Chaos Born: Destiny Undone

by I LIKE FEAR 1-2

Cast into the shadows, and captured by Evil, the Boy-Who-Lived suffered in agony. Twisted, mutated, and mutilated, what happens when he escapes back into the world and learns a terrible truth. Blessed by darkness, guided by death, the world's savior has been lost. A nightmare has been born with only two goals in mind; survive and prosper. (Warnings/Cliches inside)

20. Chapter 20

Okay, time for the start of the last ascension arc. A lot of people brought up Blacklight from the Prototype series and I will admit that was actually an idea I was pursuing, and even wrote out before going back to change it. I think right now is a bit early for that level of power, as anyone who's actually played the games knows how OP the Blacklight virus is, but I did intend to use it, and I actually still might, just later on in the story, so there's still a chance for other beings to be able to take on Harry without also needing to be as OP as Alex Mercer was. Still, I like where your heads are at, and it's pretty cool to see how many people were kind of on the same page as me. Anyway, hope you enjoy this one, it's surrounding one of my favorite all time games, so I'm definitely gonna treat it with love. Lets begin!

Chaos Born: Destiny Undone.

Chapter 20: Fourth Ascension: Part One.

-Hogwarts-

"Ready to go?" He asked Daphne after they'd finished resting.

"Yeah. Let's do this." Daphne agreed.

Harry smirked and placed his wand to his head, before casting the killing curse on himself. He went a bit higher on the power just to make sure it would still work, since his magical resilience had no doubt also risen, and swiftly found himself in Luna's arms.

There standing over them was Daphne, naked as the day she was born.

He smirked up at her, and she blinked once than twice before she realized that they were naked, and she was also naked. She swiftly covered herself, and blushed a fiery red.

"Why am I naked?" She asked them.

"Oh, everyone's naked here." Luna responded.

"Yeah, that should be obvious." Harry agreed with a chuckle, this earned him a playful giggle from Luna, and a glare from Daphne for teasing her.

"We'll wake up in just a moment, I'll make us some clothes then." Harry said to her.

Daphne said nothing, just trying to hide her nakedness from them.

"See you soon." Luna cooed as she gently stroked his hair.

"I'll be counting the days. One more go." Harry hummed in response, earning a smile from her.

The world bled white, and the duo found themselves standing in the dark. Harry could see easily thanks to his beholder eye, so he took the opportunity to eye up Daphne as she reached about in the darkness before forming clothes. He spoke, drawing her attention to him. He then reached out, placing the clothes in her hands for her to put on.

"Thanks." She spoke as she dressed.

Harry quickly dressed himself as well, lighting a fire with the snap of his fingers to light up the darkness.

The two were some kind of tunnel, degraded bricks and stones lined the walls, and cobwebs littered the ceiling.

"Where are we?" Daphne questioned aloud as she finished dressing.

"No idea. Take this." Harry offered her his wand, drawing the Elder Wand for his own use after she took it.

She then cast lumos to help lighten the area as the duo advanced through the darkness.

They continued until shapes began to form in the tunnel ahead of them. As they got closer these shapes formed becoming humanoid in appearance.

As the light reached them, they got a good look at a small cluster of emaciated figures.

They were all naked, and bone thin, their skin was as pale as physically possible. Their faces were sunken, their heads misshapen. Almost in unison the half-dozen emaciated figures turned to them, and quickly began advancing. The glimmer of metal caught the light, showing that each was armed with some bladed instrument.

Harry didn't hesitate. The moment he caught sight of the metal, he reacted.

The lead creature was banished back through the crowd of them, knocking the rest over. As they moved to pull themselves back up, magic danced through the air, striking them, taking off their heads in succession.

Daphne had barely raised her wand as this happened. She blinked in surprise as Harry advanced, moving with poise and confidence as he stepped past the corpses of these unknown creatures. She quickly began to follow him, moving to his side. The two made it to where the tunnel opened up into a wide chamber. Across the ground were the scattered remnants of broken and degraded armor. The armor looked old, almost like that which knights wore. Some great battle must have been fought in this chamber long ago. Barely noticeable beneath the clatterings of armor were the bones of the fallen.

Harry scanned the chamber, his eyes settling on the doorway. He advanced, Daphne keeping pace with him as her eyes darted to and fro, searching for further signs of enemies.

The two made it to another tunnel where they came to a halt.

Daphne spotted something that instantly made her blood run cold, and she felt a physical jolt pass through her upon seeing it.

There were three of them. One on the ground, and two on the ceiling. Massive jet-black spiders. Harry gave them a curious look, tilting his head at the sight of the large creatures.

They were huge. About the size of Acromantula, though Harry could instantly tell that they weren't the same kind of spiders.

The trio of spiders quickly began advancing towards them, filled with a carnal hunger.

Harry clicked his teeth, and with a small motion, sent a bolt of red light into the spider upon the ground, splattering it into a gory paste.

With his opposite hand, he snapped his fingers causing the two spiders on the ceiling to explode into fireballs. Much to both Harry and Daphne's surprise, the two spiders let out gurgling arachnid screams as they burned.

Both fell from the ceiling, writhing and screaming as they burned to death. A harsh scent immediately filled the hallway causing Daphne to exhale in disgust. Burning arachnoid flesh did not in fact smell decent.

At least, it didn't smell good to Daphne. Harry on the other hand, was starting to feel hungry. It was too early for him to determine just which of the three types of hungry it was. If it was normal hunger, it was usually fueled by his werewolf blood making him want meat, but food in general would do. If it was a vampire hunger, than he'd want blood. Finally if it was his mindflayer hunger acting up, he'd want brains. That last one was pretty new and he was still working on determining how it felt in comparison to the others.

Offhandedly, since he was thinking about it, he did wonder what Daphne's blood tasted like. He knew it'd be a long while before he actually got to taste it, but he was curious. He hadn't had the chance to taste Luna's blood yet, but he'd tried Olivia's, Fleur's, and Tracey's. Olivia's tasted spicy. Fleur's tasted intoxicating, almost with it's own spice, but more like alcoholic spice than a spicy food spice. Then there was Tracey's which tasted the most like blood but with an oily tinge to it. Like someone had mixed olive oil into her blood stream or something. It was strange, but then again they were all daemons so he expected it. Currently he didn't have a preference, and in fact, he enjoyed having options for when the mood struck him.

He shook his head as he made his way past the spider corpses, removing the thoughts from his head. Again, he rationalized that it would probably be months at least before Daphne was comfortable sharing her blood with him, though at the very least, he did pin down which type of hungry he was.

"I need blood." He hummed as they walked.

"Yeah? Know where to find any down here?" She asked him, giving him the side eye, most likely expecting him to ask her.

"No, but I'm hopeful I'll find something." Harry responded, sensing where her mind was going. To assuage any possible concern she might begin feeling he continued. "Not sure where this hunger is coming from. I can't actually remember when the last time I ate was. No idea which my body is going off of, when I last ate in the other world, or when I last ate in ours. It's strange."

"And what happens if you don't find any?" She questioned, again giving him the side eye.

He smirked at her, reading her thoughts. She blinked at his smirking visage in the dark, feeling a momentary tingle of uncertainty pass through her.

"Well then I'll have to go hungry." He shrugged, and let out a chuckle. He could sense her intentions how she was fishing for information, testing the waters in order to understand him.

He was quickly beginning to understand that Daphne was probably going to be his hardest, albeit most normal relationship of all. Unlike all of the others who were attracted to him from the word go, Daphne was different. Luna was completely focused on him. Olivia thought of him constantly. Fleur was very open to the idea and didn't bother questioning her feelings. Tracey had a crush on him, even before their trip. That left Daphne whom as far as he could tell was still reasonably weary around him.

They'd gone on a handful of dates, and Harry had learned a few things about her, but she was rather standoffish, though that was to be expected given her reputation. This was a relationship they'd actually have to work on. In fact, he might even have to woo her. The thought gave him a playful shudder. Not that he wasn't romantic with his other lovers, but they all had a reason to pursue him in return. He wasn't quite sure what Daphne wanted from him. Was she just looking to see where this went? He didn't know.

He knew where he wanted it to go.

Given his relationship with the others, it'd be pretty jarring to have one of the five being just his friend. No he wanted this to be more. He wanted to fall in love with her, and for her to fall in love with him, and they'd have the same kind of intense romantic loving relationship that he shared with all the others.

That was what he wanted. So he'd act himself. He'd be playful with her, and try to get through that icy cautious exterior.

He could sense her confusion, concern, and annoyance at his playful attitude, despite the situation they were in. Harry showed it little worry. He was quickly becoming a pro at these visits to other worlds, and one thing he'd learned pretty apparently was that the Changer liked to dump him and his partner somewhere relevant to their task. He was quite confident that all they needed to do was continue forward, and this place would begin to unravel it's secrets.

The two continued on in silence for several more minutes. They encountered more of those pale humanoids as they explored this dungeon. All were immediately hostile. They found some draped in shambled armor, and they encountered even more frightening entities. These figures were similar to the pale humanoids except they wore tattered hooded robes and stood at almost seven or eight feet tall. Most carried large pickaxes though some carried black powder rifles.

That caught the duo by surprise when a loud shot rang through the air, echoing loudly off the walls as a bullet went sailing between them.

Harry quickly dealt with the attacker though it was the first one he stopped to really examine, namely it's weapon, taking note of the age of the rifle, and style of it.

"This seems to be an earthen weapon, but if I had to place the technology probably somewhere between the 1700s to 1800s." Harry hummed.

"So we might be over three hundred years in the past?" Daphne noted.

"Possibly. The weapon is old, so it's possible that it's merely been down here for a long time, but we wont know for sure until we get out of here and see what's going on with the world outside of this place." Harry responded, rising back to his feet as he did.

Daphne followed along with him as they proceeded even further. Sound started to fill the halls, the sound of fighting.

Harry's pace quickened and Daphne kept just behind him as he rounded a corner and into a large open chamber.

The two came upon the sight of a trio of warriors, clad in long robes, fighting a hooded creature. One of the warriors was on his knees holding his limp arm which was bleeding profusely. Another was being grabbed by the creature, and tossed across the room with incredible strength.

The final of the three, raised his rifle and fired a shot into the hooded creature's chest. It flinched before turning towards him. It raised a single hand, revealing a long pale blue finger, and with a gesture, a blue light shot out of it's fingertip and raced towards it's attacker. The man tried to dodge but was struck by the light and pinned in place, held by a pale blue light that coiled around him like some kind of vice.

The creature rushed forward, and grabbed the man. It through it's head back, revealing a face of small sprawling tendrils. No discernible features could be spotted, yet from the top of the head, a long thick eel-like tentacle erupted. White murky fluid erupted from an unseen orifice as the tentacle emerged. A thick sheen of slime could be seen covering it. The warrior, a man, let out a scream of terror as the tendril arced backwards and then lanced downward piercing the man's skull. The hooded figure could be seen making swallowing motions as grotesque bulges of brain matter were sucked out of the skull of the man, up into the tentacle and down into it's body.

The man's screams persisted for only a moment before being replace by the nightmarish sound of the creature feeding.

This action lasted only a moment, before the tendril ripped free, and the hooded creature let out a disturbing belch, it's outstretched tentacle slowly retracting back into it's body.

Daphne was frozen at the godawful sight, as she felt bile rise in her throat. It had all happened so quickly, to quickly for her to really rationalize and register what she'd just seen.

Harry advanced into the room, whistling sharply to draw the creature's attention towards him and away from it's next target which was the kneeling man who was still cradling his ravaged arm.

The creature turned to him and slowly began to advance, it's legs were heavenly bowed, so it walked with a swaying motion.

It grew closer to him before raising it's finger towards him. Having seen the end result, Harry chose not to let allow it the chance to cast it's spell.

With a much faster motion he raised his wand, unleashing a powerful blasting curse that struck the creature in the chest, knocking it to the ground with a gurgling screech of pain.

A single moment passed as its gray-brown blood spilled out of the hole in it's chest. The moment the scent of that blood hit the air, Harry felt his hunger overtake him in a way it never had before.

Lowering his wand to his side, he advanced. His teeth morphing into fangs as he approached the creature as it struggled to regain it's footing.

It tried to swipe at him, but he caught it's arm, it's skin was cold and wet to the touch. The tendril erupted from it's head as it tried to feed on him, but Harry was faster. Wand still in hand, he tore open the creature's robes and drove his teeth into the soft flesh of it's neck. His actions allowed him to conveniently dodge the creature's striking tendril which sailed past his head and went limp as it's life blood was drained out of it by the hungry vampire.

As he drained it's blood, he felt it's memories flood his mind.

For the first time in a long time, Harry Potter was left in absolute, stupefied, dumbfounded, confusion.

Images soared through his mutant brain, even as he finished draining the creature and dropping it's body to the floor.

Esoteric images, that defied logical explanation and lacked any semblance of context or reason.

Had he been in possession of a normal human brain, he doubted his mind would even be able to recognize these images at all. Armed with a brain that was basically a Mindflayer's brain, he was able to recognize the images, but not decipher them.

It was such a strange feeling, having these thoughts in his head. A sequence of knowledge that was entirely alien to him. The thing was though, that he recognized it as alien. His mind could interpret these images as having meaning, they were far from senseless but it was like hearing a language for the first time with zero context or assistance.

He blinked several times as he realized that Daphne was calling for him. It was as he recognized her voice, that he also recognized that he was shaking.

He felt his body convulsing, the source of these convulsions, centered around his throat.

He grasped at his neck, and let out a choking noise. He felt his internals shifting, something was happening to him, he was mutating.

Mutating actively, without having to die. His brain immediately sought an answer as to how that was possible. Two answers immediately appeared. The first was that by ingesting so much of that creature's blood he had infected himself with something that was causing this mutation. That seemed unlikely to the point of being nearly impossible. As a vampire, a werewolf, and possessing unicorn blood, he was basically immune to most forms of infection. He had to actually work to reduce or limit the powers of those specific traits in order to infect himself with the Apotheosis Virus, and that still required him to use Uroboros as a vector to successfully infect him. Which led to the second possibility which was the one he settled on. It was Apotheosis. The Virus was meant to take all of his mutations, as well as his human parts and enhance him. By ingesting foreign or alien matter into his body, the virus took it and was incorporating traits from the creature into him.

