*Author's Note*
For those who didn't notice, the part where the Ancient One b1tch slapped Apocalypse to the Moon was an Omake. I don't mind making that kind shenanigan legit, but this fight is more so Harry can go all out for real against someone much, much stronger than he is.
Chapter 54 A New Beginning
Mister Sinister stepped forward and said, "Allow me Master."
Apocalypse pulled him back and said, "No. They are beyond you."
Harry rushed forward and swiped his sword as the Ancient One firmly stated, "I call forth the Icy Tendrils of Ikthalon."
Apocalypse batted Harry's monomolecular edge blade with a wave of his hand just as a surge of ice covered him from head to toe.
Harry generated more Phoenix flames as the ice shattered and the Ancient One charged forward to stab him through the eye. Apocalypse swatted away her Eldritch sword, shattering it as Harry finished inhaling the Phoenix flames he had conjured.
Apocalypse slowly raised his hands as Harry charged the Phoenix flames in his lungs with Immortal Dragon Chi and in the next instant he released another blast of Dragon Phoenix Fire Breath.
Without bothering to dodge, Apocalypse slammed his hands together creating a massive shockwave that scattered the Immortal Dragon Chi infused Phoenix Flames harmlessly into the air. The shockwave also threw Harry and the Ancient One back a half dozen meters.
Harry Paused.
It had only been about five seconds but things were already not exactly going well. There was only a single power that could stop a monomolecular blade like that. Molecule control. Although records of Apocalypse could be found in Kamar-Taj's library, the exact details of his powers was not known. Now the truth was apparent. En Sabah Nur could control the structure of the molecules in his body.
Thankfully such a power did have a few weaknesses. For example, he could only change the structure on purpose. This meant while he was biologically immortal and could heal from any wound, his cells did not repair themselves automatically like Logan's did, he would have to will the repair to occur manually. Also, the energy required to shift the structure of his molecules would be taxing.
Harry charged forward once more but the Ancient One kept her distance. No form of teleporting through any means besides special portkeys would work on this island thanks to the centuries worth of barriers and Harry's silver portals were the only exception. This meant Harry could not apparate at will, but it also meant whatever means Sinister and perhaps Apocalypse had to teleport would not work as well.
Harry swung his blade again and was once more repelled by the mutant's hands while the Ancient one called from the back, "Answer my call, Flames of the Faltine!"
This time a torrent of orange flames surrounded Apocalypse.
The Ancient One's plan was not different from Harry's. Attack with physical strikes and magic spells to force Apocalypse to either take heavy damage from one or rapidly switch his molecular structure to adjust to each over and over. They didn't expect to tire him out but they could get an opening if they kept at it for a few minutes.
Apocalypse's skin glowed and the flame snuffed out. The Ancient One didn't need Harry's energy sense to tell what had happened. Apocalypse absorbed the energy of the spell. If he could absorb energy, than he'd be able to heal faster than they could damage him even if they got in a few hits.
The massive mutant raised a hand and a massive bolt of energy shot out from his palm and struck the Ancient One's location nearly in the same instant it was fired. The Ancient One however was fast for her age and cleanly dodged the strike, standing at the side of the massive crater that had formed without a singe on her gown.
Apocalypse said, "You are only delaying the inevitable. You cannot stop, Apocalypse!"
In the moment he shouted his name he vanished from his position and appeared in front of Harry, slashing through the front of his ċhėst, spilling blood everywhere. The mutant's hand had shifted into the form of a long blade and he moved with speed unthinkable for one so large.
Harry didn't bother faking his death and took a few steps back. His wound quickly vanished though the weight of that strike cleanly removed an eighth of his health through his personal adamantine armor. Harry could tell Apocalypse's strength didn't lose out to the full power of the Immortal Black Dragon Chiantang.
Apocalypse did appear slightly surprised that Harry was not dead. Standing near the spaceship, Mister Sinister actually had his jaw drop. Apparently he didn't think the Metaphysics expert was an Immortal Mutant as well.
Since the big man wanted to fight, Harry would oblige. Harry saturated himself in dimensional energy, red energy from Cyttorak's Crimson Cosmos, and fully unleashed his Immortal Dragon Chi. For the cherry on top, Harry wreathed his sword in conjured Phoenix Flames. He was very pleased Blade had given him that idea.
Without waiting for Apocalypse to move, Harry rushed forward at speeds that would give Pietro a run for his money using strength that Rogue couldn't match if she channeled the Juggernaut himself.
