Dark shadow was crawling out of the hole in the tree. However, after the creature finally crawled out, it appeared to be a cute fluffy gray eagle. It was neither too big or too small, similar in size to a big raven. The eagle has cutely flown on top of the branch and looked around. Then it jumped to the ground, but as soon as he reached it, shadows that were stretching under his body sprang to life and entangled him. This clump of shadows started rapidly growing until it reached the size of the grown man, after which they started receding leaving young man in its stead.
***
'Well, sleeping in Animagus form was actually nice.'
Looking at the sun's position in the sky, I would assume it is somewhere closer to noon.
I continued moving towards Greece. Only two apparitions left.
***
A lonely man was sitting on the porch of some old house. His back was hunched as if something was pressing his down, while his face was held no emotions, all except for his eyes. These eyes held untold sadness. He was looking at the picture in his hands, reminiscing about something.
The door behind the man was slowly opened, but he didn't pay any attention to it. He only asked:
"So?"
"Progeny had an argument with the girl called Hermione. Although, there were a few strange things in this situation. Apparently, the boy, Magnus, got really angry, which is uncharacteristic of him based on their understanding. They had a little fight and he stormed out, while all of them were left stunned."
"You think, Athena has predicted this and he played the whole scene to escape?"
"No. Believe it or not, but the progeny throughout the whole dispute was actually thinking about something else, even concerned. But others didn't pay enough attention to it to notice this small thing. Then the girl said something that annoyed already agitated by something boy and he got mad."
"So, it was basically just a lucky coincidence."
"That's the problem. With Athena, we can't know. She might have manipulated the whole situation to make progeny do what he did."
"Wait a second..."
"What?"
"Based on your words, the boy is not under complete control of the Athena?"
"No idea. And does it matter?" Dark looked gloomily at the lightening sky.
"Of course it matters. If Athena is not in control..." Markus was unable to finish because Dark raised his hand in quiet motion.
"Can you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
"Hear how the world enforces the destiny upon its netizens."
Markus could only frown at his words. He was confused, where did that come from and how was it connected to the topic.
"...?"
Dark sighed and continued:
"Athena doesn't need to control somebody to be in control. After all, when you are capable of controlling the kingdom, you don't need to control the king."
"..."
Markus understood the meaning behind these words. And even though, he was horrified and disgusted by the very notion of such control, he knew that Athena had both capabilities and character to accomplish it.
"Anyway, I found out something interesting."
"What is it?"
"The progeny considers the girl a friend and even left a contacting device for her, which can be used to contact him at any time from any place."
"We can use that!"
"Indeed. The question is how we should approach this situation."
"Strange to hear that from you, after all, you were the one who said that you won't stop at nothing to destroy Athena. Just subdue girl with your power and make her contact him. Then we track him down and kill him. What's there to think about?"
"You misunderstood me."
"Doing it this way will antagonize them against us. Having destiny against us in the world where we are locked with possibly the smartest creature in the Creation. No thank you."
"Just erase the memory. Done deal."
"Well, that's one option. But I was thinking if we can use this destiny and crap to our advantage."
"How? I mean when Universe have an Author and he has a script for it, even if Universe wants to do something, it can't go against the script. That is like stopping breathing. Not something you can control. You can try, yes. But that's it."
"Exactly, so what if we use this to our advantage. We convince main actors of the scripts that progeny is the main villain of the script."
"I doubt they will believe he is Voldemort. Plus, you know how hard it is to mess with "The Script". Many tried. And the only end awaiting them was erasion for their impudence."
"True, but what we need is for them to 'see' how bad the progeny is."
"Interesting. But, you do know that we are not the first ones who came up with this idea."
"True, but this Universe is already on our side. The progeny also lost a lot of positive points with the 'actors' of 'The Script'. If they assume he is a bad guy now, we will have more freedom in the future. We can hunt him down, like a dog he is and can be assured they won't stand in his defense."
"Huh... We will use his home territory to our advantage. Can work..."
***
"Finally! Greece. Took me some time. Now, I need to get the Bucky."
'Ups. I started speaking out loud. Need to keep it together or even better keep it inside.'
