>>6158641

You refuse to leave. The dragon above you can clearly dig, and if you leave now it can easily burrow underground and take months to be found again. If you apparate away, the last few weeks have been for nothing.

So you stand your ground.

“Hey, Ex, ever fought a dragon?” You ask inside of your head, and feel that both Excalibur is particularly offended at being used as bait and that no, not yet. “Well, today is your chance. But no killing, just as with Brighton.”

You breathe deeply, readying yourself, then point your wand at the ceiling a little ways from you.

“Deprimo!”

The stone cracks and collapses, and with it comes the great Catalonian Fireball, looking hungry, angry and drugged out of its mind.

“Stupefy!” You shout, aiming for the beast’s chest. It hits, but bounces off the beast’s thick hide. It shakes its head, trying to shrug both the magic and tranquilizer, then roars a breath of fire. You jump out of the way and behind a stone pillar, melted rock behind you.

You hear stumbling and rocks falling behind the dragon.

“Elliot! Apparate away!” Rolf shouts, sliding down into the room.

“No! We leave and we’re not finding him for months!” You spin out from behind the pillar, taking aim. “Conjunti-fuck!”

You duck as a paw that could take your head off swings where your face was a moment ago.

“Elliot! Incarcerous!” Thick ropes fly out, but unlike other times you’ve seen this spell used they don’t entirely disconnect from Rolf’s wand, instead wrapping around the dragon’s neck by one end, while he pulls the other, trying to force the dragon to turn. It doesn’t work, but buys you enough time to jump back up, holding Excalibur by the scabbard with both hands and swinging it upwards, slamming against the swollen wound on the dragon’s chest.

It lets out a pained growl, its tail swiping the air like a whip and slamming against Scamander’s chest, launching him at the cave wall.

“Shit! Conjunctivitis!” You shout, and this time the spell takes, hitting the beast in the eyes and swelling them almost closed. This does get it to no longer be able to see you, but instead it starts thrashing about, slamming against the cave walls, large rocks falling from the ceiling. “Rolf!” You shout as you see a boulder start to become loose above him, but he’s still too disorientated from getting hit.

You spin, apparating to the other side of the room, bellowing “Reducto!” at the top of your lungs, the rock exploding into dust moments before falling on top of Scamander. The dragon, blinded but not deaf, turns in your direction, a mouth full of flames.

[Cont.]

>>6158642

There is no time to think. You can’t move, your shields will not hold against a dragon’s breath, and you can’t apparate away with Rolf, only alone, and you’re not about to let him die. You pull out Excalibur out of its scabbard, raising it high in the air.

The dragon roars an inferno in your direction, and you bring the Sword of the Once and Future King down. Not at the dragon, but at the ground in front of you.

The flames hit with the force of a thousand years of ancient fire… But part before Excalibur, a cone unscorched behind it, where you stand with your wand at the ready.

“Stupefy!” You shout, putting every ounce of power you have into it, the red bolt slamming directly down the creature’s exposed throat.

The fire fails and the dragon collapses on the floor, down for at least a while.

--

Dragging an entire dragon out of a cave is a lot of work, but fortunately having to regrow new skin on your legs stops you from being part of it, instead just watching from afar while drinking water as cold as you can make it without freezing. The Scamanders have salves and healing potions specific for burns, and so have you, because there was no way in hell you were going after a dragon without at least a couple of those that you could trust had been brewed properly. Still, they take a while to work so you get to put your legs up and observe Arty, Luna and Rolf slowly dismantle parts of the cave until they can pull the creature out and bring it to a fenced area covered in anti-detection enchantments.

To not say you’re not doing anything, you brew an Oculus Potion to counteract your Conjunctivitis Curse, and a Sleeping Draught, with plans of feeding the dragon some every few hours to ensure it stays down while they treat it.

“I’m just curious to know what did an injury like that to a dragon,” you say, pointing to the claw marks.

“Self inflicted, I’m afraid,” Rolf says, scratching his scraggly beard. He had berated you severely for not getting out of the cave when he told you to, but had calmed down since. “Dragons are, well, not social creatures, but they need to roam and interact with things. Hiding away for so long must have left her mad. But we’ll take care of her. We’ll reach out to the Spanish government, they have preservation societies who can take care of her.”

“Or if everything else fails, there is always Romania,” Luna says, gently passing her hand over the dragon’s scales. “I know a Weasley there who would love to receive a homeless dragon.”

“There isn’t any chance she could have any eggs, is there?” Arty asks, but her tone makes it obvious she knows the answer.

“No, I’m afraid, or at least not any recent. But dragons live long lives, Arty. We may still find her a partner.”

“Oh, I’m certain we will,” Luna agrees, no doubt in her voice. “There are signs here and there. At least one more somewhere, I’m sure.”

[Cont.]

>>6158643

So, with the dragon filled with potions to make sure she won’t wake up any time soon and with several layers of salves on her wounds, you four have a celebratory dinner then retire for the night. You head to the bedroom, where the Prophecy tree-thing you and Arty water every day with a few drops of your blood grows by a window. You sit down by the bed, where she helps you clean your legs from the anti-burn healing cream.

“Almost as good as new,” she says, tracing the mostly healed injury, only a slight difference in color, soreness and lack of hair to distinguish them from your original skin.

“I began making my own improved versions of these potions the day you told me you got the apprenticeship. I just thought you’d be the one using them.”

“I offered to go with you.”

“You know I’d have let you if it was up to me. I mean, I’d have hated it and worried about it every second, but I trust your wand more than I trust Rolf’s.”

“Flatterer.”

“It’s true. He wasn’t a particularly grand help back there.”

“So you’re saying you could have taken the dragon down yourself?”

“No, I’m saying that if I had you with me, the dragon would have come willingly.”

That gets her to blush, so she kisses you for a while to stop you from saying anything else to embarrass her.

“Thank you for doing this. You didn’t have to, and you didn’t have to go bait it with Excalibur, but you did. And now we saved a dragon, thanks to you.”

“I was just the bait. You three did the real detective work.”

“We didn’t get set on fire.” She kisses you some more. “I feel like going for a night walk. Can you walk ok?”

“Well enough.”

“I’ll go to the bathroom first and then we’ll go, meet you outside the tent.”

You do as you’re told, enjoying the cool night air, the great form of the dragon gently sleeping a few dozen meters away. It is a beautiful place, an isolated island of peace only interrupted by the eventual fire-breathing lizard.

Not a bad place to live, you figure.

When Arty comes out from the tent, she’s sheepishly holding a bottle in each hand.

“You want to get drunk?” You ask, smirking. “Celebrate capturing the dragon?”

“Celebrate capturing the dragon, yes,” she says, blushing again, biting her lower lip and handing you one of the bottles. “Getting drunk, no. I… I want to be clear headed… for this.”

You look at the bottle a little better, and it’s clearly not alcohol. No, it is more in the style of a potion bottle, though it is unmarked. It is a white-with-red-sparks liquid, though, and the only potion you can think that looks like this is-

Your eyes go wide.

“Arty! You-”

“I got them from the corner at the hospital wing!” She blurts out. “They… They should still be good, I promise I checked!”

[Cont.]

>>6158646

“Yeah, no, anti-pregnancy potions do last for a long time, I just didn’t expect this was the moment I’d be offered one!” You hiss, very quickly hyperventilating. You pass your hands through your hair, wiping away the sweat that had suddenly appeared there. Takes you a moment to calm down. “But, uh, I’m not complaining.”
“You… might,” she says, giving a forced smile.

“Why?”

And she generally points in the direction of-

“A dragon!? You want to fuck on top of a dragon!?”

“Shhh! Not so loud! And it is sleeping, I don’t see why not! I told you I had a plan!”

“A plan!? This isn’t a plan, this is you getting us both incinerated!”

“Does that mean… That you’re not doing it?” She pouts in the most adorable way.

You flick your wand and a jacket and a hat fly out of the tent. You look at her fiercely, pointing a finger directly at her face.

“If my jacket, my hat or my bits get charred, you’re getting me replacements and I don’t want to hear a peep about it.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Jones.”

And, though she isn’t here, you know that if you get eaten by a dragon tonight Linda will be proud of you. There is, after all, no better place to get eaten by a giant beast than the arms of the one you love.

--

The following morning you are in a particularly good mood. Are there scratches on your back from the roughness of the dragon scales? Yes. Are they side by side with the ones left by Arty’s nails? Also yes. Had you discovered that almost waking up a deadly dragon caused Arty to squeeze you in ways that left you weak on the knees? That her voice sounded sweeter when shouting your name? That her eyes go wide when you go all the way? Those are all better left unsaid, but yes.

Arty is in your arms and making it clear she wants a lazy and brief repeat of the previous night, which you’re happy to oblige. When that is done, you gently extract yourself and get out of bed, stretching.

“Uhf-ghg,” Arty says against the pillow.

“Good morning to you too.”

“I think you left a mark,” she says.

“I would be disappointed if I didn’t leave at least a few. Not like you were particularly subtle with your nails either. I can brew you a cream to clean them up.”

She gently traces a hickey on her neck, biting her lip. “No, they… they can stay for now. At least until we need to be presentable again. Honestly, I’m just glad we went through so much training.”

“You’re one to talk. If we had done this in the beginning of the year, my back would have been killing me right now.” Your muscles are sore from the effort, mind you, but it is quite bearable. “I’ll take a shower and get some breakfast in town. Do you want anything?”

“Another one of those you just gave me?”

“That can wait until I don’t smell like dragon, sulfur and sweat anymore.”

“Then just another fifteen minutes.”

[Cont.]

>>6158650

When you get out of the shower she’s fast asleep again with a smile on her face, and you leave her to rest. The Scamanders are nowhere to be seen, so you apparate to Collbató to go to a small bakery you found that makes fantastic bread. You’re so happy you don’t pay attention to the murmurs. You fail to notice the general climate of apprehension. You ignore the whispers. At least until you arrive at the cashier and she’s too busy paying attention to the reporter on the tv to take your order. Your spanish is rough, but you manage to get the fundamentals.

“-and more. Repeating again for those who just joined us, an enormous landmass just appeared off the coast of Spain and Portugal, with what appears to be a strange haze surrounding it. Governments of Europe are requesting calm and gathering to discuss next steps while sending forces to investigate the phenomena. We’re also getting similar reports from India, Brazil, Iran, South Africa, China and more. We’re still trying to determine the details, but communication seems to be severely hampered across large distances. Not only that-”

You just take a muffin from a shelf and toss a couple of notes on the counter. You sit down, take a bite, then let out a long, long sigh, Excalibur feeling heavy on your hips.

Atlantis and all its reflections have just returned from beyond the reach of Time, and you have no doubt Salazar and the Beast have returned with them.

- End of Act 4 -

--

You’re not quite sure what makes you take a while to go back to the tent, instead just taking a walk around the small city. It’s… just the knowledge that normalcy, or whatever this strange life you had with Arty which you were calling normalcy, is going to vanish, and you don’t know for how long. Whatever the reason, you enjoy the muggle city for just a while longer. With the back of your mind you feel someone who isn’t Arty trying to reach you by patronus, but they can wait.

Eventually, however, you feel it is time. You just sigh and apparate. When you arrive at the tent, Arty is outside with both your and her bags made, looking apprehensive.

“So, you heard the news?”

“Yeah, got woken up by a shining Jack Russel terrier.”

“Even the muggles are reporting it. I can only hope the ministry is doing a good job dealing with the government.”

“That’s not good. Shouldn’t anti-magic enchantments stop them from seeing the cities?”

“I guess the old ones didn’t care about it. Muggles had to be able to see them to create stories about them, after all.”

She fidgets, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. She opens her mouth to say something, then changes her mind, then tries speaking again.

“Granger is sending someone with a portkey, they should arrive soon.”

“I should charge her for the consultancy, that’s what I should do. Apollo, Linda and Helga?”

[Cont.]

>>6158651

“Heading there as we speak.” She looks down, then comes closer and into a hug. “I’m happy I could be with you… before whatever happens in Atlantis.”

“Hey, what are you talking about?” You ask, brushing the hair away from her face. “What’s going to happen in Atlantis is that we’re going to kick Salazar’s ass, that’s what we’re going to do. Finish this thing once and for all. And then we finish up school, get our N.E.W.T.s, write up our story and go live off the royalties in a house with a white picket fence.”

She smiles, but it’s a weak smile.

“Have a huge house, with a huge backyard filled with creatures?”

“Maybe even your own Nundu,” you add.

“That would be nice, huh?”

“That will be nice. We’ll make it happen, Arty. I promise.”

She buries her head in your chest, tightening the hug, and you hug her back. Takes a few minutes for Scamander to show up with a member of the Spanish government, who produces a portkey back to England. You and Arty touch it, the Scammenders staying behind to manage things with the dragon, and you fall in front of the fountain in the middle of the Ministry of Magic. A little ways away, a crowd of journalists is being blocked from entering the building.

“Elliot, good, I was hoping you’d arrive,” Ronald Weasley approaches, in a hurried manner. “The minister is already there, with about every auror we could muster, including retired ones. Come, I’ll take you to them.”

“Wait. There’s something I need to do.”

“Can’t it wait?” He asks, a bit incredulous. “Atlantis reappearing is pretty much the definition of an emergency.”

“Yeah, which is why I need to get my parents somewhere safe. It won’t take long. But I’ll need to break underage spellcasting laws, so you can arrest me later.” You kiss Arty. “I’ll be right back.”

You spin and disappear.

--

Atlantis was kind enough to reappear on a Saturday, so both your parents are home when you appear in the middle of the living room.

“Elliot!” Your father shouts, nearly falling backwards from his chair.

“Son, did- did you see-”

“I did, mom. It’s back. And I need you two to stay safe.”

“What? You’re not planning on going there!?”

“I am, the Minister asked for me, though I don’t know what we’ll find there. But I need you two to pack your bags. I need to get you two to safety.”

[Cont.]

>>6158652

“But we’re safe here, right, son?”

“I… I don’t know, dad. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just know I can’t be there and thinking about you two not being safe.”

“That… that shouldn’t be your burden. It should be ours.”

“I know.” You hug them tight. “But you two are short of an Excalibur.”

His lips are forced tight, and he holds your shoulder firmly. “Maybe next time, then.”

“Where- where should we go?” Your mom asks. “Away from the cities? Some farm in the middle of nowhere?”

> There’s no place safer than Hogwarts. I’ll get the Headmistress to send someone to get you.
> I’ll bargain with the Ministry, get them to put you somewhere deep in their secret places, or wherever it is they’d take the Minister in case of a crisis.
> Drive east, to Abberton, to the church. The room in that tower survived the fall of Camelot for a reason.
> Other (Write in)

>>6158655
> Drive east, to Abberton, to the church. The room in that tower survived the fall of Camelot for a reason.
Arty a cute.

>>6158658
+1, they need to pack food and supplies and whatever few precious belongings and memories matter to them. They might not return and there might not be a Great Britain to return to once all is said and done.
Also yes, Arty best girl of entire quest

>>6158655
it returns!
>Drive east, to Abberton, to the church. The room in that tower survived the fall of Camelot for a reason.

>>6158655
>Drive east, to Abberton, to the church. The room in that tower survived the fall of Camelot for a reason.

yeah, thats our best bet. Hogwarts its probably THE worst place right about now.

>>6158650
at least if we die, out tombstone can say "Here lies Elliot, He scored on top of a dragon"

>>6158655
> Drive east, to Abberton, to the church. The room in that tower survived the fall of Camelot for a reason.

>>6158655
> Drive east, to Abberton, to the church. The room in that tower survived the fall of Camelot for a reason.

>>6158655
>> Drive east, to Abberton, to the church. The room in that tower survived the fall of Camelot for a reason.
Straight to business then. I wanted to get a Phoenix but those come when the plot demands it anyways.

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>>6158655
> Drive east, to Abberton, to the church. The room in that tower survived the fall of Camelot for a reason.

Potter knows Hogwarts. The Ministry. He doesn't know about that place.

>>6158643
So it does have some anti-magic powers. Will be useful in the fight with ArthurZar I am sure.

>>6158650
We finally got some pussy in cannon! I might try and write up a quick lewdfic, since fucking on top of a massive dragon was not in the bingo book.


Welcome back QM. Was expecting it to be a little long. Planned to try and finish one of my half finished fics to commemorate the next thread. Guess I will work on ArtyxHelgArty and dragon fucking next.

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Also, since we all might die? Good time to propose to Arty, perhaps? Promise to get hitched after she graduates? A 2 and half year engagement?

>>6158990
>since fucking on top of a massive dragon was not in the bingo book
Yeah, I didn't call Arty having that particular kink.

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>>6159262
She does love her animals.

End game is making Elliot put a fursuit on and plow her.

>>6159270
>>6159262
"Breeding the ultimate magical creature" :^)

>>6159273

Kek.

I will write just about anything in a lewdfic up to loli or incest but I do draw the line at furry shit.

On an only mildly unrelated note, the new Indiana Jones game is pretty fun, and ate away a good chunk of my afternoon when I should have been working. Also, just a half update today, because it is already too long.

>>6158990
>Was expecting it to be a little long.
Honestly, if I had managed to do another post and finish the Act on the last thread I'd probably have taken until next year, but being this close to the end and not finishing it was pissing me off.

>>6159262
She had a plan, anon, and she stuck to it.

>>6159270
> That spoiler
That did make me laugh out loud.

--

“Take clothes, take food, anything you need and can get your hands on.” You open your pouch, pulling out a few Wiggenweld Potions and handing them to them. “Then you drive east to Abberton. Camelot was there, and its last remains are still there. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but the room in that church survived the end of an era. It will survive this, too.”

Your parents look at each other, uncertain.

