GotSIS Ch.40: The God Butcher-III (Patreon)

The world thrummed under his feet, and he felt his own connection to the planet throb like a heartbeat, quivering as a leaf in the storm. Power burned in his veins, golden lances of magic flickering over his body, all connecting to the Eye of Agamotto that blazed against Harry’s silver cloak that whipped in the swirling wind. 

Time around him seemed to slow, as he thrust his hand up and spell after spell, laced with golden power, fractured the air. The spells burst against the crystalline skin and gouged jagged chunks off his crystalline body, each impact ringing in the night akin to the shattering of a cathedral bell. 

In the blink of Harry’s eye, Falligar fell to his shattered knees and leaned on his single, cracked arm, the craters on his massive body bleeding dark shadows that screamed eerily, writhing in the moonlight. Harry could smell the rotten power that controlled the fallen god, which withered away with every one of his gold-laced spells.

‘This is much more powerful than I imagined.’ Harry felt his heart beat to the hum of the Earth. ‘I can finish him now.’ 

Drawing on the energies, he felt the power surge like a dam being opened, and moulded them into a spell that shone fiercely in the night, gleaming on the shattered, dark crystals of the giant.

“By Whip of Faltine,” Harry whispered, and the magic answered, blazing with the light of the midday sun through the night sky. “Be freed.”

A colossal lance of incandescent energy ripped through the air and tore through Falligar’s skull, shattering the crystalline god. Fire erupted skyward in a storm of blazing sparks, washing the distant dunes in a hue of molten gold, smothering the shadows. 

Amidst the dying darkness, a single swirling mist rose, and Harry’s breath hitched in his chest, just under where the Soul Stone thrummed.

‘He’s free of the damned sword.’ The burn in his veins eased to a steady warmth as he breathed in the dying embers of the fire. ‘Now to—’

“Brace,” the voice from before cut through his thoughts, startling Harry, who barely caught a blur of shadow flitting at the edge of his vision, and threw up a shield.

The black blade slammed into it, piercing the shield like a knife through paper and shearing through the magic of his golden armor. Harry flinched to the side on instinct, as if avoiding a bludger, but white-hot agony tore through the side of his abdomen.

In the next moment, a wave of magic and golden power erupted from his hand, pushing Gorr away and sending him skidding through the sand, the necrosword gouging a thin line across the crater.

Warm blood pooled beneath Harry’s ribs, soaking through his cloak, and he felt the cursed magic eat into his skin, only to meet the blazing power of the Soul Stone that thrummed angrily on his chest. The magic from the Eye of Agamotto turned amber, flickering down the side of his chest, and Harry hissed at the searing line it drew over his wound.

“You’re faster and stronger than I thought.” The dim, amber light fell across Gorr’s cruel smile, the wound that Harry had inflicted nowhere to be seen on his chest. The God Butcher ambled toward Harry, the necrosword trailing behind him. “And you freed the slain. I hadn’t expected that.”

“Well, I aim to please,” Harry said through gritted teeth, feeling the wound still sting, despite the Soul Stone’s healing powers. 

Something flickered in Gorr’s dark, empty eyes. “And all you used was but a fraction of their own power to do it. Power which you snatched away from them for your own,” he whispered. “With power like yours, I could’ve saved my people. I could’ve toppled the false gods. Been what they should have but didn’t. Yet, you, instead of helping your own people and easing their suffering… just protect your gods.”

The charred sand between them shifted, and Harry felt the magic tremble beneath his feet. The Eye of Agamotto flared around his neck, the amber tendrils that had been healing his wound turning back to gold, as Harry felt the dull, throbbing sting settle at his side. 

His wound was not bleeding anymore, but he could still feel the pain, which was something he hadn’t experienced in the past few years, thanks to the phenomenal power of the Soul Stone. Yet, the wound, despite being healed, still stung, and the thought of it sent a flash of fear up his spine.

‘What is this thing?’

Dark shadows that had been burned away rose coiling up the sword and settled into an armor around Gorr, the Necrosword pulsing in his hands.

“My vow is that all gods will die,” Gorr whispered, his voice barely louder than the cold winds that whooshed across the crater. “And so will those who stand between them and me.”

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Harry felt his heart drum in his chest as he apparated out of Gorr’s way, getting away from the God Butcher, the narrow miss of the Necrosword still stinging faintly beneath his ribs. 

