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[---]
123 AC, Valyria
Lord Harry stepped forward with that same confident look on his face and spoke up, "Well, if you don't mind, let's stick to this realm, huh? I have to say, trying to unravel reality in the middle of a conversation is pretty rude. Oh, where are my manners? My name is Harry Potter. Now, I've got a lot of questions. I don't suppose you'd be inclined to answer them?"
Helaena knew that whatever she was witnessing before her was beyond what Lord Harry and Lady Daphne would have allowed her to do so. She understood now why they hadn't wanted her there. This was beyond dangerous, a song in the making, like the ones dating back to the age of heroes.
The Maesters always liked to say that magic was dying since the Doom of Valyria, but what she had seen so far showed them how wrong they were. Magic wasn't dying. It was being corrupted by the creature before her, a creature which Helaena couldn't make sense of at all, which seemed to destroy everything with just its presence.
And yet, Lord Harry stood firm and unbending before the monster, demanding answers as if he wasn't face to face with a demon from the seven hells.
And the demon didn't seem happy with this at all. It leapt towards Lord Harry, practically warping the very world with its movement and tried to impale him with its claws. The sorcerer easily ducked and created a wall of prismatic light, almost like hundreds of mirrors at once, which shattered in front of the creature, sending it flying back.
It stared back at the sorcerer in what must have been shock in whatever were its features, which made Lord Harry's smirk widen. He adjusted his hand and spoke up, "I'll take that as a no. I suppose your lack of vocal cords could make communication difficult. Did you seriously not think of that when you decided to manifest yourself in the material realm? Well, you didn't choose anything, did you? This is how the world perceives you, because you're not from any realm. You're not a god or a demon. You're something else, something outside of reality. I mean, it is obvious now; reality is practically fracturing with every breath you take, like it's unable to understand it, and that's rupturing everything. The corruption isn't some malevolent thing, just a product of your presence, of your influence over everything in a way that reality failed to understand."
The monster flew in the air with its wings and released another screech, which shook the ruins around them completely, and Lord Harry stopped it once more and threw a ball of light towards it, which it stopped with its claws, before it exploded. He followed with his whip, which actually sliced open the creature's chest, and that made the creature release a screech of pain.
This time it was different, more feral, angrier, if Helaena could describe it. It destroyed whatever remained of the tower and sent them all flying back despite their shields. They were almost miles away, near the Weirwood Tree and its golden protections that still stood. Lady Daphne waved her hand, and the Weirwood tree grew and caught them with its branches.
They all slid down easily enough. Lady Daphne looked at Harry seriously, "Do you think you can keep it busy?"
"Yeah," he replied, "But only for so long, and it'll have to be a delicate balance so that it doesn't feel the need to express itself fully while also making sure it doesn't rupture the fabric of reality. You do know what to do since the Ley Line is cracked, right?"
The golden-haired woman snorted, "Of course, I do. It's pretty obvious, and I'll use the Weirwood Tree as a focus. But enough joking around,
"And Helaena?" he asked, not even looking at the girl in question.
"She'll be with me. I think she was right about her being needed. Trust me, alright. Now, go fight that thing."
Lord Harry nodded, his serious face turning into a confident smirk, before jumping into the air, stepping on a giant magic circle, which glowed and sent him flying forward. She almost gasped, as the creature, which had gotten larger somehow, somehow stretched its claws infinitely forward to catch him in mid-air. However, Lord Harry turned into a black bird, likely a raven, and dodged it before turning back into a human and using his whip to create a rainbow-like slice in the air, which made the monster stumble backwards.
Helaena stared at the battle, but Lady Daphne shook her slightly, breaking her from her stupor, "Harry is doing his best to delay it without escalating things. We need to do our part, too."
"Can't he just kill it?"
"There isn't much known about things that grow in the void, but it can't be killed outside of the void. There's a reason why Harry explained it out loud, and it wasn't for the monster's benefit, I assure you. What you're seeing now is barely more than a scratch, like the tip of someone's finger. There's not much you can do to hurt it from here. It's actually easier to deal with gods and demons, since if you take away their energy, they just fade away, but this is very different, a balancing act. Even now, Harry is careful not to force it to exert enough to manifest more of itself, which in the best case would overwhelm the Elder Dragons' wards and make the corruption spread outside of the Valyrian Peninsula. In the worst case, it'll start a cascading event that would destroy reality. If the world is a book, magic allows us to change the words, but what this entity does is burn the pages. Which is why we need to do our part and stop this, which also involves you, Helaena."
Lady Daphne knelt down and gave her fourteen small seeds and a small piece of parchment. "I need to set up everything from here. So, that means you'll have to do the legwork. Here are fourteen seeds. I need you to put them exactly in the locations on the map I just gave you, bury them underground, and impale a Valyrian Steel sword above them. Oh, also make sure to cut yourself, like a small one on your fingers, on each sword before you impale them."
The woman took out a small stick and moved it around in complicated motions, making a small leather bag appear in mid-air, and then, with another flick, swords flew around towards them and were swallowed by the bag that was too small to house them all.
