Chapter Twenty-Five: Conquest
True to Grimmr's prediction, Nasuada proved to a very good negotiator, accepting to equip the were-cats with armors for only one of their forms. After a few days of debate, Grimmr accepted the deal with a bit of amusement at being outdone by a human, when it came to a battle of words. The were-cats however did get a gift from Harry who enchanted their human form armors to transform with them and to never rust or be damaged from the ravages of time. That earned Harry a lot of goodwill with the were-cats unlike Angela who while not disliking every were-cat,-she couldn't stand staying anywhere near Grimmr, nor did he like staying within four hundred feet of her.
After the negotiations with the were-cats were over, Harry teleported them to Tronxheim so Saphira could keep her promise and keep she did, as she repaired the Isidar Mithril as she promised. The Dwarves offered them to stay there to party with them the restoration of their national treasure but they refused as they had a war to win and left a teleportation spell in the Ancient Language, with which Saphira's own magic didn't interfere with. For the last two weeks, the Vardens had laid siege to Feinster but it had yet to fall. Harry said he needed a bit more time until he could offer them Feinster in a silver platter with no need for bloodshed.
Mulling over these thoughts Eragon and Saphira entered the clearing where Harry had called them all for a demonstration of his newest invention. When he entered the clearing he saw that all the leaders of the faction and the other two Dragon Riders were already there and Grimmr was occupied playing a game of riddles with Harry, who was laughing at the face that Grimmr was making at the riddle he just gave him. Waving at him Harry stood up and approached a pile of clay pots, like those that were filled with oil and launched with catapults.
"Okay, since everybody is here we can begin to show you the mightiest siege weapon" said Harry.
"We do have oil pots" said Lorenzo, the newly appointed leader of Du Vrangr Gata after Trianna died.
"Yes, but they don't have oil but a special sleeping concoction" said Harry.
"How can that help us?" asked Orrin skeptically.
"It will put everyone in the vity to sleep" replied Nasuada catching up.
"It is impossible" commented Orrin.
"It is possible if this pots explode in mid-air releasing an odorless and colorless cloud of sleeping potion alongside shrapnel and fire, since wards don't stop siege engines projectiles" explained Harry.
"Astute as always" complimented Grimmr.
"Thanks, now eight of them should be enough, anymore and people might die of overdoze" said Harry "ohh and before I forget, your cousin Roran is here"
"What? When" Eragon asked confused.
"During the week I was leading the scouring of those who escaped during the Battle of the Feinster Plains, I opened my empathic senses to their maximum capacity and felt them escaping from Carvahall through the sea with our old friend Jeod, so I got there and teleported them to Surda and once they were settled he insisted to see you" said Harry.
"And you didn't tell me" said Eragon irritated.
"You didn't tell me anything for four months, consider yourself lucky I told you two weeks late" replied Harry.
"Damn you can hold a grudge" said Eragon.
"You're damn right I can" said Harry "now go to your tent, he is waiting there for you"
Eragon was really happy that he had finally made peace with his cousin after he had told him everything, though Roran had given him a punch or two, though with his newly found elfic resistance, it didn't even hurt that much. Carvahall had been razed to the ground, he had used scrying to make sure of it,- and he knew it was his fault, though he also knew that he would do it all over again, even if he knew the stakes. Right now they were travelling toward Helgrind, to save Roran's fiancé, Katherine from the clutches of the Ra'zack. He had never liked Sloan but doing what he did just to avoid going into the Spire was just crazy but he understood him, especially as he knew his True Name now. Apparently him finding his own name had made it easier about him to find the true name of other things, the facts that Saphira helped him with her draconic intuition and he knew Sloan since he was kid did not make things harder.
Using his newly acquired knowledge, he had cast a spell allowing him to see through his eyes and he found darkness, though he knew that he was alive and with Harry's help he had located him in Helgrind the home of the Ra'zack,- and was right now headed for Dras-Leona, accompanied by Roran and Harry, Roran because he had insisted to come with them and wouldn't give up no matter what and Harry because he told him that he had unfinished business in Dras-Leona that had been long overdue. He had an inkling of what he was about to do but unlike his capacity to read other people around him Harry had and still was a complete mystery despite being completely open about his past, at least with the people he trusted.
