Gaunt Garden:
After returning from the Afterlife, Hydrus walked over to the still warm corpse of Selmi. He pondered for a while as he rested a hand on Antinomy. Goblin silver was capable of absorbing whatever made it stronger. If Hydrus imbued his blade with basilisk venom, Antinomy would become one of the strongest weapons on the planet. Before he could decide, Hydrus was interrupted by another snake.
"Young Gaunt, may I have your ear?" A deep, thunderous voice spoke. Hydrus looked up and saw the massive ibushi resting in the sky.
"I'm listening." Hydrus said.
"I'd like to thank you. You've done a great service to this island by killing that tyrant. As the next Lord Gaunt, there are some things that we must discuss. For the longest time, the Gaunts lived in death. When a member of the family died, they were buried here on the island, and their magic was returned to the earth. That magic would produce Memory Fruits for the next generation. The serpents of the island would guard this fruit and eat it themselves. When a serpent eats a Memory Fruit, they'll become human, reminiscent of the person the fruit was developed from. This is the Ouroboros Cycle, and it's been broken for quite some time." The sky serpent said.
Hydrus was silent for a moment as he processed the snake's words. "What happens if a human eats one of these fruits?" Hydrus asked.
"Their bodies would explode from the amount of magic contained within. It's impossible for a human to consume a Memory Fruit."
"I see. So, what do I have to do to grow more fruit?" Hydrus asked stoically as a plan began to take form in his mind.
"When you and your offspring die, you must be buried on this island. You could also throw sacrifices into the Veil and that would serve as a way to return magic back to this island."
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Now then, I do have somewhere else to be at the moment. Conjunction." Hydrus vanished in an instant.
Ravens Nest:
Hydrus was bent over and breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath. Going to and from the Afterlife while using True Invisibility had used up a lot of his energy.
"Your Highness? Is that you?" A random civilian asked.
"Take me to Narcissa immediately." Hydrus followed the man to the small community town square. Nodding his thanks, he entered the fancy tent that was set up.
"Master Hydrus! What are you doing here? It's supposed to be a surprise!" Narcissa said happily as she kneeled at his feet. Hydrus ignored her as he kicked everyone out, before opening two portals and calling for Bruma and Orchid.
He was tackled to the ground as Bruma kissed and touched him constantly. Hydrus indulged her for a little bit before he ordered her off.
"Listen. I have a plan and it needs the three of you and your associated factions to work." The three nodded and focused their attention.
Selwyn Homestead:
Lucius sipped his tea as he waited for the meeting to start. The Unspeakables had recovered key information from their prisoner and were ready to share. This would influence the war effort going forward.
The door opened and Augustus Rookwood walked in. It seemed now, the meeting could begin.
"Ah, Rookwood. Please have a seat. From your memo, it sounds like we have much to discuss." Lucius began. The other man nodded and sat down. With a wave of his wand, he passed out various folders.
"As you all know, we were holding Frank Longbottom prisoner in the Shadow Realm. He's now recently deceased, but not before he divulged some information. Such as the location of Sanctuary City, the home base of their supposed God, Lumina." Rookwood stated.
Before the meeting could continue there was a large gust of wind, and Zephyr appeared.
"Don't mind me, but I am here to speak on behalf of Lord Noctis. Please continue." Zephyr said.
"I see. Mr. Rookwood here was about to reveal the location of the enemy stronghold." Lucius indicated to Augustus to prompt him to continue.
"Around the Bermuda Triangle, roughly ten thousand meters above sea level, there's a massive concentration of cloudstone that holds Sanctuary City." Rookwood revealed.
"That sounds troublesome." Miranda commented, with a frown on her face. She wasn't the only one frowning as everyone came to the same problem with no answer. How were they supposed to get there?
"More unsettling than that, is that IDA is in possession of several cloning facilities and knows the location of various Time Force objects."
"Cloning? I'm unfamiliar with that term." Lucius said.
"Human duplication. Something that's impossible to do without the Life Force. Technology like that would be better suited under Lord Noctis." Zephyr said.
"Indeed. Endlessly duplicating our forces would be a huge advantage." Rookwood said, a pondering look on his face.
"Then we'll have to begin preparations to take those territories." Lucius said.
"Do whatever you think is necessary to get your hands on the Life Force, but do not, under any circumstances, pursue the Time Force objects. Lord Noctis has a plan for those, merely put your faith in him." Zephyr said seriously.
The others nodded, and the meeting resumed.
Ravens Nest:
After explaining his plan, Hydrus had left Orchid, Bruma, and Narcissa unconscious and covered in semen. Feeling much better, he gathered the dimensional energy of the Space Force and summoned castle Obsidian Venue and all its inhabitants.