She then handed the bag to Helaena, who looked at it in astonishment. Hesitantly, she opened the bag and reached inside, and it was, in fact, larger than it should have been. She easily ground the pommel of a blade and took it out with ease. "How?"
"Spatial expansion Charm. Harry is much better with it than I am. He turned that spell into an entire magical field, but don't worry about it. It's better than having to run around with fourteen extra swords."
Helaena nodded but thought of the older woman's request. It was very odd, to say the least. They were fighting some demonic entity that was unnatural even by Lord Harry and Lady Daphne's standards. She didn't understand a lot of her explanation, only that it couldn't be killed and that it was unwise to fight. She didn't see how a few seeds with some sword and her blood could help fight it off.
However, the situation was dire enough that she decided not to press the issue. Instead, she followed the parchment that had become a map and turned towards where it would lead. It wasn't too far, but when she looked, she saw that beyond the golden barrier, the monsters of Valyria still remained. Outside, she wouldn't be under their protection. "What about the creatures here?"
"I'll protect you from far away. Don't worry."
Telling her not to worry didn't truly help matters, but she looked up and saw Lord Harry creating a giant hand that pulled the screeching creature down when it tried to fly away. The creature released another scream that made Helaena wince, even from a distance, which was stopped with another wall of rainbow fractals.
She would do it for him, the man who had saved her children, who had changed Fate itself, who had given Helaena her life back. She steeled herself, the Lannister Valyrian Steel sword in hand, and walked forward.
As she walked forward, she noticed that the golden dome of energy expanded, creating a narrow passage towards each destination. Helaena followed her path and walked quickly towards the destination. The map was useful in the fact that it moved her alongside each target. It took a few minutes to arrive without anything going wrong, and Helaena dug a small hole, put the seed inside, covered it back with the dirt, took out one of the swords from her bag, and made a small cut on her finger. The crimson liquid was slowly dripping down the blade. She then impaled it into where the seed used to be, the blade slipping down like the dirt wasn't there. There was a small glow, which disappeared quickly, and Helaena released a loud breath.
She only had thirteen left.
Thankfully, the next few ones seemed to follow the pattern, the golden tunnel that Lady Daphne made for her, protecting her. There were a few close calls with some giant two-headed humanoid creature trying to attack her, but the golden barrier stopped everything.
Every once in a while, she looked at Lord Harry's fight against the creature, which made her quickly understand how the sorcerer was delaying the creature for them. He didn't attack it heavily, focused mostly on forcing it away, using chains to immobilise it for just a few moments, shield against its attacks and retaliate without escalating too much. It reminded her of Ser Criston when he sparred again Aemond, where he would calmly let her brother vent his rage and not end the battle early, only this time, this was a battle between gods and demons.
It also reminded her that he counted on her, that he needed her help to finally get an advantage over the demon. Helaena had no idea what it was supposed to achieve, only that it was very impressive.
She was almost done when something changed. Lord Harry had used another of its rainbow fractal walls to stop the demon's attack, and the creature became suddenly enraged. It didn't release a screech like it normally had, but an enraged cry that made the world turn red. No, it hadn't. Helaena looked up and saw something in the sky for the first time since they came to Valyria. It was a red comet in the sky which released a crimson glow that illuminated the cursed city.
A wave of red light appeared, destroying everything around it. It clashed with the golden barrier, and it shattered completely, but didn't let any of it through. Seconds later, monsters howled around her, ready to attack.
Helaena held her sword ready, knowing that she barely knew how to swing it, only for roots to emerge from the ground and kill all of the monsters. One of them spoke in Lady Daphne's voice, "You're almost done. I'll protect you with my trees. The connection between you and the barrier is gone, so hurry. You aren't as safe as you were before."
That was the only warning she needed before she ran forward, making sure to finish her mission. She saw Lord Harry in the distance, now wielding a scythe of all things, and released slices of energy that seemed like rainbows, which killed the creature, who had gotten much larger since Valyria was bathed in the comet's crimson glow.
The demon released a burst of crimson fire, which shifted sometimes into black, and distorted everything around it, only for Lord Harry to spin his scythe in circles, and shielding himself from it, and creating balls of blackness, that was the only description she could have of them, and throwing them at the demon, which was trying to fight them off.
She quickly focused back on her mission. There was only one seed remaining. Her hand was now bloodied from how many times she had cut it, but she pushed through. She ran, ignoring the monsters running after her, who were being cut apart by Lady Daphne's plants. She quickly planted the seed, cut her hand, wincing once more, and stabbed the final Valyrian Steel sword into the ground.
As the final sword disappeared beneath the soil, Helaena collapsed to her knees, hands shaking, the last of her strength bleeding out with the wind. She heard a dragon screech from up ahead, ready to attack her, but she didn't have the strength to run anymore. She closed her eyes, only to feel herself being held by one of Lady Daphne's giant plants and quickly taken back to the golden barrier, where the Weirwood Tree had gotten far larger and its leaves turned golden, with Lady Daphne murmuring things in some strange language.