“And you? You’ll run off to save the world again?”

“If that’s what needs to happen. You two know Linda’s mom and Taylor’s parents number, right? Could you ask them to go too?”

Your mom nods. “We’ll get them.”

“Stay safe. I’ll be back when I know it’s safe. I love you two.”

You smile at your parents, possibly for the last time, then apparate away before you can change your mind and run away with them.

--

“Finally,” Ron says when you reappear. “We could have taken care of your parents.”

“No offense to the Ministry, sir, but no, you couldn’t. Now, where is the Minister?”

He takes you through several doors and corridors, until you arrive at a large and clearly well protected room. Apollo, Linda, Helga and Brighton are there and stand up the moment you arrive.

“About time, Hallaster,” Brighton says in his usual displeased and yet half-friendly tone, while Apollo envelops Arty in a bear hug. “We’re almost off to Atlantis without you.”

“He isn’t lying,” Helga agrees, pointing to a group of wizards looking exhausted in a corner. “The third advanced auror party has just gotten back from setting up wards and portkeys. How was the trip?”

“Good. Almost got killed by a dragon, but Excalibur came through- Is that Lockhart?”

“Ah, Elliot!” The blond wizard says, pleased, slipping past two aurors dressed as nurses. “How wonderful to meet you here! Do you know where ‘here’ is?”

“Ah, just somewhere temporary, sir. What I wonder is why are you here?” You ask, turning to Ron.

“We’re just taking him somewhere he can have a nice new view to paint, Elliot.” Granger arrives, having finished giving orders to some other aurors. “Nothing else. We still don’t know the nature of his powers, but our reports say that while the island is accessible, the city itself is protected by a barrier. We’d like to know if he finds something interesting to portray, he’ll be safe.”

“Excalibur is holding you to that. Now, what do we know?”

[Cont.]

>>6160022

“That every government in Europe is racing to discover what is going on and that I had to threaten the officials of three different countries to get them out of my way and make sure they don’t do anything stupid. But there was one… disturbing report.”

“Which was?”

“The shield protecting the city is translucent, difficult to see through, but clear enough to see the streets are empty. But one of my aurors said that he saw someone walking by them, close to the barrier. One Harry James Potter.”

“Motherf-” you massage the bridge of your nose. “Sure. Cool. Good. Not worried at all. Anything else?”

“No, now-”

“Ah, minister,” says a known voice behind, once that sends fury up your spine. “We’re ready, then?”

Six underage hands immediately point their wands at Scorpius Malfoy.

“Hey there, I mean no harm,” he lifts up his hands in surrender. “It’s… It’s just me. Just Scorpius. No Salazar.”

“Scorpius. Good to see you here.” Hermione walks in between all your wands and the last scion of the Malfoys. “Figured you’d want to see. Are you better?”

“Recovering,” he says, though he leans heavily on a cane with the head of a snake. His face is pale and his hair is thinning, some white already showing up between the blond, even though he’s only a few years older than you. “Strong enough to at least lend my services to help you.” He turns to you and your friends. “I’m sorry. To all of you. I’m sorry for hunting you when I still thought you were guilty, and… I’m sorry for not being strong enough to stop him from hurting you using my body.”

Slowly, you put down your wand.

“You really mean that.”

“I do. I wished… I wished to bring the Malfoy family to its old glory. Salazar’s words seemed to make so much sense, seemed to be so… sane. Your guilt seemed so clear. When I opened my mouth and spoke to a snake for the first time, I was awed, I knew it was my chance to be the greatest of the Malfoys.” His tone turns bitter. “And now my father is dead by my own hands and my house might as well be buried with him. The least I can do is make sure his murderer is caught.” He extends a hand to you. “If you’ll take me as your ally, Elliot, know I wish nothing more than to destroy the one responsible for the deaths of Lily Potter, Taylor Cycad and Draco Malfoy.”

You shake the offered hand.

“Welcome. Though you’ll find there’s a line for revenge, and Excalibur is ahead of you in it.”

“As long as Salazar’s head rolls, I’ll be at peace.”

“Good, you two made up,” Hermione says. “My men say they’re ready to receive us.”

--

[Cont.]

>>6160023

Like a city of gold inside a snowglobe. That is the first thought you have when the portkey drops you and your allies on the beach of Atlantis. Exactly like what you had seen in Merlin’s memories. It is Heaven. Still beautiful, still perfect.

And abandoned. There isn’t a soul in sight.

Around the beach, several tents with clearly demarcated areas, a variety of country flags and wizards of differing european and north-african nationalities spread out throughout the sand. The British have their own area, which is half-merged with the French, of all people. Each group has seemingly picked a different area of the barrier to analyze and experiment on, though neither seem to be having much success.

“I deed not expect you to consideur zis place a daycare, Granger,” says a voice behind you, and you turn to see a scrawny old lady with her nose so high it might as well point at the sky, and a permanently disgusted and bothered look on her face. By her side is the largest woman you’ve ever seen, followed by the most beautiful lady you’ve ever put your eyes on, looking not a day older than twenty but holding herself with a posture that indicated at least twice that.

“Veela,” Arty whispers by your side, curious. “Half? No, probably less.”

“All of you, meet the French Minister, madame Adélaïde Villeneuve, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons, madame Olympe Maxime, and Deputy Headmistress Gabrielle Delacour. Madams, meet the Boy Who Holds Excalibur and his friends. They are our… Alternative theories team.”

“Ah… please to meet you.”

“Alternative zeories!? Zey are children! Zey 'ave no place being 'ere!”

“If you will remember, minister, children saved Britain, and by consequence the rest of Europe, from falling into the hands of a mad wizard. And before that, animals helped stop Grindelwald. I wouldn’t be so hasty to judge from where help can come from.”

“Bah! Az long as we are clear, we take no responsibeelity for zem!”

She leaves before Granger has the chance to answer.

“Pleasant as usual,” the minister scowls before turning to the other two women. “Gabrielle, Maxime.”

“He’mion! Eet seems we only meet when problems arise, non?” The half-giant lady covers Grancer in a hug and the minister disappears for a moment.

“Ah, yes. Unfortunately so,” Granger says once she manages to escape the grapple and shoot a glare at her snickering husband.

“Good to see you again, Minister,” Gabrielle says in flawless english.

“You too. Could you take them to see the barrier? I’d like to discuss some things with Maxime.”

She nods at Hermione, then at you. You follow, with Brighton suddenly seeming incredibly interested in whatever she has to say.

“She’s thrice your age and isn’t even showing any cleavage, you dolt,” you mutter only to yourself, shaking your head, but Apollo chuckles by your side.

[Cont.]

>>6160024

She leads you by the beach, telling you details such as the exact time it appeared, how the aerial count of buildings was constantly changing, which countries were there, and finally…

“And then there are the shadows. Well, reflections, really.”

“What reflections?” Brighton asks, hanging on to her every word.

“Well… them.” She stops by the barrier, gracefully brushing her perfect golden hair behind her ear. She points at it, and you see yourself and your friends half reflected on it, but with some straining of your eyes the shapes of other people can be seen in the glimmering barrier. “With their magic being so different from ours, we’re not quite sure who or what they are. The current theory is that it is possible the Atlanteans have used their life to power the barrier.”

While Brighton agrees that is truly a clever theory, you approach, examining the figures.

“Does it do anything?” You ask. “The barrier, I mean.”

“No, just blocks anyone from passing through.” As if to make her point, she presses her hand against it, leaning until it is very clear the shimmering wall is supporting her. “Objects go through, but apparition and spells don’t. Well, except the Killing Curse, as the bulgarians kindly demonstrated a while ago.”

“Right,” you nod. “They’re reflections.”

She almost falls from her leaning stance.

“What!?”

“They’re reflections. Brazil, Iran, South Africa, more. Each of them had an island, landmass or something of the kind appear, correct? Call your government spies in those countries and describe the people in the reflection. I’m betting they’ll tell you these same people are surrounding their mysterious new land barriers.”

Because they were all the same, all the same Lost City. Which explained how Potter, who last you heard was in Peru, managed to get in so quickly and without anyone seeing him. He hadn’t crossed the barrier through this reflection of it, but most likely, what? El Dorado? Paititi? Probably whatever the Peruvian government was having to deal with.

How he’d managed to cross the barrier, however, you still didn’t know.

“I- wha- How could you possibly know that?”

You grin at her, putting a hand into your pouch and pulling out your replica, placing it firmly on top of your head. Linda facepalms so hard you can hear a faint “ouch” coming from her direction.

“Well Miss Delacour… I’m just that good.”

--

“You’re a dork, you know that?” Linda asks once Gabrielle leaves to tell her government what you just told her (with Brighton right behind her, of course).

“And you aren’t?”

“I never said that. Also, you got laid, didn’t you?”

You hesitate for just a moment, which is a moment too long.

[Cont.]

>>6160025

“Ha! I knew it! Not even Atlantis would make your step quite this light!”

“Shhhh! I’m not looking to make a formal announcement to the world!” You quickly spin around to make sure everyone else is too far away to hear, most of all Apollo who is trying to transfigure a piece of the barrier. “But… Yeah. On top of a sleeping dragon.”

“Bullshit!”

“I swear to Merlin.”

“I don’t even need to ask to know who came up with the idea and who was too much of a horny teenager to say no.”

“I know, right? But the way I see it, it buys me good boyfriend points, which I can then cash out for rewards.”

“Like?”

“Like not banging on top of a fucking dragon, for starters!”

Linda laughs, shaking her head, then leans against the barrier… and falls right through it.

“Linda!” You shout, immediately grabbing her legs and pulling her out. “Shit! Are you ok?”

“Oh fuck, oh shit!” she says, gasping for air as your friends rush towards her, though fortunately it seems no one around saw what happened. “Merlin fucking damnit that caught me off guard!”

“Are you alright? How the fuck did you do that!?”

“I… I don’t know! I just leaned against it and… I think I heard voices.”

“In there?”

“Yes… and no. I heard voices, screams, but… they were inside of my head, just like Rowena. Oh… oh no.”

“What, what is it?”

“Yeah, I just figured it out too,” Helga says, crouching down by Linda. “They were there, weren’t they? That’s how Salazar managed to apparate to Atlantis.”

“But that means… Merlin, all this time…”

“What are you two talking about?”

“Atlantis was erased from time, sent to somewhere even more Lost than the Darkness we were sent to,” Helga explains. “Its existence was erased, its essence taken, its consequences denied. But it still held on. And that almost nonexistent connection was enough for Salazar, someone who had been through the Darkness for an eternity, holding the broken shard of what once was Merlin, who had been to Atlantis once before, to be able to apparate there.”

“Except that Atlantis wasn’t empty when it vanished,” Linda mutters, in almost a whisper. “There were many, many people there. People with Ancient Magic, like Rowena. Souls whose fragments managed to return once it was brought back, torn and disfigured beyond recognition, but still a soul.”

“And they’re all desperately trying to leave, yeah.” Helga looks at the golden city behind her. “Which is why no one could enter. Because everyone who tried was an adult, with souls too big, too whole to pass through the hurricane of souls. But someone with a smaller soul, one that wasn’t as big…”

You stand up, holding Excalibur on its hilt, and approach the barrier. You take a deep breath… and step forwards.

The screams of an uncountable number of people storms your mind, howling, begging to be let out.

“Right,” you force the words out after stumbling back into a world of sanity. “Who wants to be the one to tell the minister we’re using child soldiers to storm Atlantis?”

Y'all didn't think I had made several arcs of student armies, generals and training for nothing, did you?

>>6160031
Oh boy, what are our lads called again? Raiders of Lost Worlds? Time to prove how accurate that name really is.

>>6160031
you fucking mad lad! you just made my night

>>6160040
i had a feeling that was the best name, I KNEW IT!
im so glad my suggestion was the winning one, its all falling in place nicely

>>6160026
It also occurs to me that someone with enough Horcruxes could probably sneak their way in too. How Harry managed it, perchance? Or maybe just leftovers from Voldy's fuckery.

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>>6160024
>“She’s thrice your age and isn’t even showing any cleavage

Perfect. Flat is justice.

>>6160031
Nah.

Didn't predict this exactly, but there was a reason I voted to let our potions take a hit vs. Army rolls post Nimue... eh. We might want to get the Mirror here. What with dealing with reflections. Could maybe do something if we are clever. Always thought we were going to get to Atlantis through that, but I still feel as if it is important.

Also fuck you Potter. Good that we have 3 Founders with us and a tiny girl with a +50 to Battle stuff. Two magic swords. I hope we can borrow a shitload of potions from everyone, all the various countries expeditions. All the cool magic BS artifacts we can.

We have Ginny, Potter, and ArthurZar to go against, min. Need every tool we can get.

>>6160064
It was a good name. And now we have the Indy hat, jacket, and cute girl to go with it.

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>>6160106

His soul might be "smaller" just because he never recovered from Voldemort taking up part for most of his adult life? That sound's possible. I think Ginny may be there to, since Riddle was fucking with her for an entire year.

But... So objects can pass in. Small chunks of soul can. Up to child sized.

What if we pelted the place with the Horcruxes they have and had the dementors follow them? I mean, that is like salt the earth stuff. If the Beast is running the show, might empower ArthurZar, but might not if Sally is still in charge? Possible picrel.

Even if not?

If we find a way to sink this place back into Never-Ever Land? Tossing all the Horcruxes in and getting the dementors to follow might be a way to just get rid of them forever.

Also, Hermione did say only like half of Voldy's Horcruxes had been found and contained on dementor island. We know Harry was jumping around like a few dozen countries... Hmmm.

>>6160120
>What if we pelted the place with the Horcruxes they have and had the dementors follow them?
Would be a good nuclear option to keep in our back pocket, should mention it to Hermione.

>>6160120
>>6160137
Do we have any reason to believe horcruxes will work well as munitions, and not just serve as a power-source? Even siccing Dementors on them sounds like a bad idea, given the yet-unexplored connection between they and The Beast Formerly Known as Merlin.

“You’ve got to be joking!”

“Unfortunately not, minister,” Helga tells the horrified woman. “The only ones who can get through that barrier are children, under eighteen at least, most likely seventeen. Anything else and their souls will be too large to pass.”

“Unless you have someone who is willing to create a couple of Horcruxes, of course,” Linda says, with an amused look. “I suppose that would take care of their soul being too big.”

Granger scowls at the idea.

“Children? Against Atlantis?”

“If you will remember, minister, children saved Britain, and by consequence the rest of Europe, from falling into the hands of a mad wizard,” you say, grinning. It isn’t that you aren’t terrified of walking into Atlantis and facing Salazar and Merlin. You are. But at the same time there is some part of you that is just utterly ecstatic at the idea of setting foot in there, the same part that had rushed in first into the Map Room beneath Hogwarts and that had immediately jumped at the chance of breaking into Avalon.

The minister silences you with a glare.

“You were meant to study this place, not fight our war for us,” she says.

“Not the first time something like that happens. Doesn’t mean all is lost.”

She sits down on a fancy wooden-looking chair, which proves to be anything but wood as she leans backwards and it reclines until she’s almost lying flat, though still massaging the bridge of her nose.

“Ron?”

“Yes, honey?”

“Can we create a hidden corridor between this area and Atlantis? Possibly block the whole road from being visible by others?”

“With the other enchantments and protections the other countries set up… Difficult, but possible. That won’t be the worst part, though.”

“I know. How long do you think it’s going to take until the other governments realize all our older kids vanished?”

“Three days if we do it well, four if we’re lucky. Then they’ll start asking questions.”

“And if we bring in the french on this?”

“The world will know before midnight.”

“Right. Make the corridor, send out owls to fifth years and above today, have the children portkey here tomorrow morning. You have unlimited resources, just make it happen.”

He nods and apparates away.

“Very well, Elliot Hallaster,” she says, coming back up and looking at you. “Let’s see if you’re as good as you think you are.”

--

[Cont.]

>>6161418

Throughout the day, children all across Great Britain and Ireland see visitors from the Ministry, unannounced and unexpected, appear at their door. Those that are too far away or not at home, receive owls with unmarked letters that would burn if anyone else tried reading it. A few of them receive an emergency Patronus.

You don’t doubt all of them are scared right now. It is almost nightfall and the ones you requested to be brought earlier are all standing by a great round table, looking grim.

“Damn, commander,” Talon says with a forced smile, voice unsteady. “Really didn’t think you meant those speeches about Atlantis.”

“Yeah. Life finds a way of overstepping my expectations, unfortunately.”

“This… This is real, then?” Riley asks, hugging her sister by her side. “This is… Salazar?”

“And Merlin,” you nod. “And Atlantis. I assume you told Falere the whole story already?”

The ravenclaw girl nods along with her gryffindor sister, both tufts of blond hair bobbing together.

“So, what is the plan?” Elend asks, skin two shades of bronze darker than what you’re used to. Amalia, unfortunately, is nowhere to be seen.

You roll out a map. On it, the drawing of the island, the location of the encampments you’re in and a great circle signifying Atlantis.

“The city of Atlantis is in constant shift. Roads change, buildings move, but never when you’re paying attention to them. Think of it like Hogwarts, but on a much grander scale and far more intense. But, just like Hogwarts, it has fixed points.” You point at four drawings on the inside of the circle. “There is an open area in the middle, some sort of central square where a lot of people probably gathered. There is a castle up north, a great forge in the southwest, and some big garden-like thing in the east. That is as much as we know from brooms flying over the city.”

“And?” Falere asks. “What are we meant to do?”

“We don’t know. Somewhere in there, Salazar is hiding, doing something. Our goal is to find him and stop him. The city is massive, brooms and apparition don’t work, I went back in there just long enough to test it. Flying magical creatures go mad with the noise of souls screaming in their minds, they’re impossible to control.”

