บท 36: Chapter 36 Monsters and Demons
After discussing the various possibilities and Harry's 'educated' guesses, it was decided to call in Warren Worthington III, also known as Angel, the Economics teacher for the Institute. Once he arrived, Angel would take Shadowcat, Pixie, the whole of the third X-Men team, and Harry in the X-Men's Jet, the Blackbird, to Pennsylvania.
Unlike the other teachers, Angel was not fetching students at the moment. Rather, he was still in New York handling various matters of the business he owned.
Harry had learned not long ago that this angel winged Economics Teacher was the owner of Worthington Industries. Since getting into business himself three years ago Harry had pretty much memorized all the largest businesses and their various subsidiaries. Worthington Industries owned the handful of airline companies which produced the most advanced and sophisticated aviation technologies in the world. They also owned several companies that produced alternative fuels which freed their airlines from the oil market. They also owned one company that produced fancy frozen yogurts. Harry was not sure why.
After getting into contact with Warren, Xavier confirmed he was on his way and would be arriving within the hour. Harry used that time to look up the so-called orphanage. There were no public records of it, but the records that mentioned it indirectly stated it was set up a year and a half ago and was called Nanny's Lost Boys (and Girls). Harry assumed it was a Peter Pan reference though not exactly clever.
Warren arrived after Harry finished what little investigations he could and was given the details.
After looking over the paperwork Harry pulled out, Warren said, "I've made it my business over the last five years to help mutants, but I've never heard of a mutant orphanage, especially not one so close to home. This seems more than a little suspicious. In case worse comes to worse, I'll make a few calls now to ensure arrangements are made."
He didn't elaborate but Harry knew what Angel meant. If they had to take the orphanage down, there would be a lot of homeless kids to take care of. Xavier's Institute was a High School level boarding school with over one hundred rooms, but that didn't give him permission to just bring everyone over. There were legal processes required before such a thing could be sanctioned. Thankfully money talks. Between Xavier's connections and Warren's wealth, they were going to make sure whatever was done was done in the best interests of the children.
Before heading into the briefing, Harry went to his room to invite ForgetMeNot. Marrow was with Domino so the members of the second X-men team at the mansion were just Pixie and Shadowcat who were both coming. Harry hadn't gotten a confirmation but he figured ForgetMeNot was as well.
When he entered the room, Goose was sitting on her enchanted bed and ForgetMeNot was out. Harry asked Goose, "Do you know where ForgetMeNot went?"
Goose looked up and answered through their connection, 'He left a few hours ago.'
Harry sighed and was about to leave when he turned back and asked, "Hey Goose, do you want to come fight demons and rescue orphans?"
After a moment of contemplation, Goose asked, 'Are you going alone?'
"No, I'll have backup."
Goose rolled over to get more comfortable and conveyed back, 'Perhaps next time.'
Harry figured as much but felt she would appreciate being asked even if she was likely to decline.
Harry grabbed a backpack and filled it with stuff from his inventory before heading back to the briefing.
Warren said, "Now that everyone's here, let's get started."
The papers Harry had printed out had been scanned into a projector Warren used to explained the details for everyone.
Warren asked Harry, "Do you recognize what kind of magic this could be?"
Harry nodded and took out necklaces and cheap trinkets for everyone before answering, "More likely than not, that's demon magic. Everyone please pick something and wear it. It won't provide much protection against demon magic, but it's better than nothing."
Kurt picked up a chain and examined it for a moment before stating, "This looks like cheap costume jewelry you see pop ups to buy on the internet."
Kitty said, "Yeah, this is like, tacky."
Harry sighed and said, "The symbols on the tacky costume jewelry are legit though. Like I said, It's better than nothing." Someone wearing the charm would be difficult to target with demon magic which was quite an advantage, though explaining how that worked or that the custom jewelry company that made these were ones he owned was more trouble than it was worth.
Warren sighed and put on a charm bracelet and the rest followed.
The plan was to investigate the kidnappings, predict the next one, rescue the kidnapped children, and if necessary, take care of the orphanage.
Harry added several points to the plan including some basic spy gear he had which allowed for hacking. This was added to the plan and once they went over a few contingencies, they headed out to the Blackbird.
The Blackbird, according to Warren, was built by his father's company and could be considered the most advanced plane on the planet. Moreso due to the add-ons Forged used spare parts from an alien ship to upgrade it with.
