Chapter 274:
–Layla–
"This is Captain Steve Rogers. A small army of Hydra goons are rolling up on the castle. They've got tanks and everything," Steve's voice crackled through the comms in my ear.
"Do you want some help, Steve?" I asked.
"No, I've got this," he replied confidently.
Gunfire and explosions echoed faintly in the background as I stood across from Dumbledore and Grindelwald—the two most powerful wizards of their generation, now twisted into something far beyond human.
"We meet again, old man," I said, locking eyes with Dumbledore. "Been a while. How was prison?"
Dumbledore glared at me from behind his tiny spectacles. "Prison was dreadful! They forced me to eat Muggle food for every meal, and no matter how much I pleaded, they never offered me a single piece of candy! The withdrawals were agonizing. But I emerged stronger. During my time in that cell, I came to a revelation—I realized the error of my ways…"
Grindelwald scoffed beside him. "And all it took was for my warnings to come true. I told you this day would come, Albus. I warned you that Muggles would rise above their station and take over the Magical World. Look at your precious school now—Muggles have introduced their perverse technology, changed all the courses and fired most of the staff!"
Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "You were right, Gellert. How many times do I have to say it? I'm sorry..."
"Considering you trapped me in my own castle for 60 years, you'll be saying it for many years to come! We're lucky to be immortal now. So much time wasted, and the Muggles have grown much stronger since the Great War!"
Dumbledore's eyes narrowed in resolve. "You're right, Gellert. But now, with our power, we can crush the Muggles and restore the world to the Magicals!"
Grindelwald sneered at the Headmaster. "We may be far more powerful now, but I'm the only one of us who understands war. The Muggles won't go down without a fight. This will be a long and bloody campaign..."
I stood there feeling left out as Dumbledore and Grindelwald argued with each other like a couple of old spiteful lovers–which they were technically. My foot tapped the floor in irritation at the fact that they were suddenly ignoring me. Weren't we about to fight? What just happened?
[Either it's pure narcissism or they've both gone senile in their old age. It's hard to decide. Either way, they're now completely ignoring you...]
"…And that's why I want to conquer Germany first! Not just for sentimentality, but for the strategic value as well! Don't second guess me, Albus. I know war better than anyone alive!"
"…I'm not saying you shouldn't conquer Germany, Gellart. I'm simply arguing that it might be better if you took down one of the stronger countries first. We shouldn't give them time to build up their forces."
"What stronger countries? Europe is a joke compared to its former might!"
Should I have been offended that they were ignoring me to argue with each other? I felt offended…
[You could just kill them now when they're distracted...]
The System pointed out the obvious…
"Eh… Fuck it," I said with a shrug. A single Lightspear appeared in my right hand. I tossed it at Grindelwald's head. Grindelwald and Dumbledore were so enraptured in their old man argument that neither of them saw my actions. Not until Grindelwald's head was vaporized from his body.
His headless corpse flopped to the floor. It was for the best. He should have died in prison years ago, forgotten by the world as it moved on. Dumbledore should have never broken the old magic Nazi out.
And speaking of Dumbledore, he was in the middle of drumming up another argumentative point when his words got caught in his throat. He stared down at the headless corpse of his former lover in disbelief. It took him a few seconds to register what just happened. I could have easily taken him out as well while he was in shock, but I wanted to hear more about Ajuka first. How did Akuka even find Dumbledore and Osborn? Did Hydra still have spies in SHIELD that leaked their locations? If so, then how did Ajuka even get in contact with Hydra in the first place?
"...You killed him," Dumbledore turned to me, disbelief etched across his wrinkled face. "Why…?"
Was he seriously asking that? "What do you mean, why? He was a magical Nazi who sold his soul to a devil and wanted to slaughter all non-magicals. I think the reason I killed him is pretty obvious."
The old wizard's expression twisted into one of pure hatred. "Avada Kedavra!" he shouted, firing the killing curse at me once more. He was so lost in his rage that he seemed to have already forgotten it didn't work on me just a few minutes ago. Maybe the System was right—perhaps Dumbledore really was turning senile. Not even the infamous Evil Pieces could fix a mind that was already in the process of degrading.
Once again, the green spell slammed into me and did no damage. Death Magic was useless against its Champion. "Is that the only spell you know? Weren't you regarded as the second coming of Merlin? And why are you still using a wand? You're a Devil now, you don't need it."
Dumbledore managed to gain all that power, and he had no idea how to use it. The Green Goblin, who was previously a muggle, was making better use of his new magical abilities. I could sense his Demonic Energy clashing with Isane's Draconic Power a few Kilometers away in the mountains.
