Denmark 22 August 1991, ICW headquarters, 3pm, War Room.
Alastor Moody was standing in a corner of the large, subterranean hall of stone walls and high vaulted ceiling. He was watching the assembly of some forty hitwizards and mercenaries gathered on this day. Experienced men and women hardened by years of duty and combat. They watched each of them carefully, some were dark wizards, others light wizards an unexpected diversity for this type of event.
People of all types, of all ages, and from all backgrounds, gathered in one place, in an ICW War Room, unused since the war against Grindelwald, for one purpose. To put an end to the elusive Anna Karrasinqi, a high ranking Vampire Lord, a dark lady in her own right. Right-hand woman and former leader of the armies of Vlad the Impaler, Vlad III Basarab. The most terrible dark lord Europe has ever known, having ruled over Eastern Europe, Russia and Mongolia for over a century.
At the moment, leaning against a wall, awaiting the arrival of Adamar Schawrtzstein. Alastor was regretting. He regretted not insisting more heavily on the Magenmagot for more resources for this mission. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. His magical eye scanned the assembly of younglings, ready to throw themselves into the lion's den for gold and glory. According to his most optimistic estimation, by tomorrow, half of them would be dead. Alastor had already had the misfortune, decades ago, to mess with Karrasinqi and ambush her. He had never seen death so close. Even when surprised and unprepared, Karrasinqi was faster than lightning, vicious as a viper, violent and merciless. And tomorrow they would storm the monster's house.
Even with 40 experienced hitwizards, with the support of the ICW and Adamar Schawrtzstein, a 585-year-old shapeshifter, Alastor was sure that less than half of all those in this room would see Monday of next week.
Alastor had not wanted to join this assault, he would have much preferred a discreet ambush during one of Anna's hunts, preventing her from preparing and in a weak position. But the ICW and Adamar would have none of it. They had decided to attack her house in order to ensure her presence and reduce the risk of her escaping, becoming suspicious and disappearing completely off the radar for the next three centuries. And on that point, as painful as it was for him to admit, they were right. Anna had always managed to escape each of the many ambushes, assassination attempts and attacks she had faced since her time as chief general of Vlad's armies.
On learning that the assault would be on her house and not an ambush, Alastor immediately wanted to get out of the operation, and tried to convince the Ministry to withdraw its participation in the elimination mission. But the ministry refused and sent a squad of 9 hitwizards and aurors for the mission. Alastor had agreed to participate again, if only to ensure the survival of at least half of the team.
He had done extensive research on Karrasinqi and her role in Vlad's reign, and had learned things that had made him lose all hope of a loss-free mission. She was terrifying. Although she was not a mage she had such an understanding of enchantment based on power stones and the more esoteric aspects of artifact making, that once armed she became the equal of a mage of far greater power than Adamar. And by attacking his house directly they would give her the opportunity to equip herself.
The only reassuring thing was that Adamar was adamant that he had apparently found a way to break through her wards in record time. Alastor could only pray that his technique worked, otherwise tomorrow would be a massacre. But not everything was against them, Alastor, during his investigation had noticed the little girl with long red hair and bright green eyes accompanying Anna on each of her hunts. From his observations he had deduced that the child was Anna's adopted daughter, turned into a vampire far too young for his liking. Perhaps they could use the child as a weak point to distract Anna during her duel with Adamar. Cruel as it might be, Alastor would have no choice. Otherwise, the deaths would be counted in the dozens.
Alastor ran his hands over his face, exhausted at the thought of what they were about to do, the stress building up in his veins. Adamar should be here soon, maybe fifteen minutes or so. Thinking of him... Yes it would be a duel indeed. The forty hitwizards would only serve as support for Adamar, or a distraction. The man... The woman, Alastor was pretty sure Adamar had been assuming the appearance of a man for five years, as a metamorphmagus. This type of mage is immortal by nature. And the older a wizard became, the more powerful he became, his knowledge, his ability to shape magic, and the amount of magic available to the wizard increased. The Flamel, Nymphadora Black first of the name (now called Lucie according to his latest knowledge) or the Empress of the Southern Isles were good examples. Adamar would be the one to kill Anna tomorrow, the squads would serve as a distraction, as cannon fodder and to prevent her from escaping. Adamar would do the hard work. If he went down, they would all be dead.
Which got him thinking... wasn't Albus a bit powerful for such a young wizard? He'd never thought about it. Nor had Riddle, who had become a magical titan at an astonishing rate. Alastor chuckled, Albus... you've been conducting high rituals to get to this point, haven't you, old goat? Alastor understood, though, Albus had probably performed these high rituals in response to those performed by Grindelwald, in the hopes of being strong enough to defeat him. Perhaps Albus was even hiding his true appearance, after all, at 110 he was taking on the appearance of a 170 year old wizard. He would have to ask him if he ever returned to the UK alive. And that, he have every reason to doubt.
