Chapter 25 - 25 A Dragon's Might and a Woman's Scorn

For the last fight, Harry didn't take a polyjuice and had to make a large amount of equipment from scratch. Much of it required a large area to make, forcing him to make a new base on an empty plot of land far away from anyone who could be watching him.

Harry used a portal to head to where Kamar-Taj was near and paid someone to deliver a letter to the temple at a certain time. If by then he hadn't won the Sorcerer Supreme would be informed and make his move.

Once Harry finished his preparation he arrived once more. This time however he didn't change the color of his Basilisk skin so he could keep it green and beneath it he wore a full set of the best armor he could make.

Harry only had a single heavily enchanted knife but his gear looked tailored for martial combat.

Chiantang noticed him and sneered, "Damn mortals. Sending children now? I swear the next time I see him I'll have my brother grant me leave to slaughter as many of you as I please. I don't know where you Power Rangers come from but I will find you."

Harry smirked and shouted, "What the hell is a Power Ranger? I've never heard of them before, you crazy or something?"

Chiantang was dumbfounded, but only for a moment. He shouted, "You dare mock me?!"

The moment the black dragon moved to attack Harry tapped the pendant on his wrist causing the anti magic stored within to release into the body. He gave a wry smirk and shouted, "It's Morphin' Time!" and a moment later Harry's small form grew in size and height to match Chaintang's own. His armor grew with him though his basilisk cloak was unequipped and returned to his inventory.

Chiantang growled, "Growth Magic? Another Sorcerer Dares?!" He roared once more and the magic energies of the land fell to his whims. For a moment.

Several bursts of energy from the anti magic mines Harry shrank himself to place around the lands earlier went off filling the space with Anti Magic energy. Harry wouldn't be able to call for more energy from other planes once Chiantang did his dragon magic domination thing but it had little effect on existing magic and Harry stored loads of Anti Magic energy within those mines and set them go go off at the slightest stimulus. Of course this also meant he was more limited in what magics he could use. The only reason he would be able to use magic at all was because of all the training he did while wearing anti magic binding cuffs.

The coming storm of magic called forth by Chiantang died under the suppression of Anti Magic and Harry's giant form ran up to the massive Black Dragon and punched him in the face.

Harry wasn't using growth magic, but a growth potion. His equipment however was currently normal size. Prior to arriving, Harry took a special Growth Potion to allow him to match the dragon in size and at that size he equipped a set of massive armor saturated with energy from Cyttorak's realm. Due to Harry's unique physiology, increasing and decreasing his size didn't actually affect his stats, but it did allow him to equip the enormous, Strength Energy saturated armor he made which did in fact boost his strength significantly. Using these means, Harry's strength could approach the level of the Immortal Dragon for a time until the armor exploded or he burned through the Growth potion from heavy physical exertion. He then used a Shrinking Charm on himself and his equipment to temporarily return him to normal size that he could dispel with some anti magic stored in a pendant. This gave the illusion of growth magic to make Chiantang look down on his strength.

He was still way weaker of course, at about a third of his estimate for the Black Dragon's strength, but as long as he kept the fight on the ground he had an advantage. Cyttorak's energy didn't just increase strength, it reinforced momentum which made it ideal for attacking and blocking.

Chiantang opened his mouth to release his dragon breath but Harry landed a flying knee into his jaw forcing it closed. Harry had to disable at least one of Chiantang's arms for his plan to work and he was only going to get one shot.

The Black Dragon grabbed Harry's leg and pulled him down while leaning in to bite his head off but Harry had set his hands together and slammed them down into Chiantang's nose.

Harry got released when Chiantang instinctively moved to grab his nose giving Harry the opening to deliver a flying elbow drop onto Chiantang's knee. It didn't break but Harry did feel a little bit of a crunch when his Strength Energy empowered elbow guard met the dragon's armored kneecap.

Chiantang's wings beat a step to throw him back to gain some distance but not into the air. Harry confirmed in the last fight the dragon's pride wouldn't let him take flight unless Harry himself took to the skies since he'd been challenged to a physical contest.

Harry charged forward before the immortal beast could release his dragon fire but Chiantang instead spun around to whip his spiked tail at Harry.

Harry had no intention of taking another trip into the sky so he dropped back and kicked the tail up as it passed over him to deflect it. He threw himself from the ground at Chiantang to strike as hard as he could at the monster's armpit in an attempt to dislocate Chiantang's shoulder from underneath.

Chiantang however had taken in a breath as he spun around and the moment Harry made contact the dragon released his fiercest fire breath.

