CHAPTER 20

Ichigo noticed how his barrier around Voldemort soul pieces began to crack but he knew as long as the next soul piece didn't come they were still locked behind the barrier and couldn't break it completely. Ichigo was too tired to really care anyway. He had done too much. He was more vulnerable when he was inside a soul. Harry was always using a bit of his energy without even noticing it. It was like how he had used Zangetsus powers to fight. It came natural as long as both souls trusted each other. The inner gave the outer strength while the outer protected the inner in return. There was one problem with this thought. Ichigo wasn't a part of Harrys soul and so wasn't protected. He could move out and materialize on his own because of that but he lost power constantly without becoming anything in return. He also needed to hold up the barrier that cost a lot of energy. Ichigo knew when he came to his reserves and now was the time he needed to fill them again. He closed his eyes and went to sleep.

The trio had gone for three days into the same direction and Harry knew they were close, but what made them worried was that Ichigo still hadn't woken up or just hadn't shown himself. Harry didn't want to wake Ichigo and so they had tried to avoid it but now they stood before the cave that probably held the soul piece inside.

"What do you think? Sould we go inside without him awake?" asked Ron very uncertain.

"No we shouldn't wait for him to wake up, what happens if some of the death eaters is ordered to guard the soul piece. I don't believe that Voldemort hasn't noticed that his soul pieces disappeared! Harry said with a determined look on his face.

"We shoud wake him. It could become dangerous like the last two times and without him we would have surely died? We really need his help even if I don't want to admit it!" Hermionie said quietly.

Harry shocked his head. "He was already too much weakened last time. I don't think that I would be good to wake him. Let's go in without him and if the situation becomes problematic, we will wake him up." They all nodded a bit uncertain in agreement and went in.

Ichigo was almost awake. He had regained most of his powers by now and was also fully healed. Three days had been enough. Ichigo hadn't noticed that the trio was going toward the soul piece or that they entered the cave that held the soul piece. He was blissful unaware but would soon awake to the mess that the trio had left him behind.

"Nothing happened so far, but don't let your guard down. Something could attack us any minute."They all nodded and moved further into the cave. They had reached the soul piece and Harry came nearer. He looked down to it but still nothing happened.

"I think that this is definitively a trap." Harry said with a very suspicious look toward the soul piece.

"Don't worry about it Harry. Maybe it is just too weak to defend itself and the only protection it got is that it can't be broken by normal objects."

"I think Ron is right this time Harry, if it really was a trap than it had attacked us by now. We can't stand around here all day anyway. We need to destroy it!" Hermionie said.

Harry found it funny how they gave him reassuring words. They were hiding behind a rock to protect themselves and yelling those words toward him, but they were right. Nothing would happen if they didn't do anything. He lifted the dagger and struck the book with it. It was seconds later that he crouched down because of pain and he fainted. The last thing he noticed before his eyes closed were how his friends came running toward him crying his name.

Ichigo opened his eyes to see dark reiatsu swirling around him. He really cursed his luck. He sleeps and in the time he does to recover his power, the trio finds a soul piece and managed to break it. The soul pieces break out of the barrier and rampage in Harrys mind. What a happy wake up call. Ichigo stood up and went to work. The dark magic swirled and formed a person. That person laughed shrill and said:

"I have broken out of the barrier! You can't stop me anymore; you are now weaker than me!" Ichigo sighed at the words. He hadn't really put much power into his barrier because he knew that it ws more difficult to do so in the mind of another.

Ichigo lifted his sword and attacked Voldemort with a powerful slash. He wasn't allowed to kill him and it was difficult to hold back his powers to such a minimum but he managed. Ichigo knew how dangerous it was to attack him but he had no choice. Harry would die if this would go on. Voldemort wanted to attack, but he didn't have his wand after all and even Voldemort himself noticed that he could do almost nothing without his wand. He was powerless right now. After a bit of a fight Voldemorts soul was pushed back into the cave that existed in Harrys mind and was locked away behind the barrier again. Ichigo could still hear how Voldemort said:

"When all my soul pieces are together then I will beat you! You are powerless if you stand before me if I have my wand!" Ichigo sighed but left it be. Voldemort was pretty weak without his wand, but Ichigo knew he would be problematic when he had the wand. Ichigo really wanted to move out of Harrys body again. He needed to concentrate on almost three things all the time and use a bit power for everything without a pause. He already felt tired again but moved out to be in his chibi form anyway.

"How is he?" Ichigo asked Ron and Hermionie who were so surprised that they almost fell down their chairs. They were in a hospital and Harry lay in a bed. Ron and Hermionie looked at him and said worried:

"Are you alright? Do you know what happened to Harry?" Ichigo sighed and said: "You could have wakened me up, the soul piece merged with the others and was able to crack open my barrier. The escaped and went on rampage in his soul. I managed to push them back and seal them again. I am fine and Harry should recover now, that the soul piece is sealed again!" They looked relieved down to chibi Ichigo and Hermionie said:

"We will wake you the next time we are about to destroy a soul piece." Ichigo nodded and smiled a little again. Then he said in a serious tone: "I won't come out again expect for the soul pieces! It will tire me out too much. Tell Harry the same. I will go to sleep now but wake me up if anything happens." With that Ichigo disappeared and a second later Harry opened his eyes.

