Tenebris.

'How strong are we talking about?' - came another male's voice.

'This Duncan, not even five of him will be enough to overpower it.' - that statement made the entire team grew silent. They don't know for sure whether Alan is right, but disregarding the possibility, especially in consideration of Salvatore lineage, whose bloodline gave inherent ability to sense other mages magic level, is just stupid.

'We know nearly nothing about obscure and obscuria. Only that it is an uncontrollable dark magic force.' - John said. - 'And with the death of a host, it dies too.'

'Don't even think of it.' - Selena raged through the mind channels while sitting inside the guest hall of Delacour manor.

'We are close to the destination. Prepare.' - said Tedd near Alan.

Alan froze in front of the gates and breathed out. He needs to control it somehow, or people will die. En mass.

But before he can contain his thoughts and prepare, a wordless spell of Duncan released admonitor. It hit the stone pavement with a deafening sound among the eerie silence of the street.

'Damn... Concentrate.'

Then it came like a flood. A never-ending avalanche of mana pushed by emotions of loss, grief, loneliness, and pain of tremendous magnitude.

"Oh, my god..." - on the other side of the telepathic channel Selena nearly cried, holding her hand to her lips. How can it be so intense? What have they done to him throughout these four years? How can a child bear this alone and not go insane?

What none of them know, is that the same was felt by every empath out there in Paris. And one of them cried her eyes out laying on her bed, unable to cope with the influx of not only emotions but a deep feeling of despair. It came fast and gone away even faster, but left an everlasting mark on the young girl's soul.

She couldn't contain it and ran out of her room, down the stairs to eventually find herself standing by the window and looking at the lump of darkness smoldering with red lightning outside the residence.

As young as the girl of eight can be, she felt unsettled thinking of anyone suffering such misfortune and subconsciously wanted to help. But she didn't know how to. And what a kid does when he or she is in a dilemma? Right, the kid goes to her parents, and that is exactly what Fleur did.

"Honey, go to your room." - Apolline Delacour softly motioned to her but to the enormous surprise of a mother the very first time in entire life her lovely daughter shook her head and ran into her arms crying.

"Mom, save him." - only now Apolline seems to understand what is going on.

"Fleur has a unique trait. She was born an empath, so she is good with animals and bad with people. " - Apolline smiled wryly and Selena nodded. Looks like baby girl got a brunt of it too.

"We will save him. He is a son of heroes, and he himself is a heroic young man." - Wilson stood up. - "It is time to go I believe."

But just when they were ready to go, windows in the mansion broke into a rain of glass.

"How is it possible?! How did they bypass the security spells?" - bellowed Monsieur Delacour wielding his wand to create a magic shield.

"He didn't lie, his obscuria form is tremendously powerful! It uprooted landscape enchantment in no time!" - cringed Selena.

"Apolline, escort our daughters away from here."

The next moment a voice was heard from outside.

"Monsieur, get out of your hole and come to me! It is time to settle some debts." - came enraged scream of a middle-aged man.

"Duncan. Who else can it be if not you." - sounded a response. - "Using a little child, forcing him to develop deadly energy and hurling at my very home as a weapon. You are no auror, you are even worse than Death Eaters."

"Haha, it is your doing, not mine. You in your shallowness can't even understand the harm you will bring to the world with your actions and greed. All of this is but a consequence of your doings. And for the record, today I'm neither." - what he referred to in the last sentence was hard to comprehend entirely and seemed to hint at something directly for Monsieur to know. His monologue sounded like he was fighting for justice and right cause, but actions told otherwise. Still, one really will have to wonder over the intricacies of the complete story between the two people.

"What a marvelous excuse. Sadly, it came from a madman." - said the head of Delacour family with narrowed eyes, that shone a flash of wariness and suspicion.

The fight broke out in no time.

Gram and Gerhid were the vanguards. The former was not inferior to the auror in terms of battle mastery and tried to pin down Wilson with a couple of other Death Eaters, but soon found out to his own dismay that every single enemy this time was from a special team of high leveled wizards.

Gerhid went for John, giving him a headache with his tremendous level of resistance to charms, but he miscalculated because John Buick was a well-known darkness hunter, who specialized in countering dark arts and bringing down creatures with lots of special traits, giants included.

John hurled a spell on the ground, making it cave in. Gerhid jumped over but as he was in the air several thick tree roots held his lower body and slammed downwards. Albeit strong, he wasn't able to stand again under several knock-out charms bombarding his head directly in quick succession.

Death Eaters won in numbers but lost in quality.