‘I ran away. Shit.’ He caught his breath, looking down to see his torn, blood-soaked robe, and grimaced, seeing a scar on his skin. 

With a wave of his hand, he cleaned the blood of his robe and repaired it, breathing a sigh of relief as its magic remained intact.

Had he not moved on instinct, he would’ve probably been dead, despite the Soul Stone’s healing abilities. For all his powers and skills, Gorr was faster and way deadlier than he was. Ordinarily, he would fight, fall a bit, and figure out a way to eventually beat the threat he was facing with a mix of skill, instinct, and sometimes, blind luck.

But against Gorr, nothing seemed to be working. The Necrosword ate his spells, and even if one of them struck, the sword just healed them away. Even his more clever and intricate spells, like the one he had tried to trap him in, didn't work, which was something that should’ve defeated eight out of ten threats any day of the week.

‘I need to do something I haven’t already done.’ His fists clenched, and he wove a spell, drawing on the power of the Earth and remaking the armor around himself that Gorr had destroyed, the golden light flaring and settling over his robe. ‘But first… I need to keep him busy and buy some time. And for that, I need to see where he is.’

Harry pressed his fingers together and drew them apart. The rings on his amulet spun, and in a blink, he could see Gorr, who was turning around wildly, still searching for him, several hundred yards away. 

Taking a deep breath, Harry cupped his hand like a bowl and poured magic into the ground, feeling the Earth thrum in response. In his vision, he saw Gorr whirl around, staring straight in his direction. 

With a clench of his fist, the ground obeyed. Walls rose around Gorr, trapping him in a cell of mud and stone, blue and crimson runes burning on their surface. 

Professor McGonagall’s face as she had activated Hogwarts’ defenses flashed in Harry’s mind, and he nearly smiled. Twisting his wrist, he murmured a spell and snapped his fingers, letting a pulse of astral energy bleed into the Earth.

In the distance, the ground around Gorr split and tall figures of stone-knights— the kind that once lined the halls of Hogwarts— rose, surrounding him within the walls.

‘That ought to keep him busy until I find a way to deal with him.’ Harry staggered back, his arm heavy with the burn of magic he had channeled, golden arcs still flitting over his robe. ‘Think, Potter. You have a whole lot of extra power right now, and a way bigger arsenal compared to a super sword and some shadows. Only if I could use the stone too, but that is not an option unless I am dying, because probably every power in the Universe is already watching.’

“A good bit of the divine half are,” the voice from before whispered in a serene tone, and Harry startled, recognizing it. “And just about every god on Earth, most of whom are, to put it in kind words, terrified.”

‘Ancient One?’ Harry asked, wincing as he watched Gorr shatter three of the knights he had conjured with barely any effort.

“Who else would it be?” Her laugh tinkled in his ears, and Harry nearly looked around, expecting to see her by his side. Yet, he was alone in the desert, standing in the middle of a charred crater. “Don’t seem so surprised, Mr. Potter.” 

“How?” Harry croaked.

“By using the Eye in the way you did, you opened the connection between the two Eyes of Agamotto. And in doing so, you also opened the path to the power that every Sorcerer Supreme gains when they take the eye. 

Harry frowned before his eyes widened. “The Earth. I can feel and use its magic as if it were my own. I knew how before, but it was so tough. It isn’t anymore.”

“That is one amongst several other things, which you’re yet to appreciate, despite actively using them. And while I knew you could open such a connection, I’m surprised about how quickly you picked it up.”

“Thanks,” Harry muttered. “Now, if it won’t be too much trouble, could you perhaps come down here and help me?”

In the distance, the necrosword tore through the seventh knight, and Harry grimaced.

“I would, but I am slightly occupied myself,” she replied. 

In a moment, Harry’s view shifted from Gorr and his own surroundings to the Ancient One, his vision taking a slight green hue, which Harry recognized as time manipulation. She stood by a river, alongside a few other masters, while weirdly colorful, humongous butterfly and moth-like creatures swarmed them. 

Her fans spun, conjuring blades of dimensional energy that severed the heads of multiple bugs in one go, driving some back into a rip in the air.

“Someone opened a rift into the Negative Zone?” Harry asked. “Who’s that stupid?”

“The other way,” she answered, swatting one of the bugs that drifted too close with her fan. “It doesn’t matter, though. You, Master Potter, are in way more trouble.”

