Chapter 86: Chapter 86 Red Sonja and the Jewel of Gath
Towards the end of the Fall Semester of 2010, Harry was getting busier and busier. Ever since the Black Vortex fiasco, Harry has had to hold back with using the Time Turner to double his daylight hours. If an emergency came up during a time he'd already used the Time Turner, he would not be able to do much with it.
Over the last few months he had submitted Doctoral Thesis Papers for the numerous subjects he was qualified to hold a Master's Degree in. None were as groundbreaking as his Metaphysics research, but it didn't need to be. He just didn't want Reed or Doom to have more Doctorates than he did or he'd lose his right to demand his former students to use his Professor Title.
The Skrulls did eventually agree to make the planet Harry showed them their new home. The planet had its own share of diseases and pests, but to the shapeshifting nomadic Skrulls, nothing on the planet was something they couldn't adapt to. Harry crafted a large scale transporter for the Skrulls to assemble at a location of their choice. He included a built in failsafe that would allow Harry to remotely destroy the transporter or just turn it off if the Skrulls decided to use it for something less than savory. Not that Harry told them about that little feature. No one who took advantage of Harry's kindness would be shown any form of mercy.
The Quest Reward was a new Map Function in Harry's Settings. Previously, he could Zoom out to see the whole planet. Now he could zoom out indefinitely. Using his map he could zoom out of the Milky Way and Zoom into the Andromeda Galaxy and see other planets he'd visited. This meant he could use a Portal to go anywhere he'd been to before, even if he didn't have the coordinates. Basically, he'd unlocked Intergalactic Fast Travel.
However, with the exception of taking his girls on intergalactic dates, he didn't have much to do at the moment in the wider Galaxy. Navi the Drone usually spent its time scouting the Milky Way while releasing communication nodes. It took a moment to go from one star to another, check for life bearing planets, and move on. That being said, there were a hundred billion stars in this Galaxy alone, so it was going to take a while before anything useful came of it.
On the afternoon of Dec 21, on the first week of Winter Break, Harry felt something strange had occurred. He looked around his home and saw the stone floors, the red curtains, and the papyrus books and knew something was definitely strange. He set down his bone quill and walked over to his bookcase filled with hyborian texts and confirmed it was the same as always, but still felt something was off.
Harry pulled the curtain back and looked outside and saw the axe wielding barbarian guards wearing horned helmets , the rag wearing serfs, and the collared slaves going about their daily lives as usual, but something about it too seemed off.
Harry put on his robes and walked down the carved stone staircase to his first floor's waiting room. The weapons and tapestries lined the walls as decorations just like they always had. Suddenly an orange tabby cat walked in from another room and Harry frowned. One part of his mind asked how the cat had entered his home, and another knew this to be his familiar, Goose.
Goose meowed, conveying the thought, 'New decorations?'
Instinctively, Harry did what he always did when he became confused, he Paused.
Some part of him didn't understand why time had stopped when he did so, but another part did. Harry closed his eyes and started meditating.
*Ping*
[Status: Historical Overwrite Resisted.]
Harry remained Paused but took a few more moments to collect himself and analyze what had just happened. Something had just re-written the past and him along with it, but it was not done naturally and in fact was done incredibly forcibly. This did not mean the perpetrator was weak, on the contrary, the fact that they could successfully pull off such a feat meant they were extremely powerful.
Harry was able to recover his memories partially because the spell didn't fully take and partially because of Goose. Goose is not from Earth, and effects that rewrite Earth's past can't affect her.
Harry was moderately disappointed that his house, even after all the magic protections he built into it, didn't protect him. That being said, he couldn't fault the house. A magic spell that rewrote the past could get around any protections that didn't specifically protect against temporal interference, and Harry couldn't create such protections yet.
Harry asked Goose, "When did everything change?"
Goose meowed back, 'A few minutes ago.'
Harry nodded. That meant he noticed it almost right away which made him feel less stupid. Harry pulled a Holographic recorder out of his inventory and felt the space try to rewrite it into something less modern. Harry conjured a few spells to resist the effect and set the recorder to automatically play the message in a few minutes.