His gaze swept over the occupants of the room again, settling on the various members of the group one by one. The forty wizards gathered here had been divided into four groups, each composed of a team leader and nine hand-picked wizards. Each squad represented one of the magical nations taking part in the expedition. First, the United Kingdom delegation led by himself, consisting of five veteran aurors and five hitwizards. His squad would be the second assault squad. He had tried to convince the Ministry to apply as a support squad, but the Minister had been clear that he wanted the glory and media attention of the operation, as well as the pride that the UK was on the front line. All to distract public attention from his political failures and the racist and segregationist laws pushed by the unfortunately rich and powerful pureblood minority. Not that the light side is any better. Alastor wondered how the magical United Kingdom had managed to get its two majority political parties to be both speciesist and human supremacists. Because of this, all the Veela, werewolves, wilderfolk, vampires, fairies, kobolds, nagas, centaurs etc. who could afford it had been leaving the country massively to France, the Americas and Asia for decades. All those too poor, uneducated or still trying to fight for their rights had to hide in the slums of magical towns and reduced to the most vile jobs or to join the criminal world. Alastor sighed, he preferred to remain neutral in this matter or at times join Albus. The light side at least didn't risk reducing the magical world of the Isles to a cannibalistic and degenerate people due to excessive inbreeding... even if the way the light side saw muggles and muggle-borns left something to be desired. Muggles, harmless little beasts? Stupid.
The Holy Roman Empire squad was here for no better reason. Since Grindelwald their government's policies had been involved in all international ventures in order to gradually clear their image as genocidal extremists. Their squad was the second assault squad, of course. The squad leader was Hans Mannausstahl. A tall, muscular, taciturn man with steely blue eyes, messy blond hair and a thick blond beard. His arms were crossed over his big brown coat, his fingers clenching and unclenching around his wand. His features were drawn and he had dark circles under his eyes. Alastor had met the man on other international ICW missions and had never seen him so anxious. Alastor couldn't blame him.
The Grand Alliance Squad. An inter-monarchical regime, including the magical monarchies of France, Spain and the Alpine kingdoms, was assigned the supporting role. The Grand Alliance did not seek glory here, but to settle the score definitively with one of their oldest enemies. Where the Holy Roman Empire had fallen under Vlad's rule only to be artificially reformed after its fall, the Grand Alliance had been the force that finally brought him down. They were the ones who had resisted Vlad's invincible army that had at the time trampled Europe to finally emerge victorious from the long war. They were there to put an end to this dark part of their history and finally see Anna Karrasinqi dead. A revenge of sorts. The leader of their team was a Veela named Sarah Malbois. A tall woman with a sumptuous face, a perfectly proportioned body, beautiful piercing violet eyes and long jet-black hair flowing to the middle of her back. Large black wings with iridescent plumage embracing her form. Her austere demeanour and threatening glances were apparently enough to make those less resistant to her species' characteristic allure look away. Alastor, having worked with Veela before, had become resistant to their appearance and therefore had no problem, but her presence seemed to have an undesirable effect on some of his aurors and hitwizards. If they survived tomorrow's mission, he would have to give them a good lesson and send them to work on their occlumency.
The last squad had been sent by the Scandinavian Clan Assembly and had the role of healers and to ensure the logistics and material aspect of the operation. From what he could see they were mostly druids and blood wizards. A good combination to provide emergency care on a battlefield. The traces of the warrior heritage of the Scandinavian wizards and their experience in the two great wars could be felt in their choice. And Alastor agreed completely. One of his biggest disagreements with the UK Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore was over their views on blood magic and blood alchemy. Yes they were complex and dangerous magics, but Alastor had stopped counting the number of apprentices and colleagues who had died from injuries that could have been healed if the Ministry had not banned them. Fucking hypocrites, Alastor thought, he was sure that the elite of the UK magic world and even some of the wealthy Muggle elites who were aware of the existence of magic regularly travelled to the continent for blood alchemy treatment.
The reasons for Scandinavia's participation in the operation were less clear, surely to stand united with the other sovereign European magical nations, in an example of international cooperation, to send a message to the world about European unity. To ensure that the death toll was not too high, to remind the world of their existence and strength, or simply for money and fame. Their leader was a man of medium height, but robust and solidly built. His face was hidden under a simple wooden mask as is customary among druids. Vulfric something from what he remembered.
Alastor glanced at his watch. If Adamar didn't arrive now he was going to start being late... Ah, there' nothing to say. There's the man. The door to the war room opened and a tall man with severe features, square jaw firmly clenched, grey eyes squinted, eyebrows furrowed. Short grey hair was combed back on his head, either with an ungodly amount of gel or with his metamorphmagus powers. Alastor could not tell. Entered Without saying a word he strode to the back of the room and with a smooth hand gesture levitated a table on the podium before jumping on it. Alastor was quite impressed with the use of free magic. Only the greatest could do it, it was like carving a statue out of stone with their bare hands and willpower.
Adamar stood on the table, watching the assembly with a critical eye as he waited for the hubbub of discussion to dissipate. Once the silence was settled, Adamar's cold eyes scanned the room, sizing up each face one by one, and then he spoke.
"Witches, wizards of Europe, thank you for being here today. We are gathered here at the request of the ICW High Council in order to put an end to the last remnant of the reign of terror of Vlad III the Impaler and to make her pay for her crimes. Tomorrow we will storm Anna Karrasinqi's hideout. I hope for your sake that you have informed yourself about our target before agreeing to join this punitive expedition. But in doubt, I feel a reminder is necessary. We are dealing with Anna Karrasinqi, former right hand of Vlad, former commander-in-chief of his armies, great fighter and master of the power stone enchantment, master of golemics. It is more than certain that many of you here will not return alive from this expedition. If you want to leave, it is now or never.
An icy silence fell over the assembly, many people, especially the younger ones, shivered, but no one left. Everyone was determined. A ghost of a smile crossed Adamar's face.
"Well, I see that we are all in agreement. I am Adamar Schawrtzstein, metamorphagus, and veteran of the Red War against Vlad. I have fought Anna Karrasinqi several times in the past and in this capacity I was chosen as the general of our expedition.
