Edited 05/06/2020
An eerie fog had settled over private drive. Harry's eyes widened in sudden realization, his bounds to his aunt and the two staff members were cut. They had been cut for a long time; he hadn't noticed. He'd been fooled by something. When he saw his stuff on the ground, he felt his teeth grind. He found his stuff waiting for him on the street. He pushed his sixth sense against the fog.
The fog was a wall immutable. His sixth sense his greatest sensory tool used to detect and react to his worst enemies, failed. This wall of fog obscured his sixth sense leaving him blind within the fog. He felt no more insight on what lay beyond the fog than a blind mortal.
"There are more magics that exist than man can dream. This is one such magic." Nomine hissed.
Within his spark there was a hint to what this fog was. This fog was a conjured by a cockatrice. It was likely dispatched to deal with him. If Harry had been here, he would have died. From the depths of the fog, a presence left obscurity. Harry felt the powerful presence vanish too quickly to identify. This might be his only chance. He needed to go in and kill the monster quickly.
Harry pushed his aura against the mist and opened the way. The entirety of private drive had been petrified. Holes were opened in the stone exposing it to the sky. Those holes weren't natural, something tore into the cars and houses after they were petrified. Harry could hear the flapping of great wings as the mist stirred and hid private drive from world once more. He raised the hood of his invisibility cloak.
The beast hissed. "Stone for my lord. Stone that gazes to the sky. Terminus. oh, great lord let this sacrifice please you." Harry ducked behind a car as the beast landed.
Aura flaked off as it was turned to stone. The beast stomped shaking the ground. Its beak shot down ripping a hole in a stone roof. "Let this please you my lord Terminus. The stone faces the sky." There were no answers to the monster's prayers.
Steel was the weapon most effective against divine monsters. Even dragons feared the bite of a steel blade. Harry made his way out of the danger zone as the monster begged its god for answers. While the beast was distracted, he made his way out of the fog. At his luggage, he dug through his trunk and claimed a spear, two swords, unicorn stakes, and a war hammer.
Most weapons were stored in his bag of holding. His starting set was a Warhammer and ten stakes. The creature's physiology was a mystery to Harry. It might have hollow bones, it might have a nearly indestructible hide, or it might be a glass cannon. Harry knew it was metaphysically weak against steel and it could petrify through auditory attacks. He wouldn't know anything else unless he observed it.
For the next few days, he bought some live traps and captured a few neighborhood animals. Harry needed to observe the creature.
He wrapped himself in his invisibility cloak and tossed a captured racoon on the ground. Cockatrice smashed into the ground upon seeing the creature. It hissed loudly and the coon quickly turned to stone. Harry was able to observe the creature. It moved flapping its wings leaping from roof to roof. It was heavy but not too heavy. Like a specter of death, Harry floated observing the giant bird.
After watching it turn several creatures into stone Harry was beginning to get a handle on the process. As powerful as the creature was, it was predictable. He placed another living animal on the ground and flew high in the air to wait.
Within a nest made from petrified housing the monster emerged. It glared down at the rat in the cage. This was a mouse trap. The mouse in question was twenty meters long from beak to feathered serpentine tail. Its hind legs were raptor talons and its front were wings. Instead of scales it was downed in inky black feathers. The creature itself held a small amount of an unknown element. Harry was certain that one of those elements was divinity.
The mouse let out a terrible hiss and gobbled up the cheese. Harry fell with his hammer the guillotine's blade. Gravity took hold and he pushed himself accelerating faster than gravity.
With a glitter of steel his hammer struck. Harry felt the bones in both his arms snap just before he hit the ground. The ground shook and split when he hit. Harry flew out of the hole. His arms would take a few minutes to heal.
Just as he rose from the crater the monster opened its eyes. Harry flew away as it let out a pain filled shriek. Harry bolstered his aura to keep the petrifying effect at bay. Stone appeared around him and the Cockatrice locked on to him. The stone shattered as Harry moved. The beast opened its mouth and let out smog filled breath. Harry used his aura and felt at the stake.