Harry narrowed his eyes. “You have your fans out, which means those creatures are a lot more dangerous than they seem.”

In the vision, the Ancient One smiled. “They aren’t. I’m chatting with you while I battle— I’d say that it is almost exhilarating. It has been a while since I have fought without the mantle of the Sorcerer Supreme.”

Harry blinked as her words settled in. “Say WHAT NOW!?”

“Volume, Mr. Potter,” she grimaced, leisurely drawing a spell in the air. “To put it simply, there can only be one Sorcerer Supreme in a given moment. And while I still have the master control, so to speak, the mantle currently rests with you, until I decide otherwise.” 

“I didn’t know that.” Harry felt a headache throb between his eyes. “You should take it back. You look to be in trouble with all those creatures. I’ll find a way. My magic works against him.” Harry swallowed a little bile that rose in his throat. “Maybe… maybe one of the unforgivables ought to do the trick. I don’t know if I can use the killing curse, but I have used the other two. Maybe fiendfyre.”

The Ancient One’s face grew amused, and she flicked her fingers, sending a burst of purple flames that reduced a swathe of the creatures to ashes. “Come now, Mr. Potter. If I couldn’t deal with a few creatures without resorting to using my mantle, I wouldn’t be much of a Sorceress Supreme, would I?”

“Those look like a few hundred,” Harry commented.

“I have faced worse. You haven’t.” She glanced straight at him, and his vision shifted back to Gorr, who moved through the air in slow-motion, his blade curving down toward the last knight that remained. “Listen to me when I tell you that the God Butcher is the biggest threat on Earth right now. He cannot get Thor or the hammer, and all standing between him and the slaughter of gods is you.”

Harry gulped, seeing the Necrosword destroy yet another one of his constructs, the knight’s armor crumbling at Gorr’s feet, leaving only the last few stragglers.

“Don’t I know it?” He murmured. “I can’t win against that. Maybe if I blast him with the Stone—”

“I’m afraid that would be the one thing worse than letting Gorr kill Thor and take the hammer. Because while you may take care of Gorr, which isn’t a definite thing to begin with, you’d alert every single entity in the Universe that there is yet another Infinity gem on Earth, that too in the hands of someone who can’t win without it.” She told him. “And in the case where the God Butcher survives your attack—”

“He will get his eyes on the one thing that could bring his whole mission to fruition in a single sweep.” Harry groaned. 

Harry felt her amusement bleed through the connection. “Welcome to the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme, Master Potter,” she said. “Personally, I am certain that you can win this fight. You just need to believe and fight like what you are. I’ll check up on you soon, but I must take care of these creatures and seal this rift before it turns into a potential apocalypse. So, good luck, Sorcerer Supreme.”

“Wait!” Harry said, but the connection dwindled away, and he returned to his own surroundings, the time-dialation fading into real time. 

Cursing under his breath, he focused his vision back on Gorr, who stood amongst piles of sand that had once been the knights that Harry had conjured. The Necrosword swished through the air, blowing the remnant away, and Gorr trudged in his direction.

Harry felt his heart drop into his stomach. 

“Shit,” he whispered, breathing through the wave of panic that rose, the faint smell of ash and sand in the air tingling his nose. The magic that thrummed in him felt heavier, and his heart drummed against his chest with the force of a sledgehammer. “Alright, I am the Sorcerer Supreme temporarily. Fuck.”

He looked down at his feet, feeling the whole of Earth’s power, vast and ancient thrum for him, connecting across dimensions and worlds, harboring pathways of magic that even he couldn’t imagine. Tentatively, he reached out to it with his magic, just as he had before. 

Magic surged up through him in a blinding rush, flooding his veins, seeping into his bones with a warmth so deep as if it had been waiting for him all along.

The embrace felt like one of Molly’s or Hermione’s hugs, like Ron’s laughter, Hagrid’s warm smile, and Hedwig’s affectionate pecks all at once. 

Harry relished it, feeling the fear drain away, the magic swirling at his fingertips. He reached into his pouch and drew out his Ring of Reach, slipping it onto his finger. 

Stepping forward, he apparated back, appearing behind Gorr, who had been preparing to tear through the walls he had erected. The crack echoed in the air, and Gorr whirled around, the Necrosword in his hand pulsing as shadows writhed over his torso.