At these words some of the wizards relaxed slightly, but neither silence nor deep anxiety left the room.
"Listen carefully, this is the plan. First I will place temporal space stabilization wards to prevent any teleportation or use of space magic, and an Archimedes dome to block any attempt to escape through the air. After studying the wards around Anna's hideout for a long time I confirmed that they were based on ley lines as a power source. However, as the location is on minor ley lines and fairly recent, it is possible for me to temporarily divert them from their natural course, which will allow us to quickly bring down the wards. Once the wards have fallen we will attack. The two assault squads will pincer the hideout while the support squad will watch the area to prevent any escape attempts, and if things go wrong they will join the assault. The care and logistics squad will take care of the wounded and manage the equipment. Any questions?"
The room remained silent, seeming to approve of Adamar's plan of action, until Alastor cleared his throat loudly, all turned to him curiously. Adamar said, "Mr. Moody, we are listening."
Alastor took a few steps towards the railing to stand in full view. "In my personal investigation of the Karrasinqi case, I discovered that a few years ago our target took under his wing a young vampire with green eyes. Karrasinqi seems to have made her, her adopted daughter. She does not seem to be dangerous. We could use this fact to our advantage and hope for an emotional response from our target that would put her at a disadvantage if we threaten or harm her daughter."
Most of the people in the room seemed to approve of the idea. Except for a few witches and young wizards who glowered at him. To his surprise Sarah Malbois gave him a death glare and seemed to be about to speak out against it, but Adamar beat her to it. "Excellent idea Alastor, against Karrasinqi any weakness is to be exploited. Even if she looks like a young girl, beware of her. There is no telling what Karrasinqi might have taught her in terms of skills. Moreover, we can expect her not to leave her adopted daughter unprotected.
At this statement, Sarah Malbois seemed resigned, her eyes lowered, slightly sad, but soon her stern, impassive mask came back on her beautiful face. Alastor frowned, he understood the reluctance one could feel at the idea of attacking a child but this was a matter of life and death. He had not expected this kind of reaction from the Veela. Perhaps she too had a daughter of the same supposed age as the adopted daughter of their target... Never mind, given her reaction and the quick return of her mask Alastor was sure that Sarah Malbois knew her priorities.
Adamar's voice echoed through the war room again. "Are there any other questions, or suggestions?" When only silence answered, he nodded. "Good! In that case, we'll assault tomorrow at 5 p.m."
The room began to empty and Alastor gathered his assault squad back together. He would give them his own briefing later, and tomorrow with a little luck Anna would be dead, and with a lot of luck he would return to England alive.
oOOOo
23 August 1991, 4.30 pm. Anna's house.
On this hot summer day Aster had decided to stay in the freshness of the library sitting comfortably in the corner of a window protected from the sun. In her lap lay a book on the different types of power stones. It was written in Lignian and had captivated her for several hours. But now Aster had stopped at a passage about turning normal power stones into dark magic power stones, something about infusing the stone with corrupted souls and tricking an entity into making a pact with the stone instead of the mage. Aster had not expected to find anything so nefarious in this book. The procedure involved human sacrifice of mages, and physical, psychological and magical torture. Disgusted, Aster looked away from the book to the garden.
How could someone do something as horrible as creating a black gem? Yes, having an artifact that could serve as an extremely powerful energy source by absorbing and storing magic around it could be extremely useful, plus a black gem is one of the very few ways to make an object truly sentient. But still... For the huge reserve of magic, a rift stone does the job just as well, even if it's much more difficult to create, and much less morally reprehensible. And dangerous soul magic rituals exist to make an object truly sentient.
Yes, dangerous. Creating a black gem was more than dangerous. According to the book the Sahara desert had been a fertile, wooded plain until some idiot took the creation of a black gem too far and its power got out of hand and absorbed all life and magic from the Sahara, turning it into a vast desert. Fortunately, the gem stopped absorbing and life was able to return to the few oases and waterholes that survived. If Aster had to rank the worst abominations that magic could create, the black gems were near the top, not far behind perfect rift stones.
Aster let her gaze drift slowly to the edge of the forest. The tall trees were covered in thick foliage and their trunks looked almost golden in the sunlight. Watching the trees never failed to relax Aster, the way the branches danced and waved slowly in the breeze, the way the grass, like a thick fur, was flowing with soft waves of wind, the birds and animals she could sometimes see... Aster needed to relax, for several months she had had a bad feeling, during their hunt she felt watched and something told her that something was up. But no matter how hard she tried, neither she nor Anna had noticed anything more suspicious than their intuition and bad feeling.
If only Sonya could reappear to give her advice. Unfortunately, when she had described the birthless to Kav-deb and the circumstances of their meeting in more detail he had said that it must have been Nel'Umbar, The Radiant. And that Sonya would take several years to get rid of him. Instead of asking Sonya, Aster had asked Kav-deb for advice. Kav-deb looked worried (his orb turning blue and cold) and taught Aster more powerful combat arrays and a technique to link his dark magic to the wards. And with Anna's permission she had not hesitated to put her new knowledge to use.
Aster sighed. She really hoped that her precautions would never have to be used, and that her feelings were only due to the paranoia she had acquired among the Dursleys and which Anna shared because of her years of running from the authorities.
