Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews and love you showed to my fic.

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"I am Talking."

'I am Thinking'

Spells

"The Voice."

There is no lie more pleasing than life, and no truth scarier than death.

~Dev Black.

INNOVATOR

-Dev Sagittarius Black

~~Chapter 24: The Powers of Death~~

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Pain

Agonizing pain that knew no bounds coursed through his veins as he screamed to the heavens above. It was the first time he was feeling this much pain in his fifteen years of existence. Even counting the four years he had spent in the realm of death, this was the most he had suffered.

Harry opened his eyes, his vision was blurry and it took a moment before he realized that it was because he had been crying. Tears filled his eyes before they dropped on the white sand where he lay. The same white sand that was littered with the torn and blasted body parts of unknown and uncountable monsters.

There were spots where the ground had been eroded and blasted, spots where he could see the still burning body parts of the monsters that were scorched by the Fiendfyre. And then there was the spot where the strongest weapon humanity could ever dream of possessing stood.

The weapon wasn't actually standing, it was continuously dancing. And it had been dancing for the last– the innovator checked the hourglass and groaned– for the last four months.

Tandavam was like a weapon that knew no boundaries, nothing could stop it. Absolutely nothing. The weapon had started dancing about four months ago when the test had started, and the apprentice of Death hadn't even thought about what would follow when he had agreed to do the test for the sake of saving his world.

There was no going back now.

He had slain about a thousand creatures, they had started easy– mere goblins and the likes, then they went with lycans and other wild animals. Right now, what stood in front of him was a beast entirely made of lava and fire, definitely not something he had witnessed in his world….and there were at least fifty like this one waiting behind it.

It wasn't the number of beasts he had slain or the number he had to cut through that made him falter. It was the sheer impossibility of defeating Tandavam that halted him in his tracks. He had taken the challenge on the basis that he had defeated weapons like Aatank and Parmanu in a month, but that was when they had a way to defeat them.

Tandavam on the other hand was like a being of unbound powers and energy that could continue to rain destruction for as long as it wished.

Harry had tried everything he had, all of the eleven paths from deceit to confrontation. All of his spells, from weak and light ones– such as stunners– to distract to ones like Fiendfyre and Draco Ignem. He had even experimented and learned that due to his stay in the realm of death, it was much easier to use the spells that had connection with death like Exercitus Mortuorum and Fodre Foraminis.

But nothing. Absolutely nothing had affected The Tandavam. The weapon had simply used the summoned creatures as a shield or flew up in the air to protect itself. And then when the attack from Harry stopped, it regained its position and began the dance again.

"You need to be patient, Harry Potter," Dramox's voice broke the sound that his labored breathing made, "You need to be patient with the Tandavam. There is nothing that your patience can't win."

"I don't have that much patience in me! Nor do I have that much time." Harry shouted back, "I tried, I did. But if the weapon wants to, won't it pull this fight for the remaining one and a half years that I have left?"

"It will. And not only one and a half, but you will have to fight Tandavam until the time it decides to join you or the time you decide to give-up and die."

"But-"

"I warned you, Harry Potter," Dramox growled, "I warned you why the weapon was the one that even I had never gone against. It wasn't the power that I lacked, Death knows that I can slay almost any monster that the weapon creates. No, it was the sheer patience that one needed to have and the time that one should be ready to give in a fight against the Tandavam. Something that I, as the commander, couldn't afford."

Harry stayed silent. This wasn't something he had thought about. Actually, there was nothing that he had thought about before taking this test except the fact that a weapon like Tandavam would give him the edge that he would need to use against his enemies.

The power of the weapon had been heavily alluring. Something that he should have been cautious against but he hadn't. And now he suffered the drawbacks of his decision.

'Was this how it goes? Fighting against something that would not stop for years?' Harry thought as he tried to push down the hopelessness that bubbled inside him. Something that was slowly becoming much more strenuous to do as reality hit him again and again.