Finally, the sorceress looked back at her, and she had a soft smile on her face, "Well done, Helaena."
The young princess blushed and felt her hand sting slightly. She looked at it and saw that all of the wounds had healed. She then spoke into the wind, "Harry, we're ready."
Lord Harry must have heard her, as he created chains made of those odd rainbow prisms, tying them in place, before making a giant circle and releasing a giant white dove, glowing with comforting light. The demon hissed as it was exposed to it, and the chains dragged it back into the ruins where it was spawned, the remains of the oldest tower in Valyria.
Suddenly, Lord Harry appears behind them and grins at Lady Daphne, "That was a very annoying fight. It still hasn't gotten used to the Patronus yet, not enough to dispel it. Let's light it up."
His wife shared his grin and then pressed her hand towards the golden Weirwood Tree. Suddenly, she saw something glowing gold in the distance. No, it was fourteen things glowing, specifically where she had planted the seeds. Suddenly, golden trees sprouted from them, and she saw things flying away from a distance which reflected light. She felt the blade in her hand move slightly, but Lord Harry waved his hand at it, and it stopped. "The trees are using the Valyrian Steel. Why?"
Lord Harry grinned, "For this."
And just like that, the sorcerer waved his hand, and hundreds of golden symbols appeared in the sky. She thought that would be it, until he started to sing. The golden symbols kept turning, combining and stopping the red glow which was illuminating Valyria. She noticed that from each golden glow, the trees became larger and larger as they swallowed each piece of Valyrian Steel, before releasing a golden barrier each as well.
The sorcerer stopped singing, but the trees seemed to continue humming his song as well. She looked around and noticed that the three that protected them had turned to ash, and she looked at it sadly, "What happened to it?"
"This was a temporary tree at best, powered by the life force of the creatures that attacked us. It was bound to run out anyway, and I stretched it very thin when I used it to protect you," Lady Daphne explained, "The others are different, and far more powerful, and they channel the original tree's magic, which we mimicked from the Elder Dragons. You can call them her children, in a way."
Helaena liked that comparison, the parent sacrificing itself for the children to thrive, giving away what little it had for them to fight off the demon that threatened the land.
She turned towards Lord Harry, "Is it gone?"
"No, it isn't," he replied, "After all, it has some answers for us."
The scythe he fought with had mysteriously disappeared. Lord Harry knelt and picked up his strange brown hat, and, cleaning the dirt off it, before putting it on and looking at the ruined tower, and spoke up in a deeper voice than usual, "I suppose it would be very rude to keep our guest waiting."
His wife burst into laughter, "Are you making your voice deeper?"
The man, who had just battled a demon, pouted at the woman, "I did not."
"You did. You even conjured a new hat and made it dirty just so you could swipe off the dirt from it."
Lord Harry turned away, "Never mind that, we need to deal with the Outsider."
"Fine, I'll not embarrass you in front of your new student," Lady Daphne replied while rolling her eyes.
Helaena relaxed as she saw them joking around. That meant that the danger was gone, right? They all walked towards the ruined tower, without anything attacking them. Most of the structure was gone completely, just a small wall of Black Stone, which was somehow stopping the golden light. Inside, the demon screeched, having become smaller, and, hissing, it tried to escape the bounds of the Black Stone. The screeches seemingly do nothing at all.
Lord Harry stepped forward and looked at the demon's face, or what would have been a face if it had any features, and spoke up, "I tried to be reasonable. I tried to make you understand me, but I think that you understand me perfectly, so remember, you forced my hands. Don't bother trying to escape. I don't know why you seem to react so negatively to the Elder Dragons' power, but the entire place is saturated with it. The Black Stone, which you hijacked to maintain a breach here, is doing its best to fight it off. And it will do so for a very long time. After all, the souls you used to create your Valyrian Steel are powering it. Millions and millions of them, over centuries, trapped by your designs, all to get you here. I wonder how long you'd have to wait for it to dissipate."
He hummed and continued, "You won't even be able to leave this place or manifest yourself further in any way, since the Black Stone is being overwhelmed by the Elder Dragon's aura. So, the way I see it, you have two choices. You can just wait it out for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe even much longer, since the ley line will heal eventually. You won't be able to move or even breathe, just stuck in this tower. Or you can answer my questions, and I'll allow you to leave this realm, never to return again. Make your choice, and I suggest you make it very quickly. I can come up with a third option, and believe me, you won't like it. Not to brag, but I can be very creative, sometimes. So, which one is it, an eternal prison or return home?"
Helaena looked at the man before her and couldn't help wondering what kind of man could make demons look so afraid. Instead of waiting for the answer, she looked up at the sky. The red comet was still there, but its glow had dimmed. She didn't know why, but something about it felt different. Heavy. As if a door had opened somewhere. She could feel the threads tugging at her again, rearranging, warping. Because of the Potters. And somehow, she knew it wasn't just her path that had changed this time. How could it not, when magic was free once more?
[---]
If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.