This was proven true as a few moments later he felt something begin to emerge from his throat. A long, fleshy proboscis emerged from his mouth. It grew wide, and was shaped like the creature's though it was a deep reddish-black in color. The tendril trailed in the air for a moment before rescinding into Harry's mouth, and sinking into his throat.

He breathed out and dropped to a knee after that, blinking several times and shaking his head as he felt out this new appendage. He could feel it start to inflate in his throat, and he quickly discerned that he could control it with relative ease.

That sense of control definitely came from the creature. A sort of muscle memory which was far easier to decipher than it's actual thoughts.

He blinked several times and touched at his neck, he then raised himself to his feet and glanced at Daphne who was staring at him with a mixture of disgust, fascination, and horror.

"That was interesting." He said to her.

"That's one way to describe it." She replied, unable to disguise her discomfort.

He shook his head at her, but chose not to comment on her displeasure. Instead he turned his attention towards the two remaining warriors. Much to his surprise, the one who'd been holding his arm was back on his feet and helping the one who'd been thrown back onto their feet. He could smell their blood, and their robes were stained red from injuries, yet the two advanced towards them without any obvious signs of injury.

Despite the red, the first also wasn't bleeding anymore which was surprising given how much blood was dripping out of his arm earlier.

The two raised their weapons at them, and Harry sensed their hostility, though it was tempered by a sense of curiosity as well.

One was armed with a sword in one hand, and an archaic single-shot pistol in the other. The remaining warrior carried a long two-handed axe.

The two men had obviously seen what Harry had just done, and they could also see the snake emerging from Daphne's back which was staring them down, so they knew that the two were far from normal.

"Looking for a fight?" Harry questioned, stepping forward, causing the two to halt in their advance.

"Are you?" One questioned in response.

"Not really. More curious than anything else." Harry responded, their eyes trailing over him, taking note of his Behir arm, the blue scales and clawed hand visible to them.

"Why did you help us? You're not Yharnamites. Your accent give that much away. How did you get down here?" The same man spoke, still eyeing the duo intently and with great scrutiny.

Both men were draped in dark and worn robes, their faces shrouded by hoods, and masks that covered their mouths and noses, leaving just their eyes visible. It made reading their faces difficult, but Harry could sense their emotions, and read their thoughts, he knew they weren't likely to attack unless given a reason to. Despite their fighting abilities, these actually weren't warriors, like he first thought. They were actually explorers.

"Helped because I felt like it. As for how we got down here, well lets just say a higher power dumped us here, and leave it at that for now. We have no idea where this is, or how we got down here." Harry responded. When the words 'higher power' left his mouth, he felt something shift in the two men. Both shared a look with one another, and the one who hadn't yet spoke, lowered his axe a bit.

"You… those changes… are you kin?" He questioned.

"Perhaps. I'm not sure. What is that?" Harry answered honestly.

"Celestial beings. Those that have ascended beyond their baser forms." He responded, almost with a touch of reverence.

"Maybe. Why don't you show us the way out of here, and take us somewhere safe, and we can discuss it." Harry suggested, casting a compulsion charm on the duo with a minor movement of his wand.

The two men seemed to blink as then share a look with one another.

"I think this counts as a reasonable discovery. We should take them back and show them to the others." One suggested.

"Yeah… we should. Come with us. It's a bit of a hike back, but we can show you the way out." The second agreed and motioned them to the join them.

Harry nodded and shared a glance with Daphne. She gave him a suspicious look but didn't need to ask if he'd done something. He simply gave her a smoldering smirk which told her all she needed to know.

The two followed the duo out of the tunnels, their journey carried on in silence for well over an hour before one of the two started asking curious questions wanting to know more about them.

Harry offered to answer, in exchange for answers from them. A question for a question, which the duo of explorers found to be reasonable.

The first tidbit was the sharing of names. When asked, Daphne told them her name, Daphne Greengrass-Black, and Harry offered his own name, Harrison Potter-Black, but they could just call him Harry. He then tacked on that he and Daphne were husband and wife, which the duo found interesting.

The one wielding the axe was named Charles DeNair, and the other was named Maxwell Hall.

Next they were asked where they were from, they said England. Neither man had ever heard of that place, which confirmed that this wasn't the past, or at least not their past. This might still be earth, but just an alternate timeline or reality, or it could just be another world like Sera, that was possible too.

"What is this Yharnam place? You said our accents gave us away as not Yharnamites." Daphne inquired.

"Yharnam is the city above us. It's an ancient city, built long ago, but only in the last forty years or so, has it become what it is now." Charles answered.

"And what would that be?" She inquired curiously.

"It is the center of Blood Healing, and the seat of power for the Church. Blood Healing was devised after the discovery of the Old Blood here in these dungeons of old Pthumeru. You say you were brought here by a higher power, it is from such higher powers that Blood Healing was first derived." Charles responded to her.

"I see." Harry hummed, sharing glance with Daphne.

"What is the nature of the higher power that brought you here, and why did it choose to place you in these tombs?" Maxwell questioned.

"It's nature of difficult to describe. It is the Changer of Ways. A being of higher intelligence, and incredible power. I do not know why we were placed here, perhaps it was so that we could meet, and be brought to your Church." Harry suggested.

The two men seemed thoughtful on that, as they continued to lead them out of these dungeons.

Eventually they pulled themselves out of a hole in the ground and up to the surface. They found themselves in an old, and withered forest which they passed through, all the way to the edges of a towering city. Harry and Daphne were quite impressed with their first view of the city of Yharnam.

It was a large city, built in a Victorian style. As they ventured through it, the two were treated to incredible sights. Statues were everywhere. Statues of hooded figures lined the streets in some places. Burning candles dotted the sides of roads, the people themselves seemed normal at first glance, but an air of suspicion held over them. Their eyes darted about, and would focus on Harry and Daphne as they passed through the streets. The two were keeping a mostly low profile, having hidden their abnormalities before entering the city, but that didn't stop people from watching them.

A thick smell of copper touched at the air as they ventured deeper and deeper into the city, eventually taking a lift high up into the city's interior. There they were led into a cathedral and brought before a man in white robes. The two explorers, prospectors is what they claimed to be called, explained who they were and where they'd been found. How they lost one of their own fighting a creature in the underground, but had been rescued by Harry. They explained what he'd done and his own mutations, along with Daphne's which the two were then asked to show.

A smile crept across Harry's face as he sensed the curiosity of the senior church official grow, and for the third time in a row, Harry pulled out the 'lets work together' card. He explained who they were, and how they'd been brought here by a higher power, he showed them a brief display of magic, generating lightning through his behir hand, and then lighting a fire on his finger tips, shortly thereafter. The trio was astounded by the display of what they called 'arcane' power.

Harry offered to work for them, to assist in their research and allow them the chance to study the two of them, in exchange for certain guarantees. So long as no harm was brought to them, and no attempts made to separate them, they'd work with this church which appeared to be the leading power in the city of Yharnam. They'd use their powers and knowledge to assist in their studies and goals, and in exchange, they would allow the duo to carry out their own studies when or if there came a time that something deeply interested them.

A compulsion charm was all that was needed to get the agreement.

The two would join the church as acolytes and begin assisting in their research while also allowing the church to study them as well.

The two agreed and from there, began their new lives in Yharnam.

They were brought to their new room within the cathedral and provided clothes and other amenities and given the rest of the day to settle in.

It wasn't an overly spacious room, in fact it was just a smidgen smaller than Harry's bedroom had been back at Privet Drive, they'd certainly need to get comfortable around one another.

Harry could easily sense Daphne's trepidation, and reluctant acceptance as she entered the room and took in their new living situation.

A part of her wondered if perhaps Harry shouldn't have kept quiet about their marriage, so they could have two rooms. Harry payed her thoughts little mind, knowing full well that they weren't anywhere near that point in their relationship to start sharing a bed. Thankfully Harry didn't need to sleep, he simply chose to, so he could just find something else to occupy him, and if he wanted to sleep so he could go to the dreamworld and be with Luna, than there was a perfectly good chair right next to the bed.

That chair was immediately where Harry planted himself.

"So… you ready?" Harry inquired as he faced Daphne.

"In regards to what, exactly?" She responded, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind her.

"Working towards your ascension. Are you ready to set everything aside and work towards that goal?" Harry clarified.

"If you're asking if I'm ready to do whatever I have to in order to appease my patron, than yes. I don't intend on failing. I don't intend on being replaced. I just wish I had some idea of what I was supposed to do." Daphne answered, taking a step forward and sitting on the edge of the bed while she did.

"Trickery, Lies, Fate, Sorcery, Knowledge, Ambition, Intrigue, Mutation, Evolution, and Change. All concepts of the Changer of Ways. Your god embodies these things. He has brought us here as your testing ground. For Olivia it was a planet on the brink of global war, and we were placed with a species that was vicious and cruel, and focused on it's survival above all else. For Fleur, we were brought to a city without laws, without restrictions, a place without censor, where all wants and desires could be explored if you had the means of achieving it. For Tracey we were dumped in a lab working on nightmarish bio-weapons, and she was given the chance to unleash them and carry them without much difficulty. For each of them, they let go of morals, and restrictions, some faster than others, some with a bit of help from their patron. Ultimately they embraced these concepts, but it was never to the detriment of their character. None of them changed in order to become what they are now, they simply had to let go of the things that held them back, and embrace what was already there. I have no doubt in my mind that everything you need to appease the Changer of Ways, is already within you, you just have to unleash it." Harry said to her, explaining his viewpoint on the situation and how these things generally panned out for them in the past.

Daphne took in a breath and nodded at that.

"So… what's the plan for here?" She asked him. Despite being naturally cautious, and distrusting, Harry had successfully helped three of the four of them to their ascensions, and though she didn't know everything that happened on those journeys, Olivia, Fleur, and Tracey seemed adamant that Harry played an important role in helping them, so she was resigned to trusting him, and working with him, even if they were still figuring out their rhythm and how their relationship would go.

She had no reason to distrust him, and he seemed genuine in his efforts with the others, so she was willing to put a bit of faith in him and see where it went.

"Well… the way I see it, this church seems to hold most if not all of the power here in Yharnam, so we work within it, rise through the ranks, gain power, and see what we can gain from this place. I've had this conversation before, but since it's our first time, I'll repeat myself, this world is a means to an end, nothing more. Form what friendships you like, form what relationships you like, but recognize that it all ends when we leave and I have no idea if we'll come back. So treat this world as if it were a playground. Use it, abuse it, take what we need and want from it, because we wont always be here. Once you ascend, you'll be immortal, like me. We'll persist long after this place, this city is gone. Whether is lasts for a hundred years, or a thousand, we'll keep going on, while places like this will die and turn to dust. That is our future, that is the life that awaits us, so we'll use this place, we'll take it for all it's worth. Cultivate power, cultivate knowledge, cultivate resources, all things that can help us. I know enough from my time with Tracey that you're the mastermind behind your duo. You help her navigate the political landscape of Slytherin House. You're the brains, so use them. Study this place, and watch for openings. We'll use the powers at our disposal to rise through the ranks and learn what mysteries and secrets are hidden here. All with the direction aimed at your ascension. Once you do ascend, then this world this place really will become a playground, and we can do whatever the hell we want with it." Harry explained to her. Daphne agreed with his logic, and nodded along with him. What he was saying made sense to her. She could think about the morals all day long, but in the end, it wouldn't matter if she failed and ended up dead, and then replaced by an actual daemon. Best to set morality to the wayside and allow ambition to take over.

For the first time in her life, Daphne didn't have to worry about protecting someone. Harry had the ability to protect himself, of that she had no doubt or concern, so he didn't need her to protect him. So if she wasn't meant to protect him, what was her role in all this? He'd made mention of that during a few of their discussions between these trips that they might have roles. He was mums as to what those roles were but she suspected he might know or at least have a leaning. Regardless of the truth, she knew what she wanted.

She was still uncertain if she'd fall in love with him, or if they'd ever have a truly romantic relationship but what she was certain of, is that she didn't intend to be his baggage. If she was going to support him, and him her, then it would be as partners.

While he most definitely held the leash in this arrangement due to being the master and her the slave, he didn't seem to want that kind of relationship, so if there was something she was aiming for in regards to them, it was ending up as partners, and if she happened to develop feelings for him, than that would be an added bonus.

As these thoughts circulated through her mind, Harry couldn't help but listen in and agree with her. They'd work towards becoming partners, as he felt that was what they were meant to be, but he wasn't just going to see what would happen between them. No he definitely intended to woo her. After all, his life was going to be far too long wondering what could be. He'd shoot for the moon, and see where he ended up.

With a sense of direction now had, the two were able to settle in for the night. It took time for Daphne to fall asleep, as she'd never shared a bed with anyone other than Tracey before, and though Harry fell asleep in the chair, he was still only a few feet from her, so she was left a bit uneasy. She eventually passed out, and was awoken by her name.

She awoke to find Harry dressed in a set of simplistic dark robes. He nodded at the foot of the bed where another set of robes sat. He stepped out, leaving her alone to dress, afterward she joined him.

The two were treated to breakfast and a morning chat with their new superior, a chief researcher and doctor for the Church by the name of Clark Robertson. This man would be their superior and teacher who'd also handle investigating and studying them as well.

The morning was filled with explanations as to who and what they were. Endless questions of their mutations, and abilities, the various doctors and scientists of the church were immensely curious to learn about them and what they could do.

The two answered, staying vague in some areas, but quickly falling into a rhythm with one another, which was surprising for Daphne. They seemed to be of similar minds with how much they intended to share, and what kind of story they were going with.

In essence, they revealed themselves to be travelers, taken from some other time or place. They didn't know where this was in relation to where they'd come from, or even when it was, so they were left with nothing but their own curiosity.

They explained that a sort of higher power, recognized by it's own symbology, as identified by the marks they both shared, had sent them here, but the reason why was uncertain.

This led these scientists to believe that the two may be Kin, or at least, Kin adjacent. It was explained to Harry and Daphne, the nature of the Church. The Church itself was born out of a group of researchers who discovered a holy medium within the catacombs beneath the city. This medium, was the Old Blood. A miraculous substance that could heal all injuries, accelerate regeneration, and cure diseases. The Old Blood was brought back to Yharnam and the scholars who'd found it, eventually formed the Healing Church a few decades prior. The Church discovered means of replicating the blood and using it to heal people, this is what allowed the church to grow in power and basically take over the city of Yharnam.