His eyes narrowed. “I thought you had fled, Sorcerer.”

“I thought the same about you a little while ago,” Harry said, seizing the God Butcher with his ring and slamming him against the wall hard enough to send sparks of magic flying through the air. 

The runes flared across the surface, sizzling against the writhing shadows while Gorr gasped for breath. The necrosword swished in the air, and in a burst of shadows, the spell shattered, sending Harry staggering.

In a flash, Gorr was on him, riding on the shadows beneath his feet, the Necrosword drawn high. Harry thrust his hand out, a blast of blue and purple flames blazing across the crater, only to meet the All-Black and stop dead. He felt the spell collapse inward as the Necrosword drank it, the blue and purple blaze twisting into a tight spiral along the blade before vanishing completely into its black edge.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered, and pulled onto the strength of the Earth, and poured his fury into it.

The sky rumbled overhead, and Gorr looked up, raising his sword, just as a bolt of lightning descended from the heavens, turning the world white as the crack nearly deafened Harry.  He squinted through the arcs of lightning, blinking the spots from his eyes, searching for Gorr, before reaching out with his magic. 

The hairs on the back of his neck stood in terror.

“Protego maxima!” he yelled, the shield flaring all around him as he shifted around.

The necrosword sparked against the magic, the shield slowing it down just enough for Harry to get out of the way, the blade carving into the ground where he just had been moments ago. 

Instead, Gorr’s elbow slammed into his chest, driving the breath from his lungs as pain flared, the crack of the bone echoing in his ears, followed by the burning warmth of the Soul Stone.

Harry snarled and drew on the power of the Earth, pouring it into his Ring of Reach. With a flick of his fingers, he hurled the God Butcher back, sending him skidding across the sand and transfiguring the ground at Gorr’s bare feet into a pond of lava.

Gorr dropped in with a splash of molten rock, the heat bubbling and sizzling where he had been.

Harry’s heart clenched, sweat beading at his forehead as he tried to search for any movement in the lava. ‘Please be dead.’

Gorr’s head broke the surface of the lava, molten rock dripping down his cheek, and Harry took a step back. Gorr’s lips curved into a little amused smile, and he raised a thin eyebrow at Harry, looking unfazed by the bubbling, sweltering heat around him, making no move to get out.

“Oh, come on,” Harry muttered.

“I have killed gods of fire and volcanoes, sorcerer,” Gorr rasped. “I have killed gods of thunder. I have killed the most powerful of them.” He cupped a handful of lava in his hand and let it drip through his fingers. “And one day, I will kill them all. Just like I will kill you today.”

Harry’s jaw twitched as he stared at the bubbling lava, sweat dripping from his forehead and evaporating away before it hit the ground. 

“That wasn’t meant to kill you,” he lied and tugged back on the magic of the Earth. “I had wanted to do this.”

He swirled his fingers, drawing all the heat from the lava before Gorr could move, and it hardened to Obsidian that gleamed in the moonlight, trapping Gorr, whose face twisted into a scowl. 

Harry gathered the heat he had drawn into a tight ball that burned brighter than Tony’s arc reactor in the palm of his hand, and Harry willed it to burn even hotter, drawing onto every bit of heat around him. The sand around them frosted over, a thin sheen of white racing outward in a widening circle as the heat bled into the ball, feeding the miniature sun trembling between his palms while Gorr struggled in the Obsidian rock.

Harry hesitated for a moment before reaching out telekinetically and forcing Gorr’s mouth open, crushing the resistance that he put up, and shoved the ball of heat down his throat.

For the briefest instant, the miniature sun burned bright enough that the shadows around Gorr recoiled from his jaw, thinning where the light pressed outward from within. Harry clenched his fist, snapping Gorr’s mouth shut, the backend teeth swallowing the light.

And then, he let go of his hold on the miniature star, letting it detonate.

Light tore through the gaps between his clenched jaws in blinding white-gold streaks, searing through the obsidian shell from within. The rock fractured, cracks spidering across the glossy surface as Gorr’s entire form became a silhouette carved out of living fire, and the heat burst outward in a concussive wave. 

Shards of obsidian bounced off Harry’s armor, sending him staggering back under the power of his own spell, the blast ringing in his ear. Smoke poured from the rock, black wisps of magic mingling with it, and the Soul Stone hummed, feeling Gorr’s life form still intact. 

