Hi, I'm really sorry that this isn't an update and there's been so much delay, but I've been wondering about whether or not I should rewrite this. After reading the first few chapters, I realized that Harry's personality changes a bit too drastically and doesn't reflect the realistic ideals of a boy brought up in a dark guild.
So I wrote out the first chapter of the rewritten version, even though it's so different I don't know if it would really be called a rewrite... And here it is:
Chapter 1 of Emerging from Darkness
In Surrey, England, on one tragic night of October, a baby boy with dark black hair and eyes that shone a sharp green was left on the doorstep of Mrs Petunia Dursley and Mr Vernon Dursley. After the man with the long white beard and the lady who was a cat vanished into the night, lightning flashed in the sky that had been cloudless moments ago. In the dark broiling clouds, a portal opened up, seeking magic of any form. In the small town of Surrey, there was only one little source of magic, and he was sucked in. The portal closed, and the clouds dispersed, with Harry Potter in tow.
In a forest of the kingdom of Fiore, a young boy of the name Mystogan turned away from a once cloudy sky. His eyes were filled with relief and determination. "Sorry, father, but I'm shutting down any Anima I can."
In a majestic castle in Scotland, Albus Dumbledore popped a lemon drop in his mouth in agitation. Minerva McGonagall glared. "What do you mean you don't know where Harry Potter is?"
Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting the guilt and despair boiling in him. "His relatives said that they never received him. All I hope is that no Death Eater got him."
McGonagall stared at him, eyes old. "Albus, we promised James and Lily."
"I know," the old man replied, world wary and tired. "I know."
"What do we do?" the woman demanded, refusing to believe that the legacy of the Potters was gone.
Dumbledore rested his forehead on his hands. "We search and search endlessly, and we refuse to give up hope."
"Albus, what if he is gone? We can't search for him for years on end! We need to move on from this war. You-Know-Who is gone, and being hung up on Harry Potter will only lead to heartache," McGonagall reasoned, looking terribly lost and sad.
"If we cannot find him, I will tell the public," Dumbledore decided. "What I did was foolish, and I should face the consequences."
McGonagall paled. "But the repercussions will be catastrophic. Harry Potter is a hero, and if the public knows that we were responsible for his whereabouts, they will call for our blood."
"Maybe we will find him, but if we don't, I will take the fall. You need to stay here," Dumbledore told the Deputy Headmistress. "Do not argue with me. You need to help the Wizarding World rebuild."
A tall man wearing an eyepatch over his right eye stared curiously at the tiny bundle that had just appeared in front of him. "What's this?" the master of the dark guild, Grimoire Heart, murmured quietly, cocking an eyebrow as he knelt down to pick up the child.
Black hair that paralleled the darkest of nights, eyes that shone with a fiery green, and—oh… that… that was a soul shard.
Hades peered at the lightning bolt-shaped scar on the child's forehead with unadulterated glee. "What black magic," he breathed out, eyes wide. "Not even Zeref's Books explored the splitting of souls."
The babe let out a squeal, blinking up at the man.
"I think I'm going to keep you," Hades decided, eyes gleaming. "And I will name you… Precht Hades."
"He's alive!" McGonagall shrieked, staring at the blood tracking ritual in disbelief. "He's alive."
They had been hesitant to use such dark magic, but after months of failure, they decided to go ahead with it. And it had been worth it.
"Albus, Harry Potter is alive," the woman repeated.
Dumbledore narrowed his eyes at the pentagram. "But where? It says he's alive, but no location?"
McGonagall's joy suddenly became subdued. "Maybe his location is heavily warded?"
"If this ritual can tell that Harry Potter is alive, it should be able to at least give us a general location. This, however… Minerva, I don't believe Harry Potter is on Earth."
Hades watched with affection as little Precht eagerly devoured the texts written by Zeref. "Come, Precht. It is time for you to decide what magic to learn."
He estimated that the boy was about one year old when he arrived in this world, and Hades wanted to wait until the boy was five to begin training, as it was the first maturation of a child's internal ethernano containers.