When Duncan saw it his eyes constricted. He recognized specialized magic combat and auror training from the three, especially a woman. She was a very powerful war wizard. Where did that ragtag team of vigilantes come from? He specially monitored all teams of aurors from the Ministry for two years already, making preparations for this day.

If he can get his hands on it, he will be invincible and Order will appreciate him. Perhaps even she will grace him with her presence and knowledge. The very knowledge he was crazy about and did all of this for.

But now it seems there is no way to get it. However, even realizing it Duncan knew that retreat is not an option. If he failed the mission and lived, it won't be for long. They will find him and nothing good will come out of it.

Spells were launched nonstop from every side and some of them went for Alan in his evil form, but the later tried his best to contain this devouring magic. He found it has a life of its own and attacked on instinct. Even if he wanted to make it stop, it was like using a pair of hands to stop a water flood.

Arks of negative force danced and decimated surrounding scenery with buildings.

Duncan went on rampage with Monsieur, while other Death Eaters were overwhelmed, and when one of them sneakily attacked Duncan from behind and incapacitated another, things immediately went awry. They only had one way to win. Let obscuria take care of everyone here. So they retreated out of the mansion under the cover of struggling black mass.

Tedd knew how and when to launch an assault. As a seasoned metmorphmagus, he got used to taking enemies by surprise. One more of the Death Eaters directly went down, while Duncan albeit could fend off the spell, still received another one from the head of the Delacour house and lost mobility on one leg.

At the heat of a battle, no one noticed when the field suddenly turned bright, and instead of a hurricane of evil energy there stood platinum hybrid of wolf and dragon with two majestic golden horns and deadly dragon legs. Wings unfolded on his back, covering the sky with a mysterious pattern of its feathers. Beast was veritable and made of flesh, yet surreal, consisting of pure energy and surrounded by a cloud of primal mana and lightning arks.

A leviathan creature towering at the height of a four-story tall building looked over with platinum-gold eyes full of wisdom and intellect. It locked its gaze, not on anyone but a little girl standing right in front of him, covering her with his body like a shield. She held up her hand and ruffled his fur with an astonished look.

Colossal wolf's head got down and Alan closed his eyes, conversing with the girl about something for a second. Then it nodded and made a step.

What a step it was!

A nova of tremendous destructive energy went out, separated in several parts, and slammed into attacking Death Eaters in a wave of ever-changing turquoise light, directly disintegrating them into a fine dust. Only Duncan could shield himself but still got his sorry body sent flying far and fast, creating a dent on a wall from the impact.

Somehow after that move creature got smaller. And after unleashing its energy, a name of it came to Alan's mind. The name of his True Form.

Tenebris.

And he didn't stop there, raising his head and breathing out a concentrated ray of neon lightning force, going after Duncan once more.

Auror tried to run away but only retreated with an amazing move of battle apparating that is learned inside special teams and known as blink. Still, he was already exhausted and evasion move only bought him a couple of seconds before disintegrating completely. After that outburst, his true form shrank to the size of a little puppy. It was platinum and gold with such adorable looks, that others won't find the strength to avoid caressing it.

That creature was an animagus form of Alan.

As for how he got it, that was a unique occasion, yet a way to cope with obscure phenomenon he thought of. It all took root in the ring Amalgal gifted. Just as Alan lost himself to the obscure outrage, it shone and the hidden spell of familiar contract unbundled itself, trapping obscure within.

Alan felt an established connection between him and the darkness, but then it all changed. As obscure was part of him, it didn't become his contracted summon, but his animage form and a True one at that. To integrate with it, he used breathing method and purification property his mana has because of its constant practice and converted dark mana full of malevolence into the same extremity but pure one. That is why in his beast form he gave off a benevolent and regal feeling that is very appealing to any magical beings and people of Delacour lineage who have Veela bloodline.

There are three types of animage forms. Regular one where a mage took a form of a normal beast. Mythical one in which animagus can shape-shift into a magical being and also use its abilities. The most unknown and the strongest one is a True Form.

In the last case, a creature will not be physical, but astral in body and soul. It becomes a manifestation of the soul itself and will use magic and natural energies according to its affinity. Also, it can grow with the animage and have a certain level of choranaptyxis ability.

However, the gigantic wolf who theoretically could have stomped a regular dragon with one paw was reduced to a little fluffy animal of unmatched cuteness. As a result, attractiveness for a certain baby girl, who got scared a moment ago, went through a roof into the sky.

Now this puppy, adorable to no end, was resting on Fleur lap, who rubbed his fur with a tiny hand.

'You realize that I'm a boy of your age, don't you?' - Alan sent her thought she easily understood and went red, but later pouted with shyness while continuing to caress his snow-white fur happily.