“So we’re meant to just walk blindly into a foreign city with Merlin knows what dangers, somehow find our way to these places and just, what? Look around?”

“And run away if you see any signal of either Salazar, Merlin or Potter, precisely. I would love to have more answers, Falere, but no one knows anything. And we need to be fast.”

“What? Why commander?” Elend asks.

“Because soon the other countries will figure out they can send their children through. And when that happens…”

“Chaos,” Talon says.

[Cont.]

>>6161419

“It wouldn’t be chaos, it would be a fucking catastrophic clusterfuck.” Brighton says. “Hallaster is right. We start tomorrow morning and get to these places, scour the damn things, then regroup before nightfall. The minister guarantees us three days, so that’s what the first day will be for: recognisance. Once we know what we’re dealing with, we can come up with something better. But we can’t do anything while the best information we have is from two thousand feet in the air.”

“Which means we’ll need teams. Four places, four teams, four commanders. And those commanders will need their generals. You are the ones who I know best, whose skill I can trust the most. Unless anyone wants out, I’m putting each of you in one of those positions.”

“So no pressure, then,” Elend says, though his laugh is too high pitched for humor.

“Only the entire world on our backs, you know, the usual. First, the Castle. It looks like some sort of seat of power, even more sumptuous than the other buildings. About the size of Hogwarts, which as we all know, is ginormous, not to mention that it might be bigger on the inside. We don’t know what sort of political systems the Atlanteans had, but this seems to be the center. We’ll probably won’t find much about what happened to Atlantis here, but we might understand more about the city’s upper class, if that was even a thing.” You repeat Granger’s analysis from the situation. Granted, you were looking at Atlantis through current time lenses, so it might be drastically wrong, but it was as good a starting point as any. “Could just be an empty castle, or it could have safes, guards, traps and protections.”

“Second, the Plaza. Big open area, right in the middle of the city. People would have walked, spoken and traded there. Could possibly be the heart of the city, as far as we know, let us know more about how the average person lived, how they thought. Or it could just be an empty space, difficult to tell from the air and through a barrier.”

“Third is the Forge, at least that’s what it looks like from above. Chimneys, lifting equipment, possibly even glowing runes, though the scouts aren’t certain about that. Could just be a construction yard, could be where they built Things. We could walk in there and find great rocks of stones and designs for new buildings, or unstable enchantments and half-finished Artifacts of Power.”

“Like the one that wiped out Atlantis?” Summer asks.

“Possibly. Again, we’re not sure of anything. Fourth, the Garden. Could be a green area of leisure, or sport, or… it could be a graveyard. We could find evidence of their culture, or their rites of grieving. We could find the secrets of their dead.”

“Or undead.”

“Possibly. They did have a semi-conscious guardian called Irkalla keeping watch over their resting place. Maybe because they wanted to stop thieves. Maybe for some other reason.”

[Cont.]

>>6161421

“Any plant that survives getting erased from time is going to come out the other side wrong,” Brighton says.

“Yeah. I think the Plaza is the safest one, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is deadly danger in all four of them. So play it safe. Play it smart. We have no idea what the fuck we’re stepping into here, these people dealt with magic we can’t even begin to comprehend. So please. Be careful. Don’t risk it. Don’t die.”

“We’ll try our best, commander,” Talon says, swallowing hard. “So I figure you’ll lead one groups, but who’ll lead the others?”

Pick 3, the others will be distributed between the other groups. Also let me know if there are any non-leaders you want to be in your group specifically, though keep in mind I’ll keep some balance of power between them. Any other preferences (such as which leader goes where) will also be considered:
> Arty
> Apollo
> Brighton
> Helga
> Linda
> Riley
> Other (Write in)

Also, which place will your group investigate?
> The Castle
> The Plaza
> The Forge
> The Garden

>>6161423
> Brighton
> Apollo
> Linda

Keep with us for sure:
>Arty
>Helga

And we go for the Pharaoh's Tomb!
> The Garden

>>6161423
supporting >>6161429 this team but voting to investigate the Castle instead

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I need to think about this some. We don't want to hog all the good fighters and commanders, smart people. Other groups will need them.

I want Arty with us, just because Arty even though her new strength could help another group if it comes to any kind of fight.

Brighton is smart so he could help us too, but he is also another former commander, we can't take them all.

Will see if something comes to me. Adventure ho!

>>6161423
>>6161429
>Brighton
For sure, third (second) best General to us.
>Linda
War games nerd, and our second. Works for me.
>Apollo
My only gripe is that if I recall, he won a lot by brute forcing, However, I suppose if he has a tactical second, he should be fine.

Arty is 100% with us, though I feel she may be better suited in another team, but also I wouldnt want my wife with anyone else.
We do NOT need Helga with us, however she is fragile due to old arty body. Maybe Apollo Team.

>>6161440
I feel that castle will have artefacts, but nothing "Important" as to a "place of power" ergo, you wouldnt put your world ending power source under your feet. (at least as a king/leader, I wouldnt)
The Plaza would be the 2nd likely place for that as its were most people would congregate and unless you're in the know, wouldnt think they'd put that where the most people congregate.
Garden seems most likely where it would be, only because It's a place of peace, least likely to have erratic spells being cast around, I'd think.
The forge straight up has artefacts, and possibly parts to whatever needs/needed to be powered.

I personally vote Castle for us. If it's there, we're there.
Our sneakiest goes to Garden (Linda?) I'd think it's a lightly forested area, or a grassland like park.
Our smartest (Brighton) goes to the forge, he can possibly find things to help or learn some things about artefacts.
And everyone else goes Plaza (Apollo). If a fight breaks out, it's the easiest place to escape from as it's in the center of the city, I'd say.

>>6161472
Second thoughts on the plaza.
If you nuke your city, where would most people be at most times in the day? THE PLAZA. I feel the soul scream would also be heaviest there as well.

>>6161423
>Arty
>Helga
>Elend
We gotta keep Arty with us, Helga is the weakest of the bunch so having her wtih the strongest duo will balance things out and Elend I just like personally.
>The Forge

>>6161472

Still thinking, but I can agree on Apollo+Helga. Balances power and Helga is pretty smart.

I am thinking Team Apollo should go to the Forge kinda. It might be a construction site and or a place for crafting stuff. Apollo is autistic about MineCraft and building stuff. He might be able to divine some info just from his weirdness. And Helga, back when she was alive, did help build Hogwarts and crafted at least 1 very powerful artifact, her old cup.

But yes Arty is 100% with us. Potter and ArthurZar both know how much we care about her. Easy target to get to us if needed.

Can the Ministry bring the Mirror here? And HeadQM are you allowed to tell us what impact hiding Fitzgerald's library had on the story since?

>>6161423
Apollo+Helga+Riley to Forge (Minecraft remember?)
Brighton to Garden (Herbology, remember?)
Linda to Plaza
Elliot+Arty to Castle... and sure, throw in Elend I guess

>>6161615
I didnt remember, so you're right.
I can agree with this set up.

>>6161615
Seconding, seems to make the most sense

>>6161423
>>6161615

Sure. That is pretty close to what I was thinking. Hopefully it isn't some tricky shit where like Apollo would be best for the gardens because of their weird construction or something.

>>6161423
> Brighton
> Linda
>Elend

>Arty+Helga with us

>The Forge
Seems the most interesting, plus we have experience with artifacts of power already.

We also should have gotten The Ministry to grab the Mirror, I'm sure it's got something to do with this situation.

>>6161941
Yeah. I have been thinking it is important to the Atlantis situation for like 2 threads. But maybe important in a bad way? IDK, now.

I also really hope the damn Ministry isn't sending us in with just the shirts on our backs. I want potions, enchanted clothing, sneak-o-scopes, Auror potion belts for everyone. Any and everything that actual operatives would have and more.

>>6161983
Yeah, we should ask the Ministry for all the goodies they've got stored up. See if there aren't any more time turners squirrelled away (though that might be dangerous, considering their origin), potion supplies, maybe some muggle firearms too, those would be useful.

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>>6161997

Eh, Potter's is the last I imagine and with all the time BS, probably not a great idea to bring them even if not. Thank you for reminding me he does still have his BS McGuffin and can set up loops.

Need to ask the ministry if they have any anti-looping enchanted equipment so he can't get the drop on us with his magic watch.

No one here is trained in firearms or firearm safety. More likely to have a ND and shoot an ally in the back, unfortunately. But if they have some bullet resistant vests, might be nice since Potter also has his big iron. Picrel is light and even concealable and will stop .44 Magnum unless he is packing steel core AP ammo.

>>6161997
I agree with >>6162011, no time turners or magic mirrors near the spacetime anomaly please.

>>6162412

I have this weird idea that the Mirror may actually be our way to escape after we don't all die to an insane Potter and/or ArthurZar. It was meant to be part of a network, according to Rae, and we know objects can be stored in an individual one, like Flammel's stone. So getting out of the Atlantises via one in there to the Hogwarts one. IDK, I also thought our big "yes this is why Army Rolls are important" thing would be a big battle at Hogwarts after Potter turned people against Elliot when he found out about Lily when I was considering it last year at one point.

Made a couple of good guesses in the quest, but obviously not a Seer. I really wish I had picked up on the Gregorian/Julian calendar difference but the first thread was like most of the way done when I picked this up so I skimmed a bunch of the stuff that would let you figure that out.

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>>6162011
I dunno, as far as weapons go firearms are pretty easy to figure out. We've got an army, so unless it's a headshot people should be able to heal each other. And it'd definitely beat figuring out some bullshit when we can just use more gun(tm).

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>>6162520

Firearms are easy to "use" sure as in pulling the trigger, but you aren't teaching a bunch of 16-year-olds to do decent mag changes, to properly airm under stress, not sweep their comrades, clear a jam, do good follow-up shots, actually hit something more than a dozen feet away, ect. in a few hours. This comes from doing pistol and some rifle competitions pretty often. Yeah, we could get them to a low level, maybe, but that assumes a competent instructor; as far as we have seen in game? The only guy who knows how to use a gun is Potter himself. Don't get me wrong, I love guns but tossing them in the hands of a bunch of untrained teens in a stressful situation is asking for trouble. Or not, we are playing make believe so W/E.

They are likely just better off sticking to wands, since they have been practicing with those for years.

Body armor is likely a bit more useful. While even light-weight soft armor takes some getting used to, it will save you, even if you are kind of awkward with it.

Just my take though.

Consensus seems to be Brighton, Linda and Apollo, with Arty definitely sticking with Elliot and Helga going with Apollo. Sorry for the delay, but Christmas parties get in the way of writing, so I shall leave you with this small half-update which is in no way a cliffhanger.

>>6161613
Ask me again once the quest is done.

--

“Brighton, you take one team and go to the Garden. If the plants are deadly, I figure you’re the one who’s best prepared to deal with whatever fuckery they throw at you. Apollo, you go to the Forge, take Helga with you. Her Ancient Magic sight can help you investigate whatever they were doing in there. Linda, you take command of the third group, lead them to the Plaza. I figure you’re the one who knows most different cultures, so I’m hoping that can help you figure out how they lived and why that place is special. Finally, I’ll take the rest of our soldiers to the Castle, try to understand what sort of people led their land into… whatever happened to them.” You sigh, shaking your head. “I’ll give a speech tomorrow when people get here but… Everyone will be scared shitless. Merlin, I’m scared shitless. So, if you can, try thinking of ways to calm them down. They’ll need it.”

Everyone nods, and you spend some time splitting up students between armies, deciding leaders and whatnot. It is not an easy task, and every time you write down a name you feel like you may be writing that kid’s death warrant.

Eventually, you just shake your head and leave the tent for a walk, to clear your head. You find Elend on the beach, watching the sun set and smoking a cigarette.

“Didn’t know you smoked.”

“Me neither,” he answers, giving you a shaky smile. “Picked it up last week. Things, uh, have been making me nervous.”

“I can understand.”

“No… You really, really can’t, commander.”

You look at him weirdly, but don’t comment on it.

“Is Amalia doing good? I figured maybe your vacation would have been enough to clear her head and make her come but-”

“Oh no, she wanted to come. She just… can’t. She’s… Ah… She’s…” He passes his hand through his perfectly combed hair a few times, which has the opposite effect of adjusting them. “She’s… pregnant.”

“WHAT!?”

“SHHH! Quiet!”

“Wha- who- how!?”

“We… forgot to take potions with us to our vacations, and got sloppy with condoms, ok? It’s…” He has a look of utter defeat, bafflement, exasperation and who knows what else on his face. “It’s a mess.”

“Right,” you say, silently thanking your mom for being so insistent on birth control methods. “I can see how something like that may make you pick up smoking.”

“I’m losing my fucking shit, commander.”

“As you should, probably. Uh, I can’t give you any advice on that front, but maybe you could reach out to Linda.”

“She has a kid!?”

[Cont.]

>>6162834

“No! No, but her mom had her when she was fourteen, dad bailed on them. So she might give you some advice on how to deal with it. If you two decide to keep it, I mean.”

“I… I don’t fucking know. A part of me wants to make this problem go away as fast as possible. The other…” He buries his face in his hands. “Wants to run away as far as I can.”

“But?”

“But I do like Amalia. Hell, I might love her. And the idea of having a kid isn’t inconceivable, and I don’t want to just ‘get rid of it’, but at the same time I’m fucking sixteen and I have no idea of what I’m doing with my life and I haven’t even finished school and… Fuck man!”

You have no idea what to say to him, so you just put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, I’m sure whatever you choose, it’ll work out in the end.”

“Of course it’ll work out, my family is made of millionaires, this is very much a problem I can just pay away no matter what I choose! Just like anything else in my life!”

“But you can’t make it go away from your head?”

“Yes, fuck!”

You start laughing. You can’t help it, you just start laughing.

“You think this is funny!?”

“Honestly, yeah. Don’t get me wrong, if it was me I’d be freaking out just as much as you. But if you do decide to go through with it, well, you’re not going to be the first teenage parent in this world.”

Elend makes a sound like a dying kitten.

“If you want I can ask Granger to dismiss you, send you back home.”

“Merlin, no! I… No. I need to… stay away. At least for a while. I need to, ah, put my head in order.”

“And Atlantis is the place to do it?”

“Well, the Bahamas didn’t do any better!”

You laugh again, and fall into a silence that is peaceful from your side and stressful from his. Together, you watch the sun set on the Atlantic Ocean. As the sun disappears behind the horizon, there is a flash of green.

And, in that lost moment between day and night, the world shudders.

--

All around the world, every single sneakcoscope begins whistling wildly, every single foe-glass cracks, every single type of detector for Dark Magic begins screaming.

Beneath the oldest, most gnarled and resilient tree in a forest in Dartmoor, a magical eye which once belonged to Alastor Moody, one that had been resting for twenty-eight years, begins spinning again.

Every baby wakes up, crying.

Every seer wakes up, screaming, though they do not know why.

None of them know what has just been freed from the depths of Atlantis, nor should they, for the word “Unseelie” has not been uttered in anything other than legend since time immemorial.

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>>6162836
MOTHERFU-

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>>6162836
>>6162839

Potter did mention the Unseelie Fey before. Kinda wondered if that was just a one of but slightly suspected it wasn't. But hey! It wasn't Raven who brought them back b/c she wanted to fuck a demon! Hahaha!

>>6162834
Yo, there you go, teen pregnancy-fag!

>>6162836
>Unseelie
>look that up
>basically evil fairies
shit, guess nobody says their names now or we are irreparably fucked

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>>6162836
Hey HeadQM, how difficult would it be for us to try and figure out how to split the atom on the fly?

Also decided to look in the archives for Unseelie and this is what I found:

>“Maybe you do find Atlantis and stumble upon a room you shouldn’t,” he says. “And erases us all from time. Maybe you get creative with your friend’s summoning rituals and accidentally summon the Unseelie upon the world. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Don’t get me wrong, Elliot. I’ve seen people foretold to cause great destruction. But to tear apart the stars? That goes beyond mere teenage folly.” [Potter talking to us at the prophecy]
Very interesting. I wonder if all this has happened before?

>>6162860

Apollo can probably Transfigure anti-matter, or at the very least a bunch of plutonium. Something we were very concerned with back in Avalon. It was stated, between us and Linda, the two could easily figure out like a dozen ways to end the world or at least destroy England.

>>6162874
We gotta send Granger a shopping list of WMDs and gear before we go in. Plutonium, Mustard Gas, flashbangs, C4, etc. Fuck it, if we fail here's it's the end of the world, might as well risk ending it another way.

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>>6162883

Eh. I want gear, but it has been implied anything not specifically made to work around a shitload of magic may be... unstable. Potter's gun uses goblin black power, has a rune engraved cylinder to help stabilize it. Not sure if too many modern things would be great if they might randomly go off.

We do need cold iron it would seem, what with the Fey, if nothing else. Fuck, maybe bring some Fairy Cakes?

The beach of Atlantis is in chaos, people running and shouting, trying to figure out why the island had just shaken, reaching out to their contacts in the mainland and discovering that it hadn’t been just Atlantis. It had been the world.

The earthquake hadn’t lasted long, but places that had never had the earth shake felt the ground tremble and had things falling from shelves. Cracks had spread throughout buildings, asphalt had fractured, gaps had opened on the earth… and then it had stopped.

No one knew why, yet.

By the time you go to bed, Granger is on her second Invigoration Draught, and you doubt she’ll stop on just two. Arty joins you, and you make use of the remainder of her anti-pregnancy potions. She’s needy, almost desperate, like you've never seen her before. The following morning, she’s pensative, watching the sunrise as you get out of bed.

“Hey,” you say, wrapping your arm around her and kissing the top of her head.

