'Although, I thought you will come out at level 30 or so.'
[That was the plan, but your actions made you a target, which forced me to appear earlier.]
'You mean target of death eaters? I know, but it should be okay.'
[No. 'Order' now knows of your existence.]
'...O-o-okay? What's the 'Order'?'
[It's an organization that 'fixes' the worlds. And you are a nuisance to them, that needs to be fixed... permanently.]
'Huh?'
[Before we continue, I think it would be wise to explain to you how the Creation works, but I have too little time. Creating a system-wide temporal force field is a taxing process. However, in short, do not change anything in a timeline. Your changes won't matter in the grand scheme of things and it will only serve as a target on your head.]
'But...'
[All explanations when you will be in a safer location. Please, return to your previous Auto-Save and this time, follow your friends. Save is just 5 minutes before the attack began.]
'What's...'
I didn't finish because the world unfroze and Athena disappeared once more.
'Well, I can ignore her, but I don't think she is my enemy. After all, she is my assistant. Let's trust her for now. Return to last save.'
***
Back at the meeting, Markus presented all the evidence and it was concluded that there is a 99% chance that Athena's consciousness can indeed be hidden in the boy that was reincarnated in another world.
The majority of people present were participants of the Great Wars caused by Athena, while the remainder knew about Athena from books, where she was depicted as "The Greatest Foe of Order".
One of the veterans, sitting in the back, asked:
"Markus, we heard you and we understand the situation. However, what do you expect to do now? Do you have a plan?"
"Well, that's why I called for this meeting. To come up with a plan for probably the biggest threat our order ever faced!"
Despite how passionate Markus was, the hall remained quiet. Veterans stayed silent, while members that came after or during the end of the 5th War, didn't know what to say.
"Then it's decided. Put in active monitoring on that Universe and react based on the Codex. If the host of Athena breaks the law, act accordingly. That's it. Dismissed."
The leader calmly stood up, after concluding the meeting.
"What?!" Markus was startled "Are you serious, right now? Observation?! Is that your answer?"
"Then what is your solution?"
"That's the whole of discussing it! To come up with the solution!"
"Discussion will lead us nowhere."
The sentence, despite how calm and quiet it was, ringed clearly in the ears of all the present. This made the whole hall still, mostly out of respect to the speaker.
"But...!"
"I have no solution better than the one I already proposed, so I deem this meeting obsolete. Dismissed."
"It's not that you have none, but more of a 'you can do nothing'."
Oh, so familiar voice resounded once more through the hall.
Markus looked once more at that person, still thinking who might it be. Despite being a veteran, he had no idea who the man was.
Leader responded:
"Dante, you are right. I can't do a thing in this situation."
Markus was annoyed and angry at the impassiveness of these people. He lost his world, his lover, his everything to the Athena and now when chance to destroy her is so close, their order 'observe'? He just couldn't keep it in.
"But, leader, this is a real threat of her revival! Can't you see it? She has no base, no army, and no resources. She is at her weakest, and you are telling us that you can't do a thing?!"
The Leader calmly looked at Markus and then at Li Qiye.
"I am the 3rd leader of the Order, otherwise known as Dragon. I am strong. Probably the strongest in this hall. When I am at my weakest you should attack me, because my greatest attribute is literally "Strength". However, calling Athena weak, is the same as calling a rabbit weak. It is natural. Athena will be at her weakest when she will lose or heavily damage her intellect. Resources? Armies? She is the smartest being in the creation, without equal. Even the 9th child of the Creator, who is a manifestation of the "Intelligence" property of the creation, isn't as smart as her."
Markus was confused.
Dante stopped being lazy for the first time in the meeting and seriously said:
"In other words, Athena cannot be caught by surprise, boy."
"But..."
Markus was insisting and anger clouded his thinking process, but Leader didn't give him a chance to continue and was similarly annoyed at the antics of his subordinate:
"You still don't understand?! No matter what you came up with, it was already analyzed and there is a counter plan, ready to be implemented. You want to trick her? She envisioned it and already countered! The only thing that she really lacks compared to the past is her predicting machines and her information net. But even without them, she still has her intelligence."
Leader seemingly got older after this speech and slowly continued:
" Maybe it is hard to remember, but we never defeated her! The order was just a fish on a chopping block ready to be slaughtered by Athena!"
Markus felt as if a bucket of cold water poured on top of his head.
Indeed. We never defeated her. It was just another whim of the ...
"Creator..."
"Now you remember?" Dante snorted and continued, "Creator intervened and let the Order off. We still have some destiny left, so he couldn't let us die-off yet. That's the only reason we are still alive. Moreover, the Creator already hinted that Athena will be undoing of the Order. You can't defeat her."
"Our fate is...!"
Markus was once more interrupted.
"Is in our hands true. But our ultimate destiny and our path are already decided. The more powerful you are, the stronger the shackles that bind you."
The leader looked at Markus for a few minutes, then looked at all people present. The mood was gloomy. Nobody liked to hear that organization... no, their whole life is but a story born in the mind of another being. Even if that being is unimaginably strong.
"Anyway, the majority of people here came from Universes with Authors, but you on the other came from independent Universe. Therefore I can understand how hard it can be for you to live with an idea, that destiny is set in stone, but sooner or later, you will have to accept it."
"My fate is my own!"
It is the only thing Markus said, but Leader only smiled.