'I had huge hopes for myself…this weapon shattered them all..' He released a deep breath 'This was not how it was supposed to go. If this carries on longer than I think, then even if I gain its allegiance it won't matter as it would be fruitless to return back to a dead world.'

"As if we would just roll over and die, Harry. Do you really think we would?"

'You don't have any other choice, Daphne,' He sighed, 'Voldemort's army and the Army of Damnation, both of them will destroy us all if I am..wait….what the-' He blinked as he rapidly looked around himself, "...Daphne?"

"I am here. And who said you'll fail? I know you will succeed, you will do everything just in time and save the world. Until then, we will hold the fort for you, Harry."

"Wait..how are you here? This is-"

"I've always been here, I've watched you alongside your parents."

"But this is the realm of Death! You aren't dead!"

But there wasn't any answer this time. Harry looked around himself, even now he couldn't see a single specter that would remotely look like a human female. 'What just happened? What was that?! This was just like when mom said she was with me…but this…Daphne is alive, right? RIGHT?!'

"I am alive. And we are waiting for you, Harry, everyone is," Daphne's voice resonated around him again, "Come soon, Harry."

"What the…" Harry blinked as he got up from the ground. The moment he did, the mighty beast that had struck him down and had been waiting patiently roared and charged with its group of almost fifty similar creatures.

Harry frowned when he remembered that his mom's voice had sounded right when he was about to slip out of the realm. And even when he had repeatedly told his trainer that it was his mom's voice, the commander had denied it again and again.

'So…what was that and what is this?' Harry dodged the club that smashed on the ground where he had been standing. If he hadn't then he would have turned into a bloody paste on the ground.

"Think about it later, Harry, right now you have a weapon to fight and a world to save. Remember what I told you in our last meeting?" Daphne's voice came again and Harry tried to focus hard on making some distance between himself and the beast that was attacking him as he tried to remember it.

"You always had a force inside you. I have always admired the way you seemed to tackle life and not–"

" –give a damn about it, yes. I remember." Harry mumbled before he flicked his wand at the beast's eyes and released the conjunctivitis curse.

"Yes, and it was both inspiring and mesmerizing. The Harry I see right now, has lost it. Find it inside yourself, I know it's in there just burdened with the load of saving the world."

"Something that I have to do, or this all would be–" Harry ducked under the club and shouted, "Bombarda Maxima!" The beast's head was cracked open as it blasted and Harry flew thirty feet from the ground just in time as it blasted, taking three more of its type.

"But what good would the load do, if it starts holding you back instead of pushing you forward?" Daphne asked, "What good would 'I have to save the world' do if there's no world to save because you got crushed under the load of 'I have to save the world'?"

Harry frowned at that, "Then what do you suggest I should do, eh? It's not like I have any other choice. Everything that I have done has been only because of that one reason in the first place."

"Fight for that reason later, Harry. Right now, you need to fight for yourself. Fight for what you think is worth fighting for, fight for your own survival, Blaise', Fleur's, mine, your godfather's and even Alandale's. Fight back with the same force that I have always admired," The voice reverberated around him, "Fight for your world first, Harry. And the rest of the world will be saved."

Harry took Daphne's words in and clenched his fist as he glared at the beasts that had been conjured by Tandavam's dance. He didn't know where or how Daphne's voice was coming. But he knew that what she was saying was true. The world can only be saved by him surviving this.

And this time he didn't mean the world, no. This time he meant his world. The world that was worth fighting for, the world that was worth saving, and the world that he would willingly die for, if need be.

"Thanks Daphne," Harry smirked as he started to descend towards the beasts, "Thanks for always having my back when needed."

The voice didn't reply back but Harry knew that he didn't need the voice to reply either. There was something else that he had to do. Something that was much more important. Maybe if he successfully returned to earth just in time, then he would personally thank Daphne. Not only for this one time. But also for all the other times when he had been tormented by his inner demons at the end of each year in Hogwarts, and she found him and pulled him out of the deepest pits of self-deprecation that he dug himself into.