The attack on Feinster was going on as they were travelling to Helgrind. Initally they were planning to delay the attack, which they did for three days as he tried to locate Kathrine but the Ra'zack were smart enough to keep her in a place that was totally immersed in darkness, probably in the deepest part of their lair. Gil'ead had fallen and so had Ceunon, both cities having been attacked at the same time, the attack on Gil'ead having been led by Oromis while Ceunon had been taken by Queen Islanzadi which had then moved what part of her army she could safely move away from Ceunon, toward Gil'ead though she had been to far away from the city when the Empire counter-attacked with soldiers that couldn't feel pain and could only be killed through decapitation and another metallic Dragon. The magician and the metallic dragon had been no match for Oromis and Glaedr, which were back to the level they had been in their prime,- though both Oromis and Glaedr had been wounded, this version of the Spirit trapping mechanism having being stronger than the one sent against Eragon. The Spirits had undone the curse the magican commanding their prison, - had cast upon their wounds but their time upon the mortal plane had ended too soon for them to fully heal them.
Queens Islanzadi's army had joined them the next day and had personally healed both Glaedr and Oromis. The message of the weaknesses of these new warriors the Empire had deployed had been passed to the Varden and their magicians were working around the clock to find a counter, especially Lorenzo, who as one of the most powerful and talented sorceress under Galbatorix, - had from time to time encountered some of Galbatorix's notes on such subjects. Harry had helped by supplying them with Voidflame potion for their experiments and helping with what he knew of Necromancy, as that kind of spells entered in the realm of Necromancy. The Elves would move directly toward Dras-Leona, as would the Varden and the Dwarves and upon merging their forces they would strike at Uru'baen, thus ending the war the quickest they could.
Normally the ride from Feinster to Dras-Leona would have taken a day and a half but Saphira was going at her fastest without the fear of growing, tired as Harry had brought with him some Energy Replenishing potions, Dragon-level,- and they would be there in four hours tops. Harry was flying alongside Saphira wearing his white armor, steel determination showing on his face, he had seen that look on his face before and that scared him, even more that facing a company of Kulls on his own or facing the wrath of the Eldunari and Glaedr. The last time he had seen that type of look had been during their little skirmish with the Empire in Teirm, when he had killed so may soldiers of the Empire so they could escape and he couldn't help but feel sorry for the Ra'zack and whatever person in Dras-Leona that had pushed Harry to that degree.
Upon arriving at the mountain of Helgrind, Harry had tossed a vial of clear green liquid in Saphira's mouth before shooting an invisible wave of energy toward the mountain, which dispelled the illusions that protected the lair of the Ra'zack and their monstrous parents. Apparently Harry had decided to throw caution to the wind and just storm the place, throwing spells left and right. Drawn by the surge of energy, the two Lethrbraka had come out to investigate and Saphira had quickly engaged them in an aerial battle. The two Lethrbraka, bolstered by their superior numbers had not hesitated in engaging Saphira, thus making their biggest mistake as Saphira drew them further away fro the mountain, with a series of seemingly desperate aerial maneuvers before turning around and lighting the skies up with her sapphire flames.
The Lethrbraka dodged the column of sapphire flames but they weren't time to recover from their surprise as Saphira descended down on them, trying to take chunks of their bodies using her claws and fangs. Moving quickly, the Lethrbraka split, surrounding, Saphira but made one big mistake, one of them positioned itself right in the path of Saphira's tail and was sent crashing into the ground. The other Lethrbraka tried to take advantage of that moment of distraction but you didn't learn to fight Galedr without knowing how to split your attention,- and with a swipe of her claws she turned the still airborne Lethrbraka's head, into a shower of brain matter and blood. The other Lethrbraka didn't have but the time to screech in anger as a column of fire came down on it, turning it into nothing more than a charred stump and filling the mountain with the smell of charred meat.
As Saphira engaged the two Lethrbraka, the trio ented the inside of the Ra'zack lair. It wasn't long before the two Ra'zack attacked them, Roran engaged one of them while Eragon took on the other one, Harry leaving further into their lair. Roran avoided a swipe from the creature's poisoned dagger and lashed out with a lighting fast strike of his hammer and it was only the Ra'zack superior speed that saved it from having its head turned into red mush. The Ra'zack began attacking Roran with fast swipes of his dagger and Roran was forced to retreat until he came to an enclosed space. Finding his hammer useless in the enclosed space he threw it away and so did the Ra'zack with its knife, its features morphing into a twisted and cruel smirk as it approached the unarmed Roran. Smiling Roran, became a blur as he attacked the surprised Ra'zack that now found itself into the defensive and it wasn't long before Roran gave it a potent haymaker that launched across the enclosed space and slammed it into solid rock with a sickening sound. Moving quckly Roran wrapped his arms around the downed Ra'zack's neck and with a heave he broke its neck. Spitting on the Ra'zack's corpse, he turned around to face his grinning cousin.
