the monsters remained. I dropped down, and began to move closer to the barrier.
"An impressive attack. I see how the Devil King Mundus had trouble with you."
"You know about that, huh?" I replied, checking the barrier for any flaws, anything I could break.
I pushed out my energy and latched onto the barrier, feeling a small drain on my reserves as I did so.
But it would let me analyze the barrier from another angle.
The barrier was a perfect sphere, so there went the idea of just digging underneath it and reaching the other side.
Its only weakness were those that were providing the power to sustain the barrier, but since I couldn't attack them from the inside.
Still, their energy was not limitless.
"I would politely ask you not to interfere with tonight's activities, if you please."
"I can't have you killing off the wizards, I kind of live here, you know."
"Erebus." I whispered within the confines of my mind, completely ignoring what the Lord of Outer Night was saying in response. "What if I threw everything I had into this barrier? Would that drain them enough to drop it, or just break it altogether?"
"It might." Erebus replied. "But you forget that there are a handful of Red Court vampires just waiting for you on the other side."
"You mean—"
"A fair amount of them can simply leave the circle and attack you. It will likely set it back a few minutes, but nothing more." Erebus explained patiently.
"—would you protect the White Council? Why would you get in the way of our ritual?" I started paying attention again.
"You think I'm White Council?" I almost scoffed.
"You are not?" It asked curiously. My initial assessment of its height was incorrect. The Lord of Outer Night's height was at least eight feet, every inch of its flesh perfectly sculpted muscles.
Likely, it's had entire lifetimes to perfect its body, which looks starkly different when compared to the rest of its race; the beer bellied fucks.
"The White Council are True Mages." I retorted. "The society of people you are attacking Is made up of Wand Mages. As far as I'm concerned, their problems are their own. If you just leave the Wand Wizards alone, then I'll take my leave, and pretend nothing happened."
"The difference between the groups is irrelevant. Both associations are comprised of magical humans. Prey that dares to usurp their masters with the arcane arts. We shall purge them from this Earth, starting with London." The Lord of Outer Night scoffed, heavily regarding me with its Thestral Mask.
"Though, I do thank you for keeping the Devil King away from the Human Realm. If you do not interfere, your death shall be swift. My word is given."
"Gee, thanks." I groused, and took a step back. The energy levels were rising quickly.
This thing was giving me no choice, in this situation. Clark and Hermione were busy clearing out the rooms.
The rest of my companions were outside, waiting for any escapees— not that they'd be able to make it down here quickly enough.
An idea formed in my head.
A colossally stupid idea.
A really, really, really bad idea.
But it was all I had. It was either this, or have the entire Wizarding population of London die tonight.
I would apologize to Hermione, later.
"Voldemort!" I said loudly. "Voldemort! Voldemort! Voldemort! Voldemort!"
"What are you—"
"Wait for it…" I cut the ancient being off.
It seethed, but surprisingly waited.
Seconds passed, and I began to doubt the effectiveness of my plan.
Nothing.
"Have you gone insane in your final moments?" The Lord of Outer Night almost seemed amused. "Truly, you humans—"
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
A series of loud cracks filled the large cavern we stood in, as dozens upon dozens of wizards, clothed in black robes, wearing black hoods and hiding their faces with masks possessing snake-like eye slits to cover their faces.
The Death Eaters were here.
"Where—"
"What's going on?"
"What the bloody hell is that?"
And these guys were supposed to be the cavalry.
As expected, the wizards were confused as hell as to what was going on
Likely, they were expecting tired pockets of resistance that hadn't yet learned of the Taboo that the Lord Voldemort had put on his name, and not… Whatever this was.
"Fellow wizards!" I called out. "Hear me!"
They turned to me.
"Who's the kid?" One of them said.
"Settle down." A more gruff voice came from my left as the source approached me. He took his mask off.
I recognized him as the guy who was going to execute Buckbeak, back in my third year at Hogwarts.
What was his name? Macnor? Mecnar?
"What is the meaning of this, Macnair?" One of the Death Eaters said, confused.
That's the name. Macnair. Walden Macnair, worked as the Executioner in the Ministry. His job position had probably changed at this point, but he basically killed things.
"Harry Potter." The man sneered, his thin, black moustache slightly twitching as he spoke.