When the recorder was ready to start recording the message, Harry said, "Help me Ancient One. You're my only hope. No, really. Someone is pulling some time shenanigans. I'll fix it from my side. Please set a Save Point at these coordinates."
Harry then pulled out a rubber ducky and turned it into a portkey which would send it to the Ancient One's room. And last, Harry pulled out his time turner and tied the rubber duck to the recorder with the Time Turner's cord and turned the hour glass backwards three times before setting it on the ground.
The Time Turner vanished as it took the portkey and phone back into the past. Once there, the portkey would activate, taking the recorder to the Ancient One to ensure she got the message. Whoever set this up wasn't the only one who could play with time after all.
Harry conjured up some food and water for Goose and left his home to find out what was going on. All of his girls were out at the moment and all things considered, they would probably get into trouble soon and have just as many memory problems as he did.
Harry made himself invisible and flew into the air to get a look at the city. The whole of Manhattan had been replaced with a carved stone metropolis. Around the city was a golden curtain of light and Harry could see that beyond it was the normal city of New York. Harry flew closer to the curtain and noticed someone from the other side trying to walk into his side. The person had been a man in a business suit on the modern side but once he walked through, his wardrobe changed to match what everyone else was wearing. Harry flew down and read the man's thoughts. As far as he knew, the world always looked like this, meaning the curtain had shifted the man as well.
Although Harry broke free of the spell's control, he made sure to keep the knowledge the spell had imprinted into his head to use it. That was a good idea because english was not the language of choice of the hyborian age the spell was apparently replicating.
It was then that Harry saw something he really had not been expecting. A certain red and blue suit swinging from building to building.
Harry flew to the ground nearby and made himself visible before calling out, "Hey Spider," in english.
Peter did a mid-air U-Turn and quickly spotted Harry. "Professor Potter! Thank god! You can understand me, right? Please Tell Me You Can Understand Me!" he shouted frantically.
Harry shook his head and answered, "Yes Peter, I can still speak English."
Peter exhaled theatrically and Harry rolled his eyes. Harry's energy senses clearly showed that the Web connecting Peter to the past and future appeared unchanged. Harry figured the web might have prevented Peter's past from getting overwritten like everyone else's.
Peter asked, "What's going on? One moment I was just swinging through Manhattan and the next, everything is stone and no one understands what I'm saying and everyone has these axes, and they were shouting and then there were these kids and-"
Harry interrupted, "Not sure what's going on. I'm still looking." Harry took Peter's wrist and confirmed that the computer system he installed in Peter's suit worked just fine. Harry had no idea why Peter's costume also survived, but he wasn't going to complain. Harry used the technopathic interface in the suit to download a translator for the hyborian language and a few security protocols.
Harry said, "Search around for clues and make a lot of noise if you find anything. The suit will translate what everyone says now so you won't have a communication issue."
Peter stopped Harry before he could leave and said, "Wait, the kids. I saw a group of armed guards taking a large group of kids in chains somewhere. No one was stopping them and I didn't know what to do."
Harry replied, "If you see them again, follow them and find out where the kids are being taken."
"Okay Harry," Peter acknowledged what to do and shot a web towards a nearby roof and pulled himself into the air.
A group of armed guards was about to walk over to Harry, probably to question him about speaking with the strange man spider.
Instead, Harry used the telepathic equivalent of a Jedi mind trick to make them think nothing interesting was going on and take a peek at who ordered them to come over. Unfortunately it was just a standing order to check out weird things so Harry needed to look elsewhere for info.
According to the false memories in his head, this city was run by Kulan Gath, a powerful sorcerer. Two days ago, according to his memories, the library holding all records of the past was destroyed on Gath's orders. The papyrus books in Harry's house were in fact blank as well. Harry just didn't know they were blank and the spell made him ignore it.
In this world, Harry's false memories had him as a revered historian and scribe, and Gath had apparently requested for Harry to be his personal scribe starting today, which was the only reason Harry knew anything about him.