Apocalypse did not stand idly by and struck forth with all his power. Although it was a simple swing, it showed the man's expert level skill with a sword and was not something Harry could parry. Harry instead met the blade head on with his own and the earth beneath them shook from the impact. Harry was forced a few steps back, but he was not overwhelmed. Harry actually had the advantage in speed on that one.
Dimensional energy does not actually increase physical strength or speed when used for enhancement by a Sorcerer. By saturating the body in Dimensional energy, a skilled Sorcerer can manipulate it within the body like the strings of a puppet to direct the body to move faster or hit harder than it was physically capable of. This has a limit of course. Harry's limit however was far, far higher than his contemporaries when it came to using Dimensional energy to speed up and empower his body. That stacked with the increased momentum of the red energy and the all around amplification of Dragon Chi meant Harry was a force on his own.
Apocalypse leapt forward for the next earth splitter strike and Harry side stepped. The impact of the blade against the ground forced Harry back preventing him from using the opening to strike the mutant.
The Ancient One seemed to have been ignored which she was fine with. A small orange ball of flame was sitting in her hand and it looked like she was waiting for a moment to throw it. She wasn't. Giving her time was never a good idea. The Flames of the Faltine were slightly inferior to Phoenix Flames but not by much The Faltine were basically gods of Magic and their magic flames could burn stronger than any other magic fire. The Ancient One was continuously channeling more and more flames into the glowing sphere in her hand. The longer the wait, the more it contained.
Harry could tell what her plan was and had been acting as the distraction. Any form of energy absorption had a limit. Exceed that limit? Boom. The Ancient One had been around the block a few times and knew how to deal with snippy little brats with god complexes.
Harry matched Apocalypse strike for strike. Harry was pushed back with each exchange but he was used to fighting those stronger than him so he was experienced at fending off the attacks without receiving a fatal blow.
The Ancient One threw the fireball which changed in color from orange to white, revealing the immense intensity of the flame. She didn't bother aiming at Apocalypse, She aimed for the entrance of the ship.
Harry had drawn the massive immortal away from his ship but he noticed the deception the moment the Ancient One moved and in the next instant he stood in front of the fireball which exploded on contact in a torrent of flames hotter than the sun.
Everyone on the island was momentarily blinded but the shields separating the layers prevented the others from getting incinerated. Harry and the Ancient One already had barriers ready which prevented them from getting cooked.
A moment later the light vanished and Apocalypse stood tall. Sinister was a few meters to the side and heavily burnt. He had erected his own barrier but it had not been enough to completely protect him.
Apocalypse started glowing and shouted into the air. Rather than explode though, his purple armor shot a beam of light into the interior of the ship. The mutant's glow dimmed and his burnt body was revealed but it was also recovering at a visible rate.
The Ancient One and Harry noticed the problem. The man's armor regulated the energy and could even send away excess energy. That meant his weakness was negated, at least as long as he was near the ship.
This time Apocalypse charged forward but towards the Ancient One. He'd wised up on who was the most dangerous.
Harry Paused and checked the other battles.
Gambit was covered in layers of vines and didn't seem to be getting up.
Storm was encased fully in ice. Someone would fix her later.
Wanda and Magneto were still going at it but Wanda had apparently gotten creative. Inside her section there appeared to be a gigantic, building sized acid slime. It seemed to just melt all the metal and eventually the Master of Magnetism would just run out.
Jean wasn't exactly having a tough time, but the more of the Phoenix's power she used to deal with the dark aura covered Xavier, the more problems would occur in the future.
The main problem was still Apocalypse. If they tried attacking his ship again he might close the door, but they needed to destroy it which meant they couldn't attack it unless they knew the attack would work. Harry was pretty sure the ship could control the Mutant Ascension System in orbit so breaking it would either stop the thing or at least make it easier to stop the thing using other means.
Harry couldn't keep up this level of combat for long and neither could the Ancient One. Harry had already shown himself to have the ability to heal so Apocalypse seemed content with passively trying to kill them while waiting until the timer reached zero and the system in the sky went off.
Giving a look at the cinder formerly known as Mister Sinister, Harry got a stupid idea.
Harry unpaused and ran over to back up the Ancient One. She is not as fast as Harry but she could fold space even without Dormammu's mark appearing which ȧssisted her with dodging and attacking. From an outsider's perspective the space around her looked like it contained many floating planes of glass and mirrors which broke off and multiplied and came together with each movement. Apocalypse looked like he was fighting a Kaleidoscope.
Harry created dimensional blades with his fingers and slashed them over the tops of his arms, spreading blood everywhere. Before landing, the blood started floating and then came together into a pattern. Harry charged the pattern with all sorts of magic and it broke apart and flew at Harry in pieces. The broken lines and symbols of blood etched themselves into Harry's body.