Shadows crawled into the rock, digging through the fissures, revealing Gorr’s smoking, twitching body, which moved far too much to be anywhere near dead.

‘He’s probably survived worse. So, no more chances.’ Harry pushed past the disorientation and spread his senses upward, feeling something orbiting high above him. ‘Time to crush him before he gets back up.’

Harry seized the object with the Ring of Reach and glanced up, feeling the Earth’s power burn up his veins and power his relic. 

“Accio Satellite,” Harry whispered.

The night sky lit up as the satellite tore free from its orbit and entered the atmosphere, friction setting its surface ablaze in a violent halo of fire. The fire-wreathed mass burned through the clouds with a deafening roar that swallowed the desert whole, turning the night into a descending sun.

Harry fed the descent, pulling it faster and faster, aiming it straight at Gorr, who glanced up weakly, his lower face a mix of charred skin and shadows. The dark eyes widened as the light of the falling satellite blazed in them, and Harry smiled, apparating away.

In the next moment, the burning satellite, several tons heavy with a melting shield logo at the side, slammed into the desert, straight onto Gorr’s head.

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On the other side of the globe, where the sky tore with a rift in reality and the air swarmed with chittering bugs, the Ancient One’s eyes flashed, and a grin tugged at her lips, a fierce pride settling in her chest. Her fans traced arcs of magic that severed yet another creature mid-flight, its scream doing nothing to have her grin falter as she watched the explosion unfold, with the dominoes of the greater Universe.

Far above the planet, in the eternal city where the divine gathered in marble halls untouched by mortal dust, tension remained taut like a drawn bow. Gods who had witnessed the rise and fall of empires held their breath, their eyes fixed on the Sorcerer who battled their probable doom, standing alone against the monstrosity that had slaughtered hundreds of their kin for eons past. And as the explosion rocked the desert below, whispers spread down between thrones and colonnades, sliding from one pantheon to the next. 

In the gilded chambers of Asgard, beneath vaulted ceilings etched with the history of the Nine Realms, Odin stirred in troubled sleep. His fingers clenched into the silk sheets as if grasping for Gungir, feeling the unease creep up his spine even in his slumber, his worry for his son increasing. 

Not far from there, upon the Bifrost bridge, the Warriors Three rode, led by Lady Sif, racing toward the golden citadel, where Heimdall stood, his eyes unmoving from the fight below. His sight pierced through the smoke and carnage, and he gripped his sword tighter, murmuring a prayer to the All fathers of the present and past for his prince’s and his friend’s survival. 

Deep beneath the oceans of Earth, where light from the surface died into sapphire gloom, a king paused mid-stride within his coral halls. The trident in his hand pulsed faintly, resonating with tremors that did not belong to storm or tide. 

In New York, far removed from deserts and gods, a sharp electronic alarm shattered the quiet of early morning. Tony Stark woke with a curse already forming. Pepper startled beside him, as system warnings cascaded across hidden displays. A satellite had dropped from orbit straight into New Mexico, and he demanded answers from JARVIS even as the implications began assembling themselves in the back of his mind.

At the Triskelion in Washington D.C., Nicholas Fury watched screens flare with static as telemetry vanished. One of SHIELD’s largest satellites had gone dark and tumbled from the sky, severing communications across a dozen installations in Central America. And if that wasn’t enough, with the fall of the satellite, the already tenuous feed from New Mexico cut off into darkness, leaving him staring at the blank screen while agents around panicked.

In New Mexico itself, Thor tightened his arms around Jane as the van shuddered beneath them, the ground trembling from the impact miles away as the explosion rose in the air, followed by a deafening boom that rattled the van, causing Jane to scream.

A few miles away, Phil Coulson held on to a rod as the facility shook and yet another Earthquake rocked New Mexico, the blast visible even from where he stood.

And unseen by any of them, deep within a forest where ancient, dark magic twisted the air and moonlight barely touched the ground, a woman stood before a crystal sphere and felt a stab of fear. The explosion flared within the glass, reflected in her eyes as she tightened her grip on the dark book resting against her palm.

“So he’s far more dangerous than we thought,” she whispered into the quiet, the words swallowed by trees before her laugh, high and cold, echoed through them, sending ravens scattering into the sky. “Till we meet, Harry Potter.”