Jean's mind was occupied with concern over the orphans and the fact that everyone else was concerned over the same matter wasn't helping. Harry invited her into his library where she could spend the rest of the flight in silence going over the various books within Harry's mind.
Harry himself was going over the interior of the blackbird and determining how each aspect worked. He could already tell from the coating on the surface that it had active adaptive camouflage and the engine was using fuel in a way that was far too efficient for normal jets. There was barely any heat coming off it meaning the jet's exterior would be around the same temperature as the air outside.
Warren himself was flying with Scott as copilot. Warren was trying to dissipate everyone's nervousness by teaching Scott how to fly it himself one day.
That thought reminded Harry that he needed to magic-proof Dr. McCoy's spectrometer when he returned. Harry had yet to figure out how to make the ultimate riding broom and he wanted to use tech to do it. The potion that was infused into a boom which allowed it to use a wizard's magic to fly had been changed over the course of hundreds of years, but that didn't mean there couldn't be improvements.
In addition to that, Harry needed to expand on advertising for his Gemstone company. The Goblins had already openly bought the parts needed to make many machines capable of creating synthetic gemstones so now that no one was going to ask where they got them, it was time to start producing and selling them in bulk. Harry also needed to network the Goblins' computers together. They had to spread out the companies into several areas and rather than using existing phone lines to connect the computers in different areas, Harry was just going to use magic powered quantum entanglement connections, just like his hack boxes. The only problem was that he would need to acquire several dumb computers in each office and have them actually wired through the phone lines. If they had nothing to transmit info from one building to the other visibly, then the people who tried to hack them would find nothing to hack which would be suspicious. Thankfully the Goblins shared his propensity for paranoia and would probably enjoy filing the dumb computers with useless info, false info, and terrible viruses.
The flight to the small town was practically shorter than the prep and take off time due to the speed of the Blackbird and the meagre distance.
The Blackbird itself landed in an empty field with its active camo going and quietly landed. Most of the X-Men stayed aboard while Warren, Kitty, Jean and Harry headed to the Sheriff's office.
Warren's wings were capable of pressing almost completely against his back and beneath the long coat he wore, one wouldn't even notice the bulge on his back unless you really looked, allowing Warren to walk around without issue or stares. Unsurprisingly, the Sheriff's office was quite busy due to all the recent commotion. The group headed off to the side of the building and Harry handed Kitty a magic proof thumbstick drive with a timed portkey and said, "just stick this in the Sheriff's computer."
Kitty said, "Umm, this might take a while cause I really don't want to be seen on camera."
Harry nodded and took out a smokey quartz. "Stand still, this will feel like someone is dripping a running egg over you." The quartz glowed with a lumos and vanished back into his inventory as Harry cast disillusionment on Kitty causing her to slowly become invisible.
Harry could still sense her presence in space and knew she looked down at her own hands while Jean gave a smile at the novelty of such a thing and Warren looked impressed. Kitty exclaimed, "Woah, this is like, so cool!"
Harry sighed and said, "You can still be heard and you're not entirely invisible. Light just moves around you so if you stand still you're fine, but if you move, then people will see what looks like a mirage of bending light."
Kitty said, "Still, this will totally make this job a cinch." She then walked directly into the wall and Harry pulled a screen and keyboard out of his bag and waited.
Moments later the screen showed a connection was established and Harry started opening up and downloading files.
The thumb drive had a notice-me-not on it and if Harry had not drawn their attention to it when he handed it to Kitty, they would not have even looked at it. A few moments Kitty returned and Harry cast nonverbal finite incantatem to restore her to the land of the visible. To cover it up he said, "Just in time, I wasn't sure how long that would last."
Kitty looked surprised and said with a bit of heat, "Couldn't you have warned me?!"
Warren said, "Calm down Kitty, everything worked out fine after all. Just don't assume you can rely on stuff like that in the future alright? It's better to rely on your own skills after all."
Without looking up from his computer screen, Harry pointed at Angel and stated, "What he said."
Jean noticed Harry had gone through several pages worth of information and asked, "So what do we have?"
While still scrolling through the details, Harry answered, "Well, the only kid who was actually taken from the orphanage was taken from the street in front of the orphanage. Two others were taken from the grade school the orphans are attending and two others taken from the houses of friends they were playing or staying with. All within the last three days.
Kitty sighed and said, "School is starting early here for them huh? Bummer."
Jean rolled her eyes and Warren smirked at the specific detail she chose to pay attention to.