What outsiders did not know, was that the Old Blood was the blood of the Gods. In fact, according to the beliefs of the researchers, it was the same blood that flowed in the veins of the Great One who had sent them there. The Great Ones were what they'd named the Gods, beings of a higher plane of existence, that could exist on multiple planes, and in multiple dimensions, and affect them with pristine accuracy and ease. They were convinced that the 'Higher Being' that the two spoke of, was one of these Great Ones, though Harry wasn't quite convinced as the description of them, and their numerous nature didn't quite match Warp entities. While Warp entities could possess living things, they weren't creatures of reality. Warp entities could not exist in reality without a steady stream of warp energy, or they had to possess the body of a person. Harry didn't sense the presence of the warp, didn't sense that malevolent chaotic energy, which would be needed for the matter of this 'Old Blood' to exist. If it was in fact, the blood of warp entities. No he was leaning more towards these Great Ones being higher beings of a different sort. He wasn't at the point of dismissing them as warp entities completely, but the evidence he'd heard so far was having him lean in a different direction. All of this, he kept to himself, as having them believe the duo had been sent by a Great One, would only help their situation.

Continuing on, the two learned how an extension of the church was devoted to studying the nature of the Old Blood, and the beings it was derived from. The Great Ones. Firstly there were Kin. Kin, otherwise know as Kin of the Cosmos, were beings that were like the Great Ones, but tied to exactly one plane of existence. They were evolved beings, but not necessarily higher ones. Kin were seen as servants of the Great Ones, as less evolved forms of them. Most Kin were uniquely alien in nature, defying most means of understanding, but they were still somewhat understandable. It was the Great Ones that truly defied logic or reasoning.

These doctors of the Church believed that Harry and Daphne were Kin, or at least, as close to Kin as a mortal being could be. Their unique mutations were a sign of it, and the two had no desire to correct them.

Though some of their immediate desires surrounded dissecting the duo, to learn their secrets, for now they would determine what they could from them alive. Daphne was naturally uneasy hearing this, but Harry simply chuckled and shook his head. He cautioned them against such desires, as he had died before, and it was something that never really stuck. He could die as many times as he wished, they could all only die once, so it was in their best interest to not earn his wrath.

This of course, turned discussions towards their magical abilities. Though Harry and Daphne called it magic, the members of the Church referred to it as Arcane power. They weren't wrong in their comparison but they weren't entirely accurate either. As it was explained to them, Arcane power came from the Cosmos, so to Harry and Daphne it sounded like Magic from a higher plane of existence.

It was like the nature of magic that was wielded by Mindflayers, which was called psionics, or the magic of Beholders, dragon magic, was also magic of a higher plane of existence. Luna had once said to Harry that magic existed on a tiered system that usually correlated to it's age. There was some exceptions when it came to power, but usually the older a magic was, the stronger it became. Luna, being Death, had access to magic that was basically at the top of the tier system. By her exacting approximation it was the second oldest kind of magic, as the first kind was tied to the creation and birth of things. Basically, things had to be created before they could be destroyed. They had to exist before they could die. The nature of Death itself, the nature of things being able to end, gave rise to a new type of magic, which was the kind that Death itself was comprised of, so basically the second oldest and second highest tier of magic. What this ultimately meant, not even Luna knew, but Harry had seen some of the effects of it, namely that he could look at her with his Beholder eye, and she was completely unaffected by it's anti-magic properties. Warp Magic, or Warp Energy was on a much higher tier than the magic of reality that humans could use. It was why he could look at beings like Tracey with his Beholder eye, and disrupt her magic, making her feel uneasy, but he didn't completely cancel it, like would happen to 'normal' magic.

It sounded to them like this Arcane Power was magic that came from a higher plan of existence, like the magic of Mindflayers, or Dragons, or Beholders. It wasn't Warp Magic, but it was far more evolved than normal magic.

They could also use such powers with their own holy mediums, these wands of theirs, though it was quickly revealed that at least for Harry, magic came easy to him. He could generate fire, or lightning, and use telekinesis without such a tool, most of which came from his bodily mutations, or plasmids. Again, Harry didn't choose to correct them, and instead worked off of their own beliefs.

There was much to be learned, and much to understand. The Church sought to understand the Cosmos, to understand the nature of the Great Ones, of the Kin, of things beyond the boundaries of this realm, or this plane of existence, and they intended to use Harry and Daphne to help them, and after learning of the Church's goals, and it's desires, the two began to grow eager to aid them, to see what they could learn.

Their time with the Church began in earnest. The two were treated both with suspicion but also intrigue. They were outsiders, yet the Church did not hide it's interest in them.

They worked with the various scholars and researchers of the Church, even the enigmatic Choir, and School of Mensis, two factions of the Church who explored and researched the Cosmos in their own unique ways. The Choir itself was like an upper-side echelon of the Church. They didn't run things, but held quite a bit of power. Their pursuits and investigations involved magic, and elevating their thoughts. In many ways, they were like the scholars of Byrgenwerth, in how they pursued and researched the Cosmos, always eager to explore new and fascinating avenues to try and attain their goals. The School of Mensis, was more like a branch of the Church that had broken off but still remained a part of it. The School pursued it's own methods and research though unlike the Choir and Church which operated in the upper parts of Yharnam the School of Mensis based it's operations out of the Unseen Village known as Yahar'gul, a village that sat in the lower parts of Yharnam, where the school had almost full control.

While the Church sought to use the Old Blood to try and understand the Great Ones, both the Choir and School of Mensis believed it was Insight that would guide them. They believed knowledge of the Cosmos would help them to understand the greater mysteries and aid in their goals. The ultimate goal of the Church, of all three groups was to elevate humanity, to evolve it to a higher plane of existence. Either through the use of blood, or by gaining insight into the cosmos and the eldritch unknowable nature of the higher planes of reality.

Harry and Daphne were immediately intrigued by these pursuits and began diligent work in aiding the various researchers who spoke with them.

The two were mostly confined to the Church and it's various institutes, not that they minded, as they were given whatever they wanted or needed, but in their brief time amongst the Yharnamites, they learned that the people were a largely suspicious, and highly zealous group. They would lower their heads when they spotted members of the church and payed them deference while they moved through the city. They prayed often, and held deep seated beliefs in the Church's power and authority.

There was also the depravity of the city itself. That being, their addiction to the Old Blood. Despite being a healing agent, the Blood of the Healing Church was also intoxicating to imbibe. People began using it to synthesize cocktails and other beverages for everyday consumption. People in Yharnam drank more blood, than alcohol. While disturbing at first, it was something beneficial to Harry as he could simply drink down some blood cocktails to satiate his appetite for blood.

The rampant consumption of this blood though, is where a problem began to reveal itself to Harry and Daphne.

It was after only a few days, when something interesting happened. The Church shut it's gates as the sun began to set, and a troop of heavily armed warriors gathered their gear and prepared to march out into the city.

Curiously, the two asked what was going on.

It was revealed to them that this was the night of the hunt. Beasts were out, roaming the streets, and it was part of the Church's duty to go and cleanse the street of these Beasts.

It took a few compulsion charms to allow Harry and Daphne to join in the hunt so they could observe the situation.

As darkness fell upon the town, creatures began to emerge.

To Harry and Daphne, it almost looked like lycanthropy had struck the city hard. Wolfen animalistic beasts began to emerge from the shadows to attack people. People locked themselves in their homes, burning incense to ward off the beasts, many men grabbed tools and weapons and joined the church hunters, walking with them to clear the streets of beasts.

It went unsaid but Harry and Daphne immediately had the same guess as to where these creatures had come from. Given that some of the corrupted beasts, were wearing the clothes of regular Yharnamites, it was pretty clear to them that the cause of this was probably the Blood they were drinking.

Though it looked like Lycanthropy, as the infected grew hair out of their bodies, and became vicious and bloodthirsty, it was clear that it wasn't the same. This process was much slower. The infected weren't werewolves. At least not all of them. They did encounter a few werewolf-like beasts, these large, quadrupedal wolves that stalked the streets, killing and eating anyone they encountered, but for the most part, the infection seemed to be progressing slowly.

They learned from the various hunters and townspeople that these hunts happened almost weekly, sometimes even a few nights a week to deal with the beasts. The worst area was in and around old Yharnam where the hunts primarily occurred. In the rest of the city you might get one or two infected a night, but in Old Yharnam it was ten or twenty a night, and that's where the larger, werewolf-like beasts were appearing as well. No one knew why it was happening, only that that seemed to be the epicenter of the sickness.

For the first night, the duo observed the hunt, saw how the beasts were hunted and killed, saw their incredible strength, and how they could tear humans limb from limb with ease. They saw their fear of light, and fire, which is why they usually only came out at night. They learned a great deal that night, and when they returned, the two discussed things, both coming to the agreement that it had to be the Blood causing this infection.

It was obvious that the church knew that the blood was causing this as they were so quick to react to hunt down the beasts. Now the two were even more curious. Ancient alien blood, from higher beings that caused symptoms almost like a slow-acting lycanthropy. What was this Old Blood, what were these Great Ones?

Their curiosity grew.

From that night onward, the duo developed goals within the Church. Harry began to join the Church Hunters, becoming a regular member of the hunts, while Daphne aimed to rise to the upper echelons of the Church, her goal being to eventually join the Choir, and learn it's secrets.

That was when the two's relationship really started to blossom as well. It began with them just sharing things they'd discovered during the day. Most days, Daphne was buried in her research. Her nose constantly in books and tomes, reading and researching, it impressed even the other scholars of the Church just how diligently she studied and learned from them. Within weeks she had a deep grasp of the city and it's history, within two months, a well-rounded understanding of the Church and it's inner workings. Harry gave up pretending he needed to sleep, he also didn't want to aggravate the growing relationship he had with Daphne by spending to much time in the dreamworld, where they'd inevitably be drawn to sex. She even asked him about it once, when she noticed he was hardly sleeping. He simply explained that he no longer needed too. He wasn't quite sure what exactly it was, probably his vampiric blood, but he no longer needed to sleep. He could, but he didn't have to, so during the day, he studied with Daphne, or he trained with the various trick weapons of the hunters, and at night, he would join the hunts in Yharnam.

His skill as a fighter quickly returned to him. The last two worlds he'd been on, he did very little actual fighting, yet he'd lost little of his skills gained from his time on Sera. It was interesting learning to wield the various Trick Weapons of the Church and Workshop. The idea of Trick Weapons came from a man named Gehrman, who was the first of the Hunters of Yharnam. These Hunters, often referred to as the Old Hunters, began the beast hunts in Yharnam, hunting and slaying the vicious creatures armed with guns that fired quicksilver bullets, that did greater harm to the beasts, and Trick Weapons, which were both weapons and tools for the hunts. They ran their operations from a place called the Workshop, and were once an ally of the Church, but over time, the Church saw the need for it's own breed of Hunters, and opened it's own Workshop and developed it's own tools. Eventually the Old Hunters faded away, or died out, leaving the Church Hunters to inherit the hunt armed with a new set of beast-hunting tools, and Trick Weapons.

A Trick Weapon was a type of weapon that could transform between one or more states. Most Trick Weapons had two forms, giving the hunter a wider range of offensive options while needing to carry fewer implements.

For example, the most common Trick Weapon wielded by Church Hunters was the Threaded Cane. The Threaded Cane was a bladed cane that could be used like a sword to flog enemies to death, but it could also transform into a bladed whip to serrate and tear at the flesh of beasts. It was the preferred weapon, mostly due to style rather than efficiency. That wasn't to say that it wasn't an efficient weapon because it certainly was, the biggest benefit being the distance it let you keep from the super-humanly powerful beasts, however it was only really useful outdoors or in wide areas. Being a whip and all, enclosed spaces rendered half of the weapon's fighting ability void in specific situations, and in the narrow streets of Yharnam, clacking your whip off one of the walls or buildings, or street lamps was a common occurrence that usually resulted in someone getting a limb chewed off by a beast.

Still the Church Hunters preferred it, as they often favored style over substance. In fairness though the only reliable defense against the beasts was to dodge their attacks. Blocking was almost non-existent in Hunter fighting styles. This was largely for the same reason that hunters didn't wear armor either. The more mutated a beast-infected individual became, the stronger they became as well. The werewolf-like beasts could cleave a person to ribbons with one slash of their claws. They could carve right through steel, shredding and tearing it with remarkable ease. The only kind of armor that was worth a damn was thick heavy iron, but that slowed you down, and even if the beasts couldn't rip through it easily, it was still just a human underneath. You'd swiftly find yourself knocked down, your armor torn away and your soft fleshy bits devoured all while you screamed.

So they chose to forgo armor or shields, and instead favored swift movements, fancy footwork, acrobatics, and powerful weapons. The best counter to an enemy attack was to attack them first. This was one reason why most hunters carried guns. These single shot pistols or blunderbusses weren't designed to harm the beasts, but more so as a distraction. Quicksilver could hurt them more than regular metal, but it was still a tiny metal ball hitting them, it did very little damage on the grand scale, and beasts were remarkably tough and could grow incredibly large. No they used their guns to interrupt the enemy. Despite not being fatal, getting shot in the chest or face, when you weren't expecting it, often left an opponent open to a few good attacks, or at the very least, allowed you to put some more distance between you and your foe, or maneuver to a better position.

Harry was quite certain he could have remedied that issue by showing the Workshop how to design more modern Firearms. Harry was by no means a gunsmith, but he had quite a bit of experience as a mechanical and chemical engineer from his time learning under the Scientist Ukkon, as well as working as Chief Scientist for the Locust. His greatest skill was still in biology, but that didn't mean he wasn't quite proficient in the former two. Still he chose not to, at least not yet, being more interested in learning their ways, before he started improving upon them. He also took note of how much his mark of Khorne would blaze during hunts, as he quickly noticed how one of the best means of defeating the beasts was to bleed them out. They regenerated from injuries very quickly, so the best answer was to carve open large bleeding wounds, and cause them to die of exsanguination.

This was seen in some of the older, but still rather common trick weapons like the Saw Spear and the Saw Cleaver. Both acted like short blades in one form, both blades carrying sharp serrated teeth, though the Saw Spear's blade was more like the toothy jaw of a beast, while the Cleaver's blade was just that, a cleaver, with a serrated blade on the outside and a smooth sharp blade on the inside. Both weapons unfolded at a hinge on the handle, extending outwards, allowing the Saw Cleaver to become a long-handled sword, giving greater distance, while the Saw Spear, became as the name insinuated, a short spear.