Aster was about to get up and look for a less taxing book to read when a detail caught her eye. There in the forest, about twenty meters away from the edge hidden under invisibility magics, three people were moving. Normally Aster wouldn't have been able to see them, but Lagaelis' eye showed their magic as small, glowing dots. She squinted. Three mages... No three wizards, she could see the slightly different aura of wands on them. Aster had hesitated to make a wand for herself but had given up on the idea knowing that she had no wizarding instructor and that her arrays were more than enough. The advantage of versatility offered by the use of a wand was far outweighed by the power and ease of use of arrays. Three wizards hiding close to their house... it doesn't bode well.
She stood up and ran to a window looking out on another corner of the garden. She narrowed her eyes as she watched the forest beyond the small lake. Yes, there between the trees, four wizards there too, hiding just beyond the wards' boundary. Aster's blood froze in her veins, and her face fell. They were under attack! The ICW, a group of mercenaries or bounty hunters, had discovered their hideout. Suddenly a translucent silver dome formed over the house, just above their own wards. Aster didn't recognise the magic, but one thing was for sure. This barrier must have been intended to prevent them from escaping.
Aster ran to another window overlooking the path leading to the garden gate. On the path, also cloaked in invisibility magic, stood a dozen people. Aster's eyes widened. One of them was much more powerful than the others, his aura seemed to dwarf those of his companions. A wizard too, a much less powerful magic than Kav-deb's, and not worth comparing to Sonya, but still incredibly powerful. Immediately Aster ran to the workshop to warn Anna of the attackers' presence.
*
Anna was in her workshop finishing the last adjustments for an order. A precision job. It was to make a pair of magnifying glasses that would support more than a dozen detection and analysis magics for the old Tohra-Ksha. It was always a pleasure to do business with this Khrè yujul, although slightly senile and carefree, he was still very friendly. She was about to draw the last line of the array when her door suddenly opened, causing her to jump and miss tracing her line. She turned to Aster with her eyebrows furrowed, anger bubbling in her veins. Rule number one was not to disturb Anna while she was working and her daughter had just trampled on that basic rule and ruined more than a weeks worth of work.
She was about to give her the scolding of her life when she noticed the expression on Aster's face, she looked completely distraught and trembling with fear. Anna was about to ask what was going on when the little vampire beat her to it. " Mum! The house is under attack! I spotted more than fifteen wizards, one of them much more powerful than all the others! They have surrounded the house and set up a ward to , i think, prevent us from fleeing !"
Anna took Aster in her arms and held her tightly. Anna had long suspected that something was wrong and that her bad feeling was right. But she was sure it would be an ambush and not an attack on her house. Normally the wards would last a long time even against a team of powerful cursebreakers, but if the person Aster had described as more powerful than the others was who she thought he was, then the wards would not last more than a matter of hours. Aster had seen over a dozen wizards within minutes of observation, this number of agents and the type of wards used... this was a full ICW strike force. She was familiar with its modus operandi. Outside, at least forty wizards were waiting for her, determined to do them in. "Aster, gather your things, we're going to escape to the edges. Wait for me in the cellar and I'll gather the important stuff." Aster nodded and fled to her room.
A few minutes later, Anna had cleared all the books from the library and was about to take care of all her creations when the wards stone in her pocket began to overheat and shake. Horrified Anna inspected the stone. The wards' connection to the ley lines had been cut, Anna doubted the effectiveness of Aster's black magic reinforcement, no, there was no time for them to leave now. Anna ran towards the cellar, where Aster was supposed to be waiting to leave.
*
Aster ran to her room to get all her dearest possessions. She gathered up her most cherished books, grabbed her staff, and all her other Array supports, which she put on or stuffed into her pockets. She put on her long travelling cloak, her long scarf. And she was about to open her drawer to get the demonic summoning pendant. But she hesitated, Anna had told her not to put it on and Sonya that it was only a last resort tool. Her hesitation was short lived, she grabbed the pendant and tied it around her neck. If a wizard attack on Anna's house wasn't an emergency, then what was? Once she was ready she ran down the stairs to the cellar and waited by the gate to the edges.
Aster did not have to wait long, a few seconds later she entered the room with her bag on her shoulders. Without a word she walked to the portal and slid the power stones into their respective slots. And lowered the lever. The acoas on the floor lit up, but nothing happened, not a trace of mist. Anna turned to Aster, pale. She opened and closed her mouth for a few moments, unable to find words, then finally regained her composure. In a grumpy tone, Anna said. "Aster, I'm sorry, dear. We'll have to fight."
oOOOo
Alastor stood beside Adamar with the best cursbreakers in his squad at is side. A few minutes ago Adamar had finished setting up his barrier and space stabilizer, now their prey were trapped. If Alastor were to describe the situation by metaphor, he would say that the hyena group had finally succeeded in cornering the fierce lioness and her cub. And a cornered animal defends itself with the strength of the devil, human and non-human alike. It would be an understatement to say that Alastor didn't like the situation. Their only chance of getting away with a limited number of victims would be to attack immediately after the wards were broken to take Karrasinqi by surprise. For the moment everything was going according to plan. Alastor turned his head in Adamar's direction as he spoke.
"Alastor, Hans gather your squads and prepare for the assault. Alastor stays with me, Hans goes over to the other side for the pincer attack. Sarah, are all your men spread out in the forest around the wards?"
Sarah nodded grimly as Hans led his squad to the other side of the house. Anna would be between a rock and a hard place. Alastor waved his hand and sent one of his men after the others, and two minutes later his entire squad was behind him.