With these thoughts, Harry pointed his wand towards the beast that stood directly beneath him, and with renewed vigor and sense of fighting, he began his own dance of destruction.

Draco Malfoy, the scion of house Malfoy, sighed in disappointment as he returned from his mother's private suite that she had taken residence in for her temporary stay in Hogwarts. There was the Slytherin prefect, Dolce, who was walking a few steps behind him, he was guarding Draco from 'someone'. Who? Neither of them knew the answer to that. Dolce was just following orders.

He had so many expectations from his mother but sadly, all for naught. The woman simply wasn't doing what she had to do. At first when he had seen his mother in Hogwarts, he had been relieved that there was someone who was worried about him, someone who could pull him out of the mess he had made around himself in his moment of negligence for safety. Therefore, he had told her everything that had happened with him and the artifact.

His mother had promised that she would deal with the Greengrass-Beaufort duo and regain the artifact which would easily get them both in the 'good graces' of their lord, but for that to happen he wasn't supposed to talk about this to anyone, not even his father. And it wasn't like Draco didn't understand the real reason behind hiding this from his father. It was simple really, his father was in constant contact with The Dark Lord, which meant that their master would easily read his father's thoughts and would punish Lucius for his son's mistakes. Something that the younger Malfoy didn't want at all.

This was the reason why all of the mail that he and his mother had received from the Malfoy lord had been answered by his mother. Draco had withheld himself from answering the letters, as per the orders of his mother. But lately, the young boy had started to get second thoughts about this weird arrangement of theirs.

Granted his mother was a good woman and was worried about her family's safety. Hell he knew that the woman was doing all she could to keep herself, and her family, alive when the Dark Lord finally rose to prominence. However, the problem was a woman like Narcissa Malfoy, who had been trained in word-games and politics by a grand and noble ancient house such as the Blacks, had been unable to regain the artifact from a bitch like Greengrass.

It was shameful. Utterly so, in Draco's opinion.

Therefore, he really wanted to see what his father would do if he was in his place. Fortunately enough, he wouldn't have to wait as, thanks to his father's last letter, he knew that the Malfoy patriarch would soon be coming to Hogwarts with the minister to check-up on the preparations for the Tournament's second task. Something that he planned to exploit quite well.

Draco knew he would have to be cautious in using his words, just so he didn't end up telling his father about the missing artifact, and yet gain the answers as to how he should proceed from here. He would have usually left this job to his mother, but since he was already suspicious of her intentions, and ability, he couldn't trust her with something like this. Not anymore.

'I really need to think this through, can't have-'

"Stupefy!"

Draco's eyes widened and he ducked as he turned to look at the prefect who was guarding him, "What the fuck Dolce!" He snarled, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Dolce on the other hand narrowed his eyes at the person he had been guarding, "Doing what is necessary for my survival, Malfoy. Now stay still," And before Malfoy could have pulled his wand out, his vision turned black thanks to the two stunners that hit him on his chest.

The sound of flesh being torn was heard throughout the lands as the last creature was torn apart from the middle. Blood squirting from the straight line of torn flesh and ruptured muscles that had been a result of the mage's cutting curse, which had sliced the monster into two pieces.

Harry panted for air as he looked at the two halves of the dragonoid creature that fell separately on the bloodied floor beneath it. The Innovator then looked toward the weapon that was standing on the ground only a few meters from him; one leg raised in air, its four hands all in an intricate pose as if the entity had been paused in time while performing a mesmerizing step.

Yet both of them knew that the step would be more deadly than mesmerizing as the moment the weapon's leg tapped the ground, another creature would be reborn who would be stronger than the one Harry had just chopped in two.

The entity had paused the dance mid-step a while ago, and instead had decided to simply watch as its pursuer blasted, chopped, and utterly massacred its creations that found themselves in his way.

