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(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 370: Malicious Augury
🕑 Added 2024-11-07 13:59:47 +0000 UTCChapter 370: Malicious Augury
20 April 1995, Mount Olympus, Greece
With a deep sigh, he walked forward. Hopefully, things were going to work out. Oh, who was he kidding? With his past experiences, something was probably going to go wrong eventually.
Harry couldn’t help but feel apprehensive about what he was about to face. They were walking up a spiral of solid clouds towards the palace at the top of the mountain, and that gave him time to really think things through.
There was something deeply wrong with what was happening. Things had gotten a lot easier the moment they met Perseus, and it was so sudden that he had to be suspicious. They were fighting swarms of monsters, hundreds at a time, the very Labyrinth wanted to slow them down with waves and waves of poor souls that had been corrupted, been bound to this hellish place, hoping to die. And yet, the moment the water elemental arrived, it hadn’t even shifted once. They weren’t attacked by any monsters and the Labyrinth did not try to trick them in any way.
And Harry had to wonder why that was the case.
The Labyrinth wanted them dead. That he was sure of it. It wanted them bound to its walls, slowly losing their humanity until they became nothing more than monstrous shells of themselves. And yet, it stopped.
So, that meant two things. Either the Labyrinth changed its mind for some reason, or Perseus’ presence meant that it would end up with them hurt. He didn’t think the boy himself was a threat. He was pretty strong, all things considered, and a very good fighter, but he was obviously inexperienced and lacked control.
Still, now that he thought about it, that kind of raw power just wasn’t natural. Harry himself had his magic circuits stretched due to the growth of his soul and his overuse of them during his stint in the Gardens of Avalon. Dumbledore and Grindelwald were the Light and Dark Champions respectively, Voldemort had gone through enough rituals that he could barely be considered human anymore, and Lily Evans was never really strong in the raw power department, but she easily made up for it with her mastery over blood magic to power spells far beyond her normal capabilities, and through sheer trickery.
All of their insane power – Harry’s included – was gained through artificial means. Harry had assumed that Perseus had gotten it through a series of rituals, but the more time he spent in his company, after getting used to the Tempest that was the boy’s magic, Harry could discern no artificial tampering using his Arcane Hearing. There was probably some other method, probably a way to strain magic circuits when he was a child, which was the more natural way to do so. He wouldn’t have thought that it could have such a drastic effect but combined with some kind of ritual over a prolonged time, it could theoretically cause some very drastic improvements in the magic. It would be painful as hell, of course, and it would even cause some control issues, the latter was being exhibited by the water elemental.
But that didn’t exactly matter. As powerful as the boy was, his lack of control was more than enough for Harry to beat him. He had obviously never fought anyone that he couldn’t overwhelm with sheer force, and that was a pretty drastic weakness.
Back to the issue at hand, Harry could not discern any sort of dishonesty or intentions of betraying them, and as much as that was comforting to know, it did make Harry paranoid about when the inevitable shoe would drop.
Assuming that Ariadne’s Thread worked, the golden apple should be in this realm. So, that was the goal, and if Heracles’ carvings were accurate, then Hera’s Garden was around the Labyrinth entrance, which from what he could sense was somewhere in the palace.
The objective was very clear, get the Golden Apple and leave as quickly as possible. He had a feeling that they would need an escape plan, so, Harry slowed down his perception of time and started analysing the world around him. He needed to crack this realm’s space-time constants for him to be at his best. In the worst case, he’d have gotten a headache over nothing, really. The climb was already pretty long anyway.
It took hours for them to arrive up the mountain, seeing a giant gate in front of them. Harry was about to open it, only for it to do that by itself. That little action destroyed whatever hope Harry had of this place not being inhabited.
A young woman with brown hair and green eyes appeared ran up to them, “Oh, you must be visitors. Oh, how wonderful! We haven’t had any new visitors in such a long time. We need to celebrate. Come on, follow me, the others are so not going to believe me!”
Objectively speaking, she was beautiful, so much so that she outshined even Veelas in the looks department. Her skin had a luminous quality, as if the very essence of starlight flowed beneath its surface, giving her a subtle glow. Her brown hair cascaded down her back in loose waves, each strand catching the light and shimmering with hints of gold and copper, moving gently as though stirred by an invisible breeze.
Her green eyes were flecked with tiny specks of gold that seemed to shift and dance when she spoke, and she wore a flowing gown that was a bit too white for it to be natural. From the way she was acting, one could assume that she was ditzy, but all of that changed when Harry opened up his Arcane Hearing. Pure order, that was what he could sense. It was like a very complex drum but where everything was measured, everything was calculated.