"I'm going to divert the ley lines. On the count of three, everyone, send in your most powerful wards breakers and siege spells." Adamar said as he pulled a small stick from his pocket, a flick of the wrist later and the twig had grown into a black wooden pole engraved with thousands of silver runes too small to be read by the naked eye. With a powerful blow Adamar drove the large pillar into the ground. Then he placed both hands on it and began a long incantation. A long, low chant in deep, almost guttural tones. Magic began to build up in the air and dance around Adamar, the air vibrating as if over a road in the hot sun. The ground began to give off a soft bluish glow, small orbs of light floating in the air around them.
Alastor had rarely seen this kind of magic at work, and it always made him shiver. After enough time the magic of immortals was nothing like that of other wizards. After about 250 years, most of them reached a point where this kind of thing became possible. Suddenly, a clatter sounded in the air and the engraved pillar shone with a powerful white light that dazzled them all. And a few seconds later, Adamar shouted, ONE, TWO, THREE, NOW!
A flood of magic poured from the wands of all the wizards present against the wards. Balista", "murusaruptoris", "obice perditor", "splitusmontem" and many others were heard, a torrent of light and energy crashing against the protective barrier, making it visible to the naked eye. Adamar's wand, a light brown wood, let out a powerful blast of violet light that crashed into the Karrasinqi wards. The wards wavered but held. Adamar muttered, as the wards seemed to be holding on but getting weaker by the second. As Adamar was about to begin another powerful spell, Alastor's eyes widened and he yelled, "STOP." All the other wizards immediately stopped their incantations and turned to him. Adamar repeated the word "stop".
Alastor turned back to the wards, the sight of them chilled his blood. All Karrasinqi's wards had become visible, and the energy of their own ward preventing the escape of their target as well as the energy of all the spells used against the ward seemed to be absorbed, devoured by it to strengthen it. He had never seen anything like it. Magic... was not supposed to absorb magic. What he had just seen was purely unnatural. Beside him, Alastor heard Adamar whisper, "Black magic..."
He couldn't believe his ears, or his eyes for that matter, even though his constantly open enchanted eye told him that what he had just seen was real. Black magic was a story element to scare children, not something real. From what he knew of the stories, for he had never read anything about black magic anywhere else, the evil wizards in the stories had to make a pact with demons and offer them great and horrible sacrifices to obtain the despicable gifts and power he had just encountered. And oh how stupid and ignorant Alastor felt to refer to the old children's tales and legends as the only sources of dark magic. According to these, even the darkest of wizards, even Voldemort practiced white magic. If Alastor had any doubt that Karrasinqi was one of the world's most terrible ancient dark lords, it was gone by then. Fortunately for them, Karrasinqi's wards stopped absorbing the surrounding magic and regained their full power before the anti-flight ward was completely dissipated.
Alastor cleared his throat. "I take it the surprise effect is gone?"
Adamar nodded, pale. "I'm afraid so."
"The plan of action now? I've never seen black magic before, no idea how to get past it."
"Simple, we need to take down her wards in one fell swoop by overloading them. Otherwise they'll feed on whatever we can use against them."
"And how do you plan to do that? They've held off the entire team, including you."
"I'm going to build a rune circle, use the two power stones I have on me and cast the most powerful spell I know."
Alastor chuckled. "And why didn't you do that earlier? This is not a game, damn it!"
Adamar turned to him in anger. "For one thing, this spell takes a long time to cast and is detectable by any creature with any kind of magic for miles around. Using it would have immediately alerted our target to our presence. Second, using it will weaken me, and I wanted to face Karrasinqi at the height of my strength.
Alastor grunted, his argument was valid, but now that their plan A had failed miserably, the body count would increase considerably. Without waiting Adamar got to work.
An hour later the spell was ready. Adamar had not lied, the energy that the runic circle gave off was such that Alastor could feel it in his bones. A powerful golden light was emanating from the ground, and if anything magical was within twenty miles it must have known something was going on here. Adamar stood in the middle of the circle, wand outstretched towards the wards, his whole body vibrating with power, and glowing with that same golden glow. He incanted in a low voice in a dialect unknown to Alastor.
The light intensified by the second at the end of his wand. Then there was a crack that was louder than the loudest thunder Alastor had ever heard as a powerful golden beam of light shot from Adamar's wand. The beam stopped dead in its tracks on the wards of Karrasinqi, which became visible again, forming a blue dome over the house. For a few seconds the beam seemed to dissipate against the wards, but soon their colour began to change. The blue became a bright gold. When the whole dome was a mountain of golden light, it finally cracked and shattered with a deafening sound of breaking glass. The beam met with no resistance and continued on towards the house, disintegrating the entire floor and roof, leaving only a smouldering, charred void.
Alastor had rarely seen battle magic, the last time being by Dumbledore during the war against the Dark Lord. And it never failed to make him shudder. As much as Alastor liked to convince himself otherwise, he loved to feel the thrill of martial class magic and to witness its power. It was one of his most shameful pet peeves and one of the unacknowledged reasons for accepting this mission. And something told him that this would not be the only such magic he would see today. Against his will, a smile broke out on his face.
Adamar was hunched over, panting, leaning his hands against his knees, he turned his head towards Alastor, a toothy grin on his lips. "Alastor, send the signal to attack."
Without hesitation, Alastor pointed his wand at the blue sky of that late afternoon and a wave of red light shot from his wand, rising high into the sky. Visible to all.
