5,718Chapter 128
Marshal
Potter,
Ah hell. Just writing this feels incredibly strange. I've been the last one for so long that even using a feather and not speaking it does make me feel weird.
Let's begin again...Champion of Kali.
I can only hope that at this moment, this diary in your hands is able to show you my words. The Artificer of the Exchequer who gave me it assured me it could work everywhere in the world thanks to some Master-level Arithmancy, but I don't think he had considered the possibility of me giving one to a multi-dimensional traveller.
And for obvious reasons, no, I hadn't been able to test it before. I had just obtained a set of them yesterday, and besides giving a few to my friends, I hadn't written anything in them. One being stocked in my Changelina was lucky, or a boon of Fate. Choose the outcome which is the most likely, in your opinion.
Regardless of this minor detail, I hope you were able to return to your world. I also hope your red-headed nemesis is still alive, if only for the opportunities to tell her how dumb she was to try the stunts she did. That House Gryffindor won't have to replace its Champion may also be good news. Maybe. Honestly, after this kind of performance, I would personally prefer someone sane but less powerful. During our Tasks, many Light Champions convinced of their inevitable victory received a rapid reality check before dying. If your Ginny Weasley doesn't adjust her world view quickly, she will perish as soon as Warrington of Slytherin did in mine, and for the record, his demise came during the First Task in mere minutes.
As for the request you made before we were so rudely interrupted, consider it approved. I am just trying to find a way to send you all the documentation I've been able to obtain. Logistically, the package is huge, and I seriously don't think it will be practical or feasible to write down everything in the diary. I have been given some knowledge of a few Rune Languages which permit that. Just give me a few days to test it in practise first.
My last but not least point...I am writing this as I rest somewhere safe.
I am Alexandra Victoria Potter, Champion of the Morrigan. I swear on my magic that everything written in these pages is the truth.
Pandemonium, the Realm of Death
Pandemonium was really animated today.
For the sake of avoiding bad puns, Alexandra wasn't going to say 'lively'.
The realm of Death was not filled with life.
It was, however, a new copy of a restored London.
This was something that...uh...makes sense.
Pouring out all the souls that Riddle had prevented from ever crossing the Veil all at once must have had an effect.
Alexandra looked around her.
It was rather...nice?
Of course, she would feel way better if there wasn't an imminent apocalypse, but for some time, Pandemonium or not, watching the city felt almost normal.
Almost.
There were crowds of people acting as if everything was normal. There were traditional buses carrying thousands of green-pale ghosts everywhere.
The Hydra Animagus couldn't hear a single noise.
This didn't mean the dead were mute, no. It was just that what they were saying was not meant for her ears anymore.
People thought they were all-powerful.
This was working a bit too fast.
Whatever their legend, the Champions remained Champions. Pandemonium? It was the realm of Death, not the private kingdom of one or several Champions of Death. Did that make sense?
And if she was still here, instead of finding the quickest exit to return to her world, it meant the Morrigan felt there was something important that had to be done before that.
Fortunately, it wasn't hard to figure it out.
Unlike the other ghosts which shimmered a pale green shade, this one shone with silver radiance.
She was perched upon one of the big lions of the Trafalgar column too. That helped when it came to monopolising the attention.
And yes, the girl was exactly like her.
No, that wasn't the truth, was it?
The girl was her.
Unlike Rani, who had had different parents, her counterpart had definitely inherited the genetics of both James Potter and Lilian Evans.
That she was clad in plate armour, ready to launch herself into battle, with a sword in the scabbard by her side...it made everything worse, in the end.
This girl could play as her double without much trouble. Except, you know, she was a Light witch.
Still, since the Morrigan hadn't taken her away yet...
Alexandra jumped and went on to sit on the lion mere inches away.
"You were lucky to face only the shadow of Tabitha Riddle."
"I suppose I was." The Knight Necromancer of another world had lost everything but mere sparks of the magic of Fate, preserving her existence with that chokehold on destiny. "In my defence, though, I didn't have the time to prepare the battlefield. Things would have been a bit different if I did."
"Do you think you're funny?"
Alexandra's eyes narrowed.
"Do you think you are in a position to give me any lessons?"
The Champion of Ravenclaw was quite sure she heard the teeth of her counterpart grit themselves in frustration.
"You're incredibly arrogant for someone who may face the destruction of her entire world in the next twenty-four hours."
"I suppose I am." Humility...err...had never been noted by her friends as one of her big qualities. At least, Morag and Susan hadn't mentioned it recently when she was somewhere close. "On the other hand, I know now what Knight Necromancer is doing, the basics of her plan to become the Dark Champion of Fate, and more."
Seriously, as a side-note, this Dumbledore should have been killed the first time she stepped out of line. And she had stepped out of line at some point. Alexandra refused to think there had been no warning signs, not when the girl had been introduced to the Exchequer by bloody Gellert Grindelwald of all wizards!
"But you mistake arrogance for confidence, oh counterpart of mine. I know she's waiting for me. I know she has mustered an army of undead where her ritual is unfolding, along with some really, really nasty surprises. So I am not going to go at it with silk gloves. I am going to drop a series of huge meteors upon her. I am hardly a specialist of resurrection rituals, but I have a gut feeling it might become a tad bit more difficult to complete it when everything is annihilated by the impact of very big rocks."
"That would be a fine decision, if it was a possibility in the first place."
The words almost made her grimace.
"What do you mean, exactly? The site where the First Elder Dragon rose from long ago is a crater in the middle of the South African desert." When searching for information in the Library of Alexandria about the origins of dragon-kind, this particular piece had been particularly memorable.
"If you want to be accurate, the first site is at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, deepest of the abysses. And there's another underwater in the Gulf of Mexico." Had the other witch been a Ravenclaw too? That was a frightening prospect, honestly. "But yes, the site you mentioned is the one Riddle used and that I rushed to stop before it could get anywhere near completion. But if your Knight Necromancer is following a plan similar to mine, she will have created a magic-reinforced cavern underneath the crater to hide her army and her ritual preparations."
Curse it.
Alexandra was going to take a guess that the 'cavern' was so deep that in order for the meteors to do their job, she would need several Giant-sized ones. Aside from the little question that demanded her to think if she was capable of it, basic maths hinted the collateral damage was going to be extreme.
By 'extreme', it probably meant 'most of the African continent dead in the process'.
"Okay. That is going to be a problem."
"Glad to hear you say it."
Why, oh why, did her counterpart have to master the difficult art of sarcasm?
"Is there any good news I can hear?"
"If this ritual is anything like mine, her Phylactery is here." Fists tightened, and it wasn't hard to see the Light witch wanted to grab her sword once again and strike Riddle a few hundred times. "You can kill her for good. In fact, you will have to prioritize taking her down for good. It may be your only chance."
Alexandra blinked.
"I was under the impression stopping the process which would resurrect an Elder Dragon took utmost priority." Yes, on this she was absolutely one hundred percent serious. Yes, Arianna Dumbledore was a massive threat. Yes, as long as she was in play, the undead armies would continue to fight and try to murder everything.
But having seen the size of Nidhögg, Alexandra was certain she had not the slightest desire to fight something bigger and far more malevolent in a duel to the death.
"I can't know for sure how different the ritual is from the one I faced," the other Champion shook her head. "But I arrived six hours before completion, and despite all the help I had at my disposal, I failed to divert the tiniest magical flow away from the ritual site."
