• half an hour after the rescue•
[ Alastor Moody ]
Alastor Moody arrived at one of his safe houses—or what he professed to call a safe house. In reality, it was nothing more than an expanded compartment trunk purchased from a suspicious looking vendor in the magical markets of Kalale— India. It was of far superior quality to the flimsy European models: larger, more stable, and woven with security charms so subtle they were nearly impossible to detect let alone break.
This particular trunk was one of several he had hidden in and around London, stashed in the damp, brick-walled basement of an abandoned Muggle house on the city's outskirts. He had other locations, of course: proper cottages warded to the teeth, camouflaged tents nestled in the Scottish highlands, even a hollowed-out rock on a windswept coast. But a man in his state of mind didn't stay in his primary fortresses. He followed a randomized schedule, and this location was expendable, a place he could bring himself to sacrifice if necessary.
Now, Alastor stood before the trunk. It was made of a deep, red wood, intricately carved with patterns that looked merely decorative but were, in fact, the visual component of its layered defenses. A thick layer of dust coated its surface, a satisfying testament to its lack of disturbance. He scowled slightly as he took his wand and began casting a series of scanning spells, just to be sure the location was not compromised. He was already starting to miss his fake eye—he checked behind him, above him, through the floorboards, and found nothing but rot, spiders, and the cold, empty silence of the house above.
Satisfied, he knelt, awkwardly tilting before remembering that he now had a new leg, a perfect, fully functional normal leg. It moved with an unnerving smoothness that still felt foreign. He twirled his wand, casting a quick Cleaning Charm to clear the dust from the trunk's lid. He didn't tap it with his wand. Instead, he placed his thumb flat on a circular wooden carving in the center. He heard a soft click and felt a sting as a drop of his blood was absorbed; a complex pulse of magic then traveled through the wood, lighting the pathways of the blood wards carved within.
The lock finally clicked open with the groaning sound of a waking beast. "This needs a bit of maintenance," he muttered, opening the trunk fully to reveal a void-like darkness. He stood up, lifted his leg to enter, but stopped mid-motion. He performed a quick, zigzagging wand wave, nodded to himself, and only then continued, now sure it was safe.
It wasn't even paranoia this time, just a legitimate concern stemming from the fact that he hadn't been here since the last war. He descended slowly as the lid closed behind him, finding himself inside a spacious landscape—the final security measure for intruders. He lifted his wand and fired a specific spell, his eye squinting slightly as the fake sky lit up in green and the illusion crumbled, revealing a spacious room with a wooden table and two chairs in the middle, a sink and stove on the left, and a door leading to a bedroom on the right.
"Haaaaaa…" Alastor let out a long sigh as he sat down on his bed, closing his eyes and letting himself fall back into the mattress. 'Today has been a long day,' he thought, his hand instinctively touching his now-healed eye.
He still hadn't processed everything that had happened, but now that he was calm and collected, he could at least think. First, he had been kidnapped. It had happened too easily, when it shouldn't have. Now that he thought about it, he should have won. So why hadn't he?
'Was it because the wizards he fought were powerful?' he asked himself. But going through his memories again, he could see that while they were experienced, they weren't overwhelmingly powerful. So, why?
He took a deep breath and fell into a meditative rhythm, soon finding himself inside what looked like a foggy jungle—an old, obscure wilderness full of trees of different sizes. Alastor moved, heading inward without paying conscious attention to his steps, though the way he clicked his foot every third step seemed deliberate.
He found himself in front of a huge tree trunk, one that was five times his own size. He took his wand and knocked on the trunk in a specific pattern: "tik tik, tok tok, tik tik, tok." He then knelt and plucked a leaf from a smaller tree nestled by the roots. As soon as he did, a white line began to form, winding around the huge tree and leading deeper into the jungle.
He followed it and soon stood before an old-looking wooden cottage. This was his mindscape, a place he had spent most of his time creating with the Archive's help. It had been surprisingly easy, as he'd already had a half-formed mindscape before and just needed guidance to access and complete it.
He had discovered the process when he'd tried to outsmart Dumbledore by using the Archive to search for spells, rituals, or anything else to verify that it hadn't affected his mind. He had found a lot of things, one of which was how to access the mindscape and see the Archive's access point within it.
That was how he came to learn how to access his mindscape and how to build it. It wasn't complete yet, obviously, but once he was done, he'd have a mind so fortified that even gods would get lost before arriving at their destination. Or at least that's what he thought before…
Getting inside the cottage—after going through all the security checks he had placed on the door, just in case someone had confounded him to get here—he opened the door and went inside. The cottage was as one would expect: quite cozy and humble, with a wooden table and chairs, a small kitchen by the side with a sink right underneath the window. On the other side, there was a couch, a small tea table with a vase on top, and a small bookshelf.
