Chapter 147: Magical World War, Music, and Tea Party

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As the war in the magical community evolved, Erik was doing what he could to not allow it to evolve. He had already stopped a dozen of Devils from doing contracts to help Grindewald and its cause and was blocking the Tepes and Carmilla faction of Vampires to enter the fray. He had basically sent the Vampires a message just after they were visited by a Lieutenant of Grindelwald's forces that said, if they take sides in the magical war, he would finish what Baron Black had started nine hundred years ago in Greece, but this time in Romania. That was enough for the Vampires to abstain from the magical war and reject Grindewald's proposition. The Ravenclaw name was a sort of boogieman for them since every time Erik got news of a Vampire 'feasting', he would move personally to eradicate it with extreme prejudice. If you happen to be his target, just thank the heavens that is Lord Ravenclaw after you and not Lady Ravenclaw. Selena liked to play with her 'prey' before finishing them, while Erik killed them quickly.

As Erik blocked the supernatural from intervening, Grindelwald was getting frustrated that his efforts to boost his army were not bearing any fruits, halting the advancement of his plans. For the man, the only good thing that had happened recently was the news that, due to a blood pact made when young, the only man that had the power to stop him could do nothing.

Unfortunately for Grindelwald, Albus 'too-many-names' Dumbledore was not just on the sidelines watching his past friend and lover wage a war against the magic world. The man was doing his research with the help of the special library that Hogwarts' Headmaster, Armando Dippet, had allowed him access to and was devising a ritual to break the shackles of the blood pact.

And Unfortunately for Hogwarts, this major ritual, which took place inside the castle, had the drawback of messing with the ward's system due to the kind of magic energy released at the breaking of the pact. One could even say that Albus Dumbledore just didn't turn into a piece of charcoal while force-breaking the pact because the Castle's wards absorbed all the energy while shielding a member of the school's staff from harm, damaging itself in the process since it was not ready to absorb that kind of power coming from inside the wards. This 'damage' would only be discovered forty years later with the visit of the Castle's Lord to the Castle.

The battle between ex-lovers was very anti-climatic in comparison to the one that would be happening between Vasco Strada and Kokabiel. So boring that Erik didn't even see himself in need of recording the thing. Okay, maybe it had been a legendary fight between very even opponents, but that was inside a wizard's standard, something that Erik had distanced himself from since his graduation from school.

With Grindewald out of the equation and permanently incarcerated in the prison that he had built for his enemies, the army that he had amassed during the war crumbled like a sandcastle. Even so, some of the more radical people continued to resist for some time and were subdued or killed by the forces assembled from the allied countries. The ones who surrendered were the smart ones since most of them manage to buy back their freedom while using mostly money acquired through pillage during the war.

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As the wars on both sides, magical and non-magical, wrapped up, Erik focused back on what was important to him: His family and his 'new' dimension. The development of The Nexus little town was going nicely and it had reached almost a population of three thousand people. Among these people were humans, wizards, witches, mages, youkai, demi-gods, Devils, Half-breeds. The list of different races that lived in harmony inside The Nexus went on and on. Even three Damphirs were living there. Joan had rescued them from a laboratory/prison/torture chamber inside one of the concentration camps that they had raided during the Second World War. The Nazi scientists were using the three children as guinea pigs while experimenting with their blood to try and create something from it. Be it a serum to heal their soldiers fast or a serum to give them super-human abilities. No need to say that the research was all destroyed. Since they didn't have anywhere else to go because the Nazis had killed their families, Joan talked to Erik about giving the three of them shelter and a place to live a somewhat normal life. Their need for blood was solved with a visit to the hospital every third week. It was manageable since, because they were Dhampirs, their need for blood was lower than a full-fledged Vampire and they could sustain themselves with normal food. Alice, Bethanny, and Cadmus ended up forming a strong bond between the three of them. So strong that nobody would be surprised if they ended up in a three-way marriage in the future.

With the continuous growth of the community, Erik saw the need for them to form some kind of ruling body, or government, to take care of things since they could not always run to Erik to solve their problems and Erik didn't want that to happen too. So, elections were held and the first mayor for The Nexus was selected. She was a middle-aged witch, mother of two, that had already been involved in organizing her neighborhood together with other people. The charismatic woman made for an excellent first choice for mayor. Even if she was lacking experience, she compensated for it with hard work and dedication.

Speaking about hard work and dedication, Ingvild was fitting nicely within The Nexus. After being discharged from the hospital, the Devil-Witch dived herself into the study of magic. Afraid that she would isolate herself from others, Erik and Serafall made a deal with the girl. Ingvild would have an instructor on magic and in trade, she would have to frequent school inside The Nexus. The girl promptly accepted the deal and started to have particular classes on the three types of magic that she could tap into with Serafall and Selena. Erik, at first, had thought about enrolling Ingvild at Hogwarts, but choose not to do it due to her magic not being compatible with wands. Ingvild's reserves were too big and mostly wands would quickly burn out when used by the girl. It was after entering school that the family discovered the girl's love for singing together with her amazing voice for it. Ophis, who continued to visit for sweets, would just sit and listen to Ingvild's song. When asked, the Dragon of Infinity just replied that she liked Ingvild's voice. It was soothing and they soon discovered the reason for it.