Clumsily, he took it from its sleeve and launched it at the cockatrice. This was the first time he'd used his aura to lift things other than himself. The stake flew wide missing the monster. It charged like a mad turkey shrieking and flapping its wings. Harry's hammer was still lodged in the bird's skull.
Harry tossed another stake at the monster only for its flapping wings to steal the stakes speed and it dropped. His feet left the ground and he flew. The monster flapped and left the ground.
Feathers flew from the monster's wings it flew after Harry. Twelve orbs of sever all appeared cutting the feathers apart. The monster unleashed its breath of smog and Harry retreated. His sever all orbs shot forward and Harry lost connection.
The orbs fell back to earth the aura turned to stone. Three feathers flashed through the smog and cut into his sides. He was so focused on escape that his barrier suffered. Blood seeped from the wounds in his stomach. Harry didn't look down; he didn't want to know how badly he was hurt.
Aura blazed around him as he shot up like a shooting star. He stopped losing aura to petrification and his invisibility cloak hid him from the monster. Harry stopped healing his gut wound and his left arm. He devoted everything to heal his right arm.
Feather's cut through wind streams. Small twisters burst around the monster's beating wings. It flew around the mist swirling it and dispensing its smog breath.
Harry felt his right arm finish healing as he flew ever higher. His left arm popped back together as he ripped the barbed feathers from his gut. From his bag of holding he pulled free two thin longswords. He let himself fall upon the cockatrice again.
Once again, he picked up speed accelerating with gravity. He stabbed both swords into the monster's eyes. The monster's reflexes erupted, and talons flew up. They were sharp as obsidian blades.
He felt them slice through his barrier. Even as he pulled away, they ripped through his flesh. His guts were in ruins, his body spasmed as adrenaline shot through it, and they fell.
Harry punched the talon as they fell breaking it off. The monster's beak shot out snapping onto his shoulder. His collar bone shatter shards of bone ripped through his neck. Never was he more thankful for aura. It held him together even as his body broke. He yanked a sword out of the monster and stabbed it in the jaw. The monster opened its jaw and he knew he hadn't won yet. He was down to his last trump card.
Fire and light merged into nuclear destruction in his right hand. He placed a hand to the creature's breast. Harry felt his brain hemorrhaging from using power beyond his consciousness power. A beam of green plasma shot through the monster's breast. He smashed against the ground under the broken irradiated bird.
He couldn't move as blood from the cockatrice pooled into his wounds. The blood burned and he felt something spread through his body. It was a feeling of unlocking shackles. A weight insidiously placed on him from birth was lifted.
The mind of the cockatrice entered him through the blood. Harry attacked it. Harry crushed it with his qi and ripped at it. His consciousness grew and his body began the long road to recovery. Harry levitated himself and eased back to his feet.
He took a step and froze. Blood poured from his wounds before they closed again. Harry stopped moving his mouth hung open and he shook. His body felt like it was held together with duck tape and pleasant thoughts.. Now that he was closer to the monster's corpse, things made sense. The monster's feathers were each made from a lightweight material rigid in some ways like obsidian. He ran a finger over a feather and was cut. The wound bled and was slow to close. Most of Harry's aura was focused on getting him back to fighting shape.
"This body is a treasure trove. Leather capable of absorbing impact and feathers able to turn blades. You could make a terrifying head dress from this beast." Nomine said.
Harry turned and puked a fountain of blood. It would be a while before he was back at full power. He felt his collarbone snap back into place. Around 90% of his aura was busy repairing ruptured organs. Harry turned his head and noticed the fog.
"Something's wrong Nomine, the fog hasn't lifted." His ears twitched sending new agony through his aching head. They twitched again. "What's that noise? It sounds like thunder." His ear drums burst as the sound exploded. Blood pooled down his chin.
