Chapter 20 - 20 Enter the Mandarin

The day started out normal enough until the temple received a certain guest. Harry wasn't able to get the full details but it seemed the guest was there to warn the Ancient One that a group of suspicious men wearing robes bearing a specific mark had been active around Mt. Wundagore. It seemed that since their arrival, there had been earthquakes that were occurring with more and more frequency.

The Ancient One gathered the masters and left for Wundagore shortly after.

Harry confirmed with his map that the library was empty and likely would remain so for a while so this would be a great time to borrow a few texts. The first half of his plan worked, no one stopped him from entering the deepest parts of the library. It was unfortunate however that he felt someone approach less than a minute after he came in.

The first thing that stood out to Harry about this new presence was not that it was unfamiliar nor that it was powerful. No, what stood out more than anything else to Harry was then ten sources of energy the presence brought into the library.

Harry stood in a corner and used wizard magic to make himself invisible. There were other spells he knew that would work but since his wizard magic was undetectable and there was nothing in the library that would be harmed by the exotic energy released, it was the better choice.

The man who entered wore an unfamiliar green robe with golden flames embroidered across the edges. He looked to be in his late thirties and of Asian descent along with shoulder length black hair, well trimmed facial hair and sharp eyebrows. On the finger of each hand was a unique ring and Harry's senses told him they were the sources of energy he felt. Not only that, they were perfectly attuned to the man himself.

The library Harry was hiding in contained some of the most dangerous and esoteric knowledge in existence. The new arrival took one look around and ignored it all, venturing instead to a nondescript wall.

He took out a piece of what looked to be advanced technology and activated it. Light shone from the silver disc like object and the nondescript wall seemed to fall away and collapse in on itself.

Harry paused the world and walked over to the new opening.

It wasn't difficult to realize this man was an intruder. There was even a distinct chance the masters leaving was orchestrated by this man. Harry took a look at the man's rings in paused time but none were familiar to him. He also took a good look at the device which seemed capable of cracking magic locks. Harry had no idea how that could work which was really saying something. His technical know-how may not be in the top ten of the planet at this point but it should at least be in the top hundred.

And last but certainly not least, Harry inspected the newly opened space the mysterious intruder had come all the way for. He nearly fainted. Within the small space was a book on an altar. Not surprising as this was a library, but it was a book that Harry recognized. Bound in unfamiliar leather with a red dragon emblazoned on the cover. It was the Grand Grimoire.

The Grand Grimoire was something as Legendary as it was Infamous. Centuries ago, a powerful alchemist and sorcerer found the original text of both the Greater Key of Solomon and the Lesser Key of Solomon. These texts included instructions on how to summon and command almost every powerful demon in existence and contained various details on each one. Rather than use them for personal gain, he spent centuries studying it and experimenting with them and poured all the results into a single tome. The book he wrote contained not only the knowledge he gained from both manuscripts, but also knowledge he gained from demons he summoned and experimented with along with spells and rituals he learned from other dimensions he used his knowledge to travel to.

It was not the most powerful book in the universe nor the most dangerous. Oddly enough, that was what made it perhaps the most valuable. It was pretty much the most user friendly book of all the books that could grant great power. It was no monkey's paw. It gave exact details on how to summon and control demons without error and included all the proper warnings and precautions. It built up from the knowledge of Solomon who used demons to build his temple.

At least that's what most believed. No one knew who authored it or what happened to him after all.

Harry obviously couldn't let the man have it. The intruder wasn't being loaned the book for a good cause after all, he was clearly here to steal the bloody thing.

When Harry realized this would likely come down to a fight, he deeply cringed. This wasn't an open field or empty plain. No, this was the Master's Section of the Kamar-Taj Library with the Ancient One's Private collection chained up on an adjacent wall.

What did this mean? Well, even he couldn't repair books that had been burned to cinders. Also some of the books contained magics of their own and Harry didn't know how they would react to his wizard magic.