She was pretending, and she was very good at it.
The woman grabbed Perseus’ arm and practically skipped away, “So, how did you get here?”
“The Labyrinth,” the water elemental spoke back, “We came through the Labyrinth.”
“Ah, such a ghastly thing, that Labyrinth. In the old days, heroes from all over the world could come here and we’d give them tasks and so on. But now, ever since that thing has been there, people are too scared to see us, or they died. It’s been so boring around here without anything new happening.”
“I’m glad to see that,” Perseus responded, “Might I ask your name, my lady?”
“Oh, I’m Hera. What about you?”
The Greek boy stood there frozen at the idea that he was touching a goddess of all things. Daphne and Angelina gasped in surprise and awe, but Harry stood there impassive and did nothing.
Perseus knelt immediately, letting go of her hand, “Lady Hera, I am not worthy.”
“Rise my warrior,” she spoke with a regal tone before going back to normal, “Now get up; this is getting weird. You haven’t even said your name yet.”
“I am Perseus, Lady Hera.”
“Oh, that’s a familiar name. I remember him, he killed that girl that Athena hated. He was such a nice boy.”
Seeing that the others were spellbound to say anything, Harry decided to speak up, “So, Lady Hera, I don’t know if this is a sensitive issue or something, but how many gods are there, here on Olympus.”
“There used to be plenty, but now there’s only five of us, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Athena, and I. We’ve been alone for so long.”
Angelina broke from her stupor, “What happened? I thought that there were twelve Olympians here, after defeating Kronos who swallowed them during their birth.”
For some reason, the goddess snorted and even to his Arcane Hearing, an amusement that was mirrored in her Arcane Hearing, “This has to be the funniest thing I’ve heard of in a while. To think that Hermes’ little joke was still around after so long. Oh, he’d have found it so funny. No, Kronos didn’t swallow his children, he didn’t even try to conquer anything, and the thought of his children beating him in any way is extremely outlandish.”
Perseus blinked, “You’re not a child of Kronos.”
“No, Kronos only had three children, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. He created this entire place from scratch, realms for each of his children and a way to navigate between them. For a while, we all remained here, each one in a realm of their own. This was Zeus’ realm, a place of light where he could fly to his heart’s content. He was such a passionate man. When we got married, everything seemed so perfect. I stayed here with my sisters Demeter and Hestia. It was nice. Poseidon had a realm that was entirely underwater. It was so beautiful, and he even got a lot of Merpeople to live there. Hades’ realm was one of darkness and death, but that seemed to suit him just fine. We lived in harmony, like a real family, until one day, Kronos vanished. He tended to do that, go exploring into the void, but this time, he was away for too long. And with him gone, Zeus and Hades fought.”
She looked extremely lost in her thoughts as if she was remembering something very painful, before taking a deep sigh and continuing, “They were always competitive, but Kronos always made sure that they never went overboard. And without him, things escalated. Everyone took sides, but the war really started when Hades killed Poseidon. He said that it was an accident, but well, that didn’t really help much. Zeus and Hades fought, and Zeus won. Hades was dead, but so was half of our family. Of course, that wasn’t without consequences. Hades cursed the passageways that Kronos created, which over time, evolved into the Labyrinth. Zeus was wounded in the final battle which caused him to die years after. And to make things worse, the realms of Poseidon and Hades were fractured into thousands of small ones, a veritable calamity for the residents, and each sub-realm was further mutated over time by the Labyrinth. The only reason this place is still standing, even as a shadow of its former glory is because we – the remaining gods – did our best to patch things up, to keep things together. It’s pathetic, isn’t it? We’re supposed to be gods, and yet we squabbled like little mortals.”
Well, wasn’t that a nice story, one that Harry didn’t fully believe? There were a lot of true snippets there. Harry knew that Zeus and Hades were champions of the Light and Dark, and so their fighting wasn’t surprising. Kronos was also probably the one who made Mount Olympus as well, but there were a lot of things left out, like why were there gates to every small realm if the connections were made with the original ones, and that’s not even the mention the cruel fate that Heracles faced. Zeus dying to his wounds was also unlikely, especially with the golden apples being a thing.
If that wasn’t enough, they were obviously not gods. The fact that Zeus and Hades were champions of the Light and Dark respectively meant that they were fundamentally human. And to make things worse, every single thing the woman did was devoid of any true sensation besides the original amusement at the thought of Kronos being defeated by his children.
