CHAPTER {315-317}
****THE-FALL-OF-THE-GOBLIN-NATION (III)****
"What do we do with the bodies? Do we leave them here?" Someone asked with a look of confusion etched on their face and Harry, who was about to tell him to leave them be, stopped as a smirk appeared on his face. For Harry, this was not a simple attack, this was just the beginning of a much bigger thing and he wanted it to make waves.
"Leave the Aurors. We had nothing against the Argentinian Aurors, they just had to poke their noses in somebody else's business, but the Goblins-" Harry trailed off and a cruel glint flashed in his eyes. "Mount their heads on the wall for everyone to see" Harry finished and the members of Lost Garden grinned at his words.
The truth was, nobody liked the Goblins, they were simply tolerated…
"I want the ten of you to stay here and keep an eye on the entrance. I don't think the Aurors are going to try anything again, but if they do, send a word to me…" Harry spoke looking over his shoulder. The men who were busy decapitating the Goblin bodies stopped what they were doing and nodded, looking completely serious.
"-I will decimate them" Harry added in a menacing tone before heading inside the caves while floating in the air. The ones who were left behind got back to their work.
"Do you think that the Aurors are going to attack us? After what happened?" One of them asked in a bewildered tone while he picked up one of the decapitated heads.
"Don't know man! You know how Aurors can get. Don't you remember Finland?" Another man asked without looking away from what he was doing. "They kept coming after us even though they knew they didn't have any chance. Sometimes, they are simply too stubborn to give up" The man finished in a bored tone.
"Stupid if you ask me, that's what they were. If you live, you can fight another day. They should have escaped and joined the ICW forces" Another man chimed in.
"Not that it would have helped them" Another man added with a chuckle and the others also joined him. A few months after Finland fell, Gellert decimated the ICW forces and scattered them far and wide. The ICW was in tatters and there was no one left to stop them, or that was what they thought until Albus Fucking Dumbledore arrived and challenged Gellert.
Gellert shouldn't have accepted the duel… After all, there was nothing to gain for him and everything to lose, but for whatever reason, Gellert accepted the duel. It was just as epic as everyone says and the fight went on for hours, but Gellert ultimately lost. With Gellert defeated, they were defanged and the ICW forces didn't dally.
All of them were rounded up and captured… It was a messy deal, but without Gellert and Dumbledore working with the ICW forces, it was simply impossible to win…
"By the way, what do you think about Potter?" Someone asked when they finally stopped laughing. It was fun reminiscing about the good old days, but now, here they were, working for another titan, but this time without a clear Cause in their minds or a Cause they didn't truly believe in.
"There is not much to think" A man answered. "Look, we were screwed. If it wasn't for him then we would have been still rotting in Nurmengard. I am not saying that I want to dedicate my life to him or anything, but what is there to not like? I mean we are free again, we are young again. Isn't that his cause? True Freedom?" The man asked.
"Yeah… He made me nice and young again, so I am fine working under him" The sole woman in the group chimed in for the first time and the men rolled their eyes. Women were just so easy, keep them young and they would happily walk straight into hell with you, but none of them dared to say that to her face.
While she wasn't dangerous or as crazy as Katerina, she was no slouch… After all, she was one of the Acolytes and she wouldn't be here with them if she wasn't good enough…
"Look, it doesn't matter if we want to serve him loyally or not. The thing is, working for him is our only choice right now. We can't leave. The whole world already knows that Potter can rejuvenate people and our information is kind of public knowledge. We don't even have anything to our name. We are completely penniless!" One of the men explained, looking frustrated and the others simply looked down at his words.
The others were also aware of this reality, but that didn't mean that they would have to be happy about it…
"And it isn't like we can live a normal life anyway. After experiencing war for so many years, do you think that now we can fit into society and live a normal life? Get married? Have children and then raise them to be better people?" The same man asked with a derisive snort. "However, life isn't bad in Lost Garden" The man added, looking satisfied.