Other than that, Harry didn't have much information on Gath at all and Harry doubted anyone else did either. The only thing he knew was that whoever did this was very, very powerful. Whatever the spell had done was also interfering with Harry's searching magic so he couldn't locate his girls the easy way.
Thankfully, Harry didn't have to wait long. A few streets away, Harry heard the familiar clang of metal on metal, a clear indication that there was a fight going on. Harry raced over through the groups running away from the danger and saw Rogue and Jade fighting against a group of guards. Rogue wasn't using her powers and Jade wasn't using Chi Magic or her Dragon Heart. In fact now that Harry thought about it, he didn't even know he knew magic until he'd broken the spell.
Thankfully, neither Jade nor Rogue overly relied on their gifts and were far from helpless without them. Jade was skillfully using martial arts and Rogue was a highly adept brawler so the axe wielding guards weren't much of a threat after Rogue had swiped one of their weapons. The issue was that the number of guards was increasing.
Harry used some telepathy to learn from the guards that this started because a pair of elite guards from Gath's Palace came onto the pair and had their faces smashed in for their trouble. These elite guards called for reinforcements and things escalated from there.
Harry pulled out a Stunner grenade and tossed it at the group. In an era where weapons consisted of axes, swords, bows and magic, a canister being tossed into a crowd didn't attract any attention. Three seconds later, a blinding wave of red light caused everyone in the street to fall unconscious, including Rogue and Jade. The pair had a high tolerance against magic, but that was only compared to normal folk and Harry's Stunner Grenades had thirty spells crammed into them until it reached critical mass.
Harry had shielded himself prior to the blast and once everyone was down, he grabbed his girls with telekinesis and pulled them into a corner, making them all invisible.
As expected, the blast of magic attracted his attention. An illusionary giant head of who Harry assumed was Kulan Gath appeared over the street. The energy Harry sensed from it was part astral, part sorcery, and part demon, making this Gath not only powerful, but well rounded as well.
Gath looked over the street but saw nothing but unconscious guards and bystanders. The head faded a moment later but Harry figured it was still watching, so while maintaining his invisibility he flew while taking the still invisible Rogue and Jade with him a few blocks away to a flat roof.
Once in the clear, Harry delved into the pair's minds and found that they too had partially resisted the change, but had nothing they could use to forcefully resist it. Jade had traveled through time before which grants some resistance to being rewritten and her 1,000 past lives of Chi and the magical Dragon Heart within her had shielded her mind from direct influence.
Rogue partially resisted as well. She still maintained a connection to all those whose powers she could borrow, but her memories of how to use it were overwritten. Those connections however could not be cut from the spell that caused this, so they acted as a lifeline.
Were it not for both girls resisting the change of history, when asked by the elite guards, they would not have dared to refuse, which of course led to Harry finding them in the first place.
Harry did to the pair what he did to himself, made a copy of the knowledge they were given, and then removed the suppression on their memories while returning the copy so they knew what was going on.
Once they were mostly back to normal, Harry cast innervate on the pair to wake them up.
Rogue was the first to respond, "Ugh. Haven't had a headache like this in a long while."
Jade's first response was to do a double take of the clothes she was in and shout, "What am I wearing?!"
Harry patiently waited for the pair to assimilate the new knowledge and for their memories to kick in, letting them recall the situation they were just in.
Jade eventually asked, "So how screwed are we?"
Harry answered, "Us? Not very. I could still make a portal to Xandar and we could just ignore all of this, but I'd rather not give up New York to some crazy magic dude. This is my territory." Harry's voice in the last sentence was resolute. He hadn't gone through all the trouble of making a life here just to have someone else take everything for themselves.
Jade's eyes were shining, she asked, "So does that mean we can finally fight?!"
Harry smiled and said, "Yes Jade, that means you can fight. No killing though. If we can reverse this the easy way, the guards and everyone else will return to normal."
Rogue asked, "And if the easy way doesn't work?"
Harry replied, "Naturally I have a plan B." Harry then turned to ask Rogue, "Can you feel your connection to Wanda and track her?"