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Harry apparated away from the explosion a split second before it happened, appearing at the edge of the crater, only to stumble to his knees as the ground buckled beneath his feet. A rolling wave of heat tore across the desert and the delayed thunder of the explosion followed, cracking through the air hard enough to rattle his teeth.

He barely managed to turn his head before the blast wave swallowed him whole. The sand slammed into his back and shoulders, needling across his skin and forcing its way into his mouth and nose. He coughed violently, the taste of mud coating his tongue while his eyes stung. 

He desperately willed for a bubble of fresh air, pushing his magic forth, which did the job, allowing him to breathe through the hacking coughs.

“Oh, Merlin. Aguamenti.” Harry sprayed the spurt of water onto his face, feeling his eyes burn. Muddied water trailed down his cheeks, and he blinked his eyes open, squinting through the massive sand cloud around him, but failed to see his own hands. 

Rising to his feet, he took a deep breath of fresh air and drew a spell, the blue light bleeding through the sandy air. “Winds of Watoomb!”

The winds answered, moving under Harry’s will, tearing and swirling with the cloud of dust. Sand lifted in violent sheets, torn upward and hurled aside by the conjured gale that carved a widening corridor through the cloud of dust.

Slowly, the visibility returned, and the choking brown curtain thinned into ragged veils, then scattered entirely, flung high into the night sky. The moon re-emerged, its silver light falling upon the crater in fractured glimpses through drifting clouds of dust.

Twisted metal jutted from molten sand like broken ribs from a corpse, glowing faintly where heat still radiated and smoke rose. The desert floor had folded inward in concentric scars, dunes flattened for miles in every direction.

Harry clutched his amulet and closed his eyes, focusing on the memory that he had seen before he had ventured into the forest on his last moments in his old world, his parents, Sirius’ and Remus’ faces sending a warmth up his bones that washed away the fatigue from his bones, leaving only the faint sting of pain beneath his ribs.

Opening his eyes, Harry let his senses spread, feeling the souls across the desert, recognizing Thor and Clint’s somewhere behind him, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, something twisted in front, and he felt a deep unease settle in his stomach.

‘He’s still alive. How?’ Harry felt a cold flash of fear seize him. ‘After all that, how is he alive?’

“The sword’s keeping him alive, of course,” the Ancient One’s voice whispered in his ears, and he jumped. “The All Black was forged at the dawn of light, from the unending abyss and the power of a fallen celestial. It has drunk into the divinity of over a hundred gods and survived for eons, longer than most things in this Universe. It is not a mere relic or a weapon that works against divinity. It is a mantle, much like the one of the Sorcerer Supreme, and one that can turn the meanest, most powerless, and unassuming creature into someone whom even the gods tremble before.”

“So how do I kill him?” Harry whispered, peering through the wreckage to spot Gorr. “I threw things at him that’d have killed Kalkartho and N’Gabthot twice over!”

“You’re not wrong,” her voice echoed, followed by a distant crack of thunder from her side. “Hmm, Mordo has grown in skills. So has master Kaicelius. But back to you, I am afraid that killing a God Butcher requires some rather specific weapons and magic. Two of the weapons, while within your reach, are something I’d rather not recommend you using either, while the magic, well, it is out of reach for all but Sky Fathers.”

Harry frowned. “Mjolnir? No, that’s a terrible idea. For one, it didn’t allow me to lift it, and for two, Gorr wants it to open the gates of Omnipotent city and kill all gods within. What is the other one?”

“The Soul Stone, of course,” she answered. “It is an Infinity Stone and can practically annihilate almost any being in the Universe bar a very few.”

“And you told me that’s not a good option.” Harry scowled. “Can you actually give me something here?”

Her tinkling laughter echoed in his ears, and Harry felt a bubble of irritation well in his chest. “What I can give you is wisdom, Master Potter. Wisdom of knowing what your true challenge is.”

Harry’s eye twitched. “Gorr being an unkillable prick is my challenge, and so is the fact that I can’t use the one thing that can reduce him to ashes. What do you have on that?”

She tutted. “Right now, you’re the Sorcerer Supreme, Mr. Potter. Think like one. I can’t feed you the answer.”

“Do you know exactly how infuriating you’re being right now?” Harry groaned, massaging his forehead. “Think like a Sorcerer Supreme. Sorcerer Supreme, who is you since forever, so I gotta figure out what you’d do.”

The Ancient One merely hummed, not even answering him.