"So what?" - she retorted faking haughtiness to the best of her eight years old abilities. - "Now you are a puppy so behave like one!" - then she looked at his head, resting on her knees with half-closed eyes and ears sticking to the sides and waving tail and snickered. - "And you like it."

'Well, can't deny that, my princess.' - he said with zero shyness, making Fleur even redder, but it seems she enjoyed the feeling of touching him so much that she didn't care. The duo was inside their own kid world when adults barged in and ruined the fun.

"Young man, could you please behave and shift to your original appearance?" - that request came from Monsieur, who already directed his servants to clean up the battlefield and file the report he will deliver. It was rude for an animage to play like that. After all, by the book of law he is not an animal, but a human wizard.

Also, even adults needed to adjust themselves after the battle, they just couldn't understand why all of that didn't influence the duo. Monsieur looked at his daughter with reproach. Didn't they tell her to sit inside her room? These two are just too anticlimactic here.

Little did they know, that his aura and natural calmness from Eternal Mind made empath like Fleur submissive and pose a potent influence on her. His will and state of mind could to some degree even change her behavior, but for now, Alan did it involuntarily, on instinct.

Alan stood up, and landing near Fleur's father shook his head.

'Sorry, but after all that,' - he looked around the battlefield. - 'I will shift into a very shameful appearance.' - he said with tact and politeness through mind-speech. Others were astonished and neither Fleur, nor Alan understood how rare a Vibe power is. It is a unique trait to communicate through thoughts.

Eternal mind has this ability in a bag like several others that are yet to be manifested due to age restriction, and the next one will come when he will reach the tenth birthday.

"So that's why he easily started talking to us and his thoughts seemed to be different and clearer. He didn't use heracron abilities to translate, only their channel! A possessor of rare Vibe! What a talented young wizard he is." - Selena walked over and crouched in front of Alan. - "I'm sorry it took so long to find you."

Alan walked up to her and stretched his paws. She just laughed and picked him up. Seeing that her new friend was taken away in such an intimate way by an old aunty, Fleur pouted like there is no tomorrow. She tugged on her mother's dress, that was a bit of a mess now. Her adorable eyes looked like they were ready to show a rainy day.

"Fleur, be an obedient girl. We will ask..." - and only now she finally remembered that they didn't know his name. Somehow it was skillfully avoided in conversation. Apolline directed a glance full of questioning intent to her friend Selena.

"Alan. Alan Viol Salvatore Skymorne, son of Mila Skymorne and Jason Salvatore who was kidnapped by Death Eaters four years ago. His parents were unjustly accused to be traitors and maniac murderers."

"This..." - Monsieur directed a troubled gaze at now unconscious drolk in the arms of auror.

"What's wrong?" - seeing their complicated faces Selena asked.

"Well, that is a long story. We know his parents. Very well at that. During the war with You-Know-Who it was their bravery that saved us from perishing and all our family is here standing only for them. We had an agreement back then. It was just a verbal joke of a pair of two loving parents to be, but... in short Fleur and Alan. They have a marriage arrangement. Naturally, we won't force it. What age are we living in? Still, it is a fact that such a thing happened." - Apolline described with a slight awkwardness.

"Mom, what is marriage?" - Fleur said, looking at the puppy eagerly.

"It means you will be like me and your father."

"Mmm, that means always play with each other and eat together?" - she asked with confusion.

"Well, something like that, honey." - Monsieur nodded with a smile. In his adult world, it is rare to have such an innocent explanation of married life.

"Then it is good, I will marry." - she said eagerly with sparkling eyes. Fleur was dying to feed an adorable puppy and forgot that he is a human mage. Later, when she remembered that occasion and her parents commented on it, she always had a shy smile and didn't know where to hide her face.

"We need to go."

"We will take care of the paperwork on our side." - the Head of the family said. - "Oh and bring the kid one of these days to play with Fleur."

"Naturally."

But before they can leave Alan suddenly awakened and sprinted to the outside under curious glances and came back with an admonitor in his jaws.

"Why do you need this?"

'For training.' - came an answer.

'Because I can't use wands with Isu magic, I won't waste money on one. Plus... why wand? It is so lame! I better use something like a ring or bracelet. Well, something no mage will be able to Expeliarmus from my grip. Expeliarmusing others may be exceptional, but I don't want to be Expeliarmused in return, right? Still, no medium produced in current time with today's magical technology can withstand Isu magic. And also, it won't be helpful, on the contrary, a limiter to my spellcraft. So I need precise control over my mana and what can be better than the ability to cast wandless spells under the suppression of this abominable creation of Gram?'