Now was the moment of truth. The Innovator had been fighting the creatures for eight months. Continuously on a rampage to kill and not-be-killed. Now was the first time in eight whole months that the innovator would be getting some rest. And now would also be the time when his decision would shape his future for the next sixteen months. As it was his decision that had led to eight months of constant fighting in the first place.

Harry looked at the entity, his green eyes meeting the being's glowing blue ones as he staggered towards it. The entity stood still, one of its legs raised and arms perfectly placed for a dance step that would start another sixteen months of death and destruction before it gave the mortal another breath to rest and decide the future for the next thirty-two months.

"I am not here to fight you," Harry rasped, "I know what I have done in the past and I think I now understand what the commander said when it mentioned to have patience when pursuing you."

The entity didn't move, it just stayed locked in that same pose as it analyzed the mortal who was finally speaking something other than the incantations to bring forth his magical spells.

"Daphne told me to fight for my world. To not give a damn about 'The World' or the consequences but to fight for myself and the ones I think it's worth fighting for. And to do that, I will need your support. Even if you don't want to support me, then just release me from this fight and I will stop pursuing you. I have no intentions of pursuing you till the end of time, for that would be detrimental to my world. Therefore…"

Harry released a deep breath as he dropped his wand and fell on his knees, "I surrender the fight to pursue you. Now you can either join me in my attempt to save the world from the Army of Damnation or you can end the fight and be gone forever, never to hear from me ever again. I leave the decision in your hands."

The weapon looked down at Harry and time seemed to pause as the two kept staring. It felt like an eternity passed between the two and they discussed a lot of things in that time. Yet, it had only been a few minutes of absolute stillness after which, the weapon finally decided to release its raised leg and gently placed it on the pale white ground beneath it.

The decision had been made. The mage had made the correct choice. And now it was time for the results.

Harry saw the weapon's blue eyes glow a bit before it seemed that the weapon actually smiled at him. Then, just like the two weapons before it, the most powerful weapon a mortal could wield turned to become a pulsating blue orb of energy and seeped inside Harry.

The battle was over. The decision had been made.

Harry Potter had successfully gained the allegiance of The Tandavam, strongest and most powerful weapon that a mortal could ever wield.

"I must say, I had expected you to prolong the fight with the way you had been so charged not a moment ago."

"You knew."

"I have known many things over the time that I've spent breathing between my people and punishing many others under the commands of Death, Harry Potter," said the commander, "You will have to be more specific as to what you are talking about."

Harry turned to look at his trainer and glared at him, "You knew that the way to gain Tandavam's allegiance was not to fight but to surrender, didn't you? And yet you didn't tell me about it."

"If I had known that it was that easy, do you not think that I would have gone against the strongest weapon myself?" Dramox threw back at Harry, "I told you everything I knew, Harry Potter. All of my thoughts and knowledge that I had regarding the weapon had been given to you, yet you sit there and accuse me of treachery with the responsibilities of my role as your trainer."

Harry frowned at that, he had assumed that Dramox actually knew the things and had deliberately not told the correct way, "Why did you tell me to be patient then? What did that mean?"

"Being patient is what one does when they are against an entity as powerful and all consuming as the Tandavam, but being patient does not mean surrendering yourself to your enemy. You were told to be patient 'in fight'."

"And yet my decision of surrender was the key to winning its allegiance," Harry sighed and stood up from his kneeling position on the ground, his wand floated back into its holster.

"You cannot be any farther from the truth yet nearest to the result at the same time," Dramox muttered, "Yes, your decision to surrender had been what paused the Tandavam's dance of destruction. Yet it was not your surrender that made him ally itself with you."

"What do you mean?"