“Magic isn’t working, and what does work, he practically shrugs it off, including a sword through his chest,” Harry continued. “I just hit him with an orbital strike of a satellite, dunked him in lava, shoved a miniature sun down his throat, and nothing worked.” Harry scoffed. “If I could figure out what to do, I would’ve done it.”

“The Sorcerer Supreme is the defender of Earth, first and foremost. And defending it doesn’t mean killing its threats, even though it is a path I usually prefer.” She prompted. “Defeat can come in more ways than one.”

Harry frowned, squinting at the carnage below, feeling Gorr’s lifeform remain steady beneath the wreckage, alive but unmoving. He swallowed his frustration, wracking his brains for an answer.

‘Defeat can come in more ways than one. What does it mean?’ Harry massaged his head. ‘Come on, think. Think. What would Hermione come up with?’

The Ancient One did not say a word.

Harry clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and took a moment to let himself calm, feeling the Earth’s magic hum to the drum of his heart.

His eyes snapped open, and he looked down at the ground. “Gorr is the biggest problem on Earth right now. But the problem isn’t his existence, but the fact that he’s on Earth and in reach of Thor and the Mjolnir.”

“Interesting,” the Ancient One said. “So what is your solution, Sorcerer Supreme Potter?”

“Tell me, will he survive being thrown into a star?” Harry asked. “Or, well, will it keep him away long enough?”

“While God Butchers have survived being thrown into stars and black holes in the past and even escaped, it isn’t easy for them. And it is significantly harder if they’ve been beaten to a pulp.”

A smile tugged at Harry’s lips. “So it’ll work?”

“I told you before, Mr. Potter. I believe you can win this fight,” she said. “The how is up to you. If you believe you can, you will.”

Harry sighed. “Well, it is the only idea I have right now, and you’re being cryptic, which means I am not getting a straighter answer out of you.”

“All I can wish you from here is luck and ask you to be careful, Sorcerer Supreme,” she said. “Now, I must seal this rift.”

With that, the connection vanished, and Harry let out a breath, gazing at the crater ahead. 

Slowly, he drew a blazing blue spell in the air, forming an intricate runic circle in the palm of his hand.

‘Well, time to end this once and for all.’ He tugged onto his strength and apparated straight into the crater, where he felt Gorr’s life form.

He stepped onto cracked, glassy sand, the heat still radiating upward, seeping through the soles of his shoes and stone. The satellite’s carcass lay half-submerged in it, its hull split and mangled beyond recognition, while smoke coiled lazily from it, while shadows stirred beneath.

Gorr leaned against the twisted metal, staring at him through one single eye, the All-Black Necrosword still in his grasp. Wisps of smoke curled off his body, his charred skin knitting slowly under the crawling darkness that enveloped the God Butcher.

He no longer looked human— even vaguely so. He looked like something carved out of a nightmare and left too long in the dark.

One half of his face was stripped to raw muscle and shadow, the other sealed in a slick sheen of black that moved as if it were breathing. The Necrosword pulsed in his hand, its surface rippling, drinking in the faint light of the moon as if offended by its existence.

Yet he was standing on his own two feet.

The hairs on Harry’s neck prickled, and he raised a shield as shadowy vines leaped toward him, followed by dark shapes that lunged at Harry.

He twisted out of the way, forming a dimensional blade to sever a vine that tried to wrap around him, cutting through it much more effortlessly than he had before.

The shadow screeched in a sound like steel dragged across bone, and the strand recoiled into smoke before it could touch the ground. More shadows poured from beneath the wreckage, stretching, thickening, shaping themselves into hunched, elongated figures with too many joints.

Harry gritted his teeth and touched his magic to the Earth’s, melding the two. With a sweep of his arm, a crescent of power ripped outward, bisecting two shadow-things mid-leap. They dissolved into black vapor that tried to reform, only to ignite with a blink of Harry’s will.

Another creature burst upward from beneath the sand, jaws yawning wide enough to swallow his head. Harry thrust his palm forward and spoke sharply.

“Vapors of Valtorr.” A spiral of incandescent mist tore the thing apart, shredding the shadows into tatters that were sucked screaming into the gale and burned to nothing. “No more hiding, Gorr. Face me if you dare!”

The shadows withdrew, coiling tighter around their master, thickening into armor that swallowed the charred ruin of his body. The skeletal outlines of ribs and muscle vanished beneath a moving sheath of darkness until Gorr stood encased in them, the All Black bending all the light around it and drinking it in.