Macnair was a pretty tall man, and muscular to boot. But, I reckoned you had to be pretty beefy if you swung an axe around all the time.
Anyway…
"Harry Potter?" One of the Death Eater said, almost hungrily. "I bet our Lord would reward us handsomely for his death!"
The comment seemed to reverberate among the rest of the Death Eaters, and they started going for their wands.
"Stop." Macnair interrupted, raising a hand. They complied instantly. "Our Lord has specifically stated that Potter is his, and his alone. He is off limits to the rest of us."
"But…" One of them started protesting.
I twitched in anger, before speeding in front of the protesting Death Eater, placing Erebus against his throat before any of them could perceive that I had even moved from my initial position.
"I don't particularly care if you want to capture me, or kill me." I snarled, and the Death Eaters around us jumped back in abject fear at the speed I had displayed.
"Suffice to say, I can kill every single one of you." I looked into the man's eyes, behind his mask. "In fact, I remember killing you scum by the hundreds, outside of Azkaban."
That seemed to do the trick.
"They were just rookies!" The man in front of me disagreed. He had balls, if nothing else. "We are the best of the best."
"If you are the best of the best, and I caught you all by surprise…" I let that statement fill their minds for a moment. "Then what the fuck does that make me, hmm?"
The man couldn't answer.
"As amusing as this banter is." Macnair interrupted, walking toward me in a non-threatening manner, his wand lowered to his side. "You called us here, Potter. For what purpose?"
I pointed at the Red Court Vampires surrounding the Lord of Outer Night with my free hand. He turned to where I was pointing, and stared.
A second passed. He stared some more.
Then he cursed. I would have smiled, if the situation wasn't so dire.
He took out his wand, and moved it in an intricate manner.
The barrier appeared, in all of its green, translucent glory, before fading again.
"What are the vampires doing?" He didn't turn to me.
"Not sure." I started, lowering my sword and pushing the Death Eater back as if he were inconsequential. "Some kind of ritual circle that's supposed to kill off magical humans. He said he was going to 'purge' all of the wizards in London— whatever that means."
"And purge them, I shall." The Lord of Outer Night confirmed, regarding the dozens of wizards as if they were mere gnats. "You bring weak prey to the den of monsters, young wizard?"
I ignored what he said, addressing Walden Macnair instead.
"I know we're enemies." I said, sheathing Erebus as a peaceful gesture— whatever passed for one, in this situation. "But this needs to get done, or we won't get to kill each other later. Are you with me?"
He turned his head sideways, giving me a short glance full of fire, before turning back to the barrier.
Wordlessly, the man whipped his wand at the barrier.
"Confodio!" A brilliant, bluish white beam of light erupted from his wand, smashing against the shield with the force of a semi rolling at sixty miles an hour.
The shield rippled, absorbing all the power of the impact and distributing it everywhere. It was suffering minimal damage.
"What are you waiting for, you useless swine!" Macnair yelled at his fellow Death Eaters, who were simply standing by, staring. "Use the Shield Piercer, now! If those vampires finish their ritual, we are all dead! Do you understand!?"
That seemed to jolt them into joining him.
Shouts of "Confodio!" erupted, and several of the bluish white beams joined Macnair's bathing the room in its light. The barrier shook, and wavered.
Cracks began to appear in several places.
But the shield held.
Worse yet, it was beginning to repair itself. Slowly, but surely, the cracks began to recede.
"Potter!" Macnair called out.
"I'm on it!" I said, raising my hands and channeling a significant amount of my Lightning. The electricity converged above me, forming a long, wicked looking halberd.
I grabbed hold of the weapon, pouring as much power into it as I could without breaking its shape, before heaving.
"Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd!" I threw the halberd with all of my strength.
It zoomed to the barrier with a loud boom and a thunderclap, a sign that it surpassed the speed of sound, before it impacted against the shield.
Instantly, we were treated—see: subjected— to a loud, grinding noise, several levels worse than the sound of my Edge drilling through concrete earlier.
It was the equivalent of an even stronger Edge (how big would that particular Lightning drill even be?) drilling through thick, reinforced steel.
The sound made me cover my ears and close my eyes, in an attempt to block out the worst of it. A few seconds later, the halberd dissipated, its energy completely spent.
There was silence.
