Alright, here's the next chapter for you. Time to see what Harry got up to, hope you all enjoy.
Chaos Born: Destiny Undone
Chapter 8: A New Man
-The instant after death-
Her cool soft flesh against his face was the first thing he felt. The next was the brush of her hand through his hair.
"Am I dead?" Harry spoke as he opened his eyes, seeing nothing but a white expanse set before him.
"For the moment." Luna answered.
Harry blinked and rolled his head to look up at her. He had his head rested on her lap, where she was gently caressing him.
He saw her staring down at him with a soft smile. He also took note of the fact that she was naked, so he rolled back to his original position to avoid staring at her bare chest.
He could almost feel Luna's smile on him as he stared off into the empty expanse and brought a hand up to rest on her knee.
There was silence for several long moments when Harry chose to finally speak.
"They led me into a trap… Greengrass and Davis." Harry spoke up.
"I know. I'm sorry that happened. I wish I had known sooner; I would have stopped you from going." Luna said to him, regret and disappointment touching her voice.
"Why did I give them the benefit of the doubt? I even said it, back during our first real conversation… they're Slytherins, Slytherins are always trouble. I knew it then, why didn't I think about it now? Why did I just believe them?" Harry berated himself.
"You've spent a lot of time in the dark Harry. People keeping things from you, people lying to you. Sometimes you just want to believe people are telling the truth, that they're being honest. You've spent most of your life as an honest person, telling the truth, trying to be good." Luna said to him, trying to comfort him.
"Yeah, look where that got me… dead… again. Ya know, come to think of it, this is basically the same exact thing that happened before. I trusted someone, they stabbed me in the back, and I died. I accepted Nott Sr.'s help, and it led to me dying. I did as Greengrass said, turns out she sent me to my death! Why am I so stupid!?" Harry groaned in annoyance, embarrassment and dismay.
Luna said nothing, perhaps sensing that he wasn't actually asking a question.
"When I get back, I'm going to flay those three bastards, and then I'm going to find Greengrass and Davis and make them wish they'd never been born!" Harry growled angrily.
"Are you really?" Luna asked him, still playing with his hair.
"You think I shouldn't?" Harry questioned, turning his head to glance at her out of the corner of his eye.
"No, I absolutely think you should. They led you into this, they let it happen, and I can only assume they knew what your fate would be, given how Tracey was acting… They deserve to be punished." Luna responded.
"But…?" Harry sensed a follow up.
"No buts. I think they deserve whatever is coming to them. By sending you into this trap they've not only violated the marriage contract between your houses, but they've also violated the Slave Bond, I'd assume even if you didn't retaliate, magic will get it's dues." Luna responded.
"Do you think they'll die?" Harry asked softly.
"It's possible. Given the unique situation they're in, I don't know what'll happen when they die. Maybe the Chaos Gods will revive them, or maybe, given their violation of the Slave Bond and their deception that got you killed, maybe the Gods will choose someone else to take their place. Maybe their souls will be devoured, and they'll face punishment for all of time. I simply don't know." Luna speculated.
Harry was silent as he pondered that. It was no less then they deserved for manipulating him and lying to him. A part of him tried to rationalize their actions, that maddening part that was still trying to be the boy he was before summer. It tried to say how they were just trying to escape their situation. They thought they were stuck marrying Draco, and that being enslaved to Harry would cause a violation in the marriage contract that could cause them irreparable harm. Surely that was why they did this. They knew that if they didn't get away from Harry than the marriage contract would most likely kill them.
That made sense to his mind, and he understood it as a justification.
It did absolutely nothing to quell his growing anger. Yes, they were justified, but did that mean that he had to suffer for them? He could be trapped wherever Tzeentch was sending him for ninety years! Ninety fucking years!
Nine decades was the time limit for each of these journeys, well over the average human lifespan. Because of their treachery, Harry was now condemned to upwards of ninety years of an unknown life, and all at the whims of a God of Chaos.
Tzeentch could send him anywhere. The realm that Tzeentch was a part of was connected to all of reality, to every time, and every place, of every universe, in all of existence. Luna had once expressed that this interconnection was so vast that not even the Chaos Gods themselves could truly rationalize it all, and, despite all of that, despite the enormity of the multi-verse that the Warp was connected to, supposedly the Warp itself was even larger. It was truly maddening to think about.
The only rules were that Tzeentch had to send him to a place where time would pass, and he could only be there for ninety years. Other than that, Tzeentch could send him anywhere. He could send him to any alien reality or alternate dimension he wanted to. He could send him forward or backwards in time to other times that weren't his own.
The only limit to the places that he could be sent was his own exact time, due to its unique nature. Luna had explained to him that as a focal existence, being the Master of Death, there was only one true Master of Death, all others were offshoots or imperfections. There could be other Harry Potters, but there was only one that was the true Master of Death, so Harry could be sent to another reality that was almost the exact same as his own, the only difference being is that Harry wouldn't be the Master of Death, and thus wouldn't have survived his execution at McTash's house. He could literally be sent to that moment where an alternate version of him died and had his soul ripped apart by the Chaos Gods and he'd be forced to essentially relive this shit for upwards of ninety years, and then be sent back to his original time, to do it all over again.
That was how vast the possibilities of this power were.
Still… ninety years at most, trapped in another reality, before he could go back, and get his revenge.
One benefit was that it gave him plenty of time to figure out how he wanted to handle this. He was going to make them pay. Greengrass and Davis would suffer for what they'd done, and so too would their fathers or parents if they truly did order the hit on his life.
He had plenty of time to consider it and decide how he'd avenge himself. One thing he knew for certain, when he was finished, neither Tracey nor Daphne, would ever think of raising a finger against him again.
He silently seethed for several moments before he took notice of something, Luna being strangely quiet.
He once more gazed at her, and she glanced down to meet his eyes.
"Nothing to say? You were quick to try and temper my anger when it was the Weasley twins, but Tracey and Daphne I'm going to do worse to and you're silent?" Harry inquired curiously.
"The Weasley twins were different." Luna responded.
"How so?" Harry asked as he rolled back over to stare out over the white expanse of nothingness.
"Firstly, it was about me, and I didn't want you to get in trouble for my sake. I don't care what they do. The opinions of the kids at school don't affect me, and don't bother me. I didn't want you to get in trouble for me when it would only cause you pain." Luna responded to him, causing him to sit up and turn to face her, his gaze growing intense.
"They shouldn't be tormenting you, or anyone for that matter. They're just bullies, and they deserve a taste of their own medicine!" Harry responded.
"Yes, and had that been your reasoning I would have happily allowed it. But you were doing it for me, and you were going to hurt them for me, and it would have caused you pain. The teachers would have tried their best to make you feel guilty, and you would have, Harry. It wasn't so long ago, that they were your friends. As angry as you were, you still would have felt guilty for hurting them, especially with how badly you wanted to hurt them." Luna said in response to him, reaching out to caress his face while the two locked eyes.
"Yeah but…" Harry began but Luna continued.
"There's also Mr. and Mrs. Weasley… even if the teachers couldn't make you feel guilty… the moment you were placed before them and had to face what you'd done to their children you would have felt unspeakable guilt because you care about them. You consider them family." Harry was taken aback by her words, pulling away momentarily.
His gaze lost its fiery intensity as he thought on that. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, two of the nicest people he'd ever met. They took him into their home on multiple occasions and treated him with such kindness. Even if it was only briefly, those two wonderful people made him feel loved, and now that he was thinking about it, hurting their children and destroying that bond with them would have devastated him.
"You said you wanted to be free Harry; I want you to be free too. In order to be free you have to do things for yourself, not for others, but that means facing the consequences of those choices as well. If you want to hurt the Weasley twins because they hurt you, then you should, not for me, or for anyone else, but for you. Just know, acknowledge, that by doing that, those that love them will hate you. That's why I wanted you to stop before, because I know you weren't thinking about that. You just wanted to protect me and avenge my pain. I appreciate it, and I thank you for it, but I knew that by doing so, you'd be unintentionally burning one of the few positive relationships you still have. If you are ready for that, if you believe you can face it, then I won't say anything next time. I just want you to be happy, Harry. I'd hate for you to suffer any more pain because of me. I'll try to speak up if I think you're heading that way without realizing it, but I won't stop you if you choose to keep going, and of course if you ever want me to stop, just say the words. I understand that sometimes being free means having the freedom to make mistakes, even if you don't think it's a mistake at the time. Maybe I was wrong though, maybe you could have handled it or maybe you were ready to face such a possibility as losing the Weasleys entirely. I know you well Harry, but you're still your own person. There are some things about you I'll never fully know, no matter how close we become. Just tell me when you think it's enough, if you think I've overstepped, or I'm putting too much thought into a thing. Truly, I want to know. As I've said before, I'm far from the best at this sort of thing. You're about the only person I actually know well, the next closest would-be papa, and then myself. Beyond that, I don't know many other people, so my decisions are based purely off of a logical observation. So please, let me know if I'm wrong." Luna expressed to him, offering him the pure honesty that he'd always craved and enjoyed so much when it came to their relationship.