"Yes, Father!" Precht replied obediently, returning the text to its original location on a shelf. "I actually already have an idea of what I want to learn," he piped up as they exited the guild's library and headed towards the training rooms.
Hades turned around, eyebrow raised. "What is it, child?"
"I want to learn Devil Slaying Magic."
The older man blinked, interest piqued. "Like Silver's Ice Devil Slaying Magic?"
"Yes," Precht confirmed. "But not ice. I don't really care the specifics, but I just don't want to be a second Silver."
Hades nodded thoughtfully. "You could learn Shadow Devil Slaying Magic. I distinctly remember an ancient text on it in my private book collections. However, why do you want to learn Devil Slaying Magic in particular? You do know the ramifications, correct?"
"R-ramications?" Precht asked, accidentally mangling the unknown word.
"Ramifications," Hades repeated patiently. "The results of an action."
"Oh, well, yes, I talked to Silver about it," Precht informed his father. "But he said if I absorb the soul shard on my forehead, my soul will be protected from the taint of Devil Slaying Magic."
"Your soul would become black enough to be spared from the deterioration Devil Slaying Magic usually wroughts on its user, but you would be combining your soul and the other person's soul. It would be different than just absorbing the knowledge of that person. You're essentially combining your identities," Hades warned his adopted son.
Precht paused. Even though his five year old mind did not fully grasp what his father was saying, he caught the gist of it. "I still want to go through with it."
Hades gazed at his son. "Okay. I trust you've read up on Soul Absorption?"
"Of course," Precht said. The boy bowed to his father. "I will take my leave then, Father." Before exiting the room, the boy nodded to Ultear, who was just entering.
"Ultear," Hades greeted, watching his son's retreating form.
She bowed. "Master. Is Precht going to choose a magic to learn soon?"
"He already has," Hades answered the teenage girl. "He chose Shadow Devil Slaying Magic."
Ultear's ruby eyes widened. "But—"
"Apparently his soul will be protected if he merges with the soul shard on his forehead. Foolhardy, but I will not stop the boy from doing what he wants," Hades explained.
She clenched an orb in her hand. At first, the little boy had gotten on her nerves with his constant questioning of her magic and other people's magics, but eventually, his curiosity and bright smiles had grown on her. "Are you sure we shouldn't stop him? Soul Absorption is irreversible, and the blackness of the soul shard will taint him forever. You might want him to make his own decisions, but he's only five years old. He doesn't understand the severity of his actions."
Hades was silent.
"You want the soul shard's knowledge of black magic," Ultear guessed, correctly if the glint in the man's eyes was any indication. She pursed her lips and walked away. It wasn't right for her to correct the master, but she couldn't help the slight twinge of discomfort at the thought of letting Precht go through with such a severe and irreversible action.
Precht Hades opened his eyes, one colored with the original green and one seemingly drawing its red hued flames from the depths of hell.
"This is certainly fascinating," he muttered to himself, stretching out an arm. His eyes shone with startling clarity, with a depth that was unusual for a five year old.
"What an interesting world."
"There seems to be a new dark guild that's intent on being an upstart. It has disturbed the residence of one of our subguilds," one of the many Grimoire Heart informants reported dutifully to an eleven year old Precht.
The young boy opened an eye, the green one, lazily and peered down at the man. "What is its name and where is the guild headquarters?"
"Basilisk Tooth, located in the mountains of Hurniglia, near the headquarters of Tengu Claw," the man answered, head bowed.
Precht lifted a hand stained with the blackness of his Devil Slaying Magic, and seemed to be inspecting his claw-like nails. "Is Tengu Claw so weak as to come calling for my assistance with an infant guild?"
"They've tried, sir, but apparently Basilisk Tooth is comprised of very powerful Lost Magic mages," the informant explained. "There were signs of a mage who wielded the Arc of Dimensions."
Precht straightened, intrigued. "Lost Mages? Arc of Dimensions?" This was no ordinary upstart guild then. This was a guild that needed to either be brought under the Balam Alliance or eliminated. "Call for the Kin. I will accompany them."