Some Trick Weapons were quite simple, like these, just a folding mechanism to allow for a simple transformation. Other simple weapons included the Kirkhammer, and the Ludwig's Holy Blade. Both were simple silver swords, that had very special sheaths. The Kirkhammer's sheath was a large square great-hammer, that the sword could lock into, becoming the Hammer's handle. This essentially allowing the sword to transform into a huge warhammer for smashing enemies into paste. Ludwig's Holy Blade, was a special sword based off of the mystical Moonlight Sword that a Hunter named Ludwig once carried. Unfortunately he and his incredible glowing sword had vanished a few years ago. The sword now wielded by Church Hunters was an imitation of it. Again in one form, a long silver sword, but when sheathed, it transformed into a massive Greatsword. Essentially the sheath of the blade, was another sword, so you could either have a long sword, or a greatsword.

That was kind of the theme for some Trick Weapons, though others had more curious alterations. The weapons of the Powder Kegs, a faction within the Workshop were a bit more mechanically sophisticated. The others within the workshop considered the Powder Kegs strange, and eccentric, but their tools were quite useful so people put up with them.

Harry spent his time learning to use these tools, studying at what worked best. He naturally perished a few times during these endeavors, only to rise again to finish off the attacking beast. As time went on, he found himself growing once more, to his surprise, he was growing very quickly. This was the first time he'd been allowed to regrow after bonding himself with the Apotheosis Virus, and he was now seeing the effects of it. Despite only being here for a few months now, he had already shot up an inch or two. It made him wonder just how tall he'd end up, as it seemed each new set of deaths and then resets to his younger self, left him with a body with even more potential than before, which included things like his height.

One of the things Harry did to pass the time and further ingratiate himself with the church was assist in autopsies of various beasts, of which he also trained Daphne how to perform as well. She was far more queezy and uneasy around dead bodies than he was used to, but he was patient with her. He reminded himself of how long it took Fleur to get used to it. Just because Olivia picked up on it quickly, and Tracey was naturally inclined to find wonder in death, didn't mean everyone was so cool with it.

Daphne would build up a tolerance for it, and she did, learning more about autopsies, and studying the bodies of dead infected, as well as beasts.

As time went on, Harry began to notice something quite interesting occurring with Daphne. Taken away from Hogwarts, and especially from Tracey and her little sister Astoria, Daphne began to show a side of her that he hadn't seen before, a side that Tracey always claimed was there, but Harry had never actually seen it.

Having spent so long with Tracey, the two had naturally talked often, and this included talks about her friendship with Daphne. Harry even mentioned once that he did think the two made a unique pair, since they seemed so different from one another. Tracey was outgoing, bubbly, friendly, and playful, while Daphne was cool, cold, quiet, thoughtful, harsh, and direct.

Tracey had simply dismissed the apparent differences, claiming that Daphne was actually very sweet and friendly once you managed to get past her Ice Queen Persona. Later on, Tracey would explain that Daphne had taken it upon herself to try and keep Tracey and Astoria safe while at Hogwarts. She became cold, and harsh around others, suspicious of their motives, always searching for an angle. People called her the Ice Queen because of this, and while Tracey did agree that the name was fitting, she also encouraged him not to see it as the real Daphne. It was who she became in order to protect them. She was very protective, almost overly so. He'd see for himself, once she was out on her own, without someone to protect, he'd get the chance to see the real Daphne, and he had to admit, he was certainly starting to see what she was talking about.

That bit of excitement in her voice when she'd tell him about another topic she'd learned of, grew with each passing day. The brightness in her eyes seemed just a bit more noticeable as time went on.

She was growing more comfortable around Harry, and the two were starting to really form a friendship.

Not having to endure the overly sexual nature of their dreams, made things less awkward as well.

It was nice, things progressed for the first few months.

Harry quickly rose through the ranks of the Hunters, eventually becoming an independent hunter who traveled on his own, draped in the pitch black robes of the Church hunters as he stalked the beasts in and around Old Yharnam.

In his time as a hunter, he killed, and fed upon the beasts of Yharnam, taking note of how he didn't mutate when consuming them. The infected people, and even the lesser beasts, sometimes he would feed on their blood, or even utilize his newly acquired proboscis to drink the brains from their skulls. That was a new one for him, but it made satiating his Mindflayer hunger so much easier. Instead of actually having to crack open a skull and consume the brain of his victim he could just use the proboscis to pierce through the bone, and slurp up the gray matter. It was strange learning to feed that way, but Harry took to it over time, just as he learned to drink blood.

He still wondered why that specific trait was one he mutated, but a definitive answer didn't immediately form. He began to suspect that perhaps, due to the nature of Apotheosis, and the way it enhanced all of his bodily traits, that it recognized his need to consume brain matter as part of his Mindflayer DNA, and recognized the superior trait from the brainsucker creature's proboscis, and so it mutated him to adapt to that trait after he consumed it's DNA by drinking it's blood. The reason he hadn't experienced any further mutations was because the various beasts possessed no significant traits that could enhance, surpass, or compliment current functions or abilities of his body. That was his current theory in regards to the nature of the Apotheosis Virus. Despite having created it, there were still many mysteries surrounding it, as well as having to acknowledge that being a part of his body, meant that each time he died, the Virus would be subjected to Slaanesh's Pursuit of Perfection, meaning it would become more ingrained and tied to his body. That meant that any number of possibilities existed as to what could eventually happen.

The full extent of everything Apotheosis did to his body still wasn't fully known. It simply 'improved' him. Hell a measurable example was how much semen he released upon ejaculation. Stripped of anything but it's general purpose, the point of semen was to serve as the vehicle to allow the easier transfer of sperm for the purpose of reproduction. Due to his mutated genitals, he already produced much larger loads than a regular human, close to around three or four times the amount, but now due to Apotheosis, that number had again doubled, meaning his average release was closer to six or eight times what a human produced on the higher end of average. Why was this? Simple, Apotheosis improved everything about him, so not only did his sperm live longer, and have the ability to survive at slightly higher and lower temperatures, but he produced more of it, and more semen to help deliver it.

Apotheosis recognized only the function of the body, and enhanced it. It didn't mutate it, or change it, it just increased it, thus increasing his ability to reproduce. Though as a small side note, comparing the increase in semen amount to the increase in sperm amount was vastly different. He and Tracey had noticed these changes the first time they had sex after his infection, and upon investigation found that while his semen production had doubled, he had nearly three times as many sperm within that semen. Needless to say, Harry had become much more fertile, and with how much longer his sperm could live, and survive, without the contraception spell to use, he'd likely get a girl pregnant very quickly.

It was something easily calculated and studied, far more than things like increased strength, speed, and reflexes. The simple nature of Apotheosis was evolving him to become more efficient, aiding towards his ever growing complexity. Even just the earlier note on his increased sperm count, was proof enough of the Virus's efficiency and how powerful it could be. Traces of Apotheosis were bonded to his sperm cells, meaning the virus was likely to pass on to his children, causing evolutionary enhancements in them as well. Until he fully understood just what it was he had created and what it's limits were, who could really say what would ultimately come from it.

Until his body mutated again from consuming foreign materials, he was left with only the one occurrence to mull over. So for now, he'd just speculate, and stick to hunting, killing, and occasionally consuming the beasts.

Daphne, though her skill with study, and knowledge progressed organically, her studies into the Cosmos proceeded at an exponential rate. Concepts that were alien to most people, she understood and grasped with incredible speed. The Church's studies into alternate realities, higher dimensions, the higher dimensional beings known as the Great Ones, and the idea of human ascension, were all concepts that Daphne took to with an almost unnatural ease. Some of these topics even threw Harry for a loop, but Daphne seemed to take to them, and the mysteries surrounding them with a practiced ease. It certainly made her popular with the Church researchers and it opened doorways to meetings with higher Church personnel.

Eventually Luna once more made contact with him, and quickly learned to speak with Daphne as well, allowing the two to converse. Again she made quick work starting up another friendship which Harry very much approved of. This also allowed Daphne someone other than Harry to converse with, which was a plus, and kept them from feeling trapped with one another.

As time progressed the duo began spending more time together, they'd venture out to the city to just enjoy it during the daytime. These dates were few and far between but deeply enjoyable to the two of them. Touching began to occur, hand holding, resting back to back while they read books, even to the point of Daphne resting with her back against Harry's chest while she had her nose buried in a book became more and more frequent.

He was patient with her, but did little to hide his attraction. He would look at her sometimes, admiring her beauty, and when she'd notice him, she'd give him these strange looks, almost questioning why he was staring, only for him to then laugh and look away.

Daphne was no fool. She recognized these looks and understood his attraction. He learned from her inner thoughts that she was growing an attraction to him as well. He learned that part of her attraction to him, came from her trust in him. He shared things with her, things that surprised her. Shared knowledge and ideas, things that she'd normally expect to be closely guarded secrets. One of their biggest points of bonding, came from Harry continuing to teach her magic. It was only for about an hour or so a day, but it was one of Daphne's favorite times. Magic came so easily to her, and they simply sailed through material. Within a month she'd learned the rest of her Fourth Year material. By the end of the second month, she was well on her way through the Fifth Year. All of his knowledge, taken from Voldemort's memories, he was happy to share with her. Not just spells, or magical knowledge, but secrets about Voldemort's followers, his servants, his inner circle. Some days, the two would just sit there and discuss plans or ideas for dismantling or taking down the entire dark faction.

It was during his time with Daphne that he really got the chance to discuss his future goals with someone. Most talks regarding the future that he'd shared with others, surrounded their future as a couple, or as a family, and while those talks were starting, Daphne was more interested in where he intended to go, what he intended to do going forward.

She knew part of it, but also acknowledged that a lot of time for him had passed between the meeting with her parents, and now.

And so they discussed his goals, his plans for the future. They tried to discuss hers as well, but Daphne didn't really have any, which was surprising for Harry. Stuck believing that she was going to be married to Draco, her vision of the future was as a housewife. Her hope was always to prove herself as a powerful and capable political tool so that even Draco could see her value, and so she wouldn't be relegated to the life of a home maker, and housewife. She just didn't want such things as her future. Yes she wanted a husband, yes she wanted children in the future, but she also wanted a degree of independence, of autonomy. The ability to say that she provides something, that she adds something of value beyond that which is expected of her. It's why she worked so hard to cultivate political knowledge, by learning and understanding the students of Hogwarts, how they were, how they were interconnected, the strengths and powers, and weaknesses of their houses, things like that.

Being married to Harry and going through all this, changed that future, but the question still remained, how much? As a woman in their society, her husband had a strong say in the level of her autonomy, which was why being married to Draco was tantamount to being nothing more than a servant that occasionally had sex with him, and mothered his children.

Harry hadn't shown any signs of specifically wanting them in that role, which opened many doorways. There of course were plenty of wants, but Daphne was a realist. There was no point in working towards a want, if that want was counterproductive to the life they were going to have.

So the question was, what were his goals for the future?

So they discussed it. Harry had a desire, in regards to the future, he had several in fact. There were things he needed to do. Kill Voldemort, that was paramount. Learn about the truth surrounding himself and his mother's God, that was second. Then came his desire to get rid of these two broken factions that kept clashing and tearing England apart. The Light and Dark were nothing more than pale reflections of each other, and Harry despised them. He sought to topple them, to bring both down, and break them apart. His hope being that something new, something better would arise from the ashes, but he had no greater hope beyond that.

To clarify so she understood she asked him if he had any intention towards trying to take over Britain. He said no. He didn't want that, didn't feel like that was what he was meant for. In truth, he didn't really believe that England was where he was meant to be either.

He laid out a brief timeline, and he held nothing back from her.

He intended to kill Voldemort by the end of this school year. Once he was freed from the Tournament and knew what the old snake was planning, he'd kill him, destroy his Horcruxes, and be done with him forever. Afterwards, he'd work on dismantling the Light and Dark factions, and form a new faction, in order to keep order in magical Britain. Whether or not that faction became the new de facto rulers of Britain or just heralded in the new leaders, didn't overly matter to him at this point, he just wanted the old corrupt systems gone. He strongly suspected that this would be their last year at Hogwarts. He had no reason to return next year, and neither would any of them, given all that they'd gone through. Plus hiding their nature as Daemons would already be hard enough, they had to while he was stuck there due to the tournament but once it was over, they'd be free from it. He was quite direct when he said their future wouldn't involve any sort of menial work in Britain, their fates lay elsewhere. The answer to that question most likely lay in whatever secrets his mother would reveal, and they'd find when they went to the tomb of her slumbering God.

Daphne listened and nodded along with him as he explained his position and his thoughts going forward. She understood that until they knew more, in regards to what was really going on involving his Mother and her god that they wouldn't have a more in-depth plan than what he'd already laid out.

So for now, this is what they had to work with.

Which was fine, it was something to start with, and that was good enough for Daphne, it gave her something else to ponder, to think about. She'd determine how best to assist in those endeavors, to be of help. It was as he said, given their unique future, they weren't going to live the lives of normal people. There was no day-jobs ahead of them. Finishing Hogwarts had practically no meaning to them going forward

These discussions helped the two bond, and form an ever deepening relationship.

More time passed, and they grew ever more intimate, kissing more and more, touching more and more. Daphne did become a bit more cold, and calculating as time went on, but that was again born of her protectiveness of the people she cared about. Harry had become one of those people. Her feelings of protectiveness weren't as strong towards him because of how powerful he was, but she still felt it, felt the need to keep an eye on him, and keep an eye on others to make sure no one was plotting anything. During that time, Harry revealed the depth of his mind-reading abilities to Daphne, which much to her chagrin he would now openly tease her about her more perverse thoughts as they continued to grow their relationship.

He also took the time, at around a year into this particular journey to finally share the Dark Soul with her. The process went the same as it did each of the previous times, though for Daphne, it was even more meaningful to her, as he was quite literally sharing a part of his soul with her, a part he hoped would help keep her human, keep her, 'her'.

That was deeply moving, and it led to the very first time she ever said that she loved him. It was quick, but he had heard it, and things quickly grew in intensity for the two of them. He returned her love, and that led the two to bed, where Daphne soon found herself naked, with Harry between her legs.

The experience was otherworldly for her, as she moaned and cried out, feeling his tongue dance in her depths, while his fingers teased at her lips and clit.

Harry had largely become a pro at cunnilingus, and worked her over with his expertise, taking just a brief moment to familiarize himself with his wife's intimate area. He kept at her, even as her moans turned to whimpers and she started to push against him to try and slow him down. He responded defiantly, continuing his assault, forcing her over the edge. He couldn't help but laugh as she involuntarily tried crushing his head with her thighs.

