Hmmm, I woke up again and found myself tied to a chair—well, this is one hell of a way to start a new life. If this happens one more time, I am going to start believing this is happening for a reason. First Azkaban and now this? Yeah, a third time would seal the deal for me…
I looked around, trying to find out where I was—it looked like an abandoned room: cracked walls, spider webs, peeled paint, and the whole shebang.
Well, isn't it just lovely?
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and entered my mindscape—this place was still the same, though my emotional center seemed somewhat bigger and with noticeably fewer cracks. I walked around and found a neatly stacked pile of memory books on my desk.
I opened the first book and went through it, then the second, and then another until I finished all five. There was also the old man's message with the job details—I am trying to ignore the fact that he put this into my mind for the sole reason that he's far stronger than me—that it's not even funny to compare…
It turned out the old man whisked me away after my ritual was done, partially sealed my consciousness, de-aged me until I was one year old, and dropped me in an orphanage in London.
Yeah, putting a note in my mind is at the very bottom of my worries now—still, my new life was interesting.
In this new life, I grew up fast, made friends, went to school, became known as a nerd and a geek, lost friends, and faced bullying—fought back, beat up the bullies, got kicked out of the orphanage after beating an older kid to an inch of his life—in my defense, I was a kid too—and lived on the streets for a while.
I studied hard after that and earned a scholarship, finishing my studies up to college by the age of 14.
I didn't realize I had issues until now when I saw how hard I tried to fit in, downplaying my genius and all that—I could have accomplished all of this by the age of ten, but I didn't do so because the kid me wanted to fit in...
Though not everything was bad—I still studied alone, gaining a fascination with technology and diving into research and projects on my own.
Up until that point, everything was fine, right?
Now, let's talk about the magical side of things. I was far stronger physically than everyone else from a young age, so I learned to control my strength early, which was good.
I gained access to the grimoire early as well—about when I was three years old, I think—but didn't study magic, which was stupid if you ask me now—but the kid me had a reason for it, not a very good one mind you, but a reason nonetheless—you see, I read the story of Harry Potter after I gained access to my Grimoire and thought it was about me.
I was still a kid at the time; I didn't want to be treated as a freak like in the story, so I started walking on eggshells around anything magical in nature. So from there on, I used my Grimoire just to copy books and comics—a good utilization of resources, I suppose…
I guess I substituted my thirst for magical knowledge with technology, which was valid too.
Now that I've established that the young me was somewhat naïve, let's look at the benefits of all this—suppressing my consciousness and keeping it in a sleep-like state helped the younger me experience life, emotions, bonds, and all that crap 100%, which in turn helped me too…
I guess this is how the old man helped me, which I can accept because now my mind and emotional center have an abundance of references on what normal emotional-memory attachment ratio to use—I don't want to do it manually…
This also helped me grow as a person. Ah, who am I kidding? The old me was a mess, true, but the new me isn't any better. If I was a big screw-up before, now I'm just a normal screw-up—probably.
Anyway, now let's discuss the important stuff—I was kidnapped. No, really—I, Harry Potter, was kidnapped. Who, and why, is still unknown to me for now, but my memories end with the sight of a magical circle appearing behind me and me falling unconscious…
Hmm, that doesn't matter right now though. Now that I'm awake, everything is going to be fine…
I was jolted awake from my meditative state by the horrible screeching sound of the old metal door opening—a blond man who looked like he was in his thirties walked in with the swagger of a man who owned the world—holding a bloodied bag from which various tools were protruding—he stopped in front of me, dropping the bag on the floor, and looked at me with a confused expression on his face.
"Brat, what did you do to your magic? You're not leaking any of it now and that's not possible!! How did you reach this level of control so quickly? Do you have a sacred gear or something?" he asked, with a tone filled with spite while looking down on me—now the old me would have gouged his eyes out for this, but I was more mature now, more patient… right?
'Ah, so that's how he found me. I don't know if I should feel embarrassed by the old me's lack of conscious control over his magic or annoyed by the apparently low requirement for kidnapping nowadays.'
Still, from what he said, I got a few clues about what had happened—like the fact that my kidnapper was not just an ordinary man or a pervert—no, he was a magical one.
Still, this was not really important; what I should be focusing on right now is this 'sacred gears' thing—now how do I do this? Should I just wing it? Yeah, that aligns with my style…
So I just kept looking at him for a few seconds while thinking, then closed my eyes as if I didn't see him.