Harry never considered that he had the option of just letting the man leave. It wasn't in his nature. The fact that he wouldn't be able to hide the evidence of the fight was also obvious. However it was acceptable. He had been able to stay low for the last year and it was longer than he expected to be honest.

After spending as much time as he could think of coming up with various plans, Harry unpaused and said, "Excuse me, but who are you?"

The man turned to face him but only showed a moment of surprise at Harry's age. He made a fist and Harry felt psionic energy from one of the man's rings start surrounding the area. The intruder said, "Forget what you have seen and leave at once."

Harry's innate mental protection prevented the mind control from having any effect but it did answer Harry's question of how he got to the library in the first place.

Luckily there was a difference between casting a spell yourself and using a tool to do it. When using a tool, you wouldn't know if the spell failed.

Harry started walking further into the library to one of the doors in the back. This led him to walk right past the man who silently observed the 13 year old child.

Harry first tried an overpowered banish spell to send the intruder to the wall but he instantly shifted his stance to endure the force and only moved back half a foot. Though Harry's spell energy couldn't be sensed, the man saw the tells of an attack beforehand and braced himself accordingly.

A beam of cold and what looked to be a laser beam shot from two of the man's rings and Harry bȧrėly had time to dodge. He was relieved when he sensed they only struck a wall and not a book but he didn't expect the gaudily dressed villain to strike first without a proper introduction monologue. Maybe he could squeeze one out of him.

Harry conjured a shield and short sword with dimensional energy and said, "If you're going to check something out, I'll need to see your library card."

He sneered and said back, "I shall take what I want and no child shall get in my way." He fired off a compact burst of space Harry tried to endure but it shattered his shield like tissue paper and sent him back crashing through three different bookshelves and into the far wall with a crack that would shatter the bones of any mortal.

At this point Harry was in a lot of pain but very grateful he had placed so many stat points into STR. Sure, that really hurt, it was like a few hundred sticks of dynamite going off in his face, but it only cost him a fraction of his health.

The intruder didn't bother to check if Harry was alive and returned to the book. Though he opened the door he didn't remove the security yet so the book wasn't simply something he could take. He took out a few more pieces of high end tech and he set them to work removing the spells that kept him from his prize.

Harry was taking potion after potion from his inventory and gulping them down.

*Ping*

[Recovery Potion has recovered Health.]

[Healing Potion has increased Health Recovery speed by 15% for ten minutes.]

[Wit Sharpening Potion has increased INT by 5% for ten minutes.]

[Hardening Potion had increased physical defense by 20% for five minutes.]

[Strengthening Potion has increased STR by 5% for ten minutes.]

Unfortunately most potions could not be used with others but Harry had these ones brewed specifically for stackable use. The downside was that they only had a shelf-life of an hour after they were brewed before the effects expired but since Harry kept them in his timeless inventory, that wasn't much of a downside.

Harry quickly realized why his banishment spell didn't work. It used his magic to push his target away and was less effective the heavier the target. However magical energy also counted towards weight. This man's ten sources of energy were all considered massive so pushing him was much harder. That also meant that many spells such as Stunners which don't work well on stronger opponents would do nothing. Those energy sources were tuned to the man's life force and were practically a part of him. Energy wise the man's total energy was like a hundred and fifty Dumbledores. Even Harry's Stunner Grenades wouldn't be able to put him down.

Luckily his plan worked. He would have dodged that shot if it were lethal but the result was about as ideal as he could get. He got some distance from the man and he wasn't paying attention to him. Harry observed through his energy sense the man breaking the security barriers and Harry cast a silencing charm on his surroundings. He then opened a portal to the Sahara desert and waited.

Once the security had broken, Harry poured as much power as he could into the spell and shouted, "Accio Grand Grimoire!"

The book rocketed past the man thanks to the verbal casting and made its way into Harry's hands. Faster than any Olympic sprinter the intruder dashed at Harry who ran into the portal he made earlier with the man following behind.

