Origin Story and Souls

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Here is an extra long chapter.

We are having a big family dinner tonight, wanted to give you this

present in case I am killed.

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After witnessing what just happened, Dumbledore nodded his head. Upon standing up, he motioned for Nova to follow him. So as Nova walked out of the Great Hall with Dumbledore, he saw Hermione, Harry and Ron peeking out from behind a pillar. Seeing that they were there Nova moved towards them, "Didn't you guys learn from the last event not to be sneaking around?"

"Well . . . um, you see, we just wanted to make sure you were alright." The trio started to say.

"You guys." Nova said while rubbing his head. "But anyways since you are already here it saves me some time having to go get you."

"What do you need us for?" Harry asked.

"No I don't need you. Hermione did you still want me to explain to you everything that is going on?" Nova asked her.

"Seriously? Yes I want to know." Hermione explained.

"Oy what about us?" Ron asked.

"It doesn't involve you. And if she can handle the truth later she is more than welcome to tell you later. Come on Hermione."

Hearing how serious Nova was they just looked at each other and after coming to a silent agreement, Hermione started to follow behind Nova and Dumbledore. They soon arrived in front of Dumbledore's office. Seeing the headmaster the statue guarding the door, moved out of the way to reveal the door.

As they sat down to begin talking, Professor McGonagall walked in and looking at Dumbledore, "Professor Dumbledore, all the students have been brought back to their dormitories."

"Good. Now Mr. Nova would you care to tell us all of what is going on?" Dumbledore asked.

"To start, allow me to give some background information. Eons ago, there was the Void. At some point in time the Void produced five entities: The Dragon God, The Archangel, The Phoenix, The Lion King, and The Enforcer. Each being was bestowed unimaginable power and a domain in which to control. The eldest of these being was the Dragon God, he was given the task of creating worlds and constructing their Laws, and to accompany him was the Phoenix, who was able to breath life into the worlds that were created. The Phoenix was eventually called Lady Phoenix on account of how beautiful she was. The Lion King was known as Nemea, and she was given the job as upholder of Justice. It was her job to insure that the worlds were kind and just. The Enforcer was to maintain the World Laws created by the Dragon God, and to give trial to those that broke them. And finally the Archangel, Samuel, his job was to punish those that the Enforcer deemed worthy of punishment."

As Nova talked, he shaped the flames to depict each being that he spoke of a dragon, a phoenix, a lion, an angel and a humanoid. While he talked the flames began to move demonstrating their jobs.

"Now as time passed the Dragon God was eventually called the Forger, on the fact that he was able to craft and create anything, from the simplest of knives to the very world itself. He crafted day and night and every world he created took the form of a glass orb. And placed it within his Sanctuary to house each orb and to insure that the worlds were safe. While the Dragon God forged these worlds the Phoenix sang songs of life and energy and from these songs the worlds received the energy to maintain themselves. And after working with each other for eons the two eventually fell in love with each other.

Over time it became apparent that not every world was able to live as long as the others, the energy in them would either dissipate or vanish altogether and once this had happened the world orb would begin to crumble and crack until it shattered. To avoid the life that formed in the orbs from spilling out of them as they broke, the Forger created another dimension in these worlds that when space would rupture life forms would come out and feed on the world to help maintain the balance until the orb became dead. But this wasn't always necessary, as the Phoenix was tasked to help maintain the balance of life in these worlds, as it was her song that gave them life to begin with.

Eventually the Archangel, Samuel, grew discontent with punishing those that deserved punishment, and felt that the worlds that were created had to be conquered. So after creating a army of the most vile and despicable members of the worlds and arming them with weapons of divine might he went against the Void and his first step was to kill the Enforcer, who managed the World Laws. With the death of the Enforcer, Samuel was able to gravely wound Nemea who fell into a trap designed just for her. The only reason she didn't die was the fact the trap was made by lower being who thought they new how to forge. With a last bit of energy, Nemea fled to the Forger's Sanctuary where he and Lady Phoenix lived. While Lady Phoenix tried to heal and cure Nemea, she informed the two of Samuel's treachery. And upon hearing this the Dragon God immediately went to work to create an artificial being that could manage the world laws in place of the Enforcer.

Meanwhile while he was creating the substitute Enforcer, Lady Phoenix who had just returned from a world of healing to allow Nemea to rest and recuperate, was greeted by Samuel and after Samuel failed to court her immediately tried to kill her. Sensing something the was wrong the Dragon God stopped the forging process and went to his wife to find that she had already been impaled. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but because Samuel had a divine weapon it caused the wound to be fatal.

Seeing that the end was near, Lady Phoenix made a decision to self-immolate in order to prevent Samuel from causing anymore damage. As she sang her last song, the Dragon God wept, not only for the fact it was the last time he would hear her sing, but because it was the most beautiful and heart wrenching songs his wife had ever sang. And with one last smile, he watched as his love turned into a bright explosion.

Now the immolation caused major damage to Samuel and made it where he had to retreat from his assault. As the Dragon God, sat down he saw at the spot that they worked together was a world orb. The last that they had created together. And with his eyes that were able to see everything he saw trace bits of his wife's soul scattered through the orb. So after seeing this he took the orb into a special chamber to keep it monitored, and began to formulate a plan.

