Chapter 465: Seeing the Strings
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22 June 1995, Athens, Greece
He knew exactly what this was: a statement, a proof of power. The portal flared slightly, obviously someone stepping through it. Harry conjured his scythe, ready to confront an attacker, until a familiar voice stopped him cold, "There's no need to panic. I simply believe that it was time for us to have a little conversation."
Harry stared at the man before him, who had a face mirroring his own, with familiar messy hair and green eyes. He really should have seen it coming. It was obvious in hindsight, and yet he had other priorities, like stopping the Apocalypse, of course.
For the first time in a long time, he really didn't know what to say, and so, he instead muttered, "Mordred."
"In the flesh," the grinning knight spoke up, "I was wondering when you'd figure it out. It was remarkably fast, really. I'm almost impressed. So, what gave me away?
When Harry had seen him, as he returned to this universe, the man was more like a solemn and rusted knight, waiting for his duty to end, just to be able to move on to the afterlife. Now, the man seemed to have shifted completely, his smile looking excited, with a hint of suppressed madness and glee in his eyes. It was like looking at a completely different person.
And so, he answered, "You were the only thing that didn't make sense. The energy needed to maintain a soul, to stop it from slowly losing itself, would have been enough to increase the wards on Midgard by a lot. It seems too inefficient for something as vast and fundamental as Death to make."
Something in their previous interaction had always niggled in Harry's mind, something hadn't felt right, but with the prospect of the World Ending and being involved in the prophecy of Ragnarök, he had been too preoccupied to do anything.
If anything, Mordred's smile widened, "Go on."
"You said the exact thing to get me to be involved. I was planning on hiding, on not being involved anymore in the messes of Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. You convinced me that I had no other choice, or I'd end up as the thing I feared most, an eternal prisoner to a senseless duty. I couldn't risk it. You knew that I couldn't. It kept niggling again and again in my head, the idea of ending up like you. The anxiousness, maybe even a bit of desperation, would have followed me until my dying breath, and you knew that. You ensured that. Hell, it was the exact thing you needed to say, the exact thing you needed to show me, to get me to get involved again. I'm not saying it's impressive, it's more like you knew exactly what to say to make me act this way. It was vague enough that I didn't question it, and I wasn't nearly as experienced with soul magic as I am now. You took advantage of that."
"Very good," Mordred replied, "But there's more, isn't there? You're so close now."
Harry wrapped his head, and it came to him immediately, "Time. The kids should never have been able to travel to the past and remain in the same timeline. There are a lot of risks, and the law of time would deny it. Something let them through. No, something manipulated Time itself to allow them to do it and forced its hand to enforce that particular future from happening, to force me to make a few things happen, like faking my death. I probably wouldn't have bothered, and I would have been hounded day and night to deal with one crisis after another. That tells me something. Someone wanted this particular future from happening, enough to arrange the puzzle pieces when Fate itself was in flux, when the outcome was unknown by anyone else, someone powerful enough to see through what the Light and Dark, and their near infinite power, couldn't perceive. Which brings me to a single conclusion. You're not Mordred, are you?"
That statement seemed to be the first thing to take the man before him off-guard. Mordred stayed silent for a few seconds, as if digesting this information, before bursting into laughter.
Harry stayed there, not really saying anything, and instead waited for the man to find that out. "Finally, someone saw it. Oh, by the void, it's so nice when I finally get surprised these days. Yes, you're right, I'm not Mordred. I've never been Mordred. He had so much potential, that boy, but it was too bad he was born under the control of the Le Fey woman. He could have grown so much, but was just never allowed to. And yes, you're right, souls of potential champions were not used to protect Midgard's barriers, but copies of their consciousness to direct the protections when dealing with potential direct attacks, more like a magical painting than anything else. Mordred had been one of them, much like Ignotus Peverell. It wasn't exactly punishment, but the logic is there. Someone who chooses not to let Ragnarök happen would obviously keep protecting Midgard against outer threats for an eternity. Of course, now, the Gods' protection is gone and replaced by your wonderful golden tree."
It wasn't hard for the last Potter to see that the man before him was old and he was powerful, with a command over Space and Time that far outstripped his own. In Harry's research, there was only one person whose feats outstripped his own when it came to the manipulation of space and time. There was a single legendary being, with small snippets throughout history, hinting at power at this scale, and Harry spoke up his name, more like a gamble than anything, "Kronos."
The man's green eyes morphed golden, letting out a pulse of power, and the man's amusement sharpened, "As impressive as this is, names have power, and you really shouldn't say them without understanding the consequences. But I suppose you are correct. I have been called by this name in the past. Or was it the future? Time ceases to have any meaning after a while."