"We have everything we could have asked for and after we migrate to Rubek, we are going to have more. The whole island for ourselves. If we really want, we can live a normal life on Rubek while handling logistics" The same man finished with a soft smile on his face as he stared at his fellow members. All of them cheered and smiled at his words.
"You are right, Nigel" One of the men stepped forward and slapped him on the back. Nigel simply smiled and resumed their work.
Just like everyone else, Nigel was also a member of the Lost Garden, but after managing to impress Harry during the Crouch incident, Harry gave him another task. Harry knew that not everyone was going to be happy with how he was doing things, and while Harry could keep an eye on all of them through their Marks, it was way too tedious.
He would have to keep reading the minds of so many people all the time… At that rate, he wouldn't get anything done. So, that was where Nigel came in. Harry had asked Nigel to keep an eye out for anyone trying to spread dissatisfaction among the members of Lost Garden and nip the situation in the bud before it could become a real problem.
Nigel stared at the man who tried to sow dissatisfaction and decided to keep an eye on the man… It might have been just a coincidence or the man wasn't trying to start anything and simply wanted to know the other's opinion, but Nigel wasn't going to take any chances…
~~With Jacklyn~~
"Don't use Spells, you fools! Their armors and swords are impervious to Magic. Use Transfiguration or Conjuration!" Jacklyn exclaimed, looking at the members of Lost Garden in anger and frustration. All of them knew how to Transfigure and Conjure items, but it was maddening to watch how only a couple of them could use them practically in a fight.
Most Wixen couldn't even fight their way out of a paper bag and while only a small minority knew how to fight or duel, they mostly relied on Spells. After all, both Transfiguration and Conjuration were pretty advanced branches of Magic… Spells were much easier in comparison. After all, they simply needed to wave their Wand and what needed to happen, happened.
It was much more complicated than that, but after practicing a Spell hundreds of times, it becomes as easy as breathing since a person doesn't need to think anything new to cast the Spell… However, Transfiguration and Conjuration don't work like that. A person would need to use their imagination every time they Transfigure or Conjure something.
"Uggghhh!" Jacklyn snarled in frustration but she froze when someone placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to find Harry standing behind her with an amused smile on his face.
"Don't lose your patience. You need to keep your cool in a fight… I know what a fight does to you, but getting frustrated isn't going to help you" Harry commented and Jacklyn blushed a bit when he mentioned her quirk. "Don't get me wrong, I am frustrated too, but don't act on it. At least, not right now" Harry explained further.
"We need to train them, Harry. They can barely use anything besides Spells and only a handful of them could cast the Unforgivables" Jacklyn griped unhappily.
"They need to be trained, but the Unforgivables aren't a good base for evaluation. There is a lot more to Magic than that" Harry quickly shook his head. "Sometimes, experience is more important" Harry said and pointed his finger at one of the men. The man was completely unpresuming and it was obvious that he couldn't use Transfiguration or Conjuration in a fight, but all of a sudden, the man pointed his Wand at the roof and cast a Cutting Charm.
The Cutting Curse hit the spikes on the ceiling, cutting them from the base and gravity took care of the rest… Harry was impressed. The man could have achieved the same effect with a Blasting Curse or something like that, he chose to use a Cutting Curse. Goblin mines were tough, but still, Blasting Curse shouldn't be cast inside a cave.
The spikes fell from the ceiling and impaled a couple of Goblins. The others decided to follow his example and use Cutting Curses on the ceiling. Thankfully, nobody was foolish enough to use a Blasting Curse…
"At least, they are creative enough to come up with another way to cover up their shortcomings" Jacklyn commented dryly while shaking her head. While they managed to find a way to get the job done, Jacklyn was disappointed. The thrill of Conjuring a spike yourself to impale a target was much more satisfactory.