Following their training and the battle plan, all the wizards in Alastor's assault squad made themselves invisible and moved quickly and quietly towards the house, followed closely by Adamar. Seeing nothing on this side of the house, and the house having been destroyed by Adamar's battle spell, the group of wizards circled around to the small courtyard directly beside the house. Once the courtyard was in sight, the group stopped dead in their tracks, a wave of fear running through them, even Adamar's eyes widened.
They were expected to be there, and in the middle of the courtyard stood about fifteen humanoid figures. Golems, creatures of iron, ceramics and steel, unyielding servants, powerful and deadly. All of them were more than two metres tall, made of metal and skilfully sculpted into human form. The only difference was that they had no faces, their faces completely smooth. All the golems were armed with various weapons for close combat and ranged combat, swords, axes, halberds, crossbows, and bludgeons, all visibly enchanted and vibrating with magic in their hands. In the centre of the golem assembly stood two figures.
One was smaller, about the size of a child under 10 years old, the little vampire girl deduced Alastor. She was wearing a large cloak concealing her entire body, a long grey staff engraved with strange symbols in her hand, and a completely smooth white mask with no holes for either eyes or mouth. The other was obviously their target. Karrasinqi, the great vampire was clad in full silver plate armour with her helmet concealing her face. All the armor was engraved with runes that seemed to be alive as they moved and stirred on the surface of the armor giving off a silver light. In her right hand was a large spear with a vicious point gleaming with power, on her left arm a large shield. Her whole being exuded an aura of power and anger he had never seen or felt before.
Only one word came to his mind when he saw this figure, he was watching a goddess, a deity of war coming down to the battlefield to teach humility to presumptuous humans. It was a scene worthy of the legends of the heroes and mages of ancient times. At that moment he understood the terror Vlad's enemies must have felt when Karrasinqi, like a goddess of death, joined the battle with her Golems under the banner of a conquering dark lord. And why their task today was essential. The next dark lord to gain Karrasinqi's favor would be a greater threat than Grindelwald. Tinges of cold sweat ran down his forehead and back at this sight. The death toll would be high today. Behind their enemies, on the other side of the courtyard, the second assault squad, also invisible, had stopped, in the same stupor.
The small figure next to the goddess raised her staff, then in one swift, confident motion slammed it into the ground. With a thunderous crack, a shockwave of bluish energy was released from the spot where it was struck. Under the pressure of the wave of magic flowing through him, Alastor had to take a few steps back as he felt his spell of disillusionment being ripped away and swept clean. All were visible again, and silence fell. Adamar and the goddess stared into each other's eyes for more than a minute, finally Karrasinqi spoke up. "Adamar my dear, a pleasure to see you again, I guess today one of us will die and no negotiation is possible?"
Adamar nodded. "Anna, you have been on the run for too long, today you will face your crimes in death."
Anna sneered, "You know nothing of death." Without warning, in a micro fraction of a second Anna was face to face with Adamar, the tip of her spear millimeters from his heart, barely stopped by a powerful shield of hastily formed energy. Adamar retaliated with a powerful explosion of light blasting his opponent back. The battle began.
Seeing Adamar grapple with the vampire, all the other wizards prepared to unleash their magic on her, wands at the ready, but before the first non-verbal spell could be uttered, both squads found themselves grappling with the golems. Alastor, who was now facing two frighteningly fast and ferocious golems, one striking with his blade so fast that Alastor had trouble dodging and summoning small shields of energy to parry the blows soon enough, the other shooting at him with blunderbusses of magically charged lead exploding on contact. Alastor managed to finish off one of the sword blows and throw a "magnus annihilator" at the Golem. The most powerful spell of pure destruction he could cast with his wand in his repertoire as bombarda were proven useless against them. The Golem, which had so far proved to be highly resistant to magic, was crushed, pieces of metal and ceramic shrapneling in all directions from the powerful explosion.
At that moment Alastor remembered the presence of the masked witch at Karrasinqi's side when he saw Fiona, one of the witches in his squad, fall unconscious after a powerful bolt of lightning from the witch's staff struck her in the chest. Alastor managed to get rid of the other Golem with another "magnus annihilator" and started to duel with the little one.
All around them was chaos as the battle raged on, the golems seeming to be frightening foes that were ripping the less experienced wizards of their two assault squads to shreds. But Alastor was completely unaware of all the chaos, focused only on his duel with the creature. Alastor couldn't tell if it was a vampire or something more, it was too quick, too fast. Several times already she had tried to go into hand-to-hand combat with him but Alastor had kept his distance, he would be at a complete disadvantage in close combat. But not that staying at a distance in a purely magical duel was the best idea either. What he was fighting was terrifying. He had never seen this type of magic before. No incantations, no unnecessary movements, just a flash of light in the strange symbols covering her staff and the various objects she carried and an unknown spell would go off. After dodging several dozen steel stakes that came out of the ground after she struck it with her foot, she had pointed her staff at him again without giving Alastor time to react. And in less than a second eight arrows of purple magic went flying in his direction, Alastor rolled to the ground, to dodge the first six and hastily raised a Protego, to parry the last two, not having time to cast a more powerful shield spell. But the two energy arrows immediately broke his defence, one hitting him in the arm and the other destroying his wooden leg. In all his career he had rarely been in such a bad position.
To his horror Alastor had to immediately roll back to the ground in the other direction, ignoring the immense pain, to dodge the halberd of one of the golems that was about to come down on him. He was about to regain his composure to continue the fight despite his wounds, but the last thing he saw was the tip of the little monster's staff right under his nose, and before he could do anything a thunderclap sounded and in the light of a bright white flash hitting him in the face Alastor lost consciousness.