He was far from done. He let her rest for a bit before returning to his feast, much to her surprise. She came again a few minutes later, and then he brought her close to a third time, before pulling himself up and meeting her in a lustful kiss, his fingers doing the rest of the work. Her soft groans and whimpers filled his ears as he fingered her to an explosive climax.

His hand was drenched by her fluids as he pulled his hand free. She continued to tremble and whimper from the force of her release, and seeing her like that, he couldn't escape the lustful stirring in his loins that urged him to take her.

Before she could regain her focus, he had cast the spell to keep him from hurting her, and lined himself up with her entrance.

"Harry…?" She gasped out, as he penetrated her opening. She repeated his name as he broke her hymen, claiming her virginity.

Her legs fell open as she groaned out in pain and focused her eyes on him.

He continued pressing into her, pushing his full length into her depths, as he leaned down over her, and gifted her a loving smile. One of his hands came to rest on her chest, gently playing with her breasts and nipples, while the two stared at one another.

"You're inside of me." She spoke, her breaths shallow, as her heart pounded.

"I am… I look forward to spending a lot of time in here." He responded, smirking down at her, his visible green eye, seeming to radiate with lust and desire.

"Feels good does it?" She grunted, still working through the pain.

"You feel incredible Daph. You've got an amazing body, and it goes good with those incredible brains of yours." Harry complimented her, gaining a smiling grimace from Daphne as she felt him twitch in her depths.

"Is it supposed to hurt this much?" She asked him with another grimace.

"For a bit. The pain will go away after a little while, once you get used to it. Don't worry, since it's your first time, I'll try and be gentle." He told her, getting a rueful smirk from her in response.

"You'd best try your hardest. If you plan on spending a lot of time inside of me, like you said, you better make it worth my time." She challenged him, with her typical snarkyness.

"Yes ma'am!" Harry responded enthusiastically, causing her to roll her eyes, as he leaned over her and groped at both of her breasts.

He continued to hover over her for a few long moments before leaning down to kiss her, which she returned. Her challenging veneer quickly faded away, and she was left grinning up at him, as the pain slowly began to fade.

"Ready?" He asked her after several more moments of preparation.

She nodded and shuddered as he rose up, and took her hips in his hands. She had to take a moment to marvel at just how much bigger he was than her. They'd only been here for a year, and yet already, he was over five foot, ten inches. He was so much bigger than the short scrawny young man she'd met at the start of the year. His evolution and adaptation had changed his body in such a way that he was naturally going to end up much taller. She was certain he'd eventually tower over her, though she didn't exactly mind that.

Staring up at him, she felt vulnerable, yet safe. She felt he could so easily hurt her, but he wouldn't. She wondered, if only for a brief moment, if this is what women were looking for in men when they sought out bad boys. Someone who scared them, someone who could hurt them, yet they knew, without a shadow of a doubt that that person never would, and would gladly die to keep them from harm. It was a momentary thought, born of many hours of hearing Pansy and Tracey and all the other girls swoon and sigh over various boys in their magazines. Always chasing the bad boys, the dangerous boys, always infatuated with taming the wild beasts. It was just a curiosity though, that was there one second and gone the next, replaced by pleasure.

He was gentle but firm at first, she could tell he was fighting to hold himself back. His want for her, his desire to claim her, and take her as roughly as he wanted, it showed in his actions and his movements. It made her feel wanted, desirable. The idea that he could lust after her this much despite all of the other partners he'd had. Daphne had never been vein in regards to her own beauty. She knew she was good looking, she knew she was desirable, but she never really put stock into it, in comparison to others. From her own point of view, she thought Tracey was far prettier. Unlike Daphne who was pretty thin, and wasn't overly curvaceous, Tracey certainly was, and though she hadn't seen what she looked like fully grown, she had to assume if it was anything close to how she looked in the dream world, she remained a knockout.

Her thoughts were immediately overcome by a wave of pleasure, and for a moment she cursed herself for her thoughtful mind. Daphne had never really had those 'turn your brain off' moments. She'd always been a clinical person, always thinking, always planning, mindless pleasure was foreign to her. So she cursed herself for her difficulty in just focusing on what she was feeling. She wanted to focus on it, she tried to keep her whole focus on it, but it simply filled her with questions and wonderment. With every thrust, every grasp, every kiss he placed upon her, she was filled with wonderment. Did it feel like this for the others? Did they enjoy it as much as she was? Should she be doing more? How was one supposed to act while having sex? What did Harry enjoy? What did he want from her?

All these questions were only part of the avalanche that haphazardly drained through her mind. Constantly being interrupted by pleasure, it took her a while to recognize the cheeky grin that kept appearing on Harry's face, when he'd thrust just that extra bit harder, to break her line of thought.

A realization quickly struck her, as she remembered his mind-reading powers.

"Are you in my head Potter?" She mentally questioned, chuckling to herself as she draped her arms over his shoulders, and locked her legs around him as well.

"I'm in more places than just there." Harry responded cheekily, earning a pouting glare from Daphne that quickly morphed into a smile. He grinned back and scooped her into his arms, lifting her off the bed and onto his lap where he helped her bounce on his member.

"I'm gonna have to work harder to keep those beautiful brains of yours on what matters." He continued, again earning a wide grin from Daphne before she roughly kissed him.

"If you think you're up to it." She challenged in response as the two separated. Harry gifted her a charming smirk, more than happy to rise to the occasion for such a challenge.

And he certainly did so.

She was immediately on her back, and several long moments later, Harry let out a low groan and flooded her depths with his seed. He gently panted over her, as her pussy drooled cum. She stared up at him for a second or two, before one of her hands darted between her legs to feel at the wetness leaking out of her.

"Merlin, Potter. You made a mess of me." Daphne replied, bringing her hand back up, three of her digits were covered in a thin slime of their mixed love fluids.

Harry's eyes trailed over them for a moment, a glint of red catching his eye. With a lustful grin, he grabbed her hands and drew one of the fingers into his mouth, his tongue wiping the fluids from it as he pulled back. Daphne stared up at him, surprise apparent on her face. He simply smirked down at her, easily reading her thoughts, and how turned on that sight had made her.

Though her thoughts were focused on his consumption of his own semen, he had only done so to get a small taste of the blood from her lost virginity. Tasting his own cum was far from the lewdest thing he'd ever done, especially with Fleur, but he'd been aching to finally try some of Daphne's blood. Though he could hardly taste the coppery blood, the hint of it was still there, more than enough to make him want to try a bit more.

He shook such thoughts from his head, instead focusing on Daphne's growing lust. He still held her hand, and he quickly cleaned a second finger of their joined fluids. Before bringing the third to her lips, an unbidden command shared in the offer. Daphne took it, without question, sliding the finger into her mouth, and tasting of their combined releases.

He grinned down at her as she drew the digit free, and he intertwined his fingers with hers. After a moment, he used his free hand to guide himself back into her waiting sex, and the two resumed their rut.

For over two hours the two continued to make love. Harry finished six times, four of those six times, were in Daphne's depths, flooding her sex with his seed. Daphne meanwhile got off almost ten times, finishing loudly each time. Despite her earlier criticism of herself, she found herself soon unable to really think about anything other than basking in, and reciprocating the pleasure she was receiving.

Despite it being her first time, Daphne was very enthusiastic and showed little shyness. She was almost as open as Fleur had been, encouraging him to keep going and participating. All she needed was a bit of direction on what felt best, and she was happy to try it out. She didn't want it to end. It just felt so good. Thankfully, her husband was a horny man, and all she needed to do was beckon him with her fingers, or even give him a look, and he was back inside of her, pounding away at her until one or both of them climaxed. It only stopped when Daphne physically couldn't do it anymore. Her vagina hurt, her hips, her breasts, her muscles in general were sore from constant flexing from repeated pleasurable spasms. Harry used a bit of healing magic to help deal with a bit of the more intimate soreness, but Daphne warned him not to heal her completely otherwise they'd probably keep going.

Though it went unsaid, he agreed with her, that for their first time, this was infinitely more than enough. He had certainly won her over.

At the end, the two were left holding one another, basking in each other's warmth.

"I love you, Harry." Daphne whispered, her head buried in his chest.

"I love you too, Daphne." He responded. Daphne beamed at his response.

"Since I've got you completely naked, there's something I wanna try." Harry spoke after a moment, causing Daphne to lift her head and give him a curious look. Immediately her mind began circling through any number of ideas as to what he could want from her while naked.

He stared back at her, a Cheshire grin spreading across his face.

Daphne felt her stomach drop at the sight of that grin, but before she could warn him against trying anything funny, she found herself cackling with laughter as Harry's fingers tickled across her ribs, hips, armpits, and thighs.

Harry would have stopped after a few seconds but this moment quickly turned magical as he got his first real showing of a genuine uninhibited laugh from Daphne. It was like nothing he'd anticipated. He'd gotten a dry chuckle out of her once or twice, and made her smile often, but he'd been searching for that genuine laughter. He liked making his lovers laugh. He liked the sound of it, the way they felt during and after, that he could sense from them. The joy they felt, it always made him feel good, so he'd been trying to get some actual, genuine laughter out of Daphne for well over a month now, but she was always so measured, so in control, that he saw this as probably the only way to get some actual unfiltered laughter out of her.

It certainly worked, and it added so much character to her. Her laughter was absolutely nothing like how he imagined it would be. On the verge of being a mad cackling noise, it was loud and carried through the air.

"Stop it! Stop it! Please!" Daphne howled, trying to worm her way out of his grasp, finally ending up tucked in the fetal position, glaring out of the corner of her eye at him, while he grinned down at her.

Despite the glare, and fresh tears in her eyes, he could see her trying to hide her own grin.

She hid her head in the bed once more, while Harry let out a laugh. He then leaned over her and trailed a few kisses along her back and shoulder before whispering in her ear. "Your laugh is magical. I love it!"

He didn't need to see her face or read her mind to know she was blushing up a storm.

Several long moments passed before she finally pulled her head up and gave him a long look. Once she was sure he wasn't going to continue his assault she crawled towards him. He sat back and allowed her to settle against his chest.

"It's been a while since I've laughed that hard." Daphne hummed as she rested against him.

"I have every intention of getting more laughter out of you, I hope you realize." Harry said to her, placing a kiss on top of her head as he did.

"I look forward to it." Daphne responded, placing a kiss of her own on his chest. Harry adjusted himself to lay back on the bed, allowing the two of them to begin falling asleep, before they did though, there was one thing he needed to ask.

"Daph, you realize we're probably gonna fuck again in our dreams, right?" Harry began.

"Yeah, I thought that was why you stayed up at night so we didn't have to deal with that constant frustration." Daphne responded.

"Yeah, but I'm gonna go to sleep now though, and you know what that likely means will happen in our dreams. I just wanted to ask what's your opinion on sleep and sexual consent?" Harry inquired.

Daphne lifted her head and gave him a quizzical look.

"Olivia doesn't want me fondling her in her sleep, that doesn't mean she doesn't want me doing things to her, she just wants me to wake her up. She's happy to be woken out of a dead sleep to have sex. Fleur's fine with me molesting her, even if she's still completely clocked out, her only rule is that if I start something I have to finish it, and that means finishing it for the both of us. If I get her worked up, I have to make sure she's well and satisfied since I started it. Luna prefers to be awake, but doesn't mind either way. And Tracey is perfectly fine with me doing things to her in her sleep, just as long as we agree that the door swings both ways. I can touch her, she can touch me, and we both agree it's alright." Harry explained to her. Daphne blinked at that, taking in the opinions and perspectives of Harry's other lovers, including her best friend, which made her blush a bit.

"Am I to assume you plan on molesting me tonight?" Daphne asked him, giving him a smirk.

"Only if you're fine with it. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. I want to know your boundaries. Just because the others are fine with certain things, doesn't mean they're all fine with everything. I just know how raunchy the dreams can get, and Luna will be there too. I've done this enough times to know myself. Even after all that we just did, I'll probably wake up from such dreams, more than a little hot and bothered, and the first thing I'm gonna wanna do is make love to the beautiful woman in my arms. I just wanna know before we get to that point, so I don't do anything that might cross a boundary. I'm fine with whatever you're comfortable with, I just want to know, so that when it inevitably happens and I wake up like that, I don't do something I shouldn't." Harry explained himself. More than anything, he wanted her to be comfortable. As he mentioned, he knew how he was, and waking up, fully erect with Daphne's naked body pressed against him, he knew the first thing he'd want to do is slip himself inside of her. Some women were fine with that, others weren't. He preferred to know. In cases like this, with your lover, the whole forgiveness before permission thing, didn't really fly. At least, that was Harry's perspective. It saved from having arguments in the future.

"I think I'll follow Tracey's line of thought with this one. I will say this though, I don't like being woken up, I'm not a morning person, as you've no doubt learned, so if you're going to try and get your rocks off while I'm sleeping you best be stealthy about it, because if you do wake me up, you're gonna owe me." Daphne said to him, which caused him to chuckle.

"Deal, I don't mind it either, just in case you get extra adventurous one night." Harry replied, causing her to blush.

"Maybe I will, who knows." Daphne hummed, as she snuggled back into him.

Silence passed for a few long moments before Daphne spoke again.

"You know, you're surprisingly noble, despite everything you've been through. Everything that's happened to you, everything you've gone through, and done. I don't know, I guess I got the wrong impression of you from the others." Daphne spoke thoughtfully.

"What impression would that be?" Harry inquired curiously.

"Someone more direct. Someone who takes what they want when they want it. The others… they seem to fawn over you. I didn't get it at first. A part of me thought that you'd won them over, that they'd fallen for your charms and were just acting like girls do when they're head over heels. Then you started pursuing me, and I saw how much work you put into building our relationship, how much time you spent getting here. I mean… honestly, how long did it take you to get the others into bed?" Daphne questioned.

"Months for Olivia and Tracey, Fleur and I had already slept together before we went on our journey so it wasn't hard to hop back into it. Luna and I dated for a short while until your little plot got me killed. Then I spent over two decades only able to talk to her and interact with her in my dreams. I only got to start sleeping with her when I came back, so technically she's got you beat by over two decades." Harry responded, earning a curious hum from Daphne.