The aura surrounding Harry magnified several times over. This was Harry's all out tactic, Blood Amplification Magic. The blood in his body would literally burn away for the duration of this spell and the spell could not be reversed once started. It was a nearly guaranteed death.
Harry's sword cut through Apocalypse's altered blade arm with a single sweep. He'd gotten through the mutant's power with sheer strength even a diamond would have met the same fate. Harry sent a coded mental message to the Ancient One of the plan and started pushing Apocalypse back. For about three seconds.
Once the mutant understood Harry had, for the moment, become an actual threat, his body grew in size and didn't stop growing until he was five stories tall. His massive foot stood in front of the Ship's entrance and his other foot moved to stomp Harry into pulp.
Harry's aura strengthened with each second as the effect of the burning blood was accumulative and he'd grow stronger and stronger until he died. Harry could feel his health shrinking with each moment and the used blood would not return unless the spell ended. The reason Blood magic was illegal was that any blood used in a Blood Magic spell would never return to the user. If a person had exactly ten pints of blood, and they used one quarter of a pint for blood magic, from that point onward until the effect the blood was used for had ended, the body would only ever retain nine and three quarters pints of blood. This didn't make sense for a nonmagical human but it was real for magical humans with magic in their blood.
Harry jumped at Apocalypse's ċhėst and rammed his Phoenix Flame infused sword through Apocalypse's armor and through his heart. Harry then snapped off the hilt and jumped back.
Apocalypse shouted in pain but the flame was not enough to kill him even if his heart completely incinerated. Harry conjured his massive red eldritch sword which contained a thick aura of blood. Apocalypse bent down to smash his fist into Harry to turn him into meat paste but Harry jumped up and used pure strength to slice off the enormous arm.
Harry jumped back to get some distance as the Ancient One launched another concentrated orb of Faltine Flames at the wound in Apocalypse's ċhėst.
Another blinding light whitened the sky.
Cracks formed along Harry's body as if he was about to shatter, but in the next moment his eyes opened with a pitch black glow. Harry's body instantly turned black and exploded, but not into a shower of blood and gore. As the blinding effect of the Ancient One's spell faded, a massive cloud of black ash filled the space.
In the next instant, the ash immediately rushed towards Apocalypse and turned into a black vortex as it spun around Apocalypse's glowing form. The ash was not attacking the mutant himself, it was attacking the armor.
Sparks of purple light shot out from the armor much to the Ancient One's relief. Harry's wizard magic was always destructive against technology. This was more advanced than any other technology they had come across but was still technology. Though it was heavily resistant to Harry's magic, they gambled that it was not immune.
Apocalypse suddenly understood what was happening. He shouted, "Noooo!" as the armor tried and failed to siphon the excess energy from the spell. Without an outlet, his flesh could not handle the might of the small sun he had just absorbed. Apocalypse tried to gather the energy and fire it away, but he was too unlucky to meet Harry. Harry wasn't aware that Apocalypse had changed much of his flesh into techno-organics. Advanced, but still technology in nature. Harry's magic was not intentionally attacking him but the technological aspect of his body was not responding as it should to manually discharge the excess energy.
In the next instant, the titanic mutant exploded. A massive surge of energy hit the ship as well. Sinister somehow managed to get onto the ship by sneaking around Apocalypse's foot and he closed the door.
The Quest only had five minutes remaining so the Obscurus form of Harry spun around in a circle and created a silver ring. The spaceship vanished, using the ring as a means to teleport out. Harry didn't have time to care. His Obscurus form directly entered the ring and flew out into the vacuum of space. He charged the massive black pyramid and turned himself into a spear, violently spinning and speeding up until his form reached and pierced into the massive construct through the crack they had created earlier. Harry easily found the core of the system and directly charged into it, saturating it with wizard energy.
*Ping*
[Quest Completed: Stop the Apocalypse
Reward: Obscurus Perk]
Harry's magic particle cloud left through the same crack it came through. The pyramid sent a charge of lightning out which hit the closest nodes in the array and caused them to shoot out lightning as well to the next closest nodes, propagating the spread. Suddenly each node hit by the lightning exploded. A chain reaction occurred and within moments, the purple sky above the earth was filled with flashes of light and after a moment it returned to normal.
Only the massive pyramid itself remained, but Harry had already left and was completely out of energy.
Harry's particles naturally converged and after a moment Harry was back in the flesh. And in space. And free falling. And too exhausted to lift a muscle and without a single drop of magic left in his body to even use a portal.