Everything was practised, everything was fake. Suddenly, Harry realized what he was missing what was making him feel so weird. The woman in front of him had no soul. It was nothing more than a puppet, but he couldn’t see where the strings were originating from. No wonder everything felt fake. The woman was literally that, a fake.
They had almost appeared in some kind of throne room when she had finished her tale. It was empty with five thrones in half a circle facing them. Hera, or whatever was piloting her, obviously wanted something from them. It all started with the Golden Apple, an obvious bait, which she probably had control over. So, she was the one who started the task, with the aim of bringing them into this throne room.
But which one of them? It had to be either himself or Perseus. Angelina wasn’t the target, obviously, and as much as he loved Daphne, he couldn’t see why an entity like Hera would be interested in her. No, Perseus’ abnormal nature could have something to do with it, and Harry had the prophecy of Ragnarök over his head.
Did Hera control Ariadne’s Thread? Probably not, Harry had analysed the enchantments thoroughly. So, that meant that there was a Golden Apple in Olympus, probably near the Labyrinth entrance, which he could locate easily enough.
But control over the Labyrinth? He was tempted to say yes. The fact that it froze up when Harry met up with Perseus solidified that theory. It was as if it didn’t know what to do, or if someone told it to stop. That meant two things, either their meeting was the purpose, or it took them off-guard. They were either observing him or Perseus and didn’t see the other one coming.
He was leaning towards the latter. They could have been more natural to arrange a meeting. Deciding that enough was enough, he spoke up, facing Hera directly, “Can we get serious now?”
Her fake face blanked and he saw Perseus stand up for her, “That’s out of line, Potter.”
Even Angelina hissed at his disrespect but Daphne, while surprised, quickly stood behind Harry. He ignored his companions and turned towards her, “I tell when someone’s pretending, and you definitely are. I can also see enough clues to see where things are going. You planned all of this, including using the Golden Apple as bait, all to bring us here. And that means that you want something.”
“Why would you think that?” she answered outraged.
“Well, if you don’t want anything from us, then I suppose you’d be willing to let us get the Golden Apple without any issues, right?”
She stayed silent, and he continued, “See. You arranged for all of this, the least you can do is save us some time and get straight to what you want, so that we can get the apple and leave.”
The fake body lost its lifelike movement, and its movement turned mechanical, “So be it!”
At that moment, the air around them seemed to ripple, and the grand throne room's opulence began to fade. The figure of Hera froze entirely, her eyes losing their lustre as if someone had flipped a switch. Cracks appeared on her skin, tiny fissures that emitted a harsh, white light.
Perseus took a step back, confusion and alarm crossing his face. "What’s happening?"
Harry remained resolute; his gaze fixed on the crumbling facade before them. "The charade is over," he said calmly.
At that moment, the throne room was suddenly illuminated by five brilliant flashes of light, each originating from one of the five grand thrones before them. The intensity was blinding, forcing Harry and his companions to shield their eyes. When the light dimmed enough to see, Harry lowered his arm and gazed upon the thrones.
Seated upon each throne was a figure composed entirely of shimmering light. Their forms were humanoid but lacked distinct features—no faces, no clothes, just silhouettes of radiant energy. The light they emitted wasn't warm or comforting; instead, it had an unnatural, almost sterile quality to it, casting sharp shadows across the room.
A chill ran down Harry's spine. There was something there, deep behind each of their magic, something that he could detect with his Arcane Hearing. It was like a single note, a ringing all in the back, one that reminded him of Dumbledore, or more accurately, his Light, unbending, unbroken.
And then, the five things spoke at once, their voice alien and shaking the very room, “Are we serious enough now, Harry Potter?”
Yeah, that sounded about right. What did he expect, really, when he entered Olympus?
“Well,” he began casually, "I've got to give you points for presentation at the very least. Now, where were we? Ah, yes, why have you brought us here?"
AN: Sorry if this seems a bit rushed, I ended up rewriting it at the last second since I didn’t like the first version. I’m not sure about this one either. It’s a bit slow action-wise, and I’m, not sure if I pulled off the ‘fake Hera’ routine in the first half of the chapter, but I decided to take a bit of a gamble. I don’t mind rewriting it depending on your feedback, so as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
Comments
athass_prkr
Congrats, you got me to smell a banana for some reason. XD
Blaine Hughes
GREAT CHAPTER did you know bananas have a smell?
athass_prkr
Spoilers :)
Monzter E
Well, shit...
Abe 7
So, a ploy by Light? Or someone tapping into Light?
HotSauce
Cool chapter. Is this when we finally see Harry’s raven mark react or if Ignotus shows up to speak with him again?