Thinking on it, he did appreciate her forethought because he hadn't considered how people like the Weasleys would react if he beat the twins to within an inch of their lives for harassing him and Luna. Thinking on it now, they'd probably draw the line at violence. They were good people, and they'd probably side with him, but only up until the moment he threw a punch. Once he'd chosen violence, he was quite sure he'd lose them forever.
The thought saddened him as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were about the only adults left in his life that he had any sort of trust for. With that being said he didn't know how they were taking the lie that he'd entered into the Triwizard Tournament. For all he knew that bridge was already burning, and Mrs. Weasley was one breath away from bombarding him with angry howlers.
Unfortunately, that was something he wouldn't be able to explore until after he returned to Hogwarts, however long that may be.
"Well… I appreciate you looking out for my feelings, and I understand where you're coming from. I want you to speak up if you see me heading towards a cliff. You're in my head Luna and if you see me ignoring the possible consequences of my actions, I want you to speak up. With that being said though, I'm not going to stop standing up for you. I know you might have a hard time understanding this, but when you care about someone, and when you see them in pain, you take that pain into yourself. Going after the Weasley twins for hurting you is as much about me as it is about you. We're together in this, Luna. Your pain is my pain. Even if you don't care what they think, you shouldn't have to suffer embarrassment and ridicule. I won't allow it. When I go back… whenever that is, I'll make sure everyone understands it. I won't let them torment you, and I'm done letting them torment me. I thought by ignoring it, by keeping my chin up, things would get better, but they're not. They're only getting worse. For most of my life, fighting back has always been the worse option. When I'd fight back against Dudley, I got a worse beating when Vernon heard about it. If I talked back to Petunia or Vernon, I got a slap upside the head. The last time I fought back against Dudley, Vernon threw me out, and it led to the worst moment of my life. I don't want to suffer anymore, but I don't want that to happen to me either. I thought by just ignoring them that it would end, and I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore, but I was wrong. The kids at Hogwarts are like piranha they smell one drop of blood in the water, and they swarm. When I go back, I need to be ready for that change, maybe by being here, by going wherever I'm going I can make that change, and the person I need to be in order to fight back. Maybe… all I know is that I can't live like this anymore… I can't let myself be tormented because I'm afraid of the consequences for my retaliation. I want to be free…" Harry said to her, determination filling his eyes as he did.
"Then be free Harry, and in this new world, find new strength." Luna offered with a bright smile, which caused one to appear on Harry's face as well.
"I'll miss you… while I'm gone." Harry said to her.
"It won't be long Harry. I feel time differently than you do, and it's never been difficult to find your mind. It may be a week, or a month, but you'll be able to speak to me in your mind soon, and I'll be there in your dreams, always. I made you a promise… you'll never be alone again. Even if I'm not physically there, I'm always at your side." Luna offered to him, reassuring him that he wouldn't have to face this alone.
"My old friend…" He said softly as he reached out and caressed her cheek.
Her smile was loving, and it helped to fill him with hope and confidence. The area around him grew brighter, and he found himself losing Luna in the blinding white. He felt himself leave her comfort, and a less comforting cold slammed into him.
Harry awoke to find himself in utter darkness. He was in a cave, or a cavern somewhere. He didn't quite know for sure. Wherever he was, it was cold, it was black, and it was bleak.
Thankfully, with his beholder eye, he saw clearly in the darkness, so he rose to his feet and dusted off the dirt and grime covering his naked body. He rolled his shoulders and gave himself a once over. He had died once, meaning thanks to Slaanesh's gift he now had a new trait taken from his killer, and all of his body parts were more connected to him. He didn't notice any immediate changes, nothing new, and no new alterations to his 'normal' appearance.
With nothing to go on, off of that front, Harry allowed a cloak to grow out of his dementor arm to cover his nude frame. He then pulled up his hood and started walking, eager to begin his journey in this new place, wherever it may be.
-Four months later-
A place of cold grayness, that's what this world was.
When he had awoken it was deep underground. His exploration of the cavern revealed that it connected to a vast underground cave network that stretched for miles and miles. Within these caves he found life, small humanoid creatures. They looked like frail, emaciated humans. Their skin was gray and sunken in, their eyes missing, their mouths hung open in a perpetual gape. They were friendly though, despite their unnerving appearance.
When he first approached some, they had turned to him, and returned his inquisitive stares, or at least tried to as best they could without eyes. At first, they showed him only a moderate level of interest. They would stare at him when he came by, though otherwise they didn't approach.
They showed him no aggression and allowed him to come near them to observe what they were doing which wasn't much. There were a lot of them though, thousands, tens of thousands of these creatures, wandering the darkness, almost aimlessly.
Harry spent a day or two wandering around with them before he decided to try and find the surface.
Without the need to sleep, he made good progress, and though he grew hungry and a bit parched as he made his way through the caves, he rarely felt fatigued. He didn't seem to need food or water, though any time he came upon an underwater stream he would drink from it and try to turn rocks into water pouches using wandless magic. Since he had appeared completely naked, he had no items or tools on him, so any magic he used had to be wandless. Thankfully Voldemort knew plenty of wandless magic, and Harry had been practicing some so he could make do.
He spent time searching the streams for fish or crustaceans hoping to find something to eat, but he had little luck at first.
Eventually a week had passed, as Harry made his way upwards in the cave system. He found more and more groups of these humanoid creatures, but again they paid him only the most basic of interest as he made his way through the darkness.
It was at the end of that week where Harry finally found something alive that wasn't one of the humanoids. While filling up in the steam he'd spotted a fish. He quickly used the summoning charm to rip it out of the water and then cooked it with a bit of fire magic. He practically devoured the whole fish, chomping through bones and scales with almost reckless abandon. And it tasted heavenly. Despite getting a mouthful of scales, and bones, Harry was undeterred. He downed almost all of the fish, leaving only a few scraps remaining before heading on in his quest, offering a silent thanks to Slaanesh for making the fish taste so good. Or at least, making him enjoy it more than he would have otherwise.
After two weeks Harry made it to the surface. Two weeks of wandering in the dark and seeing that light at the end of the tunnel got him almost sprinting.
What he found was far from what he expected.
He emerged to a gray quiet world. No sun shown in the sky, no moon either. Gray clouds hung constantly in the air, and a damp mist clung to everything at ground level.
For days Harry explored the surface and he found only two things of any interest. Dragons, and their colossal homes, which stood as towering trees that reached up far into the heavens.
Unlike the beings below, these dragons were far from friendly.
Three times he met his end while exploring. Three times was he consumed in dragon flame. These dragons were colossal creatures, several times larger than most dragons found on earth. They seemed to be red dragons, or fire-breathing dragons primarily, though Harry wasn't certain if all of them were.
Each time he died, he got to spend a few moments in Luna's arms, letting her know what he'd found and where he was. She always listened as he explained what he'd been doing and always repeated her promise that she was reaching her mind out to his and she'd find him soon so they could talk without him having to die.
A few times Harry did try to fight back, but the dragons themselves were covered in dense, stone-like scales that easily absorbed his spells. That plus their size meant that even if he threw the most overpowered spells that Voldemort knew at them, he was unlikely to do enough damage to kill them outright, and he'd tire himself out.
He did notice the effects of Nurgle's gift, as well as Slaanesh's after the second time he died. Each time he perished, his remaining power was used to enhance his body's abilities, meaning he'd get a bit stronger, faster, more resilient, he'd have more magic, and his magic would become a bit more potent, so that was a boon.
As for any additions, well he didn't notice anything for the first or third deaths, but with the second one, he'd noticed the shape of his scales on his Behir arm had changed a bit, and they felt heavier. After a bit of testing, he realized that his scales had adopted the properties of these giant dragon's scales. They were definitely harder, denser, most likely able to take more damage before breaking.
Aside from that, after the third death he awoke to notice one minor change with his Dementor arm, it didn't look as emaciated as it normally did. Seemed a bit fleshier. It was still definitely the arm of a dementor, but it didn't look as bad as it normally did.
After days of finding nothing besides angry dragons, Harry dove back underground at the first cave he found.
At the very least the things down here weren't trying to kill him, and while having harder scales could come in handy, he didn't want to keep dying to those dragons and end up turned into a fucking dragon due to the effects of Slaanesh's gift. Since he absorbed traits at random, he was pretty sure all it would take is one wrong move and his skull would be replaced by a dragon's skull, or something atrocious like that.
Power boosts were nice, but random, rampant mutations and evolution were not.
So back to the underground he went.
Instead of going up, he went down. Deeper and deeper, he traveled for days, for weeks.
At first, he traveled alone until one day while he was just walking Luna's voice popped into his head out of nowhere scaring the absolute hell out of him and causing his scream of fright to echo throughout the cave system.
After getting a good laugh out of that, he rejoiced to finally have her to talk to while he was awake.
He filled her in his journey since last they spoke and continued on his way.
He was soon joined by other traveling companions, namely the vacant eyes, mouth agape humanoids. They had started to follow him after he had approached one to get a good look at it and allowed the creature to touch at his face.
It must have realized that Harry wasn't like any of the other denizens of the cave network, and it somehow communicated this fact to the other humanoids. The creatures themselves didn't speak, only moaning, groaning, and occasionally grunting at one another.