"But why do all of this? Why did you manipulate the world so much to get me to kill the Light and Dark?"
Kronos' golden eyes were disappointed for the first time in this conversation, and he took a deep breath. "My dear boy, I could have destroyed the Light and Dark with a thought. The multiverse is large and infinite. I have battled gods whose power was absolute, infinity itself given form. I have watched universes burn. I fought battles that were on a scale you could have never imagined. I saw the birth of entire clusters of the multiverse, and I watched as time itself ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained but emptiness and the void. I have walked universes when the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman. I have watched universes freeze and creations burn. Do you think that something like the Light and Dark could have given me trouble? No, if I wanted them gone, I could have done it in moments, not wait thousands of years for you to do it."
Harry felt the sheer power of Kronos' words and knew in his very soul that it was true, that the being before him could have easily just killed the Light and Dark in moments. Without thinking, he blurted out the question that had been roaming his mind, "Then why didn't you just kill them and be over with?"
"Why should I? Do you think you were the only world facing an Apocalypse? An infinite number of universes implies an infinite number of worlds on fire."
"Then why not leave it?" the young mage continued, "Why interfere at all? Your logic dictates that you shouldn't involve yourself anyway."
"I wasn't going to, at first, but I have to say your realm was certainly a novel experience. I have seen humanity rebel against gods and demons. I have seen humanity worship them. I have never seen humanity and gods unite to fight against two humans who had merged with a dimension. I have never seen humans shake the delicate balance of realms in a universe, enough to make them collide with one another, enough that even the domain of the gods was affected. I believe you call it the Great Cataclysm. It wasn't special. I've seen Elder Gods do this, but never humans, and so I decided to investigate. I slipped through the protections of the gods and walked alongside humanity, just to investigate. I watched the potential timelines for this place, and it was so chaotic, so unhinged, that it meant only a single thing. Someone had a spark in their soul to become something greater, something that I couldn't see. There were so many chaotic futures, so many infinities that I couldn't figure out what was the source of this all. And well, I guess you can say that I got invested."
"You involved yourself in our universe, manipulated thousands of lives, played with our history, because you were bored," Harry replied dryly.
"When you get to my age, you crave interesting things, and believe me, this was interesting," Kronos answered with a smile devoid of any shame, "Anyway, I started with the two Light and Dark Champions, and adopted them when they were children, trying to observe their behaviour, to see if somehow, a soul merged with a fragment of a realm could grow into something more. I made them their own realms, seeing how much they were affected by their 'patrons' without any conflict, and found myself disappointed. They relied of them for everything, even making decisions, and I knew that the person I sought wouldn't be one of their champions. I left, after a while, and as I expected, they started killing each other the moment I wasn't there to enforce the peace, and thus Olympus itself had fallen. It wasn't for a few centuries later that I met someone truly remarkable, a genius of magic unlike anything I had ever seen before, even myself. I was more powerful. I was more knowledgeable and would have remained so for thousands of years, even if I spent every single day teaching him my knowledge, but he could simply understand magic in such an instinctive way that it even surprised me."
"Solomon," Harry spoke up, "You're talking about Solomon."
"Yes. I taught him a few tricks, and he took them to a whole new level, mastered them so completely that it took me off guard. He was a soul meant for greatness, and I could have seen him ascending, becoming something greater, something like me. Instead, he imprisoned the Light and Dark into his own body and used the divination I taught him to set pieces into the future that would result in their destruction. He lacked ambition, the urge to explore, and was instead content with what he had, with his finite existence. There's some wisdom in this, I suppose. I accepted this, even if I was disappointed. Out of curiosity, I followed his line, and I noticed that a few of his descendants showed traces of the greatness he had, each one intertwined with the first prophecy your world has ever seen, Ragnarök. It followed your bloodline around, trying to fulfil itself, and every single one of them refused to let the world end. It was funny. It was the first time I had seen an Apocalyptic event want to be realised so badly. Still, I could see Solomon's scheme all over it, and I might have underestimated him. I thought that this was all this world had to offer until the day you were born. I recognised the spark in your soul as well, the potential for greatness that I've seen so long ago. I could see Solomon's plan revolve around you, and so, I decided to change it a bit. I arranged for a few memories to reach you, to temper you, and amended Solomon's plan to work with that in mind, hoping that you would grow."
"You were responsible for my rebirth?" Harry exclaimed, suddenly stiffening. He had never talked about his past life to anyone else. It seemed that over the years, it started to matter less and less, really. After a while, whatever knowledge he had was useless, and it had all gone to the back of his mind.
