Hello, once again, to chapter 26 of The Glacial Ones!
I've had a few interesting reviews, so I'll just start with the one I want to get out of the way first.
Guest: Firstly, I am writing this assuming that you are the same person who reviewed three time, so if I'm wrong, I apologize. I admit that the first review seemed a little rude to me, as English IS my first language (yes, I know, that just makes it worse). Your other two reviews however have showed me that you are genuinely trying to help, so I apologize for that first impression.
To start off, I am well aware that my spelling and grammar could use some work, though I wasn't aware of how bad it was. I fully intend to go back and edit the story again once I finish the Akame Ga Kill storyline. As for your review about 'doing' instead of going… well, fuck. One wrong letter (plus a missing apostrophe) and the whole sentence goes somewhere I really didn't want it to. Thanks for pointing that out, and it should be fixed now.
I also looked up possessive pronouns like you suggested, but I don't know how well I'll be able to use them properly to start with, so continued feedback would be appreciated.
On a final note, if you intend to continue your constructive criticism, could you please use some kind of pen name, so I don't have to call you guest, and preferable point out the mistakes in my latest chapters so I can go and fix them? Otherwise I'll be leaving most of the editing for later. Thanks for the constructive criticism, and keep it up!
Witchshift: As commented above, yeah it does need some more editing. As for the whole cupboard/cardboard thing, really! I thought I dealt with that like, twenty chapters ago! I really need to be more careful. Anyway, it should be fixed now. Thanks for pointing that out for me!
Silent Lurker: Seriously, what god/goddess of fanfiction did you piss off?! I get everyone else's reviews on time but yours. Anyway, for your idea for calling the Gauntlets Amon, it is currently a toss-up between that and Behemoth. As for your Bow of Spite: Samael idea, it seems like the best idea I have so far, so it seems likely. Thanks for all your amazing ideas and support!
And a final thanks to Jharrell819, The Perfect Re TPR and, as always, Imperial warlord. You guys rock!
And now, let's start on chapter 26!
Warning: There is a scene which describes some torture in this chapter. I don't know how bad it is, since I don't really read torture scenes, but the warnings here just in case.
I do not own, in any way, shape, or form Akame Ga Kill or Harry Potter.
-T.G.O-
Chapter 26: Bloody Deaths and Crimson Stones
The explosive orb flew from Champs hand, arcing through the air in slow motion as the large man hurled it towards Ran.
There was a flash of light.
Champs eyes widened comically.
A shock wave of energy from Enshin that Harry had ducked further down the street, slammed into the side of the orb.
The orb exploded.
There was a flash of light as the entire street bathed in a fiery glow, the ice and frost reflecting the brilliant flash of oranges and reds as the ground rumbled.
Just barely beyond the massive, fiery explosion, Ran deactivated his Teigu, his wings retracting as the shock wave from the explosion threw him sliding backwards along the ground, sending him scrambling for purchase on the frozen earth.
Coming to a halt, Ran cast a wary gaze over where Champ had been standing moments ago, the fire and smoke quickly clearing away as it was smothered by the bitterly cold air. Noting the figure struggling on the ground near the epicentre of the explosion, Ran shot forward towards his target, not giving the large man any chance to recover from the explosion.
Not that he would have been much threat anyway.
Champ struggled to push himself from the ground, his body burned and broken as he tried to force himself upwards.
He failed.
The sudden change from chilling, biting cold to intense, searing heat, on top of his previous wounds and severe burns, was too much for his body to handle as his arms gave out below him, dropping his charred upper body to the ground with a strangled yelp of pain.
The Rans foot came flashing upwards, slamming into Champs falling head with a surprising amount of force for the former teacher.
There was a crunch, followed by a gurgle of pain as Champs nose broke, his body spinning to the side as the blissful darkness claimed his vision.
Standing above the large man, Ran stared down at his adversaries face with a grim little smile on his own face, his eyes cold and hard.
"Don't worry, Champ. I won't kill you for what you did…"
His smile became a tad more disturbing.
"I'll just watch as Esdeath does. Eyed up the wrong kid this time, you sick fuck."
Without another word he walked around the unconscious man's body, reaching down as he picked him up by the legs. A moment later, his Teigu activated, wings flaring out behind him, no longer frozen as he took to the sky, barely wavering as he pulled Champ into the air by his feet, glancing down at the street below as he flew over.
He was just in time to see Enshins death.