Hydrus wheezed as he expended the majority of his energy. His form returned to normal, and before he could collapse, Bellatrix was there holding him tightly.
Before he could say anything, Bellatrix kissed him deeply, and apparated back to the castle. Arriving in the master bedroom, Hydrus eagerly kissed his mother as he held her close.
"Good boy." Bellatrix purred, as she flexed her aura and grinded against him. Just as she got Hydrus riled up, she stopped, much to the boy's disappointment.
"We'll continue after you deal with the prisoner. After that, Mummy will take care of you." Bellatrix said, licking her lips and slowly stroking her son's meat. The two walked to the throne room where Hydrus was prompted to take a seat while the entertainment arrived.
Amelia arrived dragging Daphne who was in chains, and was wearing torn, ratty clothes. Despite her situation, Daphne glared hatefully at him.
"So you're the asshole who killed my snake." Hydrus said irritably.
"You're a murdering asshole in general so I think it cancels out." Daphne said, spitting at his feet. Several things then happened at once. Hydrus stood and threw Antinomy. Its mythril tip cut through Bellatrix's killing curse, saving Daphne from being murdered. However, it didn't stop Amelia's torture curse and Daphne screamed out as pain filled her entire body.
"Don't kill her. I have plans for her." Hydrus said, summoning his sword back and sitting back down. Bellatrix scoffed but put her wand away regardless.
Looking at Daphne with a critical eyes scheme formed in Hydrus's mind. "Tell you what. I'll give you a few options. You can tell me everything you know about Lumina, or you can fight me right here and now. Depending on what you tell me or if you defeat me, I'll let you go free."
Daphne slowly got to her feet with a look of burning hatred. "I'll never tell you anything." She said resolutely. Hydrus merely laughed, however.
"You say that like it means anything. You've made the mistake of looking into my eyes the entire time we've been talking, and your mental defense totally sucks." Shaking with laughter at the look of outrage on the blonde's face, Hydrus told Amelia to undo Daphne's shackles.
"Here are the rules. I'm going to sit here, I won't move, I won't use magic, and I won't accept any outside help. Feel free to use your strongest attack, and whoever is left standing wins."
Hydrus tossed Daphne his wand and the woman pointed it at him immediately. He yawned as Daphne began to chant.
"Hopes and dreams come together to form a shining star. Open your heart, clear your mind, and let its light guide you." She held the wand clasped between her hands and was looking upwards as if she was praying.
Daphne began to glow with harsh intensity as more and more light poured in from the outside. The castle began to shake, and the marble floor cracked as Daphne gathered more and more light.
"Judgment!"
There was a blinding flash of light that atomized everything in its path. When the dust cleared, and everyone blinked the spots out of their eyes they saw Hydrus, still sitting on the throne and looking bored.
Daphne dropped the wand as she fell to her knees in disbelief. Judgment was the ultimate ability of the Luminaries and the one she had unleashed had enough power to wipe out an entire city several times over.
"How?" She asked as Hydrus summoned his wand back lazily,
"Dimensional energy, with it I can do all sorts of interesting things. I've really gotten the hang of it. Someone like you, with no power, and no ambition, could never have hoped to defeat me." With a mere thought, Daphne's shadow sprung hands and slapped her to the floor.
"I should thank you. You've just wasted the light reservoirs that people of actual skill could have used. Now then, let's begin your training. Come suck my dick."
When Daphne didn't move, Bellatrix eagerly cast the Cruciatus, torturing the blonde woman with a manic smile on her face.
"Let's try this again. Come suck my dick." Hydrus ordered. Getting off the floor, Daphne slowly made her way to the throne. Only for Hydrus to cast a tripping jinx that knocked her on her ass.
"Servants should crawl when they approach my throne." Hydrus said genially. Daphne scowled but crawled on her hands and knees regardless. Slowly but surely, Daphne began to lick and kiss at his penis. Hydrus sighed at the below average performance and decided to give her some help.
Grabbing her head with both his hands, Hydrus forced himself down her throat with a sigh of relief. As Hydrus began to eagerly pound away at Daphne's untrained throat, he turned to Bellatrix.
"Mummy! I want kisses!" He whined, and Bellatrix was quick to comply. After a while he finished down Daphne's throat and grabbed a fistful of her hair.
"When I give you milk you say thank you." Hydrus said sternly.
"Thank you." Daphne said through gritted teeth, hoping to avoid getting tortured. Her plan failed as Hydrus's shadows coiled around her and drained her of her magic, leaving her exhausted.