Rogue stared off into the distance for a moment and pointed, "My girl's that'a way."
Jade smiled and a moment later, her form changed to that of a 25 year old wearing a red cheongsam embroidered with a golden dragon and a red face mask that covered her mouth and nose. Rogue used the shapeshifting power she'd gotten from Mystique to turn herself into an adult blonde. Harry insisted that the pair maintain secret identities so these were their disguises. People might be able to guess who they are in the future, but Harry preferred to keep that day away for as long as possible.
After preparing themselves, Rogue used Jean's power to fly while Harry and Jade took to the skies themselves and flew to the other end of Manhattan where Rogue felt Wanda was located.
Upon getting closer, Harry was not surprised to see Wanda already fighting. What did surprise him though was that she was fighting using chaos magic and she was not fighting alone. She seemed to be fighting alongside a busty redhead wielding a magic sword and wearing a boobmail bikini.
What was almost as surprising as the boobmail bikini was that they were not fighting guards. The pair were fighting against Rhino, Electro, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, and Scorpion. Each had also been given a hyborian makeover and Harry sensed magic within each of them. Doc Oct's extra arms were no longer devices crafted with precise science, but metallic tentacles which grew from his back. Scorpion was no longer wearing a suit, but seemed to be a man-scorpion hybrid complete with hard shell and pincers for arms. Rhino also didn't appear to be a large man in a Rhino suit, but a large, human shaped rhino. Electro and Sandman looked about the same, though their clothes were different.
And although Wanda had access to her powers, she was being pushed back. Wanda's chaos magic was something that could rewrite reality, but Harry sensed that this world was actively suppressing her even though she was wearing hyborian clothes, so she was not like Spider-Man who had completely avoided the change.
Harry Paused so he could take a better look at everything, and take a long, appreciative look at a smoking hot redhead capable of pulling off a chainmail bikini. Against such a lineup, a sword, no matter how heavily enchanted, should not be that useful, but the redhead was clearly holding her own which showed how impressive her skill must've been.
Though the reality altering effects of Chaos magic were dampened, Jade's Dragon Heart and Rogue's powers, besides any attempt to borrow Wanda's powers, were not affected. Harry pulled a staff out of his inventory and was pleased that the reality warping magic of this place didn't affect it. Harry figured it was because Harry had used magic to craft it, nothing modern since his magic crafting skills would produce something superior to something made with modern tools.
The moment they landed, Doctor Octopus turned to them and stated in hyborian, "Return from whence you came. Master Gath has demanded the witch for himself and the swords woman must die for interfering. Turn back lest you suffer the same fate!"
Harry didn't care for witty banter and cast an explosion hex at the Doctor's chest. Faster than one would think possible, the metallic tentacles covered his torso to shield him from the hit, but that did not stop the explosion from sending him across the street through a nearby wall.
Sandman grew in size and turned into a massive wave which crossed the distance between then and rose in the air to slam down on Harry and the girls. Rogue used Iceman's powers to freeze the wave of sand into a wall of ice and Jade flew forward and smashed her fist into Scorpion's armored torso. A loud crack was heard and Scorpion joined Otto on the other side of the wall they had both been slammed through, with the latter not having even gotten up yet.
Wanda was busy using a magic shield to guard herself and the redhead from Electro's lightning blast and protecting her back was the redhead herself who was slicing through the Rhino's ridiculously thick hide only to have the massive beast regenerate after each debilitating blow.
Once Sandman was iced and Scorpion was out cold, Jade exhaled a torrent of dragon fire from her mouth towards the Rhino and Rogue used Cyclop's optics beam to blast the human capacitor down the street.
Harry used the staff to cast another spell, this time towards the air above Wanda. The astral head of Kulan Gath was revealed and vanished with the strike, only to reappear at the end of the street staring hatefully at them all. Unlike before, his image was clear. The man looked ancient beyond words, had a nose that put Snape's beak to shame, and every inch of his face was covered in cruel wrinkles.