Whatever had interested them in Harry kept them following him as his journey continued. He started out with only three of them, but then his little group grew to nine, then fifteen, then forty. At four months along, Harry had a troop of well over two thousand of these humanoids that would follow after him as he wandered deeper into this massive cave system. The humanoids knew these caves well and never seemed to lose sight of him or lose their way.
They didn't overly bother him, and he'd even taken to talking to them to pass the time and keep loneliness at bay when he and Luna ran out of things to talk about.
Aside from exploring the cave system the only other thing Harry did was practice his wandless magic. Most of which went ignored by the denizens of the caves. The only type of magic that really drew their attention was fire magic. They really liked fire magic and would gather in large clusters to observe any sort of fire magic he performed.
Since they were basically sightless, he suspected it was the heat that enthralled them. The one constant between the surface and underground was that it was cold.
One day while walking with a troop of about a dozen of the humanoids the ground gave out beneath them, dropping Harry and the dozen or so others into the darkness below.
Harry could only string along a few curses as they fell deeper and deeper into the darkness, sliding along a downward slope. He barely caught sight of a few of the humanoids slamming hard into jutting rocks, most-likely killing them on impact. He also noticed as he fell that heat was beginning to rush past him.
"What the hell?!" Harry wondered as he saw light, actual light begin the ebb up from below, and with that light came heat.
The rocky incline that had battered the hell out of him and his companions gave way to something much softer.
Ash, it felt like. Harry and several of the humanoids tumbled down the ash pile until finally rolling to a stop.
They were within a lit chamber, and there at the center, was a blazing flame, the burned up from the ground.
"What in the…" Harry muttered as he painfully pulled himself up and stared out across the chamber.
Slowly, he rose to his feet, letting a pained hiss as he pulled himself up. His right leg was definitely broken, so he placed a hand over it and began using a mending charm to try and repair the damage.
While he was healing himself, along with his own accelerated healing, he spotted a few of the humanoids also dragging themselves up. Most of them were sadly dead, having perished in the fall. Two lay broken on the ground, unable to get up though still somewhat alive. Three managed to get themselves up, their faces turning to face the flame.
Slowly they began to trudge towards the flame, Harry watched them for several long moments as they crossed the chamber towards the fire that burned through the ashen ground.
He watched as the three circled parts of the flame before dropping to their knees and proceeding to dig into the ash.
He felt his bone snap back together, sending a lance of pain through his legs, causing him to hiss once more.
With his leg back together again, he began to trudge towards the fire as well.
With his beholder eye, he could see torrents of magic swirling up from the flame itself, though its most intense parts came from places within the ash. Clouds of magic churned over spots in the ash, three of the brightest points being where the humanoids had sunk to the ground and started digging almost as if they could sense the same magic he could see.
His eyes passed over one of them, and he spotted them pull something out of the ash.
It was a small ember, that cradled within the palm, yet he could see powerful otherworldly magics flowing off of the ember. He saw a second one emerge and then a third. Each of the humanoids began to cradle the small lights to their chests, almost as if trying to take them in.
Harry was still walking, making it to the edge of the flame where he stopped. His eyes lowered to the ground beneath his feet, where he could see powerful magics rising up from beneath him.
Slowly he lowered himself, his leg still tender, and began to scoop into the hot ash.
Embers rose as he scooped deeper and deeper, pressing away the ash until he came upon a small light, peeking out of the soot.
"It's beautiful…" Luna cooed into his headspace.
"What is it?" Harry asked as he picked up the small light, which, now that he was holding it, he knew wasn't an ember.
"It's a soul… or… more accurately, the essence of a soul." Luna answered with wonderment.
Harry blinked at the small light, taking in its essence.
This was a soul, or perhaps, the make-up of a soul? Movement caught Harry's ear, something rising from the ground to his right.
He turned his gaze and saw a shadow fall over one of the humanoid, that shadow formed around it before growing into the shape of a towering skeletal being. Large in stature and heavily hunched over, this being of skulls and bones, had arisen in place of the humanoid.
Harry's gaze turned to the other two humanoids. He watched as they pressed the souls to their bodies, absorbing them.
In the place of one, rose a tall woman of dark hair, and pale ashen skin. She looked almost human, but she was much taller than any human, standing close to ten, maybe twelve feet tall. Long darkened robes manifested around her form, and her face and her hair were soon hidden by a hood.
In place of the other, a man arose, with long frazzled hair and an equally unkempt gray beard. Armor appeared on his body; a crown shined upon his head.
They had changed, all three of them, after absorbing these souls, they had changed into something else, something more. The power that had blazed within these souls, now blazed more brightly in them. It was almost like being added to a body, made them more powerful.
Slowly, Harry lowered his gaze to the fragment in his hands. A few moments of thought passed by. As he stared at this fragment, it felt so very familiar to him, like a part of himself.
Any reservations he may have had, faded away and he brought the soul to his lips, drawing it in with a breath.
He felt in float into him, and in an instant, he felt it's power bond with his own, coloring his soul and linking to it. It felt… wonderful. He felt calm, almost at peace.
Purpose seemed to arise within the newly transformed humanoids, whatever powers they had gained from these soul fragments had also altered their minds and perceptions, almost in unison they turned to look at him. For the first time in the many weeks, he had traveled with them he could clearly see comprehension on their faces, even the skeletal being.
They could see him now, comprehend him in a way they never could before.
While their soul shards had filled them with power and sense of purpose, Harry's filled him with a sense of certainty and comfort. For a brief moment he felt as if the cold of Luna's touch filled his whole body. It was Luna though he revealed to him what had truly happened.
"Amazing… you soul Harry… it's all dark now. The light… falls into it, but it's like no light can escape it now. It… pretty." Luna said to him.
"Wow, I feel different… stronger, yet… at the same time, more whole. More connected to myself." Harry thought to himself and to her.
He sat there in comfort for many long moments as he contemplated what had happened. As he sat there the others began to leave. He caught sight of them and watched them go, he didn't know what they were planning or where they were going, but he intended to stay right here for now, and study this strange phenomenon.
-Eight Months Later-
A year had passed since he had acquired the Soul of a Lord. That is what they were calling it now. For a time, he remained alone within the chamber of flame, then one day Nito returned. Nito being the name chosen by the skeletal being.
Hearing Nito speak was shocking to say the least, a haunting voice that echoed out of his darkened skull. He had left for a time to do his own studies but had returned for the same reason that Harry had stayed, in order to study the nature of the flame that burned ceaselessly for seemingly no reason and allowed for souls to form in its ashes.
The two conducted their own studies, working together and separately to study the foundation of the soul.
They made some interesting discoveries together, first being the nature of the souls that they had acquired. Nito's was the Soul of Death, which Harry found amusing but beyond that did not comment on, while Harry's Soul was the soul of Darkness, or the Dark Soul. Nito was also confidant that the two other souls found were their polar opposites. One had claimed the Soul of Life, and the other the Soul of Light.
Aside from studying the flame and the souls that resided in the ash, Harry and Nito didn't interact much. Nito was quiet and had little if anything to say, he seemed to be searching for something, a purpose, an understanding, and he was only now just finding it. Holding the soul of Death, Nito's interests seemed to surround the physical death of living things. He spent more time studying the corpses of the dead humanoids, or what he now called pygmies.
One day, seemingly out of the blue, the other two returned, and with them came a number of followers. The woman, who had taken the name Quilla returned with what she called her children. Several daughters and a single son. They appeared as all pygmies did, but Quilla led them to the place where she had dug up her Lord Soul and had them dig there. The troop acquired souls of their own, that were lesser in power and grandeur than the one their mother possessed but still offered them immense power.
The feeble creatures that they were quickly changed into a collection of women, and a single man, sharing in their mother's features. Quilla and her children did not remain for long and spent little time conversing with Harry or Nito, once they had what they came for they retreated into the darkness of the cave system intent on their own designs. Soon afterward the crowned man came, carrying the name Gwyn and he brought with him many more followers, hundreds of them, thousands.
This troop spent days digging for souls, and much like Quilla and her daughters, they acquired powers and abilities, shaping into various peoples and groups. Some grew massive in size, becoming lumbering giants, others became tall humans who shaped their power into silver armor and bladed weapons. Some became beast men, covered in fur. These peoples, upon awakening and becoming these things began to break off into various tribes and vanish back into the caverns and caves to form their own civilizations. Every day more and more entities would be led into the chamber to dig in the ash for souls, and every day more unique beings would rise from the ashes.
Gwyn oversaw all of this, often being the one to lead these people here. Given his guidance, people were starting to call him, and those like him, Lords. They claimed that the souls Gwyn and many of his closest followers had claimed were the souls of Lords, with the original four being the most powerful. Some even called them the souls of Gods.
With the advent of various peoples and beliefs, fights began to emerge, and that meant the occasional death, and these deaths drew the interest of Nito who was beginning to understand what it was he was truly fascinated by.
Gwyn took a leadership role over the majority of the peoples around him. The lords followed him, and so did the giants, he got Nito's cooperation by promising him free reign to study the nature of death, so Nito agreed, and it wasn't long before Quilla and her daughters were found, studying and developing Fire Sorceries, and brought into the fold as well.