Harry felt the Soul Stone thrum on his chest and prepared himself, willing magic to arrange into runes, the power of the Earth burning through his veins, muscles, and bones alike.

Then Gorr moved, turning to a dark blur. 

Harry barely had time to pivot before the blade carved through the space his torso had occupied, the trailing edge of the blade clipping his shoulder, sinking through the magic of the golden armor. Harry felt the blow hit like a truck brushing past him, sending him staggering as pain bit into his shoulder

He retaliated instantly, slamming a glowing crimson fist into Gorr’s side as the God Butcher neared. Gorr skidded back three paces and stopped, shadows cushioning the impact, absorbing the force as if the world itself bent around him.

“You may have your tricks, Sorcerer,” Gorr rasped, his voice scratching against Harry's ears like nail on a chalkboard. “But they won’t save your gods.”

Harry let the runic circle he had created to meld with the runes around him. 

“Funny,” he replied, drawing on the mantle of the Sorcerer Supreme and every bit of power he could muster, and poured it into the spell, until the air trembled around him. “I was just thinking you’re not going to get anywhere near them now.”

He slammed his palm into the ground, and the Runes ignited beneath the glassed sand in a vast, interlocking pattern that flared outward in a widening ring, lines of molten gold carving through the blackened earth. Pillars of hardened crystal erupted upward around Gorr in a tightening cage, their surfaces etched with golden sigils.

The shadows struck back, but recoiled, shattering against the runes as light and heat blazed in the middle of the desert. Gorr snarled and slashed outward, the Necrosword cleaving through two pillars in a single stroke, but the moment they fell, more surged upward from the Earth on its own, as the planet itself responded to Harry’s will.

This was the power of the Sorcerer Supreme. And for the moment, that was him.

He raised both hands and reached past the Earth, swirling his fingers, the power allowing him to bend the distance of millions of light-years.

The portal stabilized into a vast, circular aperture of blinding radiance, its edges crackling with golden sigils through which a star roared.

A star, in front of which the one Harry had created wasn’t even a fraction of a spark.

Gorr’s remaining eye flicked upward, and the shadows around him recoiled, writhing where the star’s light spilled across them. The All-Black pulsed erratically, its surface rippling as it dug into the ground. Shadows exploded outward from the Necrosword, spearing into the crater like black harpoons, anchoring him in place as the star’s gravity hit everything around them like a tidal wave.

Shattered satellite fragments tore free and vanished into the blazing white beyond, disintegrating instantly.

The Earth’s magic coiled around Harry on its own, holding him in place, while Gorr floated upward, the shadowy tendrils straining.

As shadows rolled toward the portal, Harry’s eyes narrowed, and he thrust his hand out, pouring his magic into a blade of magic and swung it. The blade of magic cut through the shadow-tendrils anchoring Gorr to the desert, severing them in a single, incandescent sweep.

The Necrosword shrieked.

It was not a sound meant for mortal ears. It was pressure, a grinding protest that scraped along Harry’s bones and rattled his teeth. The All-Black pulsed violently, swelling, then compressing, shadows whipping outward in a desperate attempt to latch onto something solid.

Instead, Harry aimed at Gorr and dragged his remaining, dwindling strength to one last spell. “Depulso.”

He felt the spell hit Gorr in the chest and hurled him away, into the burning white light.

With a scream, Harry clapped his hands together, shattering the portal, which imploded with a violent crack, golden sigils snapping shut like the jaws of a trap.

And the desert fell silent.

Heat rolled outward once more, then faded, leaving only cooling glass, twisted metal, and a sky that looked painfully ordinary.

Harry staggered back a few paces until the heat faded, leaving the cool air in its wake. His senses felt numb, and every cell in his body burned as he collapsed to his knees, looking around.

‘I did it. I defeated Gorr.’

With that, he fell backward and lay in the sand, his eyes fluttering. The last thing he saw was a rainbow light burst from the sky, hurtling toward Earth, the hum of the Bifrost echoing in his ears as he passed out and knew no more.

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AND… DONE! Hope you all liked the chapter!

I physically don’t have the strength to write anymore of this AN now.

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Stay Happy! Stay Safe! Keep Smiling! Keep Reading!

HPfanfictioner66