That sounded...bad. In fact, it sounded and looked incredibly bad. That kind of stuff was theoretically possible, Professor McGonagall had spoken of it in Transfiguration classes, but the price to pay...
And that didn't mention how much the 'new strategy' sounded horrible on paper.
Without meteors to 'crack' the ritual site like an egg, Alexandra was going to have to descend into the earth with whoever wanted to accompany her, fight her way through an impossibly huge array of magical wards and evil defences of Knight Necromancer, survive an absurd quantity of undead things, then fight Arianna Dumbledore, or at least keep her busy enough for someone to destroy her Phylactery, which was no doubt the most heavily protected item on the African continent.
This already sounded insane enough on its own, and this was the winner of the European Magical Tournament, Twice-Basilisk-Slayer who was speaking.
Challenging an Elder Dragon after that managed to make it ten times more insane, and that wasn't an understatement.
Alexandra groaned. Yes, the day was definitely going to be a nightmarish one. She just hadn't known this morning by how much.
"This is going to suck. Royally."
"If it can be a comfort, Magic has clearly judged you are one of the Champions who can win where no other can."
Alexandra blinked, and turned her head towards the other Champion in curiosity.
"The End is coming. The worlds are ending, and with life dying, so does magic. The Powers have fewer and fewer worlds to oversee, and try what they can to save a maximum of them."
"Champions are cast across time and space to desperately find solutions, be they Light or Dark," the Lady Protector murmured.
"Yes. Those of us who survive the storm tend to be...often solicited by others. Today was merely one of those times. You may get more invitations like the one the Champion of Kali made as Ragnarok draws near."
Alexandra sighed.
This was just...not great. There were already enough problems here, beginning with Knight Necromancer, and ending with Ragnarok and Apophis.
"Well, I thank you for the warnings...err..."
"Rose Potter. Champion of Tabiti, Queen of the Gods, and Order."
"Alexandra Potter. Champion of the Morrigan and Death."
"I know. Your Patron came before you did."
Yes, she had expected something of the sort.
The young witch abandoned her improvised seat upon the metallic lion.
"Thanks for the information." Morrigan or not, Rose Potter could have chosen to not reveal most of what she said. "This is going to suck already, I mean, but-"
"Alexandra."
"Yes?"
"Keep in mind that Fate does have a plan of its own to ensure the Ragnarok does not end magic and all living beings. As long as it doesn't have a Champion, it will take action."
"I am not the Champion of Fate, Rose." And I have zero desire to be the one to walk in Neville Longbottom's footsteps, thank you very much.
"I know. This is why I am warning you."
29 May 1995, the British Museum, London
Scylla had been a bit anxious, even if she wasn't going to admit it in public.
Alexandra was late.
Not by much, it was only six minutes, but the Ravenclaw Champion who was by magic and oath her Lady was rarely late.
Something must have happened.
"What a week, eh, Dudley?"
"James, it is Monday."
Scylla did her best not to frown at the pack of unrefined rats which were waiting close by.
Yes, she was aware only two were wererats, but still.
Would it kill them to have a semi-presentable appearance on a Monday morning?
"There are Mondays where more things happen than in a normal week."
"I agree."
"Of course you do, Malcolm."
"Do you think Her Majesty the Hydra is going to like it?"
"I think she will understand why some of the negotiations she did went so poorly, at least..."
"Winning the hearts and the minds, James?"
"Oh, shut up, Dudley."
"I just hope the boss is going to arrive soon. We're beginning to attract some attention, right here in front of this large museum."
"That's because-"
Scylla felt it then.
Magic surged, and the shadows of the building seemed to twist in an impossible way.
The sun felt paler.
And Alexandra walked out of a large vortex of emerald colour like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Needless to say, there were hundreds of gasps from the non-magical men, women, and children around.
"I apologise for the lateness," the victor of the European Magical Tournament said calmly.
Scylla cleared her throat.
"Apologies accepted...err...may I ask why you were delayed?"
The expression she was given was particularly vicious.
"The Ginny of another dimension happened to be a bitch, a harpy, and worse, a Champion of Fate. As a result, I went on to participate in an unpleasant adventure, and acquired information that is going to change my priorities for the next twenty-four hours."
A hand was raised above the heads of the 'hooligans rats'.
"Yes, cousin?"
"Does it involve bad news where you have to save the world from a terrible evil threat?"
There was a loud huff.
Scylla was opening her mouth to order the plebeian rat to stop being so dramatic-
"Yes, yes it does."
What?
"I told you, Piers, it was going to be one of those Mondays."
"Shut up, Jimmy."
Emerald magic danced on Alexandra's fingertips. That quieted them down quickly.
"Fortunately, I have already begun to think of several plans to stop Knight Necromancer before she opens the gates to world destruction, so to speak. One of them involves hiring in emergency the mightiest non-magical nation around, the United States. I'm told they have a fleet of large bombers with bunker-busting bombs that can penetrate very deeply into the earth."
The boy who was called James coughed violently.
"Err...Lady Protector? I'm afraid that is not going to be really possible."
"And why is that?" Oh yes, the Sword of Death was really starting to get annoyed.
"Because the US President is facing a huge scandal this morning? At least they just went public with it now."
Several newspapers were revealed. All were very recent, as in bought in the last hours, and all were saying the same thing on the front page-
"Due to malfunctions in the prototype ward schemes of the White House, the US President was caught having sex in his office?"
The female Champion grabbed one of the papers and summed-up the article in mere seconds.
"I don't see why it is that bad. I mean, the brunette is rather cute, and too good for the man, but-"
"Cousin, the brunette is supposed to be the President's secretary, not his wife."
"Oh," the green eyes blinked for a moment. "Oh, yeah, I suppose it could be a problem. Wait a minute. Is that why there was so little oversight of some American Generals during the Korean diplomatic exchanges?"
"Err...possibly?"
They were given a genuine grimace in return.
"Formidable," Alexandra closed her eyes for a few seconds. "We're three years away from Ragnarok, but we have a Dark Witch already bent on destroying the world, and the politicians I did not remove are displaying towering feats of incompetence."
No one had a good counter for that. After all, the Champion of the Morrigan was absolutely right.
"Right. We're going to have to do it the bloody way."
"Cousin, is it-"
"An Elder Dragon. Arianna Dumbledore intends to resurrect an Elder Dragon, aka the equivalent of a magical nuke of corruption and destruction, and that way she will become the Champion of Fate while establishing a reign of darkness upon this world."
"-that bad?"
"I just saw a world where one counterpart of hers was successful, so to speak. There were only the ashes of the dead left."
The green eyes more threatening than a hundred Unforgivables stared at them one after another.
"Yes, that does sound very bad."
"I'm so glad you agree..." lateness or not, there was something comforting about the sarcastic repartees not being discarded right now. "Damn it. I'm going to have to recruit everyone, including the Champion that is the most suited to kill a magical monster bigger than a mountain."
"You could have said 'it's me', you know."
There was a mocking glare, and an impressive one.
"My ego hasn't grown sufficiently large enough to speak of myself in the third person, Dudley. No, Death is not the most redoubtable force you want to recruit when facing a dragon."
"Err...what kind of deity is, then?"
Scylla knew that one, and grinned.
"Did you never wonder why in the legends, the one to be sacrificed to the dragons is always the virgin maiden and not the incredibly dashing Prince?"
29 May 1995, Breakfast Hall, Scuola Regina, Republic of Magical Venice
To her credit, Eleonora da Riva spent only a few seconds gaping.