He lifted his head to see a golden eagle. It was larger than any he'd ever seen. With a flap of its wings a powerful gust of air shot Harry off his feet. The winds carried him into a nearby building. He saw Nomine take a bite from the cockatrice as he slumped down. Harry mused that he could count the number unbroken bones in his body with one hand. He raised his only unbroken finger, his middle one.
She transformed into a massive five headed hydra form. Feathers from the cockatrice decorated her body. She stood on massive raptor talons and each of the five heads had a vicious beak. They opened their maws and unleashed five different breath attacks. The golden eagle in the sky released what Harry could only describe as tribulation lightning. Great golden bolts crashed into Nomine ripping through her breath attacks and striking her.
Nomine shrieked and vanished. Harry could still sense her. She had transformed into something tiny. The eagle continued to buffet the ground and blast it with its lightning. Then it struck at the carcass of the cockatrice. The eagle began to devour the beast and Harry could feel the eagles power increase.
Petrified roofing fell on top of him as hurricane force winds shattered the houses. Harry remained hidden under the debris after the eagle had its fill and flew around striking the ground with lightning. It destroyed everything until only rubble remained.
Harry healed slowly under the collapsed housing. A week past his fight, he felt he could move again. That last attack had ripped through his barrier and crushed his bones. The healing was slow. Scars covered Harry's body. His bones had ripped through his flesh as had the sharp petrified debris stirred up by the eagle. There wasn't an inch of his body free of scaring.
"I'm sorry Harry, I was no match for him." Nomine said. She had freed him from the debris after the eagle left.
Harry made his way to the cockatrice's corpse. Most of it was ripped apart. There was enough hide left to make something. The major organs had been devoured. There was still something left. He decided to give it to Umbrella.
"Those creatures made from the gods are cannibalistic in nature. By consuming each other they can increase their personal power. Cockatrice had come here to because it sensed the blood of a star spawn. It came out of hibernation and destroyed the area in worship of its patron god and to feed." Nomine said.
"I understand," Harry said. He cut away the hide and reclaimed his long swords. His hammer was gone.
He took a trip to nocturn alley. No one bothered him. They looked at his face and looked away in pity.
He made his way through a dark alley only for a gang of tuffs to stop him. "Boy what are you doing walking down here alone. Are you some young lord?" Harry lowered his hood and looked the man in the eyes. The man turned his head and choked. He spat on the ground and took a stop back.
"Never mind, I'll let you go. We don't have a lot." The thug looked around to his fellows who nodded. "We wouldn't be out here if we were doing well. If you need a little money, we could give you a knut or two." The man said.
They let him through, and Harry made his way to a leather worker's guild. They promised to send his suit to him in Japan. If they didn't, he'd get them back for it somehow. Harry had thought about flying to Japan through his own power but changed his mind. On the way out from the alley, he picked up an illegal drought of the living death and its counter potion. After having it inspected it was determined to be real.
It wasn't hard to get a passport. Mortals didn't need to be stringed to be strung along. His consciousness was strong enough to bend will without a wand. A fallen star was in Japan. He'd investigate it soon.
Harry sat in his seat covered in bandages. From his head to his toes, he covered himself. He was ugly and didn't want to be seen. Nomine was good at wrapping the bandages and hiding his body.
Flying by plane was boring. He couldn't sleep so, he read David's demon summoning book. There was a booklet written by David full of translations. Through it, he slowly read the book.
Umbrella paid for the trip. He didn't know how they made money and didn't care. So long as the money came in Harry would leave them be.
He landed and made his way to a hotel. He'd made it and didn't speak a lick of Japanese. There were no leads about a fallen star, and he didn't know where to begin looking. Tokyo did have an interesting problem. Apparently, some monster existed that preyed upon humanity. They were called ghouls but were nothing like their harmless magical namesake. It seemed humanity had more predators than Harry had thought.
Harry found himself walking the streets at the late hours of the night. One-night saw someone leaping across the roof tops. She was around his age from what he could see and covered in bandages. He watched her leap from roof top to roof top with admirable grace. He watched her go then followed her from the ground.