Jean looked in the direction of the orphanage and said, "Whatever the professor felt from here is definitely coming from that direction. This whole place feels like it is covered in cotton."
Warren said, "So we have our next destination."
Harry said, "I'd like to investigate the site of the other kidnappings to see if I can find anything the police missed."
Warren considered it and said, "Take Jean with you. If you find anyone who knows anything useful, see what you can dig up."
Although the man was clearly advocating the use of telepathy to invade the privacy of the minds of others, no one cared at this point as children's lives were on the line.
Harry and Jean headed over to the school and Harry cast a notice-me-not under the idea, 'do not notice we are not supposed to be here.'
Once they entered the hallway, Jean asked, "What did you do, I'm not even having to use my powers to get them to ignore us."
Harry turned back and smiled but remained silent. They arrived at the location where one of the kids were taken and there was a burnt circle with various burnt symbols on one of the walls.
Harry released some mandalas of dimensional energy and had them spinning and scanning the various energies in the areas.
Jean watched him do this and flatly accused, "You don't even need those gems, do you?"
Harry continued scanning while answering, "Nope."
"Then why continue with the act?"
"A few reasons. Until I'm strong enough, it's best to downplay my abilities and my threat level. I'm also looking forward to the day when someone tries to take advantage of my reliance on gems and gloats to my face that without them I'm powerless. I promise to show you the memory of that guy's face when he realizes the truth."
"Wait, it's a prank?"
"Among other things. You'd know that already if you read a little more about me."
Harry's mandalas glowed red, then grey, then orange. The feeling of the mandalas also provided sensory feedback which gave Harry far more information than just the color did.
Harry let the mandalas scatter and said, "This portal was to a different realm. I can't reopen it from this side accurately so I can't track them down." Harry knew about demons, he knew how to control demons, and he knew how to counter demons. What he did not know was demon magic. Such tomes did not exist in Kamar-Taj, so the makeup of demon magic was unknown to him and trying to track the other side of the portal was like reading directions in an unfamiliar language without a map.
Jean recognized Harry's frustrated face and asked, "Not good news?"
Harry filled her in and they headed back to meet up with Warren and Kitty.
While Harry had been snooping, Warren had directly knocked on the door of the orphanage and introduced himself and asked a few questions. When they met back up, Warren explained to Harry that Nanny was a kindly old woman who looked very worried and said she had decided the kids would have to stay in the orphanage until the mess sorted itself out. If it were not for what he already learned from Harry's investigations, the place would not seem suspicious. Warren claimed through the door he could see various children doing various activities and playing around.
Deciding they needed a second look, the group returned to the orphanage once more. The perimeter had various security cameras so unless Harry made Kitty invisible again, she wouldn't be able to sneak up to the wall and get inside again. However although they were some distance from the building, Jean claimed she could still get a read on the minds inside if she put some effort into it.
They gave her about ten minutes and when she was done, Harry didn't have to be a mind reader to know she was enraged. Warren took a step back when Jean opened her eyes just from an impression of the fury he could tell she felt.
Mirroring Jean from earlier, Harry asked, "Not good news?"
Jean lost all composure and practically snarled, "That woman is a monster. She and her partner, someone who actually calls himself Orphan Maker, find young mutants and kill their parents. They then use some kind of drug, something she calls fairy dust, to make the kids forget their parents and she takes them with her."
Kitty fell backwards in shock, "That's, that's horrible!"
Tears started running down Jean's face as she continued through grit teeth, "My niece and nephew are in that building. They killed my older sister and made my family forget her."
Warren nearly shouted, "What?!"
Jean held back her own sobbing while glaring at the orphanage walls and said, "My sister has been out of contact with my parents for almost a year. They, they killed her. They killed her and took her children."
Harry put his hand on Jean's shoulder and used his own psionic gift to enter Jean's mind and radiate a field of calm. Harry said directly to her mind, "Jean, I promise you, no matter what, they will pay alright. I swear that to you."
When Harry felt the peak of Jean's fury recede, he took her into a hug and held her as she started crying over the loss of her family.
After Jean recovered, Warren said, "The children are our priority here. What exactly is Nanny's plan? She didn't exactly look formidable."
Jean answered, "What you saw wasn't her. There are hologram projectors on the property, what you saw was a hologram. The real... Nanny... is in the basement preparing weapons for a counter attack."
Kitty asked, "What's her deal, I mean why would anyone do that?"
