Chapter 271: Deadly Light
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 of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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8 November 1994, Beauxbatons, France
And as if they were waiting for his command, the spears of light surged towards Harry at blinding speeds…
Out of pure instinct, Harry activated an experimental spell as he watched the spears of light fall towards him, and the world froze. Harry's body was moving in slow motion… Hell, everything was moving in slow motion…
Time magic.
Harry had barely started to even master it and, even then, he had come up with barely a few spells. Oh, they were useful, but he was a long way away from becoming proficient with it. And considering how long it took for him to master his space magic, he wouldn't be in some time…
This spell in particular was the first one that would affect him… It was supposed to make him move faster, but his body felt like it was in Jello, even if it was moving faster than everything else. More than that, the spell was draining…
He might not be able to hold this for long, but it was more than enough to make a plan. As Harry let go of the time spell, he had mapped out every single spear coming his way and warped space to make them hit each other.
Harry enjoyed the wide-eyed look on Dumbledore's face as he realized that his attack was countered. Deciding not to waste the opportunity, the last Potter sent a ball of warped space towards the wizard, which deflected the old man's oncoming spell. Unfortunately, Dumbledore was able to counter with an orb of white light…
Taking the initiative, he cast a dozen spells, one of the largest spell chains he knew, and warped space to make them hit at once.
The former headmaster conjured a glowing metallic shield that tanked the spells with a large bang and actually harnessed the impact into a shockwave that sent Harry flying. Thankfully, he was able to conjure a vertical magic circle, which pushed him towards his opponent.
Dumbledore seemed to be ready to face him, however, at the last minute, Harry created a portal behind his enemy, which swallowed the younger man, and allowed him to get a spell off in the man's blind spot. A space-cutting spell flew towards Dumbledore's back, only to vanish into nothing…
That felt to his Arcane Hearing as some kind of alchemical process. Fucking hell, who used Alchemy like that?
Harry quickly created another portal to avoid the former headmaster's counterattack. It didn't take him long to realize that Dumbledore hadn't moved since the beginning of the confrontation…
A wave of white fire came racing towards Harry and he redirected it using his space magic to go past him. Harry followed up by creating spikes of ice, that the man disintegrated with a wave of his wand. What followed up was a testament to why Dumbledore decided to specialize in transfiguration of all fields.
Transfiguration masters were mostly academics who hoped to enhance their field. It was why they were rare in Britain, which didn't offer an environment that academics would appreciate. Very few people duelled using transfiguration. It was just too cumbersome, slow, and magically intensive. Unfortunately, Albus Dumbledore wasn't like most people. In fact, he was fucking terrifying.
The air around Harry turned to fire with a wave of the man's wand, which he kept redirecting. The ground below him was swallowing him, with hundreds of conjured stone hands trying to grab him with every step he took. Harry conjured a magic circle which sent him into the air and followed up with a space pulse, which Dumbledore somehow redirected.
Harry used another magic circle to send him flying away from a beam of pure light, and he created a portal to redirect the attack towards Dumbledore's back. Dumbledore's position was just too strong. Deciding to switch things up a bit, Harry kept dodging the incoming attacks while preparing a rune matrix. He quickly carved it telekinetically and activated it.
Gravity reversed itself… In fact, it kept rotating. Harry, prepared for this, had levitated a platform oriented to his new acceleration, landing gracefully. The headmaster hadn't seen this coming and was surprised for a moment, falling towards ice spikes that Harry had conjured, only to create a platform of pure light below his feet, allowing him to levitate.
Harry tried to counter by warping space in a way which smashed both the floor and ceiling together, only for the ceiling to turn into water when it almost reached the man…
And just like that, they stood in front of each other, on floating platforms, with wild gravity messing chaotically with the entire room. Evidence that they were in a subspace was demonstrated by the fact that no one even noticed that they had torn an entire wing of Beauxbatons apart.
His priority would have been to get out of this place… In the real world, he would have a bit more leverage. So, first things first, he needed to somehow remove the dimensional barrier that stopped him from creating a portal out…
A small idea started to grow in Harry's head. It was probably idiotic… Maybe even downright suicidal… But it could work and he didn't really have any better options.
However, when he looked at his opponent, Harry couldn't help but swallow heavily as he noticed that the old man was smiling, "Very impressive, young Harry. Very impressive indeed. To think you would grow so much after just a few years… You would have made an excellent disciple. A real shame…"
"Seriously? You tried to ruin my life, force me under your control with very little tact, I might say… Then you tried to paint me as a threat to magical Britain, and you're complaining that I didn't end up as one of your sycophants."
Good, Harry had to keep him talking… He had to buy as much time as he could to put his plan in motion.
Thankfully, the headmaster took the bait, and kept talking, "I had a dream, a beautiful dream, of a world without war, without conflict… A world of true peace, and I did my best to achieve my dream. I was so close… After decades of work, I was desperate. Your presence has ruined my life's work. Do you have any idea what it's like to have your very purpose destroyed because some brat didn't like it… You're a child. You barely know what you want to do with your life, and yet you destroyed my legacy, something that took me decades to build. I might have been forceful with you, but I was the one who has lost the most…"
"Conflict is necessary for us to evolve, to improve," Harry retorted.
"And why would anyone need to evolve? In a perfect world, the need to improve becomes obsolete. Not that it matters now. You have caused me no small amount of grief, but for the greater good, I am ready to move past it… I have far bigger things to worry about than a teenager's delusions of grandeur and importance…"
"And you need the Philosopher's Stone for that?"