First it locked eyes with the redhead. "Red Sonja. 10,000 years and like the stench off a rotting carcass I still cannot be rid of you. You luck is strong as ever to have survived against my newest toys."
The now named redhead pointed her swords at the astral illusion and shouted, "No thrice-damned half baked hellspawn slays Red Sonja!"
Harry, Rogue, and Jade did a double take at the language and Wanda just shrugged, apparently having already gotten use to it in the short time they had fought together.
Next the foreboding figure turned to face the young man he had tried to make his scribe and stated, "Harry Potter. You shall be fired."
Harry snorted in amusement and said, "You couldn't afford my wages anyways."
"No, you foolish wizard, you shall face eternal hellfire for getting in my way." He then turned to Wanda and said, "You need not be devoured. Bend the knee. Serve me and you shall be spared."
Harry interrupted and said, "That's my wife you prune faced testicle chinned frog nosed wart of a conjurer."
Seeing the various shades of color Gath displayed made Harry rethink his no witty banter policies. It was kinda fun after all.
The face stated hatefully, "The Man-Spider has already been captured. I shall remove his flesh layer by layer. Save him if you can, heroes." His eyes glowed and the fallen foes around them vanished as his head faded into silence.
Harry turned to face Wanda and asked, "You remember?"
Wanda turned to engulf Harry in a hug and said, "Yes. He tried to change my past, manipulate my emotions, and make me serve him. When my memories didn't match my heart, I was able to figure it out and break free from his control. But then I felt my powers get suppressed."
Harry asked, "What did he mean when he said devour?"
Red Sonja spoke up at this point, "Gath has gained his wretched power by devouring the hearts of powerful sorcerers and sorceresses. I was nearby when your scarlet witch broke free. A bolt of light struck me and my sword returned to my hand and I remembered my past."
Rogue asked, "You know this Gath bastard?"
Red Sonja's eyes narrowed and answered, "Gath's men slaughtered my family before my eyes and stole my innocence! It was on that day that I was blessed by the goddess to exact revenge against evil such as Gath and all those who serve him."
Jade said, "So what are we waiting for?! Peter's getting tortured!"
Harry said, "It's a trap. Nine out of ten chance he wants to use us for some ritual and Peter's the bait to get us to come to him."
Red Sonja stated, "I've taken his head before and I shall do so again. Time is not our ally and wasting it plays into that damnable wretch's plot. I shall go to his palace and take his head. With or without thee."
Harry sighed and Paused. She wasn't exactly wrong but she was missing a few points. Today was the winter solstice and the point at which the sun was the furthest from the planet was in a few hours. Whatever ritual Gath had planned would go in with or without them not leaving an option of ignoring it.
Although Harry hadn't heard of Kulan Gath or Red Sonja before, he did know of the hyborian era and wondered if Red Sonja knew of Conan the Barbarian. Back in those days, the world had many close encounters with old gods and many new gods rose up to protect the world through their champions. The old gods taught their worshippers magics that have since been lost to time and though Harry could make some educated guesses, he didn't know precisely what Gath could and could not do.
Still, he was a video game character going up against a Sorcerer from 10,000 years ago. He had options.
After formulating a plan, Harry unpaused and said, "Marching into Gath's Palace means walking into his trap. I have a way to get us all into his palace and around the brunt of whatever plan he's contrived."
Jade said, "Oh! You're gonna use-," and had her mouth covered by Wanda. Technically Jade's mouth was already covered by a mask, but she got the point that Gath was still likely monitoring them and not to spill the beans before the big surprise.
Wanda asked Red Sonja, "Please trust Harry and come with us. We'll fight him together and we'll do it smartly."
Red Sonja met each of the girl's eyes and saw the absolute trust they had in Harry. She sighed and said, "Very well."
Harry nodded and said, "Head for my house first. Once everything is ready, I'll signal you to come to the Palace."
Before Red Sonja could ask for more details, Rogue said, "No problem sugar, just make sure to leave enough for the rest of us."