Jean took in a few breaths to calm herself before answering, "She doesn't think she is doing anything wrong. She actually thinks she is rescuing children and giving them a loving home. Her mind is broken. It's filled with nursery rhymes and children's stories."
Warren asked, "What about the other one, Orphan Maker."
Jean said, "I can't get a read on him. He's in the basement too. He's wearing a cybernetic suit and is loaded with advanced weapons. The suit is built into him. He can never take it off."
Kitty asked, "Why?"
Jean shook her head. "I don't know. There's a reason, but I couldn't get a read on it."
Harry looked around and said, "I have a plan to rescue everyone, but it's not a nice one and no one is going to like it." His energy senses could tell that the grounds around the perimeter had been altered and he'd spent the last few minutes analyzing it.
Warren sighed and called the remaining X-Men from the Blackbird. He didn't want to have to listen to a plan he wasn't going to like more than once.
The group gathered on the other side of a hill near the orphanage. There were no buildings or streets, only trees, so it was not being monitored by anyone.
Warren went over the details they found at the Sheriff's office and the orphanage before Scott spoke up, "So what's the plan?"
Harry sighed and said, "There is a transfer circle written into the ground around the orphanage. It's been there for at least a week. It's limited in that it can only be activated at dusk, an hour from now, but when activated, everything within the circle will be moved to the destination point. My plan is to wait at the edge of the security perimeter and gather everyone within the circle before it goes off. That is likely to send us to where the other children were taken and we can mount an offensive to rescue them."
Scott immediately objected, "Wait, you're gonna let the rest of the kids get kidnapped and let them get caught up in a fight between us all?"
Harry nodded, "They're mutants too, they won't be defenseless."
Scott replied, "They're kids! That's not acceptable!"
Harry blankly stared at Scott and said, "Well, since you elected to speak up, you must already have a better idea. I'm all ears."
Scott fidgeted and said, "Well, no, but we're not going through with this plan. We should think up a different plan together."
Harry continued staring blankly at him and stated, "I can't guarantee the transfer circle will activate if the orphans are missing. That's probably why it hasn't gone off yet, they weren't all there until now. I have no means of knowing where the kidnapped orphans are. I'm confident I can get us back no matter where we are taken but if we are not taken, the missing orphans are never coming back on their own. This plan takes into account the limits of everyone here. You can't just hope our limits increase because the outcome of those limits are not acceptable. If you think we should rely on a miracle instead of our own abilities, you shouldn't have bothered coming."
Scott visibly flinched at that and looked over the group in the hope someone would have a better idea. He knew he didn't have one but couldn't accept that putting the lives of others at risk was ever acceptable.
Warren sighed and said, "Scott, we don't have another way to save everyone. If you don't like it, then become stronger and wiser, so that in the future you'll have better options. That goes for all of you," he gestured to the remaining X-Men.
Harry double checked to make sure the X-Men each had one of his trinkets and they assembled at the edge of the orphanage's security field. He layered a weak Notice-Me-Not over the group and waited in silence.
Thirty seconds before dusk, Harry signaled for the group to move in. Alarms echoed from the sirens in the property and flood lights illuminated the area. By the time the group reached the building, the last light of the sun vanished behind the horizon and the sky shifted to dark red.
Once the scenery changed, Harry got out a diamond and caused it to glow for a moment before he conjured more scanning type mandalas. Sorcerer magic was very good at scanning dimension and spacial coordinates. The group quickly noticed that the haunting red sky was filled with winged, purple skinned creatures of various sizes and forms. The moment Harry confirmed his readings, he paused.
The location had shifted to a corridor of Limbo. It was not easy to directly take mortals to another plane, but this corridor was basically created to be a welcoming mat. That was good news, getting them back wouldn't be difficult. The good news ended there however. Harry was pretty certain anyone who wanted mutant children wouldn't be too high up on the food chain when it came to demons but he realized he had miscalculated. Limbo was one of the stronger Infernal Planes and a demon who could make a corridor to Limbo was not someone who could be easily trifled with.
Harry couldn't move very far while paused, but he was able to get a better idea of the surroundings and the enemy numbers. Thankfully the demons were just grunts. He couldn't spot a single elite in any of the groups he spied. Of course those groups numbered about five thousand, but the situation wasn't hopeless. Demons didn't like to share so they wouldn't swarm a group in large numbers. That meant it would be a series of group battles.