Harry blocked it with an armguard charged to the max with the Flame Freezing charm but this breath was far stronger than any the dragon had released before and it would take only a few moments for the charm to expire.

Harry took it as his chance and smashed his other arm onto his ċhėst which caused the ċhėst armor to shatter into pieces. Harry directed those pieces to cover Chiantang's right arm where they gathered together in Harry's attempt at recreating the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak.

Chiantang's arm was bent behind him and held there by the interlocking bands and Harry took out his knife and struck with all his force through Chiantang's ċhėst where the knife stuck itself into his rib. There the dagger glowed.

The hilt of the dagger glowed the moment the spell was released into the rib which had another effect. Harry had set up another Block Transfer Computation formation around the area with this point as the center and the knife as the target.

Chiantang started glowing blue as the formation's effect successfully took place. Chiantang stopped his flames and used his other arm to strike at Harry but he did slowly, at only a fourth the speed he had been as Time deceleration had been applied to Chiantang through a non-magical means.

Harry used his left arm to block Chiantang's strike and charged his right arm with a new spell. It looked like a thin band of white light spinning around his forearm over his fist to elbow. It was a rapid cycle cutting spell and turned his fist into a chainsaw.

Harry shouted and used every fiber of strength he could muster to slam his fist into Chiantan's ċhėst.

One feature of this formation was relative momentum. As Chiantang's time had been reduced by a quarter, Harry appeared to be moving four times faster and his fist shredded through the black dragon's ċhėst and hit his rib.

Chiantang roared with power and rage, the blue glow flickering as the immortal dragon's will fought against the laws of space and time. The arm Harry was blocking was increasing in strength and cracks formed all over the makeshift bands of Cyttorak.

Harry knew he only had this one chance to finish it so he drew in the stored strength energy from his leg armor and forced it into his arm. His arm was going beyond the limit of energy his flesh could sustain and was about to explode, but in the next instant the rib he was pressing against broke through and his chainsaw fist pierced deep into the immortal dragon's ċhėst and into the heart.

A wave of black energy exploded from Chiantang's body and threw Harry back and to the ground.

Black static spread over Chiantang's body and his knees gave way. The hole in his ċhėst wasn't closing to Harry's relief. The Black Dragon looked over to Harry's near broken form and noticed the damage to Harry's arm was recovering. He said, "I see. There was only one of you. Well played. Be warned though young immortal, there will be consequences for your actions today. And just like you, I shall return."

*Ping*

['Immortal Dragon Chi' Perk Acquired]

[Dragon Path has risen to rank 5]

Harry leveled up four times which felt rather hollow all things considered. However the Dragon Chi Perk was certainly a hell of a reward and it granted him access to another path which started at rank 5 instead of rank 1. The Path's autocorrections gave a bȧrė bones understanding of how to use it but he was still an amateur in its use. For now anyways.

Harry took the antidote to the growth potion and re-equipped his proper clothes. A few moments later Merlin exited the cave and looked over the damaged landscape caused by all the fights Harry and Chiantang had together.

Harry hadn't taken a polyjuice for his Black Ranger getup since the Shrinking Solution, just like the Growth Solution, didn't go well with Polyjuice so Merlin recognized him as the one he saw die under the Black Dragon's flames.

Merlin asked, "Where is the Sorcerer Supreme?"

Harry answered back, "I sent him a letter, he'll probably show up later."

"What?! Then where is Dragonslayer?"

Harry asked, "What's Dragonslayer?"

"A sword created by the Dragon King and given to man to keep his brother, the Black Dragon in line. Only Dragonslayer has the power to kill the Black Dragon and the Sorcerer Supreme has it."

"Oh. Are there ways of killing him without Dragonslayer?"

"Well, of course there are, but Dragonslayer is the quickest and only real option for most mortals. Where is.. What has happened here? And how are you alive?"

Harry wondered how many people in the history of time and space have ever confused Merlin this much.

A portal opened at the site and out of it walked a beautiful woman with black hair and dark energy permeating her flesh.

The woman took one look at Merlin and said with a scowl, "Has that vile filth betrayed me?"

Harry yelled back, "Chiantang said something about missing a hot date and won't be back until tomorrow. Did you want to leave him a message?"

Merlin summoned his staff and fired purple lightning at the woman who blocked it with a magic shield. Merlin shouted, "Le Fay! You dare show your face before me?!"

The woman, Morgan Le Fay it turned out, caused her shield to glow which absorbed the purple lightning and fired purple energy bolts from the lightning it absorbed. Merlin dodged rather than block as he was pretty out of it from being bound for so long.