It just gave her the time to empty a fruit of orange juice and eat two eggs.
Given the magnitude of the 'bomb' Alexandra had dropped, this was no small thing.
"Well, Arianna Dumbledore does not appear to lack ambition," the Champion of Vesta replied after several heartbeats. "How? I am utterly unsurprised a Dark sociopath would want to achieve that sort of ambition, but trying and actually being able to do it are completely different things."
"The sister of the ex-Headmaster stole the Round Table of the Light and a prototype Time-Turner." Alexandra bluntly revealed, making the other Champion's eyes widen in stupefaction. "Now, I am not an expert on the subject, so it is only a guess. Let's assume that she sacrifices a lot of lives in vicious sacrifices...she may use the Time-Turner as a magical projectile to shatter the normal flow of time. It might allow her to reach back to the very moment the Elder Dragon died in the first place, which was almost certainly thousands of years ago."
"Yes." Eleonora da Riva nodded, wincing all the time. "And then, if it's indeed a Light reptile, which it is certainly is, she will invert the alignment of this massive amount of Light magic in her custody via another ritual."
Alexandra blinked.
"I hadn't guessed exactly that..."
"The Elder Dragon at that point will be essentially a few sparks of life pushed into a skeleton, Alexandra." The Venetian Champion smirked. "She needs to multiply several times the regeneration magic of the Elder Dragon, otherwise the Necromancer will soon have on her hands a corpse and not much else."
"That indeed...makes sense." Of course, she hadn't had much time to study the subject. It had been mere minutes since she teleported from London. "Can you stop it?"
"Arianna Dumbledore becoming the Champion of Fate? Yes. If her undead army is busy elsewhere, I think I can shatter her phylactery in a way you or other Champions are unable to. A Lich is never made of Innocence, but this one is pure Evil. I can deal with her."
Alexandra didn't need Death to know she wasn't going to like what was about to follow.
"The Elder Dragon, assuming it manages to a fraction of its original power? No, I can't stop something like that."
"I was under the impression-"
"Yes, I'm sure you read the chronicles where beautiful and bloodthirsty maidens hacked their way through hordes of abominations and slew the titanic-sized dragons." Eleonora's eyes rolled. "This was millennia ago."
"These were Elder Dragons."
"Your understanding of the Sumerian dialect is imperfect. The Order I am the sole descendant of right now killed many young Elder Dragons. In that almost forgotten-era, they were born from Magic itself, not evolved from other dragons. This meant that the evil ones could take centuries to grow to prodigious sizes. It was largely enough time for the Champions of Innocence to find out about the threat and face it on the battlefield."
Why couldn't things be easy for once?
"The empty Ossuary I found is enough of a hint to say that whatever ancient Elder Dragon was hidden there, it was assuredly not a small one."
"Yes." There was no trace of joy left in the expression she was given. "To be perfectly honest, I remain one of the best candidates to go against an Elder Dragon. I am totally immune to the Weir, as I am a virgin and a Champion of Innocence. I can cast certain spells which will hurt it a lot. But it won't be enough. I am not my predecessors; I did not train myself to slay monsters every month of the year for the last ten years."
Not like you or Lyudmila Romanov.
The words were not uttered aloud, but Alexandra didn't need them to be.
Right.
It was...bad.
No, it was very, very bad.
"I am going to help in every way I can, of course," Eleonora reassured her...or tried to, anyway. "As the Champion of Innocence and the Light, however, it is my duty to inform you that my chances of success doing something like that are slim...when facing XXXXX-class creatures, I tamed them. I didn't fight them. Something tells me it won't be possible when it comes to an Elder Dragon."
"You're certainly right about that." How many times could Alexandra have died against the Basilisks of the Chamber of the Secret? "That said, you're certainly the only Champion of Magic right now to be able to boast of a total immunity to the Weir."
"The magical corruption won't truly begin until the full ritual is over."
"And once it is?" the Champion of the Morrigan pointed out acidly. "As you justly pointed out, this isn't going to be an infantile foe. The Weir will be the equivalent of a fission bomb attacking the essence of everyone nearby. The equivalent of a million Dark spells cast at once. And I am not a virgin. I know for certain neither Romeo Malatesti nor Fleur Delacour are virgins. Lyudmila is pretty much everything you want, but not innocent, and as for Lucrezia..."
The Succubus had enjoyed more carnal adventures than all of the other Champions added together. She'd also plunged her claws into very Dark rituals before finally abandoning the obscurity for Water.
The fingers tapped over the exquisite wood of their breakfast table.
"I believe there is a solution." Alexandra would have loved to hear more conviction and less hesitation in Eleonora's voice, but she would already take the possibility of a plan over nothing. "But you will need your girlfriend to stand with you in a ritual. And twelve virgin girls, untouched by Corruption and the Dark."
"That...that can probably arranged." Suddenly, the actions of Arianna Dumbledore which had resulted in herself becoming the Grand Marshal of North Korea could very much have an ironic conclusion.
"No Imperio, no subtle Compulsions, nothing...everyone has to act from her own free will."
"Duly noted," the Hydra Animagus grimaced. "Now tell me what this 'solution' is about, and how much I am not going to like it. I want-"
The world screamed in pain.
It was distant, at the edge of her senses, yet impossible to miss.
Magic was in pain and wanted every-
No. All the students in the breakfast hall had placed their hands upon their ears or shown signs of unease or suffering.
Everyone had heard that.
"It has begun."
"Yes," that was very much one of the moments where Alexandra would have preferred to be completely wrong.
She tried to keep a calm facade. It was far more difficult than usual.
"By sheer curiosity, Eleonora, how the hell is Knight Necromancer supposed to 'invert the magical alignment' of so much Light Magic in a single ritual? I mean, the Round Table is severed from the Plane of Light now, but it was roughly made to be one part of the Triad of Light Weapons, one which included Excalibur. That's not some kind of toy you let a first-year-witch play with."
"Oh, that's an easy one," the Champion of Innocence told her with what for once clear satisfaction. "You haven't heard of the Dual Rituals of Love and Hatred?"
29 May 1995, somewhere under the Prime Crater of the Elder, the Final Weir Ritual Site, South Africa
Albus Dumbledore woke up.
Something that should have been a pleasure, whatever the day was...
Unfortunately, there was nausea and he felt incredibly weak.
He also couldn't remember going to sleep too.
No, he hadn't been anywhere near his bed, or the office which led to it.
No, this period of rest hadn't been anywhere near the top of Albus' list of priorities for the evening.
He in fact had been on his way to the Hog's Head, and-
His eyes began functioning correctly again.
The Defeater of Grindelwald could see again.
The first thing he saw was the disapproving face of his brother Aberforth.
"Finished taking a nap, did you?"
Albus grimaced inwardly. The scorn he probably deserved, but the fear couldn't be missed.
"Is it too much to hope you cast a Curse which caught me by surprise?"
"Look around you, Albus. Does this strike you as the neighbourhood of Hogsmeade?"
The former Supreme Mugwump turned his head.
He very much regretted it within a couple of seconds.
Everything was abominable, to the point he didn't even know where to begin.
The thousands of undead unflinchingly standing all around the rocks where his brother and himself had been chained?
The Lethifold and other Dark monstrous creatures floating in the air, spreading dread and misery in their wake?
The shrieking and the abhorrent feeling someone was tormenting Magic itself?
The immense cavern that felt to stretch so far it had no end, but whose natural walls were covered in blasphemous Runes that were banned by all civilised Ministries?