Eragon had reacted to the Ra'zack's surprise attack with his inhumanly fast reflexes and had stuck Brisingr inside its left shoulder. With a screech of pain the Ra'zack backpedaled a bit, surprised at the speed and strength of his prey, speed and strength that he had lacked months ago. Eragon quickly closed the distance between them, Brisngr shinning faintly in the darkness of the cave,- and attacked him with lightening fast thrust and swipes, which not even their inhuman speed could help them escape and the Ra'zack quickly lost his right arm from the elbow and down. The Ra'zack tried to say something but Eragon silenced it with a quick thrust of Brisingr, piercing its skull and immediately ending the wretched creature's existence. Having already dealt with his share of Ra'zack's, he turned to watch Roran deal with the newly born Ra'zack, his studies with the elves ad allowed him to recognize their age from the differences in their exoskeleton,- and grinned as he saw Roran use the effect of the Brew of Titanic Energy, a potion capable of enhancing a normal human's abilities to the point where the were physically superior even to elves and only matched by Dragons,- to snap the younger Ra'zack's neck.
Roran was about to say something but he was frozen in his tracks as he heard a voice that he had missed so much, since she was taken from him. From the deepest part of the cave came Katherine, wearing the same dress she had on the day she was kidnapped, albeit a bit dirtier and behind her trailed Sloan, with his eyes healed.
"Roran" shouted Katherine as she slammed into Roran's chest.
"Sloan" said Eragon coldly as he approached Sloan, cold fury radiating from him.
"Eragon, is that you?" asked Katherine, at hearing Eragon's voice.
"Yes, good to see you that you are okay" said Eragon as he finished telling something to Sloan who nodded numbly and left toward the exit of the cave.
"Ohh, my gods you look…" Katherine trailed off, not finding the proper words to describe Eragon's appearance.
"Elfic, would be the word you are looking for" said Eragon chuckling.
"What did you do to my father?" asked Katherine, after not seeing Sloan anymore.
"I sent him to live with the elves for the rest of his life and before you ask I put a few spells that will make sure he is goingto make it there safely" said Eragon, surprising Katherine.
"You have grown so much" said Katherine.
"We all have" replied Eragon as he left toward the exit of the cave, from which the smell of charred meat came from "are you coming, or do you have a better method of transport than on Dragonback"
"A Dragon? Is he gone mad?" asked Katherine.
"Him, no, the rest of the world, yes" replied Roran urging her toward the exit of the cave.
Harry had freed Katherine from her chains and with a confundus charm had made her not ask any questions, with that done he turned to Sloan, who was missing his two eyes. That was nearly always impossible to heal but for him it took exacty fourteen seconds to cause them to start regrowing back, in another minute they were fully regrown. Knowing Eragon, he cast a few wards of his own on the man before sending him o follow his daughter, using a powerful confundus charm to make him question nothing until he meet Eragon and Roran. Finishing with the two of them, he walked calmly toward the bowels of the mountain where a small stash of Ra'zack eggs were hidden, well except for a pair of them in the city.
He felt Saphira leave the city, accompanied by three people, Eragon, Katherine and Eragon, well if you counted the unborn fetus inside Katherine, - four. He filed that knowledge in the "tease Roran" section of his mind and continued toward where he felt the yet unhatched eggs. He arrived there in ten minutes, he had to give it to the Ra'zack, they knew how to built incredibly intricate mazes. Upon arriving to the stash made of thirty or so eggs, he unlashed a more controllable version of Fiendfyre, and incinerated them, he wasn't going to take any chances with such foul creatures. At the same time he ordered his cruiser in space to turn the continent, which was near Alagaesia and was overrun with hundreds of thousands of Ra'zack's and Lethrbraka,- into a volcanic wasteland. He felt their foul presences flicker and he smiled sadly knowing that in one fell swoop he had exterminated an entire race and though the race was twisted and corrupted beyond saving it didn't make it any easier absorbing their Deaths.
Afterwards he started digging, or more exactly he dusted whatever rock that blocked his downward path. In two hours he was deep enough that he felt the heat of magma scorch his sin, or trying at least as his power totally defies the rules of physics and logics. Creating a podium of umelted rock and casting a few spells so that it stayed that way, he began to formulate the most powerful and complex spell that Alagaesia had seen, since the Ancient Language replaced the old method of waving magic,-through a massive ritual created and used by the Grey people. The spell itself was used to scan the minds of everybody in the city and through a set of criteria given to it, it would teleport those deemed worthy from the city before it was totally annihilated by the second part of the spell.