Dumbledore didn't heed my taunting advice. He raised his glowing wand towards me again. "Why do you always ruin my plans! What did I ever do to you!?"
"I could tell you this isn't a bit personal, but that would be a lie. You stuck my daughter in an abusive home for most of her childhood. You went out of your way to steal her inheritance and tried to raise her as a sacrificial lamb. I wanted you to spend the rest of your life locked away in a muggle prison, never being able to call again on the one thing that made you special–your magic. Clearly, I should have just killed you back at the Burrow. I'll be correcting that mistake now." He wanted an explanation, so I gave him one.
"I'm not going to lose to some monster proclaiming herself as a Goddess! Not in MY OWN Castle! "Piertotum Locomotor!" Dumbledore raised his wand and cast a spell that sounded vaguely familiar to me.
I couldn't quite recall where I remembered it from though.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
There was noise coming from the nearby hallway. I peeked through the hole in the wall that Isane made and let out a sigh. "Come on, old man. This is just getting sad."
He just used the spell that McGonagall used in the final Harry Potter movie to bring all the statues in the castle to life. The hallway was filled with stone gargoyles and knights marching towards me expressionlessly. "Almighty Push!"
A single wave of my hand reduced all the moving stone in the hallway to rubble. Dumbledore gaped at me and lowered his wand. "It's not fair…" he said while slumping to his knees. "I'm more powerful now, I'm immortal. How can I not beat you!?"
"You were granted incredible power, that's true. Power that most supernatural beings would gladly kill for. But, you didn't take any time to train with your new power before you ran back to your precious school to take it back," I explained my thoughts to him. It's not like it would have made a difference at that point. "Universal Pull." With another wave of my hand, his wand was ripped out of his hand. I caught it and stored it in my inventory. If nothing else, it was a pretty good trophy.
I wondered if Ajuka purposely didn't tell Dumbledore how to utilize his new abilities. When he explained his plans to Serafall, he made it pretty obvious that his 'generals' were nothing more than distractions after all. He wouldn't want them growing powerful enough to properly challenge him.
"I have some questions that I want you to answer for me, Dumbledore. After that, I'll send you on your next great adventure." We both knew what I meant by that.
"I won't tell you anything!" He was beaten, but his will wasn't broken yet. "I'll die before I tell you anything, monster."
Honestly, I kind of doubted that was the case. Dumbledore was a teacher, not a soldier. I don't think he would last very long under actual torture. Luckily for him, I wasn't someone who tortured others.
I had other people to do that for me after all! SHIELD would have him singing soon enough. I wanted to find out how Ajuka knew where to find the RAFT.
I conjured another Magic Disrupting Collar and placed it around his neck. With it on, he wasn't any more dangerous than any other crazy old man. I also created a few extra chains and bolted them into the stone floor with some chakra receiver rods. I was planning to help the others finish up their fights now that I'd wrapped up my own.
[It wasn't much of a fight…]
"Don't go anywhere." I gave him one last taunting wink over my shoulder.
"He won't be going anywhere, Angel. I can assure you of that…" A deep guttural called out behind me.
I quickly spun around to find out who managed to actually sneak up on me! "You've got to be shitting me…" I muttered in disbelief at what I saw.
Grindelwalds headless corpse was standing up on its own. It was one of the creepiest sights I'd ever seen. Something directly out of a horror movie. Whoever, or whatever, was piloting the headless body, was not Gellert Grindelwald anymore.
The corpse simply radiated Demonic Energy. Far more than he had been putting out when he was still alive. Energy that felt more foul than any Devil I'd ever felt before. It reminded me of Mephisto, but it wasn't him. There was no way the Hell Lord would have been able to recover so soon.
Without a head, the body clumsily stumbled toward Dumbledore. Black blood started to pool from the top of the neck and splattered all over the floor with every step.
The guttural voice echoed in the room once again. "We made a deal… Albus… Percival…Wulfric…Brian… Dumbledore. We made a deal and you broke it," the guttural voice sounded very upset.
"N–No! It's you!? You can't be real! You were nothing more than a bad dream!" Dumbledore went completely pale. He thrashed in place against the black chains that held him in place. The headless corpse eventually reached the old man and stood over him.
I reached into my inventory and pulled out my Asauchi. If I was facing another Hell Lord from Marvel, then this was the best weapon to use against them. My actions did not go unnoticed.
The demon possessing Grindelwalds body chuckled. "Now now, beautiful Angel. There's no need for you to get involved. This is between me and him. Over 90 years ago, he and his lover both made a deal with me. They both wanted to be the most powerful Wizards since Merlin himself. They wanted power, they wanted knowledge. As the generous being I am, I granted it to them. In return, I only wanted one small thing from each of them as payment for services rendered..."