-T.G.O-
Enshins death was quick. It was also rather brutal.
And very, very painful.
The shock waves created by his sword slammed into Harry's hurricane of high speed air blades, battling against the howling winds for a single moment. There was really no contest. The gale of swirling, spinning air blades tore through Enshins shock waves as though they were nothing more than paper and surged onwards towards Enshin himself.
His eyes widened in horror and terror as he realised what was going to happen next.
Then it struck.
Enshin was torn from the ground, his Teigu hurled out of his grasp as hundreds, thousands even, of tiny blades of air slammed into his body.
In less than a second all the skin on his front half been flayed off. Then, as he began to fly backwards, his muscles where torn apart, shredded by the unforgiving winds as the pulled him backwards to his his grave.
After three seconds, the attack finally dispersed, dropping Enshin over twenty metres back from where he had been originally standing.
Or, at least, it dropped what used to be Enshin.
All the skin had been flayed off his body, all the muscles on his front half torn apart and shredded to the bone, his organs almost completely liquefied entirely. Only his heart and brain remained unscathed, protected by a layer of bone that the wind could not pierce.
That was not a good thing, as Enshin, a hardened pirate who was rather good at surviving, quickly found out.
He died the moment his body hit the ground, his heart finally giving out as his mind realised that yes, he was indeed, very much dead.
Unfortunately for him, he was alive the entire time before he hit the ground. Thankfully his throat was torn apart, so he didn't make a racket screaming.
Pulling back the arm that he had used to hurl the hurricane of air blades, Harry sent a pulse of power down into his hand, closing over the many tiny cuts that littered his arm from the attack.
His psychotic grin fell from his face, leaving only a cold, stony, mask.
Noting something above him, Harry cast his gaze up to see Ran flying over, carrying Champ by his ankles.
He nodded once up at his fellow member of the Jaegers before turning his eyes across the street over to a building that he had banished Syura into, quietly cursing his own foolishness for letting his anger get the better of him. He had massive selection of abilities and powers that he could have used, not just ice!
Shaking his head in resignation at his own stupidity, Harry extended his power, tugging at his core as he dropped the already bitingly cold air down a few more notches, no longer having to worry about catching Ran in the area of affect as well.
A flash of light inside the building he had hurled Syura through informed him of his opponents recovery a moment before another light shone up from the ground behind him, Syura appearing mid kick, an expression of pure fury on his face.
Harry ducked under the kick, weaving to the side to evade a follow up punch as he sent several spires of ice shooting upwards towards Syuras chest, flicking off a concussive wave as the man leapt backwards, catching him in the chest with bruising force and hurling him backwards.
Darting forwards after him, Harry materialized several ice spear, sending them surging towards Syura as the man flew backwards.
Syura back flipped in mid-air, just barely diving out of the way of the spears of ice as Harry charged towards him, pulling his two blades towards him as he did.
Harry slashed forward.
Syura leapt backwards, a thin slash opening along his chest as he staggered, barely evading a second slash and clumsily blocking a spin kick to his chest before attempting to retaliate with his own kick that Harry easily dodged before leaping back.
He glared at Harry.
"What did you do to me? There is no way I should normally be this slow! What did you do?!"
Harry smirked as he raised his eyebrow.
"You mean you haven't noticed yet. Oh, dear. Poor, little Syura."
He gestured towards Syura as the man ground his teeth.
"Look at yourself."
Syura glanced down at his body, eyes widening in shock as he noted that his body was covered in small cuts and gashes.
Harry just continued speaking as though he were lecturing a child.
"Most of those injuries are too small to be of any kind of significance, especially to someone like you, but poor, little Syura was too hyped up on fear and anger. You had so much adrenaline running through your body that you didn't even notice how much damage you were taking. Hmm, that one along your side looks particularly nasty. And to top it off…"
Harry gestured around him as Syura took advantage of his distraction to prepare Shambhala, his face dark with fury and humiliation.
"…It's rather chilly tonight, don't you agree?"
Syuras eyes widened as he froze in shocked horror, his body suddenly taking note of the air temperature as his adrenaline faded away.
Harry nodded in false sobriety.
"Now you notice. Since the start of our little scuffle, I've been dropping the temperature. Currently it is far too low for most humans to properly function. I wouldn't be surprised if you were suffering from mild Hypothermia right now."