"Don't be too hard on them" Harry commented as he walked away and for the time being, Jacklyn decided to drop the matter. Getting frustrated wasn't going to help her right now… She had a job to do and she would be damned if she disappointed Harry a second time…
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****THE-FALL-OF-THE-GOBLIN-NATION (IV)****
Jacklyn sauntered ahead without a care, feeling completely invincible. Her Magic was singing in ecstasy and even though she wanted to lose herself in the fight, she knew that she needed to keep a straight head. "Harper, the little bastards have blown up the lines!" One of the members of Lost Garden came running, looking concerned and informed her.
The vault they wanted to raid was quite deep inside the cave so they were already expecting the Goblins to try something like blowing up the lines to prevent them from descending deeper inside the cave, but that meant it was any less frustrating. "Alright. I want 5 of you to stay here and the rest of you, mount your brooms" Jacklyn ordered sharply.
Nobody dared to dally around since all of them knew that it was an important mission and this was the first time Lost Garden was carrying out a contract, which meant that they needed to make a really good impression. Meanwhile, Jacklyn simply started to float in the air without any assistance. Harry had previously assisted her with the Rituals and now she simply needed to show off.
Soon the members of Lost Garden were zooming through the tunnels and before long, they finally found themselves inside a large tunnel…
"Dragon!!" Someone from the front screamed and everyone scattered away before a large gust of flames swept around the ceiling. Harry had already informed them about the Dragon, so none of them were surprised, but the prospect of facing a Dragon was still intimidating to almost all Wixen. However, not all Wixen were the same.
"Leave the Dragon to me!" Jacklyn exclaimed loudly with a hungry grin on her face. She could feel the thrill coursing through her body. She wanted to face the Dragon and nobody was going to deny her. "Here you big ugly lizard!" Jacklyn screamed as she flew toward the Dragon while casting a couple of Cutting Curses.
The Dragon turned Jacklyn and snarled at her before ducking its head… While Dragons were mostly impervious to Magic, it didn't mean they were completely immune and the Curses looked quite dangerous. One of the Cutting Curses hit one of the spikes on the back of its head and the Curse cleanly removed the spike from the back of its head.
The Dragon snarled in rage and bellowed a large gust of flames, hoping to turn the impudent human into ash, but Jacklyn quickly changed her course when she saw the flames incoming. There were only a handful of Magical Shields strong enough to protect a Wixen from Dragon flames and all of them took a lot of power and effort to cast.
While Jacklyn could have easily cast such a Shield since she could draw Magic from Harry, she decided not to… She wanted to slay the Dragon on her own. Jacklyn landed in front of the Dragon and cast the Conjunctivitis Curse at the Dragon. If she managed to blind the Dragon then the fight was going to become a lot easier for her.
However, the Dragon easily dodged the Curse and greeted her with another gust of flames, however, once again, she managed to dodge the flames with extreme ease. Right now, the Dragon was collared and chained, which hampered its ability to move around and even if it was free, the cave wasn't big enough for the Dragon to fly, which was a huge advantage for Jacklyn and she was planning to take full advantage of it.
"You can't move, can you?" Jacklyn asked in an amused tone and Conjured several metal spikes over the Dragon with a wave of her Wand and with a downward flick, she brought them down. The spikes rained down over the Dragon, but the Dragon still wasn't willing to give up. Even though its wings were damaged, the Dragon raised its wings over its head to protect itself. The spikes managed to pierce through its wings, but they lost their momentum.
The Dragon thrashed around in pain while glaring at Jacklyn hatefully. "Pity… It could have been a much harder fight if you could free around" Jacklyn mumbled under her breath and raised her Wand over her head. "Tiantang Fenlie Zhe!" Jacklyn exclaimed loudly as she brought down her Wand like she was wielding a knife and everything in front of her split in half.
The Dragon froze for a moment before blood started to sip from the middle of the Dragon creating a straight vertical line and moments later, the Dragon was split apart from the middle…
Jacklyn slowly landed on the ground, looking completely drained… She finally understood why Gellert had warned her against using this Spell if she wasn't confident about ending the fight with this Spell… Jacklyn looked at the Wand in her Wand and a smile bloomed on her face. The Spell was never this powerful before… She simply wanted to cut the Dragon in half, but everything in front of her was cut in half.