Harry was the last one that Gwyn approached, and he did so with noticeable unease. Harry didn't know why, but he could sense that Gwyn was unnerved by Harry's presence. He suspected it had to do with them having acquired the opposite souls, Harry's being of darkness, and Gwyn's of light. Still, Gwyn was willing to recognize that it was Harry who had led them to the Flame and allowed them to become what they were. Had he not led them deep into the underground, this place would have never been found.
So, despite his natural unease when it came to Harry, most likely stemming from the opposing nature of their souls, he offered Harry a position by his side to aid in his plans.
What were those plans? Well, during his time away, Gwyn had come to believe that the power of fire, was destined to overtake the dragons and clear away their dominion over the world. Gwyn was planning for a war and intended to rise to the surface and face the dragons.
While Harry didn't necessarily agree that fire was meant to replace the dragon's rule over the world, he did accept that if these people were ever going to get out of these caves the dragons would have to be beaten back. He'd been killed three times by the vicious beasts just trying to explore. He knew there was no hope for civilization if the dragons weren't dealt with.
So, he agreed to side with Gwyn and his ever-growing army of silver knights. Harry had learned all that he could from studying the flame and the souls it contained, especially now that most of those souls had been harvested so he had nothing else to really do.
He knew that Gwyn only wanted his help because he held one of the so-called Lord Souls. Harry had no followers, and to Gwyn's knowledge, no special powers. He was just a mutant, a strange aberration that looked nothing like them, either how they looked before, or how they looked now.
He accepted working with them, but Harry was more interested in learning from them. If asked to aid in a task, Harry would try and help but otherwise his focus was on learning all that he could. After all, his goal now was to become someone who could survive and thrive in the world he had come from. He didn't want to be plain old Harry Potter anymore, he wanted to be someone more.
-Two Years later-
He'd been here in this cold, dark world for over three years now. He spent most of his time learning the magical arts being devised by the other factions and groups within the cavern network. War was on the horizon, and even now Gwyn sent scouts to map out the surface and probe the Dragons for any sort of weakness they could exploit when they finally rose to the surface.
Harry had gone on several such expeditions, and in fact he was often the only one to return alive. The dragons were highly intelligent, and they took notice of the creatures rising out of the earth more and more. It increased their hostility to the point where they actively began watching the ground as they sensed something coming for them.
Given his unique nature as one of the lead scouts, Gwyn, Nito, and Quilla saw Harry as the perfect vessel to experiment with their abilities and test them on the dragons. They would teach Harry their arts, their magics, and send him to the surface where he would use those powers against the dragons and determine what worked and what did not.
This led to several more deaths on Harry's part, though with each Death Harry grew stronger. He was up to seven now, and with each life lost, his mutations and modifications became more ingrained into his body. Pale gray flesh now covered his Dementor arm. The arm had almost no muscle to it, but it no longer looked skeletal and mummified. He could still summon his robes out of it, and he was learning to control the cold aura that would emanate from it, when he felt an emotion strongly.
He'd began noticing that his psychic powers were growing as well. He was gaining greater control over his natural mind-reading abilities as could now actively control his empathic abilities.
He had gained the ability to pressurize his spit and could shoot it out of his mouth, striking targets several meters away. It wasn't much but his spit was also growing more corrosive, now able to slowly eat away at iron and steel.
His giant muscles as well as his dragon skin now seemed to have spread to his Thestral wings, giving them far greater strength. He could actually lift himself off the of the ground now with his wings, and he could glide with them, they weren't strong enough to keep him flying, but that's where Voldemort's memories and knowledge helped him out as he learned to fly with the use of magic.
He also took notice that his Vampire blood and Werewolf blood were becoming more active and powerful as he died. His senses were growing more precise, and he was developing a taste for blood.
It seemed that while also physical fusing better with his body, the various powers of the creatures he was bonded with were becoming more active as he died and was reborn.
Along with his evolving traits he had gained another new one, his emerald eye was now blazed like a dragon's eye and was slitted like one two. His beholder/basilisk eye still remained that same, only having a slit in it when the powers of the Basilisk were channeled through it.
Along with the growing power of his body, he learned new and exciting spells, from Nito, he learned how to generate poison and corrosive gasses, from Quilla he learned Fire Sorceries and from Gywn and his knights, Harry learned how to fight with weapons.
Naturally his weakest skill was in the use of weapons, but he had the strength and speed to get good at it quickly. He didn't tire easily, so he could train for a good long while. Three years had passed, and Harry was now seventeen. He was much taller than before, taller than he ever expected to be. He was either a late bloomer, or it had to do with his body modifications causing him to get bigger faster than he normally would. The increased testosterone produced by his Minotaur parts also helped him to build muscle mass pretty quickly.
In these three years he'd gotten big, and he looked almost nothing like he did before. Not only was he taller and more muscular but his hair had grown longer, and he now kept it tied back in a ponytail.
In his journeys to the surface, he'd learned a lot about the dragons and even managed to kill one after a long, arduous battle. That was where he had died twice, but he had committed himself to trying see if the dragons even could be killed, so he fought this one for several hours, slowly chipping away at it's armored hide with every kind of magic he could think of. He finally brought it down, though it was far from easy, and though his accomplishment was applauded by the knights of Gwyn, his fellow lords accepted the grim reality as he explained it to them. They needed to find a weakness, otherwise it would be impossible for them to beat the dragons. Their armor was simply to tough and they were too large. Even with his most powerful spells, he could only blast off small pieces of armor and then he still had to do enough damage to actually kill the huge beasts. Needless to say, it wasn't going to be easy to beat them.
So, his fellow lords turned their attention to devising new and more powerful magics while also trying to devise clever ways of peeling away the dragon's armor.
While they devised new plans, Harry continued his learning, and spent time with the few friends he'd made over the last few years. The first was Faraam, who was Gwyn's son. Much like Quilla, Gwyn brought a pygmy that he claimed to be his child to the Flame to receive the soul of a lord. Faraam quickly became one of the most skilled warriors among Gwyn's knights and he even trained Harry in the use of weapons and would sometimes venture with Harry to the surface to scout and study the dragons. Much like Harry, Faraam questioned whether or not Gwyn's ambitions were the right way for them to go. He didn't seem quite certain that Fire and Light were meant to dominate the world, and unlike his father and the other lords, Faraam had a great respect for the dragons and their powers. He was also one of the only lords that had any sort of positive relationship with the furred beastmen whom saw Faraam as a mighty warrior and someone they'd be willing to follow due to his great strength and skill.
He treated Harry with respect and saw him as more than just a useful tool to be exploited like the Lords did. Harry respected him as well, so the two struck up a friendship.
The other friends Harry had made belonged within the daughters of Quilla. Namely Quelaag, and Quinna. All of Quilla's children had Q starting names so it was easy to get them confused. Quelaag and Quinna were twins, though no identical they could almost be given how similar in appearance they were. Quilla did not like Harry all that much, she treated him with suspicion and uncertainty, most of her children felt the same but Quelaag and Quinna were the exact opposite. Quelaag was rebellious and strong willed, while Quinna was just an absolute sweetheart.
The two were good friends with Harry and he spent a great deal of time with them whenever he traveled to Quilla's domain. It was noted by Luna few times that Harry found the sister attractive, and though he denied it at first, he later just accepted it. They were beautiful, lovely, and kind to him, though he had no intention of pursuing them. Now if they chose to pursue him, that would be an entirely different situation. He tried to feel guilty about these feelings, but Luna pushed him to dismiss them. If he found them attractive, if he liked them, then he should pursue them, or at least accept their advances if they liked him in return. She made the case that it was unknown how long Harry would be here, and it was unknown if he'd ever come back when he left. He deserved to be happy, either way. If he found someone he liked, someone he cared about, he should be with them while he had the chance because he may lose them forever. It was best that he does not live with any regrets. Luna wouldn't be bothered by it; she got to have him and spend time with him every night when he slept.
That was another thing that had developed during these three years. With Luna now able to talk to him, she could also return to his dreams. Naturally none of the others were there, since they were lost likely awake in his original world, so it was just him and Luna so the two got to spend all the time they wanted together. After several months of growing their bond with each other, and in Harry's case, learning how to move and visualize himself within the dream world, the two finally slept together.
It was awkward at first because he had grown, while she had not, and he was also much larger than normal men down there. This problem was settled easily by two simple facts, one was that Luna could willfully change her shape and form in the dreamworld, so she just made herself look more his age, and secondly, she didn't feel physical pain in the dream, so he wasn't in danger of hurting her even if things did become wild.
So as awkward as their first time was, Harry loved it. While her skin was cool to the touch, her insides were hot. Being inside of her drove him crazy and the two would rut in their shared dreamspace almost every time Harry slept.
It made him long for the chance to return home, to finally be with her and hold her in his arms. They had shared their first declarations of love after that first night, and Harry declared his intention to marry her when he returned home.
It was probably going to be many years until then, so unfortunately, they'd be stuck with just the dream world to interact in.
