บท 18: Another Longinus? Really?
Roughy a week had passed since they moved into the new house.
Harry and his peerage had turned the basement into a training area and reinforced the walls enough that not even his Phoenix fire would cause massive damage unless he held it out for too long. He had, however, gotten a much better grasp on his powers.
When it came to his power over death, he found out two different ways to use it for combat, [Wither] and [Rot]. He couldn't use either with any decent sense of control, but he could either blast the grey energy of death in a large cone or make it radiate from his body. Unless he was in an enclosed area, however, it was fairly useless so far.
[Wither] was extremely deadly in a small room. Harry could completely soak an area in his deadly, grey fog that drained the life force from anyone it touched. If he held it for long enough, he could have killed any of his peerage members as they slowly weaken before they would pass out.
[Rot], on the other hand, targeted inanimate objects and even magic with his grey fog. He could release it to crumble weapons to dust and destroy the reinforcements on the walls. It also had a tendency to melt the clothes off of everyone in the room other than himself.
Outside of an enclosed space, both were only aids to his combat style instead of trump cards. His power over death would disperse before it could do too much damage. He couldn't do much more than slightly weaken someone or destroy their clothes.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make his power turn into chains or anything semi-solid like Lord Beleth did when he lassoed Voldemort's Horcrux no matter how hard he tried.
His Phoenix flames had even less of development.
He still couldn't turn anything other than a fraction of his limbs to fire, but at least he could throw a dodgeball-sized fireball. Also, he could 'flame on,' burning his clothes, but that was it. The first time he did it, he freaked out that he would have destroyed his Elder Wand and Invisibility Cloak, only to watch the wand drop to the ground without a scratch, while the cloak stayed wrapped around his chest as it always did. He rarely thought about it as it felt like it didn't exist while it was invisible on him, under his clothes.
When it came to the common devil powers, he got the hang of devil barriers almost instantly. They were like flat Protegos, but much better in every way. Creating a dome around him, however, was much harder and he had better things to focus on.
Dobby finally got his woman to embrace the instincts of a devil and found that she had some sort of drunken master style. She would sway and attack erratically, but neither house elves had the raw strength to stand much of a chance against the other members of Harry's peerage. Together though, they made quite the team and constantly pissed Sirius off by how they bounced around him, pelting him with quick, glancing blows.
Harry found that Valerie had been formally trained in hand-to-hand combat when she was a child and learned quite a bit. He was focused on his magic but felt that his devil strength a bit was necessary as well.
She had told him that she hadn't fought in years because the Tepes clan forced her to overuse her Sacred Gear, damaging her body. It was only compounded when one of the three grails in her body was stolen from her. Now, the combination of the Resurrection Stone and Queen piece allowed her to physically fight as well as she should have been able to without the Evil Piece or damages to her body. They more or less evened out.
The stone itself started to cool down when Harry spent time away from her and recharged by his presence, so she used that as a reason to sleep in his bed, moving her meager possessions with her. Harry was more than happy to be in a large, western style bed instead of the futons he slept on in hotels. The two never did anything more than sleep, but Harry often woke up to her sucking his blood.
And it came down to powers of blood, where Valerie regularly kicked Harry's ass across the training ground. She was able to not only beat him, but also Sirius, Dobby, and Winky when they attacked together.
Vampires naturally create a cold aura that usually spreads 15 feet around them that anyone could feel, could control bats, manipulate fog and shadows, and gain the powers of whoever they had sucked blood from recently.
They naturally had plenty of weaknesses to compensate for their natural prowess, but Valerie, in Harry's opinion, had the best of both worlds. Not only could Valerie enjoy sunlight (which she did immensely since she spent her entire life inside) as a dhampir, but she could also touch holy objects, could limit her natural cold aura to just her body, bathe in Holy Water, and even pray to God, despite her nature as half undead and a devil. Her Sacred Gear was OP as hell. If only she wasn't missing part of it.
Also, with her connection to life from the Sephiroth Graal and the ability to use the power over death from sucking Harry's blood, as well as her manipulation abilities, she was able to control [Rot] and [Wither] as her King could only dream of. Harry only had her beat in raw power, as she couldn't fill the room with the magic, but that hardly made a difference in battle.
Whenever Valerie fought, she attached chains of [Wither] to limbs while lashing out with her shadows as she blended her vampire fog in with the death fog, twisting around the field with her sense of trained mobility. It wasn't even a contest, but Harry was learning fast and enjoying himself.
Valerie had insisted that his blood was the only blood she needed and expected him to give her some every night. She said the poison and tears made it so she wouldn't need a coffin to heal the damage caused throughout the day. Vampires had poor natural regeneration as a rule.
They still kept a coffin in the corner of their room just in case.
Today though, Harry decided he needed a break from training and working on magic circles, so he had taken a stroll out to town, only to hear the perverse giggling of a teen, peeking between fence posts.
Harry almost slapped himself for not noticing. Any supernatural with good senses could tell if someone had an unawakened Sacred Gear by coming into close proximity to them, but Harry could sense the souls that resided in them, so he should have noticed it from at least half a mile away.
The soul was immense.
While Valerie's Sacred Gear was broken, he was still able to sense its purity, strength, and power. This Sacred Gear, however, forced Harry to feel unadulterated fear when he focused on the soul. It was as if it was aware of his gaze, and glaring back at him like the inconsequential bug he was.
This was the kind of power that would never go unnoticed for long. He may already be affiliated with the devils that manage Kuoh or another faction, but Harry couldn't help himself from going over to him. He had plenty of pieces left and needed peerage members after all.
"Enjoying the sights?" he innocently asked, leaning over him.
The boy jumped back in alert surprise before calming down, "You scared me for a second there. You can leave me alone though, there's oppai for me to see! She almost took it off!"
Harry felt a twitch in his eye as the boy moved towards his peephole.
"Ahh, she turned away with her top off..." he turned back to stare at Harry with a murderous glare.
Harry wondered if he was going to show his power now.
"Bastard! I almost saw magnificent oppai, but she turned around when you ruined it! You owe me for this, who the hell do you think you are?"
"Harry Potter," he simply answered. He was getting the feeling that he was just some idiot with a lucky gear. But they're supposed to pick souls based on their personalities. Or do they change the personalities of who they picked? The chicken and egg argument was the same as with magic circles, wand movements, and most of what he'd seen of magic in general.
"Well, what are you gonna do for me now that you ruined my paradise! Ama-chan doesn't sunbathe naked every day, you know?"
Harry felt like he was going to regret this, but he placed a hand on his shoulder.
In response, the boy tried to remove his hand, but couldn't affect the iron grip, "What the hell are you doing?" his voice quivered and body paled.
The devil felt a little bad toying with him like this, but he was sure that he was unaware of the supernatural world by now. Even if he didn't want to join his peerage, he should still know about the dangers around him. Harry never wanted to Dumbledore someone, even by accident. Anyone with a Sacred Gear was destined to live an abnormal life, just like he was when he got hit with the killing curse as a child.
"You should hold your breath for this," Harry couldn't help but grin in expectation. He had to prove the supernatural existed in one way.
"Wha-"
POP!
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