Harry walked off into the direction of Kulan Gath's palace at an unhurried pace. He wanted to make sure the Sorcerer's attention was on him and with a staff in hand he wasn't going to be stopped by any minor effort. Considering the nature of the suspected trap, Harry figured all of Gath's big hitters were at the palace now.
Harry was neither stopped nor impeded and even the door to the palace was left wide open and the entrance hall had no guards to be seen.
"Harry! Stop! It's a Trap! Ahh!" The familiar sound of Peter's shout echoed down the halls and Harry's pace didn't falter in the slightest as he entered the throne room and saw a number of other figures. In addition to the five foes from before, Harry also noticed four familiar faces. Johnny, Susan, Ben, and Reed all in hyborian outfits matching that of the palace's elite guard and all tainted in dark magic. Ben's exterior was made of black obsidian glass. Johnny's flames contained a hint of darkness. Reed looked like a spaghetti man and Susan looked mostly normal though was in a sexy outfit, hidden invisibly in the corner. Moreover, each and everyone seemed to have been given some mystic buffs that would prevent them from getting magically stunned again.
Peter was still in his suit but the hands and feet had been punctured and he was hung on a cross, unconscious and unmoving. Harry didn't look at him and asked aloud, "Why would Reed work for someone stupider than he is?"
Gath laughed from his throne and answered, "The Master Spell combined with some flesh crafting does wonders. I'd love to turn that Man-Spider into his namesake, but the suit he wears prevents his flesh from being crafted. Did you make it? And yet you stand before me unarmored? I will enjoy tormenting you for ages to come."
Harry looked unconcerned at the threat despite being completely surrounded and said, "You probably just want to sacrifice us for something right? What is it? An offering to summon an old god? Strengthening yourself? Strengthening your spells?" Gath's eye twitched a bit at that. Harry smiled and said, "Ah, you want to strengthen your spell? Let me guess, if you get enough power, you can spread that Master Spell you spoke of to every corner of the globe and rule the world. Am I close?"
Gath Snarled and stated, "You are not ignorant of mystical matters. But you are a fool to go against me. I shall give you one last chance. Submit yourself to the control of the Master Spell and you shall be spared endless agony."
Harry smiled once more. From the context, Harry could guess that the Master spell couldn't control Sorcerers with any great success. Of course the only reason Gath was negotiating was that Harry was a wild card and Gath was not an idiot. Gath was unable to sense any power from Harry and Gath had long concluded that Harry's power could not be sensed. This meant that Gath had no way to confirm Harry's strength, and the fact that Harry had walked in with full confidence gave Gath pause.
This was of course a strategy taught to Harry by the Ancient One. Bluff big or go home. Harry estimated that Gath was no weaker than Selene, maybe even a might stronger and his power came from the amulet around his neck. Of course, Harry was a lot stronger now than he was when he faced Selene, but Gath wasn't alone. Then again, neither was Harry. Still, Harry preferred to work with every advantage he could get.
Harry stepped up to Gath and said, "You think you are powerful? Try your flesh crafting on me?"
Gath snarled once more and a bolt of green light struck Harry.
[Flesh Manipulation Failed due to Obscurus Body.]
Harry was of course completely unharmed. Harry didn't have flesh and any spell that could control or shift it would have no effect.
Harry said, "Hmm. That tickled."
Gath was smashing his teeth together and Harry decided to end it. He charged his body to saturation with energy, something Gath couldn't feel despite being in the same room and Harry stepped forward.
Harry said, "Now, it's time-" and Harry exploded in a shower of blood, flesh, and gore all over the throne room.
Harry quickly respawned back in his room at a lower level and went downstairs to confirm the girls plus Red Sonja were waiting. Harry said, "Alright, it's time for a surprise attack." Harry then created a large portal and Harry and the girls rushed through into the throne room. Every one of the occupants were stunned silly. Harry could only laugh inwardly at that. So what if Gath spent a ridiculous amount of energy and magic making his minions resist stun magic. There are other ways to stun people.
The moment Harry left the portal, he locked onto Susan and knocked her out using telepathy. He wouldn't have her creating forcefields inside his girl's organs and inflating them to burst.