“Hey. People started arriving a few minutes ago. Granger had aurors distribute potion belts for everyone, made huge batches of Wiggenweld. She bought the entire Diagon Alley of bezoars for us, is offering auror battle armor for anyone who can fit in one.”

“At least she’s taking this seriously.”

“Yeah.”

“Did they find out what was that shaking yesterday?”

“No, but sneakoscopes are still shouting all around the world. Whatever it is, everyone agrees it isn’t good.”

“I figured. Come, let’s get some food then go get our soldiers.”

“Wait… Why didn’t you pick me?" Shes asks, biting her lower lip. "As one of the other commanders, I mean? I won my year, remember?”

“Because I want you by my side. Because I’m terrified of you getting hurt far away from me and me being unable to help you. Because I can’t stop you from going in there, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go into whatever insanity is in there without me by your side.” You cup her face with one hand and kiss her. “Because I love you and need you by my side. And besides, I’d be a fool to not have the best fighter in Hogwarts in my team.”

--

You stand inside the tent, fifth, sixth and seventh years in front of you. Even the Gryffindors look terrified. They haven’t been told of Merlin, Salazar, the Beast or any of your story, all they know is that the ministry has reasons to believe Atlantis may bring the end of the world, and that they are the only ones that can help.

You’ve seen people scourgifying their pants more than once.

“I’m not going to tell you to not be afraid,” you say, letting your voice reach even the most distant of students. You hold Excalibur’s hilt, both to comfort yourself and to remind them you are the Boy Who Holds Excalibur. “We don’t know what we’ll be facing there. Atlantis is back, and it brings with it mystery. It probably brings with it death. And we are here to send it back to wherever it came from.”

[Cont.]

>>6163446

“I’m not going to tell you to not be afraid. There is danger in front of us, and we’ll be walking directly into it. We’ll be walking into it without adults to help us, without our parents to protect us. But we still have each other. We still have the friends by our side. We still have the strength of our wands. We still have our courage, our wits, our cunning, the hard work we put on every single day. We walk into Atlantis, but we each carry Hogwarts with us, and Hogwarts has never failed us.”

“I’m not going to tell you to not be afraid. I don’t know what the future holds. I can’t see the future. But it seems unlikely to me that it is sheer coincidence that made Excalibur reappear just in time for Atlantis to return. So, if it is not coincidence, then it stands to reason that something put it there. That something brought it to light, just in time of its greatest need. And that is an encouraging thought, don’t you think?”

“So, come with me today! Come with me into Atlantis!” You pull out Excalibur and raise it high, letting your voice bellow. “For today each of you is a Raider of Lost Worlds, and we search for things which are Lost and Gone! And today, it is our duty to make sure Atlantis is Lost and Gone for good!”

And, through a dark corridor hiding what the British Magical Government is doing from all other countries, you walk into a city that should not exist.

--

Towers of gold and diamond and marble and obsidian. Spires of platinum glowing with warmth. Roads that stretch ever on. A city of marvel made manifest, completely empty, save for the screams of its old inhabitants.

Takes everyone a while to get used to it, but fortunately the screaming loses its mind-shattering intensity the farther away from the border of the city you are. Also, given that you’re listening to the voices with your mind, it doesn’t get in the way of hearing what other people are saying, even if it is distracting.

“Remember, everyone! No adult can enter here! None!” Brighton shouts at the hundreds of students in front of him. “If that changes, your commander will tell you so and we’ll all be able to go home. This means that anything or anyone that looks like an adult is not an adult, and actually some trick or evil that wants to kill you. If you see anything like that, you do the same thing you’d do if you see an evil monster, you run. Doesn’t matter if it is someone you know, if it’s your parents, if it's any of our teachers or a respected auror! Do you understand? Today’s goal is to gather information! Do not be brave! I’d rather have your report on a scary monster’s appearance than having to figure out what it looks like from the wounds in your mangled corpse! Is that understood?”

There are nervous nods all around.

“Good! Everyone that was assigned to me, move out!”

[Cont.]

>>6163447

Brighton, Summer and Winter Nott leave off with their army. Apollo, Riley and Helga go off on another, and Linda, Talon and Falere go in the last direction, leaving you, Arty, Elend and your army to your devices. All your soldiers have a decent amount of protection, but there was only so much magic that could be enchanted into something before Atlantis’ barriers would block it from entering.

Curiously, Excalibur seems to have no issue crossing the threshold, though you’re unsure why. Similarly, the specialists from the ministry had told you the same barrier would stop the entry of things such as time-turners, though you heavily suspect Potter had used his to get six hours of preparation before going back and entering Atlantis.

“Very well, everyone. We’re off. Keep together. Keep watch. And if you see anything strange, call out.”

Slowly, carefully, you make your way through the glimmering streets of Atlantis. To say you do it without attracting attention would be absurd, because both a) the city is empty and b) it is impossible to not attract attention when you have almost a hundred children following you. With the combined fifth, sixth and seventh years, the four armies had about ninety members each, which was far more than any one of you had ever commanded.

With Excalibur in your left hand and your wand on the right, you move forward, using the sun to guide your movement, since location and guiding enchantments didn’t particularly enjoy Atlantis. The tall buildings watch you, silent, only the constant noise of screams echoing in your head.

It takes you a couple of tense hours to reach the castle, and what a castle it is.

“Lailoken… you stole the design too, didn’t you?” You ask no one in particular.

“Uh, commander? I’m… I’m not sure of what I’m seeing,” says a fifth-year.

“A thousand years ago, the four Founders created Hogwarts. But they had help on the design, help of someone who saw this building in a dream,” you lie, finding it best to keep the nature of the Fifth Founder a secret. “Like a flawed reflection, changed and tweaked by the Founders, but the general shape is pretty similar isn’t it?”

“Yeah… that’s not disturbing at all.”

The great platinum doors of Not-Hogwarts sit closed in front of you, runes beautifully carved into the metal.

“Anyone here knows ancient runes?”

“Uh, I do, a bit,” says a seventh-year. “It’s… old. Really old. I can’t make out most of it, just something about the preciousness of life, the horror of death, the… something of something, and something about power.”

“Holy shit Kal, what a fucking fantastic translation, holy hell!” A student by his side says, laughing.

“Hey, this thing’s rough, alright? None of the runes are even close to the ones we were taught, I’m having to make a lot of guesses to get that!”

[Cont.]

>>6163448

“It’s fine, it’s alright,” you say, raising your hands. “No one expects you to decipher ancient speech under pressure. You, you and you,” you say, pointing at a few soldiers. “Copy those runes and make rubbings of them. The ministry can help translate them later.”

Once they’re done with that, you open the great doors.

Something is waiting for you on the other side. It isn’t as much a being, but a collection of raw concepts. Your mind wants to conjure an image for it, but it can only find words.

White skin. Teeth. Blood. Chittering.

Large eyes. Wet. Oily. Gnawed.

Sparse flesh. Lumpy joint.

Mouth. Smile.

Smile.

The creature of horror lets out a long hooting sound, a sound that somehow triggers a reaction from deep inside you, some ancestral terror long forgotten but not gone. No, not gone, for evolution would never allow such a fundamental fear for human survival to vanish.

Run.

But the creature has already moved, latching onto the face of one of the soldiers who’d just finished making a rubbing of the door. There are screams, louder than anyone should be able to scream.

> Please roll a d100+75 (+50 from Battle Rolls, +25 from Arty, as you two are the only ones who manage to react in any semblance of cohesion). Bo3, DC 160

Rolled 45 + 75 (1d100 + 75)

>>6163450
oh no

Rolled 64 + 75 (1d100 + 75)

>>6163450
>DC 160
what the actual fuck, man!?

Rolled 39 + 75 (1d100 + 75)

>>6163450

>>6163458
>>6163464
>>6163488
jesus fucking christ...that kid is dead

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>>6163489

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>>6163458
>>6163464
>>6163488

Damn. Go to sleep for a few hours and people are already dying.

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>>6163464

I mean, we would only need an 85, which is pretty doable and this is a horror sealed away for a min. of like 4000 years. Seems fair.

>>6163521
40.73% chance of success isn't bad, when you put it that way.

>>6163526
but as always, the dice arent in our side when we need them

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Rolled 10, 42, 40, 72, 53, 87, 72, 92, 23, 66 = 557 (10d100)

>>6163532
Getting the shit rolls out of our system. Not really. Picrel is how this will end. Metaphorically, not literally. I hope.

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>>6163450
if ever there was a time for Potter to show up and prove he hasn't gone off the deep end it's now

>>6164042

Think we might be asking a bit much there. Given he is the one who talked about hitting the wrong button in Atlantis, mentioned the Unseelie Fey before? It would be narratively appropriate that he is the one who fucked up and let them out...

I just hope he is having a bitch of a time dealing with them too.

Hope our other dudes are okay, considering the only way we would have a chance to save Rando #1 is by the two best fighters in Hogwarts together.

This is gonna be fun.

So, a few things. First, a late Merry Christmas! Took me a bit away from writing, but that was to be expected, I think.

Second, I finally finished the new Indiana Jones, and I can certainly recommend it. It has the same sort of drip-feeding of plot that I try to do in this quest, and feels just like being in the old movies. Just don’t bother collecting all the Ancient Relics if you're not doing it for the sake of completionism, all the backtracking is definitely not worth the 10 second cutscene, just watch it on youtube instead.

Third, fucking hell these rolls.

--

“Stupefy!” You shout, moved more by instinct hammered in by Crouch and Potter than anything else. But the boy is moving erratically, trying desperately to get the thing off its face and you can’t risk anything more destructive for fear of hurting him or your other soldiers. “Impedimenta!”

“Petrificus Totalus!” Arty shouts, aiming not at the creature, but at the boy, who freezes and falls in place as you toss your wand on the ground to hold Excalibur with both hands and swing it upwards like a golf club towards his head, trusting, begging the sword to not kill him. The sword cuts just through the creature, who shrieks and leaps away, moving faster than anything you’ve ever seen, leaving a trail of black ichor in its path.

You rush to the boy’s side as Arty undoes her spell and - his face, he has no face - you frantically search your belt - blood, so much blood - trying to pour a Wiggenweld down his mouth - lips, he has no lips - and his throat is torn and he’s looking at you because he has no eyelids to close his eyes anymore and you pour out another potion against his teeth and, and-

“Elliot.” A hand lands on your shoulder. “Elliot. He’s… he’s dead.”

You stop, looking at the torn boy lying in front of you. Your hands and your robes are covered in blood, your army looking at it with the same shock you are.

“Merlin,” the word escapes your lips. “Oh god.”

You’re not sure which of your soldiers starts screaming first, but the panic spreads instantly. In moments there are people crying and running, then-

BANG!

You turn to see Arty with her wand in the air, tip still smoking.

“Fifth-years! Down in one knee in a circle, shields pointing outwards! Sixth-years, a standing circle inside the circle, ready to strike! Seventh-years, inside the sixth’s circle, covering the air!” Everyone just stares at her minute form, half shock, half surprise. She points her wand at her throat and her voice comes out louder. “Now! Or do you want to end up like him?”

She makes sure the soldiers are following her orders as Elend pulls you up.

“You alright, commander?”

“I… He… I didn’t even know his name.”

“He was called Danny Briggs, and he was a fifth year Ravenclaw. And he’ll be buried once we get out of here, but right now we need our commander.”

[Cont.]

>>6165440

You look at him and see the same fear you hold inside you. But, though you have faced many fears, the essence of the house of Godric Gryffindor is clear in him. It takes him forcing your wand back in your hand for you to come back to yourself.

“Right. Right.” You force the emotion down. You are Elliot Hallaster, goddamn it! Leader of the Raiders! You are a Slytherin, and you are doing what no Slytherin should ever do: allowing the public to see your true self.

So you hold Excalibur once more. You scourgify the blood away. Like an Occlumency barrier, you wear Lord Hallaster. But not the Lord Hallaster who would joke about lost places. Neither are you the Lord Hallaster who could cast the Dark Mark, as you once made yourself to be. No, this Lord Hallaster was hardened. This Lord Hallaster had three weapons: his wand, his sword and his silvered tongue, and the third one was by far the most powerful.

With his words, this Lord Hallaster could move the world without even a large enough lever to help.

“Arty, Elend, keep watch on the door. I need to talk to them.” You walk in front of the open door through which the creature had come out of, both of them standing behind you with their wands pointing towards the great halls inside. You face your soldiers. “Everyone… If you had any doubt that what we’re doing here was dangerous, that should have dispelled such questions. If you had any doubt that what we’re doing here is necessary… That should have made it clear it is. I would not have you here if it wasn’t. Daniel Briggs was a Ravenclaw, and he was as clever as they come. We’ll mourn him, eventually. We’ll cry for him, eventually. I’ll… apologize to his parents, eventually. But not now. Right now, we need to find out how to stop creatures like the ones who killed him from leaving this place.”

“What… what was that?” Someone asks, terrified.

“I don’t know. I intend to find out. But for that, we’ll need to brave this castle behind us, find whatever knowledge it hides, if any, and take it back to the ministry. And to do that… Just by being here, you’ve all shown you’re worthy of Gryffindor. I’ll need every single one of you to do so a while longer.” You approach the body of the student, kneeling by its side. It is… difficult to look at. You place your wand against it, and it slowly turns into a small blue sapphire. “I’ll return you to your form once you’re out of here, Daniel, but I’ll not let those things have your body.”

Gently, you place the gem inside your pouch.

“Hold your tears until we’re safe, soldiers, so they don’t blur your aim. Form groups of five, at least a seventh-year on each, walk slowly and steadily, cover your backs. And if you have to fight, fight like your lives depend on it.”

[Cont.]

>>6165441

It takes some goading and some fierce looks from both you, Arty and Elend, but you have them in formation. Slowly, you move into NotHogwarts, through almost familiar halls with paintings that have been twisted into unrecognizable things. Deformed faces in paintings give inscrutable howls of pain, armors stand twisted and bent. Two of the horrors appear as you advance, but scurry away once you fire one or two spells at them.

You have the feeling they are not running scared. That they are just… biding their time.

You reach what in Hogwarts would be the Great Hall, and it does have similarities with it. There are seven long tables set from the door to the far opposite wall, where another table sat on a raised podium, perpendicular to all other tables. Behind it, twelve great silver thrones, with a golden one in the middle, facing the room.

“This feels more like a throne room than anything else,” Elend says. “I feel like I’m expected to bow.”

“So this was a seat of power,” you say, nodding. It is somewhat difficult to focus, as the mental screaming is particularly loud here. “Some congregation of wise men, maybe? A senate? Look, there are rolls of parchment by the main table, on some other tables too. Hopefully the writing isn’t as warped as the paintings. Connie, take your group, check under the tables.”

The girl and the ones with her go, looking under each table and firing a few spells under one, from where one of the horrors runs away from, disappearing through a door. Once she gives the thumbs up, you leave a group covering the main entrance, seal the two back exit doors and leave people pointing their wands at them, then begin to go through the scrolls.

“Ancient runes, all of them. You, uh, Kal, is it? Can you translate them?”

The seventh year approaches, looking weary.

“I… I can try.” There is a smaller table close to the Great Table, where a pile of scrolls sits. He casts a few detection spells on them, then, looking satisfied, picks up one that is already partially unrolled. “It looks like a… transcript of some sort. Some sort of audience? There are many people speaking, and… this one seems to end abruptly.”

“What does it say?”

He unrolls the scroll fully, starting from the beginning. “Audience number… I don’t know what their numbering system is, but it isn’t base ten. Three digit number-th audience requested by the, uh, apparently the leader of something called Preventers of Doom. He pleads for the, uh, some other group, to listen to him. He says it is only a matter of time before-”

--

[Cont.]

>>6165442

“Before doom comes!” The perfect-looking man with a golden beard shouts. “It is inevitable, your Wiseness! We are too many, trying too many things, sooner or later someone will open a door that cannot be closed!”

“You say that as if it was obvious, and yet,” says the perfect-looking clean-shaven man with black hair in the golden throne. He has a sneering look on his face, almost amused. “Not all your colleagues agree with you, Gam. In fact, most of them don’t.”

“There are… disagreements on my assessment, yes,” Gam says, almost forcing the words out. “But I insist these are views based purely on undeserving optimism! We’ve faced doom before! The creatures we released-”

“Have been dealt with,” interrupts the man on the throne. “And we know how to avoid opening that door again.”

The men on the silver thrones nodded in agreement.

“But there are other doors!” The man pleads, almost desperate. “Doors we won’t know until it is too late, until we’ve broken their Seals and cursed us all to the End!”

“Yes, and that was the argument you’ve made uncountable times before, in so many other audiences that I’ve lost count, these last few centuries. Yet still, we endure.”

“I need only be correct once, your Wiseness. Besides, we can achieve certainty! We can have certainty of forever! If my project works-”

“Your project!” The Wise man stands up from his seat, suddenly furious. “Your project is a fever dream, Gam! It is an insanity that will never work! It is nothing more than another one of your attempts to give what is ours by birthright to scum like that child of yours!”

Gam closes his hand into a fist, but it is clear the man in the golden seat has power over him, that he cannot reach for violence.

“They are as human as we are,” Gam says, voice low but now cowed. “They are the same as us.”

“Then where are their powers? Then why do they grovel in the dirt, Gam!? Why do they not live in great castles like we do?”

“Only because they did not happen to have magic.”

“Which is the damn point! They can stay outside until they find it themselves. Now, before I kick you out, is there any new thing you want to tell us, or are you just wasting our time again?”

Gam looks at the man above with disgust.

“I finished the Eye.”

There are surprised murmurs around the room at that.