Unfortunately, as his mind cleared, there was something which won without trying.
For as large as this underground location illuminated by tens of thousands of Dark-touched candles was, the size had not been expanded to colossal dimensions for gloating purposes.
No, it had been done to contain a skeleton which shouldn't exist.
The Sea Snakes and the Krakens Albus was familiar with? Fledgling animals which didn't reach a tenth of the skeletal wings presented here.
Thunderbirds? They might be as big as the skull. The adults, of course.
The only good news, at least, was that there was no problem ascertaining what this dead pile of bones had been once upon a time.
"Elder Dragon," the Bane of Civilisation, the Savagery Incarnate, the Masters of the Weir, and under certain circumstances, Corruption Incarnate.
"And not a small one," Aberforth grunted.
There was a loud amount of guttural sounds far away, so distant Albus couldn't see what was happening.
The singing which resonated about ten seconds later, on the other hand, couldn't be missed.
Nor were the consequences.
There was a small sort of paved road surrounding the gigantic bones.
In short order, it began to be filled with crimson liquid.
Albus didn't hear any screams.
Yet as the squelching and brutal sounds continued, it didn't require a large imagination to know what was happening.
Magic was shrieking. Fate...yes, it was Fate protesting at this ritual violating every law ever made, and then some.
"We have to stop this."
"These chains prevent us from using any magic, Albus. Believe me, I tried to break them."
"That shouldn't be possible," the former Chief Warlock tried to ignore how much his body was straining now. He wasn't young anymore, and clearly, his captors hadn't been too gentle. "This metal doesn't look like it was Alchemically-made-"
"I'm sure part of her blood went into its conception," his brother scowled. "That's the stuff of nightmares Grindelwald invented when he was conquering most of Europe."
"On this, you are absolutely correct, brother."
They had not heard her coming before she was right in front of them.
She looked young.
She looked inhuman.
Albus had met enough vampires to know this body may have been forged by similar techniques, perhaps improved with Necromancy.
Blonde hair and ivory, lifeless skin.
The resemblance to when she had been a child was too strong for her to be anyone else.
It was the eyes which were the death of the illusion.
These were undead lights, for a being lost to Reason and Good.
"Arianna," Aberforth pleaded. "Please, sister. It is not too late, you can-"
His voice was silenced without an incantation. And a bone knife already covered in blood was placed against his throat.
Unamusingly, this was the moment Albus realised that his sister was absolutely naked, without a piece of cloth to hide her nudity.
"You're wrong. It is too late. The ritual has truly begun, and though I need to wait one more hour to cast the next part, there is no going back now."
The dagger was withdrawn.
"I would spare you if I could, brother." Albus shivered as the voice seemed truly regretful.
Then his mind put itself back into motion. For all that he had never practised a lot of rituals, the Gryffindor student named Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore had read most of the Hogwarts Library books, and several libraries besides that.
For the practise, there were at least fifty-plus wizards and witches who felt more at ease doing Ministry-approved rituals than he did, as long as you disregarded Alchemy.
But he knew a lot of lore most of these ritual-experts had never heard of.
"A sacrifice," his own voice seemed too foreign to him. "The person you love the most in the world-"
"And the person I hate the most, yes," Arianna finished, before she let a chuckle escape her lips. "Amusing, no? Both happen to be my brothers. Oh and yes, just in case there isn't any doubt about it, Aberforth is the person I love the most, Albus. Sacrificing you was never going to be something I would balk at."
It hurt.
Albus was not going to lie; hearing his sister say it, no matter that she had become a Dark Lady in her own right, hurt more than he believed possible.
"You may have what you need and luck-"
"Twenty years," she interrupted him, playing with the bloody dagger like it was a wand.
"I don't understand."
"There wasn't any luck involved. I knew you would eventually try to reconnect with Aberforth when news of my continued existence would reach your ears, sooner or later. I built the trap-array under the Hog's Head twenty years ago in order to prepare for this ritual. I am known as Knight Necromancer of the Exchequer, Albus. Do you really think I left my grand ritual to something as pathetic as luck?"
Monster, the Headmaster of Hogwarts wanted to reply on the spot.
There was nothing human in the eyes of Arianna anymore.
Where gentleness and joy had been there to be cherished, there was only something cold and calculating lurking in the blue lights of undeath.
"Everyone hears the suffering of magic now," Albus Dumbledore forced the sentence out of his throat instead of the plea that had already been on his lips. "Wizards and witches will come to stop you."
The Order of the Phoenix wasn't powerful enough to fight the endless army assembled in this cavern, but the legions of the Dark Arianna had broken oaths with assuredly had strength in reserve.
"Yes, they will."
And then she was gone, leaving them with only horrors and dread in their hearts.
29 May 1995, Alexandria, Egypt
There were extremely few things that could break through five hundred and thirty years of hard experience.
The extremely bad news he had received qualified.
Pawn Clerk cursed for ten seconds.
Then he let out a large breath.
"Silence," he ordered to his subordinates who thought squeaking in panic was a way of coping adequately. "The crisis is here. I want a messenger immediately contacting Knight Treasurer. We need unlimited funds to deal with this crisis, and we need it now."
One of his men Apparated on this way, just as an Ecclesial appeared in front of him. He listened to it, acknowledged the content...and grimaced.
"Lord?"
"The Queen's Apprentice proposes to use the Korean troops we were supposed to purge in the next two months." As far as cold-blooded strategies went, Knight Herald was going to approve of this one.
"With due respect, I don't think we can send them with their bare hands against a tide of undead..."
"No, we can't. That's why it was a happy coincidence there was a giant military parade prepared in the heart of Pyongyang."
"But my Lord, they are in...well, the middle of the North Korean capital. The battlefield is-"
"In the middle of a bloody desert of the nation currently known as South Africa." He scowled. "Due to the limited range of the standard Gates, we're going to have to erect Transfer Gates as relays here. From Pyongyang to Alexandria, and then from Alexandria to Deployment Site One. Has a commander been named yet?"
"No, Lord, the distortion of the ritual was-"
"I don't want excuses." They could examine the magnitude of how bad they had underestimated the traitor if...no, when they survived the crisis. "Call Knight Summoner and tell her she's to go to Deployment Site One with her entire staff. I want regular reports to flow...beginning in twenty minutes. What else?"
"Wouldn't it be better to muster Egyptian troops, Lord?"
"No, it wouldn't." In other times, it would have been a good question. Today, it assuredly wasn't. "We must assume our not-little traitor has prepared a horde of undead horrors and monsters. We need troops which have already faced magic on the battlefield."
Or if it had to be said in unpleasant words, the Korean troops in question had already been plunged into the kind of nightmares the Champions of Death were renowned for.
Add the dreadful and tyrannical sense of discipline they'd 'enjoyed' for decades, and you obtained something that was far better for this desperate battle.
Unmentioned was that there would be far fewer complaints to deal with in the aftermath if they all happened to perish in the bloodbath and not return home.
"I want the five Gates to open as fast as you can feasibly do it. By all accounts, we need to transfer..." he remembered the numbers with a grimace. "We have something close to twenty thousand troops, with over a hundred heavy pieces of artillery, over one hundred and fifty tanks, and more than five hundred armoured vehicles and trucks. Oh, and let's not forget the giant containers of ammunition."
"Do we really need all of it?"