It was obvious what it wanted as payment. I scoffed and pointed the tip of my Katana at the corpse. "Let me guess, all you wanted was their souls?"
It let out another infernal chuckle. "Hehe, indeed. Our deal was fair. Once their human lives naturally ended, their souls would belong to me. How unfortunate that they both violated our agreement and turned themselves into Devils. Their human souls became corrupted and are now almost worthless. Even so, they are still my rightful property!" it declared.
"Please don't let this creature take my soul, Layla!" Dumbledore was nearly in tears as he pleaded with me. This was the first time he'd also used my real name. "I promise I'll leave you and Heather alone from now on! I'll even give Heather back all of the money and heirlooms I took from her! I hid them all in the basement of my family's old estate!" He was doing everything he could to bargain with me. I knew about the money, but I wasn't aware he also took her heirlooms.
I clicked my tongue and quickly came to a decision. As much as I would like for Dumbledore to have his soul dragged into one of the Hells for all of eternity, I knew I couldn't allow that to happen. I also feel like the demon was lying. Demons get more powerful by devouring all souls…and other Demons. Dumbledore's soul isn't worthless, if anything, his current demonic soul is even more valuable to this infernal being.
"You're not taking him," I declared.
"Heh heh, feel free to try and stop me!"
[Kick it's ass, Host!]
'That's the plan!' I kicked off the ground and blitzed towards the corpse, but before I could bring down my Asauchi and slay the entity, I suddenly froze! I was frozen in place and couldn't move at all! Something was seriously wrong!
"W–What!? What is this…?" My hands trembled, I could barely hold onto my sword without dropping it. I felt scared, I felt utterly terrified and I couldn't figure out why!
'System, what the hell!? He's fucking with my mind!' I shouted internally. My heart was pounding in my chest and I couldn't breathe!
[He's not messing with your mind! That's impossible, this is something else!]
"Heh heh! Nice try, Angel. What you're feeling right now is fear. True Fear. Terror so invasive and tormenting that it seeps into your very being. It makes your bones grow cold and your muscles go limp." A dark aura emanated from the body as it reached down and placed its hand on an unmoving Dumbledore. The old Wizard had been completely knocked out by the aura of fear. "It was interesting meeting you, Angel. Maybe we'll meet again someday…'
The aura of terror disappeared along with Dumbledore and Grindelwald's corpse. One second they were there, the next they were simply gone. Whatever that creature was, it had gotten what it came for.
I sucked in a deep breath to calm my pounding heart. "Fuck me…" I muttered to myself. That was horrible, there were goosebumps covering every inch of my usually flawless skin.
[That was certainly different. It was some kind of conceptual attack that completely bypassed all of your natural defenses.]
"I should have let the Doomslayer come along after all." I lamented. "He wouldn't have even flinched." I said to myself before placing my finger on my ear. "This is Layla. Dumbledore and Grindelwald are both neutralized. What's everyone else's status?" I asked over the comms.
"I beat the crap out of the Green Guy!" Isane sounded cheerful over the calms. "I deserve a big reward once this mission is over, Layla!"
"This is Castle, the Baron is down. These alien guns are freaking awesome. I took a couple shots myself though and could use some healing…" he said nonchalantly.
"He didn't just take a couple shots," Maria Hill scoffed. She and Fury were running mission control on this one. "He's missing his entire right arm. He had to cauterize it himself to avoid bleeding out!"
Frank didn't seem that upset. "It's not a big deal, Layla will just heal me later…" He was one tough son of a bitch.
"I'm still fighting off the remaining Hydra forces, but I've almost wrapped things up," Steve said. "It's really weird being bulletproof now. It kind of feels like I'm bullying these men." I could hear a couple gunshots in the background but it had been a while since I'd heard any loud explosions. That meant he'd taken care of all the tanks at least.
The only one left to respond was Serafall. I waited for her to answer, but she didn't. That meant she was too busy with her fight to talk even for a few seconds. I spread out my senses to try and find her. Her battle with Ajuka had started over the black lake, but they had moved far off into the distance since then.
I sent out one last message. "...Serafall and Ajuka are fighting in the middle of the forbidden forest. I'm heading out to help her. We need some people to secure the school grounds and the students while I'm gone. Ajuka told Serafall that he turned most of the Slytherins into Devils. We also need to find out what happened to all the agents that were stationed at Hogwarts and in Hogsmeade. With any luck, they'll still be alive and in the dungeons."
"Roger that Layla," Fury responded. "Our people will move in and secure the castle, but I recommend you don't take too long to bring down the Green haired asshole."
XXX