Harry accepted his death as the pain in his lungs was making him black out. He used the last of his willpower to turn his body away from the black void so he could see the beautiful earth. What he saw however was a massive firebird getting closer to him.
In the next moment, Harry was in Jean's arms and wrapped in flames. These flames possessed an aura of life which allowed those wrapped in them to survive in unsurvivable conditions. Even wrapped in flames, there was no sound in space, but nothing needed to be said between them. The pair looked down at the beauty of the earth for a moment before facing each other and exchanging a passion filled kiss.
A few minutes later Jean had descended back to Black Island. Usually she would not be able to find it but she could use her connection to Wanda and Rogue to find them and just follow that.
As soon as they landed, Harry felt a rush of energy enter his system.
[You have leveled up.
You have gained the Perk: Technomancy]
Harry was not sure which had shocked him more. The fact that he went up ten levels to 252 from absorbing Apocalypse's energy, or the perk. Perks massively reduced the difficulty of a skill set. Harry had no idea how powerful a technomancer Apocalypse must have been for his energy to grant technomancy when Harry absorbed it, but he wasn't going to complain. This would allow Harry to write programs without typing, directly from his mind. He was tempted to think of all the thousands of things he could use that for, not to mention the Obscurus Perk would allow him to more easily control his Obscurus form without blowing up on purpose. However Harry put all those thoughts aside. He had something much more important to do at the moment.
When Apocalypse died, the control disks exploded. Harry wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not but he could admit that that sort of technology would do no one any good in any hands.
Harry sat down and meditated to recover and the Ancient One freed Ororo and healed her while Hermione and Wanda used what they knew of Healing spells to take care of those with heavier wounds. Hermione herself was a mess from all the wind and Neville was more than a little battered from the explosions, but neither held it against Harry as the seemed to half expect this result when they agreed to attend his wedding. Harry smiled that his first friends knew him so well.
The only ones who got off badly were Ororo and Xavier. Jean went relatively easy on him all things considered but while his body was being controlled, it fought like a much younger man and when Xavier regained control, he was injured simply from everything he'd done while fighting Jean.
The only real 'casualty' bedsides Sinister's Marauders was the giant acid slime Wanda made which they had to kill. Wanda was getting a little attached to it and Harry immediately decided when they all moved in, he was getting three corgi puppies. One he would name Twinkie and one he would name Little Potato. He'd let the girls decide the name of the third. Then again, he could just make some magic puppies or hard light puppies. At least he would not have to worry about them getting eaten by Goose.
Harry made a portal so that the Ancient One could get the Time Stone and tally the damage. She hadn't brought it to the wedding as she did not feel it was necessary. Normally the stone should always remain at the Sanctum in Kamar-Taj and when she left she would leave it there.
What she found using it to look into the future was both good and concerning. The future she wouldn't tell Harry was still there. However the ripples caused by events caused by Harry were unknown to her. Any future she saw was one without the effects of Harry's presence. So she would never see Brilliance Incorporated through any use of the Time Stone to see the future and she hadn't seen Apocalypse's plan. Even if it failed, Apocalypse's plan would have repercussions for the future but she couldn't see those either. In any case, she'd just have Harry deal with it. What was the use of training an apprentice if she couldn't hand off the annoying work to him.
Once everyone was settled the Wedding resumed. The timing for the ceremony was gone but they were still going to have the wedding because harry didn't want to wait countless years until the next alignment to marry the girls he loved. Even if Jean left one day, he knew she would come back.
Before the sun set, Harry stood at the altar where the Ancient One officiated and they waited patiently. Rogue, Jean, and Wanda walked up in their beautiful dresses and were led up the aisle by Logan. Oddly enough, he was the de facto father figure for most of the X-Men and the old man didn't seem to mind. The fact that he could rub it in Erick's face in the future was certainly a bonus, but he wouldn't deny he cared for the kids like family. He didn't have memories of his past, but he knew he had family.
The Ancient One asked, "Harry Potter, do you vow to love, watch over, and honor Jean, Wanda, and Anna Marie?"
Harry answered with his heart, "I do."
She asked the same of the other three who answered the same. "Then by the power granted to me as Sorcerer Supreme of the Realm of Earth, I now pronounce you Man and Wives. You may kiss the brides."
Harry kissed Jean first and then Anna Marie, then and Wanda. Those in attendance cheered and a number of them cried. Rogue tossed the bouquet behind her and it was Sarah Kinney who caught it. She looked suggestively over at Dr. McCoy who seemed to shyly blush behind his blue fur and smile.
Harry used a portal to allow everyone to leave except for themselves. The mansion on the island survived the battle and Harry's two week Honeymoon was about to start.