The former headmaster frowned, "Yes… I don't expect you to understand, but what's coming… I need to be as powerful as I can be. The world will not survive otherwise."
He was talking about Ragnarök. However, before Harry could ask any more questions, he felt every single remnant of the room turn into a clay-like material and harden into chains that bound him in place.
The former headmaster smiled, "Never talk during a duel, young man. Someone is always preparing something."
Harry smirked, "You couldn't have been more right…"
And with a thought, he activated a very complex runic matrix in the ground, which created a giant pulse of space that destabilized every structure in the room. Harry conjured a magic circle to shield against the onslaught of light spears once more, only to return it with an immense bolt of lightning. Dumbledore conjured a lightning rod, which Harry connected to a ward behind him, messing with gravity once more.
Everyone was sent sideways, and Dumbledore somehow managed to right himself in the air and sent an arc of light towards Harry, who ducked and sent a wave cutter his way. The former headmaster shielded and sent a bolt of light that Harry intercepted with a beam of lightning. The spells clashed, and their wands connected. With every wave of magic, a pulse of energy traversed the room, sending everything flying. A few rocks, being affected by the chaotic gravity…
Harry tried to send one of them wandlessly towards Dumbledore who somehow kept disintegrating them. Suddenly, Dumbledore transfigured their beams of magic into a giant fireball that turned everything around Harry to ash.
Suddenly, Harry noticed that his spell had activated. The space pulse that he had done earlier was more than just some attack. It was mainly an analysis spell. Harry needed it to find the anchor that wouldn't let him portal out…
It took a few seconds for Harry to understand the incoming pieces of information. He would admit to being surprised and taken off-guard, but it did make sense. Alright, now, he had a plan ready to be implemented…
Deciding that trying to overpower Dumbledore was a bad idea, his next option was using trickery. Harry conjured an illusion in his place, and warped space to get him far away while activating his cloak.
When the former headmaster stopped his attack, he looked towards the illusion and instead of finding Harry, he found an illusion of his sister, covered in burns, whimpering, "Albus, Why? It hurts, it hurts so much."
Dumbledore seemed taken aback, with a mixture of hope and horror on his face, as he murmured, "Arianna?"
Before he could even notice, Harry conjured a blade of ice and channelled the resurrection stone's power into it. He stabbed it into Dumbledore's chest, "Not quite. Illusions and trickery can be very powerful. I suppose you would know that… After all, you're not real, are you?"
Dumbledore whispered, "How?"
"This isn't a subspace. At first, I thought you had somehow managed to take me off-guard, but when I tried to analyse this place, the readings were all over the place. They were too chaotic and unnatural. A physical realm wouldn't have formed with these parameters, but a realm of dreams... Well, that's another story. We're still on the terrace, aren't we? You're the anchor to this place."
Harry conjured another blade and used it to impale Dumbledore once more, who disappeared with a flash of light. He probably tried to trap Harry there, but thankfully he could feel Dumbledore's magic with his Arcane Hearing. He followed after it, as it returned to its source.
Suddenly, Harry sat up with a gasp and got up. He saw Dumbledore's face turn from a flinch to actual rage before he took out his wand and sent a white spell at the disoriented boy, "You went too far with that, boy!"
Harry genuinely thought that this would have been it, that his life would end at the hands of the Archmage of light before him. He was barely even coherent, let alone capable of casting any spells.
To both of their shock, a red shield materialized in front of the boy. That seemed to break Dumbledore out of his enraged state. Having recollected himself, he murmured, "I haven't seen blood magic like this for a very long time, ever since the Red Witch perished. I suppose I should congratulate you on fooling the world for over a decade, Lily Potter… Welcome back to the world of the living…"
Harry turned and saw the fake Unspeakable standing near the terrace's entrance. She was holding her bleeding hand, from which blood was dripping on some kind of glowing blood magic rune matrix on the ground, "I wish I could say that it is nice to see you, Albus…"
"You should be glad that I have already gotten what I came here for… Take care of your son, young Lily. You can't know how much time you have left with him. Or perhaps he would leave you if he knew the things you did."
Dumbledore was holding Flamel's Journal in his hand and walked out as if nothing had happened. Lily knelt down and helped Harry up, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. I knew he was powerful, but damn… It's very different when you see it in person, and even then, he was holding back a lot."
"It's alright to lose a round to someone like him. At least you survived to win the next one. That's more than most could say…"
Harry smirked, "Who said anything about losing?"
The masked redhead looked at him with what must have been an incredulous expression, "He got the diary and defeated you for it… He's won its loyalty… How did you not lose?"
"That's all well and good, but you're missing one little detail. I switched the diaries… He stole a fake, and let's just say that he'll have a nasty surprise on his hands when he opens it…"
It took almost fifteen minutes for them to stop laughing…
It was surprisingly nice, to just laugh in the company of Lily… He was grateful for her intervention, which made him wonder if he should start trusting her a bit more…
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AN: I wrote this on like 3 hours of sleep, so I'm not sure if the chapter came out like I wanted it to. For the people who are probably going to ask about the fight, it wasn't just some mental illusion, it was a real fight. As in Dumbledore is mentally fighting him. Imagine them fighting on something like an astral plane, but with Dumbledore being able to split his concentration on it and the living world. Please let me know your opinion and if you have any suggestions.
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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 of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.