"Tandavam had analyzed everything, Harry Potter. Your past, your present, and your future until the point you will use it for your cause. It was not the surrender itself that changed Tandavam's decision, it was the motive behind the surrender that did it. For all I know, I can go against the Tandavam right now and yet I would lose if I surrendered. For my goals would be vastly different from the ones you had when you offered to quit the fight."

Harry frowned at that. If he had to actually believe what his trainer had just said– And it was hard not to– then the weapon had actually heard him and foreseen everything before it had decided to ally itself with his cause. But the words weren't his, were they? They were what his mind had conjured when he had listened to Daphne's voice.

"I also wanted to ask you something," Harry replied, "There was a time, remember when I had fallen and Tandavam had paused momentarily to give me some time?"

Dramox nodded, "It had stopped because it was against its rules to attack an enemy who wasn't fighting or is defenseless. In its eyes, you were defeated for those few moments."

"Yes, those," Harry carried on, "I had heard Daphne's voice. The same way I had heard my mother's. I mean, I can understand my mother's voice reaching me in the realm but I can't understand how Daphne's did as she's very much alive and does not know I am here, in the realm of death."

"Is this Daphne somehow closer to you? Someone who has helped you in your bad times on earth?" Dramox enquired.

"Ah..yes…somewhat," The innovator rubbed his chin, "I mean, I don't understand her sometimes, but she has stuck around with me since my first year. Somehow we always ended up together whenever I was feeling down– usually at the year's end. So, I don't know?"

"Yes, you do." Dramox interrupted and sighed when Harry gave a confused look, "I really would never be able to understand the complex creatures that humans are. They would go to the ends of the world for something they want to fight and care for, and yet they would deny its very existence when faced with it."

"I don't know what you mean, commander," Harry sighed, "I told you what you asked."

"Did you? I asked you a simple question of 'whether the girl was close to you and had uplifted you in your bad times'. A simple answer would be 'yes', and yet you went on to explain everything to me except giving me the correct answer."

"But it is the right answer!" Harry exclaimed, "Alright, yes! Yes, Daphne has seen me in my bad times. Found me whenever I was feeling low and uplifted my mood or pulled me out of my dilemma, and yes, she's somewhat close to me. Closer than most."

"Then you have your answer, Harry Potter, you just are facing trouble accepting it."

"Can you help me then?"

"I am an Artelean, not human," The commander shrugged, "Our ways of intimacy, relations, emotions, and copulations are way different from what you humans have."

"Co-Copulation!" Harry sputtered, "There's nothing like that between me and Daphne! You hear me? Absolutely NOTHING!"

"Sure."

"I am telling you-"

"I don't think you have to, Harry Potter," Dramox interrupted him once more, "And I don't want to hear your stories either, for our time here is short and it would better be utilized by you learning how to wield the powers that you have been, granted."

Harry took a deep breath and tried to push down the thoughts of Daphne Greengrass, failing at it as the seeds sown by Dramox had already germinated thanks to the Innovator's own suppressed thoughts and desires for the blonde heiress. Yet he focused himself and looked at his trainer once more.

"So, what are we going to do now? There's just four months left before this year ends," He said looking at the second last hourglass that was already on its way to finishing. After this, there was one more hourglass left, and once it was over. It would mark Harry's time to return back to the realm of the living.

"I have already taught you all that you needed to know, Harry Potter," Dramox admitted, "You have exceeded my expectations and I thank both you and my master for giving me the opportunity to relive my days as a trainer of the Artelean forces once more. You have been an excellent student, and would have been an even better commander had we been in the army."

Harry blinked owlishly at that, "I…ah..Thanks?"

"Take it as a fact and wear it with pride, it's not everyday that a human is ever considered to be strong enough to become a commander of the Artelean army in its prime," For the first time, Dramox smiled at Harry, "The rest of this year and the next would be spent by learning the arts and honing the power of my master, under my master's tutelage."

"So…this was it?" Harry asked, "This is as far as we were supposed to go?"