“So what? You’ve been working on the damn thing for centuries. It means nothing!”

“It means you were wrong! Three hundred years ago, you stood there and said it couldn’t be done even if we all worked on it for a thousand years! I did it in half of that time, with a handful of people, with nothing but scraps, while you put every annoyance in my way, while you seal my plans in your office, while you keep on sending power to a stupid tower-”

[Cont.]

>>6165443

“You!” The Wise one closes his hand in a fist towards Gam, and Gam stops speaking, reaching for his throat. He lifts a few inches off the floor. “You’d be wise to watch. Your. Tone. Or I’ll make your banishment permanent this time.”

He opens his hand and Gam falls.

“Besides,” he says, sitting back down while Gam recovers. “The Eye is only a part of the whole. The easiest part. It doesn’t change anything. What you want is still a fool’s errand.”

“It can be done,” Gam says, hoarse. “I can do it.”

“Then go ahead, do it. Go make your most noble of impossible machines,” the Wise one says, voice filled with spite. Through a window behind him, the setting sun surrounds him like an aura of power. “And leave us all be.”

“If that is your desire,” Gam says, as if the words were foul sludge. “Oh Wise on-”

There is a green flash through the window, and everything goes dark.

--

Your hair, your ears and the tips of your fingers are gently smoking. So are the ones of everyone who had been close by, hearing what Kal was saying.

“Uh, I, uh, swear I didn’t do it!” The boy says.

“I believe you,” you nod. “I’d like to say something clever about it, but my brain is still dancing tango inside my head, so I’m going to hold off on that for a bit.”

Takes a while for everyone to go back to normal and you to ensure that, yes, everyone else has seen the same thing.

“Some weirdness with the screaming souls, maybe?” Arty asks, putting out a small flame on the tip of her hair.

“I’d… assume. Some sort of seeing through their memories, kind of thing, for some reason. But, Arty, I think that was… That memory. The one I had from Merlin, but from another perspective. And that man, Gam? I think that was his dad.”

“Gilgamesh? Then that means he was still trying to find a way to be immortal. Like, really immortal.”

“He was trying to build something,” Elend says. “And he did build a part of it, apparently. He said that that wise guy had sealed his plans in his office. Maybe if we found them, if we knew what it was, maybe there is a way to use it against Merlin. But, really, what I got from that vision was mostly that Atlantis was ruled by dickheads.”

“As true for Atlantis then as it is for the rest of the world now,” you say. “And now they’re all dead. Would be deserved, if it wasn’t tragic. I’m not sure we’ll be able to use it, but that man’s office is bound to have interesting information.”

“And deathly deathtraps.”

“I’m not so sure,” Arty says. “They were immortal. I mean, not fully, but, you know, almost. Even when Gam pissed him off, the man didn’t threaten to kill him, just banish him. I think for a race that can live forever, killing someone else might be… too much. Even for someone you hate.”

“Maybe. But Avalon was not meant to be deadly, and it almost killed me. In any case, there is more here. Let’s take a look at the other scrolls before doing anything else.”

[Cont.]

>>6165444

You spend a couple more hours with Kal translating the scrolls, and it takes a couple more visions before you realize the problem is him speaking things out loud as he reads them. When he reads it silently and gives you a summary of what he read, your minds stay where they are.

“Hold on, this is interesting,” he says, eventually. “Do you want to see it or-”

“Merlin, no. My brain has been through the ringer already, just tell me straight.”

“It's an audience where someone created something called the, uh, Total Catalyst, or something like that. Someone referred as the Alchemist says that it is a complete potentiate component that holds the essence of a new fundamental aspect long enough that it can be applied to a formulaic essence at will. The Wise one is impressed by it, and congratulates him, saying it will be much use for the court’s potion-makers.” He rubs his forehead. “To be frank, I didn’t understand half of that and it sounded like magical gobbledigook, but I saw the word ‘potions’ and figured I should tell you.”

You squint your eyes, massage the bridge of your nose and ask him to read the scroll for you. One flaming vision later and you’re ecstatic.

“He did it! He actually created a complete potentiate component! That is incredible!”

“In english, commander.”

“It’s a transfigurable potion ingredient! You can’t use transfigured things in potions because it bungles everything up, but this one you can! If you have enough of it, theoretically you could use it to make… any potion you know the recipe to. If we could replicate it, there’d be no such thing as a ‘rare’ ingredient, you’d just transfigure it away! It is incredible!”

“That does sound powerful,” Arty agrees. “Could we get it?”

“We could, yeah. It’s in the dungeons, along with, potentially, all the other notes on potions from all the Atlanteans, which could be oh so useful… or which could take days to brew and not help us at all.”

“But you think Merlin’s dad thingy is more useful, don’t you?”

“The thing created by the, and I quote, “Leader of the Preventers of Doom’? Yeah, that sounds pretty useful to learn more about. And at the same time…”

She grins. “The thing you spoke about doing the very first time we met? A way of getting knowledge past the Interdict because potions aren’t spells?”

You nod, almost in pain.

[Cont.]

>>6165445

“We could always get both.”

“I don’t think we should,” Elend says. “We took our time getting here safely and we’ll need some more time to get out. We don’t have too many hours before the sun sets and, well, Atlantis ended when the sun set, and then something made the entire earth shake when the sun set yesterday. Call me superstitious, but I’d rather be out of this city before it happens again, if only because it will get dark when there are creatures around. I say we get one and get out. The way I figure, if there is an equivalent of that Wise man’s office, it’s the Headmistress’s Office. So we either go there or to the dungeons, but I don’t think we have time for both.”

> Go to the Wise man's Office
> Go to the Dungeons
> Go after both (will have a followup vote on the order)
> Split your army in two, go for both at the same time
> Go to some other area of NotHogwarts (In search of what?)

>>6165446
> Go to the Wise man's Office
Sucks for the world, but we can't risk everyone's lives for a wonderdrug.

>>6165446
>> Go to the Wise man's Office
we gotta be responsible with this. Sorry Elliot, it's Gilgamesh time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VUL4tyL_1c

>>6165446
>Go to the Wise man's Office
as good as an "all in one" ingredient sounds, sadly thats not the time for that, we cant do potions at all if there is no world.

Rolled 52 (1d100)

>>6165446
>> Go after both (will have a followup vote on the order)
We can do it, the dice willeth it.

>>6165446
>Go to the Wise man's Office
I bet the dungeon is flooded with the fuckers. Until we identify them and their crippling weakness, we cannot rush the godly potion ingredient. Maybe the next day we can haul ass to it, secure it for mankind, then do something else? Come on Elliot is THE potions man and is a Slytherin. We gotta do it for the AMBITION!

You try to argue with yourself all the benefits having the Total Catalyst will bring you, and why it is such an important thing, and why you should absolutely go get it and discover all its secrets… But you know you’re trying to argue the wrong side. It eats at you leaving behind the very thing you once dreamed of, but at the same time… Well, your dreams have changed since then.

You drop your head in defeat, though only for a moment, promising yourself one day you’ll come back for all those tasty secrets hidden below. When you speak again, your voice is firm.

“We go for McGonagall’s office. A Doom-stopping machine thing is exactly what we need right now, even if it is just part of one. Maybe the man in the chair is right and it is nothing, but we can’t afford to not look at it.”

“Right, only one problem,” Elend says. “Between here and there there is the Grand Staircase and the Trophy Room. I’m not scared of any particular prize, but several layers of narrow moving stairs where only a few can go through at once and something can jump from above? That shit terrifies me.”

“We could try braving the rest of this castle, if you prefer, but I’d rather not get lost in a maze-like castle that is even bigger than Hogwarts. No, you’re right about sunset, and we don’t know how long we’ll take to get there. We go up, through as straight a line as we can.”

You reorganize your army, then set away from the Great Hall towards where you expect to be the Grand Staircase.

“Ahhhh, crap.”

Seven. That is the number of floors between you and the top of the staircase.

Twenty one. That is how many horrors you can count, clinging to the walls, railings and steps.

[Cont.]

>>6166600

“Just to be sure,” Arty asks, eyes never moving from the creatures. “Have we… actually managed to hit any of them? You know, other than with Excalibur?”

“Nope.”

“Cool. Mass Bombardas?”

“Too far away for them to reach. We could depulso away some Erumpents.”

“Too slow, no way we hit them from here with that. Maybe we transfigure something sticky on the floor.”

“Their feet are like bloody knives, they’ll carve right through or jump over. So that leaves…”

“Bait and switch, if they kindly come one by one, or frontal assault if we rush them.”

“Lovely.” You turn to your army. “Everyone in small groups that can fit through the stairs, we want each group to be able to fully protego any direction. Pick your position, those with the worst aim, you focus on protego. Those with better aim, focus on hitting them with everything you got. Those in the middle, switch from one to the other depending on what you need.”

“Remember, we don’t know what affects them or not!” Elend says, fierce. “Be smart! If you hit one with something and it doesn’t work, try something else! If you can’t hit the creature, hit its surroundings, Glacius to make them slip, Flamares to set places on fire. Remember the potions on your belts! Remember the friends behind you!”

You take a deep breath, wand in one hand, Excalibur in the other, and advance.

> Roll a d100+50 (+35 from Army rolls, +10 from Arty, +5 from Elend). Bo3, DCs 110 and 125

Rolled 5 + 50 (1d100 + 50)

>>6166603
Don't fuck up, Lord Hallaster.

Rolled 62 + 50 (1d100 + 50)

>>6166604
>Don't fuck up
>that roll
jesus christ...

>DC's 110 and 125
wait, do we roll twice or...?

>>6166607
Only one set of rolls, please, it's just that falling between them has a different set of consequences than getting over them

Rolled 5 + 50 (1d100 + 50)

>>6166603

>>6166604
>>6166618
guys, what the fuck?!

>>6166603
I don't suppose it's worth asking if anyone in our army knows the Killing Curse? It's a decent enough thing to try, has incredible range, and can't really be blocked. Fairly fast, too.
The arrow-shooting spell should have good range too.
Glacius can be used on the walls to just make them slip and fall, alongside other slippery-inducing spells.
Oppugno combined with any conjuration spells can produce a swarm of things that can be sent to attack them. My recommendation is a bunch of sharp objects such as knives.
A combined and directed Sonorous Charm from multiple people should have enough range and sheer volume to SERIOUSLY injure some of them even at a great distance, especially with its directed nature. We may even be able to combo this with intentionally giving the creatures the Supersensory Charm to make them EXTREMELY sensitive to sound.

Oh, and we should always have a caterwauling charm up over the group to inform us when and where one of the creatures enters, and possibly the Protego Diabolica curse if anyone knows it. If someone is attacked, use the HARDENING charm on both the attacker and the defender, for defensive purposes.

As for other things to try in case hurting them with spells is coming up difficult: Try Riddikulus and Skurge, in case they somehow work when nothing else is.

Hopefully these ideas can help give us a bonus beyond what we already have. Planning should always have an effect, in my opinions!

>>6166619
At least you got us over 110.

>>6166625
The Killing Curse is pretty taboo and has deleterious effects on a person's emotional and spiritual well-being, right? Wasn't that established? It's probably a last resort, and few witches or wizards would admit to being capable in public, I bet.

>>6166925
>The Killing Curse is pretty taboo and has deleterious effects on a person's emotional and spiritual well-being, right?
When used on a person.

>>6167215
Hm, fair. Still, asking "hey, who has enough hate to summon murder-magic?" seems like a loaded question for anyone except maybe the Slytherin squaddies.

Hey everyone, happy new year! Last/first half-post of the year depending on your timezone, so have a nice celebration/non-terrible hangover, no matter where you are! The posts aren’t exactly Christmas/end-of-year themed, but, well, Elliot has bigger things to worry about.

--

You set your army in small groups in a semi-circle formation, each with a layer of barriers followed by firing squads all pointing at the main door. This way they can all fire without hitting each other.

You, Arty and Elend stand at the door, watching the stairs, the horrors watching you back, almost with curiosity. The walls and floor around are all covered in slippery ice, a damning reminder that, yes, this very much looks like something straight from your childhood ice-skating trauma.

“Time to rattle the wasp nest?”

“I don’t think a wasp looks quite this ugly,” Arty says.

“Or as difficult to mentally grasp,” Elend agrees.

“I don’t know, wasps can be pretty scary. On three?” You ask and they nod. “One, two, three! Depulso!”

Three Erumpent potions fly off through the air, smashing against the walls and railing the creatures are perching a moment before the explosive vials hit. But the creatures leap away just before being engulfed by the flames, and the Grand Staircase is filled with hooting sounds, the horrors barreling towards you faster than thought.

A Carpe Retractum hits each of you in the back a moment after the depulsos leave your wand, pulling you backwards and into safety faster than you could have run, which is good, because the creatures are at the door a moment later.

“Bombarda!” “Stupefy!” “Flamare Perpetua!” “Crataza Etera!” “Zinaty!”

Over fifty students firing at the door, with the fifth-years holding shields and the sevenths blasting spells you don’t know, the creatures come. A lot of them are hit, having to stand still for a moment between hoots and jumps to line themselves with the door, or simply sliding on the ice in a predictable line, but not all. Some leap, through fire and magic and barrier and shield, that horrible hooting filling the air, and soon being followed by very human screams.

And once the first barrier is broken, once the first horror from Atlantis breaches and latches on to the torso of a girl, you lose a part of the people firing at the door who all turn to save their friend. And once that happens, it gets easier for them to get through, and more slip by your spells.

[Cont.]

>>6167904

There is, however, one saving grace. The creatures, these inconceivable beings of terror, do not seem entirely focused on killing you. No, you figure that with their speed and sharpness of their teeth they could be much more effective by simply slashing people’s throats. Instead they take their time, or however much time they can take in this chaos. They do not seem to want to kill, or at least not just kill. They want you to scream as you die. They want you to feel pain. There is no other explanation for why one of them would latch on to an already dying boy and rip off his arm. It gives you time to kill it, but you have no doubt the boy’s scream will echo in tonight’s nightmares.

“Arty!” You shout as three different spells finally hit the last creature. You clutch your leg as you limp around the battlefield and fumble to get a Wiggenweld from your belt. “Arty!”

“Here!” She shouts back, nursing her own wound on the side of her chest.

“Take everyone that is well, secure the entrances! I’ll take care of the injured.”

She nods and rounds up everyone that is only mildly injured to summon barriers. You drop down to your knees by those who were unlucky enough to be in the path of the horrors, but lucky enough to survive. There weren’t many that fall in that category.

“Oh, commander,” Kal says once you pour a potion down his throat. “How nice to see you here.”

“Shock,” you mutter as someone drops down by his leg to stop the bleeding. “Don’t worry, Kal, we’ll get you back up in no time. Ferula!”

Bandages fly off your wand and wrap around his now four-fingered hand, straightening the two that are bent in unnatural ways. He looks at the reddening fabric with mild amusement, as if it wasn’t his own hand.

“Hands of the king,” he says, feverish.

“What?”

“Hands of the king,” he insists, as you mutter some more incantations. “Hands of a healer.”

You turn to look at him again, but he’s passed out. You make sure he’s stable before leaning on Excalibur to pull yourself up, and you can’t help but have the words in your mind. You know them, of course, Tokien’s work always available at a thought’s reach.

“The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.” It was said of Aragorn, who wielded Anduril, reforged from Narsil, a tale inspired by Arthurian legend. A legend whose sword now rested on your hips.

You shake your head, clearing it of any thoughts not related to the current problem, and drop down to help another soldier.

>>6167905

Once you’re done dealing with the wounded ones, you look at the dead ones. There are three of them, though you know the name of only one of them, a Slytherin in your year. A green emerald and two red rubies join your purse, though you ask other people to transfigure them to save your strength.

Once that is done, you put away the thoughts of the dead and wake up the living. Most of them have escaped with healable wounds. Kal and three others had suffered things healing spells can’t fix easily, at least not without exhausting the caster. You do have potions to regrow limbs, but they take time and leave the person useless for a while, so you’re not using them for now.

“Arty? Elend? We’re ready. Let’s go.”

You make your way up through the stairs, which does take more time than expected. They move wildly, parts detaching from each other and going to entirely different floors than what you’re expecting for no reason you can discern. You do, however, manage to reach the highest floor eventually.

“This is not meant to be here,” Elend says, wand hovering by the strange wall blocking one of the corridors forward. It looks like red-ish marble with white streaks, with jagged edges, seeming hastily built, fresh, probably not a day old. “Wonder what it is made of.”

“There is a creature called the Aquavirius Maggot. It is a waterborne beast the size of a fist, lives in the sea,” Arty says, sounding grim. “They take the flesh of dead creatures, but they don’t eat it, they’re actually herbivores. They use the flesh and bones to build their homes. It attracts more predators that they can kill, which fall to the floor and give nutrition to the seaweed they eat.”

“Wait, you’re saying those horrors, that this is-”

“You haven’t seen any bodies lying around, have you?” She asks absentmindedly, examining the creatures’ handiwork. “But I have good news and bad news, which one do you want?”

“Bad news.”

“But that’s no fun.”

“Good news then.”

“Creatures usually make walls to house the weakest members of their species.”

“And the bad news?”

“Walls are used to make nests. And where there is a nest there are eggs. Or a broodmother. Or whatever their equivalent is.”

“They’ll be protected, won’t they?” You ask, Elend looking slightly sick from the conversation.

“The weaker and more agile lionesses go off hunting,” Arty says. “The stronger lion stays with the cubs protecting the territory.”

“So we could break down this wall and fight… or we could ignore it and have who knows how many more of those things hunting us down later.” You grimace, rubbing your forehead. “Let’s take a look to see if there’s another way first.”

[Cont.]