When not engaged in intimacy or talking about what was going on in his life, Harry would learn how to wield the powers of the Deathly Hallows. He had arrived without them, and for a long time thought he would be without them until he returned home, but when Luna finally found him and was able to talk to him, she revealed that because he had become master of the Wand and the Cloak, he could call upon them whenever he desired. They were items forged from the power of death, they couldn't be destroyed, and they weren't tied to reality. It someone took the wand and snapped it, it would simply reform, if they burned the cloak, it would simply reform. They couldn't be permanently destroyed, and Harry, as their master, could summon them at will, since they were tied to Death, and death was always by his side.
So, he learned how to do so, and drew the Elder Wand and the Invisibility Cloak to him. He'd need to claim the Resurrection Stone when he returned to his world so that he could master that as well.
While learning to use his own gifts, he did try and practice with Khorne's gift as well, the Arsenal. He learned how to activate it, and call upon weapons and tools that he needed in the moment. It was actually quite simple and made him desire access to all of the other nifty trinkets the Chaos Gods had granted him. Unfortunately the Bell and the Black Book would be in Tracey's and Daphne's possession when he got back, so he couldn't play around with those right now, or at least, he thought he couldn't.
One day while pondering that specific fact he began to wonder, since these tools were bound to him through his slaves, could he just summon them to himself, like he could the Deathly Hallows? Out of curiosity he spent an hour or two trying to do so. He was about to give up when he suddenly managed to summon the Bell to himself.
He was overjoyed to see it appear, as that meant that he could acquire the Black Book as well, the book that could answer any question he asked of it, so long as he had sacrificial power to exchange in trade.
So, he spent some time focusing on the book, and trying to summon it, and eventually he managed to summon it as well.
That began the start of Harry's experimental stage, where he would begin seeing what kind of sacrifices, he could do to appease Tzeentch and gather enough energy to ask the Black book questions.
The Bell and the book were rather plain items, that belied their incredible magical power. The bell appeared as a bronze bell, with a brown string tied to it, while the Black book was just that, a small black book with about one hundred pages to it, all of which were blank.
The first things he tried sacrificing were the small animals he found in the upper caverns. Fish mostly.
He went with the most basic sacrifice ritual he could think of, placing the fish in a circle and burning it while declaring it's intended destination being for Tzeentch. It actually worked. Once the fish was fully consumed by the flames, a small wisp of blue energy would flow out of the flames and into the mark of Tzeentch on his right palm. A faint, dim circle of light began to appear around the mark, indicating some level of collected energy. Further sacrifices would cause the circle to very slowly grow in luminosity.
Fish were far from valuable sacrifices as it took the sacrifice of nearly twenty for him to get an answer to his first question, which happened to be 'What is this world?'
He had asked the question and watched as the circle on his palm faded away, draining all of the collected energy as words began to appear on the first page of the Black Book. The answer given was simple but informative.
'A shapeless place, just beginning to form.'
Harry had hummed at the answer, but accepted it. Knowing that they came from Tzeentch meant that it was likely the mischievous god could be as vague or direct as he wanted with his answers, so Harry accepted that despite how helpful the Book would be, it wasn't going to be the see-all, be-all of his journey.
With plenty to spend his time learning, Harry did not neglect learning how to utilize and interact with his newly acquired Lord-Soul. With Luna's help he advanced quickly in his studies of how to manipulate it, and affect it.
While practicing with manipulations of his own soul he learned that it had several interesting properties. The Dark Soul that he had absorbed had fully bonded to his own soul, and unlike with the other three Lord-Souls, the Dark Soul was fueled by emotion. When he felt things intensely, his soul would flare alongside his magic, causing dark energies to erupt out of his skin and shake the air. These dark energies had the power to shape things that were exposed to them to align more with Harry. In essence they had the power to make things align more with his soul, which was a unique hodgepodge of human, and Daemon energies, now mixed with the unique aspect of the Dark Soul. Another unique property of the Dark Soul was it's ability to be split or have fragments broken off without the need for murder.
Similar to the creation of a Horcrux, but without needing murder to do it, he could willfully take off pieces of his own soul, and according to Luna, unlike a regular soul, the Dark Soul had a sort of refractive cystaline shape to it, essentially she explained to him that most souls were like globs of energy, and when broken apart they'd become less than what they were before. His soul, now thanks to the Dark Soul could be broken apart without becoming less. It could get smaller, but it's essence, it complexity would not diminish. Essentially, what she was getting at, was that his soul could weaken, and could grow smaller, but he'd never feel the effects of it on his personality. Unlike with Voldemort who grew more deranged as he tore his soul apart, Harry doing it wouldn't affect his sanity, especially as the splitting was far more natural and organic than using murder to bludgeon your soul into pieces.
It was these two corresponding features that made Harry realize just why exactly Tzeentch had sent him here to this world.
Collecting the Dark Soul must have always been Tzeentch's intentions for Harry, and Harry could see why. Unlike the other souls which were driven by governed aspect, namely the Death soul being tied to death, the Life Soul being tied to the creation of things, and the Light soul being tied to light, the Dark Soul was tied to emotion, not just darkness. Feelings things, and feeling them intensely amplified the power of the Dark Soul. It acted like a muscle, when Harry felt extremes in emotion and the Dark Soul would flare up, that was also causing the power of his soul to grow. It was slow, just like natural muscle growth. His soul would flare up, then die down, flare up, then die down. Each time it returned to a resting state, it was just a smidgen more powerful than before.
And so, Harry began experimenting. He wanted to see what would happen if he placed one of his soul fragments into the body of one of the many pygmies that continued to wander the underground network of caverns.
So he collected a few of them, and began his experiments. He placed a small shard of his soul into ten of them, and watched what happened. To his amazement the ten slowly began to take shape, they formed into human figures, losing their emaciated forms, becoming almost exact copies of normal humans.
Harry was astounded. It quickly dawned on him that the unique nature of the Dark Soul and how it altered things to fit more in line with Harry's soul, meant that when placed into the pygmies they became human, like he was.
Harry was mesmerized by the idea that he could fill this world with humans, with people that could form and shape civilization alongside the Lords and other races. It became a passion of his, and a deep intrigue to study.
-Five Year later-
Harry walked alongside Faraam as they made their way into a fallen Archtree. The Archtrees were the names of the colossal trees that the Dragons lived in. The two were on a quest to locate a secret that could help turn the tide of war. A year ago, the war had begun. After nearly six years of preparation the Lords launched their attack, leading armies of giants, lesser lords, and most notably humans into battle.
Over the last five years, Harry can continued in the creation of humans. He met with, and made thousands of them, using fragments of the Dark Soul. The humans themselves were lesser in power, and stature than the other races but there were more of them, and they bred quickly, and with each new birth, a new shard of the Dark Soul was formed. Just like with the main Dark Soul, these fragments reacted the same. Intense emotions caused their power to flare, and when it died down the soul fragment would be left a tiny bit stronger than it was before. This process continued all throughout the lives of these humans, and when they died, their soul fragments returned to Harry. Unlike with a Horcrux, because these fragments were tied to a being bound to death, whenever a part of him died, it simply passed into death and then back into him.
Luna expressed that she was gaining a much greater understanding of these people, by feeling them out through their newfound souls. Because it was actually Harry's soul, and she knew Harry's soul so well, she could also see and feel these humans just as well.
The people that Harry created were free thinking individuals, unbound to his desires. They made their own choices, and much like how Harry wanted to be, they chose their own fate and masters.
The various humans broke into groups, some followed Quilla, becoming cultists of fire, others followed Nito, becoming worshipers of death, most of what remained followed Gwyn, won over by his charisma, and the future that he promised them.
The other lords knew nothing about the rise of humanity, nor did Harry give any indication that he was responsible for their creation. When asked about how they were made, the humans responded by naming a shadowy being, the Furtive Pygmy they called him. Some, like Faraam had their suspicions when he spotted some humans take pause when they saw Harry, but most others, like his fellow lords were too blinded by ambition to notice this.
In the last five years Harry had continued to grow his powers, and develop his skills, mastering greater magics, and becoming a better fighter. His friendship with Faraam grew and the two fought together against the dragons on multiple occasions, doing their best to bring them down one by one.
The process was slow going, and many lost their lives in these engagements, but one thing they had that the dragons didn't was a place to retreat to for safety, and numbers. They outnumbered these massive dragons a hundred to one.
Several weeks ago, Harry had finally amassed enough sacrificial energy to ask a question to the Black Book that he knew would change the tide of the war. He asked for the dragons' weakness, and in typical Tzeentch fashion, instead of just telling him the answer, it told him where to find it. For weeks, her and Faraam traveled across the war torn world with a small troop of warriors both human and beastmen.
They had arrived at their destination, finally, and within, they found exactly what they were looking for.
Seath, an albino Everlasting Dragon. He was blind, and without scales, yet in spite of his blindness he sensed their approach.
"I smell you, have you come to kill me?" The Dragon spoke. Despite it's infirmities it was still a dragon, and a massive one at that, so the troop approached with caution.
"I come on behalf of Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, to make you an offer, Seath the Scaleless. I understand you are an outcast of your kind. Forgotten and dismissed through no fault of your own. Gwyn realizes this too, and thus offers you amnesty in this war of ours, if you would but offer us your aid." Harry spoke to the towering creature.
"You come seeking my aid? Truly?" The Dragon inquired, seemingly uncertain with their offer.