"Good question..." Decisions, too many decisions. They weren't ready, and every minute could make the difference between Pyrrhic victory and abject defeat. "Calculate how much they can fire without stopping for a duration of...about thirty hours. Add the fuel, the food, and the water. Forget the rest."
This promised to be a logistical disaster on a grand scale, but they simply hadn't the time.
"As I said, Knight Summoner is in charge of that particular headache. Did Knight General arrive to Mexico?"
"He just answered, Lord. He...he is on his way to recruit all the battle-hardened wizards which can be recruited on such a short notice. And he's calling up all the reserves we have in Central America and south of that." His subordinate's expression told him enough about how many holes they were creating in the system. "This is going to leave us severely undermanned."
"We don't have a choice...with the reinforcements we're going to draw from Asia, we should arrive at something like three thousand wands within three hours. We may be able to call two thousand more one hour after that, with the numbers ever growing. Will we be able to count on the Vampires by sundown?"
"Maybe? I mean, there are plenty of them unconscious right now...no one anticipated having to call them on such short notice..."
Exasperation was such a mild word for what he felt right now.
"It is a very good thing we were given a short advance warning, I think." It wasn't enough, not by far. "But it may not be enough."
"My Lord?"
"Call the Queen. Tell her I am going to activate Operation Vault in...five minutes."
"That's-"
"Yes, I know it was always considered a survival contingency for Ragnarok, but let's face it, if Arianna Dumbledore kills us all tonight, the contingency isn't going to be useful." That one was easy. The next proposal was worse. "I also recommend we open our most secret stashes and prepare a few Keter-level artefacts."
Plenty of his subordinates shivered in fear. Pawn Clerk was glad they were sane enough to contemplate the consequences of the words just spoken.
"I hope it won't be necessary," he admitted out loud. "I hope the Champions, the Knights, and whoever we muster to go kill the traitor are going to be successful. But we're speaking of whatever horde Knight Necromancer didn't commit recently, and of an Elder Dragon."
It was, and it wasn't an understatement, worse than the threat of several Basilisks and Ra added on top of another.
At least with the Archmage, they had only to be sure the magical plagues ran out of power after several weeks. The Weir of an Elder Dragon wouldn't, and as far as he knew, there were preciously few members of the Exchequer who were immune.
"First Transfer Gate has been activated. We're running all the tests as far as magically-"
"Good work. Commit more teams to this as soon as they arrive." A horrible thought arrived in his head on the spot. "Has someone checked on the British school? The traitor needs precious reagents for her ritual, but for something involving an Elder Dragon, she likely will need the blood of some of her last-living relatives."
It took two minutes for the answer to land on his desk. And it was as bad as he had feared.
"There's panic everywhere in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, my Lord. The Dumbledore brothers are missing, and no one knows where or when-"
"Don't worry, I happen to have a good idea about that...and the how too."
Clearly, the ex-Knight Necromancer had prepared long before Osiris stopped ruling them as King.
"We're going to really have to do a large clean-sweep of everyone who was more or less associated with Grindelwald." They had purged hundreds of wizards, witches, and dangerous individuals in Germany, Prussia, and other nations of Central Europe, but it had clearly not been enough.
"My Lord?"
"Yes?"
"The Queen has approved your recommendations. You're also formally in charge of all the logistics until operation...err...Operation Dragonslayer is concluded. Knight Treasurer is also sending the first notes. He should be able to give you the first one hundred million Galleons in one hour."
It made him feel a bit better to know his hierarchy thought his assessment of the threat was accurate.
On the other hand, now the urge had never been stronger to make as few mistakes as possible.
"There are already riots in North America, and the situation in Russia-"
"I don't care." The magical distortion created by the cataclysmic ritual was going to cause a lot of Chaos and annihilate lives and plans by the thousands.
As much as it grew worse, Pawn Clerk wasn't going to get himself be distracted.
It was bad for Ragnarok, yes, but if they didn't stop Arianna Dumbledore here and now, there would be no Ragnarok, for everyone would already be dead, and Apophis would find nothing but ashes and a dead world.
"How are things in North Korea?" Pawn Clerk asked.
29 May 1995, the Red Square, Pyongyang, North Korea
They had renamed the Square.
The North attached so much importance to the names and every detail, no matter how insignificant, that the idea they renamed the very place where they held all their parades still felt unreal.
But they had.
Granted, Jiyoon wasn't sure the name 'Red Square' was that much better.
Someone had clearly been hurrying to change everything before the new Supreme Leader arrived.
And she had heard a lot of soldiers referring to the old name mere minutes ago.
Habits died hard, be it in Pyongyang or every other capital, it appeared.
"You should return to-"
"Don't give me orders, Lieutenant Lee."
Yes, this was abuse of the fact she was her father's daughter, aka General Park, aka the commanding officer of the First Army.
But if Lieutenant Lee had wanted to avoid that, he wouldn't have gone behind her back when she made her move to go into a tank unit.
Yes, eventually her father would have learned of it. That was the key word: eventually.
Not at the beginning of the process.
Seriously, it was bad enough the male half of the army of her country tried to transform their conscription years into something boring, Jiyoon had the problem her own family and the distant relatives were doing their best to double the annoyance.
"Incidentally, the device in your hands plays music that is still prohibited by the local government-"
Jiyoon thought that there were really times when one young woman must regret not having the rank to tell a Lieutenant to close his mouth and stay silent, ideally for most of a day.
"No one said anything, and besides, they appear to have bigger things to take care of than listening to my music."
What should have been an immense military parade had abruptly become something else without warning.
First had come the hooded wizards and the witches, then thousands of orders had been barked, followed by thousands of cheers.
All of it had been clearly improvised and no one, not even the magic-users, seemed to have had a clue it was coming.
It was nonetheless visually impressive, and of a terrifying efficiency.
As a daughter of the Republic of Korea's Generals, Jiyoon had an idea of how much time certain orders needed to be carried out. It also was a very poor secret that the Democratic People's Republic was nowhere near their standards, and needed to train for days to have the military parades happen without incident.
Watching as dozens of tanks were levitated effortlessly upon brand-new giant trucks had been an eye-opener to be sure.
It didn't hold a light, though, compared to the giant ballet organised around five giant 'Gates' at the centre of the Red Square.
With every minute, in every direction, there were hundreds of soldiers disappearing and appearing, with trucks and practically everything with a transport capacity rotating in and out of these magical portals.
Her father had had to sweat with excitation, of this there was no doubt. These 'Gates', first shown in the inter-school magical Tournament of Europe, were changing everything logistically. In fact, they were changing pretty much everything that had ever been known to war.
In half an hour, the wizards had taken several tons of shells, fuel, and everything that you needed on a battlefield, and sent it...elsewhere.
"I don't know what has them in such a hurry, but it feels really important."
No, Jiyoon hadn't missed how all the mages of her country had suddenly disappeared. It felt as if something very big had happened today, and now everyone was rushing to avoid a disaster.
It was not reassuring at all.
Yes, it was as obvious as saying water was wet, but you didn't move ten thousand men – and possibly more – as fast as you could if there wasn't a large problem.
And given that there weren't any alerts or shouts from the officers of the Republic of Korea, clearly these troops and the ammunition, not to mention the heavy howitzers, were going somewhere beyond the Peninsula.
"I give it good odds that-"
"This is not your problem, Corporal Park!" And the Lieutenant had arrived at the end of his patience, great...just great. "I will remind you that you were given orders."
"As if I could forget them."