>>6169481

The other path forwards looks to be a series of ample rooms filled with armor stands, swords, sculptures of what at first seems to be ice, but at a second inspection appears to be pure diamond. Chalices and paintings sit neatly within shelves, along tiny little metal creatures that seem to be made of thousands of individually crafted scales and gems. Other trinkets and monuments fill the room with no clear rhyme or reason.

It is a strange and haphazard collection of artifacts, each lit by an ethereal light that seemingly comes from nowhere.

“There is an inscription over the door. Kal, can you read it?”

“Uh, sure, commander. Something about… Thieves beware, true heart will be revealed, the… fiery prongs… something about skin, eternal punishment, be warned, for the wrath of the Wise is not easily settled.”

“Well, there is no more Wise one, but I wouldn’t doubt his enchantments and protections are still up. I can’t detect any, but… That just means we won’t see the threat coming.” Not for the first time today, you wish you had Helga and her Ancient Magic eyes with you. “I wonder what’s the worst choice, the wall of flesh built by atlantean horrors or the punishment of the Wise.”

“We could try finding another way,” Arty says. “There must be one that isn’t littered with either aberrations or traps.”

“We could…” you agree. “But that would require exploring the rest of this place, and who knows what it holds. And then we also risk being in Atlantis when the sun sets. Those are some rough odds.”

--

If there are any experiments, tests or anything else you’d like to do to decide which way to go:
> Write in

Otherwise:
> Attack the horror’s nest
> Go through the Trophy Room
> Attempt to find another way
> Other (Write in)

>>6169482
>> Attack the horror’s nest
Avenge the fallen

>>6169482
>> Attack the horror’s nest

>>6169482
>If there are any experiments, tests or anything else you’d like to do to decide which way to go:
i kinda want to try to Imperio one of those creatures, but that would mean we have to fight and incapacitate one without killing it AND who knows if it could even work...

>>6169482
> Attack the horror’s nest
Where's the cold iron?

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>>6169589

My question too. We can transfigure something to iron, right? Literally the coldest of iron as it has never seen the heat of a forge.


>>6169482

> Attack the horror’s nest

Fuck it we ball right now we are at close to full strength, would be nice to have our stronger characters like Apollo with us, but we need to cut out the infection before leaving unless we want more of these things tomorrow.

Reminder, we still have picrel to worry about.

>>6169591
Potter would not shoot or kill students, right? Except Elliot. Elliot just needs to yell at him something like "I WANT THE SAME THING YOU DO, I AM ON YOUR SIDE, I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU THIS FROM THE START, YOU LOOKED IN MY MIND AND SAW I WASN'T LYING, STOP ACTING LIKE THIS YOU RECKLESS FUCKING TWAT"

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>>6169595

You are thinking Harry is still sane by any measure. He abducted a student and mindfucked him. He went off the grid with his wife while not telling his kids or best friends a thing. I am pretty sure he is positively deranged at this point, so much so he would happily put a bullet in Arty's head if he thought it would get him what he wanted. I am pretty sure he would kill a rando if it got him a chance to bring Lily back. Likewise, I don't think he will listen to logical reason.

Or maybe I'm wrong and he gets a redeeming moment.

I am now also worried about Helga, since he knows she can manipulate Ancient Magic.

>>6169482
> Attack the horror’s nest
Trophy room is begging for horrors to ambush us from behind while we deal with the traps.
This way at least we know what we're getting into and take care of a known threat in the castle.

Anyways, for tactics suggestion, it really would be a fantastic idea to do what I previously suggested:
>Oppugno combined with any conjuration spells can produce a swarm of things that can be sent to attack them. My recommendation is a bunch of sharp objects such as knives.

Because we can make small holes in the wall, summon and enchant the knives, and send them through to attack any horrors. A relatively safe option, as long as we keep our guard up.

>>6169482
> Go through the Trophy Room
We should at least TRY to see if these will get fewer kids killed.

>>6169707

We are going to have to be back tomorrow, assuming nothing too bad happens. Best to stop the problem when we can.

>>6169646
How about a small hole, a bunch of dust, and then a confringo? Powder explosions are no joke. If our buddy Talon was here, we could just make a tiny hole, gemino curse a wad of bubblegum and make a repeat of our second battle. I assume these things have to breath...

>>6169482
>Blow a hole in the floors below, let gravity do the work

>>6169774

If this place is what inspired Hogwarts, and we know our school really can't be damaged by anything less than Fiendfyre; this castle is likely no less destructible. The crap the fey built, not included.

That does make me think. Does Atlantis Hogwarts have its own Room of Requirement? Would it be in the same place the old one was?

>>6169726
Actually, what about a small hole followed by transfiguring the air inside into Carbon Monoxide? It's a gas to a gas, so it should be safe for transfiguring. It's highly lethal, so it should work quickly once we have enough to replace the regular air. It's colorless, odorless, tasteless, and is slightly denser than air - meaning it'll settle where they are on the ground instead of escape. It's flammable for if inhaling it doesn't do the trick. It also has the benefit of being a new as FUCK discovery, so the ancient wizards might not have known how to include defenses against it in their experiments.

>>6169893
That reeks of being one of those things we really, REALLY shouldn't teach wizards they can do, though.

>>6169893

That seems highly lethal. Also something like we would need our Transfiguration god, Apollo, for. At that point, though, we could just then tell them what nerve gas is and describe it; I don't think the fey have Atropine auto-injectors.

>>6169884
>Does Atlantis Hogwarts have its own Room of Requirement?
Ooh, that's definitely something we should check out, might even have an easy way to get to the outside like Hogwarts too.

>>6169494
>i kinda want to try to Imperio one of those creatures, but that would mean we have to fight and incapacitate one without killing it AND who knows if it could even work...
And managing to cast the spell. You have some seventh years that probably know enough to cast it, but much like the Killing Curse, even on a creature like that it takes a specific frame of mind to cast.

>>6169774
>>6169884
None of your destructive spells seems to have had any effect on the castle so far, though the horror's claws do sometimes leave scratches on the rock. The wall the creatures made seem to not be nearly as strong.

> That does make me think. Does Atlantis Hogwarts have its own Room of Requirement? Would it be in the same place the old one was?
That is a very good question. Perhaps you should take some time to investigate that after reaching the Wise One's office.

>>6169893
> Actually, what about a small hole followed by transfiguring the air inside into Carbon Monoxide? It's a gas to a gas, so it should be safe for transfiguring
Gas that could be breathed and metabolized, and soon you'd have molecule A binding to where molecule B should be in your blood cells, which would result in a lot of dead children. In any case, gasses are too unstable to be transfigured, and even liquids are incredibly difficult to do without specific liquid-to-liquid spells. However, freezing a liquid then transfiguring it would make things much easier (though potentially still lethal if ingested).

As in real life, sometimes the difficulty isn't necessarily *how* to cause enormous quantities of damage, but how to survive to tell the tale.

You shake your head.

“If we go through there and even one of those things goes after us, there is no chance a stray spell won’t hit something it shouldn’t. I’m not messing with the punishment of someone with powers like Merlin.”

“And I don’t suppose you want to risk the rest of the castle, do you?” Elend asks.

“Too big to risk it. I don’t doubt it has plenty of secrets to find, and Merlin knows I want to know if this place has a Room of Requirement, but we need to focus. We all know how easy it is to get lost on the upper floors of Hogwarts, and that’s without having to deal with whatever these creatures are. I’m not risking this here. No. I don’t like it, but it’s the best way. Besides, if Arty is right and there are eggs in there… We want to make sure they don’t hatch.”

“Everyone, listen up! We’ll blow down the wall and attack with wide area spells. This is a narrow corridor, so they should be the most effective, but we can’t fit everyone side by side.” You wave your wand and summon two raised platforms. You quickly gather the sixth-years you know are strongest, and place them in two lines, the most powerful ones kneeling in front with protegos, the weaker ones in the back to attack. “Seventh-years, you stand behind them on the platforms, firing everything you have. Everyone else, use any gap you can see between the others to [i]oppugno[/i] objects at them.”

You tear a part of your sleeves, tear them into pieces, then transfigure each of them into a sharp piece of metal. Once everyone understands the task, you take your place along the frontline, Excalibur still being exceedingly useful at killing them at short range. It also serves to tranquilize the sixth-years shaking in their boots by your side, since they figure the Boy Who Holds Excalibur wouldn’t stand by them if he expected them to become minced meat.

You send Arty and Elend with the seventh-years, both to fire from above and to shout orders if they see anything from their vantage position.

“We don’t know what we’re going to see on the other side,” you say, voice hard. “So don’t stop firing unless I tell you to. Now, on three! One, two, three! [i]Reducto![/i]”

> Roll a d100+55 (+35 from Army rolls, +10 from Arty, +5 from Elend, +5 from Oppugno idea), Bo3, DCs 110 and 135

>>6171196
Carbon monoxide is specifically lethal becauze it binds where oxygen does. Turning it back into normal air would be fine.

Rolled 77 + 55 (1d100 + 55)

>>6171197
Arty, play The Only Thing They Fear Is You

Rolled 62 + 55 (1d100 + 55)

>>6171197
Couldn't roll before. Doing so now!

Rolled 58 + 55 (1d100 + 55)

>>6171197
HELP

damn, late again
>>6171201
>132
>>6171213
>117
>>6171219
>113
alright, decent rolls overall, nice job guys

>>6171222
All three above the lower DC's gotta be worth something, eh?

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>>6171201

Not our cute wifelette, but since I am here, and we beat one of our DC... I am really concerned with how our other teams are doing; I think we made out a good spread, but we have the two best fighters in Hogwarts together, and we still lost a guy... and Linda is kinda of cursed. I hope she is alright.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpnW68Q8ltc

>>6171196

Okay. So 100% looking for the Atlantis Room of Requirements and asking for something that will deal with the abominations we are fighting. On the dead ones we end up with... maybe harvesting their talons, claws, what ever since they can even damage this place?

>>6171222

>damn, late again

I know how you feel. With my now fucked up schedule, I am sad I don't often get here to roll; might be for the best since I have crap luck.

>>6169646

Good idea with the Oppugno. Strong work.

The wall of crystallized flesh and bones explodes into dust, then is blasted away by Arty’s timely “[i]Ventus!”[/i], revealing what lies behind the wall. You thought the creatures were horrors, but they are nothing when compared to their creation.

The walls are littered with slaughtered bodies and carcassases, open rib cages serving as cribs to gelatinous red [i]things[/i], flesh and guts covering every inch of what should be stone. Delicate, intricate patterns made in blood and nails and clumps of bloody hair, part of the scalp still attached. Monuments of things which were not human, and should never be human, made with teeth and broken bones and eyes and lungs.

Longer by the minute, grows the list of nightmares the children of Hogwarts will suffer.

The smell of iron and rot hits you like a fist, and you shout a spell almost as self defence against the stench. Out of the blood and organs come the horrors, a hooting, that horrible hooting that makes your blood run cold, leaping at you as power and fire spouts out of your wand. Beside you, your soldiers fight, and when the first of the creatures leaps into your reach, Excalibur slashes it mid-air. A homing blade cuts a leg off another and a spell blows out a chunk of a third.

But there are more, and their claws find purchase. You fly around the narrow corridor between your soldiers, blade weaving, finding the enemy without hurting the ally, chasing the ones that get past. But unlike the creatures below, these are fighting to protect their nest.

They are fighting to kill.

One scuttles through the ceiling and jumps, aiming for Arty, who raises her arm at the last moment, the blade sinking through her ulna but stopping short of her face. She bellows a pained “[i]Incendio![/i]” at point blank and turns the creature into charr, but there is no time to rest before a soldier beside her gets attacked and she needs to help him, blade still embedded in her left arm.

On, you fight.

--

When the last of the creatures falls, there is no cheer of joy. There is no happy cry. There is just an alert weariness, as you watch all walls or corners, expecting more of them to jump at you.

Three more dead. Blue sapphire, red ruby, red ruby. Into your pouch, they go.

“Elend, take some seventh years, scorch that corridor. Put air purification charms behind you. I’d like to avoid most of our army having to walk through that.”

He swallows hard, but nods and leaves. You sit beside Arty, who still has a blade-like leg stuck through her arm. The bleeding isn’t too bad because you can see she clearly drank a healing potion with it embedded inside her, and while it probably saved her life, it will make the removal process a lot more difficult.

[Cont.]

>>6173465

“Want some help with that?”

“Honestly? No. I want to just leave it there and not touch it. Ever. Much less now that the adrenaline is going away. Even the analgesic potion I took isn’t being enough.” She tries moving the hand, but it just sort of twitches, some nerve probably being caught in the injury. “Who needs a left arm, anyway?”

“Can’t transfigure it into something easier to remove?”

“Nope. I think they’re immune to transfiguration.”

“Right.” You take a piece of a painting’s wooden frame, destroyed in the battle, and hand it to her.

“Just… make it fast?”

“As fast as I can.”

She bites on the frame, looking at the blade with wide eyes. You wrap your hand with a part of your robes so you can hold on to the claw safely.

“On three. Three!” You [i]pull[/i] and she screams bloody murder into the wood, you can hear the material crack under her teeth.

“Shhhh. It’s out. It’s out.” You kiss her forehead and hug her with one arm, while another fetches a healing potion. She spits out the chewed wood and drinks it eagerly. Takes a couple of minutes for her to feel like talking again.

“Thanks.”

“No worries. You can call me any time you need someone to cause you unbearable amounts of pain.”

“Dummy.”

You two take another minute together before deciding you need to go back to your commanding duties, but not before sharing a kiss.

--

“Well, here we are. The, uh, Wise one’s office.“

The rest of the trip had been fairly simple, with only a couple of straggler horrors attacking, and they were dispatched with minimal injuries. The way into the office, however, presents a problem.

“That door is broken,” Arty says the obvious, pointing to what once was a guarding statue of the Wise one’s face, which is now slanted on its side.

“Yep. But I think we could squeeze through this gap. There isn’t much space but-”

“Are you crazy?” Elend asks. “That looks like, what, a ten meter climb in the most claustrophobic place on earth? If there’s even a single one of those creatures there, we’re dead.”

“Not me. I have Excalibur. It can help me.”

“You are [i]not [/i]going up there alone!” Arty says, still massaging the no longer injured arm. “I’m going with you!”

“Right, that’s settled then. We’ll both go, you all stay behind guarding the entrance. Kal, we’re going to need you, too, to know if we have the thing we need.”

The boy buries his face in his hands, regretting the day he decided to pick up Ancient Runes to study.

Ten minutes later the three of you are climbing into what one day was the most interesting office you would have ever seen. Now, however, every single magical artifact that was once housed here appears to either have been irreparably warped by being wiped out of time, or exploded violently because of it, which explains the broken entrance and the crater that is now its small entrance area.

[Cont.]

>>6173468

Behind what was once a beautiful table, is a wall of scrolls and books and metal tablets.

“Well… Let’s get to work.”

While Kal scans the runes on the covers of the writings before tossing them into a pouch, you scan the room. You’re sure a magical historian would have a field day with this place and spend years disentangling what each bit of architecture and warped creation means, but most of it is unrecognizable and not understandable without taking a long time to examine each bit.

Other than the fact that the Wise one was old enough to literally grow his own stalagmites on a section of his office, without any magic to speed up the process, you can’t find much on the man.

“Uh… I think this may be it,” Kal says, looking nervous. “Because this is, by far, the most terrifying name on all of these projects, ideas and requisitions.”

“What is it called?”

“The God Device.”

“... right. Let’s read it then.”

What Kal reads is, for a lack of a better word, insanity. It is the proposal of a Device of Great Power, to avert inevitable catastrophe. A Device that would become an absolutely stable existence, that could withstand the channeling of unlimited magic in order to grant Wishes, and also - and this was described as a vastly harder task - it would also somehow avert the inevitable catastrophes any sane person would expect to follow from that premise.

The Device had many pieces, or more like sections, which were described in either incredibly vague terms or in terms so specific Kal can’t translate properly. However, one of the fundamental problems with even beginning the endeavor in the first place was the very concept of a Wish. Words, of course, were fundamentally flawed, therefore the Device would need an Eye that could pierce the illusion of communication that words provided, an Eye that could see not what your words meant, but what you wished they meant.

An Eye that could pierce into your soul and-

“- and perfectly reflect your heart’s true desire.” Kal says, finishing the paragraph.

You lean on the table, feeling dizzy.

An absolutely stable existence, one that could survive anything.

Even being erased from time.

No wonder Merlin had said it would be easier to destroy the world with a lump of cheese.

The Eye of a God, expecting a body that would never come. The Mirror of Erised, that reflected reality so perfectly it was almost like a window into another world.

[Cont.]

>>6173469

The simplest part of a Device that would, by its own definition, solve every problem. No wonder they didn’t think it could be done. And, indeed, though it sounded absurd, the Mirror [i]did [/i]seem to be the easiest part of that problem to solve.

Because it took only a tiny error in any step of its creation to turn a Machine of Wishes into a Machine of Nightmares. Took only a slight misinterpretation to turn an orphan’s wish to have his parents back into a zombie apocalypse. Any machine that could save the world, after all, also had the potential to end it.

There is a sense of dizziness, vertigo, of standing on the edge of a precipice, both at the top and at the bottom of one, knowing how close you are to falling, but how enormous is the climb.

Merlin’s task had been colossal. His father’s task dwarfed it by so many orders of magnitude it reminded you of those videos about space Taylor sent you once, showing the Earth being compared to the biggest stars in the universe, a speck of dust against infinity.

And Merlin’s foolishness was laid bare at last, for you finally realize his plan could never work. Because you have no doubt there’ll be a time when technology will imitate magic’s powers, and the cycle of destruction by accident will begin again, because it is the only path forward when you don’t have the God Device to stop Idiots with Powerful Machines from Ending The World.