Red Sonja and the girls charged Gath while the minions and the Sorcerer himself were still reeling back from the fact that Harry just exploded and then moments later, returned through a portal.
Gath recovered quicker than the others and fired a mystic bolt that Red Sonja deflected with her sword before sweeping her sword at Gath's neck.
Gath teleported back and said, "Not this time She-devil." The former fantastic four finally regained their bearing and attacked. Jade used Yin-Yang Magic against Reed to cause him to become rigid and immobile. Wanda cast her hex bolts at Johnny which caused his fire to stop working, giving a Juggernaut empowered Rogue a shot to slug him unconscious. Harry turned the floor beneath Ben into a dry sand pit he immediately started sinking into.
The five villains from earlier recovered just in time to watch their back up get defeated almost instantly. Harry confirmed that Gath may have been good with flesh crafting, but the fact that he didn't save Ben meant that his transfiguration skills needed work.
Rogue, Wanda, and Jade started attacking the villains while Red Sonja and Harry went after Gath.
The problem though was that Gath seemed quite adept at teleporting through the astral plane. Harry conjured a few mandalas and red chains shot out and started covering the room.
Gath shouted, "No you don't!" and his giant astral head appeared and fell over Harry and Red Sonja, vanishing with them both.
Harry noticed that Red Sonja was on the ground and they were in a sealed room with Gath.
Gath said, "Welcome to your final resting place mage. Here you will help me conquer the world, or you will die."
Harry conjured a bolt of lightning and shot it at Gath, but before the bolt could reach him, it vanished and the walls of the sealed room started glowing.
Gath chuckled ominously and said, This room shall drain your energy. Any energy you use to attack will be absorbed and used to power the Master spell. I built this room with the Sorcerer Supreme in mind, but since he hasn't shown up yet, you'll do."
Harry asked, "You know of the Sorcerer Supreme?"
"Hehe, foolish child. In my time, I was the Sorcerer Supreme!"
"I bet you got fired," Harry added with a smile.
The tick that appeared on Gath's face confirmed it.
Sonja got up and Harry said, "Even without magic, Sonja will still slice you to pieces and you can't direct this room to absorb my magic without your presence."
Gath smiled and said, "So we shall see."
It was then that Harry noticed the pulsing red glow that appeared on Red Sonja's sword. She got up and took one look at Harry before she rose her sword to slash him through.
Harry Paused. He was unable to build up a charge of magic so he couldn't teleport or make a portal. He could use magic to enhance his body, but the effects would be heavily reduced and the excess magic would be used to strengthen Kulan's spell. Although Harry's plan B took a lot into account, he didn't want to bet it would still work if this Master Spell got too powerful.
He couldn't explode again, but he could use a Load Save to sacrifice another level to escape. Still doing so would leave Red Sonja at Gath's mercy which wasn't an idea Harry liked. Thankfully, Gath's plan didn't take into account the fact that Inventory doesn't require magic and enchanted gear can't have their magic absorbed by the formation Gath is using, or it would absorb the spell on Sonja's sword and free her from Gath's control.
Harry unpaused and equipped a full set of armor and a heavily enchanted sword, much to Gath's shock. "How is that Possible?!"
The enchanted armor and sword heavily boosted Harry's already impressive physical stats and though Red Sonja's skill with a blade was better than anyone Harry had ever heard of, much less met, Harry was able to overpower her through straight forward strikes using power and force. Zero fanciness is the key. Their rapid fire exchange of moves led Harry to believe Sonja had endless stamina but that was nothing compared to a video game character. Harry allowed for a few exchange of blows, allowing Red Sonja to hit with debilitating strikes while Harry in exchange struck her with weakening blows using his armored forearms or the side of his sword.
Harry's gamer body didn't weaken when damaged much to Gath's continued shock and the blood Harry shed turned to dust not long after it sprayed across the ground.
Once Harry had already given Red Sonja a heavy impact to her wrist, forearm, shoulder, and pelvis, Harry moved in to disarm her and caused her blade to fly out of her hand.