He dashed through the streets quiet as a ghost and faster than a corvette. As the twists and turns abounded, he kept his eyes on her. She held a strength greater than a mortal but less than his own by far. He wanted to learn more about her.
Even with speed he couldn't match her with back alleys alone. Somehow, he lost her, she had done what many couldn't and left the edge of his sixth sense. He hadn't expanded it far, but she had gotten away before he could react.
Did Harry realize she was a ghoul? She might have been but there were more creatures under heaven and earth than stars in the sky.
The next night, he walked the alleys and came upon a woman with a black dog mask. She stared at him with fierce red eyes. She sniffed the air and turned on him. Wings stretched out from her back and shot crystals at him. Was this a hint about the fallen star? A fallen angel perhaps or a part of one. Harry didn't know and had nothing to go on.
He twisted out of the way of the attack. Harry made sure to just get out of the way. "Hey dog mask lady, are you trying to kill me or something?" Harry yelled. On the inside he was curious. She blasted another layer of spikes, but it seemed halfhearted. Harry made a show of leaping out of the way and just getting out of range before she fired.
"Maybe you should run kid you'll live longer that way." She said.
"Want to see something brilliant?" Harry asked. He stepped into the way of the crystals. The woman tried to withdraw her attack and even ran to stop it. Harry felt the crystals impact his barrier and shatter.
"I call it my barrier. Whenever something harmful would hit me, it appears and blocks it. What do you think?" Harry asked.
"Bow wow, what are you doing here kid?" The woman asked.
"I'm looking for this mo, girl. She's around my age, also wrapped in bandages." Harry said.
"It sounds like you're stalking her." The woman said with frown. She withdrew her wings much to Harry's disappointment.
"Yes, I'm stalking her for now. I do plan to introduce myself." The woman narrowed her eyes.
"Come on lady throw a dog a bone." Harry said. He smiled under his bandages. This was turning out to be a relaxing vacation.
"You're not one of my dogs, so no bones for you. You wouldn't like any I'd offer you anyway." She said.
"So, you're a ghoul." Harry said. She took up a defensive stance.
"I'm sorry there's nothing wrong with being a ghoul. Compared to my kind you're practically a saint. Don't ask it's just a PR bubble waiting to pop and start a war." Harry said.
"So, you aren't human either. You smell weird. There are others like you in this city. They were older and not friendly." Harry raised his hands.
"I'm sorry." Harry said.
"Is the girl you were stalking one of you." She asked.
"No, she is a ghoul. I saw her leaping from roof top to roof top. I want to get to know her." Harry said and continued. "I'm on vacation. A fling is just the thing I need to forget about my responsibilities." Harry said.
"How do you know?" She asked.
"I would sense it if she was like me. We can detect each other." Harry said.
"Is there anything you can do about the others like you. They've attacked some of my people." Harry thought about it for a moment. He could scare them a little. But this was a vacation." Harry let his shoulder's slump.
"I'm only eleven." She let out a sigh.
"I was hoping you were an overpowered dwarf." She said.
"I'll tell you what. I'll do what I can. I belong to a sect called Umbrella. We can shield you from our kind and take up a chapter here. There aren't a lot of us and not many will want to leave the main office. I'll have to pay them out of my own pocket. If I stick my neck out for you. Is there something you can do for me or the sect?" Harry asked.
"The Black Dobers run half of this ward. Do you have any human employees that need watching out for?" She asked.
"I'm just a private contractor. I'll have to ask one of the execs, but I'll get back to you. My name's Harry Potter. How will I get in contact with you?" Harry asked. Inside he was patting himself on the back. A private contractor described his position perfectly.
"Just come back here tomorrow night. I'll have someone escort you to me. She'll see you then run; no human will be able to keep up." She said.
Harry smiled and nodded. He turned and continued down the street looking for the girl in bandages.