That was the shelf where he kept all his combat-related spells and memories, as he liked to go through them and check for errors. It was a habit he had developed back when he was still a trainee Auror, though back then he didn't have the capabilities he did now.
He sat down on the couch and extended his right hand towards the bookshelf, summoning the book of his latest fight so he could review and check what had happened. The book came to him with a soft "swoosh," and he opened it, starting to re-live everything again.
And so he began reviewing and re-watching the events from the beginning. He wanted to see everything clearly, to prepare countermeasures for such events in the future. He was Alastor Moody, and he hadn't earned his reputation by just being good with a wand. This certainly didn't have anything to do with him trying to avoid thinking about the earlier, more shocking events. Not one bit. He was just following his own post-battle protocol.
After watching everything more times than he could care to count, he found several things wrong with what had happened. First, he hadn't sensed anything wrong when he first arrived, and that was his fault. Second, he had relied too much on his fake eye's detection ability.
Third, he hadn't sensed it when he was all but sedated—his instincts dulled and his judgment compromised. If he had to guess, it was because of the monster. It must have cast some sort of weakening spell on the area, something that enabled it to hunt prey even stronger than itself.
"This is all speculation though," he grunted in annoyance, ' that didn't mean he was necessarily wrong though as he arrived to that assumption based on what he would have done if he was in the monster's place. It was common sense.
Fourth, he should have started with lethal spells from the beginning, especially when he saw wizards siding with a monster. He should have used the spells he learned through the Archive, particularly against the monster. He had read the warning about monsters having some kind of weirdly high resistance to magic, one that was comparable to that of dragons or basilisks.
There was a reason wizarding spells didn't work on them, especially considering that wizards were far weaker than monsters…
Finally, he should have anticipated being ambushed as soon as he returned to england let alone home. He should have predicted and considered the possibility of his disguise being ineffective and that the forces he was investigating would catch on quickly.
"Eh, it doesn't matter anymore, does it?" he shrugged as he put the memory book down. "In the end, the most important reason for my loss was my weakness. I was mentally weak, even though I had already established my mindscape. I focused most of my time on making it hard to reach my memories that I neglected the most important thing about mental protection: the protection part."
He let out a long sigh and summoned the Archive interface, making a white screen appear in front of him. He didn't know why, but he felt like it would help. Okay, that was a lie; he knew exactly why it would help. He was going to search for things that would aid him, especially now that he was without his prosthetics. He needed to train his mind first before training physically.
That was how he found himself inside the combat simulator, facing his old self, no less. They battled for a while—twelve battles, to be exact—and he only managed a draw on the last one; every other was a loss. He had underestimated how reliant he had become on the eye that allowed him to see magic and the leg that could be used to block curses if needed.
It was clear that he needed to retrain from scratch, just to be careful. Starting from the basics was always a good point. But before he did so, it would be better if he found something to study alongside it. It was imperative that he gain more strength if he wanted to know everything Albus had planned, and with the tools in his hand, it shouldn't take long.
"I should also try to find something to help my magic senses, to compensate for my lack of a crazy eye," he muttered, opening the search function. "Techniques that help with sensing magic," he typed and hit the search button.
The page changed, and a vast array of options on the subject appeared. The list was extensive, from enchantments and rituals to meditation techniques, each with its pros and cons clearly listed. He scrolled down, going through most of them, even the one that suggested tattooing a few runes on one's forehead.
"Sigh, this is going to take a while, isn't it?" he grumbled as he continued reading. Some of the things he found were acceptable; others were just batshit crazy. Really, he read some that made him genuinely question what nutcase had created such a method in the first place. But what could he do?
It wasn't until he reached the theoretical section that he found most of Dumbledore's ideas. "Okay, I will admit that I did not think of even half of those," he mumbled as he read. Some ideas he found interesting, like one where a wizard tries to connect his magic with the natural magic of the outside world, allowing him to sense pretty much everything in his vicinity.
"Mana Zone, is it?" he asked aloud, his hand moving to readjust his fake eye before he remembered he didn't have it and that he was in his mindscape. "This is an interesting idea, though as the note said, one would need to craft a specialized ritual circle just to help with the first stage. I am not well-versed in such topics."
He closed the tab and exited his mindscape as he felt his fatigue reaching its limit. A lot had happened today, and his mental condition did not allow him to stay inside his mindscape for long. He might have tried to escape and avoid thinking about the shocking events and revelations he had faced, but he couldn't run forever.
"Ugh, enough of this, let's just sleep it off," he grumbled as he kicked off his shoes, dragged his lower half into the bed and adjusted his sleeping posture.