Harry unpaused and shouted, "Scott and Jean with me, we're going to rescue the kids, everyone else, hold the position and protect the orphans. Once we've gotten the kids we can get out of here."
Harry technically wasn't in charge but this situation was simply too bizarre and the group wouldn't panic as long as they had a plan.
Warren recognized the situation and shouted, "Take positions and do as he says!" He removed his coat and unfurled his wings in a display that had the demons watching flinch back. Wings like that were intimidating to demons after all.
Harry ran forward with Scott and Jean following behind. Harry activated a spell on his backpack which caused all the gems within to fly out and circle him while emitting light with a constant lumos. It had no effect but looked like a special move to anyone who paid attention. Harry figured he'd use this type of set up to go all out when in front of witnesses.
Harry released multiple cutting spheres which exploded on contact with demons and shredded anything in the area to ribbons. Scott blasted everything in the direction they were heading to clear the path and most demons took serious damage from his blasts though it only had a concussive effect on humans. Jean simply grabbed any nearby demon and psychically threw them into other demons.
A minute into their arrival, a massive magic circle appeared over the orphanage and spun around. The walls and roof of the building were torn to pieces and drawn into the spinning circle, leaving the occupants exposed.
Harry paused once more and rechecked the layout. He confirmed the point of origin of the spell and the position of the caster. It was about eight feet tall with blood red skin and a head that looked like a cross between a horse and a crocodile. Behind him seemed to be a ritual staging area but Harry wasn't close enough to analyze it.
Harry unpaused and said, "That guy's our target, we take him out and we win." Scott and Jean confirmed his position and along with Harry charged forward.
Harry paused every couple of seconds to confirm the situation of the various battles. Angel, Pixie, and Nightcrawler had taken to the sky. Nightcrawler couldn't fly, but he could teleport behind an airborne demon, wrap his tail about the demon's neck, then fall and throw the demon into another demon. Angel's flying abilities did not lose out to the demon's at all in air maneuverability and his punches could knock out any demon who closed in on him. Pixie wasn't a melee fighter but her Pixie dust could cause anyone to hallucinate and she'd been spreading it around the demons causing them to either attack the air or attack each other.
On the ground, Spike had been providing artillery support to Angel by shooting down any targets Angel or Nightcrawler disabled. Rogue seemed to have borrowed a bit of Iceman's powers and both of them were making a wall of ice to provide cover and freeze any demons who got close enough in place.
Not all could, but several demons capable of magic did try to fire or fry the X-Men, but from the perspective of the X-Men, their aim was terrible and it was not a concern.
A number of the orphans were putting up just as much of a fight. There was a giant ten foot tall teddy bear standing over one of the little girls that had been grabbing and tossing demons around. A pair of red headed twins seemed to be working together to freeze some demons in place before shattering them while another kid seemed to be able to control smoke.
Shadowcat was sticking around the orphans and if one was about to be attacked, she would grab them and make them intangible for a moment.
Besides the orphans and X-Men were two rather noticeable figures. One was a person in an egg shaped suit that appeared to have goggles over it and red lipstick where the mouth would be. The other was coated in metal which looked similar to how Colossus appeared when using his power. That one was probably Orphan Maker, the one who Jean said was basically a cyborg. His entire body appeared metallic and he wore a protruding mask and armor. In both hands were what appeared to be advanced weaponry.
Harry decided to ignore them for the moment, but next when he unpaused, the pair started attacking Shadowcat. The egg person shouted, "You wolves are here for my lost little lambs! Get them Peter! They wish to take these children away from those who love them!"
From the metallic suit came, in a voice that appeared to be that of a child's, "Nuh-uh, you bad guys aren't taking away my friends!" He started unloading shot after shot at Shadowcat who had to stay intangible to avoid getting turned into Swiss cheese.
Harry apparated behind the tin man and shot an over powered Stupefy into his back. The force of the magic sent Orphan Maker out of the ruined building into the outskirts where a group of demons quickly descended onto him.
The egg woman shouted, "Peter no! Nanny is coming for you!" and rushed out, but the hordes of demons blocked her path and she could only watch as the demons started ripping the metallic pieces from the immobile cyborg.
Harry apparated back and used a vanishing charm on some of the gems around him to make it look like they were spent in doing that. Although energy can resist magic, that was only true for sentient energy which required lifeforce to be mixed in. This meant that cyborgs powered by external means were as vulnerable to magic as any non-magical if they weren't properly shielded. Moreso in fact as the system which ran that man's suit was now completely corrupted and unless he was dragged to a computer and had his suit's OS completely reinstalled, he wasn't going to move again unless he was a technopath who could fix his OS without an interface.