Hearing Harry calmly explain what was happening, calmly explaining why he was losing the battle, despite both being in the middle of a life or death conflict, finally snapped Syuras straining sanity as he realised that Harry was looking down on him.
Assuming he had any to snap in the first place.
With a roar of rage, he activated Shambhala, appearing behind Harry in a flash of light, not even realising that he hadn't set a marker there before hand as he sent a furious kick towards Harrys head. Unfortunately, Harry had been truthful about him suffering from the cold, and the attack was far, far slower than it could have been.
Harry stepped out of the way, preparing to send off an attack, only to stop, eyes widening as Syura vanished once more.
Dodging another attack, Harry gave an amused smirk that was eerily similar to Esdeaths.
"Interesting. Before you could only use Shambhala once every couple of seconds. Now, you have surpassed your limits and gone beyond that."
Syura let out another yell of fury as he used Shambhala to appear behind Harry once more, foot lashing out as the younger male spoke.
"Unfortunately for you, you're not the only one…"
There was a loud crack and suddenly Syuras foot was flying through empty space as a Harrys voice continued behind him.
"…who can bend space."
Syura spun around clumsily, shock painted across his face as Harry pointed a hand at him, ignoring the disorientation his teleportation gave him as he tugged at his core.
The loud crack-boom of echoed throughout the district as a flash of light lit up the street, casting the ice and frost around them in an almost beautiful glow.
An arc of lightning exploded out of Harry's palm in slow motion, slamming into Syuras chest and out his back before flashing down the street into the distance. It lit up the entire street for a single moment, a glowing crack in the air, even as Syura started to topple backwards.
A single flash of death and destruction.
Then it was gone and Syura crashed backwards to the ground, dead before he struck the frost below.
Stopping to regain his breath for a moment, Harry sent his eyes sweeping over the silent street, taking note of the destruction that their battle had caused to the marketplace.
He began walking over to Syuras corpse with a sigh. Maybe if he removed his ice and Rans feathers, then they would be able to blame Night Raid for killing half of Wild Hunt?
The temperature began to rise as he crouched down beside Syura. His chest was charred completely black, with ugly, purple red burns and peeling skin further away from the point of contact where the lightning bolt pierced through his chest.
Scrunching up his nose at the smell of burnt flesh, Harry reached down, pulling Shambhala from Syuras limp grasp before standing. He stared at the corpse for a moment. Maybe the chest wound could be attributed to the Roman Artillery Teigu, Pumpkin, that one of the members of Night Raid owned?
He sighed again, the battle rush and his fit of rage finally fading away completely as the temperature returned to its normal state. The frost and ice starting to fade away as the dark clouds above started to disperse, revealing the setting sun, reflecting his mood as his power stopped lashing out in fury.
Of course that wouldn't work. Pumpkin blew holes in things, not char them right through.
Wincing as the pain of his broken ribs started to pierce the fog over his mind, Harry flicked his wrist, trapping Syuras corpse in a chunk of ice before getting the ice to disperse into small fragments of frozen water, taking Syura's body away with them on the wind in a million different pieces as Harry turned away.
Walking wearily over to Enshins mutilated corpse, Harry repeated the process before sweeping his gaze over the street, dispersing all of his ice and making sure none of Rans feathers stayed around. Normally he wouldn't bother, but they had just killed the Prime Minister's son.
No reason adding more risk to his life.
Tiredly turning to leave, Harry spun around on his heel once more as he heard someone running up behind him. Spotting Bols running towards him as fast as the partially paralyzed man could, he relaxed.
He smiled as Bols came to a stop in front of him.
"Good evening, Bols. Did Maggie tell you what happened?"
Bols nodded, glancing over Harry's body looking for any obvious injuries as Harry sagged.
"She rushed in a not long ago and told me that you and Ran had confronted Wild Hunt. I take it you won?"
Harry nodded, following Bols gaze as the larger man looked around the destruction that they had caused before pitching forward suddenly, barely keeping his balance as his legs buckled.
Bols gave him a sharp look, but let him be.
"Of… course. Enshin and Syura are both dead, Izou and Dorothea already had offers from us and Cosmina seems to have joined them… Last I saw of Champ, Ran was flying off with him."
He looked around for a moment, wondering when Izou and Cosmina had vanished. He shrugged the though aside tiredly as something else occurred to him.
"Hmm… Come to think of it, I only wanted Shambhala but there's no reason not to collect the other Teigu. They could be useful for my project if nothing else, as long as the Prime Minister doesn't learn that we have them."