One might think that a mission or two could be given because of her excellent grades at school, her remarkable dedication to finding some solutions where some males floundered impotently, or her singing abilities.
None of that applied. Instead, the Generals of Seoul, chief of all her father, seemed to have finally noticed that the New Supreme Leader liked girls.
She was almost impressed by their analysis capabilities.
"You aren't going to make progress with this ridiculous music, not to mention-"
"Oh, the music is fine."
The words had been voiced in English, which was a language plenty of mages had defaulted to in the last hours.
Jiyoon turned her head, and sure enough, there was a figure half-hidden behind an emerald hood smirking at Lieutenant Lee.
Her father's subordinate, of course, had to clear his throat in righteous indignation.
"Lady Mage, you may be operating under some misconceptions. In the last decade, our music-"
"You used it as a propaganda weapon close to the frontier, since the local music is so awful that anything that is not a military march gives you the urge to kill yourself. Yes, I am aware of that detail. Could I listen to a song?"
"Yes?" Jiyoon hadn't expected that, but since Lieutenant Lee was almost paralysed by the shock of someone slamming back an argument in his face, better to profit from the opportunity. "I used one new piece of magi-tech to record my favourite K-pop girl group..."
There was a good minute of silence, and then the female mage – it had to be a girl, under this hood, the voice supported it – decided to hum the song in a rather funny fashion.
"That's rather good!"
"I'm glad you like it! Err...what are you...this is fragile, you know-"
"SONORUS! MUSICA HARMONIA!"
And to the Lieutenant's horror next to her, suddenly, the K-Pop song began to be played all over the Red Square, at a level that made sure only deaf people could miss it.
Jiyoon giggled...though in many ways, the fact a dozen officers of the North's army were rushing towards them along with some of Lee's friends was not-
Wait a minute, why were they standing to attention?
"I wanted to play some of the metal music my cousin found, but your musical choices are far better than mine."
The hood and the green cape fell, and Jiyoon froze, as amused green eyes met hers.
Suddenly, she was very aware who she had been speaking with.
Fortunately, she found it in her to stand to attention.
"Corporal Park Jiyoon," she presented herself, trying to hide the mortification of not even having recognised the female mage who had destroyed the entire People's Army by herself.
"Pleased to meet you...I am Marshal Alexandra Potter."
The Incarnate of Death turned towards a General covered in medals.
"I believe the Supreme People's Assembly has been summoned?"
"They're waiting for your commands, Marshal!"
"Then let us not make them wait."
They all followed her out of the Square...and her musical playlist continued to resonate all the way.
29 May 1995, Mansudae Assembly Hall, Pyongyang, North Korea
Eleonora was waiting for her when she entered the Assembly Hall.
Her smile was large enough that Alexandra knew she wasn't going to like quite a few things.
"What else went wrong when I was focused on something else?"
"I don't know if you should use the term 'wrong', oh Sword of Death."
Said Champion felt a loud groan was a natural reaction to this sentence.
Honestly, Alexandra didn't know if today was an attempt by Fate to verify if there was a limit to how many things could go wrong at once, but the course of events suggested the impossibility of denying that particular scenario.
"But don't worry, I have good news. I have found a large number of volunteers in the last half-hour." Eleonora looked at her quizzically. "Though you seem to have found one more..."
"What are you speaking...right. No, I found this girl listening to some good music. The parade became far better now that we're not listening to something straight out of a funeral march."
"Music, huh?"
"Why would I do something else?" Alexandra was suddenly glad this conversation was held in Italian, and not in any language the Koreans around her would understand.
"Dear Alexandra," the Champion of Innocence seemed to have a lot of fun, she noted sourly, "I am going to concede the fact this girl isn't a redhead, but she does seem to have splendid 'assets', and plenty of students at the Scuola Regina have noted you like uniforms. Once you add two and two..."
This time, the groan died in her throat.
"You have earned yourself three or four pranks for this remark."
"I eagerly await them!" Yes, because it would mean they would survive the battle to come.
Alexandra wasn't going to say the High Priestess of Vesta was wrong to see the world like that.
"The bad news?"
Unfortunately, that was the moment Eleonora Da Riva decided to become dead serious again.
"Your Mistress intercepted me and told me there had been a few setbacks."
"Setbacks?"
"The South African government thinks it is a big joke."
Alexandra thought she had been struck by a NEWT-level spell onslaught for a moment.
"What?" It was not an unbelievable stupidity, of course, there was an entire level of idiocy beyond that, but...it had to be a shocking contest, okay? "They haven't wizards to warn them of the nightmare to come?"
"Alas," the Last Champion of the Light met her eyes unflinchingly, "it seems that in this region, the existing mages are not associated in any way with the government. And though some tried to pull off a concerted reveal...well, the non-magical leadership is ignoring them."
How could things go so wrong in a few sentences?
The Hydra Animagus hissed. Suddenly, she had the feeling that having an enemy like Sauron out in the open wouldn't be a boon if they had to present a united front of dozens of human countries.
"Let me take a guess: they are saying that the Exchequer deploying magical forces, along with my not-so-minor contribution, is an act of war."
"More like they threatened to consider it an act of war, Alexandra." Eleonora gave an ironic expression. "I'm not sure they have realised thousands of soldiers are already deployed and mustering near the battlefield."
"Why does it fill me with dread?"
"Because you're not Falk or one of the other bigoted idiots?" Alexandra could have done with this question staying rhetorical. "On the other hand, the local magical community has been able to confirm that in the last twenty-four hours, the Necromancer has slaughtered a city of twenty thousand and marched them westwards to the crater. They are simple Inferi, and yes, a hundred or so have already been encountered and killed."
"A tripwire force," the average Inferi could be dealt with using a mid-level Fire Charm, there was no way Arianna Dumbledore considered it a valuable part of her defences.
"Most likely, yes."
The sands of time were against them now.
Complaining, as tempting as it was, would not solve anything.
"Take every volunteer you think suitable," she said, trying to not think too much about the consequences of saying something like that. "I am going to deliver a short speech, and then I will join you."
"For what it is worth...I am sorry."
"Don't be," Alexandra bared her fangs. "I swear, I am going to do my utmost to be sure that by midnight, it will be Arianna Dumbledore who will be very, very sorry. In fact, for the next hours, it is my life's goal that every Dumbledore on this earth acknowledge in a terrified manner it was a very, very bad idea to anger me."
29 May 1995, the Champion's Villas, Coliseum Valley, Lands of the Scuola Regina, Magical Republic of Venice
Daphne didn't know why she was here.
That was actually a lie.
The Greengrass Heiress did know why: Alexandra wanted someone diplomatic, and everyone else was busy doing something to avert the end of the world.
There was that reality, and she had been the only one who could get a Portkey for the Scuola Regina on short notice.
This didn't make the young Slytherin pureblood any better.
There were times when you definitely wanted to get the easy job.
You know, the one Lyre de Male-Foi got, going to recruit as many elder Slytherins as one could for political and military purposes.
Or the one Scylla Yaxley got, or-
Daphne tried to calm herself, which began with steady breaths.
Yes, the mission was not pleasant, but since Alexandra had something big to do before the battle began, someone had to do it.
The Greengrass Heiress couldn't help but think – and it was something that would last probably until she died – that it would have been better if someone else was sent.
Curse it.
Now it was too late for the regrets.
The Slytherin girl climbed the last stairs.
She hadn't had to knock.
The monster was already there, leaning against a horrible statue of a Cockatrice.
