ARC 5
Part 1: Skull Demons
While in England, the trio were figuring out the reason of Draco's detour with the start of the term looming over their heads, all around the world, an uprising had begun. The first gods had started to rise again due to the call of an Alpha Titan. China, Antarctica, Russia, Skull Island, Mexico, you name it. The uprising had begun.
Seismic activity had taken a sharp upward turn. Volcanoes were more active; thunderstorms and hurricanes were more frequent. In deserts, rock spikes which looked like stalagamites were randomly erupting forth from the ground. In the midst of the south Pacific ocean, an island, known as Skull Island, could be found. The flora which is mostly found there comprises of carnivorous plants, swampy forests, knee high grass and tall mountains. The fauna mainly compromises of different species of Titans. Human inhabitants can also be found on the island. The Iwi tribe. The tribesmen worshipped the last of the Kongs as their god. He was undeniably the king and god of Skull Island. But on the island however, a race of Titans known as the 'Skull Crawlers' had heard the alpha call ringing all around the world and were running to the coasts of Skull Island to get to the source of the location, the high hills of the northern part of the world. Somewhere neck deep in the cold, nail biting regions of Alaska.
The Skull Crawlers were also known by another name. Titanus Cranium Reptant. Cranium meaning 'Skull' and Reptant meaning 'crawl'. Skullcrawlers are large reptilian creatures with only two long forelimbs and no hindlimbs, as well as long, prehensile, serpentine tails. They have long and slender, yet muscular, sturdy bodies. Several aspects of their appearance are noticeably skeletal, particularly their torsos and their heads. What appears to be the "eye sockets" of their skull-like heads are merely empty fenestrae presumably evolved that way to protect its eyes from enemies: their real eyes are set much further back, with the fenestrae perhaps serving to distract enemies from their more vulnerable eyes and acting as heat-seeking sensory pits. The pupils of their green eyes are horizontal and somewhat resemble those of frogs and toads. The colors of their scales range from dark brown to dark green to a bone-white color.
Their heads closely resemble those of mosasaurs such as Tylosaurus, and their jaws possess two rows of serrated, razor-sharp teeth. The Skullcrawlers have four clawed digits in a total of each hand, with the thumb being the smallest digit and the rest of the digits being larger and of the same size, and the adults have a prominent bony spike protrudes out of each of their elbows. The thorny, toothlike structures of their inner mouths somewhat resemble that of a leatherback turtle's. Additionally, they have long, prehensile triple-forked tongues that they can use to grab their prey.
Juvenile Skullcrawlers are easily distinguishable from adults. Their heads are smaller and more sloped. They also possess a more prominently brown skin tone. Adult Skullcrawlers are much larger, with most being almost the same size as the Titanus Kong. Their heads are more defined, larger, and somewhat angled. Their tails are armed with a form of a club that can be used as a weapon, and they also have distinct bone-like spikes protruding from their elbows. Some adult Skullcrawlers have a unique patch of red coloration running down the length of its back, a sickly yellow tint to its skull, and appeared to be significantly larger than any Skullcrawler previously encountered.
As a Skull Crawler nearly made it to the ocean, a big brown primate hand covered in fur grabbed the skull crawler's tail and flung the skull crawler towards the think dense woods and it crashed against the trees, causing the trees to be uprooted but some trees were impaled into the skull crawler's body. The skull crawler tried to regain it's bearings and it tried to shake off the trees that were stuck in it's body. As it shook itself, it saw a hulking shadow looking over itself and when it turned around, the creature that the shadow belonged to roared and pounded its chest. Recognition lit upon the skull crawler's face. It right there, was facing the God of Skull Island.
It was facing Kong.
Kong stood at an intimidating two hundred and ten feet tall with a pair of muscular upper limbs covered in deep brown fur and battle scars. His fingers were battered and rough. His right eye sported a gash running from the top of the eye to the center of his right cheek. His chest was covered in claw marks as if some creature had tried to claw away Kong's skin and tried to rip out his heart. He even sported somewhat of a beard which looked to be growing. As the pair heard more hustling, they turned around to see an entire horde of skull crawlers arriving.