Aster sighed behind her now fractured mask, this fight had been exhausting, the scarred old wizard had been particularly tough. So far she had more or less ignored sorcery, as according to her ultimately superior, magecraft remained far less versatile. Limiting her to a number of predefined magics by the arrays she carried. Unexpected transfigurations and the use of a wide variety of spells had given her opponent the advantage of surprise, even if the raw strength, simplicity and speed of activation of her arrays had eventually won out.
The battle was in full swing around her. Anna's golems had rebalanced the forces well. Their role was simple: to keep the other wizards busy while Anna got rid of the old Adamar. Anna seemed to be doing quite well, she and Adamar had long since left the ground and were fighting in the air, Aster was doing her best not to be distracted by the multiple explosions of magic and light taking place far above the battlefield. From what she could see in the rare moments she allowed herself to peek, Anna was using her favorite tactic, she had cornered the mage in violent hand-to-hand combat, teleporting around him constantly trying to break his concentration and wear him down. The ICW would have to be careful with their damned statute of secrecy because given the magnitude of what was going on up there anyone within 100km would be able to see that something strange was going on.
So far Aster was doing pretty well. With a bit of luck they would manage to rout their attackers and get away. Her training with Sonya had paid off and she had managed to take out a good number of their attackers. Some killed, others put into comas by her lightning array. But frankly Aster was getting tired and her arrays were overheating from the amount of energy that had gone through them. She had to start drawing more and more on her black magic to keep fighting. Devouring the magic in the air around her, absorbing the magic of all living things around her.
This was really to her advantage in her current fight. In front of her was a tall, blond, stern-looking man who was particularly resistant, aggressive and frustrating. The man wielded a form of cursed fire that he used to attack her and managed to materialise enough shield and be agile enough not to succumb to her every attack. Fortunately Aster had the advantage in this fight, her void shields seemed particularly effective against the cursed fire, and time was on her side. She was gradually absorbing the magic of the cursed fire and the life energy and magic of her opponent through black magic. It would not be long before he would weaken and give her the opportunity to finish him off. The only problem being the overheating of her arrays she would soon have to pull an ace out of her sleeve.
Aster was completely captivated by her fight against the blond, Hans as one of her colleagues had called him when Aster had almost beat him. He was dodging and dancing around her spells and Aster had dropped her multiple shields to join him in the dance and slow down the overheating of her arrays concentrating completely on attacking and dodging, immersed in an exhilarating dance of death. Her vision was tunnelled only her opponent counted she had never felt so alive so strong. Ah! Hans had just stumbled! In less than a second Aster activated her disintegrating arrow array nine times in quick succession, turning the pure silver engraved on her staff red with heat, the nine arrows instantly shooting towards her enemy. Tch! Hans had managed to dodge everything and was now standing at the bottom of a large crater with only his left arm missing. Aster had just finished devouring the corrupted energy of the cursed fire and had accumulated enough to use her ace to finish Hans off.
She pulled a scroll from her pocket and unrolled it quickly, she was about to use her first battle magic under real conditions. She held up the scroll and activated the array, far too large and complex to fit on a smaller surface. Under the intense energy that flowed through it, the scroll crumbled into dust.
At that moment, several things happened simultaneously. Everything might have been different if Aster, exhausted from the long battle, her mind drugged into a state of ecstasy by the far too great amount of magic used by someone too young and too small. If she hadn't been completely obsessed with her duel with Hans. She would have noticed the course of the battle turning. At her back the last of the golems had fallen, leaving five wizards alive and conscious behind her. Five wizards she would have noticed had she not been elated by the sight of her powerful spell being activated and a large part of the forest in front of her as well as Hans being reduced to dust by a powerful wave of magic, accumulated by black magic in the course of the fight leaving her body in an indescribable feeling of euphoria and pleasure. Finally, everything would have ended differently if Anna had not been completely absorbed in her duel against Adamar and had had a little less confidence in the strength of her golems and if in her old age she had not forgotten the effect of an overdose of magic on an inexperienced mage.
It all happened in a split second. Anna looked down for a moment and noticed the use of the array that Aster had had time to trace in the hour before the battle their ward had held. Her pride turned to concern and then terror as she saw the five surviving wizards behind Aster's back preparing to cast their spell. In her eyes everything was happening in slow motion. A deep terror took place in her heart in an instant. That millisecond of innattention allowed Adamar's exhausted and injured form to strike her with a powerful spell. But Anna did not even notice the pain. All she saw were the flashes of light from the powerful death spells of explosions and disintegration flying towards Aster.
Without even realising it Anna activated her space matrix one last time. Her one and only desire at that moment was to see the child she had now considered for years to be her daughter, the one most dear to her heart, live. Anna appeared between the spells and Aster without having had time to block. The protective arrays of her armour activated one last time. Blocking the first three spells, but the power stones powering her armor were already nearly empty of all their magic, the arrays went out and the last two spells hit her in the chest. Anna died instantly, and against all odds, she did not feel a single regret. Ten years earlier her death would have been meaningless, but now... Anna sank into unconsciousness. Her body lifeless.