"Put her in solitary confinement. She's not to have any interaction." Hydrus said to Amelia. She nodded, conjured some chains that wrapped around Daphne and dragged her away.
"Now that that's settled, I believe we have some unfinished business." Bellatrix said saucily.
Thunder Cloudian:
Luminary Moody stood in his office, observing various maps and planning different strategies to gather the Time Force when he suddenly had the wind knocked out of him.
He grunted in surprise as he felt his power diminish. Someone must have used Judgment. That didn't make any sense.
"Globus." He cast, projecting an image of a globe. Spinning it around looking for the glowing red dots that marked the location of light reservoirs, he found none.
Moody sat down, with his face in his hands. This was bad. This was really bad. It meant that Judgement was off the table for years. How could this have happened? Who was responsible for this?
He would need to contact Lord Lumina, but he couldn't leave his position to go back to Sanctuary City. This was a pickle indeed.
Ravens Nest:
It had been a few days since Hydrus's Wave Overlap incident happened and his control over the Space Force had deepened. With his new powers, Hydrus often went to his church to help speed up construction.
"Room." He said, spreading dimensional energy all around him.
"Shambles."
With elite control over everything in his Room, Hydrus was easily able to build and enchant a home by following the blueprints of Genbu Rosier. Hydrus only knew Genbu's name because he was screwing the man's wife and daughters.
"Hydrus, my love, let's go home. There's something I want to give you." Bellatrix said. Hydrus smiled and nodded as she took his hand and disapparated.
They reappeared at the entrance of the treasury room, guarded by Amelia. Hydrus gave the pretty redhead a deep kiss and promised to knock her up later.
Bellatrix guided him through the hordes of gold, silver, jewels, and other shiny things. Until eventually they came to a pedestal containing an orb of light that had a tightly knit hexagonal pattern. What captivated him though, was the wand that lay within it.
Hydrus slowly unsheathed Antinomy and stabbed the orb with the mythril tip. The force field dissipated, leaving the Death Stick laying in the pedestal. Putting his sword away, Hydrus grabbed the wand and it exploded into a burst of spirit particles before they settled into him.
Strangely enough, Hydrus didn't feel any different. Shrugging his shoulders, he thanked his mother for the gift and started to make his way towards the dungeons. It was time for Daphne to have her daily training.
Hydrus had taken all of three steps before he suddenly blacked out. The last thing he heard was his mother panicking before he hit the cold marble floor.
He didn't know what he expected Death to look like, but a skeleton wearing a puffer jacket, timberlands, and a yankee cap hadn't been it.
"Yo! Been a while, hasn't it?" Death greeted amicably. Despite the friendly greeting, Hydrus felt an overwhelming sense of danger. He reached for his wand reflexively only to find an instrument that felt completely foreign to him.
"Relax, Noctis, I can't hurt you, but we do need to talk." Death said. The skeleton somehow cleared its throat before it spoke again.
"First things first, the majority of my powers are inaccessible to you for the time being."
"Why? What about the whole Master of Death thing?" Hydrus asked, still fiddling with Elder Wand.
"It's but a mere mortal folktale. If you want my full powers, then you need to fulfill certain conditions." Death said, reaching into its jacket and pulling out a cigar.
"Want one?" It offered. Hydrus raised an eyebrow. "Smoking kills you know." The boy said.
"That's the point and it leads to a nice segue. If you want my full power. The power to revive someone from Death, I need you to kill a lot of people. Thankfully, you've already gotten a head start so you won't be starting from zero. One thing I do need to ask however, is do you plan on regaining the Life Force?"
"Of course." Hydrus said, and the Elder Wand grew warm in his hand as he bonded with it. Death nodded its approval.
"Good, because there can be no Death Without Life. So the second condition is that I need you to create a lot of life. That will also help when Vita finally gets off her ass. Since you don't have access to the Life Force, you'll need to do it the old fashioned way, lucky you. Those are my conditions, I'll let you know when you've crossed any thresholds." Death explained.
"Do I need to kill all these people directly or what?" Hydrus asked, a bit of excitement coursing through him. Hydrus had a feeling that if Death could smile, it would be grinning ear to ear.
"Not necessarily, as long as you live with the intent to cause death, then you should be all good. Your original plan should work well enough." Then, Death was gone, and Hydrus was left all alone before he slipped into unconsciousness.
While Hydrus slept, Death watched over him as his constant ally. "I wonder if this time he'll get it right." Puffing Its cigar, Death pondered about Its creator's strange attachment to this form.
"He did manage to gain control over both myself and Alheimur relatively quickly. Perhaps…" Death ceased its musings as It's avatar split into another copy and flew away to guide souls to the Afterlife. Work was never done it seemed.