"Yeah, but still… you chased after me, despite the fact that you didn't have too. Because of these slave brands, and hell even our marriage, you could have just forced me to bed you, but you didn't. You could have told me right from the start you wanted a romantic relationship and I would have worked towards that. Instead all you asked from me is an attempt at friendship, and you let everything build from there. You flirted, you pursued, but you never made me reciprocate. I don't even mean forcefully or anything like that. Had you told me from the start you wanted us to have a romantic relationship, I would have tried to work at that, tried to get us there, because it would have made things easier going forward." Daphne continued on.

"Yeah, but I didn't want that. I wanted you, Daph. I wanted this to be real, and organic, something we both wanted, so all I asked for was an attempt at friendship. If you were willing to give me that, then I could work for what I wanted. I didn't want it, at first. I'll admit to that. You were cold, and distant, and hostile towards me, and while I was understanding, I wont say that it didn't hurt. But after getting to know you better, after spending some time with you and especially with Tracey, I finally began to understand you. I began to understand why you were the way you were, why you treated people with hostility and suspicion. I started to understand you as a person, and Tracey helped put the final pieces in place. I believed her, I trusted her, and it made me want the person she described. Then we came here, and I actually began to see it. You're cold to protect yourself, and the people you love from harm. You know who and what you are, that the game of politics is always being played, even at Hogwarts. You understand that actions taken, even during childhood can affect relationships long into adulthood. So you're cold, and distant, and protective of those you love. You keep Tracey away from others because you've known for a long time that one day you'd be married to Draco and those relationships would either end, or turn hostile, and that would break Tracey's heart, so you kept her from forming them. It's why you're always with her, why despite the fact that when it comes to your hobbies, you two have almost nothing in common, you still spend most of your time together doing the things that Tracey likes to do. You know your actions cause more immediate pain, but will help her in the long term, so you try and balm that pain by being there for her twenty-four seven. You try to give her the friendship and companionship she needs, despite the fact that you, as a person, are almost her exact opposite. It's how far you're willing to go for someone you love. How much you'll sacrifice for them. It also shows that you're willing to hurt them in the moment, to save them from greater pain or grief later in life. While Tracey lives more in the now, you are always thinking about the future, always planning always considering." Harry carried on for a bit about his perspective on her. Daphne took his critique on the chin, finding truth in his words. She knew a lot of this about herself, but hearing it from Harry, really helped to paint it in a clearer light, and it also showed to her, just how closely he was paying attention to her.

"Huh… I guess we both had some learning to do in regards to each other." Daphne said to him as she lifted her head to give him a long, caring look.

"Yeah. I see who you are now Daphne. I love who you are. When it comes to the people I love, I'll always treat them with kindness, and respect. I wont push you, unless you want me too. I'll encourage your pursuits, and I'll applaud and critique your successes and failures. I'll be your soundboard, to hear your thoughts and feelings. Maybe this is who I truly am. The person I truly am. Or maybe, it just a part of me, the best part. The worst parts I'll save for everyone else, because none of them deserve the good in me. None of them have earned the good things in me." Harry spoke, and though it went specifically unsaid, Daphne felt the unspoken words resonate with her.

"But you have." Though she didn't truly believe she was there yet, the fact that he thought so, that he believed her worthy of the few goods things still within him, touched her deeply, and caused her to nuzzle deeper into his chest, taking in his warmth with an unseen smile.

"Harry…?" She gently questioned, a concern fleeting into her mind.

"Yeah?" He responded.

"Would it be overstepping if I offered Granger some advice on how to try and fix your relationship and earn you trust?" She asked, lifting her head once more to look at him. Her thoughts turned to such things as she recalled the idea of pursuing that in order to help earn his forgiveness for helping to get him killed. She knew he had already forgiven such things and set them in the past, but she still felt she didn't deserve it. Something like that required action to even the scales. At least to her it did.

He gave her a long curious look, before answering. "No. I don't think so. I guess it depends on what you told her."

"Nothing personal. I just told her that her actions seemed to have hurt you deeply, and that it didn't seem possible to go back to what you once had. If she wanted back in your life, if she wanted that relationship back, she wasn't going to get it by trying to convince you to come back. You're a different person now. Your needs are different. The things you look for and expect from those close to you has changed. If she wanted to regain your friendship, she had to understand that, and prove to you that she too is different. I told her you weren't going to trust the person who abandoned you. She has to prove that she's not that person anymore, that she isn't going to go back to being that person. I don't know if it'll lead to anything. Ultimately the decision rests on your shoulders, but still… I wanted you to know that I talked to her. I didn't think it would be right to hide it." Daphne admitted to him.

"Hmm… well, if nothing else, it's sound advice Daph. You're right, I can't go back to that friendship, and I can't trust the person who abandoned me. If Hermione wishes to fix things, than at the very least she has to be able to prove to me she's not that person anymore and she wont go back to being that person. I don't know how she's going to convince me of that though. Obviously her word wont be enough. I guess she's gonna have to prove it somehow. Still though, I don't know how she could do it. I guess we'll ultimately see when it happens." Harry hummed, tapping his fingers on her back in a thoughtful fashion for several moments before letting out another hum.

"I appreciate you offering your advice. If nothing else, it was a kind thing to do." Harry offered to her after a few more moments to consider his feelings on that matter.

"Yeah. Like I said, it didn't feel right to not mention it, and I figured since we were being open and honest with each other, might as well mention it. Whatever happens between you and Granger I hope that it gives you closure. In the end, that's all I really hope for, no matter the outcome." Daphne said to him.

"Closure… yeah… that sounds nice. If whatever Hermione ends up trying out doesn't work, than at least I'll know there was never any going back. I don't have any doubts… not really. But sometimes I do wonder… question it, ya know. I guess we'll see. That's a long way off. We've got the now to focus on. Us." Harry again hummed, before kissing the top of Daphne's head, causing her to smile.

"Us…" She repeated softly, sinking further into the warmth of his embrace.

They were together now, truly and fully, and though they had a lot more growing to do, both felt they'd entered a new chapter in their lives together. They still have trials to complete here, but both were confident in themselves, and their ability to succeed, especially now that they knew they had each other.

The duo continued to rise through the ranks of the Church. Harry's abilities as a hunter, quickly elevated him in the eyes of the other hunters, and the higher ranked members of the Church. His ability to deal with problems, and cut down the rampaging beasts opened many doorways for him, and he used those doorways to accelerate Daphne's own ascension within the Church.

Often dressed in the long coat, Harry typically wore the hunter's set, widely used by hunters of all kinds. A long dark coat, with a short black cape for wiping away blood. He wore a cloth mask, small black glasses to hide the frightening coloration of his eyes, and a feathered cap. Though a typical outfit worn by hunters, Daphne often noted that he pulled it off very well, and it made him look cool. The outfit allowed him to keep his identity largely a secret, such that only a handful of well renowned hunters knew who exactly he was.

Daphne meanwhile kept to the white robes of the church. These robes did little for her figure, much to Harry's chagrin, and Daphne's amusement, as he often pouted at the sight of her getting dressed.

The two were a team, and they learned to work as a team. By the end of the year, the two had become moderately ranked within the church, and were quickly elevating themselves through both merit and manipulation. Harry's ability to use compulsion charms, a skill he eventually taught to Daphne led to them rising quickly but not without proper cause. They didn't want to draw suspicion to themselves, so they chose to rise a bit more organically and earn the trust of their superiors.

One day, seemingly at random, about twelve or thirteen months in, Daphne suddenly vanished. She was gone for the whole day before she returned. When she did, she revealed to Harry that she'd been brought into the Choir as it's newest member.

The two celebrated.

In the days that followed, Daphne was subjected and exposed to deeper and deeper secrets of the Church. She was brought in to test various artifacts that the Choir had recovered or devised over the years, and she took to them with such remarkable ease that it left the higher ranked members of the mysterious organization, absolutely flabbergasted.

She showed an intuitive knowledge and connection to these various artifacts, taking to them as easily as as she did her studies on the arcane and magic. Her ties to Harry, also caused her to quickly rise within the organization as he was quickly becoming the Church's greatest weapon, an identity that Harry leaned into, in order to open doorways for Daphne's ascension.

She slowly began to learn of darker and darker secrets of the Church and Choir. The things they were studying and investigating, the experiments they were performing. It kept her up some nights. For the fourth time in a row, Harry had to have the morality talk. Daphne was more practical and dark aligned than the others, but even she was disturbed by the things going on higher up in the church.

Harry helped to settle her mind, convincing her that she needn't find any morality in it, or convince herself that it was for the greater good. This world, this place, was theirs to use and exploit. They were here to riffle through Yharnam's pockets and steal everything of value. First was her ascension, but once that occurred, this world would become a literal playground. What happened here would fade beyond their care once they left, so it was best to dismiss worries about right and wrong, and focus on power, and how they could achieve it.

Daphne accepted the lesson, and began adjusting her own morals to reflect their goals.

While Daphne elevated herself within the church, day after day, night after night, Harry would stalk the streets of Yharnam hunting the beasts down. Despite his abilities there was always more to be found. The sickness that was causing them to turn had been given a name, Ashen Blood, and it was primarily located within the area known as Old Yharnam. He and the other hunters spent most of their time there, hunting the beasts. Weeks passed. Then months. Finally two years had gone by here in Yharnam when things reached a critical mass.

A new type of medicine had been created and distributed to the peoples in Old Yharnam, meant to cure them of this growing affliction. The end result was not what anyone anticipated. This medicine had been made using the Old Blood, and while the Choir and those of similar level within the Church knew that the transformation into beasts was being caused by the Old Blood, lower levels of the church and people of Yharnam did not. This medicine helped those who weren't already showing major symptoms, but for those who were, it only accelerated the change. Over the course of several nights, a major outbreak of beasts occurred. The moon hung low in the skies as the beasts overwhelmed the hunters and locals who tried to fight them.

Close to fifty Church sanctioned Hunters as well as almost a dozen other hunters, plus close to two hundred ordinary men and women went into old Yharnam that fateful night, and only a handful returned, Harry included.

He returned soaked in the blood of beasts, his eyes blazing with adrenaline from the fighting. Though he largely seemed unaffected by the negative affects of Old Blood itself, his vampiric nature made blood intoxicating for him, and with the Old Blood already being intoxicating and addicting, and having shed so much this night, he was feeling euphoric, high might even be a better description. He retained just enough cognizance to approach the Vicar and the members of the Choir, Daphne included, who watched his approach with concern and unease.

His eye focused on the Vicar, the leader of the Church, and he said to the man. "The streets are lost. The beasts are everywhere. We musn't allow them to escape. Seal it off, and I will burn it all!"

His words hung in the air for several long moments as dread filled them. From the darkened streets behind him, a beast emerged and came charging towards them. Bounding on two legs, this furred beast charged at them without fear or hesitance, the collection of ministers and other church personnel backed away in fear and surprise. Harry didn't turn to face the beast, instead he drew a spear from the Arsenal and held it in a reverse grip. The beast impaled itself on the spear, halting it's advance.

Before he could turn to finish it off, Daphne stepped forward, the serpent hidden beneath her robes emerged, and launched forward, sinking it's many teeth into the beast's flesh. It then pulled back, with a vicious hiss.

A moment of pain-filled roars passed before the beast began to rapidly bloat. Then in a sudden splattering of fluids, it burst apart from the magical poison.

Harry's gaze passed over her, acknowledging her contribution before settling back on the Vicar. Silence held for a moment before the man gave a single nod.

For the next several hours, Old Yharnam was sealed off. Every way in and out was nailed shut, until only one path remained. Once done, Harry set to work. Summoning forth a ring of fire, he bathed the lower city in magical flames. The members of the Church along with Daphne watched on at the raw display of power.

She knew that Harry was powerful, that was never in question, but his ability to summon forth a ring of fire large enough to swallow the village-sized Old Yharnam, was absolutely astounding.

The fire burned through the city itself, washing through buildings, swallowing everything in sight. Once the town was saturated, Harry emerged from the inferno to rejoin them. He displayed little signs of exhaustion from either the fighting or the magical display. He had an air of intensity to him, his bloodlust running strong as his body remained coated to the point where his clothes were nearly blackened. Through his intensity, Daphne could see that he was upset, almost like he was disappointed that it had come to this.

The final doorway was nailed shut and the church retreated back to Cathedral Ward. The gates were sealed and travel to and from the area around the church became strictly monitored. Only the passage of hunters, and the various ministers of the church was permitted.

That night Daphne tried to talk with Harry who seemed distant and thoughtful. He didn't really respond to her attempts, his bloodlust and adrenaline kept him wired. Even as Daphne took his clothes from him and began cleaning off the beast blood, the blazing fury in his eyes remained.

She kept at it though, cleaning more and more blood off of him. It was as she was cleaning his hand that she took a moment and locked eyes with him. He stared back at her for several incredibly long moments.

"What's wrong Harry? Talk to me." She asked him.

"Nothing's wrong… all the blood… it's just… making me thirsty." Harry responded, his tone cool, yet there was a dangerous edge to it.

"Why didn't you drink some of the beast blood? I thought that satiated you?" Daphne questioned with concern.

"It does… I just… I think I drank to much. I think I'm blood drunk. I hear a heartbeat pounding in my ears, and I know it's not my own." He stated, his eyes still locked on her. She blinked, and slowly rose to her feet, realizing he was talking about her heartbeat. She knew enough about vampires to know that when they were blood drunk, they tended to lose themselves in a frenzy, killing and consuming all in their path. Harry had never experienced such a thing as he'd never consumed enough blood to get him there. His vampirism had also, always been too weak for such traits to fully manifest. It seems though, that at some point recently, after his last death, the trait had finally grown strong enough to push him into the boundaries of a true vampire.

He seemed tense, on edge. Like adrenaline was still pumping through him.

"Would it help if I gave you my blood?" Daphne asked him. Growing concerned that he might snap. She wasn't worried about dying. Harry had already explained to her that due to their connection she was bound to him in such a way that even if she died, she'd be reborn with him the next time he died. Even having her blood drank should still allow her to be reborn. The blood was the vehicle of the soul, and they said that by having all of your blood consumed by a vampire, that vampire was also draining your soul, but in this case her soul would go to where it would anyway upon death. Still she knew that Harry would be mortified if he did anything to harm her, so she was cautious.

"I would love that… but no. No it would only make things worse. You're my lover, my wife. I've always craved your blood. If you give it to me now, like this, I wont be able to stop myself. I think it's best that you go. Leave me here to calm down. I don't know how long this will last." Harry responded.