"Kid are you lost." Harry turned around to see a man in an ape mask.
"King kong, I'm looking for a girl wrapped in bandages like me leaping from the roof tops." Harry said.
"It's the devil ape actually. You don't seem scared of me." Devil ape said.
"Are you another gang member trying to get a corporate sponsor?" Harry asked.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked.
"Nothing, the last person to stop me ended up getting an offer out of me. Some bird wearing a dog mask." Harry said.
"Wait you do know humans will be executed for helping out ghouls, right?" He said. "What could they even offer a corporation?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"You're one of those weird humans, aren't you?" Harry nodded and thrust his senses out. He felt her familiar presence at the barest edge of his senses. It was in a whole other ward.
"Well she's far from here now." Harry muttered.
"Is she one of your kind or a ghoul?" The man asked.
"She's a ghoul or an overpowered human cannibal. She's in another ward now." Harry said.
"Why are you after her?" He asked.
"She seems interesting and it's my vacation." Harry replied.
"Ok, let me give you some advice about lady ghouls. Don't approach her while she's eating and don't call her out on what she is. If you're going after her then be smart and bump into her while she's acting human." Harry nodded.
"Thank you for the advice. I'll recommend your gang to Umbrella. Don't expect much, I'm just a contractor." Harry said.
"You're also a kid what could you do for such a company." The man said.
"I'm paid a salary and I'm paid to travel. I couldn't tell you what I actually do." Harry said.
"That sounds like a fun job." There was an awkward silence. "I'll see you around or maybe not." The man said and leapt away.
He was back at the hotel and on the phone. "Alright, you want us to build a chapter in Japan. Getting the bodies into Britain is already difficult. We could transport a cutting, but we need a whole entity like the cockatrice to make it worth it. Otherwise we'll need hundreds of fresh humans." Claudia said.
"Alright, I can hunt another monster. There might be something here in Japan. I'll try to get it alive." Harry said.
"It's better for us to practice colonialism early anyway. We'll send some recruiters. Our numbers have greatly increased after David was deposed. We're ready to expand but no one wants to live in a desert. I'll send a barebones crew and we'll add a branch of Umbrella pharmaceuticals. We'll promise them the protection of your ghoul gang." Claudia said.
"Thank you, Claudia, you're an angel." Harry said.
"Don't compare me to those mindless drones Harry. Good bye." The line ended.
Harry put the phone down and stood up from the bed. The sun was starting to rise, he needed to locate, hunt down, and surprise attack a monster.
"Nomine do you know of any monsters in Japan." Harry asked.
"The country is full of them Harry. Take up your cloak lets fly." Harry let her wrap around his arm and climb up. He flew and let his sixth sense expand. He flew faster using his sixth sense to search. Then something pinged to his senses. It had a similar element as the cockatrice.
When he removed his hood, lightning flashed. From the blue-sky lightning blasted him. He fell hard to the ground.
"The gods of Japan are watching. They won't let us do as we please." Nomine said.
"Then we'll be sneakier." Harry said. He made his way on foot towards a sprawling village.
In the village he saw the people shy away from him. They whispered outsider under their breath and kept their distance. Each person had a tiny portion of divinity in their bodies. They drove and walked through the streets. Some worked in rice fields and drove tractors.
Harry felt his sense ping off another. He made his way to a tea shop and found the table with a boy of fourteen.
"Hey, I'm Richard but my friends call me a Dick." Harry raised an eyebrow at the read headed man.
"Sorry, mate I guess you can't see through the bandages. I'm Harry Potter, are you from the states?" Harry asked. He felt aura rise from Dick and push against his own.
"I'm from the states but I have family in the UK. That's where I picked up the forbidden knowledge. I prefer to call it the path. That's what all the cool kids call it." Dick said.
"What brings you to this tea shop?" The waitress quickly brought some tea. Harry could sense some divinity within the tea. It was much smaller than in the village residents. The waitress bowed and backed away.