I took out the amulet connected to the one I made for Bucky to track him down. Using enhancement on it like a GPS of sorts, I started going in his direction. It took me some time to get to him. Plus, using broom is not exactly my specialty.
After reaching him, we had a very nice reunion. Plus I bought some high-quality fish specifically for this occasion. I, Bucky and Blacky had a very good dinner. Well, Blacky probably happy to have anything. It's a black hole after all. And I must say it's really convenient. The best garbage bin is the one that decomposes trash to quarks indeed.
Obviously, it didn't increase that much, because just upkeeping his current mass is quite hard because it burns it with insane speed. Well relatively speaking. During our travels, Blacky has grown to approximately 100 kilograms from 23 micrograms, after feeding him literally everything we didn't like.
Anyway, progress was good, but not substantial, because, for a black hole to be threatening on its own, without my enhancement, it needs to have at least mass of one Earth or be close to it. That's a lot by the way (5,972,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg = 5.972 * 10^24 kg).
I also non-stop practiced and improved Occlumency skill, because I expected it to be crucial with all that 'Order and no-load' crap.
Also, decided to take a look at the abilities provided by the skill. After all, shielding my mind now became of utmost importance.
What's more, I noticed that speech and occlumency are intricately connected. Occlumency is all about controlling thoughts and speech is greatly connected with that notion. Great speech requires exquisite control over both mind and body. That explains why most masters of occlumency were so good at lying, manipulating and speaking. Snape, Grindewald, Crouch Junior and Dumbledore are just a few examples of masterful talkers and liars.
The 1st-tier ability for Occlumency was pretty basic. One of the reasons why I ignored the whole tree until now. Skillpoints will get only harder to get with time, but now was not the time to be stingy.
『 Occlumency 』
〖Great mental block 1/3 (45)〗
〖Your mental defenses are unbreachable for those whose skill in mental offense is lower than the half of your mental defense skill.〗
In short, it is useless for current me. So you see now why I didn't want to even invest in this tree. I mean my mental defense is currently at 35 so only people who have at least 18 in mental offense can try breaching me. That is so useless at my current level of skill. But now I have no choice. I am investing in hopes that the 2nd-tier ability(-ies) has more use.
Thankfully, my pleas were heard, because there were two 2nd-tier abilities and both were quite useful.
『 Occlumency 』
〖Control of emotions〗
〖Skill now affects your emotional control. With a rise in skill level, you will have better control over emotions.〗
This ability only further proved my suspicions about the connection between occlumency and speech.
『 Occlumency 』
〖Control of imagination〗
〖You imagination becomes more realistic which allows easier memory manipulation and increases the effectiveness of training. Moreover, now it is easier to guide and control the process of imagination and thinking. Deep concentration brings greater results. The effect grows with skill level.〗
I can now faster improve my occlumency skill and that will even improve my speech 'checks'. Although, obviously these skills were not super omega powerful, especially with my current skill level. But it is something and currently safekeeping my mind is of utmost priority for me for now.
As for physical safeness, that is something I can only further train. I could have invested in magic chanting and gesturing, but then I would be probably left with no skill points at all. And I really need them for extreme situations. You never know when you may need those. Plus my magic channeling and theory are already high, so I should be alright in terms of escaping and raw power.
*Sigh*
So many concerns, yet I can't stop.
After finishing dinner, we should continue the search for manticore and then we should leave Europe. Maybe China? Or possibly Japan. Any place would be fine. As long as it is as far as possible from the plot.
Suddenly, the amulet on my neck started vibrating, which heavily surprised.
'Hermione?'
*Progress*
『 Alchemy 39 | Sneak 29 | Speech 37 』
『 Studying 47 | Wand Making 32 』
『 Herbology 39 | Magic Channeling 61 』
『 Magic Chanting 42 | Magic Gesturing 42 』
『 Magic Theory 58 | Astronomy 35 』
『 Riding Expertise 20 | Crafting 32 』
『 Playing Games 16 | Enchanting 40 』
『 Cooking 26 | Training 26 | Physical Activities 18 』
『 Programming 25 | Dancing 0 』
『 Legilimency 29 | Occlumency 34 ➔ 35 』
『 Drawing 10 』