I wanted to rile him up to see what he would do—to see how he would react and how long it would take for him to lose control—that's what I would say if anyone asked me about this—but the truth was, I wanted to recreate a scene from a manga I read not too long ago, because at the end of the day, I was still sitting here by choice…
"Brat, don't you fucking dare ignore me!!!" he yelled, and I guess I had expected too much from the man.
I opened my eyes only to see him stretching his hand forward, making a magical circle appear.
From the look of it, he was going to cast some kind of lightning spell? Guessing by the way the magical energy was behaving.
Still, I was not a masochist, so I didn't wait for him to finish casting his spell—my Grimoire quickly appeared, and the ground beneath him started to twist into a muddy spot, making him lose his footing and flail his other arm in an attempt to regain his balance. But that was for naught because the mud was already taking the shape of a large snake, catching him mid-flail and causing his spell circle to fizzle away as the snake wrapped itself around the man, restraining him and leaving him too stunned to say or do anything.
I, on the other hand, was now sitting on the chair, which I had simultaneously transfigured into a comfortable armchair. The ropes and chains that had kept me bound were animated and quickly opened and untied themselves.
They then moved by themselves toward the man, who was now being squeezed by the big snake, shackling and tying him up instead—just in case he somehow pulls an anime bullshit moment.
The man, though, stood there, mouth and eyes wide open, as if what he had just witnessed was too much for his brain to handle—it might have been; the whole thing took about two seconds to happen.
"Now then, Mr. Kidnapper, I believe we have a lot to talk about. Thank you for the bag and torture tools, by the way. I believe they will come in handy, don't you think?" I said, my voice soft and a smile on my face.
I was genuinely happy; after all, who can say they woke up to such an easy way of obtaining information? No one, I bet.
"What do you think you're doing? Do you have any idea who I am and who you're messing with? I'm one of the magicians of the Khaos Brigade! Do you think they will let you go if anything happened to me?..." He started rambling, but I wasn't in the mood for the classic Chinese young master speech, so I shut him up with a punch to the face which, by the by, landed squarely on his nose…
"Crunch!!!"
"Ugh."
I don't have the patience for this. I wanted to go all mafia on him like that movie I'd seen, but it turned out even in my new life, I still didn't have the tolerance for rambling idiots.
Ah, it's good to see that some things never change.
"Imperio! Legilimens!" I cast the two spells simultaneously on him and dove deep into his mind, extracting every piece of information that he had—which wasn't much.
How disappointing…
Couldn't I for once get the protagonist's treatment and find the answers for everything quickly so that I can go on my journey of face-slapping and cruise through life…
Now my whole day is ruined…
Looking at the disappointment of a man in front of me, I cast "*Avada Kedavra*" and killed him just like that—vanished his corpse with a disintegration curse and sat down to start going through the information I'd gathered from him again, just to see if there was anything I missed…
Let's see: First of all, his name was Lucas—of course, why wouldn't a blonde man be named Lucas…
He was a low-class level magician who had been training magic since childhood—he was neither talented nor clever, but thanks to his personality, he did have some connections.
He was also a serial killer, having already killed ten kids with magical potential just to make himself feel superior and satisfy some sick, twisted desires for dominance.
Hmm, maybe I should have tortured him after all.
Now onto the important stuff—from what I could gather from his memories—this world is messed up….Gods, devils, angels, fallen angels, heroes, youkai—different factions within factions, with this Khaos Brigade taking the cherry on the top of this messed-up cake.
I don't know about you, but this smells like trouble to me.
Now, I'm not crazy; I know there were some very powerful beings in my previous world too; I just didn't know about most of them yet.
Here, well, if what this racist fucker knew was the truth, or even close to it, then I can see why I was sent here—aside from doing a job, I mean—here I can grow stronger quickly while also gaining some experience.
Okay. Now that this is all over, let's return to the elephant in the room—why the fuck are my hands shaking? I feel nauseated and a little bit uneasy—hmm, is it because I killed a man? I don't know; I may have caught more feelings than I had guessed.
Apparently in this life—I was an avid believer that life is the most sacred thing in the world, and I guess a belief that deep doesn't just go away because my consciousness suddenly woke up…
Ugh, he was a twisted fuck—he discarded life like it's nothing—and he was granted a punishment too easy for his crimes. Now get over it, Harry!!
Taking some deep breaths for a few minutes, my body finally calmed down and my mind is finally in sync—this never happened—yeah, I'm not going to catch some humanitarian hypocrisy in here. No sir, not in this life…
But even if I think like this, it doesn't mean it's actually true because at the end of the day, I was still a human, and hypocrisy was just a side effect of being one…
Still, this is a dog-eats-dog world; no time for the new hypocritical sympathies. I may have lived a semi-normal life again, but that doesn't mean I'm going to change who I am now.