Harry paused and went over his options. Morgan Le Fay has always been considered one of the greatest sorcerers in history and is a student of Merlin and is half Fey and is immortal. Oh, and if that weren't enough, she's read lots from the Darkhold, perhaps one of the most dangerous books in existence.

That black wave that shot out of Chiantang when he died removed the Anti-Magic energy in the area which wasn't something Harry expected. If that wasn't the case, Le Fay wouldn't have been able to make a portal to this location. Now that she was here, anti magic wouldn't affect her very much since her skill in Sorcery was far better than Harry's from what he could tell.

Well, that might work.

Harry unpaused and took a magic gun from his inventory and shot Le Fay. However her image faded to reveal itself as an illusion that had even fooled Harry's energy sense.

She reappeared and said, "A magic gun? You're from the future aren't you?"

Harry didn't answer. He tried to focus on his energy sense but she now appeared to be in several places at once though Harry only saw the one in front of him.

Harry tried to apparate out but it didn't work. He then remembers Merlin is a Wizard and also capable of Apparition meaning Le Fay would have set up a means to prevent his escape on arrival.

Merlin started sending out waves of green energy which passed through the illusions and bent around them while the original Morgan Le Fay started glowing.

Harry aimed and fired three shots but Le Fay transformed into a massive snake and dodged the shots. Harry fired at the ground causing an explosion but the snake had moved far faster than a snake should be able to and got clear of the way.

Harry countered by setting his hands on the ground and he cast a wide area transmutation spell.

Harry fired a few more shots but her skill at flying allowed her to practically dance through the sky and dodge Harry's remaining magic bullets. She looked like she was playing with him. Harry's senses weren't telling him more than it seemed she wanted him to know which was even worse than the situation with Chiantang.

Merlin fired several barrages of magic spells but they were either dodged, deflected, or absorbed by Le Fay.

The Sorceress smiled and said, "You certainly have lost your touch and your friend from the future has no imagination."

Harry figured that was said to get him angry so he yelled back, "Someone wearing that dress with that belt has no right to talk about imagination!" Yes he was insulting her fashion sense. A low blow for sure, but from her shocked and infuriated expression it seemed to have worked. And seriously though, a silver skull belt buckle?

A vast stream of energy and light shot from the horizon and stuck Le Fay who had been too distracted charging up a spell to kill Harry to notice. An old man of African descent appeared in the sky and fired blast after blast at Le Fay along with Merlin who added to the force. Morgan Le Fey gave one final sneer at Merlin and Harry before teleporting away.

Harry took a look at the new arrival and recognized Merlin's predecessor, the Sorcerer Supreme of this age, Makeen.

He looked at Harry for a moment before going over to Merlin and asked, "What happened here my friend?"

Merlin shook his head and said, "I don't know, ask him."

Makeen calmly walked over to Harry and said, "Who are you?"

Harry sighed and said, "Harry Potter, a student of Kamar-Taj of the fourth year of the 21st century. I was practicing a form of time math and when I checked my calculations the space time broke and I ended up here. Heard Merlin was in trouble so I went to help. I wanted a crack at the Black Dragon but I sent you a letter before facing him in case I failed which it turns out, I didn't. I used time math to hold Chiantang and Wizard magic to pierce his defenses and destroy his heart."

Makeen stayed silent for a moment before giving a weary sigh and said, "I am getting too old for this. Merlin should be able to return you to your time. Do not stay for too long."

Harry nodded, "Yes, yes, I know."

Makeen walked over to Merlin and berated him for getting sloppy for someone who was still in his prime. He told Merlin that once he had paid back Harry for his ȧssistance he was to head straight for Kamar-Taj and finish his uncompleted training.

The Sorcerer Supreme left through a portal and Merlin asked, "You are both a Wizard and Sorcerer are you not?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah. Come to think of it, I heard the Heart Palace technique I learned was something you invented."

Merlin smiled and made a portal to his tower saying, "Follow me then, I know just how to repay you."

What neither knew was that not long after they left, Le Fay returned and used a spell for Time Viewing to see everything that had happened from the Power Rangers to the final fight to the conversation they had after she was driven away. No one had thought to cast any privacy spells after all so when Harry answered Makeen's questions, she heard his answers. Harry was only invisible when looking at him in the future, not the past. The immortal gave a wicked smile and said, "Harry Potter, 2004 eh?"

After arriving at Merlin's place which he cast half a dozen spells to clean due to the length of his absence, Merlin sat Harry down and explained the details of the Heart Palace.