The moment the blade left her hand, she recovered herself and realized what she had done. Harry ignored the look on her face and to Gath's cry of "Noooo!" Harry stabbed his sword into the wall. He'd already had more than enough time to analyze the room and figure out its weakness.
The recoil of the formation breaking caused Gath to scream in pain. Harry used the chance to close in on Gath and remove the amulet and knock Gath out. Harry then made a portal back into the throne room where he carried Gath and Sonja silently followed through.
The throne room was trashed and Harry's girls were looking around while Gath's minions were still bound.
Harry woke up Gath and asked, "How do we reverse the spell and take everything back to normal. Tell me or I will destroy your amulet."
Now that it was in his hand, Harry recognized the Horcrux for what it was.
Gath sneered and said, "I did not design this spell to ever be broken. It has a will of its own and will continue to grow until it encompasses the world. As for destroying my amulet, I'd like to see you try. My Amulet is tied to the heart of the Master Spell. My will exists everywhere and destroying the amulet will, well, I don't have to tell you, do I?"
Harry frowned when he confirmed through a few different means that Gath wasn't bluffing. So much for plan A.
Harry shrugged and looked defeated and asked, "Then can you tell me how you did this? Who did you take over?" This was the reason Harry hadn't killed him after getting the amulet. Since it was a Horcrux, the person he was speaking to was someone flesh crafted to look like Gath. The amulet was the real Gath.
Gath preened at the look of defeat in Harry's eyes and said, "A security guard at the museum picked up my Amulet a few hours ago. I took control of him and took his body for myself."
Harry nodded. He did recall that the New York Museum of Natural History did have a new exhibit featuring some ancient relics archeologists claimed predated modern history.
Harry then knocked out Gath and made another portal to his house and the girls followed. Red Sonja gripped her sword tightly while looking at the unconscious Gath, but decided to ignore it and entered the portal. She wanted to see what Harry would do with the Amulet.
Harry didn't know if he should be surprised Red Sonja followed them through. Jade asked, "What about Peter?"
"We're going to undo everything Gath did, including what he did to Peter. Those who do the ritual to fix it will remember what happened. I didn't take Peter because this is not a memory I want him to have, though I'll tell him about it later."
Wanda asked, "Wait, you can undo this? How?" She knew almost as much magic as Harry did and she had no idea how to undo this.
Harry answered, "Peter told me that they were taking children and Peter following them led to his capture. Once there, I could tell that the magic of the ritual was primarily powered by blood magic, specifically the blood of innocents. Since I know how it was powered, I have a few more options. I'm going to use a ritual to follow the spell back to before it was cast and change the past."
Rogue asked, "You can do that?"
"Not normally, but this spell has already messed up the timeline and opened the door to do so. However this spell would usually have some negative consequences, but I've already informed my teacher and she should be able to assist with clearing those up."
Wanda asked, "So all of us here will remember what happened? What about Red Sonja?"
Harry looked at her for an answer.
The swordswoman answered, "I do not know. But I would like to find out."
Harry easily nodded and began the ritual. With the content of his inventory, it only took about fifteen minutes to set up and complete.
Once the ritual was cast, Harry and the girls found themselves where they were a few hours ago in New York. Harry grabbed Goose and used a portal and some illusions to head over to the Museum. Destroying the Amulet was one of the many things he knew would definitely create a paradox. So Harry transmuted some gold and gemstones into a replica and used some magic to open the case without the alarm blaring and switch the amulets.
The moment the case was opened, terrible purple tentacles shot out of Goose's mouth and latched onto the horcrux and swallowed it whole.
Harry set the fake in and fixed everything back to the way it should be before heading over to see the Ancient One to complete the closed time loop. It had been a busy day.
*Author's Note*
85% of the BS that occurred in this chapter actually happened in the comics. Selene was there too, but including her would have forced me to split this into two chapters when I already promised this would be the last filler before we get started on the next set of movies. There will be a bit more filler in the next chapter and then we'll get moving.
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