Jean and Scott continue to clear a path towards the boss demon and finally get his attention. Until this point, the red demon had its back turned and was preparing something within a ritual circle.
The creature growled and shouted, "Incompetents and fools, must I do everything myself?!"
Harry wasn't in the mood for witty banter so he directly shot out a widespread Finite Incantatem at the demon and the ritual circle behind him but it had no effect.
The demon shouted, "You dare challenge I, N'astirh in my own realm? I shall take great pleasure in destroying you all!"
The demon now confirmed to be N'astirh summoned black flames and red lightning which gathered around him. Harry spread his arms out and seven rings surrounded the trio and cancelled out the magics N'astirh had cast at them.
N'astirh gave a nasty sneer and said, "A Sorcerer should know better than to fight a realm master in his own realm!" He screeched into the air and the space itself seemed to warp and fold around the group.
Harry paused and walked over to the ritual circle behind the red demon. That was twice now N'astirh had claimed ownership of the realm, but Harry knew that Limbo was Belasco's realm. However N'astirh was currently giving a display of space control that only the realm lord should have.
Once Harry looked over the ritual circle in detail, he knew what the demon was up to. This was an offering ritual. He was offering the souls of innocent mutant children to Limbo in exchange for its favor and in doing so he would gain power equal to Belasco's within Limbo. Of course, even if they were equal, N'astirh would have to fight Belasco for true ownership of the realm which was easier said than done.
Thankfully the ritual wouldn't complete itself unless the offering was accepted which required more than what it had now. That meant the kidnapped kids were held within and could be rescued. N'astirh actually shouldn't be able to use a realm lord's power before the ritual was complete, but it looked like he was basically borrowing it in advance. If the ritual failed, he'd suffer a debt but he was pretty confident in his success so he probably didn't care about that.
Harry unpaused and used another spell from the Grand Grimoire. He'd practiced a few of them using Wizard and Sorcerer magic with the Ancient One and was one of the reasons he had confidence he could escape.
Six Mandalas appeared around Harry and scarlet red ethereal chains launched from them and spread through the air before fading away. The movement of space caused by N'astirh's domain control slowed to a crawl as the space itself was bound in place. If N'astirh wanted to fight, he'd have to do it like a man.
Scott hadn't been staring off into the distance and Jean hadn't been filling her nails while Harry and N'astirh exchanged blows. Scott had been firing his concussive beams at N'astirh and the demons around him and even the ground nearby while Jean had been throwing everything at the red demon with everything she had.
N'astirh snarled and conjured black hell fire and shaped it into a massive creature. N'astirh shouted orders to all the demons around him, "Destroy them now!"
Their fight however was interrupted by the sound of a massive roar behind them.
The whole group turned and found a behemoth sized, misshapen demonic creature than seemed to be devouring the other demons. It didn't eat them, it's flesh simply covered and assimilated the demons and became larger and larger.
Harry shouted to Scott, "Scott, hold him down for ten seconds!"
Scott nodded and Harry took Jean's hand and entered her mindscape. Within he said, "Jean synchronize your emotions with mine."
Jean didn't argue and felt the righteous fury Harry felt towards N'astirh, Orphan Maker, and Nanny. The complete understanding that the world was better off without them and the desire to see them burn for their atrocities.
Standing behind Scott, Harry rose his hand along with Jean's into the air as a flicker of flames ignited in their palm. Jean didn't know what it was, but it burned with her fury and she focused her emotions along with Harry's into it and the flame grew larger and larger.
Scott had removed his visor and was blasting N'astirh with literally everything he had. The wannabe realm lord was forced back a step but was able to shield himself through the use of his black magic and domain control.
When the flame reached the size of a pumpkin, Harry said, "Get down Scott!"
Scott closed his eyes and collapsed into exhaustion as Harry and Jean threw their arms forward, the flame shooting directly at N'astirh who thoughtlessly commanded his own flame creature to block it. The flame passed through the hellfire construct without slowing down and struck N'astirh who thought to block it with a powerful magic shield in his hand.
The fire burned through the magic and in an instant, his arm was set ablaze. He shouted, "No! How can this be?" He tore his own arm off but his shoulder started burning the moment the flesh was removed. Phoenix fire burnt the body, mind, and soul after all.