He walked over to Enshins sword which had been hurled aside in the man's final moments, picking it up as he looked over his shoulder.
"You should go make sure Maggie and Tiffany are alright. Right now I'm a little emotionally drained, so I'll come by tomorrow."
Bols gave a thankful nodded before turning and heading back the way he came after giving him one more concerned look as Harry collected Champs Teigu orbs.
Picking up the last one, Harry turned his eyes to the sinking sun as it bathed the world in its final rays.
The sunlight was dying.
The hounds for war were baying for blood.
The end of an Empire was coming.
-T.G.O-
The next few days were a little odd, and rather busy for Harry, with the death of his son sending the Prime Minister into a grief fuelled raging fit that convinced Harry they may end up winning the war for the Revolutionary Army themselves.
He got better though.
About thirty seconds after he began his rage fit.
The matter was pretty much swept under the rug, with the Prime Minister knowing who was responsible for killing his son, but deciding he couldn't be bothered crossing Esdeath right now and that his son really wasn't worth it.
As for the Jaegers, the introduction of three new members went off almost without a hitch. Izou was relatively easy to accept, except when he decided he needed to kill someone or when he had one of his sword worship moments. Dorothea was slightly harder to accept, with her explosive temper, but she spent most of her time down in the palace labs studying Harry's gemstone so that was fine.
Cosmina was quiet most of the time and tended to be a little afraid of Harry and, to a lesser extent, Ran, though she was slowly growing closer to him. Probable because other than Wave, Ran was the most sane of them all.
As for Champ, well… Harry almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
His death was very, very painful. Well he wasn't dead yet but he may as well be.
After Harry had told Esdeath he had agreed to watch, despite his normal anti-torture stance, and that the large man had apparently thought that Harry was within his preferred age range, Esdeath was rather… enthusiastic.
Even now Champ was chained up in the dungeons, his skin shaved off and soaked in pure alcohol, his stomach cut open by Esdeath so that the acids leaked out before she had frozen the wound shut, the fat man's own stomach fluids eating away at his intestines as he was force feed the essence from the flowers Esdeath grew.
You know, the ones that that cause immense agony when placed against a wound? Like a stomach being eaten away by acid?
Yeah, those flowers.
Either way, Harry was well aware that that wasn't in anyway the extent of Champs torture. He only promised to be there for part of it after all.
In other words, he jumped ship as soon as he could much to Esdeaths disappointment.
Let it be forever known that Esdeath has a thing against paedophilic mass murders who eye up her Harry.
As for Shambhala, they had put off trying to use it for now until they knew how to use it better, mainly because they didn't know where Syura had had left his markers and they would rather not accidently open a gate to somewhere they really didn't what to.
Cosmina had commented that Syura left one in an active volcano after all. That would be bad if they opened that in the city, so they were waiting till they got sent to the West.
Currently thought, both Harry and Esdeath were standing side by side in the palace laboratory that had been reserved for the Jaegers.
Esdeath was the first to speak as she sat down in front of Dorothea.
"You wanted us for something, Dorothea?"
The small woman nodded, a massive grin on her face.
"Yes. I made a break through while studying the stone Harry showed me. Or not so much a break through as I identified what it is, and what it's for."
Harry grinned.
"Really?"
She nodded again.
"I was reading through some of my old texts, and I came across an ancient alchemical creation that was, and is, considered the pinnacle of alchemy. I actually already knew about it, any alchemist would, but I never thought to compare it to the gemstone."
Harry tilted his head to the left.
"So what do you think it is?"
Dorothea's grin was unnaturally wide.
"A Philosophers Stone, or, to be more accurate, a failed Philosophers Stone."
She picked up the crimson gemstone, holding it at eye level as she continued.
"This little gemstone is the closest anyone has ever gotten to the pinnacle of alchemy since the time that the Teigu were first created. Even incomplete, it is probably the most complex piece of alchemy to be created in a thousand years."
Esdeath spoke up, taking the stone from Dorothea and examining it.
"A Philosophers Stone? I admit that my knowledge on alchemy is rather limited. What is a Philosopher Stone?"
Dorothea nodded.
"A Philosophers Stone is said to be an alchemical creation that grants eternal life, and can turn any metal into gold."
Across from her, Esdeath raised an eyebrow.