"I heard about a town with very good tea. When you try it, you never want to leave." Dick said.
He poured a cup of tea and served Harry. Harry tossed the cut back and caught something sticky on his tongue. With a bit of aura, he sliced it apart.
"I'm not feeling it. This tea seems a bit average. Why don't you give it a try?" Harry suggested.
"Sure, I love earl grey." Richard picked up the cup and sent a current of aura through it. He downed the tea easily. "Hm this one is missing something." He opened the sugar bowl. It was filled to the brim with spider eggs under an illusion. Dick tossed it against a wall. "This isn't sugar at all."
"Sir, calm down and let me explain." One of the waitresses said. Harry saw through the illusion and saw a few extra eyes on her forehead.
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead explain." Harry said.
"This should be good." Dick said.
"Well you see, you should both die." The waitress said and curtsied.
One of the waitresses ran out meat clever in hand. Harry thrust and touched the girl's creamy soft skin. A burst of aura traveled through her body and there was no girl left inside. It was mostly spider at this point. Harry punched forward splattering the corpse.
"Interesting, is that late stage contamination." One of the girls erupted with a spider body. It leapt through the air fangs bared. Harry stabbed through the brain stem and sliced off the other's head.
He sensed an aura covered bullet pass through the air and into a spider leaping midair. "I see you haven't begun lining your weapons with aura. Here watch me." Dick said.
Slowly, Richard charged his gun with aura and fired it through a window. Aura traveled with the bullet piercing through a spider possessed human. Seeing it once was enough. Green aura cover his sword and he felt a connection form with it.
He cut through the possessed as more poured into the café. Bodies piled on the floor soaking their shoes in sticky blood. Gore slowed them down as the bodies covered the floor.
"Welcome Harry Potter to Wily Wonka and the Blood factory." Harry rolled his eyes and stabbed another woman crawling on the ceiling. He twisted the blade and sliced a final time bisecting the monster.
Blood soaked them from head to toe, dripped from the ceiling, and covered the windows. The bodies of the villagers were piled in a corner like firewood.
"Alright they're retreating we have some breathing room." Harry said.
I'm after their queen, I need it for my sect. Do you have any objections or are we going to fight for it?" Dick raised his gun at Harry and smiled.
The windows burst open and spiders crawled in endless like a swarm. Dick and Harry turned up their auras. Spiraling columns of red and green appeared around them as they prepared to duke it out. The spiders were ripped apart as their auras clashed.
"You're out of luck Harry. I'm built for killing my fellow man." Harry pulled his wand free as he positioned himself for a fight. Harry dodged before the pistol fired. Aura charged rounds shattered the walls behind him as he brought his sword point up. He leapt off the ground as more of the building was ripped apart.
Twelve orbs of sever all shot out. Twelve rounds shattered the orbs while Harry crossed the distance. "Still using refinery attacks. How did you make it to foundry?" Harry stabbed and Dick parried, Harry moved out of the path of each round. A single round could rip through his barrier. Harry leapt up shattering the housing above.
"That's your second mistake Harry. Between us I'm the long range." Harry pointed his wand at the café and unleashed fire. The flames struck the ground scorched the café into ash and burned away the spiders around the area.
Rounds shot out of the flame like red demons. Harry dodged them unleashing more flames setting fire to other buildings. Dick shot up out of the flames firing up at him. Harry moved out of the way but dared not fly higher. He put his cloak on and turned invisible.
Harry left Dick to search for him and headed into the mine near the town. In his cloak he bypassed the spider guards. He flew through the nest under the cocooned forms of countless victims.
He found the spider queen. She was a massive beast with a giantess upper body and a massive lower spider body. Harry pulled from his robes a powerful potion. He purchased it on his trip into nocturn alley.
Harry grabbed her mouth and poured the potion down her throat before she could react. She thrashed around for a few seconds before collapsing. Drought of the living death had done its job. Now how was he going to get her out of here and to Tokyo.