In that same split second Aster noticed that something strange had happened. Yes, the silence. The clanking and clanging of the fighting golems had ceased. She turned around and everything unfolded in slow motion before her eyes. Five spells were flying towards her. The void shield and aegis arrays on her staff were overheated and took too long to activate. For a moment Aster thought she was dead. But in that same split second, her mother, in shining silver armour, like an angel descended from heaven appeared before her. As relief was about to overwhelm her, a wave of terrible realization washed over her. The arrays engraved on her mother's armour had just been extinguished. The last two spells had not yet hit her. With a sound of shattering metal and the smell of melting flesh, Anna's body fell into Aster's arms as her shields finally activated, the arrays on her staff groaning and crunching under the heat and energy flowing through them.
Under a solid dome of translucent lights and shadows Aster had fallen to her knees, her mother's head resting in her lap, her glassy eyes wide open, a smile on her lips, a gaping hole open in her chest. Behind her fractured white mask, Aster wept. Hot, salty tears ran down her cheeks. Her heart and throat clenched, in a state of shock, anger, sadness and terrible guilt. She gently placed her hand on her mother's cheek, caressing her face for the last time. All her memories and moments of happiness spent with her overwhelmed her with a flood of unstoppable emotions. All the time spent with the person who saved her, who raised her, the first person she ever loved. All their afternoons by the lake, in the garden or the library. All their journeys on this earth or far away in other worlds under the auspices of other stars. Clutching her staff in her right hand, lit only by the silver light of her shields as night fell. Tenderly stroking Anna's hair with her left hand, something in Aster broke. An all-consuming hatred filled her for those who had taken her mother from her. Adamar would pay.
Aster looked up with tear-reddened eyes as she heard a slight crack right in front of her on the other side of her shields. Before her stood Adamar. His face covered in blood, his body riddled with deep cuts, behind him the five surviving wizards. Aster barely heard his words "you must now die little one, you are too dangerous."
A realization. Struck Aster, dazed by her grief and fury she had almost forgotten. She still had two tricks up her sleeve. Her mother could still be saved and with a little luck she could get away. As the five mages and Adamar bombarded her shields to finish Aster off, she pulled a small vial from her inner shirt pocket. An item she had always kept with her night and day at all times since Sonya asked her to. A soul vial. Anna's soul was still there, its bonds slowly breaking with her body, almost ready to drift to the edges. No Aster would not leave her mother's soul at the mercy of the soul eaters or simply join Aathna in the original whole. No, today would be her second step in the footsteps of Sonya the mistress of souls. A wide smile filled with madness, hate, love and hope split her face as she placed the vial on Anna's forehead. She had to hurry, her shields would not hold for long. She covered the vial with Anna's blood, the multitude of runes and arrays on its surface lit up and through her Lagaelis eye, Aster saw it. Anna's soul was sucked into the vial. Safe. Her smile widened! It had worked! The vial of soul normally bound to Aster had accepted Anna! The flame of hope that had just been blown out began to burn brightly again.
Aster only had a few seconds left before her shields would fail, she had almost no magic left, forcing more on her black magic would kill her. Without hesitation Aster closed her fangs into her own hands and closed her bloody hand around her demonic necklace. And thought, 'I'm sorry Anna, but this situation is the very definition of desperate.' Without hesitation Aster raised the bloody medallion above her head and screamed. "I OFFER MY BLOOD? THEIR BLOOD AND THEIR SOULS!"
Seeing her gesture and what she held in her hand Adamar's eyes widened grotesquely and he shouted back. "RUN AWAY" But it was too late. Two unspeakable shapes formed of light blinder than the sun and darkness deeper than the pits beyond the edges of worlds appeared in an indescribable existential paradox, each of their footsteps tearing through the fabric of reality, their finite and infinite figures their two innumerable piercing but blind eyes staring at the six wizards. The luminous shadows growing around them. Their discordant voices, shaking the air with a terrible vibration. Speaking in a language that was incomprehensible but understood. "We take your blood, we take their blood, we take their souls, little mistress."
Aster remembered well from her many demonology lessons with Sonya and Kav-deb and did the right thing. Without question, she ran at full speed towards the forest. Without looking back, without trying to figure out what was going to happen behind her. She ran deeper and deeper into the woods, jumping over tree trunks, occasionally tripping over roots, clutching the vial containing her mother's soul to her heart. After about 600 metres of running through the woods she stumbled again, falling to the ground. She looked up again, only to see a wand in front of her, inches from her forehead. She looked up slowly, despair returning to her heart - she could not be captured. Not here, not now. But all thought ceased when she saw in front of her the most beautiful young woman she had ever seen. An ethereal beauty, a woman with porcelain skin, jay hair and amethyst eyes stared back at her. Her two great black wings elegantly folded behind her back. Aster thought her end had come when the young woman gently removed her mask from her face. She stared at her for a moment, Aster could see uncertainty on her face but it was soon replaced by determination. The young woman returned the mask and said in broken Romanian. "Go, get out of here! We have never met."
Without asking a second thought, Aster picked up her broken mask and ran as fast as she could. Blessing the black-winged angel for letting her go. Her leg muscles were already sore, her magic completely exhausted after the long battle, her black magic abilities pushed to such a limit that absorbing even a tiny amount of magic would be enough to break her. Her mind was exhausted, going from ecstasy to despair, losing her footing completely. Aster could only run, letting the sweat drip down her back and forehead. Her whole body felt like a vast bruise. But Aster, as exhausted and beaten as she was, kept on running through the night between the trees, further and further. Clutching to her heart the only hope of ever seeing her mother again. All that still gave her life, here in a small glass vial, clutched in her hands.