Given that it had never been seen before, Daphne was going to take a bet, and say this artistic abomination had been commissioned specifically for the 'event'.
"Greetings," she began politely, "I don't know if we have been presented but-"
"I know who you are, Greenie."
There were days when you really hated having the Weasley Twins giving everyone odious nicknames.
Today had to be one of them.
Daphne definitely wanted to give an acidic tongue-lashing.
One glance at the eyes of the monster was enough to convince her not to. This was not a being you could dance around like that.
"Alexandra sent me. She requests politely you go to the Deployment Zone and-"
"No." The interruption was spoken in a malicious voice. "I don't believe I will."
"This is the fate of the world which is at stake," the Greengrass Heiress did her best to not show her annoyance, or to change the level of her tone.
Chaos glared at her.
Suddenly, it felt like the end had already come. The Night was coming, and all warmth seemed to flee her body.
It lasted only a couple of seconds, and then it was over.
Daphne knew her legs were shaking very badly.
"Only two people can live through the Weir of an Elder Dragon, you know," the monster hiding behind the appearance of a Russian noble girl mused. "One can do so because she is Innocence. She will survive the Weir, but as the Light ends, sooner or later, her Power will recall her. As pure as you want to pretend yourself to be, you need water to pass through your lips. You need uncorrupted food. You need sleep, in a world where everything will be bound to make your life a nightmare. Innocence will end soon. But Chaos won't."
Daphne didn't scoff, because...because she didn't think it would be a good idea, really.
That said, her self-control snapped back into action somewhat.
"If the Elder Dragon is allowed to start an endless reign of the Dark, you may survive," the Slytherin emissary conceded. "But you will always be second to the supreme predator. You will live in a realm of Chaos and nightmares, but you won't thrive in it."
"Really?" Chaos magic poured into the air, and it felt like poison.
Malice was everywhere.
Why, oh why, couldn't it have been another Aspect of Chaos for this era? Why did it have to be Loki?
Daphne swallowed, and braced for the explosion.
In the end, what else was there to do but obey Alexandra and repeat her words?
"As strong as you are, Lyudmila Romanov, the new Champion of Fate will force you to kneel."
The Champion of Chaos laughed, and it was something deeply unpleasant.
This was very much the complete opposite of a certain Succubus; whether you loved girls or no – and Daphne didn't – it was as if honey and the nectar of the Gods flowed into your magical core.
That seduction didn't exist here.
"Arianna Dumbledore will die long before she will have the ability to give that order," the strongest Durmstrang Champion of her generation – and possibly ever – swore.
Daphne allowed herself a thin smile, though she didn't feel any amusement whatsoever.
"I don't think I mentioned the name of Knight Necromancer specifically."
For a fraction of a second, the lupine eyes flickered in surprise. Cruelty and malice disappeared.
It didn't last long.
Something that very much looked like arrogance replaced it.
"Alexandra wouldn't dare."
Everywhere around them, magic itself shrieked. The world was in pain, and all living beings were bracing for the inevitable.
In many ways, it provided all the answers Daphne should have needed one hour to express out loud.
"Would she?"
The ugly statue of the Cockatrice was blasted apart.
There were...many, many inhuman hisses.
Daphne closed her eyes.
There was more Chaos magic, and the world felt Dark again.
When she reopened them, the Greengrass Heiress saw that she was alone.
Whatever decision had been taken, the Champion of Chaos had clearly decided not to stay here and wait for the end to reach her villa.
Daphne sighed in relief.
"Alex, if we survive the next twenty-four hours, you will really owe me one for that..."
29 May 1995, Mansudae Assembly Hall, Pyongyang, North Korea
Alexandra was well aware that yes, sometimes the former Supreme Leader had forced his sycophants to applaud for nearly four hours before giving a rousing speech.
She hadn't the time for this stupidity.
There also was the minor issue she wasn't the former Supreme Leader either.
Without feeling humble, she could tell she had better looks than that ugly piece of grease.
Unfortunately, she didn't have a quarter of his political popularity either.
Half of the Assembly in front of her may have been replaced after the slaughter she had inflicted, but this just meant the totality of the propagandists were afraid of her.
For all the reality of a de facto tyrannical regime, these people had been part of the elite. They were richly rewarded to be sycophants and eager lackeys.
The Champion of Death supposed ten seconds of acclaim was the best thing that could be hoped under the circumstances.
"War is here once again." Alexandra didn't bother taking a seat; her speech wasn't going to last long. "After trying her best to destroy Joseon, Knight Necromancer is on the move again. This time, her target is the whole world. In the next twenty-four hours, if she isn't stopped, she will make sure to cover this world in ashes and destruction, with monsters dancing upon the ruins of everything humans ever built."
There were plenty of debates raging in the ranks of the Exchequer at the moment about whether what Riddle-Necromancer had done represented a failure of her vision or a success. Alexandra truthfully didn't think it mattered. If the Elder Dragon rose to obscure the sun, the Weir was going to create an untold amount of calamity and create such aftershocks that mounting resistance to Ragnarok would be impossible.
"This is why I cancelled the military parade for today, and went on to deploy many men of this country's army to the battlefield."
There were already plenty of whispers and murmurs spreading.
"This deployment will not last more than forty-eight hours, two standard days."
If there was one good thing about this whole disaster, it was definitely that it would be over soon, one way or another. If Arianna Dumbledore completed the usurpation of Fate and became its Champion, they weren't going to live long enough to regret it.
After the humiliation she had delivered in this very part of the world, Alexandra felt pretty confident the traitorous Necromancer wasn't going to let her live.
For some strange reason, there was a lot of grumbling. Apparently, the North Korean Assembly wasn't sharing her 'optimism'.
"I know you don't care about what saving the world represents, however."
How could it? North Koreans were cut off from it; from their perspective, Pyongyang was the centre of the world; everything beyond the Demilitarised Line might as well be Pandemonium, since they weren't able to visit it in the first place.
"So I am going to pay, with the support of my benefactors in the Exchequer, the equivalent of fifteen thousand British pounds to every soldier for the wartime service of stopping the Necromancer." Alexandra didn't know who Knight Treasurer was, but the Exchequer Knight was apparently convinced it would be sufficient to 'motivate her troops'. "And the men who are under death sentences, should they survive the bloody battle, will receive a full pardon from me."
The Champion of the Morrigan was far less happy about that last part, but the Ecclesial she had received from the Queen had clearly advised her to do so in non-ambiguous terms.
She didn't know if her reluctance could be seen on her face, but only one in three men on the seats facing her decided to clap their hands. Those who did, though, had the merit of doing it enthusiastically.
"This is all I have to say about the entire crisis created by the Necromancer. Unfortunately, this means we have to speak of the other crisis. I confess I am extremely displeased by the way a majority of the current administrators are trying to corner the food market."
It had not taken days for the majority of the Exchequer wizards and witches assigned to North Korea to execute criminals trying to misappropriate ration deliveries.
"I know you don't care about democracy, or the living conditions of the people you are supposed to rule benevolently over."
Obviously, today she hadn't had the time, but her recent visits in several provinces had let her watch things that were honestly close to the realm of nightmares.
It was certainly not a coincidence Arianna Dumbledore had thought to work with the ex-Supreme Leader, instead of the military personnel of other nations.
"This is why, ultimately, I am going to rule by providing food and energy to the people, while your mission will be to present me with a budget I find acceptable."
For the first time, it was not discontent but incomprehension which filled the low-level noises spreading everywhere.