"The fuck are you gawking for? We have a job to do" Jacklyn snapped when she noticed that all the members of Lost Garden were gawping at her. As soon as her words rang out inside the cave, everyone started to move again, looking smug, nervous, and awestruck at the same time. They knew that Jacklyn was powerful, but they never knew that she was this powerful… It was an eye-opener for a lot of them.
After all, some of the members were only following her commands because Harry was backing her up, but now they knew that she was powerful in her own right and she didn't need Harry to hold her hands. Jacklyn took a deep breath and straightened herself… She was winded, but she knew that she couldn't show any weakness.
Harry wanted her to be in command and as the Commander, she couldn't show any weakness… She took another deep breath and started to approach the corpse of the Dragon. Even though the Dragon was split from the middle, it was going to be a nice trophy for her…
Then all of a sudden, the whole cave shuddered before loud explosions started to ring out throughout the cave. The ceiling started to collapse. "Fuck!" Jacklyn exclaimed loudly when she lost her footing due to the shaking and she wasn't the only one. Soon the whole cave started to collapse and Jacklyn had to admit, watching a huge chunk of rock coming down on top of her was quite an intimidating sight…
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****THE-FALL-OF-THE-GOBLIN-NATION (V)****
Harry watched Jacklyn defeat the Dragon from afar and nodded his head in satisfaction. The Elder Wand was obviously working its Magic, but 'Tiantang Fenlie Zhe' was not an easy Spell to cast in the first place. It was an Ancient Spell which was first used by one of the Chinese Warlocks to defeat a Nundu somewhere around the 13th century before it was lost within tomes until Gellert discovered the Spell during his travels.
So while Jacklyn was still not a Titan class, she had the potential to become one… Right now, she was only 19 years old, which meant she was still far from her prime…
However, the way she killed the Dragon was quite spectacular even though Harry didn't consider Dragons to be a threat. There were two big reasons why Dragons were hard to defeat. First of all, their scales might be thin and light, but they were really tough and quite resistant to Magic. Secondly, they could fly. It was really hard to hit a moving target, especially when they were quite far from you.
Then all of a sudden, the whole cave shuddered and the explosions rang inside the cave. |Looks like they have realized that they can't stop us, so they have decided to go out with a loud bang| Harry sighed internally, sounding annoyed.
|You were already expecting them to pull something like this, so no big deal| Lily pointed out softly with a smile on her face.
|Yes, but that doesn't mean it is any less annoying| Harry answered blandly and Lily simply hummed in agreement at his words. Harry slowly raised his hand and the cave stopped collapsing. This was a lot more taxing than anything he had ever done, but he could still do this for days without feeling any kind of strain.
|Are you alright?| Lily asked with a hint of concern in her voice. She was sure that her son was alright and he could handle it, but she was a mother, and as a mother she was worried.
|Yeah, I am not feeling any kind of strain| Harry decided to give her a long answer as he didn't want her to keep worrying. His words dismissed all of her concerns.
\Harry, we are done\ After a couple of minutes, Harry finally received the message he was waiting for. \Are we really going to leave the other vaults?\ The same person asked and Harry couldn't stop himself from sighing in exasperation. This wasn't the first time he talked about this. He could understand where the others were coming from, but they were here for a job, nothing else.
\We are here for a job. We aren't here to steal\ Harry answered and he could feel that the Wizard on the other side was dissatisfied, but they decided not to push it. Lost Garden was a mercenary organization, not a band of thieves. It didn't matter to him if there were millions of gold in the other vaults, they were only here for the gold stolen from the British Ministry of Magic.
As a budding mercenary organization, they needed to uphold their reputation…
With that thought in his mind, Harry ordered everyone to retreat through the Mark and as for the surviving Goblins, he was going to leave them to their collapsing cave. If some of them survived then good for them since Harry wasn't here to kill Goblins even though he really hated them. His job was to recover the gold and any survivors were only going to spread the word of his might, so it was not a problem in his books.