And everyone is an idiot every now and then. Therefore, it stands to reason that given enough time, someone [i]will [/i]fuck up, and the world [i]will[/i] end, therefore the only way to solve all possible Apocalypses was to literally create God so it can stop them from happening.

Oh boy.

“Merlin, you [i]idiot[/i].”

It was perfectly obvious, in hindsight, except for the fact you hadn’t seen it coming. That no one except Gilgamesh had seen it coming.

You also realize the fact that, even if Gilgamesh [i]was[/i] right and the only way of stopping the world’s end was to create God, there was no assurance that doing it was actually possible. Or at least possible before you get Apocalypsed by an Idiot with a Clever Idea.

--

[Cont.]

>>6173470

You stumble back out of the Wise one’s office still in a daze.

“So, did you find what we came here for?” Elend asks.

“Uh… I…” You shake your head, trying to put your thoughts in order. What [i]had[/i] you found? You had discovered that the Mirror of Erised actually reflected light Perfectly, as the Eye of God should. The notes also mentioned how one could put things inside it and the rules to allow people to take it back out. You had also discovered you were all doomed, either now or eventually. All very important things, which served no purpose right now. “Yeah. I still need to think about it some more. Maybe the people from the ministry will be able to get some more information.”

“Alright. So, where to now? The sun is going down soon, so if we want to make it back out before sunset we need to go. But at the same time, we know the state the school is in, we know we killed a lot of those creatures. We won’t know how many of them there’ll be tomorrow, most of all if they’re using old Atlantean bodies to reproduce in.”

> Head back to the beach
> Go down to the dungeons after the magical transfigurable component
> Try to find this place’s equivalent of the Room of Requirement
> Other (Write in)

>>6173471
>> Try to find this place’s equivalent of the Room of Requirement
i'm really curious. And we can do this while walking back

>>6173471
> Try to find this place’s equivalent of the Room of Requirement
Maybe i can give us a perfectly safe place to rest until morning? It's what we really, REALLY require right now.

>>6173471
> Try to find this place’s equivalent of the Room of Requirement
So what's the bet that this has all happened before and we're trapped in some kind of loop? Because Potter sure as hell didn't wake up one day and decide to start training child soldiers. Nor did we get wiped from Hogwarts and Potter+Lily's memory for nothing. And then, of course, one has to wonder just how well those Time Turners can work...

>>6173504
Didn't Potter specifically start the battle program because he suspected Elliot to be a harbinger of weirdness on the horizon? And it's not even his fiest child army!

so they were trying to actually make god?
what the fuck? im both at the edge of my seat and confused as fuck with all these developements, and i fucking love it!
with that being said...
> Head back to the beach
the room is a good idea, but i have a bad feeling that gets stronger the longer we are here

>>6173469
>A Device that would become an absolutely stable existence, that could withstand the channeling of unlimited magic in order to grant Wishes
The Holy Grail...

>>6173471
> Try to find this place’s equivalent of the Room of Requirement
Pursue the lead
I wonder if there's an equivalent of Merlin's Last Light here?????

>>6173504
Imagine if Elliot loops back to thread 1 but this time with all his memories intact as Punished Elliot?

>>6173471
> Try to find this place’s equivalent of the Room of Requirement

If we can't make it back out before night, the Room was one of the most secure places in Hogwarts. I am worried about our other teams, want to check casualties.

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>>6173614

That would be kind of cool but...

>>6173504

Potter isn't all knowing but he did say 5 hours was the hard limit for turning back time for a person. Elliot thought that was true even with Ancient super magic, that it was as far as information could be sent backwards but they may be wrong. In the shitty play which is explicitly non-canon for the quest, there was an ultra Time Turner that could send people back like 40 years, however.

>>6174174
I mean we've just been told about a non-monkey's paw wish machine, so who knows what that thing could do. Potter was staking Elliot out before everything even happened, remember?

Also, HeadQM, you ever watched Escaflowne?

>>6174209
problem there is that the machine had never been finished, since Atlantis was wiped from time right at the end of the meeting when the green flash happened as we saw in Merlin's memories back at Avalon

>>6173495
if it does give us a safe place to rest, we can check out the dungeon in the morning before going back to the Ministry

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>>6175268

I'm not sure about perfectly safe since in the books and movies Umbridge was able to blow down the door to the Room, one version of it was destroyed by Fiendfyre, and the fey are able to damage to the walls of this place.

We probably need to set up rotating watches on the entrance. Wiping that nest probably helps with some safety issues, but who knows if there are more here?

Should also have someone transfigure like a huge slab of iron behind the entrance, just to give us more warning if something or someone tries to breach the entrance.

Wouldn't it be funny if we ran into Potter there, since he is one of the relatively few people who knows about the Room?

>>6175346
>Wouldn't it be funny if we ran into Potter there, since he is one of the relatively few people who knows about the Room?
would be, but more likely he's on he move towards wherever Salazar's hiding

>>6173614
Anon, I expected this quest to last one to two threads at most. I love running it, but we're not going through this whole thing again.

>>6174174
> Potter isn't all knowing but he did say 5 hours was the hard limit for turning back time for a person.

That is the limit not only for people or objects, but for actual information to travel back. If someone came back three hours and told you a piece of information about the future, you'd only be able to go back in time two more hours. Basically, the Bootstrap Paradoxes can only happen in five hour intervals (mostly because I think having Bootstrap Paradoxes as solutions to problems is lazy as hell).

At least these are the limits of Time-turners. Prophecies, however, no one is quite sure how they work. Do the events of the future send information to the past? Are they just seeing the most likely series of events? Who knows?

>>6174209
>Also, HeadQM, you ever watched Escaflowne?

No, though wikipedia tells me Atlantis is in it. Is it any good?

--

“Alright, let's try to find the Room of Requirement. If it is anything like its replica we get either a safe place to pass the night, or at least a quick way out.”

You make your way back down, through the incinerated corridor of horrors and a part of the stairs. In Hogwarts proper, the Room of Requirement was on the seventh floor. This place has… quite a lot more floors than just seven, so it will be a challenge to find it.

“Alright, everyone! Keep your eyes peeled! Watch the walls for doors that appear out of nowhere!”

You do the search methodically, clearing out an entire corridor before having people pace back and forth several times while thinking about a safe place. It is dangerous enough with the sporadic horror that you don’t dare split up your army, and you do find two other “nest-walls” that seem smaller than the one you dealt with, so you can’t make a complete scan of every inch of the castle.

Still, you do eventually find it, the door materializing once someone passes by it the fourth time.

“Would you look at that,” Elend says, looking at it surprised. “I wasn’t actually sure it’d work.”

“Let’s make sure it has what we want before entering,” you say, not quite trusting the enchantments of this place. You tell everyone to get away from the door before passing by it several times with the right thoughts. Then, you step away from the front of the door and use your wand to flick it open, peeking through it at an angle.

It seems… dark. Not just that of a dark room, but you can’t even see the floor, much less-

[Cont.]

>>6176320

The blastwave comes so fast you don’t even realize that your eardrums have exploded, being too busy getting launched through the corridor and against walls, armors and your own army. The dizziness comes next, as you try to reorient yourself and your brain tells you it is actually spínning inside your skull. Two of your fingers are bent in wrong angles, and though you’re pretty sure there are people crying in pain, you can’t hear them.

Safe to say, takes you a while to get everyone sorted to an acceptable level of health and to get your hearing back, then some more for your ears to stop ringing. No one died, which you’re thankful for, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience and you are getting some very displeased looks.

“Commander, pardon my french, but what the fuck was that?” Elend asks, in a very measured tone which is only loud because his ears are still clogged with blood.

“Folded-space collapse,” you say, wincing and looking at the rubble that now blocks the entrance to the Room.

“What!?”

“I SAID FOLDED- Scourgify. I said folded-space collapse. In Last Light, when I passed the power of the Repository into the castle, I saw the Room. It’s actually many different rooms, all folded differently, and sort of… replaced as necessary. Sometimes only objects, sometimes the entire structure of the room. For you to completely destroy it, you’d need to destroy all of them.”

“And?”

“And from the best I can figure, getting shunted out of time broke that little mechanism, and once we summoned the room the castle just tried to force all of them into the same place, all at once. Reality did not appreciate that. That’s the result of several tons of rocks slamming together at magic speeds.”

“Well, crap. What now, commander? If there even was anything there, it’s gone.” He sighs, passing his hand through his hair nervously. “You think we can make it back to the beach before sunset?”

“We’d need to run like hell, and I mean full girding potion powered sprint. Or we could stay here. Or… there are other buildings out there that seem empty. Well, I suppose the bodies of their owners are now nests like the ones we’ve seen, but at least they wouldn’t be here, a place we know has plenty of them. But they wouldn’t have the protected walls this place has. What do you think, Arty?”

[Cont.]

>>6176322

“I think this place isn’t safe," she says. "We got lucky the stairs were still working, but if something like this could happen… Who knows what else can go wrong. I don’t trust it.”

“And you, Elend?”

“I don’t know, commander. I don’t like the idea of spending the night in Atlantis,” he gently punches the wall with the side of his fist. “But I like the idea of having thick, solid walls around me if I do.”

You ponder things for a moment.

“There’s another option. We make it for the beach, but not where we entered through. There we have the ministry’s protections hiding us. Any other section… It’s closer, but the other governments will see us. They’ll know there are a bunch of kids running around Atlantis. Won’t take them long to put two and two together, and then we'll have a flood of children coming in here. Not ideal, but safer.”

> Make a run for the beach where you entered
> Spend the night in this castle
> Leave the castle and occupy the nearby buildings
> Run to the closest beach, secrecy be damned
> Other (Write in)

>>6176322
i KNEW the room was a bullshit idea, shoulda gone to the beach when we still had time.
...maybe we still do.

> Run to the closest beach, secrecy be damned
also, warn whoever we encounter when we exit, if they decide to ignore them, then thats their problem for being stupid

>>6176323
> Run to the closest beach, secrecy be damned
Really, this is a problem that could use an international solution, anyway. The whole world is at stake, here.

>>6176323

So ArthurZar was able to Apparate into here. Can we check if we can Apparate out of it to a place we know? The Brit beach? We might have some side along issues but we can fix those. If possible, I'd assume we need to get away from Not-Hogwarts to do it.

If not:

> Make a run for the beach where you entered

>Gulp Girding potions like everyone is a junkie, send the younger and weaker students to get out firs. Have the people who can send a Patronus to the commander of the other teams. Orginaze a good retreat, have people there to protect the young students. Arty stays with us no matter what.

>>6176320
>No, though wikipedia tells me Atlantis is in it. Is it any good?
It is. I asked it because it also deals with an Atlantis that destroyed itself through the use of a wish granting machine.

>>6176323
> Spend the night in this castle
It's dangerous, but it'll give us the chance to explore more in the morning. Probably better than whatever's outside anyway. I don't want to break our cover by running to the nearest beach either, because we'll definitely be inviting chaos with other children being sent into the meatgrinder, and I really don't want that blood on our hands.

And I'm still trying to figure out what started this damn thing in the first place, why we got wiped from Potter's mind and how it all started. Also, anyone think there might be a Marauder's Map of this place too?

>>6176408
>there might be a Marauder's Map of this place too

Oh that is something. I think it was implied by QM that the Map was a creation of the Founders, possibly Rowena and maybe Helga but there might just be one.

I will second Escaflowne being pretty good from what I remember.

>>6176323
>> Make a run for the beach where you entered

>>6176359
+1
We can always ask for more Girding Potions to be made

>>6176323
>> Make a run for the beach where you entered
we need to stay calm to not have more people end up dying and there's clearly nowhere safe in this place

Hey, have you ever planned for information to be drip-fed to your players, but when things actually happen everything comes at once and then you look back and realize there was no way that information could have ever arrived at the characters bit by bit and you just suck at planning? No? Cool. Anyway, enjoy this massive update.

--

You shake your head, trying to find the best thing to do. No, you can’t afford to leave these children, most of them younger than you, sleeping here. They’ve already seen their allies die, the least they deserve is a night sleeping safely.

“Everyone! We make it for the beach, we run until we can’t run, then we run some more! The daily maximum recommended dose of girding potions per day is two. That is, of course, a conservative estimate, and the side effects might include twitchiness, headaches and spasms. Note that I did not say death! That doesn’t come until the tenth bottle! So don’t be afraid to drink yours if you need it! Keep together, keep safe! Now let’s go!”

You run down the stairs, and once you’re on the streets you all break into as fast of a sprint you can go while ensuring everyone is keeping up. The potions help, but the conditioning battle class has put on your bodies is what makes you fast. You go in front, with Elend and Arty on the back to ensure no one is falling behind the pack.

The size of Arty’s legs does worry you, but you know that if there’s anyone who can keep going no matter what, it’s her.

Slowly, the sun sinks beneath the many buildings of Atlantis. The shadows that were already long grow longer as you trek, downing one potion, then the second. Down, down comes nightfall, speeding through the sky faster than it is fair. Not even girding potions can stop your legs from screaming at you, or the soles of your shoes from stinging at every step. You down a Wiggenweld and force yourself to keep going, your head dizzy and stomach churning from the mix of so many ingredients.

“We’re close!” You shout as you start seeing the light of the setting sun reflecting on the seawater coming between the buildings. “We’re almost there!”

Finally, you break into the street where you see the shadows placed by the ministry to stop the other governments from seeing inside. You see there are quite a lot of children there, including some of your friends. They look in your direction, relieved.

Then their faces turn to confusion, then fear. They point up, up and towards the center of the city. You can’t help it, you turn to look too.

The shield, the great dome-like barrier that protects the whole city, is bending inwards. As if something was pulling the very top of it down, distorting it as if to turn the half-sphere into a half-donut.

A lot of people from your army stop to watch too.

Slowly, the sun sets behind you, and something jolts you from your stunned trance. You raise your wand and let out a loud boom.

“Run! Keep running! Now! Out of the city!”

[Cont.]

>>6177903

You run, racing the sun, racing the ending of the light, but it’s too late, the sun is too low down, you won’t make it-

You see the green flash behind the shadows, the lost moment between days.

The lowering top of the barrier reaches the ground.

And Hell is released upon the Earth.

--

In North America, they hear the sound.

In South America, they hear the sound.

In Europe, they hear it too.

Throughout Asia, throughout Africa, they hear it.

In Hogwarts, Ilvermony, Castelobruxo. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, Koldovstoretz, Mahoutokoro and Uagadou, they all hear it.

In a small church in Abberton, they hear it.

Across the world, it is heard, as it is happening in every mythical city, in every reflection of Atlantis. Even over the ground shaking like the end of days has come, they hear it.

That horrible, awful, hooting sound. And the flapping of wings.

--

“Those were the small ones,” Arty says, for the first time you’ve ever heard fear in her voice. “They were pups!”

Through the funnel in the barrier, upwards and outwards, pours an ocean of horrors, larger, greater and more terrible than any of the ones you’ve seen. Some of them, most of them, fly away, off towards land and more bountiful prey, and their numbers darken the heavens.

And some… some target the easy pickings on the beach. Down they come, sliding down the barrier and bouncing off it to get speed, a cacophony of hootings coming at the people below, either frozen by fear and shock or on the floor from the earthquake beneath their feet.

You know it will be a massacre. You know every single person in that beach that isn’t in reach of a portkey is dead. Yet, right now, there is only one place that still holds them out.

“Back inside! Everyone! Get inside! NOW! LINDA! BRIGHTON! APOLLO! EVERYBODY IN!”

The children, some who had just raced out, come rushing back in. You watch, you can only watch as the wave of horrors comes closer and closer.

And Hermione Granger and her husband stand by the wall, close to some machine that appears to be half in, half out of Atlantis. She looks up, then at you. She has steel in her eyes.

“Wait for me, Elliot! Here! Sunrise!” She shouts, fierce. “You need to live, you understand!? We’ll fight! We’ll win! You’ll win! Show me you’re worthy of that sword!”

Her husband stretches an old book in her direction and she grabs it. They disappear an instant before claws sharper than knives cleave through the air where they just were.

The rest of the people on the beach aren’t so lucky. You are far enough away from the shore that even the most powerful apparition will end up in the middle of the sea, where they will be fished out by sharp claws. As for the others, their blood makes it through the barrier, their screams are loud enough you need to retreat several blocks before there are enough buildings between you and them that they are entirely muffled.

--

[Cont.]

>>6177904

You all funnel into one of the larger buildings you can find. It isn’t good, but no one has the mental fortitude to seek anything better. The ground is still once more, a small blessing.

Linda passes distributing Potions of Dreamless Sleep Hermione had given her before the attack. Merlin knows people will need it. There is some time of setting up protections, of setting up camp, of finding ways of not breaking down.

None of the fifth years manage that last one. None except Arty.

“Well, the Unseelie stopped pouring out and the barrier is back to what it was,” Brighton says, coming back to the small campfire/command center you had set up.

“Oh, is that what they are?” You ask, not enough energy for surprise.

“According to Granger, yeah.”

“It was cracked, the fucking seal was cracked! The small ones got through them but the big ones-” Linda’s voice cracks, and she stops herself, cupping her hand over her mouth.

“That thing, the bend on the barrier… That was right on top of the Plaza, wasn’t it?“

She nods. Takes her a while to be able to speak again.

“I saw him. I saw Arthur. Merlin. Salazar. Whoever he is. He’s working on something there, digging a massive hole. There was a big black stone blocking his way, but it was cracked, and the small Unseelie were coming out through it. Fuck, they killed so many fucking people!”