With Ingvild's control over her magic increasing, together with her training, Ingvild's Sacred Gear awakened. Under Erik's guidance, the girl dived into it and retrieved all the information that she could about how to use it together with its name. Nereid Kyrie. A high-tier Longinus Sacred Gear that could control Dragons and the sea to some level. To say that it was not a perfect combination for her Serpent of the End bloodline power would be a big lie. Nereid Kyrie's existence explained perfectly why Ingvild's voice affected Ophis so much. The Sacred Gear's power was influencing her voice, turning it soothing to Dragons. Not that her voice was bad or anything like that, On the contrary, Ingvild had a perfect voice. So good that she quickly became somewhat of an attraction in The Nexus, receiving invites to sing at various festivals that happened throughout the year.

Ingvild's voice gave Erik a wild idea for a new business, and soon enough, Ravens' Records, a subsidiary of Ravens' Group, caught the entire world by storm with their arrival in the sector of music. Even more when they announced contracts with big names of the music industry of the time, quickly making the Ravens' Records name a synonym to success. The interesting thing about Ravens' Records was that it had three markets to explore: The normal world, the magical world, and the supernatural world. And it did it with an enormous success that brought new and wonderful voices to all ears.

Ingvild had her first album released just before the start of the Second World War on all three markets and it had taken the conjunct efforts of Erik and Serafall to convince the young women to record it. With the name of 'Sleeping Dragon', one could say that her voice lifted the spirit of soldiers and civilians all around the world, breaking records of copies sold and prizes as the most played song on the radios. On the underworld, the Dragons living there became their diehard fans while basically being the sole reason for Ingvild's Live Perfomances' tickets being solding out almost as soon as it started selling tickets. On the magical communities, her voice found a very unlike, but expected, use at the hands of Dragon Handlers. The mighty beasts would quickly calm down while hearing Ingvild's songs, easing the job of their handlers enormously. A magic gramophone together with Ingvild's album quickly became a must have for all Dragon Reserves in the world.

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It was just after the end of the Second World War that Amaterasu decided to bring and introduce two new women to the Tea Party. The first one was named Magari and she was the leader of the Nekomata tribe under the East Youkai Faction, which was led by Nurarihyon. Magari was a young-looking woman with white hair that had seven white tails lazily swaying behind her. Together with the cat ears growing atop of her head, Magari looked very cute, not at all showing her true age which was over eight hundred years. She was Nurarihyon's right-hand woman too. The other woman's name was Yasaka, a nine-tailed fox who was the leader of the West Youkai Faction and had just come into power. Yasaka looked like a blonde buxom beauty that had its foxy ears showing atop of her head together with the lazily moving nine fox tails behind her back.

Both Youkai were obviously holding themselves back when they entered the compound chosen for the day's meeting, not wanting to bring shame to their goddess. But they didn't expect to see Amaterasu's sudden change in behavior. She instantly had thrown away the image of a proper lady and got to greet and hug all the other women in the room. Amaterasu smirked at the faces that both Youkai were doing.

"Come on, girls. I brought you together with me so I can introduce you to my friends. This is a place in which strong women, like us, can relax and talk freely while enjoying some delicious food at the same time."

At the mention of food, Selena had chosen that moment to enter the room with a lot of different things floating behind her. With a wave of her hand, all the plates landed on the tables in the room. Amaterasu's eyes shone at that, and, soon enough, the Goddess was taking a look at the snacks that they had available for them in that meeting. Selena smiled at that.

"Today we have some new snacks to enjoy, girls. Aside from the ones made by Erik, some of them are made by a very talented baker that Erik helped with the opening of his own store. We also have two new additions to our Tea Party. So, let's welcome them warmly while enjoying all these delicious snacks."

Selena said, 'officially' starting that meeting. It didn't take long for Magari and Yasaka to mingle with everyone. Amaterasu's plan to introduce the women had been a success. She just lamented that it could not be done earlier due to some fights happening between the two factions. Nurarihyon was surely very shocked when Amaterasu appeared with Yasaka in toll and asked for Magari to come with her to a meeting. When Nurarihyon asked what was this meeting, Amaterasu glared at him and only replied that it was an exclusive meeting for powerful women all around the world, and since Magari was the most powerful female in his faction, she had decided to take her to it together with Yasaka.

With this move, Amaterasu hoped that her people would understand each other on a better level, avoiding unnecessary bloodshed in the future. And she thought that it was working well when she saw Magari devouring one of Erik's snacks that had a filling of sweet cream inside.

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