After getting the artificial Enforcer working, the Dragon God, with the help of the sanctuary, managed to forge a working body for him, and when it grew to maturity, he finished a weapon able to seal Samuel in place. When the time came to enact the plan, the Dragon God, found that the world in which fragments of his wife's soul was in was starting to crumble. And so that is where we are at now, but because someone is likely interfering with the world, it has caused the orb to decay faster. Which in turn has caused the tears to form in space. Now are there any questions?"

After Nova finished telling his story, he looked at Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hermione to see what they were thinking. Dumbledore was just sitting there carefully breaking down the events that were spoken, same as Professor McGonagall, but Hermione on the other hand was not as calm and looked as if she was about to cry.

Finally after much silence, Dumbledore spoke, "This is a very eventful story Mr. Void, or should I call you Forger or Dragon God?"

"To be honest, it doesn't really matter to me. On the day, my wife and I married, we gave each other names to call each other rather than the titles we had been given. For me she gave the name Nova, on account of how my forge looked. And for her I called her -"

"Asteria" Hermione said softly, when she spoke her eyes were wide and seemed surprised that she had chimed in.

"Yes she was called Asteria, for to me she was as beautiful and bright as the stars in the sky." Nova said.

"Why -" Hermione started to say.

"Why do you know this? It is the same reason that you are not affected by my verbal commands anymore. And the same reason I feel drawn to you. Your soul is not your own, it houses another soul, which is part of my Asteria. And since the soul fragment has awakened it has shaped and purified yourself to help strengthen certain parts of you."

Now Hermione had wanted to deny everything that Nova was saying, but she couldn't for the proof was everywhere. Her appearance had changed, she had noticed that her mind and memory had gotten stronger, and she was able to remember how Nova had manipulated her family. The final nail in the coffin was she too had felt a feeling of comfort in being beside Nova but she didn't understand until he had said something.

"If you don't mind me intruding on your small conversation," McGonagall said, "But are you able to stop the world from tearing apart and crumbling?"

Hearing her, Nova just sighed, "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know!? You claim to be able to forge worlds, and now that one is falling apart you can't fix it?" McGonagall start to get worked up.

"Silence. Do no question me mortal." Nova said with slight irritantance. "Do you not think that I would have fixed it already if I was able to."

"Now Minerva, calm down." Dumbledore said. " I believe Nova has his reasons for not being able to fix the situation. If I heard correctly, during your story you said it was your wife that helped to maintain the balance and life of a world. Providing it with energy everyday to help it. But since she sacrificed herself, she is not able to do so anymore."

"That is correct, we wouldn't have this problem if I was able to do something." Nova said. "For me to fix this world, I need a flame with healing properties to it, and the only flame strong enough to do so was my wife's."

"So any old phoenix wouldn't be able to do the job." Dumbledore said.

"That is correct. I would need flames made by my wife to do it."

"Um . . . Nova would I be able to do it?" Hermione hesitantly asked.

"Unfortunately no." Nova said.

"Now don't get discouraged." He said seeing her get a forlorn look on her face, "If you were able to help me I would immediately start working. You only have a fragment of my wife's soul. For me to even remotely try to reforge this world, I need the four other fragments that lie in the souls of this worlds residents. Luckily though that it shouldn't be too hard to find the other fragments because each host has received certain benefits or Gifts as a host. Your should be your ability to think and plan, and ability to use magic. And I head from the Troll that there are three fragments in this castle, with Hermione being one of them."

"So all you need to do is find four other people and then fix this world." McGonagall said.

"Unfortunately it isn't that simple. To fix the world, I would have to bring the five people to my Sanctuary outside this world. But doing so at this point would be suicidal for the host, as they are too weak. Their souls would burn or be crushed by the pressure of the Void when they arrived at the Sanctuary."

"Is there a way to increase the soul?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes they person would just have to be near me for periods of time. But that isn't the real problem at hand right now. The issue is the tears. I can fix them but I have to be present when they open or the people with near the area will be food and once the creatures are fed the tears will close themselves."

"I will inform the ministry about this matter of the space tear. Is there anything else that we should need to know?" Dumbledore said.

"Yeah don't go walking into them. They are essentially gates to other realms, if a person goes into one, I don't have the faintest idea where they will come out. It could be in this world or another, or not at all. And to be honest, the tears shouldn't be happening, but it seems like Samuel is messing with the world or has broken some law that has made the world to degrade even further. Of course Samuel will face punishment for breaking the World Laws, but at the cost of the energy left in this world."

"Very well I understand." Dumbledore said. "Well I think that is enough excitement for one night. Minerva could you lead Ms. Granger and Nova back to their House."

"No that is alright Old Man. I will do it." Nova said. And as he took Hermione out of the room, he sent a mental message, " Can you hear me?"

"Yes."

"When I first entered the world I had 15 years to find and strengthen the soul fragments, but now that Samuel has messed with the orb, I can't guarantee how much longer this world will last. Judging from the appearance of the tears we have at most 7 years now."

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4/15 - ?