"So it is an object that grants the person who uses it all the gold they could ever need and an eternity to use it. I can understand eternal life, but why bother with creating gold? It's easy enough to accumulate."
Neither Harry nor Dorothea bothered to point out that not everyone was a general for the Imperial Army who got payed more gold than they could ever use, especially if they preferred to be off fighting wars rather than spending it.
Dorothea just smirked.
"I think that it is more the fact that you have it, and can have all the gold you want, rather than actually using it to create the gold. Either way, it doesn't matter as this stone is incomplete, and it is doubtful that I will be able to ever complete it. It was created through a form of alchemy that I know nothing of and was quite possible lost to the ages."
Harry spoke up beside Esdeath.
"So what can you tell us about it? Is it of any use?"
Taking the gemstone back as Esdeath handed it to her, Dorothea nodded.
"From what I can tell, it was designed to absorb energy from the air around it, then turn this energy into some form of life force that was then infused into a liquid, likely blood, to rejuvenate the user. I don't know how it was supposed to do any of those things though and the last phase isn't working at all, nor does the first."
She placed the stone back down on its pedestal.
"In other words, it can absorb energy, but it can only absorb energy directly forced into it rather than draining it from the air. It can then turn it into small amounts of life force, but can't remove it from the stone. Even if it could, without the first stage working it would be too inefficient."
She grinned at her audience.
"On the other hand, studying it has let me advance my own alchemy by years and I've made a break throw on the other project you showed me yesterday."
Harrys eyes widened in surprise.
"Already?"
He pouted.
"And I barely got anywhere."
Dorothea just gave him a grin.
"That's not really surprising, Harry. You aren't an expert on alchemy, and while you are moderate in most fields of science, you are hardly an expert on them either."
She looked thoughtful for a moment.
"On the subject of that project with the mirror, I was going to ask if you can copy things other than biological things."
Harry nodded. Esdeath had let him reveal his copying ability, though not the rest of his powers, to Dorothea, as it was essential to the project.
"Good, I was need you to try and make a copy of the stone."
He gave her a quizzical look.
"I could, but it would take a while. You said yourself that it was made up of uncountable layers of immensely complex alchemy. I am barely at seventy percent with the Teigu core, and that's not even copying the personality inside, plus I've been at it for almost three weeks."
Nodding, Dorothea leaned back.
"True, but the stone isn't alive, so it should make it a little easier. As for why, well, your story about the Tree man you found it inside gave me a theory."
She glanced at Esdeath before continuing.
"The stone can't seem to force the life force it generates into a substance that can then be used by a living being. With the Tree beast though, it was possible charging itself of the beasts own bio energy and then pumping the excess life force it generated straight back into the beast. Having undiluted life force pumped into it would have caused it to mutate while the need for more food to feed the stone would have force it to come out at night to hunt when more danger beasts arrive."
She stopped for a moment.
"If you can make a copy of it, I can test the theory out by implanting it into one of our prisoners without having to worry about destroying the original."
Harry grimaced slightly at the comment about using it on a prisoner, but nodded regardless.
"All right then. I'll give it a try, but I doubt that it will be complete before we are sent off to the West."
Esdeath nodded beside him.
"True. We should be moving out in a week, maybe ten days at most."
She gave a bloodthirsty grin.
"It's been too long since I've been on the battle field leading an army with you beside me, Harry."
Harry just sighed with a nod as Dorothea watched the two interact with an amused look on her face.
Far off to the West, the hounds of war grew closer, howling as they did.
Unaware of the blizzard that was coming towards them..
-T.G.O-
And that is chapter 26 complete!
Well… Champ died, or is dying, a very painful death. Because of one of Enshins missed attacks, no less. Enshin got, well, shredded, and Syura took a lightning bolt through his chest.
Compared to the rest of the battle, I am quite satisfied with the end.
The next chapter will start on the Western campaign which will continue for maybe two to four chapter, depending.
As for the climax of the Akame Ga Kill storyline, I intend to cut out the entire thing with the great Teigu and so far plan to have Night Raid take one last attack on the palace before the battle begins and have a big confrontation then. Not sure if Leone will still die or not though. Just thought I'd put that out there and see what feedback I get.
As always any constructive criticism, ideas, likes, dislikes and advice are all welcome and appreciated. Just remember that I am a human to and be polite, though I haven't had any problems with that since you're all so great. So please review! Advice on how to improve my writing is greatly appreciated!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and have enjoyed the story so far!
Goodbye until next time!