Enraged by their entrance, Kong roared and pounded his chest in a show of intimidation. The Skull Crawlers took a step back as they clearly remember how Kong had ripped out the wind pipe of their leader and snapped his jaws. None of them wanted to face that fate. However, one of the Skull Crawlers saw the state of the Skull Crawler which earlier had nearly reached the ocean. It got angered and lunged. Kong clearly wanting them to stand back, grabbed the creature by the neck and slammed it into the ground.
Breath taken out of its body; the skull crawler tries to claw whatever part of Kong it could reach, only Kong tightening his grip on it's neck and taking hold of its tail. After having a firm grip on its tail, he lifted the creature by the tail and slammed it into the ground repeatedly for good measure. The Skull Crawler had the wind knocked out of itself. It raised its arms weakly towards Kong's face in an attempt to claw Kong.
Once Kong saw that the Skull Crawler was still moving, he took both of its jaws in his hands, and waited for the Skull Crawler to move further. As the Skull Crawler tried to claw at him again, Kong bent both of the creature's jaws outward and snapped its neck, killing it.
After killing it, he roared at the other Skull Crawlers and pounded his chest as a warning to not to leave the island. The Skull Crawler at the back was angered at the murder of it's pack mate. It was unsure on as to what to do, to run away or try to avenge his Crawler brethren? It felt frustrated enough to choose the latter of the two options.
As it attacked, Kong saw the shadow of the Crawler being cast on the ground in front of him and stepped aside for only the Crawler to crash into the ground in front of him. Deciding enough was enough, the Crawler got up and snapped at Kong's feet which made him stumble. In attempts to avoid the jaw snaps, he kept stepping backwards which eventually made him fall flat onto the ground. As it saw he was down, it lunged for the throat. All of the other Skull Crawler's didn't want to die so they didn't attack. As Kong saw it went for the throat, he raised his arm to protect his throat and the Crawler latched its jaws on his arm.
He howled in pain.
He then swung his left arm at the face of the Crawler to shake it off. He kept punching but the Crawler seemed adamant on hanging on. After one hard and painful punch at the neck, the Crawler fell off. Kong took this opportunity to get up and take hold of the Crawler's neck and repeatedly smash the creature into the nearest hill he could reach. For good measure, he then grabbed both of it's jaws and bent them outward without any hesitation, killing this Crawler as well.
After killing this Skull Crawler, he roared and pounded his chest at the other Skull Crawlers as a warning to not challenge him and to back off.
The other Skull Crawlers soon scrambled away.
In the Burrow, Harry felt the alpha call. He felt…. threatened. He felt like an animal when some other being stepped into its territory. He immediately stepped out of his room to look for Hermione but crashed into the aforementioned person as he stepped out of the door."Ow! Walk car- HERMIONE! Brilliant, I was looking for you in fact. Did you feel the alpha call?" Harry asked.
"Yes I did, Harry. I was actually coming to ask you that." Hermione responded.
"Oh goodie. Since we both know now, we should better floo call Dumbledore." Harry offered.
"That would be the wiser course of action here. Let's get up first and then call him." Hermione suggested.
As they got up and made their way down to the floo, Harry couldn't help but ask.
"Hermione, d'you think the other Titans are also responding to the call?" Harry asked.
"I don't exactly know, Harry. They most likely could but there are some who just want to be left alone and guard their homes." Hermione answered.
"Who, Hermione?"
"Kong. The Kong species has always been like that." And with that, they both reached the fire place. Harry took some floo powder and called out "Albus Dumbledore!" and threw the powder into the fireplace, in hopes of talking to the headmaster.
In the fireplace of the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, Harry's face emerged in the fireplace. As soon as he was about to call out for Dumbledore, he was greeted to an …. unusual sight.
Dumbledore was lounging in his chair and his beard was twirling around like a mini tornado a bit above his head. Harry's eyes widened at first but then he realised that Dumbledore was twirling his wand in his hand to make his beard follow suite. Harry sported a grin on his face once he called out, "Headmaster!"