N'astirh tore a hole in space and immediately entered it, running for his life.
The ritual circle broke and half a dozen children appeared on the ground. Harry shouted, "Scott, guard the kids, we'll get the others to come grab them and get out of here."
Scott was used to Harry's shouts by now and called back, "Got it."
Harry and Jean ran over to see the titanic creature that was still devouring demons. The army of several thousand had been reduced to only a few hundred.
Nanny was on her knees staring at the creature. She said, "My poor, poor Peter."
Harry asked, "That thing was Orphan Maker?"
Within turning to face him she answered back, "He was covered for his own protection and for the protection of others. His flesh would permanently fuse with the body of anyone he touched, gaining greater strength and power, but his mind regressed with each person and he couldn't control it."
The nightmarish creature would soon finish with the demons and it would start with them. Harry doubted there was a mind left inside that being.
Harry held his hand out, palm face up before Jean and she took it after understanding his intentions. Their righteous fury synchronized once more, and far faster than it had last time, a massive ball of flames emerged. Unlike the demon who Jean didn't like on principle, this Orphan Maker was the one who killed her sister. She wouldn't want to save him even if she could, and he was so beyond saving, there wasn't the slightest trace of remorse for what she was about to do.
The reason Harry was making Phoenix Fire with Jean was that her Psionic Path Rank was far higher than his and even if the Phoenix wasn't awake within her, she was still its Avatar and she was born capable of making Phoenix Flames, even if she didn't know how to before.
The massive fireball became larger than a house and got the attention of the blob of demonic flesh that was already over ten stories tall. Slits emerged all over the creature and they turned to mouths which roared at the fire and their presence.
Without needing to throw it, the fireball lifted from their hands and seamlessly shaped itself into a firebird and let loose a screech of outrage that embodied Harry's and Jean's fury at the monstrosity.
Cords of flesh shot out like spears at Harry and Jean, but the firebird flew forward and every piece of flesh that passed through it was burnt to nothing, not even leaving ash.
Harry covertly pulled out a baseball sized crystal covered in inscriptions and runes and used a switching spell on it with a rock near the demonic flesh to get the crystal near the creature.
The Phoenix shaped blaze collided into the flesh and consumed it in fire. The remaining demons that had not already left fled at their fastest speed as the massive creature was rapidly burning away.
Harry watched the burning monster and could only sigh. The being hadn't consolidated any of its power so it was low density and easy to burn, like a giant pile of papers. N'astirh on the other hand was like an ancient tree and far more dense when it came to power and life force. He'd probably survive, though the backlash from the ritual combined with the damage from the Phoenix fire meant he would be rather weakened for a very long time.
Harry led Jean back to the others and they ran over to where Scott was and took the children back to the destroyed orphanage.
Eventually Orphan Maker had burnt to nothing. There wasn't even smoke or a smell. Without anyone noticing, Harry used the switching charm once more to get the crystal again before placing it back into his inventory. The Switching charm usually can't be used on any item with magic but Harry made the vessel himself so it was an exception. Phoenix fire burnt anything and the result was pure life force. Harry couldn't absorb it to level up, but he wasn't going to leave such a massive amount of Phoenix fire refined life force for someone else to take. It could prove useful later.
The space within the corridor seemed to shudder. Harry did some readings and confirmed that in an hour or so the space supporting the corridor would collapse and force everyone remaining there into Limbo. That of course was only if Belasco himself wasn't trying to collapse it from the outside which Harry wouldn't put past the demon lord.
Using Kurt's teleports, the kids were quickly assembled in the ruined orphanage.
Scott looked around the shaking space and said, "Everyone's here, let's go!"
Harry said, "Ok, give me a moment. Actually there is an extra." Harry sent a banishing charm at Nanny who was mopping in a corner and directly ejected her from the area. Before anyone could say anything, Harry created a red mandala which spread out and caused the red sky to shift to a star filled night sky.
Harry's mandala confirmed that four hours had passed on earth while they were in Limbo which was why it was night though only a few minutes had passed since dusk.
Ignoring Scott's ranting about leaving Nanny in hell, Harry directly entered the orphanage's basement and connected to the computers within. The machine fogging up Xavier's and Jean's senses was in front of him and he wanted to know how it worked and who built it.
Though the computer had scans of the files which showed the blueprints, much of it was redacted. Harry had to use a few filters to get details from the redacted parts. When he finished, he only had one question. "Who is Mister Sinister?"
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