\Gellert, it's time. I will be there in a few minutes\ Harry sent a message to Gellert through the Mark before he looked down at the cave condescendingly. |At least, you buggers are going to die buried in the caves you seem to love so much| Harry mused and released his hold on the cave. Once again the cave started to collapse and with a smirk on his face, Harry disappeared with a loud crack.
~~Ministry of Magic, Britain~~ (A few hours ago)
Amelia heard someone knock on her door. She put down her quill and called out "Come in". A second later, Arthur Weasley entered the room, looking curious and intrigued. "Have a seat" Amelia offered and Arthur accepted the offer with a grateful look on his face. "How is your daughter doing?" Amelia asked.
Arthur grimaced at the reminder, but he quickly schooled his features. He had known Amelia Bones for years and she was not someone who would make fun of him in such a manner. "She is doing a lot better right now" Arthur answered with a smile. Ginny could already walk, run and lift weights without any more shaking.
The Healers were quite glad with all the progress she was making and they were positive that Ginny would be completely healed in the next couple of months…
"Good" Amelia nodded her head with a smile. "Now, as for the reason why I summoned you" Amelia gave him a serious look as she started to speak. "You see, right now the Ministry is in dire need of gold. With the recent attack on Diagon Alley, we seem to have extinguished our funds, but everything isn't lost yet" Amelia paused to take a breath.
"Cornelius and Umbridge were stealing gold from the Ministry reserves and funneling them into their offshore accounts. In the next few hours, a third party is going to recover the gold for us, for a commission, of course-" Amelia was cut off by Arthur before she could finish speaking.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! They were funneling the gold into offshore accounts? Surely not Muggle accounts, right?" Arthur asked hurriedly. Cornelius and Umbridge were stealing gold, he could believe that. He would have been more surprised if they weren't doing something like that, but he was more worried about the fact that Amelia was planning to recover the gold. He could already feel dread welling up in the pit of his stomach.
"Officially, we do not know" Amelia answered after a moment with a stern look on her face. "We have decided to leave the whole investigation to the third party we hired to reclaim the stolen gold" Amelia added and Arthur could already hear alarm bells going off inside his head. "That is the only answer you are going to receive" Amelia finished while giving him a meaningful look.
Arthur gulped loudly at the implications, but there was still something he needed to ask. "Then why am I here?" Arthur asked warily.
"Hypothetically speaking, the Goblins declare war on us and close the Gringotts branch in our country in retaliation for any perceived slight. Once again, hypothetically speaking, we somehow manage to claim the Gringotts branch in our country for ourselves, but then we would need someone who could manage the bank for the Ministry" Amelia finished as she clasped her fingers in front of her with a grave look on her face.
Meanwhile, Arthur was looking completely aghast… "Th-This is wrong! You cannot do this! This is going to start another Goblin Revolution!" Arthur snapped, looking outraged. When he entered the Minister's office, he wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he wasn't expecting something like this.
"I am not asking for your opinion, I am asking if you are going to take the job if the hypothetical situation I just mentioned happens" Amelia retorted looking completely calm even after his sudden outburst.
Arthur was about to protest again, but it was pretty obvious that plans were already in motion. He could refuse the offer as he wanted no part in this, but at the same time, he knew he wasn't going to get another opportunity like this. Additionally, Bill was going to lose his job either way and in case he accepted the offer, he would be able to reinstate his son. That wasn't the only benefit.
"...Y-Yes, I will take the job" Arthur stuttered out.
Amelia smiled at him and leaned back in her chair. "Good" She nodded her head in satisfaction. "Now, after we take over, everything is going to be in disarray, so I need you to gather a team of men you trust and sort everything out as soon as you can" Amelia explained and Arthur nodded his head in understanding. He knew some people who were going to be delighted to have the new job…
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