The man practically growled, "Give me the book child!"

Harry said, "No thanks. How about an introduction since I hate to be rude. I'm Harry Potter, a minor practitioner of magic."

"I am the Mandarin, and if you value your pathetic life you shall kneel before me and surrender the book!"

Harry was shocked at the introduction, "The Mandarin?!" he cried out.

The man seemed pleased at the surprise, but Harry continued and said, "You call yourself a form of dialect? How would you feel if I called myself the British?"

Harry wasn't finished of course. "Do you have a sidekick or rival called the Cantonese or the Hunanese?"

"Enough!" he shouted and fired a stream of terrible flames Harry sensed were as hot as the sun. Harry jumped out of the way as the sand that was beneath him changed into molten glass and Harry fired his Endless Cutter Stream from the Mandarin's left. Instead of dodging it he simply faded into the ethereal allowing the spell to pass harmlessly through him.

He returned to solid form and said, "You are no sorcerer. A Wizard then? No matter. No one is a match for the Mandarin."

Harry wanted to point out if that were true he wouldn't have come only after the Ancient One and the other masters left. As if sensing Harry's intention to say something insulting the Mandarin preemptively fired a beam into the ground which caused the sand around them to shape itself into various mounts and obstacles and walls. This suddenly made dodging much harder.

Harry fired off his slow moving Expanding Cutter Sphere and ran to the side. The Mandarin fired the same concussive beam he used on Harry earlier at it which caused the sphere to detonate into a barrage of cutter spells which sliced up many of the surroundings and forced the Mandarin to seek shelter behind a wall.

Harry used the moment to conjure a source of eternal flame and expanded it before granting it form. It became a semi truck sized dragon and sought out the Mandarin. Eternal flame was something only Harry or someone like Dumbledore could cast, but not even the latter could combine it with transfiguration magic to create something as powerful as Fiendfyre but not as deadly to the caster. Well, he probably could with some preparation, but definitely not on the fly. Having the power of Elder Wand strengthened magic helped.

The dragon quickly found the Mandarin and sent out a blast of eternal fire dragon breath.

Harry teleported behind the man and waited for an opening. With his newfound knowledge of dimensional energy, Harry was able to change the procedure for apparition into something smoother, safer, and more powerful. Though he couldn't use it everywhere as it still tended to fry electronics in the area.

The dragon of living eternal flame proved no challenge to the Mandarin who fired a beam of pure cold energy which not only beat back the dragon breath but consumed and snuffed out the dragon itself.

Harry used his short sword and the opening to try and slice off the Mandarin's arm, but the man's seasoned sense of battle warned him in time and though Harry struck far faster than a normal human was capable of, the Mandarin only received a small cut on his forearm from the dimensional blade.

The Mandarin quickly struck out with his fist forcing Harry back a step but the strike was followed through by a series of blows Harry felt were each capable of denting steel and crushing stone. Harry realized that getting close was not so great an idea as this man was a master martial artist far beyond the level of Mordo and Kaecelius. Though Harry's short sword allowed him to make the most of his speed, each of his strikes were dodged, blocked, or even parried through unarmed combat techniques.

Harry missed a step while being forced back and the Mandarin used the opening to strike Harry's ċhėst with enough force to crack the stone skin his potion gave him.

The Mandarin looked over Harry once more and said, "Impressive for a child but you will not be saved by this. You will die for your insolence and there is nothing that can save you." He shot a bolt of lightning which Harry's shield was able to block long enough for him to dodge the rest, but the lightning was followed up by a searing beam of light which struck Harry's shoulder.

Harry conjured a dozen knives in the air with wizard magic but used some principles of dimensional constructs to create them faster. Harry then banished them all at the Mandarin who merely smirked.