"Are you sure?" She asked him.

"Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on him." Luna offered through their mental link, while Harry nodded his answer.

"Okay. I'll come back in the morning." Daphne stated, earning a grateful smile from Harry.

She left the room, locking the door behind her. She then headed for the library to spend the rest of her night trying to get her mind off of worrying about him. This was something new, but it was something they'd learn to navigate together. For now, she'd give him some space, and allow Luna to try and keep his mind occupied on something other than his thirst.

The following morning she tiredly trudged her way to their shared room, and entered it.

The room itself was tossed. The bed flipped over, deep gouges in the walls where Harry had no doubt struck out with his fists. She found him sitting in the far corner of the room, sleeping. She made her way over to him and lowered herself to sit beside him. She then rested her head on his shoulder and quickly fell asleep.

This would certainly be something interesting to learn to navigate, and would no doubt only get worse as Harry's power grew.

The burning of Old Yharnam was a turning point.

That fateful night became etched into the minds of every single Yharnamite. The already paranoid and fearful nature of the people of Yharnam exploded to hellish new heights. Outsiders who came to the city became regarded with intense suspicion, the people's reliance on the church grew, the city itself was losing what life it once had.

In the weeks that passed, Harry was a bit melancholic. Having taken on the role of a hunter, he found the burning of Old Yharnam to be a failure on his part, and it affected his mood, despite Daphne's reassurances that it wasn't on him. He wasn't so much upset about the people that had died, or even the loss of the city itself, but more so on the fact that he was unable to defeat the beasts without resorting to such tactics. There was simply too many of them, and to many ways for them to spread and infect the rest of the city. He couldn't stop them as a hunter, and that wounded his pride.

Thankfully he had Daphne and Luna to help balm his wounded ego, and such thoughts were forgotten about when an old Hunter introduced him to the studies of Runesmirth Caryll.

These lessons changed everything.

Whatever negativity Harry was feeling immediately drifted to the wayside as he learned about Caryll and what she had discovered.

Caryll was a researcher of Brygenwerth, who'd joined the followers of Laurence when they left the institution to found the church. The nature of their separation was in their belief in the means of ascension for humanity. Those who stayed with Master Willem at Brygenwerth believed that they had to elevate their minds and 'line their brains with eyes' in order to ascend to the level of the Great ones. Laurence and his followers believed more in the Old Blood, believing it to be the key to ascension. It was still up for debate as to who was right, but Caryll seemed to agree with Laurence as she left with him.

She had a unique gift. She could hear the otherworldly whispers of the Great Ones, which could not be translated into any spoken language. Instead Caryll learned to inscribe these utterings into runes, symbols carved into surfaces that carried deep meanings.

Now these runes, they had magical connotations, and through Caryll's research it was learned that by inscribing these runes into your mind, various magical affects could be achieved.

This was incredible for a few reasons. Firstly, magicals already knew that by taking a word from a magical language and inscribing it in the form of a rune, you could create a magical effect. Runes were quite important in regards to rituals and such, as they allowed for extreme levels of precision when it came to the casting of magic. Only specific languages could be used to carve runes. Latin, welsh, Nordic, ancient Egyptian, Sumerian just to name a few. The older a language you got, and the stronger it's ties to magic, the more powerful the runes became. So this was already known. Taking the magical language of the Great Ones, and inscribing it into runes would of course conjure various effects. What magicals didn't know, what the hunters learned from Caryll's research was that by taking a rune, and inscribing it into your mind, you could gain a magical effect. It lasted only so long as the rune was quite literally etched into your mind though. The hunters devised a ritual of sorts to imprint these runes into the brain, forcing a part of their mind to constantly envision the runes of their choice. They couldn't do it more than a few times, as it segmented more and more of your focus as you had to keep the rune constantly and accurately shaped in your mind to get the magical effect to occur, but still.

Learning this was a literal game changer for Harry because magicals had something that hunters did not. Occlumency. The study and shaping of mindscapes, and mental formations. The arranging of thoughts and memories, in the form of mental magic.

While he waited for Daphne to return to their room, he tested it, growing more and more excited with each passing moment as he tested various runes that he knew of, etching them into his mind, and putting his focus on them, and then testing them.

Again, one's focus had to be perfect. Similarly to actually sculpting the rune into a solid surface, you have to be precise. He had to envision the entire rune in all of it's complexities, not just a general shape of it. It took a bit of practice but he found that it worked.

He found himself cackling almost like a madman the first time he succeeded. He was practicing using the Latin rune for 'Fortify'. This one was largely used in objects to make them more impervious to damage. It was widely accepted that this specific rune doubled an objects resilience to damage. Something of note was that each rune had to be powered by something, a source of magic to draw from, which is where you got things like runic schemes and schematics and rituals, that connected runes together to fulfill these needs. Etching a rune into the mind caused it to feed off of one's own magical energy, so you also had that to consider.

Still… Harry ran his tests. He sat at his desk, a knife in hand, that he repeatedly jabbed into his leg. His skin was already tough enough as is to make it harder for a regular knife to pierce his flesh so he rarely did more than break skin even with a sufficient stab.

Still he did manage to hurt himself several times as he worked to get the 'fortify' rune to shape accurately in his mind.

Eventually though, he got it.

He let out a laugh as the knife glanced off his leg. He kept it up, kept practicing all the way until Daphne came trudging in, tired from a long day.

She was dumbfounded when she saw what he was doing, but immediately became energized when she heard what he had to say.

This was going to fundamentally change the landscape of magic. The knowledge that a person could inscribe magical runes into their brains to get immediate and passive effects to essentially buff them, that was incredible. That coupled with the unique abilities of mind magic to segment parts of ones brain for specific tasks, to turn on and off parts of your brain, and the possibilities quickly started to explode in size and scope.

For months afterwards, that's what the two focused on, developing this new idea. If they weren't focused on their individual journeys through this world, than they were together, working on this. It truly was a game changer.

A full year passed since the burning of Old Yharnam on that fateful night. A full year before Daphne was welcomed into the upper echelons of the Choir. This was done through a ritual that involved receiving the blessing of a higher being.

Unbeknownst to Harry and Daphne, the Church itself had far more proof of the existence of the Great Ones than just some ancient relics, and artifacts. Hidden deep beneath the Grand Cathedral, the Church kept a captured Great One. This being had been found deep within the Dungeons below Yharnam and had been brought back to the surface and placed in this decrepit alter.

It was from this Great One that the church acquired a steady stream of the Old Blood, which they used to make their miracle healing agents.

In order to rise within the ranks of the Choir, Daphne was instructed to go and retrieve the blood of the Great One. The Great Ebrietas.

On that fateful day, Daphne was guided down to the hidden alter and instructed to commune with Ebrietas and retrieve her blood. If she succeeded then she would rise into the upper echelons of the Choir.

Though uncertain, and a bit fearful, Daphne proceeded as instructed. She stepped off of an ancient elevator into the underground alter chamber, a cave located beneath the Grand Cathedral. Lining the edges of the cave were great glowing flowers and the rotting corpses of alien creatures. A thin pool of water covered the floor, reflecting back the light of the glowing flowers. There, at the far side of the room, was a towering creature the likes of which Daphne had never seen before.

Like a great upright slug, it had pale skin, long branching wings, and equally long tentacles emerging from it's back. It had the main body of human with arms that gave way into tentacles. It had no legs, instead it's lower body formed into a wide slug-like form, that split into two at the end. The creature's head was large and bulbous. A great round skull split open, revealing deep red tissue inside. It had no apparent mouth, and only what appeared to be eyes, but Daphne couldn't say for certain if they were. Around the split of it's skull were many tubule fungus-like growths that wriggled and writhed ceaselessly.

The creature towered over her at nearly twenty feet in height, though it was heavily hunched over. It rotated it's body to face her as she entered, taking notice of her immediately.

Daphne halted in fear, her whole body tensing at the sight of the colossal alien creature.

Through the magic-sensing eyes of her snake-head, she could see the magical power of this creature. Much like with Harry, magic poured off of this being. Magic that was foreign to her in it's nature. An almost sparkling gray and deep-blue energy that washed off of the creature showing it's immense power.

The creature stared down at her, or at least it appeared to. It had a pair of green nodules that looked like they could be eyes, but that was only due to their placement on it's head. Daphne truly didn't know if it could see her or not.

The alien Great One just stared at her for in silence for many long moments.

Finally, Daphne mustered her courage and began to approach the creature. Despite it's monstrous appearance, Daphne didn't sense malice from it. The creature seemed curious of her. That was about all she could seemingly read from this thing.

She got closer and closer, until she was in reach of one of it's long tentacle arms.

It was then that it moved, reaching out to her with the tentacle. She froze, watching it's movement as the beast's tentacle stretched out before her.

It was almost like the creature was offering it to her, like a patient offering an arm for an injection.

Slowly, Daphne reached out, running her hand along the cool, slimy flesh of the alien creature. She felt a resonance there, like a hum of energy, dancing at her finger-tips.

Daphne removed a syringe she had come equipped with and quickly retrieved the blood from the creature's offered arm.

A dim grayish substance filled the vial. Once she had finished and placed the vial safely away, she returned her gaze to the alien creature. The creature continued to stare down at her, for many long moments. It had yet to pull back it's tentacle.

Daphne still had her hand upon it, and after a moment felt energy begin to creep up her arm.

Through the eyes of her serpent head, she could see the magic of Ebrietas slowly gliding it's way up her arm, towards her head.

Within a moment, she felt it breach her mind, and begin to touch at her inner thoughts.

In an instant, the alien creature seemed to see her every thought and memory. Despite the brazen entrance, Daphne still felt no malice from the Great One.

Instead, she felt wonderment, and curiosity.

This held for a brief moment, only a couple of seconds before suddenly the mark of Tzeentch upon her hand began to glow. Blazing blue light erupted out of it, and Daphne felt a surge of energy tear through her.

Ebrietas did not retreat, instead it's focus seemed to hone even further onto her.

Daphne felt pain rip through her, felt energy surge up through her body, and her arm, flooding her.

Her eyes slammed shut as she tried to fight the pain, only barely hearing Luna call out to her before it all drained away.

When she opened her eyes, she felt herself floating. Blackness held around her, utter darkness, yet it danced with unseen magics.

"Well done!" Came a voice from the darkness.

"Whose there?" Daphne questioned, seeing nothing.

"A friend." The voice replied. It was sharp, and carried a menace to it.

Daphne blinked several times, unable to focus her thoughts as she tried to rationalize what was happening to her.

"Are you, the Great One? Are you Ebrietas?" She asked the unseen voice.

"No. Though she and I just had a most wonderful chat. I must thank you for allowing that. Such a lonely creature, yet quite the conversationalist I must say." The Voice responded.

Daphne was quiet for a long moment before remembering how her mark had glowed. A sudden realization swept over her, as she realized who it was she must have been talking to.

Before she could even ask, a dark chuckle filled the air, causing her stomach to sink.

"Got it on the second try. Bravo!" The Voice offered with cheer.

"You… the Changer of Ways. Wait… does this mean…?" Daphne began.

"Yes, dear child. The time has come for your ascension." The Voice of the Dark God spoke.

"But… was this my test? Was this what I was meant to do? I don't understand." Daphne spoke in confusion.

"No test. I chose you for a reason. You needed to be human in order for that beloved husband of yours to fall in love with you. Had it not been for that, I would have turned you into my emissary the moment I placed that mark upon you. The others may have required their own assurances, so they tested their chosen ones, but I had no need for such things. The genuine bond you formed with him, the sharing of his Dark Soul with you, these things would not have happened were you already a Daemon. I simply needed them to occur first. Afterwards, I saw an opportunity to get just a bit more use out of your humanity. The Great One is sympathetic to their desires, as she too wishes to make contact with the Cosmos and her kin who left her behind. She would not have met with you, had you been a Daemon, she would have attacked you out of fear and suspicion had I transformed you before this meeting. So I kept you as is. But now, I see no immediate reason to keep you human, at least no reasons within the time you have left with that mark that would overly benefit me. So I will turn you now." The Changer spoke. Though it revealed much, true to it's unknowable nature, the Changer of Ways, left her with more questions then answers.

"What is my purpose?" Daphne chose to ask, knowing she was unlikely to have much time to question the Dark Power.

"To keep him alive. That's all. The others may want him a certain way. I just want him alive." The Voice spoke with a dark chuckle.

"Why?" Daphne asked, remembering Harry's explanation of the events surrounding Fleur's ascension and how Slaanesh wanted Harry to remain 'Harry'.

"They fear what he may become, so they try to restrain or guide his evolution. I seek only that he remains alive. So long as he exists, so long as he continues to exist, so too will She remain focused on him. So long as the Master of Death exists, Death will have a master. The moment Death loses Her master, then reality will face a conscious Death, free of all chains, of all care, of all restraint. For all things that exist, must end, and She is the personification, of that end. So long as he exists, Her goals will be his, and his are bound by the nature of a physical being. She is beyond that, beyond you or I. Oh to wonder, what nightmares may be brought by a being unbound to all that is, untouched by the woes and joys of the universe. If all of infinity, and the endless tides, were to have an end, it would be in Her. Such a wondrous and horrible thought. My only whim, my dearest servant, is for you to keep him alive. So many ways for even a god to die, yet so many ways to avoid it. Yet She… is different." The voice of the Changer spoke.

Daphne understood, recognizing what was being said to her. While the other gods had their own wants and desires for how Harry would turn out, Tzeentch's greatest want in regards to the Boy-Who-Lived, was simply that he keeps on living. So long as Harry lived, Death would have a master. So long as Harry persisted, Luna would follow him, and serve him. But what would she become without such a guiding force? What would drive her, if not Harry's will?

Her want to help him, to make him happy, and bring meaning to his life, that was who she was now. In the beginning she spoke up to keep him from harming those he loved without thought. When he wanted to throttle the Weasley twins for pranking Luna, she stopped him because she knew that he still cared for Arthur and Molly Weasley and assaulting their children for whatever reason would turn the two against him. Luna didn't want him to hurt himself like that, and cautioned him against such actions, not because she cared for them, or wanted Harry to be a certain kind of person, she just wanted Harry to be Harry, whatever that meant, didn't matter to Luna. Good or evil. Heroic or monstrous. Lone warrior, or wild celebrity. None of it mattered to her, just so long as he was happy, just so long as he had purpose and meaning, and drive.