Dumbledore then turned towards the fireplace and once he took notice of Harry, he quickly cancelled the charm which made his beard give one final spin, then it tugged towards all four directions before settling down, making his beard look fluffy.
"Harry, I just do that when I have nothing else to do. But however, when I do it, I get enamored by it and get lost in the moment….so to speak. So, what brings you here?"
"Headmaster you felt the alpha call, right?"
Dumbledore's eyes widened out of sheer surprise. Once his eyes narrowed, he said "Harry, I did, I definitely did if my memory serves me correctly but I didn't recognize it as an alpha call because I was doing…. what you saw me doing." Dumbledore sheepishly admitted.
"May I come in Headmaster? It would be best if we talk directly. Should I bring Hermione too?"
"Yes, you may, Harry." Dumbledore granted the permission.
And then Hermione and Harry soon followed suite.
"So, children, what do you want to talk about?" he politely asked.
"If I may Headmaster?" Hermione asked for the permission to speak.
"Yes, Miss Granger."
"Thank you, Headmaster. Ok, so, we came here to inform you that we felt an Alpha call ring and from what we know, the only Alpha Titans to our knowledge are Harry, you yourself, Headmaster, Kong and Ghidorah. Since we know Kong is a terrestrial Titan, which leaves only you, Harry and him. The call felt close enough for it to feel like it's near Hogwarts but far away enough for it to feel like it is even farther from here. And we know whose form Ghidorah is. So, we are thinking that whatever he is doing now, would have disastrous consequences." Hermione finished.
"When has anything that Voldemort has done, not lead to disastrous consequences, Hermione?" Harry quietly muttered.
"Touché."
Dumbledore pretended to not to hear what Harry just said but instead focused on what Hermione just informed. "As I feared, Harry, Miss Granger, the second war of the Titans has begun. Only for us mankind to be in the thick of it. So, I shall inform both of you and Mister Longbottom at the back there, you can step out now Neville."
"What?" the pair could only mutter much as they turned around and saw Neville standing there beside the entrance.
"Neville? How long have you been there for?" asked Harry.
"I was here before you two came along. Dumbledore had asked me to bring this book I have in my hands from the library to him. That's why you didn't see me."
Realization dawned upon both Harry and Hermione's face as they understood.
Dumbledore coughed to bring their attention onto him. Once they all focused on him, Dumbledore continued, "I am sorry to break the conversation but I believe it can be continued later on? As I was saying, the second Titan war has begun. From what I felt, the alpha call was towards Alaska. Expect reports of Titan attacks to be blared across the Daily Prophet. And I had expected this to be far later on but I believe that Harry, you may have to fight in your Titan form a lot more frequently now. The same goes the two of you Neville and Miss Granger, you will have to fight alongside if the worst comes. Now, any questions?"
Hermione raised her hand and asked "Please sir, you had said that all mages have a Titan that represents them when we had begun training. But you are saying that we would have to see more Titan attacks. What do you exactly mean, sir?"
"Ah yes, I knew that you would most likely ask that. So, as I said earlier, all mages have a Titan that represents them. There are a multitude of Titan species out there. There are currently seventeen known over-world Titan species known to man. But for the ones like the Titanus Kong or Titanus Gojira where only one Titan lives to our knowledge, there would be either no representative of that Titan or the real Titan wouldn't be seen but instead would manifest itself into a wizard. Which in our case, is, Godzilla is manifesting himself as Harry whenever he is transforming into his Magus Titanus form. This applies to you too Miss Granger. And you too, Mister Longbottom but I am not so sure that there is only one Titanus Methuselah left…" Dumbledore trailed off in thought.
"Eh, no worries, Headmaster. Can you explain us what do you mean by 'over world Titans'? We all have another question that has been bugging our minds since we had been disclosed of it. We want to know about our leads on the search for Tom's anchors." Neville asked.
Dumbledore's eyes shone bright in remembrance as Neville finished asking his question. He then began "Ah! Which reminds me that I have may have found the coordinates of the next Horcrux. From my understanding, Tom has made seven Horcruxes. But out of those seven, Harry already has destroyed one." Dumbledore ominously finished.