I opened my eyes, and hoped that my attack had done the trick.
But, no. The shield had held.
"It didn't work…" I started to say, before hearing several thuds.
The shield fell.
What the hell?
"Likely, the ones powering the shield poured all of their reserves into stopping your attack, and simply fell unconscious afterwards." Erebus explained.
"The shield's down!" One of the Death Eaters said, and the rest of them cheered.
"Listen up!" I called out over the rest of them. "You guys take on any Red Court vampires that decide to get in our way. I'll take on the Lord of Outer Night. Do not fire spells directly at the center of their ritual circle. Do you understand?"
"We don't follow your orders!" One of them said, before turning to Macnair. The Death Eaters did the same.
Macnair looked at the band of idiots with exasperation on his face.
"Kill the Red Court vampires. Don't fire spells at the center of that magic circle or we all die. Let Potter get killed by that creature." Macnair ordered, and the troops went to war, shouting cries.
"But that's exactly what I just said—" I sputtered at the man, who simply smirked, before joining his fellows.
I followed suit.
I saw Death Eater after Death Eater being bodily thrown ten— no, fifteen— feet in the air by the Red Court vampires.
It was only four of them, and they were handing the Death Eater's asses to them.
The scent of fresh blood filled the air around us, stronger than the scent of blood in the ground beneath us, easily drowning it out.
I took two steps to the left, avoiding one of the thrown Death Eaters' trajectory with ease.
The Death Eater's thrower pinned me with a predatory, but calculating gaze, before leaping, its monumental strength allowing it to reach me in a single bound.
Electricity whirled excitedly in my nerves as I moved to the side, the monster's clawed fingers missing my face by a hair's breadth.
"You are a fast one." The Red Court vampire smiled. It still wore its flesh mask, a young looking man with the build of a lumberjack. He had short, cropped black hair, and full, black beard with hints of gray, and wore a basic black shirt, and pants.
If I didn't know better, I would have assumed that this man was a regular heartbreaker with the way he looked.
But this wasn't a man.
The completely black eyes took any doubt away.
"Perhaps I should take you a bit more seriously than the rest of this—" The vampire's face twisted in distaste as he drew a sword from the sheath at his side. "—scum."
It was a thin, curved scimitar, with what seemed to be runic sigils engraved into its blade and guard.
The man twirled it a few times, before swinging it slightly, the movement displacing enough air that I actually felt it from that distance.
"You can take me as seriously as you'd like, beer-belly." I taunted, drawing out Erebus in response. Erebus writhed against my palm excitedly.
"But you'll still lose."
"My name." The vampire snarled. "Is Wulfric, human."
"It's Harry Potter, bitch." I smirked back, and beckoned him forward.
He took that as the cue to begin, closing the distance between us before the time it took to blink, slashing downward from my right side, believing that I could not guard against it in time.
Wulfric was fast, incredibly so; but my Lightning enhanced my reaction times beyond what was humanly possible. I took a few steps to the right, the sword missing me by centimeters.
Lightning snarled out of my right fist as I slammed it into the vampire's face, the impact likely throwing him at least a dozen feet away— that's, if my Breakdown Fist had even hit its target.
At the last instant, the vampire had ducked underneath the strike, raising the butt of his sword to slam against my solar plexus in an attempt to break through my ribcage with his monumental strength.
I lowered my black scaled arm very slightly, meeting the butt of his scimitar with my elbow. It didn't hurt, but the impact sent me flying backwards uncontrollably.
Before I could correct my flight pattern, I slammed into a hapless Death Eater, back first, before spinning like a ragdoll in the air and hitting the unforgiving ground.
That hurt.
I shook off the spots in my vision, and got up as fast as I could, and instinctively raised Erebus, just in time for it to intercept the vampire's horizontal slash, likely meant to finish me off.
Now, I had become a lot stronger than I used to be, sure. I could probably bench press a human being my size and not even feel it.
But it's basic physics here. I was a stationary target, putting up some resistance, while my attacker had even greater strength, and the speed to go with his strike.
I didn't stand a chance.
It was a testament to Erebus' power that the sword didn't break, and that I was simply flung backwards, yet again.
As I flew backwards, I saw Wulfric's form appear above me, his scimitar pointed straight down as he descended upon me, like some kind of avenging angel.