"There was no rebirth," Kronos explained, "Just an echo that I added into your soul, to temper you, to make you grow faster, one specifically meant to stroke your ambitions. You had the same potential, but a more mature mind would have allowed you to achieve it in time before you had to deal with Ragnarök. You didn't disappoint, and you grew. You learned on your own, discovering your magic without being explicitly taught, and I knew deep down that I had found what I was looking for, and you did not disappoint. You have travelled between universes, figured out how to channel the void between souls, and even the mechanics of creating realms imbued with your rules and intent. Each challenge was meant to forge you into the man you are now, and I couldn't be any prouder. Sure, I had to make a few pushes so that you wouldn't fall into the same trap as Solomon, but you can't argue with the results."
Harry froze at that, unable to comprehend the truth of what he was seeing. Was this what his suffering amounted to? His world was about to be destroyed. His friends and family could have died. Countless people had perished, and all for what?
For a test. For someone else's curiosity.
Harry's knuckles whitened around the shaft of his scythe. The blade pulsed once in his grip, responding to the tumult in his soul, feeding on it.
Kronos stood there, smiling, the weight of eternities pressed into his gaze, waiting. Watching. Not out of malice, but fascination, like a craftsman observing the final chisel stroke on a masterpiece he had guided into form.
He knew that there was nothing he could do against the being in front of him. He didn't even know what he could have done, and instead took a deep breath, "Did it ever mean anything?"
"Of course it did, but meaning is a very subjective thing. For me, this whole thing was curiosity, but for you, this was a fight of desperation, for survival, for vengeance. Tell me, Harry Potter, would you have done anything differently, even if I hadn't pushed you? Sooner or later, you'd have been fighting Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and the prophecy of Ragnarok would have been achieved. I, on the other hand, just gave you the tools to use this to become something more. You can feel it, can't you, the branch of infinity at your disposal. By channelling the void, by understanding it, you have learned to navigate it, and that was my goal."
"What now?" Harry asked.
"Nothing," the man said to Harry's surprise. Kronos chuckled at the baffled look on his face, "What? Did you think I'd force you to do anything? With the Light and Dark gone, with the spark in your soul realised, this universe is now… ordinary, other than you, of course."
"What am I supposed to do now?" he asked, despite himself, "Travel the multiverse and explore just like you are."
"That's entirely up to you. Your choice. I can only tell you what I would do. If I were you…" a sly grin appeared on the face of the golden-eyed man, "Perhaps I was you, of course… Or perhaps, you are me… Or perhaps it doesn't matter either way… The future, your future, is now in your hands."
Harry remained silent, not knowing what to say. Kronos turned towards him, one final time, "Farewell, Harry Potter. Watching your journey was a pleasure. We will meet again one day."
With a wave of his hand, the portal behind him shimmered. Space folded like pages of a book, collapsing in on itself, and with one last amused glint in his golden eyes, Kronos stepped through and vanished.
Time resumed.
The wind stirred once more, rustling the garden's leaves. A bird chirped. The sunlight, previously held mid-beam, spilt naturally again onto the grass. The strange weight pressing on reality lifted, as if the world had exhaled after a long breath.
Harry stood still, scythe still in hand, staring at the space where Kronos had been. His heart was steady now. Footsteps approached behind him.
"There you are," Daphne called, crossing her arms, in an exasperated tone. "You vanished after telling me to get breakfast. Did you get lost in the garden, or were you having an existential crisis again?"
Harry turned slowly, his eyes softening at the sight of her, hair mussed from sleep, her expression halfway between irritation and fondness. She looked so beautiful.
He smiled.
"No," he said, walking toward her, "I was just thinking."
"Well, think faster," she muttered, grabbing his wrist. "Your tea's getting cold."
Harry chuckled under his breath. He glanced once more at the sky, at the place where the portal had been.
There were questions still. Mysteries. Paths stretching to infinity.
But for now?
Infinity could wait.
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AN: I spent so much time imagining this chapter in my head. I rewrote it twice, and that was the best I could do, and even then, I'm not sure it came out like I wanted it to. The idea was to have Kronos be looking for someone like him, someone who can travel the multiverse, and this whole thing was him trying to get them to be born. The universe has the potential, but that doesn't mean that it must birth someone with this capability. He tried getting Solomon to be it by teaching him directly, but Solomon refused, choosing to focus on his world and their futures, since travelling the multiverse tends to make people somewhat detached. Kronos figured out Solomon's plans to destroy the Light and Dark, and manipulated it to get Harry, the prophecy's hero, to develop the skills to light that spark.
My other choice was having Kronos stranded in this universe due to the Great Cataclysm and the barrier around it, and have him manipulate everything to get Harry to grow into someone who can travel the multiverse, since the activation would let him get free, but that sort of set Kronos up as an antagonist and that didn't feel right. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.