Chanting relentlessly a massive magical circle was created in the stone podium create by Harry, the circle was made up of three parts, the first two containing arcane symbols and runes inscribed in them, while the third innermost part of the circle was filled by dozens of smaller patterns intertwining with the other patterns to create a single, larger pattern, overflowing with natural magic. The circle began to pulsate with every color know to man and a few not know to man as a massive gathering of natural magic was forcefully created by the Harry's magic and will. Weaving the last parts of his spell, Harry stopped chanting, his brow furred in concentration as he moved the last strings of his massive enchantment to their proper places, least he ended up sinking half of Alaegasia.
After he was done he waited for the spell to charge up. The power of the spell was powered by emotions, a prime example of his skill in Empathic magic, - and in a few hours it would have sorted those worthy and would teleport them in the north of Alagaesia with a warning from the "gods" to never fall in such depravity. The rest would literally be destroyed by the weight of the evil in their hearts, the city forever lost to the world. Had even prepared for the occasion where the people of the city tried to escape the city once they understood people were disappearing from the city in mysterious ways, a force field was erected and it would be their own negative emotions to power it and make it impenetrable to any of them.
Five hours later he hear the rumbling of the mountain, signifying that the first part was over and that the second part was about to begin. With a though he touched a string of wild magic and was transported outside of the dome around Dras-Leona, where hundreds of disfigured people were trying to get through. He lifted himself in the ground as smoke began to come out of Helgrind and forced himself to see the city be destroyed without turning off his empathic powers. With a massive groan the top of Helgrind exploded in a shower of molten rocks and the largest fragments hit some of the towers and tallest buildings obliterating them, while thousands of the smaller fragments hit the civilians in the streets or made holes in the walls of the homes which they hit.
It didn't take long before a cloud of smoke covered the city before coming to a halt to the limits of the invisible dome, which began to glow a soft blue as it contained the destruction within its confines. A massive earthquake began in the middle of the city as Helgrind began to rain pieces of itself toward the city. The earthquake caused the earth to crack and create massive chasm that crossed the city and showed the rivers of magma in their bottoms and in the panic hundreds fell into the chasm, most dying by their bodies being broken by the fall into some rocky protrusion of the chasms, their bodies littering the sides of the chasms,- while some unlucky one fell into the magma, feeling indescribable pain before their bodies died, not from the heat but because the pain caused their hearts to burst and the blood in the brain to clot, at least the didn't suffer for long.
The sounds of scrams reached into the heavens as the spell neared completion as the chasms suddenly disappeared, spitting the bodies back up and Helgrind stopped spitting molten rocks against the city. Then the unimaginable happened, a part of Helgrind melted before their terrified eyes and became a river of magma, to further add to their horror the magma moved at speeds superior to that of their fastest horses. More magma joined the initial river as more of Helgrind melted away and from the tunnel Harry had excavated massive amounts of magma came up to join the initial river. Some of the people with the weakest lungs were lucky as the sulfuric smoke released by the mountain, killed them before the magma ever got anywhere near the city but those with the strongest lungs weren't so lucky as the magma swallowed them alive.
Ironically the magma didn't kill nowhere near enough people as those killed by their co citizens, being trampled in their way to climb into the highest places possible or jut killed because they weren't fast enough and were impeding the fastest from getting to a place where the could hope to survive. Their despair and malice juts made the magma go faster and become hotter. Within a quarter of an hour the magma reached the limits of the dome, surprisingly it didn't melt the buildings, in fact it merely heated the rocks making them up,- where it stopped before from the bewly formed magma lake, small waves of magma began to raise toward those hiding in the high places, the spell forbidding it from just consuming the buildings on its way to the domes limits, as a way for their hopes toget up and then get crushed when the waves of magma came for them. Hundreds of waves of magma were formed and consumed every survivor and any the buildings they were on before most of the magma retreated back underground while the magma created by the melted parts of Helgrind cooled down impossibly quickly forming a forest of stone protrusions that made the former city of Dras-Leona look like a forest of stone, straight out of some horror story, the remaining rubble of the buildings of the city encased in stone and partially visible to the world to show them what once lay there..
Harry flew down in the place where the center of the city once was, tears trailing down his cheeks as he felt everything the people of Dras-Leona felt during the cataclysm. The extent of destruction and the cruelty, with which it was dealt, surprised even him. The spell fed on the dark side of the people of the place, the more dominat and twisted that dark side was, the more destructive and cruel the result was but this was beyond everything he had ever encountered for it had never happened that the spell had allowed them to feel hope for them to rip it away from sat in one of the obsidian stones left from the destruction of the city as he processed the passing away of all this people. Out of Thirty five thousand people the city held only seven hundred had been saved the rest were all dead in the cataclysm he had summoned.