"S-sir?! You're going to accompany them?" the man stuttered, shocked that the most powerful mage under Master Hades was going to personally deal with an upstart guild.
"Oh yes, I'm going to accompany them," Precht confirmed, an unreadable smirk lifting the corners of his lips. The green eye that was not covered by an eyepatch, unlike his red one, pierced the informant. "Go."
The man squeaked in fear and scurried off.
"Dimensions, huh?" Precht Hades, less commonly known as Harry Potter or Tom Riddle, muttered thoughtfully.
Ultear feared Precht Hades.
The happy, bright and curious boy she once knew was gone, warped and twisted by the soul shard into a cold, powerful and terrifying being.
His proficiency in Shadow Devil Slaying Magic was hinted at in the shadows that seemed to perpetually trail after him, even tainting the skin of his right hand. And the eyepatch. Ultear hated the eyepatch. It was just another reminder of Precht's corruption. It hid his infernal red eye that was the result of the Soul Absorption and his Devil Eye.
She shook those thoughts from her mind. This was Grimoire Heart, the most powerful dark guild in the Balam Alliance, and Precht Hades's power was just another testament to that. Such evil and corruption were not rare, and to be honest, she herself had committed vile and nefarious acts.
After donning her battle gear, she quickly headed towards Lieutenant Precht's office. "Lieutenant," she greeted curtly.
The boy inclined his head. "Ultear."
Once the rest of the Kin arrived, Precht stood up from his throne. "I will be accompanying you to negotiate with a new dark guild named Basilisk Tooth."
Zancrow lifted a disbelieving eyebrow. "No guild deserves your personal attention, Lieutenant!" the young man cackled, eyes gleaming with insanity.
"This is a special guild, Zancrow. One with Lost Mages," Precht explained, green eye looking down on the Fire God Slayer with cold fondness. "And they will either join the Balam Alliance or we will put them down."
Lost Magic was obliterated from history because of its overwhelming power and destruction, and it was the reason why Grimoire Heart was the strongest dark guild. Ultear and her Arc of Time, Kain and his Human Manipulation, Azuma's Great Tree Arc, Meredy's Maguilty Sense, Zancrow's Fire God Slaying Magic, Rustyrose and his Arc of Embodiment, and Zoldeo's Possession of the Celestial Spirit Capricorn.
And of course, Precht's own Devil Slaying Magic and Devil Eye.
The Seven Kin of Purgatory and the Lieutenant set off for the mountains of Hurniglia, each wary for good reason.
Precht inhaled deeply, winded and losing magical power at an alarming rate.
Despite all the research they had done on the guild, most of the few pieces of information they had uncovered were faulty.
Tengu Claw claimed that there were seven Lost Mages, and the most powerful was the Arc of the Deep Sea Mage.
When they had infiltrated the guild itself, they realized that there were fifteen Lost Mages, and the most powerful was the Arc of Dimensions Mage.
And Precht was facing him at the very moment.
"You're very impressive," the man said casually, dodging knives formed from the shadows nonchalantly. "But you're very young."
Precht glared at the blond man, who was pretty young himself. "Why must you continuously talk?" he demanded, irritated by the man's chatter.
"I thought that you would like talking, since you're so young, but I guess I'm mistaken," the man said, tone mockingly apologetic. "Anyway, this has been going on for a bit too long. I've grown tired of you."
Precht bristled at that, and reached up with his black stained hand with the intention of revealing his Devil Eye.
However, before he could do so, the earth underneath them shook mightily.
"This is the true power of the Dimensions!" the man shouted, eyes gleaming with fanatical glee. His arms were raised in the air, and all around Precht were dark violet magic seals. "Arc of Dimensions: WORLD JUMP!"
And the ground underneath Precht opened up into a swirling vortex of space and the universe.
So please leave a review to let me know if you would like me to rewrite or continue with the current storyline. Though I think that I would very much like to rewrite, but if an overwhelming amount of you want me to continue the current storyline, I will consider it. Thanks!