The battlefield was quiet for the first time in hours.
Too quiet.
Ethan stood on the fractured concrete, his breath steaming in the air despite the late afternoon sun. The aftermath of the last fight still clung to the ground — Endless armor fragments, SCP containment pods cracked open, and the black sludge of an eldritch creature slowly evaporating.
Jason stood a few meters away, his weapon lowered but not relaxed. "Feels like the calm before the—"
It is not calm.
The voice slid into Ethan's skull like liquid silver. He knew that tone now. Not telepathy. Not magic. The higher being.
---
Reality didn't ripple this time — it fractured. A vertical seam of white-gold light split open in the air, and from it stepped the cloaked, impossible figure. Its presence pressed against Ethan's skin, bending the space between heartbeats.
*Your survival capacity is insufficient for what approaches.*
Ethan almost laughed. "I've been hearing that a lot today."
The being's faceless hood tilted. *You have endured by clawing forward. Now, you will ascend by design.*
Three motes of pure color floated forward from the being's cloak — one deep violet, one bone-white, one a shimmering storm of blues and reds.
---
First Gift: Gellert Grindelwald's Genetics + Magic
The violet mote struck Ethan in the chest. His veins lit up like threads of molten glass, magic roaring through them with a force that almost buckled his knees. Grindelwald's magic wasn't just learned — it was woven into his blood, his instincts.
Ethan's existing Harry Potter magic bent, reshaped, and expanded. Wand movements became optional, incantations a whisper in his mind. He could feel wards forming around him on reflex, curses sharpening like scalpels, conjurations bending to his mood. Magic was no longer something he used — it was something he was.
---
Second Gift: Lex Absentis Dei
The bone-white mote touched his skin and sank into him without heat or cold — just silence.
Everything else dimmed for a second. Not the sound, not the light — the existence of things faded at the edges. The power pulsed inside him, the understanding of a domain where things could be made unhappen. A rifle could be erased from history mid-shot. A wound could vanish — or a person's entire presence in reality could be cut out like an unwanted paragraph.
The Carnitrix interface hesitated, glitching for the first time before marking the power with a warning icon.
---
Third Gift: Compound V
The storm-colored mote slammed into him with brute force. It was electricity, fire, adrenaline — violence made cellular. His muscles swelled, bones hardened, every nerve sharpening. It wasn't just strength and speed — it was durability that laughed at bullets, reflexes that snapped into motion before thought, senses that mapped the battlefield without his eyes.
And with Grindelwald's magic and the Lex Absentis Dei fused into his system, that physical upgrade didn't just make him a better fighter — it made him a nightmare for anything in front of him.
---
The higher being raised a hand, and two more shapes emerged from the seam.
---
Digimon Partner: Guilmon
A flash of crimson resolved into a short, reptilian figure with curious amber eyes and a triangular biohazard mark on his chest. His tail swayed with restless energy.
"Hi, Ethan!" Guilmon's voice was eager, childlike, but steady. "I can fight! And I can get way stronger if you help me Digivolve!"
The being handed Ethan a sleek Digivice, black metal with gold trim and a pulsing white core. Through this, your will can guide his growth — or he may reach his peak alone. Both paths have their uses.
---
Pokémon Partner: Mewtwo
The light shifted, and the air filled with crushing psychic pressure. Mewtwo appeared — tall, alien, feline-like, his eyes cold and calculating. Floating beside him was the Mewtwonite Y, its gemstone glowing with restrained, lethal energy.
"I do not serve," Mewtwo's telepathic voice carried the weight of centuries. "I am Your Partner, Equal and, not your Pet. Earn my Mega Evolution, and I will unleash it for you."
Jason's hand twitched toward his weapon before he thought better of it.
---
The higher being's cloak began to dissolve back into the seam of light. *The predators will not wait. The rift will open again soon. Survive, and I will give you the last piece you require.*
The seam snapped shut, leaving Ethan with the sudden, dizzying truth — he now had enough raw power to challenge gods… and enough responsibility to drown in it.
---
The Storm Arrives
Mewtwo stiffened first, his psychic field spiking. "Multiple incursions. SCP fleets. Endless strike carriers. And… something I have not felt before."
Guilmon's ears flicked. "It smells wrong."
The sky tore open above them — two separate rifts. From one came SCP dreadnoughts, flooding the air with drop pods. From the other, Endless loyalist warships, their hulls shimmering with dimensional shielding. And between them, a black wound bled shapes that defied sanity — eldritch horrors eager to feed.
Jason cursed. "Three-way meat grinder."
Ethan smiled faintly. "Then let's see what the new toys can do."
---
Grindelwald's magic flowed into his hands without thought — fire roaring around Endless war armor, freezing SCP mechs solid before shattering them with a flick. Lex Absentis Dei carved blank spaces into the battlefield, erasing enemies mid-attack. Compound V let him move through the chaos like a predator in a slowed-down world, shrugging off impacts that would have shattered bones before.
Beside him, Guilmon charged forward — his Digivice pulsing —
"GUILMON DIGIVOLVE TO… WAR GROWLMON!"
Metal armor formed over his body, claws crackling with energy as he ripped through SCP heavy units.
Above, Mewtwo's psychic storm caught Endless drop ships, folding them in half mid-air and sending the wreckage crashing into eldritch creatures.
---
The horrors shifted their focus toward Ethan — one lunging with a mouth that split into seven — and he fused the Lex Absentis Dei into a Grindelwald curse. The thing didn't die. It simply ceased to have ever been.
Jason shouted, "Endless from the flank!"
Ethan spun the Carnitrix — Fusion Sequence: Rath + Kryptonian + Grindelwald's Magic + Compound V + White Lantern Core — and his form exploded outward into an armored, clawed juggernaut wreathed in both life-light and void. He met the Endless head-on, every strike erasing weapons, crushing armor, or burning through shields in seconds.
---
The eldritch rift pulsed, and something larger began to push through. The air tasted like iron and madness.
Mewtwo's voice hit Ethan's mind. If that thing crosses fully, we will not contain it.
Ethan looked at Guilmon. "Time to go further."
"WAR GROWLMON DIGIVOLVE TO… MEGAGROWLMON!"
The crimson titan landed beside him, missile racks primed.
Mewtwo's gemstone lit — his form shifting into Mega Mewtwo Y, psychic energy distorting the air like heat.
---
The three of them charged the rift. Ethan moved like a comet, magic and void slicing reality itself, Compound V fueling each impossible leap. Mewtwo hammered the creature's mind with psychic force while MegaGrowlmon's barrage staggered its form.
Ethan saw the opening — and with Grindelwald's precision, Lex Absentis Dei's erasure, and Compound V's sheer force, he cut the entity's emerging body out of existence. The rift screamed and snapped shut.
---
When the dust settled, Endless survivors retreated. SCP fleets pulled back. The eldritch presence was gone.
Jason approached slowly. "You're not just leveling up anymore. You're… rewriting the damn game."
Ethan glanced at Guilmon and Mewtwo, both watching him closely. "Then let's make sure we win it."
Somewhere far above, the higher being watched — and for the first time, Ethan thought he felt it ∆pprov€.
---
End of Chapter 13