One of the things Harry had never succeeded at was fusing mystical energies with exotic energy to combine Wizardry and Sorcery. Merlin basically told him the trick which involved a lot of visualization and practice.

Once finished, Merlin opened a portal to Harry's time though the same amount of time he had been in the past would have gone by on his return. Merlin didn't have to explain why as Harry knew the consequences of leaving for two weeks and returning the same day.

*Ping*

[Quest Completed: Rescue Merlin]

Reward: New Feature, Load Save.]

As soon as Harry took his first step in the present the Quest completion screen popped up. The full quest was to rescue Merlin and return to the present so he didn't technically complete it until just now.

Harry opened up his menu and confirmed the details. Load Save was basically an instant death he could use any time to kill himself and return to a save point. He still lost a level but the feature had a lot of applications. Should he fall into a tear in reality again, he could pause before arriving and Load Save, thus killing himself and returning to the present before arriving elsewhere. Due to the nature of his body, it was very hard to simply kill himself at convenient times. He could even use this feature to fake his death if he did it right. Though if he really wanted to fake his death he was more likely to charge his body with far too much energy and cause himself to explode, preferably with an audience around and cameras set up in advance he could use to record everyone's expressions.

He wished Load Save could be done without the dying, the losing of a level, and the pain, but there was a chance that having something so convenient would lead to abuse which would spoil him. He didn't want to be the type of guy who played online and disconnected every time he was going to lose.

Before heading back to Kamar-Taj, Harry used a portal to head out into the middle of nowhere and found a hidey hole. Not the one he used to rest, but a different one. Before his final battle against Chiantang, Harry set a few things here. There were a number of magical processes known by Wizard, Sorcerer, and Goblin which took a long time to complete so Harry set up as many as he could think of and now that he returned, he collected them. One example is a process which can turn silver into mithril and gold into adamantium. This process was special because once it started it could not be interrupted or else it would have to start over and the materials used could not be collected while in the process of transmutation.

Of course he didn't have that much gold to work with due to giving most of it to his bank but he had something just as good. Harry had several tons of scrap metal from his Crafting practices and a Philosopher's Stone and for the first time since acquiring it he was able to take it out and use it to turn his scrap into gold and silver. He did so somewhere close to the north pole of course after setting a dozen or so concealing spells which prevented anyone from showing up before he was done.

The Philosopher's Stone could turn base metals into Copper, Silver, or Gold, in addition to making the elixir of life, though the amount it can produce at any time is quite small. Since time does not pass in his inventory he can't collect it in there but at least for that time he was able to get five doses and set them aside for emergencies.

When Harry returned 1400 years later, only about a tenth of the gold had changed and a fifth of the silver. The process which changed it was similar to the half life decay of some materials except it broke down into something more complex instead of something simpler due to the treatment and alchemic formation used.

Something interesting he found when cross referencing some details he learned from his business contacts was that mithril and adamantium had both been discovered a while ago, though mithril had a different name, it was called vibranium.

Although it was only a fraction of the total, the total was measured in tons and though the separating was tricky, he was able to get a large amount of pure adamantium and vibranium for use in future projects. He still remembered the tail swipe of the Black Dragon destroying his sword and if what he heard about the properties of adamantium and vibranium were correct, he wouldn't have that problem in the future.

On Harry's return he went to the Sanctum Sanctorum which had been mostly quiet without him and he informed the Ancient One of his most recent adventure. The reason he didn't keep it to himself was simply because his actions could have further consequences the one in charge of the protection of the realm needed to know.

When finished she said, "I'd ask you to be more careful with the fabric of space and time, but I suppose these things happen."

Harry had no ability to tell the difference between when she was joking and when she was sarcastic. She continued, "You certainly obtained some gains however. A private lesson from Merlin himself and Immortal Dragon Chi of all things. I'm sure you've noticed we don't have much on the use of Chi for Martial Arts and we have nothing on Chi Magic. I suspect you will be capable of Chi Magic in the future but the only Good Chi Wizard I know of lives in San Francisco. I will write him a letter though and ask if he wishes to give you some lessons. As for using Dragon Chi in Martial Arts, there are those capable of teaching it but they are not among those I trust. It would be best if you seek your own path on that matter and keep it to as few people as possible. On another note, it would be prudent not to take off your shirt in public."

"Umm, why?"

She gave an innocent smile, "No reason, as long as you don't mind people staring at the black dragon tattoo that seems to have appeared there."