Over the course of the next two weeks, Harry updated his wives on every sėx spell he was aware of. Sirius was banned temporarily from the island and Amelia ensured he would not show up so the group didn't have to worry about anyone hearing them scream into the night. When Harry was asked at the end of the first week if he acquired a Sex Path, he refused to answer.
Fourteen days and twenty seven replacement king sized beds later, Harry and his girls returned to New York to officially move into their new home.
Wanda and Rogue had tested out of High School and Jean officially graduated meaning that even though all three were sixteen, all three were accepted into NYU. There was a very specific reason Harry moved right next door to New York University. He wanted to attend with his girls.
All three of his wives were accepted as Students of course. Harry did not apply as a Student. He applied as a Teacher. Harry already got a Teaching certificate and due to the fame of his Video Lectures, his teaching style and qualifications were well known. His mutant debate showed that he could face a live audience and still calmly deliver a lesson which proved he would have no issues teaching a class of students and Harry applied and got approved on Aug 3rd to teach some classes when the Semester started a month later giving him the record of the world's youngest Professor at age sixteen. Harry made news a number of times after this as did the University which received a lot of publicity and attention for their record breaking precedent.
Once it was all set, it was decided with the faculty that he would teach several different Physics classes and one Metaphysics class as well. At the moment, Harry was the only person in the world technically qualified to teach a class on Metaphysics. By having Harry as a teacher, NYU could add Metaphysics as one of the Degree options and those who wished for such degrees could study under Harry in the future.
New York University itself was one of the top Science Universities in the States. It was behind MIT on the tech side, but ahead in Biology and Physics with famous Professors like Dr. Samuel Sterns and Dr. Curt Connors. These would be Harry's colleagues in the future. The brightest geniuses in New York would attend and Harry would be there to teach them. Although Harry loved magic and enjoyed saving people as a hobby, what he truly wanted to spend his life doing was teaching.
The first classes would be starting in on the first Tuesday of September and Harry already had his lesson plans. He hoped the faculty would not hold it against Harry if he used a portable Hard-Light projector to play pranks on his students. He would have to keep them on their toes after all, it was what a responsible Teacher should do. Though anyone looking at Harry as he thought up all the pranks he was going to play on them would have no choice but to think Harry was planning something purely diabolical.
One day on the last week of August, Harry got a call from the Ancient One.
Harry asked, "Bad news?"
[No actually. Good news. I have been in contact with a Grand Master of Good Chi Magic in San Francisco and it seems he has agreed to send some ȧssistance to you.]
"Why does that sound incredibly vague?"
[Well we have been exchanging letters so it does take time for our exchanges to go through.]
"Letters? As in paper mail with stamps? From Tibet to San Francisco?"
[Yes to all of the above.]
"I see. And when shall this vague ȧssistance arrive?"
*Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock*
Harry sighed and he could almost see the Ancient One smiling at the other end of the phone.
"Someone is apparently at the door. I'll call you later."
Harry hung up and walked downstairs while looking over the place. Harry didn't use house elves but simply used magic to clean everything himself. It wasn't that he had anything against house elves, but they could be tracked if you knew how and were not the brightest bunch. Plus the house had so much magic built directly into it that some parts cleaned themselves.
Harry opened the door and found a sixteen year old girl of Asian descent. Despite the matching ages her head only came up to Harry's shoulders but her short, thin stature hid what Harry could tell was an excellently toned body he would not believe did not practice some form of martial arts. She had black hair which ran down to her shoulders with bangs framing both sides of her face and large brown eyes. She also had two heavy looking suitcases.
"Hey! You're Harry right? I'm Jade Chan, and I'll be your teacher in Chi Magic."
Harry raised an eyebrow. She certainly had a lot of Chi, Harry could feel it, but she did not feel like a Master. Still, the letter had come through the Ancient One.
Harry invited her in and said, "In that case, welcome to New York."
If nothing else, Harry was a little curious as to the identity of the twelve sources of Dragon Chi in one of her suitcases. Even if she was lying, it should prove interesting.
Outside of Harry's house, twenty brand new, highly advanced wireless cameras had been set up which all monitored the street and every face that came and went. The moment she knocked on the door, Jade's face was scanned and running through several databases to locate her origin. Several alarms flashed on the screen and files were found from a sub-division of their organization. The file containing Jade Chan's name and picture had over four hundred folders and over ten thousand incident reports.
The agent who ran the search paled at the size of the file and immediately called up her boss.
"Yes Fury, you need to see this. And you should probably call Captain Black from Section 13.. Apparently he knows her."