"Indeed. And I hope that there never comes a time when you have to meet me again, for it will be on the opposite side. Something that I would not wish upon you, or myself either," Dramox's body slowly started vanishing the way it had appeared when Harry had seen him for the first time all those years ago.

"Commander…Dramox, I can't thank you enough for all the training. I don't know how to thank you," Harry blinked back the moistness in his eyes when he realized that this might be the last time he was seeing the commander.

"Succeed in your goals and do not let anything hold you from achieving what you want," Dramox smiled, "I wish you fortune in your endeavors, may your lady luck shine upon you always, Harry Potter. Farewell."

And with that the commander vanished completely, leaving his apprentice as he stood alone in the pale white fields around him, and the light from a million galaxies falling on him.

"Attachment…" Death's mismatched voice broke Harry's lapse in concentration as the Innovator felt, more than saw, a 'form' behind him, "The illusion that keeps one away from reality."

Harry looked behind himself and saw a seven-foot tall figure standing behind him, wrapped in a charcoal black cloak with a hood that hid its face.

"Death?"

"Indeed," The voice had the same mismatched tone as before, but instead of echoing around him, it came from the being that stood in front, "It has been quite some time. I hope I find you in good health, Anubis."

"As good as I can be, considering I don't have to eat, sleep, or do anything that makes me feel like a living being."

"You can return to enjoy those frivolous passions of mortality quite soon, Anubis," Death said as it floated towards Harry, "For now we need your concentration, and mind, on the arts that I am about to impart unto you. Knowledge that neither you, nor anyone else, will be able to gain ever again. Something that you should keep in mind."

Harry nodded his head to show that he understood what Death was telling him. That the knowledge should die with him, not even his children must learn or even know about it.

"I can sense the improvement in yourself since the time I left you in the care of my commander," A grin formed beneath the hood, "Your magic is stronger, fiercer….more wild, and yet tamed at the same time…."

"I have felt the same thing," The Innovator admitted, "My magic is more attuned to how I am, I don't have to restrain it anymore to control it. It's freely flowing inside me, and yet I know that I am capable enough to not only control but also hone it with relative perfection."

"Indeed you can, and that is why I had told you to train under the eyes of Dramox," Death whispered, yet the words were quite clear, "Your magic, not you, is what will help me sustain in the living world. What you had earlier was brute force that you used to form a contact with me. It was like an untamed river; quite large in quantity and yet ferocious in nature."

Death smiled, "What you have right now, is a stream of magic that is flowing from the ocean inside you. You can easily monitor the flow, give it shape, twist it to your liking, and use the appropriate amount for anything without wasting a single drop from the ocean. You don't even need your Runes of Potentia now, because you have absolute control over your power. You don't need channels anymore."

"I don't think I can remove the Runes, though," said Harry, "They are as much a part of me as I am of them."

"Oh you naive child," Death smiled, "You have the power to remove them whenever you want to, they don't control you anymore. They were nothing more than channels to help you control your power and unleash it in measured amounts, you have that power inside you now."

"What if I want to keep them?"

"Then it will be your choice to have a burden on yourself even if you don't need one," Death shrugged its shoulders. "They won't hinder you, but your magic won't be as easily available to you as it is right now."

Harry thought about it for some time, "Alright, I will remove them when I return back to my body."

"Good, we still have hope for you. Now, since my commander has trained you quite well and you are physically, as well as magically, ready for the next and most important phase of your training. I would like to still ask you one more time," The sinister grin formed once more under its hood, "Are you ready to control my powers, Anubis?"

Harry did what he always did when he was given a choice, or a task that he had to do at all cost. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and released it before opening his emerald pools once more, "I am."

"Good….now then, it's time to absolve your moralities, and teach you how to reunite with your real self," The grin under the hood widened, "It's time to teach you how to wield the powers of Death."

Ending Note: And there you have it fellas, Twenty-fourth chapter of INNOVATOR. I would love to hear what you think of it in reviews.

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