"Which one Albus, the diary?" Harry asked, anticipating the answer.
"Precisely"
"Sir, what do you mean by 'over-world' Titans?" Hermione asked, mirroring Neville's earlier question.
"By the 'over-world' terminology I was referring to the differences between the Hollow-Earth Titans and the over-world Titans. You see, the Hollow-Earth is just as it is called. A 'Hollow' earth. It is an entire ecosystem teeming with various species of flora and fauna. It's just like the beautiful planet earth we see, but more...primitive for a lack of word. Just like we have humans and gorillas here, the Hollow-Earth had the Kongs. The over-world titans that we know were once Hollow-Earth titans." Dumbledore finished.
"You mean, an entire other 'Earth' below our feet?" Harry asked."That actually sums it up in simple words. Yes, an entire other 'Earth' so to speak."
"What are it's entry points?"
Dumbledore stared at the three of them one after the another and whispered
"The Northen and Southern Poles."
"So, Albus, you are saying that the next location of the potential Horcrux has been found?" Harry asked.
"Exactly, my dear boy." Dumbledore confirms Harry's statement.
"Where do you think it is, Headmaster?" Hermione asked before Harry could voice his question.
Dumbledore doesn't respond but instead pulls out a map of England and rolls it out and spreads it across the study table. He then tapped a specific place with his wand and the map zoomed in on that particular place. Then he tapped it again to zoom in. Once at a desired level, he turned to Harry, Hermione and Neville and began.
"This next Horcrux I believe is one of the shrines of the Ancient and Noble House of Gaunt. And as to where it is, place is here," he then points to a village on the map and continues "Little Hangelton. The village where Tom was born and raised in. Which more specifically, is here," he taps the map again but this time with his wand and it zooms at the exact location where the wand had touched and he continued
"The Gaunt family shack. This is the ancestral house of the Gaunt Family which in turn could have deadly defences which could incapacitate us severely but not kill us as Tom would very likely want to question anyone who managed to cross his protections. And for this one, I would be going alone as this is one of the riskier Horcrux snatching we would ever do. Harry, you have to sit this one out and I shall be accompanied by Alastor and William."
"But Albus, you have to let me go as if I would be there, I could feel the Horcrux and easily pinpoint it rather than both of you searching for it. Face it, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack if it isn't for me. You have to let me go, Albus. There is no other way, even if I don't go, you two may potentially die because of the traps and we would be lost like headless chickens."
"Harry, you have to understand. You are crucial in this war effort. You are our wild card. We are elderly, old people who would not be remembered in a few years from now. We are not that crucial in this war unlike you, my dear child. You, Miss Granger and Mister Longbottom are the main fighters in this war even if you don't realize it. Think of a game of chess. You know that the Queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard, don't you?" Dumbledore asked calmly.
"Yes, I do, Headmaster."
"You are the Queen in this game of chess. You haven't realized it yet as your time to shine in this war is not here as of now. But when the perfect opportunity arises, you would be the one to kill him. Let us old, forgettable people find the Horcruxes and destroy them."
"Even without me, you wouldn't be able to find it, Headmaster."
"You wouldn't relent, would you? Just like your parents. Both of them were the stubborn lot." Dumbledore then sadly chuckled remembering Harry's parents.
"No, I wouldn't, Albus. You fail to understand how I can be helpful." Harry vehemently retorted.
"Alright then, tomorrow, I will come and pick you up from the Burrow after dinner. And then we would embark on our dreary adventure." Dumbledore informed him.
"That we shall, Albus." And as Harry said that, a patronus bounded into the room, morphed into the form of a big wolf and spoke in the voice of Remus Lupin.
"Albus, WE NEED BACKUP! DEATH EATERS ARE ATTACKING THE BURROW! WE ARE OUTNUMBERED TWENTY FIVE TO FIVE! HURRY!"
AN: Um, I tried to make this chapter interesting. Let me know what do you think. And also, how is the first Titan fight of this fic? Anywhere to make it more interesting? Lmk dear readers.