It took him two hours to process all the death in this place and then taking a deep breath of sulfuric air he "Slipped" away, tears still staining his cheeks. As soon as he was within the city of Feinster he felt the death of thirty –two soldiers hit him, and even they were accidentally killed by the shrapnel of the explosions of the clay pots. Theirs deaths had been quick and painless unlike those of the inhabitants of Dras-Leona. He saw Eragon look at him before rushing by his side, Aria and Murtagh quickly joining their side. Chuckling, Harry sat down, he knew he looked like shit, last time he had been forced to do something on this proportions the empathic backlash and his ability as Mater of Death left him a looking like he was dead. Conjuring a mirror he looked at himself, his skin had taken a grey color, his eyes had lost all their previous shinning and his magic was threatening to change their color to midnight black for a while, his hair sticking to his forehead and the clothes to his body because of the amount of sweat his body had produced under the empathic stress. All in all he looked like he was dying.
"Harry, what happened?" asked Eragon as he began to check his body for any injuries or damage but came up blank.
"It's just the backlash" said Harry.
"You didn't" said a shocked Eragon.
"I did, though seven hundred of them were saved" replied Harry calmly.
"Do you mid of informing the slow ones over here" said Murtagh sarcastically.
"The Empire has a city less now" said Eragon getting up.
"But how? The amount of energy would kill anyone no matter what kind of magic you use" asked Aria, with a shocked look on her eyes.
"I didn't destroy the city directly, I just used their sadism and depravity as a source of power for the spell, technically they supplied the energy needed to kill themselves" answered Harry with a bitter chuckle.
"Then why do you look like you're about to die any moment now?" asked Murtagh worried about the way Harry looked.
"He didn't turn off his Empathy while they died so he felt everything they did before dying and then he felt all their souls passing in the afterlife" explained Eragon giving a reproachful look at Harry.
"They deserved as much and it isn't like it is going to kill me, I'll live longer than any of you" said Harry with utter conviction.
"I don't know what to do with him. Hug him or cuff him in the head" said Aria with an exasperated tone.
"I would prefer if you chose the hugging option" said Harry laughing.
"Of course you would" said Aria hitting him "lightly" in the head before hugging him.
"Oi, check your strength next time, you're an elf remember" said Hary after Aria finished hugging him, - rubbing his head.
"I did" replied Aria checkily.
"That's it, you have officially started a prank war" said Harry with a strained grin, making Eragon and Murtagh groan in exasperation.
The news of Dras-Leonas destruction had spread like wildfire, the tales ranged from Helgrind having being a inactive volcano awakened by the depraved magical rituals performed near it, to tales of the wrath of the gods descending upon the city and smiting it with their Divine power, however the truth was only known by three humans, one elf and three Dragons but they didn't spread the truth least Galbatorix decided to come down there himself to eradicate them all, before the extra training the Eldunari were giving to the three young Riders was finished.
Roran and Katherine had had a quick wedding, after learning she was pregnant,- though that didn't mean it was less luxurios than the wedding of a King, as Harry himself had arranged the wedding. Before the entire village of Carvahall and the leaders of all races, except the elves queen who was to far away at that moment ,- Roran married Katherine. Among all the gifts they received from everybody present, two were the ones they gave the greatest value, a pair of rings, - enchanted by Harry to always allow them to teleport near each other when they wanted, to communicate mentally no matter how far they were and to always save them from mortal danger by teleporting to a remote mountain in Vroengard, already warded by Harry and once the danger was gone or when they felt it was safe it returned them back to where they were teleported from.
The Elfic, Varden/Surdan and dwarven army would meet at the location where once stood the city of Dras-Leona now renamed by the Elves as Du Stenr Welden (The Forest of Stone) after the cataclysm transformed into the resemblance of a twisted forest made out of stone spires, the tallest of the stone spires reaching up to fifty meters tall. The Empire hadn't been quiet either; various assassination attempts were done against all the leaders of the Anti-Galbatorix Alliance, all them failed of course but such a thing had prompted Glaedr to disgorge his Eldunari and send it to Eragon via teleportation. Harry could feel something dark and dangerous would came in the following days and he knew it had to do with Eragon's visions, the boys ability to see the future was only inferior to Angela's prophecies and Harry's own prophetic powers,- he just didn't know in what way the vision would come to pass but he could only hope that it never came to pass as he had felt the malice that had sepped through the vision and that wasn't something normal even by his standards.