"Your kind dismisses you. They leave you here in this broken tree, alone, and uncared for because you are not like them. Join us, and prove your worth. Stand by our side, and receive all the recognition you could possibly want." Faraam spoke up, addressing the great beast.
"You come seeking the weakness of my kind… I can tell you that I know of it, and I would share it with you, but I must have a guarantee that you will not seek to kill me after I share it. Life, my life, is what matters to me. I gave up on recognition long ago. Now all I seek is the life I meant to have, the eternal life that was denied to me." The dragon responded, it's voice heavy and direct.
"I am Faraam, son of Gwyn, I swear to you on my father's behalf, if you help us, than no harm will come to you. You will be recognized as an ally and a hero to our cause. I swear in on my father's behalf, I swear it on my own life." Faraam declared his tone was mighty and powerful.
The Dragon seemed to take in his words for several long moments. Finally it let out a breath.
"Tell your father that I will meet with him in one weeks time. I will come to you, and when I arrive, I share with him, and all of your fellows, the secret to the dragon's immortality." Seath declared.
"We will await your arrival then. You will not regret this." Harry declared, earning a nod of agreement from Faraam.
The dragon gave them a look before pulling away, allowing their troop to retreat.
A week later, and Seath arrived, just as he said he would, and met with Gwyn. An hour later and the Lord of Sunlight appeared before his fellow Lords with a smile on his face.
Lightning. That was the answer. The dragons gained their immortality from their dense stone scales. But those scales were weak to lightning damage and could be torn away with lightning. Doing so would render the dragons vulnerable.
Armed with this knowledge, Gwyn, his knights, as well a multitude of humans worked to create various lightning based magics that they could unleash upon the dragons.
The established and most effective method quickly became the generation of lightning spears that could be thrown at the dragons from afar, turning Gwyn, his knights and anyone else who learned these magical arts, including Harry, into essentially Zeus knockoffs.
Within weeks, the tide of war began turning. Armed with lightning bolts to peel away their stone scales, the dragons began falling left and right.
The dragons fell by their dozens. When they were brought down, Nito would unleash corrosive spells upon their bodies, rapidly poisoning and withering them, ensuring that many dragons died without needing to actually engage them in close range battle. With fewer dragons in the sky, and fewer dragons to protect their Archtrees, Quilla and her children weaved great firestorms to burn away the Archtrees destroying the dragons' homes and nests.
For a year the battle raged on, and for a year things were looking up. Then came a moment that struck their offense square in the gut.
Faraam had turned on them.
Harry and Gwyn were chief amongst those who felt the deepest sting of betrayal. Gwyn because he didn't see it coming, and Harry because he should have seen it coming. He had long known of his friend's great respect for the dragons, and after meeting with Seath and speaking with him many times, Faraam came to understand that the dragons were very much like them. Conscious, thinking beings, with wants and desires of their own.
As the war raged, he began to see their actions as genocide, and it began to deeply affect him.
Harry berated himself for not seeing the signs. Again he had been betrayed, and again he had lost a friend. At the very least though, he could say that he did not hate Faraam fro the choice that he made. Their final conversation before his friend departed had been a pleasant where they reminisced on their journey together and the many times they had shared with one another. It was meant to be celebratory, though Harry later realized his old friend was telling him goodbye.
Gwyn was absolutely furious at his son and his followers. In his rage he sought to erase all mention and knowledge of his son. Destroying statues of him, and wiping his name from the lips of all those who knew of him. Gwyn would ensure that his traitorous son would have no place of recognition in the world he intended to build. Not even as a footnote in history.
Faraam would make a few appearances during the war, arriving to push back their offensive and rescue a few of the dragons. He would gather the dragons high upon a mountainous peak where he and his followers built for them a temple and sanctuary to keep them safe. They through back any attack made on them and eventually as the war winded down and the dragons became a rarer and rarer sight, the attacks ceased.
Gwyn's fury eventually burned out, and he became content to allow his traitorous son to remain up on the mountain with his followers and his dragons, just so long as he never came down.
With the war over, and the dragons defeated the surface was now theirs to claim, and claim it they did, or at least Gwyn did.
Nito chose to remain underground, as did the Quilla. Nito began the construction of a great catacomb, while Quilla went off to found the underground city of Izalith for which she would eventually earn the moniker the Witch of Izalith.
Gwyn and his followers, which included much of humanity and the giants, set out to retake the land, and they did so with gusto.
With the war won, Harry was left again to his own devices, and knowing full well that Gwyn was still weary of him, even after all of his contributions to the war, he instead chose to make himself scarce and travel the world. Now that he wasn't in danger of being constantly roasted alive by dragons, he found he could explore in peace so that's what he chose to do.
-Ten Years Later-
Time passed, a lot of time. With the defeat of the Everlasting Dragons, a new age had begun. The scholars would name the time of the dragons as the Age of Ancients, and they would name the modern era, as the Age of Fire. Using the Power of the First Flame, the Flame where their Lords and in fact all souls had been found the Gods were able to begin shaping the world as they saw fit. The First Flame became an achor point for this new world of theirs and helped to fuel it's creation.
Sunlight came to the world. With Gwyn's conquest of the surface, the sky filled with daylight. A day/night cycle came upon the world, filling the day with sunlight and the night with moonlight.
Green soon spread across the land, plants bloomed, animals appeared. Honestly it all happened so quickly that some days Harry would fall asleep only to awaken to find the terrain radically different from how it was hour earlier with the blooming of trees and the spawning of lakes.
Towns and cities began to appear across the world, and soon countries appeared with them. The Lords became worshiped by humans as Gods, and the home of the gods became the kindgom of Lordran.
While most humans freely spread across the land, there was a small subsect that were gathered together by Gwyn and specifically gift a home of their own.
These humans were the ones who fought directly beside them during the war, and they were gifted a city at the edge of the world, surrounded by mountains, making it near impervious from outside assault. These humans had the strongest pieces of the Dark Soul within them, and the strongest amongst them, became known as the Pygmy Lords who would rule over this city. These humans were loyal and worshiped Gwyn as a god, so they never saw what Harry did when he looked at the city itself.
Yes, the city was well protected, but it was also at the edge of the world, far from the rest of Gwyn's burgeoning kingdoms. The mountains that surrounded the city may have kept away invaders, but it also kept the denizens of the city trapped within it.
It was a cage, and seeing them placed within it, brought a very real, and very old feeling back into Harry's heart.
It didn't take much thought for Harry to realize what Gwyn was doing this, why he was taking the greatest and most powerful of humanity and locking them in this cage at the edge of the world. It was the Dark Soul. Gwyn may not have known that the Dark Soul resided within these humans, but he sensed it within them. He sensed it's touch, and more importantly, he sensed Harry's influence, and he'd always been weary of Harry, always been distrusting of him, despite his contributions, despite all that he'd done.
With control over his empathic abilities, Harry was able to understand why Gwyn feared him, it was because he was afraid of the dark. It wasn't just because the Dark Soul was his opposite, it was because he genuinely feared the dark, and worried about its influence on himself and the world.
Perhaps Gwyn realized that the nature of the Dark was that it was constant, and natural. His Age of Fire was unnatural, it required effort and energy to keep it going. If that effort failed, if that energy gave out, what would be left afterwards…? Only darkness, and perhaps it was that reasoning that caused Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, this irrational fear. Because he understood deep down that his belief was wrong. That Fire wasn't the natural state of the world, it was darkness that was meant to be the world's fate.
Regardless of the reasoning, Gwyn went forward with his plans, and even put measures in place in many sprawling human cities across the world to deal with them in case anything went wrong.
One prime example was New Londo, a human city that became ruled by four kings or great wisdom. Gwyn had special precautions put in place, essentially a means to flood the entire city and drown its denizens if it got out of control.
For years, Harry saw these things and it caused his already distant relationship with the Lord of Sunlight to turn into full blown disdain.
That disdain would touch at Harry's thoughts whenever he ventured in Lordran and it kept him from ever going to Anor Londo the home of the Gods, and their own personal city.
He did spend quite some time in the Duke's Archives. The place where Seath now ruled from. In accordance with his word, Seath was rewarded for betraying his fellow dragons. He was gifted a dukedom and a part of Gwyn's own Lord-Soul. Within the Archives Seath gathered treasure troves of information and began developing a new magical art known simply as sorcery, which derived power from the soul, similarly to Quilla's Fire Sorceries.
He studied these sorceries though kept his distance from Seath who was completely immersed in his quest to obtain immortality.
Aside from studying at the archives, Harry also spent a lot of time in Izalith where his presence was mostly just tolerated by Quilla. He spent the majority of his time there with Quelaag and Quinna, learning from the two, and beginning an intimate relationship with the two. Without their mother's knowledge or more likely against her wishes the two embraced their feelings for him. They had been friends with him for years, and found him charming, brave, kind, and passionate. Quelaag loved how fiery he could get, how passionate he could be, as she was much the same, while Quinna enjoyed how gentle he was, how soft he could be around her. As Harry had decided years earlier, he allowed the twins to make the first move, and they did, and just as Luna had advised him, he did not refuse their advances.
Though he would always say that he lost his virginity to Luna, physically speaking he had lost it to the fiery Quelaag, though he slept with Quinna not long afterwards.