Daphne's purpose, her role was to keep Harry alive. Not in the literal sense, as dying was just a nuisance to him. What the Changer meant was that her role was to protect Harry's existence. So long as Harry continued to exist, it didn't matter what he became.

It was like the Dark God had said, there were plenty of ways to kill them, to defeat the Dark Powers, and there was plenty of ways for those Powers to avoid such deaths, but fighting Death itself was impossible, even for them. The Changer feared what the universe, what reality and the Warp would look like, with the physical manifestation of the End, free to go about, fulfilling whatever primal drives filled it.

So long as Harry existed, she would follow him, and Harry's whims and wants, the Changer was happy to deal with that. Harry could be countered, he could be fought, he could be challenged, but Death… there was no stopping that. None what so ever.

It went unsaid but Daphne also came to another realization. The reason why it was so important that Harry fall in love with her, and indeed all four of the emissaries. It was insurance for the Dark Gods. Harry had at his disposal Death itself. Through her, he could find a way to permanently kill the Dark Powers if he wanted too. By turning the four of them into Daemons after he fell in love with them, and keeping them partially human, and with their free will thanks to their link to Harry through the Dark Soul, it ensured his love for them continued, which meant he'd want them by his side. And as Chaos Daemons they were essentially a part of the Dark Powers. So long as their love persisted, and they didn't do anything to piss off Harry too badly, he was unlikely to plot the deaths of the Dark Powers and risk losing his lovers who were living fragments of those gods.

It was a deeply clever plot with multiple layers to it. A part of her wondered just what it was the Dark Powers foresaw Harry becoming but she didn't think she'd be getting that answer. After all, knowing a thing and believing a thing, was a good way to get it to manifest into reality.

She had gotten what she wanted. Despite the avalanche of questions she still had, she at least had the one thing she needed. Her purpose. Her duty was to keep Harry alive. That was it. To keep him safe from threats that could stop him from existing. Dying wasn't an issue, it was the dangers of him not coming back.

So she was the insurance policy. The one who would protect him from these things. So long as Harry existed, Death remained tamed. So long as Death was on a leash, the Great Game would continue forever more.

"I understand. I will keep him safe." Daphne spoke, despite knowing it wasn't needed.

"That is good. You and he have quite the adventures to get up to together. There are so many places to see and explore, so much to touch and examine. Each of us is an endless hydra, so many heads in so many realities, even I don't know everything that I actually know. Such a wonder isn't it." The Changer spoke, almost whimsically.

"One last question, if I may, I am curious… that thing with Harry's Mother and her god…" Daphne spoke up, but found herself unable to properly convey what she wanted to ask. It seems she didn't need to as the darkness began to full back, the area filling with a burning blue glow. Floating before her was this grinning thing that was indescribable in it's nature.

"The anticipation is almost too much. I cannot wait. What will he do, I wonder, when he learns the truth? What will he do…" The God of Fate spoke with eager anticipation, before gifting her with little more than a nod, causing a sea of giggling daemons to descend upon her to begin her transformation.

It was a strange experience to say the least. The most intense yet unobtrusive pain one could imagine. Her body was torn away, her soul reshaped and reformed, and new flesh was molded around her transforming her into a daemon of Tzeentch.

"I chose you for a reason, clever girl. Go now, and show all of reality just why that was." Were the final words she heard from the Changer of Ways before she felt herself thrust back into reality.

She opened her eyes to find herself staring at the cavernous ceiling.

Her second set of eyes opened as well, filling her gaze with the double vision. She slowly sat up, spotting the towering Ebrietas hovering close by, observing her curiously.

The first thing Daphne noticed was that her regular eyes now shared the same magical sight as her serpent eyes. She could see the way magic danced off of the Great One and diluted into the air. There was something else as well, a new kind of energy that she could also now see. It took a moment, but she realized that the energy she was seeing was actually the power of the Warp, bleeding into reality. She could perceive it now, along with the natural magics of living beings, and the cosmic powers of the Great Ones.

Her white robes were torn, and tattered, the back of them ripped open and soaked in blood. From her back, ten tentacles emerged. Deep blue in color with pink undersides, these tentacles could stretch and retract. The underside of the tentacles was covered in bulbous growths that could unfold revealing suckers that were lined with razor sharp needles.

She was able to get a good look at the tentacles emerging from her back, thanks to her serpent head. They emerged along her spine, almost like a grotesque set of fleshy wings. These tentacles seemed to be able to extend and retract with remarkable ease, easily extending to over ten feet off of her body, though she was certain she could go much further.

As she rose to her feet, her eyes drifted down to her right hand, where the mark of Tzeentch remained. On her wrist was a slit in the skin. Holding her hand out, a fleshy spike began to emerge. The end was pointed, and sharp, like the tip of a spear. It extended out of her wrist, wriggling and writhing, revealing itself as another tentacle. It continued on to a little over five and half feet in length before it reached it's end. Around the slit, a writhing red mass could be seen. Curiously, Daphne took the shaft of the tendril, and gave it a gentle pull. The slit on her wrist expanded allowing the writhing mass, and the tentacle itself to detach.

Immediately, upon release from her wrist, the tentacle became erect, straightening out, like a metal rod.

It was immediately apparent that what she was holding wasn't just a part of her body, but it's own entity. The body of the creature was five and a half feet long. Basically made of dense cartilage and bone, basically like a snake. It was covered in pale white skin, on one end, it's body ended in a pointed spike, and on the other, a red, fleshy baseball-sized growth, covered in nearly two dozen, thin wriggling tendrils that were two or three inches in length.

Without having to be told, she knew what this entity was. It was a familiar, a gift, given to her by Tzeentch. This creature was bonded to her, a servant of her own. It served one function that it performed in two separate ways, depending on how she wielded it. If she left it connected to her, by placing it in her wrist then it acted as a stabbing weapon, and if it pierced the body of a living thing, it would begin draining that thing of it's magic. It would then feed that magic back into Daphne's body, empowering her with it. On the flip side, if she removed the creature from her arm, it's body would become erect, and she could carry it like a staff. In this form it took her magic, and projected it at the outside world. Essentially making it a functional magical staff.

She could sense the nature of the creature through her newfound bond with it. It was linked to her, bonded to her on a spiritual level. It probably fed on the same warp energy that powered her own new body.

Placed around her neck was another gift from the Changer, a silver blue pendant on a silver chain. The pendant was shaped like a wheel that contained a nine pointed star. The star and the wheel around it were made of silver metal, and within the center of the star was a deep blue sapphire.

The nature and abilities of this pendant were immediately known to Daphne. This artifact acted as a magical reservoir, it collected and drew in ambient energy, though could also act as a well to collect energy that was placed into it.

Daphne didn't immediately know what it was for, but a few ideas did come to mind. If the pendant stored magical energy and that energy could be released, it was possible that that magic could be used for things like enchantments, and rituals.

It was interesting to consider. She'd have to experiment with it. A few more moments went by before she turned her attention towards Ebrietas. The towering creature stared down at her for several long moments before reaching out with it's long tentacled arm. Daphne reached out as well, allowing the long pale tendril to wrap around her arm. She felt a momentary pain, like a spike drilled into her left wrist.

In her left wrist she spotted a slug-like creature now nestling within the flesh.

She stared down at it curiously before lifting her gaze back the Great One. The creature stared back, and Daphne understood that this was a gift.

She turned away from the Great One and focused on the newly bound familiar. She held out her left hand, and from just above her palm, a small rift opened, like a dimensional tear. From it, four large tentacles emerged, matching Ebrietas' in shape. These tentacles lashed out for a moment, striking at the open air before the tear collapsed and the tentacles were sliced off. They quickly dissolved into nothingness, leaving no sign of their presence behind.

It took a moment for Daphne to understand, but understanding did come. The slug implanted into her left wrist could summon portions of Ebrietas from across dimensions. Ebrietas was a Great One. A higher multi-dimensional being. Ebrietas didn't move when Daphne activated this power, but she didn't have to. The tentacles summoned, were hers, just not from here.

It was incredible to consider, but Daphne knew her time here was done.

She gave one last look at the Great One who stared back. Daphne met the creature's gaze, and an understanding seemed to pass into her.

This offering, the slug, an augur of Ebrietas' power, was not a gift, it was a payment. What for? Daphne could see it in the creature's eyes. Tzeentch had called it abandoned. Ebrietas wanted to go somewhere, to follow her kin and join them, but she didn't know how. At least, she didn't know yet. However, when the time came, and she was ready to leave this place, she'd need help in order to do so. That help, was be in the death of this body. Her link to this reality would need to be severed. As a higher dimensional entity, this body was far less important. Ebrietas existed on higher planes, and in multiple realities and states, so dying here wasn't overly detrimental though it might be needed, in order for her to fully escape and follow after her kin. She was offering Daphne payment to see such a thing carried out, when the time is right.

On that, Daphne had a wonder.

"How will I know when the time is right?" She asked the Great One.

Ebrietas stared back, and though no words were spoken, Daphne felt the answer in her mind.

"You simply will."

Daphne stared back for many long moments before nodding. She then offered the Great One a polite bow, of which the creature awkwardly returned, gifting her the respect of not only a human ally, but an emissary of the Changer of Ways.

Daphne departed from the chamber, arriving at the elevator where two church members awaited her return.

After showing them the vial of blood, they took her back up the Cathedral where she delivered the blood to the leaders of the Choir who immediately took note of several additional changes she sported.

She was questioned extensively about her mutations, and she answered in a way to enrapture her fellow Choir members, and elevate herself further. She tied such mutations to her growing ascension as Kin, and even displayed the gift that Ebrietas had given to her.

She spent hours with them, almost a full day in various talks and discussions before she was finally allowed to return to her room, her ascension both as a Daemon, and as a member of the Choir's upper echelons having been completed.

She arrived at her room to find Harry waiting there for her. He lifted his gaze to her upon her entrance. She knew he'd be here. Since the moment of her ascension, she could feel her connection to him grow. She could feel his presence, almost without thinking about it. Here he sat, no doubt having felt their newfound connection and knowing what it meant.

He smiled upon seeing her, confirming her suspicion that he already knew.

"You've ascended." Harry spoke, rising to his feet as he did.

"I have." Daphne nodded.

"How was it?" Harry inquired, his eyes drifting over her taking note of the changes he saw.

"Enlightening." Daphne expressed, stepping past him to sit on the bed. She paused for a moment before allowing her staff to slither back into her arm, showing Harry that new feature in the process.

He shut the door behind her, and stood in front of her with a curious look, sensing there was something more she wanted to tell him.

"I spoke with him, the Changer, and I learned a few things." Daphne said to him.

"Oh? Alright, I'll bite. What did he tell you?" Harry questioned, genuinely curious to hear what the esoteric and strange, Changer of Ways had to say.

"He told me that the other gods fear you, or more accurately, they fear what you might become." Daphne began, causing Harry to make a face. He found the idea ridiculous, why would these gods, living concepts really, fear him?

A moment passed before an answer formed in his head.

"Because of Luna?" He asked, suspecting that she was the true source of their fear.

"In part. They know something, something we don't. I think it has something to do with your true nature. With what you really are, or more specifically what your mother's god really is. Since you have it's soul. Or you're it, reborn. However you want to look at it. Regardless of the answer, the other three are afraid of what you'll become, so they want to try and guide you into a more beneficial existence for them. My patron though, isn't as concerned with what you may become, more so he just wants you to keep existing. He told me my mission was to protect your existence. To make sure that you stay alive. He said so long as you exist, than Death will have a master. If we lose you, if you are destroyed or erased, than Death will be set free. Death, without a master, without direction, driven by whatever it is that could possibly drive a being like that. That is what my god fears. He does not wish to see Death set free. So long as you live, she's tied to you, and will follow you and serve your goals and ambitions, those are all things that the Changer can work with. Without you, she becomes unbound to anything. Despite their nature as living concepts, the Chaos Gods are bound to mortal life. Mortals have to exist for them to exist. Death though, is different. It's alien, even to the Chaos Gods. So the Changer tasked me with keeping you alive, that is my purpose. My mission in this. I suspect, in part, that is the mission of all the others as well. To keep you alive." Daphne explained to him, watching as he turned thoughtful at hearing her words.

"Certainly makes sense to me. I don't even know what I'd do with myself if I didn't have you. In truth, I barely remember what I was doing before you were born. I can't even say for certain if I had any sort of consciousness before the Peverell Brother's entered into your tomb. I just don't know." Luna admitted, speaking into both of their minds.

"I agree. It makes sense as a reason for them. Though you said you thought it was only part of the reason the other three feared me. That being Death, so you think there's something more?" Harry asked.

"Yes, as I noted in regards to whatever it is that you really are. The true nature of your soul. My patron is more concerned with you being the Master of Death and staying alive. You remaining alive is a constant, which goes against his very nature, yet he still recognizes the need for it, because the possibilities of what Luna could get up to without a Master is terrifying even to the gods. The other gods though while probably fearing that, are also concerned with your future. The Changer doesn't seem concerned with what you get up to Harry. In fact, he seemed quite excited for the day you 'learned the truth' and he wanted to see what you'd do when you did. So he's excited for your future. The other three though, they have concerns, in regards to your future. Again, I think it has to do with what you really are. With what your mother's God actually is. That's probably why the Prince of Pleasure told Fleur that her job was to keep you, you. To make sure you stayed a person. I don't know enough to know for certain, but I suspect I'm on to something." Daphne expressed.

"You might be right. I certainly don't know. Unfortunately it's hard to really tell. My mother said it could take centuries for the full breath of my spirit to settle into this body, and though I'm closing in on one century in age, I'm still having trouble separating what is a growth in power due to everything I've been doing, and what's gradual from my spirit settling further and further into my flesh. I guess I might not really know until the process is fully complete. Ultimately we wont know until we go to the tomb and see for ourselves. I think the only point at which it'd be obvious is if I used Warp Magic regularly as that seemed to be this god's source of strength, or at least a big part of it. If I did that then I'd probably recognize my growing power, but I hardly tap into the warp as I don't really know how to control that power." Harry spoke thoughtfully.

A few moments of silence passed before Daphne spoke again. "Now I'm really excited to return home and figure it out."

"So am I." Harry answered with a grin.

A new chapter began for the duo. Daphne's ascension within the Choir, as well as her ascension to Daemonhood opened doorways to new areas of study for the researchers and scientists of the Church. Only time would tell, where it would lead them.

-To Be Continued-

Alright there we go, next chapter up here too.