A whirlwind rose up from the Mandarin and steered the knives off course. A moment later a wall of black stretched out from the Mandarin and engulfed the area in a dark energy that hid all light and energy signs, even from Harry's senses.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was coming next and Harry jumped to the side to avoid another concussion beam which fragmented the hardened ground like an explosion. Harry threw a Patronus grenade into the air and ran to the side based on memory. He couldn't see or sense anything but he remembered what it looked like before the Mandarin took away the light.

Luckily the man didn't think Harry could do anything against his darkness so three seconds after Harry tossed his grenade, the zone of dark energy was dissolved by the massive dragon of light. The Mandarin fired several beams at the dragon but they all passed through him. Harry wished it would pretend to fight or release some of that light dragon breath as a distraction, but a Patronus would only take the initiative to fight against darkness.

Harry concentrated and said, "Bombarda Maxima," firing an explosion shot at the Mandarin's feet. He noticed it just before it crashed into the ground and jumped against a nearby pillar he created earlier to get some distance from the blast.

Before Harry could fire another explosion shot the ground began to shift and form into another walled off area. Harry turned to run away from where he sensed the Mandarin coming from but the floor he was on suddenly cracked and he lost his footing. The Mandarin fired his beam of cold at the floor and suddenly Harry's feet were encased in ice.

"This game has gone on long enough. Goodbye, Harry Potter."

Harry sensed the ring the man used to turn intangible charge up. Whatever he was about to do was likely his ultimate finisher.

Harry could only respond, "About time." Harry grabbed the book he kept under his shirt behind his back and tossed it into the path of the beam the Mandarin had just fired.

The beam struck the book and the Mandarin saw the red dragon cover and the book itself turn to dust with a flash of bright magical light.

"Noo!"

Harry used his strength to free himself of the ice and said, "I was hoping you'd have something that could destroy the book. Goodbye."

Harry threw a small ball at the ground which turned into white smoke and teleported away. A bolt of lightning blasted through the smoke in the next instant which scattered it, but Harry was already gone.

Harry popped a few miles from the site and paused. The only way to win was to kill that guy or destroy the book. The problem was that both were impossible for Harry. Harry didn't have a counter to the Mandarin's intangibility and the man had more powerful magics and was far superior a martial artist. He wasn't just fighting Harry, he was seeing through him. That last combo wasn't luck. He knew where to create a spot of fragile ground to break and cause an opening.

Destroying the book was just as hard. Legendary books like the Grand Grimoire couldn't be destroyed normally. If Harry had been turned to dust in that flame attack, the Grand Grimoire would simply have been lightly singed though through the heat of the sun.

That last beam was different and Harry felt it. The Ancient One made sure Harry could recognize disintegration energy as it was one of the surest one shot kills that existed. Harry's instant death protection wouldn't protect him from disintegration. Disintegration was also something that could in fact destroy the Grand Grimoire.

And that was exactly how the Mandarin had been fooled.

Before grabbing the Grimoire Harry had conjured a duplicate that was as magically dense as he could make it. The moment Harry entered the portal, he placed the Grand Grimoire into his Inventory and placed the copy under his shirt. The duplicate had no content in the pages of course but the cover looked identical.

When Harry originally paused to think up his plan, he realized that if he simply tricked the man into leaving, he would likely come back. He had to think the book was destroyed or when he tried to take it again he would bring an even greater force of destruction.

His first plan was to pretend to use a spell to destroy the book himself and die in the process. Unfortunately this plan failed the moment he put the book into his inventory and was greeted by a pop up message.

[Unique Item 'Grand Grimoire' will drop from inventory upon death.]

Because of this Harry would either need the Mandarin to destroy it or Harry would somehow have to convincingly destroy the fake himself.

Since he was still paused, Harry decided to go over the pages of the Grand Grimoire. He already had it, so might as well right?

Harry spent what was likely several weeks going over the content. It was by far, the most advanced book he had ever read. He memorized the characteristics of every powerful demon and how to summon, bind and command most of them. Not surprisingly the means were all very complex, had a large probability of failure, and would likely corrupt the soul of the user.