"Yes, I can very much anticipate what you're saying. She is only a single person, and for all the mushroom farms for the emergency rations, the primitive electricity grid has utterly collapsed. Too many dams are close to collapse. The generators are obsolete. The priority lines have been destroyed by the American bombardments. The ports which had been organised as key centres for fuel smuggling are no more, now that plenty of docks are reduced to debris and huge craters."
She struck her claws against the nearby table, making sure the ageing man who had the age to be her great-grandfather didn't fall asleep.
"All of this is true." No one was stupid enough to tell her the mess would somehow magically disappear if they wished for it to fade away. "All of it can be salvaged. This country is soaked with the Power of Death, the Power I used as her Champion. I am going to channel magic through the very mountains and grass of this land."
Alexandra wished that England or any other part of the British Isles could benefit from it first.
It wasn't a lie to say there were at least ten thousand good reasons to not do it here.
And none of her reservations could stand in face of the truth that at the end, North Korea was the only location on Earth, right now, that was literally saturated by the weight of Death.
Well, Death that had a Champion of Her as the instrument from strategist to executioner.
Death on the scale of a nation, and in sufficient numbers to claim more millions if action wasn't taken.
"I am the Marshal of Death, Her Champion against the End which will devour the world if nothing is done. You are going to work under me to ensure that in the next three years, the people will survive the coming Ragnarok."
They may have noticed the 'or else' in her voice, because this time, they all rose up and clapped loudly without someone having to raise a cartoon cardboard to manifest their not-so-voluntarily approval...
29 May 1995, the Heart of Lifelessness, Pyongyang, North Korea
Susan didn't know why Alexandra had chosen this place for a big Champion meeting, but it felt a bit too dreadful.
"Busy lying to yourself, Bones?"
"I don't remember asking for your opinion, MacDougal," the Bones Heiress answered before wincing. "What were you speaking about?"
"That you'd best stop lying to yourself," the Ravenclaw smiled. "This place is soaked in Death. I feel it, you feel it, and everyone present, including a Champion of Innocence, mind you, is able to sense the gusts of wind blown up by Pandemonium. For an Apprentice Necromancer like you, it must be exhilarating, right?"
Susan breathed out.
"Alex mentioned once or twice you were the one to initiate her to the Ancient Ways."
"I am," the redheaded Irish girl admitted shamelessly. "And please don't change the subject."
Were all the Ravenclaws so annoying when they were focused upon an academic subject?
"All right, it empowers me," the Hufflepuff agreed with ill-grace. "What happened here to generate this kind of effect?"
This district of Pyongyang looked ugly and dysfunctional, but then most of the North Korean city was built to the same – awful – standards. There were two destroyed buildings too, but this was par from the course, as the Americans had tried their best to strike all the air defences in the middle of the cities that they could reach in the first day of war.
"It isn't what happened here, it's what happened below." Morag told her. "Several dozens of metres below your feet is...well, the bunker where the ex-Supreme Leader hid thinking he could weather away the storm."
"Ah."
What else was there to say to that kind of news? Susan shook her head, and observed in silence the work of the older Champion.
Eleonora da Riva was working really, really fast; while Alexandra was in a league of her own when it came to carving Runes, the Light Champion was really gifted too. Although her specialty seemed to be more Latin and Etruscan scripts than the Futhark and Ogham Runes her girlfriend used during her villa's experiments.
This wouldn't have raised an eyebrow if all the aforementioned Runes weren't surrounding a metal tree.
Yes, it looked like a real tree, but made entirely of metal.
Considering what the misfit crew of the Hydra had tried during the last Task when fighting against the Dark Queen, certain assumptions could be made.
You didn't try to create an artwork of a real tree down to the roots and up to the leaves for no reason.
Not when magic screamed around them and the end of the world drew near.
At last, Eleonora da Riva stopped her carvings and stood, grimacing.
"I suppose-"
There was a cold wind coursing through the streets, and Alexandra was here.
"I see everyone heard the call! Hey, Susan."
"Hey, you," a proper girlfriend received a kiss, and Susan obliged...before handing out a light slap too. "What were we saying just yesterday about not getting into trouble?"
"I blame all the Knight Necromancers of all the magical worlds!" Alexandra immediately went on the defensive.
"So you say," Susan crossed her arms, amused.
"Yes, I say so, and...it will have to be enough. Eleonora?"
"It should work."
"What should work?" Morag interrupted, with her usual carelessness. "You marrying Susan in front of your future harem? Because I have to say, your ambition has grown mightily, your venomous Maj-"
"Morag, if you finish this sentence, I will get you Sorted into Gryffindor for the next year."
The Ravenclaw gasped theatrically at the – admittedly ignoble – threat.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Try me," the determined eyes watched over all the participants, including the two lines of Korean and other foreign girls which had been summoned for this ceremony. No, Susan hadn't been afraid for her relationship; that said, she had been really curious what the hell these girls were invited for.
None of them, clearly, were witches or really possessed an iota of magical talent.
No, as the niece of Amelia Bones, she knew better than to underestimate non-magical people, but well...they were up against Knight Necromancer, the sister of Albus Dumbledore himself.
"We are here, because I need to erase one of my big weaknesses before confronting Arianna Dumbledore. As it stands, if I face her as I am, I will certainly be slain, and I want to avoid that."
"Yes, better to avoid that," of course MacDougal approved like a proper referee.
"But really, when you think about it, that's just the beginning of the problem. I admit it took me long enough to realise it, and Eleonora to make the plea."
"To realise what?" Susan inquired. "Traitor or not, she was a complete sociopath long before we were born."
"Of that there's no doubt," Alexandra shrugged. "But I was more referring to the little problem of what having Fate as a Dark or Light Power represents."
"Ah. Oh."
Alexandra gave her a smirk, before beginning to circle around the freshly-carved Runes.
"Under Ra, Fate was enslaved to guarantee that no matter the scenario, it would bring victory to the Light. As it took several millennia to stop the process, it entirely cut off many forms of magic from this world, and in the end nearly exhausted plenty of Powers and their sources of illumination." The young Champion of Death turned her eyes towards the cloudy skies. "I have no doubt that under a Dark reign, the result would be similar, only short-lived and intensely destructive."
Something oily and ever-changing registered on her senses.
Susan shivered long before the footsteps resonated on the stones.
"Did you really expect me to go to South Africa like a lowly servant? Please."
Two Champions of Magic had the privilege of looking very exasperated, and didn't hide it in the least.
"You're late, Lyudmila." Alexandra didn't give the Champion of Chaos the time to throw a barb. "And without losing time we don't have an abundance of, I can say Eleonora and I have arrived to the same conclusion: the abilities and world-altering magic of a Champion of Fate are far too great to be allowed to fall into a single pair of hands, Light or Dark. We have to change something, or for the next three years, we're going to spend all our efforts fighting the successors to the legacy of Knight Necromancer."
Lightning began to sparkle upon the top of the metal tree.
"If we're really unlucky, it won't even be the last time we will have to face an Elder Dragon." Alexandra returned to proper English. "Do I have everyone's attention?"
Author's note:
The Fourth Arc will end in the next chapter: The Battle of Fates.
The other links for the story:
On P a treon: ww w. p a treon Antony444
On TV Tropes: ww w. tvtropes pmwiki / pmwiki .php/ Fanfic/ TheOddsWereNeverInMyFavour
On Archive of Our Own: archive of ourown works / 51222748 / chapters / 129428554