"What happened?" He asked still tired but already feeling better.

"The soul piece in your body ran amok and Ichigo said that you should wake him the next time you destroy one. He wasn't preferred and the barrier cracked where Voldemort was held behind! He said not to worry and that he would appear only when we are about to destroy a soul piece." Harry nodded. He had somehow known already that Ichigo had awakened. Maybe it was because he was in his mind.

They had gone on with their journey and had arrived at the next one with very few incidents it was surprising easy to destroy the soul piece and Ichigo was suspicious. The trio seemed to be happy about the easy win and didn't really care that it had been too easy. They had meet Cerberus again and he was walking with them. It looked like he had felt the worry of his master and had come to help. Ichigo noticed that the soul piece had become strong enough that it could destroy Harrys mind if he was let out again. He really needed to be careful. There was only one left and that was inside a living being. Ichigo just hoped that the creature was cooperative and would let them take the soul out without killing it. The gigantic castle they stood before was heavily guarded and it almost looked like every single death eater was guarding the damn castle. They tried to sneak in and miserable failed. Seconds later they were noticed and were running away with what looked thousands guards behind them. Ichigo was happy that he didn't need to run around and when the trio was about to break down Cerberus helped them out be distracting them.

"Go to the front door!" Ichigo said in Harry mind "with how much attention you have caught it would be a wonder of someone still stood there. They weren't really organized." Harry nodded and told the others what Ichigo had said. They slowly crept to the front door and when they noticed that no one was guarding it, they went inside. It was a huge castle and they went through many rooms and still didn't find the being that holds the soul piece. They had been under attack many times while entering a room and Ichigo believed that that they were all equipped with traps that would be activated while opening the door.

"Try to find the piece with the pull, not with your eyes. You should be able to feel were it is!" Ichigo advice the almost many times burned Harry. He nodded and tried to find the pull. He noticed that the pull went down into the cellar and told his friends the same who said:

"You could have told us sooner couldn't you? We were almost grilled alive many times!" Harry didn't say anything. He knew that he could have thought of that. Maybe he had just thought about other things and possibilities that he lost the easiest one out of his sight.

They went down to the cellar and when they opened the massive doors they were greeted with another flamethrower. This one was alive thought and Harry really wished that it would have been something else. From all the possibilities that Voldemort could have taken he needed to use a dragon as a container. They had just avoided another flame and had shot their spells at the dragon when Hermionie cried:

"It won't bring us a thing to shot spells at him. They don't hurt him at all!" Harry and Ron had already noticed that. It wasn't hurting the dragon and it seemed it didn't even cause a little scratch. The flame came right to Harry this time and he was somehow too scared to move. His last thoughts were already: "This is the end of me?" Till he suddenly felt a pull from the inside and his body moved on his own.

"Harry, be more careful, will you! I don't have a dead wish and you also don't have one so move out of the way to not be hit. Have you forgotten my advice already?" Harry felt someone push him and he was in control of his body again, already with the dagger in his hand. He remembered what Ichigo had told him and was thankful to be alive. It had been really dumb from him to believe he couldn't evade. Even Ichigo had managed to do that with his body!

"My dagger can cut him. He becomes bigger by will so hit him with it and think of him becoming bigger!" Harry finally came to his senses and tried to tell the others to somehow distract the dragon so he could come near it!

Ron was looking at him at the end of his plan and said: "Are you dumb? He could smash us with his foot and he most likely wouldn't even notice it." He made some other remarks but in the end did as he was told after Hermionie had given him a hard punch to his stomach. Ichigo had noticed that they had become closer. He wondered if he could come to their weeding or if he would be stuck in hell or somewhere else at that time. He hoped he could, because it would probably be the most amusing time of the whole time he was the 'Lord of Hell'.

The Dragons attention got distracted when Ron began to scream with all his might. Even in Harrys mind the sound was ear splitting. Ichigo wondered briefly if he would be deaf after that but pushed the thought back into his mind. He could find it out later; it was a good distraction after all right now!

Harry started to run toward the dragon with both of his hand holding the dagger. He was determined to cut the dragon with it into half. A second before he reached the dragon, Harry moved the dagger toward the ceiling and thought about it being big. It grew and grew but didn't feel heavier in Harrys opinion. He moved it down and the dragon roared in pain when he was cut in half. The gigantic dagger hit the floor and created a loud sound and smoke that came from the destroyed stone. The guards finally seemed to have noticed the loud battle that was going on in the cellar and had come down. They were surrounded and Ichigo only saw one opinion. He opened a garganta and without thinking about it the trio jumped through. The death eaters still tried to reach it in time but it closed before their eyes. One had managed to stretch his arm out and into the garganta. Through the garganta the trio heard a loud scream that was probably from the man that had lost his arm by now!

They had arrived at the other site of the garganta. Ichigo had decided that destination would be Hogwarts. What they saw was anything but pleasant. The saw many places where fire was burning and Hogwarts was also one of these places. Everywhere laid corpses on the ground that had been burned or just cut in half. The blood had already gone into the ground and Ichigo really thought at the moment that he had seen this that it really reminded him how some parts of hell.

Enjoyed it? I some had really trouble with the middle part. Still hope it was good and you could enjoy yourself while reading it!