He took the other pillow and hugged it, wiggling slightly to get more comfortable. He was really not at his best today, although he couldn't imagine anyone else would be after experiencing and witnessing what he did.
It was not even the helplessness or irritation of the whole situation that bothered him. What truly shook him was witnessing just how far ahead and how powerful Albus had become.
He thought he knew Albus Dumbledore better than most people but clearly he was wrong. Sure, he studied under the man's tutelage, and had him to thank for his solid foundation in Transfiguration, his extra lessons on Defense, and all the help he received since he was a student but today, he felt like he was witnessing someone else.
"A god," he mumbled as he held his pillow tighter. One couldn't comprehend how he felt when he witnessed Albus Dumbledore's body turn into a pure golden energy for a second there while he was holding the monster—"fallen angel," his mind supplied.
He had thought Albus was having him on when he talked about divinity and gods, enchantments on divine domains, but he could now see that he was the idiot all along.
"What would one do if they witness and feel divinity in person?" He asked himself. "Would they feel their mind come to a halt, and their instinct scream for them to run, while not being able to do so? Would they feel despair? Helplessness? Fear? Reverence? Worship?" He wondered aloud. He had clearly felt all of this and more.
He felt especially discontent, disgruntled, uneasy and restless when he heard Albus tell him the reason he couldn't tell him anything about his plans. He felt like he was a weak nobody. He was not a nobody, he was fucking Alastor Moody, and he would be damned if he would let anyone think otherwise.
So what if the bar for strength has been raised? So what if the requirement to know about the dangers and Dumbledore's plans for them is to have sufficient strength? He could train too. He did not achieve everything he had now by being complacent or lazy.
"This is just a temporary thing," he grunted. "I will be staying here for a few days before I go to my other safe house to train, so I better restudy and learn everything theoretical while at it."
"Ten days" he announced, " maybe even less if I try hard enough. I just need to do more research on runes, Arithmancy, rituals, and magic theory and then I will be ready to go through the enlightenment."
He smiled slightly, casting aside all the negative feelings he had earlier. He just needed to learn the incomplete theories about the mana zone, mana method and body reinforcement, and then with the help of the enlightenment, he will be ready to create a new branch of combat magic.
I just need to abuse the fact that time moves differently inside my mindscape and use it to my advantage, plus with the way the archive allows one to download information directly into the mind, it will much easier to accomplish my objectives.
"Let's see what Dumbledore's hiding, then." He clenched his fists. "I need to prepare countermeasures for everything…"
He yawned, his fatigued mind making it more apparent that he needed rest. He took a few breaths, relaxed, and went to sleep not long after.
X
• DxD World •
• Underworld, Ajuka Beelzebub's Lab •
[ Serafall Leviathan ]
Serafall walked through the long, clean, and well-lit corridor leading towards Ajuka's lab. Her usually smiling face was scrunched into a frown. She didn't have time for a meeting, but neither did the other Satans; yet here she was, heading towards one after wasting ten minutes waiting in their usual meeting room, only to find out it was being held in Ajuka's lab.
One would question how she—the Serafall Leviathan—could make such a mistake, but that was before they got to know the notoriously asocial Ajuka, because apparently, it was expected to meet at his place, seeing as he was the one who had called for the meeting.
"I want to hit him so badly," she murmured in annoyance, stomping her feet as she walked. "And why didn't he lift the teleportation restrictions if he wanted me to come here? Does he not know how exhausting my job already is?" she complained as she arrived in front of a massive metal door, which she kicked open.
Crack! Boom!
The door swung open violently as she stomped inside, her expression mirroring her annoyance with the situation.
"Why did you do that?" Ajuka asked, his voice bland and his expression blank. If not for the slight tilt of his head, one might not have realized he was genuinely curious.
"Because I just wasted ten minutes of my time waiting for you in a meeting room that apparently wasn't the location of our meeting," she replied, sitting down next to Sirzechs, who was trying his best not to look at her.
She looked around and saw Falbium resting his head on his palm, watching her with a lazy expression.
"So, let's start the meeting. I have to get back to seeing which force and pantheon is preparing, and how many troops they've rallied so far."
"You are the one who was late, though," Ajuka said. She turned her head sharply towards him.
"Ahem, that's not important right now," Sirzechs, ever the peacemaker, intervened before anything could happen. "So, let's start with your findings first."
"Okay," Ajuka nodded. "Let's start by laying out my most recent findings." He waved his hand, a magic circle appearing and projecting a hologram-like image.
The projection showed three different transparent boxes, each containing an Earth. "As you all know, we are in the process of three different realities merging. The cause is still unknown, but the fact that we are merging is already established," he said, making the three boxes connect.
"Now, this visual is the most simplified version I could make for you to understand, without me needing to explain all the different factors that go into this merger," he continued. Serafall had to resist the urge to hit him with an ice spike.