Harry had no interest in summoning demons. He found the descriptions, traits, and powers of the various demons an interesting read, and the summoning rituals themselves were insightful, but Harry would never use any of them except for reference. If nothing else, he'd be able to recognize a summoning ritual if he saw one in the future.

There was however content which did interest Harry. The book contained magics which used dimensional energy as a base differently from the magics of Kamar-Taj. These spells were created by beings from other worlds and contained their insights and histories. They also contained various warnings about their use of course but there were some instances where the spells might be useful as long as the proper precautions were made.

After fully comprehending what content he could and memorizing verbatim the content he couldn't for later, Harry opened a portal back to Kamar-Taj's library.

He wasn't surprised to see the Ancient One and Mordo already there.

The Ancient One smiled seeing Harry and said, "You look to have seen better days Harry."

Harry looked down and only then noticed a part of his robes were burned and there was a black burn on his shoulder where the laser struck.

Harry shook his head and said, "I'll live."

Mordo practically yelled, "What happened here? Who did this?!"

Harry said, "He called himself the Mandarin. Came for the book over there. The leather one with a red dragon on the cover."

Harry saw Mordo soundlessly mouth the words 'Grand Grimoire,' while beginning to look pale.

The Ancient One noticed Harry's lack of panic and after considering the circumstances and knowing the possibility of Harry not knowing what that book was to be zero, understood the situation was already resolved.

Before she could say anything Mordo shouted, "What happened!? Where did the Mandarin go?"

Harry realized that they both recognized the name so Harry said, "I tricked him into firing a disintegration beam of some kind at the book and escaped."

The Ancient One's eyes widened only for a moment in surprise but Mordo was not nearly as subtle. His jaw was hanging neatly from his mouth.

The Ancient One said, "Harry looks like he could use some healing, follow me."

The Ancient One was fully aware that Harry did not in fact need healing, but Mordo didn't need to know that and she was curious for the details. She did not see this event coming perhaps because Harry was involved, but as it turned out well she didn't mind it.

The pair made their way to the Ancient One's room and Harry pulled out a tea set for them from his inventory. Exquisite tea takes more than a few minutes to brew and loses quality quickly but a timeless inventory allowed him to have some whenever he wanted and it was already as good as the Ancient One's. One of her secret uses of the Eye of Agamotto was to see when she would need tea to be ready so she could prepare it in advance. This was why her 'ready made' tea was better than most people had in their lives.

The Ancient One took the cup Harry poured for her and said, "Thank you Harry. Now please go over what happened today."

Harry gave her the details, not bothering to hide that he was sneaking into the Master's Library or his map. He was pretty sure she knew and Harry hadn't touched her private collection. As of yet anyways.

He told her of the items the Mandarin used to break the security and Harry's plan. He also told her the details of the battle and that the book was in his inventory.

She finished her second cup of tea by this point and said, "And it's safe to ȧssume you've memorized the contents."

Harry nodded. "Mostly for reference. I wouldn't be surprised if I encounter a demon at some point so those details will be helpful. The requirements for commanding demons though are not something I can ever do though so no demon army for me."

"Oh, and why is that?"

Harry frowned, "You haven't read it?"

She shook her head. "Many of the restricted tomes or the ones in my private collection were placed there to prevent the temptation the knowledge offers. I have succumbed to temptation before so I am not willing to risk it again."

Harry realized that this meant many of the books in her own collection may have content she was unaware of.

"There are several ways of commanding a demon without staining or selling your own soul, but they all require risks which have the potential to harm countless others or materials which I am not willing to use such as the pure souls of others. Solomon for example was said to use a signet ring to command demons that was gifted to him by God, but the truth was that he was an alchemist and crafted the ring himself."

Harry left the rest unsaid but implied. If the Ancient One was surprised, she did not show it.. Solomon once held the title of Sorcerer Supreme, but that title simple means the holder must be powerful enough to defend the earth, it doesn't mean the holder has to be good.