Harry conjured two full length mirrors, one in front and one behind him and lifted up the back of his shirt revealing the elaborate black dragon figure that seemed to be ascending towards the sky that covered most of his back. At least it looked cooler than Chiantang himself did.

Chi was something Harry had done a great deal of research both in and out of Kamar-Taj after his encounter with the Mandarin. Chi itself was lifeforce, pure and simple. Most humans have very little Chi except for children who are naturally energetic and have excess Chi which their body uses to grow into an ȧduŀt. There are those who train all their lives to gather and Chi from the world to increase their own but such Chi requires purification which is very difficult due to high concentration of pollutants in the modern era. Harry's Chi however was that of an Immortal Dragon now. though it would be more impressive if the attributes such a thing passively granted weren't things he already had due to the nature of his mutant obscurus body such as healing, magic resistance, and tough physique.

Using it actively however was another story. Without control, he would take the expression 'Bull in a China Shop' to an unprecedented level. In addition to being able to use Chi Magic, he should also be able to learn Dragon magic which is the equivalent of Dragon Chi Magic. Since he got a few examples of how it worked while fighting Chiantang he wouldn't even have to start from scratch.

It didn't take long after his return to Kamar-Taj for Goose to find him and express her displeasure in Harry's absence for the last two weeks. Harry's room had an enchanted litter box, water bowl, and food dispenser which would take years to stop working so Harry wasn't physically needed. But Harry had always found some time to pet or hang out with his familiar and this ended up being the longest period they had been apart since the bond formed.

Harry made it up to her by offering to chauffeur Goose around London all day and take her anywhere she wanted to go which the Flerken 'graciously' accepted. There was also a junior chef cooking contest today Harry had entered himself in a few months back and Goose was not against attending.

After the day trip Harry got back to training. Merlin had told him how to fuse his Exotic energy with the other energies in his Heart Palace and he wanted to try that as fast as he could. Not for increased power through. Harry was aware he was not the only one capable of sensing energy and though few among the Sorcerers could do so without tools or physical contact, there were Wizards who could and likely others as well. When Harry was just saturated with his invisible Exotic energy, that wasn't a problem, but now he had other forms of energy within his body. Harry wanted to merge his Exotic Energy with his Sorcerer Energy so that the invisible nature of one would envelop the other.

According to Merlin, the process of merging one with the other was basically a form of visualization. He had to visualize his Exotic energy as something and his other forms of energy as something that was compatible with it. Being a chief, he decided to use food. He thought of his Exotic energy as buŧŧer. He then thought of his Dimensional Energy as mashed potatoes. Once the imagery clicked, he felt the inherent incompatibility of the two energies within him fall away and slowly merge together.

The other energies he would ȧssign as other foods. Strength Energy from Cyttorak's Crimson Cosmos he'd think of as broccoli. Nature Energy he'd think of as biscuits. Mist Energy from Valtorr's realm would fit as popcorn and Ikonn's Illusion Energy he could think of as rice. Raggadorr's Binding and Anti Magic Energy he would think of as pancakes and Krakkan's Locking and Unlocking Energies he could see as steak.

Once he started the fusion he found he could increase the rate or slow it down, but he couldn't reverse it. That was fine, but he had to take his time to adjust to the fused energies and slowly adapt the spells he knew to use the fused energy. Technically, he could force a complete fusion right now, but then the spells he knew which used the energies on their own wouldn't work and he would have to make new ones from scratch.

This process of merging energies however only worked with Exotic Energy. Merging other forms of energy would cause one to disrupt the other or will cause one to try to convert the other into itself. Exotic Energy however doesn't follow the same rules which is why it is possible for it to be merged within a Heart Palace. That being said, since Wizards who try to use Dimensional or Nature Energy often explode according to the Grimoires of the Black Family Library, Harry might have been only the 2nd person in history after Merlin himself to actually do it. The Ancient One had told Harry he wasn't the first Wizard to try becoming a Sorcerer, only that he was the second to succeed.

Harry had intended to take his time safely testing the merged energies, preferably under the eye of the Ancient One in the Mirror Dimension, but things don't always go as planned.

A week after returning from his time skipping adventure, his London Residence got a package with his prize for 4th place in the cooking contest he went to with Goose. It was a very large, autographed, limited edition cookbook with a ribbon tied around it. Harry didn't bother removing the ribbon once he opened the package. He just placed it directly into his Inventory.

*Ping*

[Darkhold has become bound to Inventory and cannot be removed.]

Harry's last thought before his senses were enveloped by darkness was, 'Oops.'