"Now, if you direct your attention here," he said, showing different corners and lines interlinking as the three transparent boxes met. "As you can see, these points are where our worlds are meeting—though this is just a simplified picture, less accurate than a child's painting, but still informative."
They nodded, urging him to continue. They knew he didn't mean any offense, nor was he being condescending. He just knew from experience that they usually didn't grasp concepts the way he did. It was more his fault than theirs, but nobody wanted to point that out.
"So, these connected parts are constantly shifting, as the worlds are still in the first phase of the merger. This process is less about three Earths combining, and more about the creation of a new, unified Earth…"
"Wait a second," Falbium interrupted. "What do you mean, a creation of a new, combined Earth? This is the first time I'm hearing this."
Ajuka turned his head towards him, his expression blank, before nodding. "It means this process is more of a large, multi-world-scale reality manipulation than a simple 1+1=2 kind of thing," Ajuka explained, though for the life of her, Serafall still didn't understand.
"I still don't get it. How is that any different?"
"Hmm, well, think of it like this. The new world will be as if it has always been that way. Sure, we will know that it wasn't, but that's just because we are strong."
'Leave it to Ajuka to explain without actually explaining anything,' she thought, cursing as she massaged her forehead.
"Does that mean not everyone will know or remember that the worlds merged?" Sirzechs asked. "If so, what's the estimated threshold of strength needed to not be affected?"
"Yes. Keep in mind this is still a theory, but according to my latest calculations, one needs to be Satan-class at least to remember, or be a god. Though for now, I am still lacking a lot of information, so all my calculations are theoretical and unreliable at best."
They all nodded as the new information settled in, the mood suddenly heavy and tense.
"Now, back to what I was saying," Ajuka continued, completely oblivious to the atmosphere. "As I told you in our previous meeting, I was able to calculate and predict where the cracks between worlds will appear, this time with more accuracy."
"That's good. We can go ahead and send the devices you told us about a few weeks ago," she said, her mood brightening at the news.
This was good; it would allow them to gauge the new worlds and gain much-needed information. This state of merger was still highly unknown, and even this new theory was just a theory.
"About that, we can't send anything through these cracks," Sirzechs said, and Ajuka nodded along, making her frown.
"Why? Is everything not ready yet?" she asked.
"No, everything is almost ready, but Indra sent word, telling us not to do anything just yet, and to wait for them to finish their own investigation."
"Huh? What the fuck do you mean, they 'sent word'? When did that happen, and why didn't I know about it?" she exclaimed, full of anger and indignation.
"Apparently, we had a traitor in our midst, and he tattled about the device to the gods. They had a meeting and decided to wait for Odin to confirm something, and ordered us not to do anything, as it could disturb the process."
"And do we know who this traitor is?" Falbium asked.
"Not yet, but I have everyone with access to my database in lockdown downstairs, and I am still in the process of interrogating them," Ajuka replied. "Although, I think it is important for me to mention that such a leak would not have happened if you had allowed me to place the seals and spells I wanted on everyone who entered the lab."
"Ugh, that'll never be approved. Those old men will kick up a fuss, and we'll be staring at a new rebellion soon after."
"Still, I don't understand why the gods are interfering with this?" And she truly didn't. She had been dealing with them most of her life, and the gods she knew were full of themselves and rarely agreed on anything.
"Oh, that's easy. Because the other worlds have similar pantheons to them, which might affect their divine status and power. They are being careful while they ascertain some facts."
She and the rest of her fellow Satans just stared blankly at their friend. Ajuka was a genius, a prodigy really, but that was a curse more than a blessing, because he sometimes threw information at them that he hadn't previously shared, simply because he thought it should have been obvious.
"Okay, then why don't we do this instead?" she said, gaining their attention. "Why don't you put a spell on all of the suspects, and then release the predictions for the next crack amongst our inner circles? We can wait and see who tattles and who doesn't. This would allow us to keep an eye on who amongst us will make a move, and it could also drive a wedge amongst the gods, because I know for a fact that they will not stay unified if they all have the information."
"Hmmm, yeah, that could work," Sirzechs agreed. "And while we're at it, let's start the process of signing the peace treaty with Heaven and the Fallen. It seems we can't afford any infighting within our pantheon while the others are preparing."
"I agree," Falbium nodded. "We also need to invoke a war status and suppress the Old Satan Faction while preparing our forces."
"Ugh, that means I will be the one to go around and talk peace with Azazel and Michael, doesn't it?" she whined, slumping onto the table.
"That is your job…" Ajuka stated flatly. She glared at him.
"Okay, then," Sirzechs said, leaning in. "Let's start refining the details."
X_
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