You put your arm around her. From what you had seen, she’d been the one who had lost the most. She’d unknowingly gone directly into the source of the creatures. It was a wonder she’d even gotten some out alive.

No, not a wonder. Skill.

“So he’s digging a hole?” You ask. “To what? What’s down there that he wants?”

“The Cradle of Magic.”

Look at that, there is still room for surprise.

“What?”

“The Cradle of Magic,” Brighton repeats. “That garden? Yeah, it was a graveyard. I fought plants, then Unseelie, then magical protections.” He raises his left hand. Silver. A replacement for a lost member. “It wasn’t fun.”

“Brighton, I’m so-”

“Quiet, Hallaster. It sucked, we don’t need to talk about it. Granger got me a replacement, it’s fine. Anyway, I saw from where Merlin took Irkalla. And I read the inscriptions on the graves they had in there, and on the big-ass mausoleum there. And you know what they thought of the dead? They despised them.”

“They didn’t despise them,” Summer says. “It wasn’t like they wanted anyone to actually do it.”

“Wait, back up. What are you two talking about?”

[Cont.]

>>6177907

“Beneath the center of the city, there is something they call the Cradle of Magic. From what I understand, either the Source of Magic, or a connection to it, doesn’t matter. The point is that there is a Very Powerful Thing there. A thing that could make anyone… god-like, for a while. The problem is, it can’t be used alone.” He starts pacing from one side to the other. “The Cradle is too powerful. If anyone touches it, that person’s soul will burn. It will be torn asunder. A death beyond death, complete annihilation. But for one brief moment, the person who touches it would be able to pass that power to someone else, in a more controlled form. One that doesn't tear you apart. Either for a while or permanently, the books disagreed on that.”

“Which means, that from the Atlanteans perspective, every single person who died was a wasted sacrifice that could have made one of them unfathomably powerful,” he continues. “Every single person there could have allowed someone else to become god-like and solved all their problems, but didn’t.”

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense,” you say. “I found something that told me the Unseelie were sealed by the Atlanteans. Maybe they used the power of the Cradle to create the seal, but that means that before the seal existed they could just have-”

“They could what? Sacrifice their eternal, almost god-like life? Elliot, I searched that fucking cemetery and the writings there. There were plenty of books speaking about death, and the runes were hard to figure out, but among all the runes there, do you know one I didn’t find anywhere? The rune for sacrifice. I… I don’t think a society of immortals has the concept.”

“And besides, like my sister said,” Winter says. “They didn’t actually want anyone to do that. Like, from what I understood, they all wanted to have the power, but didn’t want anyone else to have it. I mean, who'd you trust to be god-like, after all? Even if just for a moment?”

“And if you have a power source you don’t want anyone to have…” you say, slowly. “Then a very simple way of making sure no one can get to it is to seal unspeakable horrors on top of it.”

“Yeah, that’s what we and the minister figured while you took your sweet time getting to the beach.”

Slowly, the picture of Atlantean politics in your mind starts to solidify. It isn’t pretty.

“Right… Fuck. Ok,” you try putting things together. At least now you know where Salazar is. How to deal with him is something else entirely. “But still, if what you said is true then he can’t use the Cradle, right? He needs someone else to touch it and give it to him.”

“Maybe staying so long in Avalon made Arthur's body resistant,” Brighton says. “Or he believes he’s strong enough to-”

[Cont.]

>>6177908

“He has someone,” Linda spits out the words. “Merlin has Salazar. Salazar has Merlin. You said it, right? The soul burns. Well, he has two. One of the two is going to burn, the question is who is actually in control there. That mix of darkness and human garbage doesn't need anyone else to become god.”

“If he gets through… That’s the endgame, right?” Arty asks, and you nod. “Then… why haven’t we lost? I mean, on the first sunset, he cracked the Unseelie seal, right? That was the first earthquake, and why all those things are in the city. Today, he probably burst it right open. So, that’s it, he wins. Right?”

“I don’t think so,” Brighton says. “The runes on the graveyard mentioned other protections on the Cradle. Doesn’t seem like the sort of thing you don’t put a really, really powerful shield around, taking lots of time to do so properly. I mean, you wouldn't want the Unseelie to get to it, after all.”

“So, we may or may not have time. Fantastic. How about you, Apollo? What did you find?”

“It was a workshop,” he says. “Looked like a general one, with where many people worked, and were many, many things there. Magical things. Artifacts. Most of them were… bent. Warped.”

“Probably because of being destroyed out of time,” Helga adds.

“We found where the mirror was built,” Apollo continues. “Still nothing on what it was, but there was a shape of a mold that looked like what you described. We found a place Helga says is the epicenter of whatever it is that destroyed Atlantis. There wasn’t much left there, though.”

“It was cold. Dead. Like, reality felt dead there,” Helga nods.

“And… Oh, yeah, we met Potter.”

“What!?”

“He was… he was doing something, using the machines there that still worked. Something with a cup with blue fire and his time turner.”

“Who- Wha-” you have so many questions you don’t even know where to start. “WHAT!?”

“I don’t know what he was doing,” Apollo says. “But he told us to leave and not come back.”

“Oh Merlin,” Linda says, covering her mouth in horror. “He’s… He can’t be.”

“What? What is it?” Arty asks.

“There were few things we did better than the Atlanteans,” Linda says, but it is clear she’s channeling Rowena. “One of them was Horcruxes, since as Brighton said, they didn’t have the concept of a sacrifice to be able to create them. The other one… was time-turners. In no story that I could find did they have the power to reverse time. However, time-turners are limited, only five hours and never actually changing what already happened. But a time-turner made with ancient magic…”

“He’s going t- He’s going to try to save Lily!” You say, the horror dawning on you. “He’s trying to create an actual time-machine!”

“Uh, shouldn’t we… help him then?” Riley asks. “I mean, he could go back and fix everything, right?”

“And then what happens to us?” Rowena asks.

[Cont.]

>>6177910

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what happens to us if he does go back in time and change time?”

“We… Don’t need to fight in a war in Atlantis and can sleep soundly?”

“Are you sure? Or would it actually be a clone of you, another you gets to do that? Someone with your body, maybe even your soul? What if this version of you is just... gone? Best case scenario, he creates a new strand of time and leaves this one behind, and we need to deal with Merlin anyway. Worst case scenario? This reality… disappears. We’d be worse than dead. We’d be like Atlantis, never there in the first place. Possibly even less than that. I stopped existing once. I don't intend on letting it happen again.”

“Every time Potter knew,” Helga says, shaking. “The world ended. When I had some of Merlin’s powers of prophecy, before Last Light, in every future Potter learned of what was happening, there was always silence. Complete and utter silence. Almost… Almost like there was nothing there.”

“That may very well be the reason.”

“He- he wouldn’t do that, then, would he?” Riley asks, nervousness in her voice. “I mean, he still has kids here! His wife lives here, in this universe!”

“It’s possible that in his state of mind, he hasn’t thought it through. It is possible he doesn’t care, or that he believes everyone will... pass over to there, merge with them, or something like that. After all, who knows what will really happen when he uses his jerry-rigged time machine? He’s-”

“He’s an idiot with a clever idea,” the words escape your mouth, unbidden. “He’s a walking apocalypse. Merlin, creating something like that might very well have been what erased Atlantis from time in the first place!” You laugh in disbelief, your brain not finding another reaction that fits the sheer scale and absurdity of the situation. “And I’m the one who’s supposed to end the Earth!”

“So we have death by insane god on one side, death by time-wipe on the other,” Brighton says, not sounding happy. “What did you find on your end, Elliot?”

You tell them all about Gilgamesh, then about the God Machine.

“So, we know how to put and take out things off the Mirror, move it, and even change its shape, which really doesn’t help us right now,“ you say, sounding almost pained, like you had failed them, somehow. “I… I don’t know what else we could have found there.”

“You found out that this place’s political body is as dogshit as we thought,” Brighton says. “Well, we should probably tell that to the Minister. She’d like to know that.”

“How? Patronuses don’t work cross-barrier, right?”

[Cont.]

>>6177911

“Yeah, but you’re forgetting she’s the smartest witch of her generation, with the resources to use it.” He tosses you a strange apparatus, a grid with thirty or so rotating cylinders with thirty sides each on each row, five rows in total. Each side of each cylinder has a different letter, a space, a comma, a period or a question mark engraved in it. “She built this in like, a night. Goblin metal, almost impossible to break. Things under the Protean charm had too much magic to pass through the barrier, but she made a device that has a copy of one of those things. Talon then linked the two, almost passing out in the process, so when this one moves, the inside the barrier moves, which physically and non-magically moves one on the outside, which she enchanted to mirror on one she has.”

“Wow, that’s incredible!”

“Almost,” Talon says, wincing. “It was supposed to be two of them, one for sending and another for receiving, I couldn’t handle making just one for both. We finished one, but then,” he waves his hand at, well, everything. “Anyway, we can send messages, but if we want to read the answer we’ll need to go to the beach.”

“Right. Well, she asked me to meet her by the barrier tomorrow morning. It won’t be useful tonight, but any other day-”

“At the beach? That place is swarming with Unseelie!”

“I know. Probably will be swarming with them on our side too. But I don’t intend on not meeting her. It’ll be fine, Talon. We have more people now.”

“But not more potions. We used our fair share of them in our fights and she gave us some back, but I don’t think the ministry will be able to airdrop any more for us!”

“We’ll… we’ll deal with that when it comes to that. For now, we need to plan our next move.”

Do you have any more questions from your generals?

> Write in

I would also recommend discussing what you'll do in the following morning after meeting Granger, though things might still happen between now and then that may change that, so I won't call a vote for it right now.

holy shit, this is too much, like actually too much information for my brain to process at the moment...
im gonna let you people discuss it for a bit while i try to make sense of it all and maybe join a side after somebody else thinks of something...the stakes are high here

>>6177912
Goddamn.

>Can they take us to Potter?
We need to reason with him, about the fact that he's about to kill all his friends and family or consign them to a terrible fate worse than death.

>>6177932
and if we cant reason with him, probably gang up on him and kill him if necessary, i dont think he will be in our side if he is willing to sacrifice reality just to save Lily

>>6177935
He hasn't necessarily been forced to confront the idea that he'd be inflicting horror and/or death on his other kids, though.

>>6177968
that we know of...

>>6177971
he probably got here before the unseelie got released

I wonder if there's a copy of the place of power beneath hogwarts at The Palace too. Rowena's library as well, that's the one thing Potter doesn't know about and potentially a place he won't be able to get into. Also, we really ought to try figuring out how we can transfigure a black hole as a last resort fuck you bomb, I think we're going to need it. Also, by the rules of time turners, theoretically Potter won't actually be able to change time, only rig the odds for the future, we might be able to get away with some things if we help him build the thing. Lots to do.

I think, potentially, our options are some of the following:
>Cleanse the Palace of Elder Things, use it as a FOB
>Make contact with Potter, see if he's totally insane or can be reasoned with. Make sure to indicate we won't try to stop him (at least for now)
>Search the Palace for a Last Light/Rowena's Library equivalent.
>Spend the night figuring out how to cast a Weapon of Last Resort in case everything is lost

>>6179715
that's under the rules of modern time turners that don't have unknown ancient atlantean magic on them

>>6179736
Is it a rule of the time turners or more an inherent effect? Going back further than 5 hours shouldn't magically break the can't change the past rule. It just becomes something like Tenet, trying to figure a way to work within the margins of what's already happened without drawing attention to yourself, because if you don't get caught there's still a chance.

>>6179715
A black hole could swallow the whole Earth pretty easy, right? I'm not sure that's a good last resort.

“Can you take us to Potter tomorrow? Is the way clear?”

“We can, though he’s probably set up some alarms now that he knows we’re here.”

“I don’t doubt it. Still, we should try to… stop him? Let him know there is another threat to the world? I don’t really know. Depending on his mental state… Things might not go smoothly.” You massage the bridge of your nose. “Maybe we could use the Castle as a base of operations while we’re here? Though I don’t even know if we’ll have the time to need one…”

“I think we’re all too tired to think about this,” Brighton says. “We can sleep, wake up before the sun tomorrow and decide after we see what Granger has for us.”

Everyone nods, the weariness of the day clear on everyone’s eyes. You dismiss them and everyone starts finding where they’ll sleep tonight.

“Elliot? Pollo? Could we talk?” Arty asks, then leads you two away and into an empty side room. She seems strangely serious as she casts several spells to ensure no one outside will overhear you.

“Did something happen?” Apollo asks.

“No. I mean, yes but… You know what Brighton said, about the Cradle of Magic? So… During our trip, every day me and Elliot would water the prophecy. It looked like it was growing but… it never bloomed. And then, one day, a patronus woke me up, telling me Atlantis had returned. I started packing, and when I turned to it… Flowers. Beautiful, beautiful flowers. And I reached out to it, almost not even thinking, I closed my eyes, twisted it, and Merlin’s voice spoke to me.”

The words that come out of Arty’s mouth don’t sound like a voice should sound. They come with the weight of Time Itself.

“She who was weak and now is strong,

Who was broken and now healed,

Within Magic’s breast, within heart held,

Will burn away that which she gained, what she had and what she is,

For either the world will be gone to never return,

Or she will.”

There is a long, long silence. You watch her, not knowing what to say.

“Someone must burn for someone else to gain the power, right? That’s how we win. That’s how we beat Salazar.”

[Cont.]

>>6179783

“That… that can’t be right,” Apollo says, his voice shaky. “You… must have heard wrong, you-”

“I didn’t,” she says, shaking her head. There isn’t sadness in her voice. There is acceptance, which is somehow much worse. With sadness you can hug her until she stops crying. “You can’t mishear a prophecy. You can hear part of it, if there is someone else to listen to the rest. You can misinterpret it. But you can’t mishear it, or misremember it.”

“Arty, I-”

“You heard it wrong!” Apollo shouts. “You- I won’t- I won’t let that happen!”

“Then the world will end,” she says, plainly. “There wasn’t much room for doubt in that prophecy.” She reaches out to him, kindly. “Pollo, it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine!” His face is red, fear, anger, shame all showing. He holds her face between his hands, desperately. “It’s… It’s not fair! You were good! You… you were healthy. You were finally healthy!”

“I know. And what a wonderful time I had. Because of you, because of Elliot. Because of all our friends. I don’t like it. I don’t like fate saying I have to die, I’d much rather live until I’m old, and wrinkled and ugly.” She pulls his hands down and brushes away ones of his tears. “Life isn’t fair, but we get through it all the same. And we get to have fun on the way. Please, Pollo. With whatever time I have left… I want to fight. I don’t have time to cry anymore.”

Apollo pulls away, almost folding on himself, backing until he bumps against the wall. Then he flings the door open and runs away.

Arty closes the door with a flick of her wand and turns to you.

“Arty, I-”

“Shhh,” she says, placing a finger on your lips. “I know. Whatever it is, I know. I knew I didn’t have long when I met you, and you still chose to be with me. And you gave me the best boyfriend a girl could ever ask for. You gave me final months I’ll never forget. You made me happier than I’ve ever been.”

“But-”

“I promised you whatever time I had left, Elliot Hallaster. However many days my life still held. There were less than I hoped, much less. But I hope they were good ones.”

“... They were the best.”

“Then I’m happy. Then that’s enough. Knowing that I’m going to die, here, fighting by your side… I can’t think of a better way to die.”

And Arty gives you a look. A look you can’t understand, that you’ll never be able to understand, but that you know Potter would be able to read at a glance. All that you know is that at this moment, Arty could have used the Mirror of Erised as a normal mirror.

There was nothing more she desired, other than what she already had. It was enough.

> Will you marry me? Before it’s all over, before the end comes… Will you marry me, Artemis Pertinger?
> Artemis Pertinger… I didn’t heal you just to lose you. I'm not giving you up. If I have to break Fate into pieces to save you, I will.
> Other (Write in)

Is it better for Elliot and Arty to fade away without a trace together, if this is what it truly takes? Or can we actually break fate here? That description can apply to Helga too, just like the original prophecy about Voldemort could have applied to either Harry OR Neville. There is leeway here, right? Also it'd be super shitty too if Arty gets soul erased after we used up Avalon just to give her an actual functioning body

>>6179785
>"Neville Longbottom. Some witches and wizards have theorized that, until Voldemort acted as he did, Neville Longbottom was just as valid a target for the prophecy as Harry Potter was. It's been speculated ever since Potter released the memoirs - debated, that a Prophecy doesn't belong to any specific person until the conditions are just right. You can't be the only one it could apply to. We just have to find out who else could."

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fuck you QM, I didn’t want to cry today

>>6179794
backing this, if nothing else it fits the 5 stages of grief our asses are probably getting flung into the moment we have enough time to think about things before we do them again

>>6179785
>> Will you marry me? Before it’s all over, before the end comes… Will you marry me, Artemis Pertinger?
I'm fine with this. Elliot doesn't feel like he used to, willing to risk it all on a pipe dream

>>6179785
Actually fuck you HeadQM,
the ONE thing nobody wanted to happen and you just go ahead and make it happen out of nowhere...god damn im mad!

> Other (Write in):
>"We´ll do both, not only will i marry you, but we will break fate together and forge our own, as husband and wife, not even fate will tear us apart

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>>6179785
> Will you marry me? Before it’s all over, before the end comes… Will you marry me, Artemis Pertinger?

Maybe we can we out clever the prophecy? Possibly get her soul back into her old body? Helga would probably be okay giving up Arty's body if we could figure out how to do that. Or, if we could swap them, Helga would technically fit the terms of the prophecy... Arty would still die in her 30s but that is still more time.

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>>6179785
>>6179820

I will go ahead and swap my vote to:

>>6179816

Elliot has already saved the fucking world twice. He can save the waifu too.