"Put observation on that planet. Even if we are not coming after the Athena, there is still the 'Chaos', that might find out about this whole mess. We need to make sure, they won't intervene. Defend that Universe from any outer influence. If the host, won't find the way to get out his initial Universe, then he will be forever confined to that space. This kinda automatically solves the issue, because Athena is bound by the system, so she can't spill too much info to him. Clear?"
Multiple different voices were heard through the hall, saying:
"""Clear!"""
"Dismissed."
Markus was left sitting there, brooding in his own gloominess, his thoughts unknown.
***
Magnus returned safely backed away and all played out the same as in the original story, or so he assumed. After all, he didn't read the books.
***
*Back to Magnus POV*
"And why would I care?!"
I was seriously annoyed. Athena appearance. My useless intervention in some timeline. And now Hermione accusing me of being indifferent to some elf's fate. Why would I care?
"The innocent elf is being accused and punished for something, he couldn't even accomplish! Don't you feel at least a little bit of compassion for him? What if you were in his place? Can't you see blatant inequity?"
"If we switched place? Well, the elf would probably. Don't. Fucking. CARE!"
She was shocked at my outburst. And honestly, I had enough of this. We are having this stupid argument for hours since we are back already. I understand, that she considers me a best friend. Maybe closer than the 2 idiots. But today, I had a very shitty day. And she crossed the limit.
"Elf was just fired. Not killed. Not punished with 20 whip strikes. Just fucking FIRED, Hermione! Is life gonna be tough for him? Well, I don't know and honestly, I don't care."
"You...!"
She really didn't expect me to say such a "cruel" thing. Most of the time my high speech keeps all around me the way I want the world to perceive. Of course, because it is not my best skill, I need to do some conscious effort and keep up the mask for that to work, but now I am confused and tired after an hour of argument.
Moreover, because I am so distracted my speech is not fully focused and I have no good arguments coming to mind. Due to these two reasons, I can't just force my opinion with my "Speech" skill on her.
This whole thing just went out of hand, but my mood swung a bit too bad. For the first time in a long while, I got out of my usual character in front of other people and the worst part is that I don't care.
I know that I am probably going to regret things later, but I just don't want to stop at this point. Plus with all that magical power, I have in me, I feel nearly tangible wish to unleash it and obliterate everything around me just to vent my feelings.
However, I am somehow getting in control of these impulses. I need to calm down.
I breathe in and then breathe out. Then I calmly continue, while she stares at me, still shocked by my previous statement.
"What I care about is probably is the fact that the Death Eaters attacked the freaking Global World Cup! They are an actual threat. They can and probably will kill people in the future."
"I understand that. And Ministry won't allow this to happen again in the future, but Winky, this elf was..."
I was infuriated. How can you say "Ministry takes care of it" and then next moment, say something about the elf who was punished by a member of that same Ministry?
Rage was getting out of control once more. I hit the table in a rush, however, I forgot that I had a magnetic field on the constant training around me. With magic gushing out it funneled into that field and arcs of lightning hit everything around me. Thankfully field wasn't that strong and arcs didn't have a lot of power pumped in, so it was just flashy. The current of electricity is low enough to be kinda safe.
However, that is more than enough to attract attention, with lightning striking all around the room. And of course, this whole situation annoys me even further, so I snap at her.
"I had enough of this conversation. Get your priorities straight my friend. I won't care about elves or any other creature for that matter. This whole wizarding society is built on the corpses of other creatures. The majority of potions in one way or another use parts of dead magical beings, yet I see you have no remorse during potion-making. So, suddenly, you start being sympathetic to elves? Why? Because they are sentient? Half of the magical creatures have high intelligence. The heck is this bullshit!?"
"Young man, I would advise you to control yourself in my house!"
Miss Weasley swooped in and wanted to lecture me, and if I wasn't so enraged I would have understood that she has a point. And maybe I would have listened but what a wrong timing. Now, it served only to tick me off even harder.
After months of living alone and understanding my own personal might as a wizard, I became less bound to morals and the mask I was wearing in the past. Because of that getting angrier became so much easier, because I wasn't as careful or caring as I was in the past.
In short, I snapped. I sharply turned my head in her direction and simply said:
"Or what?"
She was obviously surprised. Not the reaction she expected.
"I am not your kid, woman. Don't you dare order me around!"
"Magnus!"
"Mr.Magnus, I think that's enough"
Both Harry and Mister Black entered at some point only to witness my enraged self, with small lightning arcs striking around me.
"Sirius, you own me your life. So better shut up and sit, like a good dog, you are."
"MAGNUS!"
Harry screamed enraged, taking out his wand and trying pointing it at me.
Why trying? Because as soon as I saw the wand moving in my direction, I moved my hand, while clenching a fist and the moment it was clearly pointing at him, I pulled my hand back a little, before pushing it forward and unclenching my fist at the same time. It all happened in a second and looked as if Jedi pushed somebody with a force, but what I did was simpler.
I used Knockback Jinx, but only with gestures, thanks to my second tier ability in Magic Gesturing, I obtained recently because I saw it as a fast and easy way to cast magic.
『 Magic Gesturing 』
〖Shortcut Gestures〗
〖You can bind specific gestures to magic spells that you mastered. Moreover, you can combine gestures and complicate them to achieve better/faster/stronger/etc. magic. Effects vary based on the move set.〗
But that's not the point.
The point is that as soon as I did that "Flipendo", the situation escalated very quickly. And the worst thing is that I was enjoying this situation.
*No progress*