It was a passionate affair that happily carried on over the years. Harry would leave whenever he'd overstayed his welcome and Quilla grew tired of his presence, but he would always return a few months later to spend time with his lovely witches. The rest of the twins' siblings more or less tolerated Harry's presence. They weren't nearly as hostile to him as Quilla was, which to this day he never did truly get a grasp on. I mean he understood why she didn't like him 'now'; he was sleeping with two of her daughters, but he didn't know why she didn't like him at the start.
Still, having those two along with Luna to keep loneliness at bay made things so much easier to deal with, and thankfully, the twins kept things nice and simple for each other. The only person Quelaag liked more than Harry was Quinna, and Quinna was such a kind and gentle person that she would never start any sort of conflict and would try to avoid it if one was appearing around her. So, he had one sister who would do anything to protect her twin and protect him as they were the people she loved most, and the other who was such a loving and caring person that she'd never cause anyone harm if she could help it.
It definitely made spending time with them all the more comfortable, knowing how strongly they cared. His only regret was that they couldn't journey with him, due to their mother forbidding it, otherwise he'd have spent a great deal of time and energy trying to convince them to join him on his travels, so he wouldn't have to return to Izalith and deal with Quilla, the wretched witch.
Time passed, and though life was more or less pleasant for a time, it was not meant to last. Hatred would return to Harry's life one day, seemingly out of nowhere, when Harry was ambushed in his travels by a group of assassins, led by one of the knights of Gwyn. Ciaran, the Lord's Blade. Gwyn's personal assassin.
He found them in his path as he traveled the world. He had known Ciaran for years so at first, he approached with the typical acceptance of meeting an old comrade, expecting her to have some sort of request for him, most likely his aid in hunting down someone for Gwyn.
As he got close though, he sensed Ciaran's and the others' emotions, and knew instantly what they were there for.
A battle broke out, leading to the deaths of each of the assassins and forcing Ciaran to retreat. Though she had managed to injure Harry, her poisons did not affect him. The unicorn blood in his veins made him immune to poisons and toxins, so she was unable to finish him off before he killed the last of her allies.
She fled before he could finish her off, leaving him with a very clear understanding that Gwyn had finally decided to act on his disdain towards him.
Once left alone, Harry could do nothing but let out a tired sigh. He had felt this coming, he knew that Gwyn would act against him one, the old man's fear of the dark is what drove him after all. Still Harry had expected something more direct than an assassination attempt.
"So… the Lord of Sunlight has finally made his move?" Came a question from the ground nearby.
Harry turned his gaze towards the sound as a large, fleshy serpent rose up from the ground. Harry recognized the creature as a primordial serpent, one of the few beings to inhabit the world alongside the everlasting dragons.
Most of the serpents had been killed in the war, not necessarily due to their allegiance to the dragons, but more so as a threat that the Gods wished to see destroyed.
"It would seem so Serpent. What is it you want?" Harry asked of the creature."
"I have been watching you for a long time, the father of humanity, and Lord of the Dark. You are the Furtive Pygmy are you not?" The serpent inquired.
"Some call me that, though I've gone by many names. I'll ask again, what do you want?" Harry asked.
"I have watched for a long while, and I have seen the way things are. I now believe, as you do, that this world was never meant to be held in the grasp of fire. This world was meant for the dark, meant for humanity I believe. I see them, I see their nature, it is so much more in tune with the world, with the nature of things as they were before the advent of fire. I came seeking you, in the hopes of understanding the father of humanity. I wish to know you, the one whom I believe is meant to rule this world. The Dark Lord." The serpent spoke, its orange eyes focused on him with clever focus.
"You've been watching me for a long time, if you know so much about me. Maybe you're right, maybe this world is meant to be ruled by mankind, but that is for them to earn." Harry responded to the serpent, matching its gaze with his own and speaking in a language the resonated purely with the serpent, the tongue of serpents, Parseltongue.
"You truly are a special one. Tell me, if you please, why did you not aid in the ordering of the world as the other gods did? I know they did not want you, yet you had every right to it. You aided in their victory, just as much as they did." The Serpent questioned.
"I had no desire to build this world. My focus was on myself, of making myself better, more than I was. I did not like the person I was long ago, a person so easily manipulated and betrayed. I see things more clearly now, see things for how they are. I am not humanity's savior though. If they choose to follow the Gods, and serve them, then that is their choice. Being free to make my own choices, to succeed or fail on my own merits, to serve my own masters, and decide what chains are placed upon me, it's all I've ever really wanted." Harry responded, his answer seemingly resonating with the serpent as it stared down at him.
"Is that what you wanted for humanity as well? To be free?" The Serpent asked him.
"Yes. If there was anything I wanted for them, it would be that. When I made them, it was just to see if I could, but once they were there, once they existed, I just wanted to watch them, and see how they grew, how they changed, and what paths they walked. They've made mistakes, they've allowed themselves to be chained by the gods, and they must live with those mistakes, and rise above them on their own. I'm not their savior, or their protector. If they wish to rise above themselves, then they must do so with their own strength. I gave them souls; I gave them more than enough to forge their own destinies. Good or ill, they must have the strength to seize it on their own." Harry replied honestly.
"I see. So that is why you did not intervene when Gwyn chained their leaders in the Ringed City. Why you did not act when you saw the trap that was built around New Londo?" The Serpent hummed.
Harry offered the serpent a nod at that and awaited his next question.
"Tell me… what is it you plan to do now? The Lord of Sunlight now seeks your death? Will you simply ignore him, or will you seek to retaliate?" The Serpent gazed at him with immense curiosity.
"I've grown rueful of such betrayals, and I won't sit back and allow myself to be attacked like this. If humanity wishes to follow Gwyn despite his fear of them, that's their choice, their mistake, and they're free to make it. They allow themselves to be chained by him, and he can do whatever he wants to them so long as they let him, but I am under no such delusions. If Gwyn wishes me dead, then I will happily return the favor. He fears the dark for no real reason… I intend to give him one." Harry responded, his eyes lighting up with the threat of vengeance.
"I do so look forward to seeing it." The serpent said to him in awe.
"Then watch closely." Harry responded before turning to depart. If Gwyn wanted a fight, then Harry would give him one. The days when he would simply turn the other cheek were over. He was no longer that same little boy from Hogwarts. Age, experience, war, and repeated deaths had hardened him, and he would no longer take such direct attacks lying down.
-Six Years Later-
In the time that followed Ciaran's ambush, Harry marched across the land causing trouble and stirring up mischief wherever he went. Any who got in his way, he killed without mercy. Harry faced several more deaths in these times, though as usual they never stuck. With each death his power grew, with each kill his power grew, with every moment of joy and pleasure, his power grew, and through the expression of intense emotion the power of his soul grew.
Harry simply continued to grow stronger and become more attuned to his powers and various mutations as time went on. After so many years of battle, Harry had become a masterful fighter. He had learned to fight with a sword and spear, with shields and bows. His magic was otherworldly in its strength. His preferred weapon of choice was a sword that he had imbued with the power of the Elder Wand. A silver bastard sword, beautifully crafted and designed, it now carried the power of the Elder wand able to permanently kill and absorb the souls of anything it cut down. Harry wielded the sword masterfully and with impeccable ease. Given his incredible strength, the sword felt quite light in his hands.
He carried the sword in his right hand and usually cast spells with his left. He fought this way for two reasons, one was because his Behir arm had awakened the power to channel lightning through it, which was a power usually displayed as a Behir's breath-weapon, but Harry could channel currents through his left arm, which allowed him to generate unique forms of lightning miracles that appeared blue instead of the typical yellow lightning that the spells were known for. The other reasoning was that due to gaining the Everlasting Dragon's stone scales to cover his Behir arm, it was now impervious to all forms of damage. Not even lightning could peel the scales off of his Behir arm, as these scales, while being an adaptation from the Everlasting Dragons, were also bonded to a Behir's biology, making them naturally attuned to lightning. That made his left arm the perfect shield to block incoming attacks as it was basically unbreakable and impervious to damage.
He'd awakened other such powers as he further adapted to his body's new parts. He'd unlocked the Dementor's ability to project an aura of dread, so he could activate it and cause those of weak minds to begin experiencing their worst memories.
He had grown fangs, which at first seemed like vampire fangs, though he now began to see them as Basilisk fangs, considering they were poisoned. Thankfully the poison and the acid of his spit didn't seem to negatively affect others, unless he wished them to. Like a unicorn's blood, if freely given it had different properties than if it was taken. His acidic spit wouldn't harm those Harry had no ill will towards, as well as the acid of his spit neutralized the poison of his fangs, and of course the poison only came out when he bit into someone, or something, and it had a unique taste so Harry could tell when his fangs were leaking poison and could wait for the taste to go away to know that the poison had been dealt with.
Speaking of the acid, Harry nod had the power to aerosolize larger portions of his saliva, letting him breathe out a light mist of acid that could irritate the eyes, nose, and mouth of anyone caught in close proximity to it.
Harry had also gained access to more of the powers of a vampire and werewolf. His senses were keener, he could communicate with and control lesser animals like bats and rats. He could now shape-shift into a wolf, and even transform into a werewolf with the presence of a full moon, though he was able to maintain his consciousness while transformed.
His powers were constantly growing, and he always had something new to practice or explore, so that ensured that no one could ever truly get a bead on what he was capable of.
With he ever growing power, he made sure the word spread of the man who spat at Gwyn's name, all in a rueful challenge to the Lord of Sunlight.
Harry fought hundreds of battles since that first assassination attempt, and killed close to a thousand of Gwyn's knights and soldiers across those many battles. Harry had every intention of making sure Gwyn felt the fear that he had long since placed on Harry's shoulders. He wanted the old man to have a true reason to be afraid of the dark. Harry never attacked Gwyn directly, merely made himself a thorn in his side, always on the periphery, causing chaos and spreading dissent.
Whenever he wanted to, Harry would simply don the Invisibility Cloak and sneak away from Gwyn's agents. He'd vanish for a time, days, weeks, months, before reemerging to cause more chaos. Occasionally he would travel to Izalith in secret, simply appearing there out of nowhere.
Naturally the twins were happy to see him, and were terrified to hear what had happened to him. Quilla was just as crotchety as she always was. Were it not for the pleading of Quinna, Quilla would have forced him from the city and forbade his return, though she probably sensed that her daughters would leave her if she threw Harry out, so she made him a deal. He could continue to return to visit them under the sole condition that it couldn't be known that he was here. If Gwyn ever learned that Harry was venturing to Izalith, than Quilla would forbid him from ever returning.
Harry accepted her deal, not wanting to cause problems for Quelaag and Quinna and knowing full well that with the Invisibility Cloak and his ability to apparate and phase shift, that he could get around easily without people being able to follow him, he'd just have to keep out of sight when he came to visit his lovers.
For a time, this process continued, Harry's silent war against Gwyn was fought mostly alone. Several times over the years he would be approached by Kaathe, the primordial serpent who had come to him after the first failed assassination attempt. He and Kaathe would talk at length about Harry's plans and goals, and it got to the point where Harry felt that Kaathe was one of his true followers. He felt loyalty from the serpent and a desire to see Harry's ambitions met. Kaathe made no secret to his reasoning or his own ambitions either. He thought that darkness was the natural state of the world, and that Gwyn's Age of Fire should have never happened. He thought that it was Harry's destiny to accept his position as Dark Lord and bring about an Age of Darkness.
Harry didn't necessarily believe that, but he didn't refute the Serpent's beliefs either. He simply chose not to shackle himself to destiny, which Kaathe understood and accepted was simply Harry's way. He was a man who no longer believed in destiny or fate, and he would forge his own future. If he became Dark Lord, and ushered in this new Age of Darkness, it would by his own choice, not because of destiny. So Kaathe was free to make his case and try to convince Harry to walk that path, so long as he accepted Harry's desire to choose his own fate.
When they would meet Kaathe would bring him interesting knowledge pertaining to the world and to humanity at large. He would explain to him how Harry's changing emotions and growing hatred for Gwyn was causing every fragment of the Dark Soul in all of humanity to resonate with that hatred. If this process continued then it may begin to actually cause humans to physically reject the Age of Fire, making the very concept of that reality hostile to them.
During his time with Kaathe the two developed a new magical art, one that was designed to punish humans who sided with Gwyn while empowering those that sided with Harry. The Art of Lifedrain was developed, which allowed Harry to physically rip the life force, and dark soul fragment, essentially the very humanity out of a human being without killing them. He could then absorb it into himself or even place this fragment into another human, making them stronger.
One day, while laying with his lovers, word reached his ears that Filianore, one of Gwyn's newest children was being taken to the Ringed City.
A cruel smile touched at his lips as Harry made the decision to get and see just why one of the princesses was being sent to the edge of the world.
Quelaag bid him farewell with a rough kiss, while Quinna granted him a hug and a much softer kiss. Her told them that he loved them, which was a farewell that he had always given, since this relationship began. He never said goodbye, or gave a time for his return, and he never offered the illusion that he would be back with any sort of urgency. Harry knew that one day he could wake up and be back in his own time so he didn't try and leave these two with any delusions that he would always be there. They were some of the few he had revealed such things to, that he was a traveler from a place outside of their world, and one day powers greater than even the gods, would send him home. He hoped he'd get the chance to say goodbye to them, but in reality, he most likely wouldn't so they treated every departure with the love and care of a dangerous separation that could see him never return.
Harry traveled to the Ringed City and watched from beneath his Invisibility cloak as Gwyn met with the Pygmy lords. Filianore had come to live here in the Ringed City, the humans here who worshiped Gwyn and his family couldn't be happier.
Upon closer observation though, Harry saw what was really going on. Filianore was taken to a tower deep within the city, and there was was gifted an egg-like artifact, that would serve as an anchor point to a powerful spell, one that would trap the Ringed City in time, and contain the nature of their slowly changing dark souls.
Gwyn intended to leave the lords of humanity, those closest to the dark, trapped forever in this place, unable to affect or touch the world beyond. If that was what he wanted, than they is what he would get. The last thing Gwyn did before leaving was promise his youngest child that he would return for her one day.
That was a promise that Harry would ensure he never got to keep.
Gwyn and his knights departed, leaving Filianore alone, and that is when Harry made his move. He appeared before her, earning surprise from the young princess.
He then placed her to sleep with a powerful spell. Once she was asleep, Harry placed a curse on her. Filianore was meant to keep those within the Ringed City trapped in this place forever, trapped in time, as the rest of the world moved on. Harry intended to corrupt that goal, and also taint it's purpose. Owe things would go as planned, but Filianore would have no hand in shaping it. The curse that Harry placed on her, ensured that she would be unable to awaken save by two means. The first was by Harry himself, the second was by killing her.
She may hold this place in time, but she would be unable to hold back the nature of the human souls here. Gwyn intended to use her a tool to control humanity so Harry would reduce her to just that.
It was as he had finished placing the curse on Filianore that he felt a sudden wave of exhaustion fall over him.
He collapsed to his knees as he felt his lifeforce draining out of him.
"What's happening!" Harry wondered with concern.
"It's time… you're coming home…" Luna answered him.
Harry blinked at that. Home… his home… home was where the heart was. Luna, and Sirius, the people he cared for most in that world. The chance to find his sister... his sister... how long had it been since he'd thought about her?
After so many years he was finally going back. Twenty-four years he had been here, twenty-four years he had been in this place. He was thirty-eight years old now, close to thirty-nine actually. It had been so long, so long since he'd thought about that place, so long since he'd thought about what he'd do there.
He'd endured so much in this place, so much life, so much battle, so many hardships. This place was cruel, but… there was beauty in it too. He thought on his friend Faraam, who dwelled with his dragons on a distant peak, far from the world. He thought on Kaathe and his ambitions, and offered a silent prayer that he would look after humanity. They would reap what they sowed, but perhaps one day, they would choose differently. Perhaps one day, a member of humanity would accept the destiny that Kaathe was certain belonged to Harry. He hoped when that day came the serpent would be there to help them usher in a new Age and bring down Gwyn and his fellow Lords. His last thoughts were of the twins, those two lovely beauties. He hoped they could forgive him for leaving. They had always given him the things he wanted so very much, love, and freedom. His only wish, was that he'd had the chance to tell them goodbye. He hoped to see this world again, to come back and see what kind of people they had become. He knew those two lovely ladies well though, he knew they'd be alright, but he would certainty miss them.
He hoped one day to return to this place, so finish what Gwyn had begun with his betrayal. He hoped to one day walk this world again and repay the Lord of Sunlight for his treachery. He hoped that would lay ahead, he hoped so much so that he sought to confirm it.
So, with the last of his diminishing strength, he removed the Black book from his robes and asked it the question.
"Will I ever return to this world?" Harry spoke aloud and watched as the answer appeared before him.
A smile touched as his face, as the last of his strength was pulled away.
Like usual, the answer was short and simple. One word.
'Yes.'
As always with his deaths, Harry's body turned to ash, though this time he did not recover. His time in this place was done, the Changer of Ways, was sending him home.
-Just outside of Hogsmeade, moments after his original death-
Harry opened his eyes… he felt younger, smaller too. Not as short as he was before, but definitely shorter than he had been mere moments ago. Blinking realization finally filled his eyes and he began to rise to his feet.
"Freedom…" Harry spoke as his eyes settled on a man that he vaguely remembered. A man that had been hired to kill him, a man that had killed him.
"What the hell are you?" The man asked, only for Harry to give him a lopsided grin, as he felt a full grasp of the situation return to him.
He had finally returned. To the place he had left behind. All that he'd done in that other world, it had all been in preparation for this, to return this place one day, a new man.
It was time to show the world, just what kind of man he'd become. He may not become the Dark Lord that Kaathe had envisioned, but Dark Lord… that seemed like a worthy title for one such as he. A worthy title indeed.
-To Be Continued-
Alright there we go, hope you all enjoyed. That was Harry's first foray into another world, bet you weren't expecting that to be where he ended up. Those who've played Dark Souls knows that unfortunately for Harry things are not gonna be alright when he returns to that world, especially with two certain somebodies. It'll be a bit until then, but we will return to this land, and perhaps, Harry wont be alone when he comes back. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, got excited for this chapter so let me know what you think.