I like me this way—a man with very few principles and lines that can't be crossed.
xxx
Now then, let's get this over with and get out of here…
I emerged from what turned out to be a basement. Making my way upstairs, I entered an open area where the kitchen was and went straight for the fridge, only to find it empty.
Of course there wouldn't be anything in here; it's an abandoned house, for god's sake…
I cast an 'Incendio' spell on it, just to start a fire and erase the trace of me being here—it was only after making sure the fire wouldn't spread out too much that I left.
Now, some may wonder, where am I going? Well, I'm teleporting directly to a shack owned by Lucas here in the U.S., using his own teleportation circle which, by the by, is an ingenious way of transportation—no matter how crude and inefficient the circle itself was…
Oh, did I forget to mention that the bastard took me to the fucking USA just to kill me? Something about the church and some Golden Dawn organization of magicians hunting him in Europe.
Honestly, I didn't care enough to remember what he did or which other groups were after him. I erased most of the useless memories I got after reviewing them.
Anyway, here I am, in some forest in the USA, heading toward the shack I claimed as a spoil of battle—hey, don't judge me; I won it fair and square, and besides, its owner is already dead and I need a place to stay for a while.
I have this feeling that something good is about to happen soon.
As I surveyed the wooden shack, I made a sweeping motion with my hand, and my magic began its work of animating things to do the cleaning while my Grimoire was regulating the output, adjusting and changing into the necessary spells.
To be honest, I didn't even need to move my hand, but it felt much cooler to do so.
I started exploring the place; there were two rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. I went into the first room and found a bed that didn't look all that comfy. I added changing it to my list of things to take care of.
The second room was better: an old wooden office desk with a slightly worn leather chair on the right, a wall-sized bookshelf on the left, and a large window in the middle—it was dusty as all hell, but it had some of that old elegance to it, so I guess I'll keep it as is—maybe a little reorganizing wouldn't hurt either.
I walked straight to the bookshelf, placed my hand on the book emanating the most mana, and pulled it out slightly.
Suddenly, a small hidden trapdoor appeared in the middle of the room. I approached it, opened it, and lo and behold, there lay the Wordstone.
I inspected it closely and had to admit it was disappointing. Still, for now this will do, so I activated it and closed the door behind me.
Some may wonder why I didn't just ward the shack myself. There's a simple reason for that: it wouldn't work.
The runes I know and use aren't recognized by either magic or nature in this reality. So, it would be like writing in Chinese for an English speaker. It wouldn't work—no, that's not true—they'd work if the intent is strong enough; they'll just be so weak that they're better off not working…
Plus, I would also have to constantly power them myself using my own magic to continuously translate what I wrote, and that would be quite the hassle.
It'sjust not worth it.
I went to the kitchen, opened the fridge—again finding it empty—cursed a little, and then went outside.
I teleported at random and ended up in a trash-filled alley because why not?…I cast cleaning and disguise charms on myself, exited the alley, and found a small grocery store right across the street…
I went inside and grabbed some cereal, milk, bread, chocolate, chicken, vegetables, a few apples, various fruits, some canned food, rice, noodles, pasta, and other necessities.
At the counter, I hypnotized the man standing there into believing someone he knew bought all of this, took my new supplies, and left.
I then teleported directly back to the shack.
I cooked some chicken and vegetables, ate until I was full, and then headed to the bedroom. I transfigured the bed into a comfy, cloudy one and laid down.
Why a cloudy bed? Well, now that the memories of my new life had settled in, I had this strange desire to sleep on a cloud. The younger me was a geek who was hooked on that trashy new anime called 'Dragon Ball' or something, where the protagonist uses a yellow cloud as a mode of transportation.
Thus, the urge to sleep on a cloudy bed.
I slept well, though I'm not sure for how long—probably just a few hours. Anyhow, breakfast first, and then it's time to begin my work and study the new magic system.
After a while of reading, I found myself staring at the ceiling, asking myself if this is what defeat feels like?
I'm starting to think that the problem is with me. But I just didn't like what I found out about magicians here.
I have been studying the magic system used by humans here, and all I can say is, "eh."
I mean, it's probably due to their magic being of neutral aspect or for some other reason I have yet to figure out, but most of the spells are derived from devil magical spells.
No one bothered to modify the magical system, upgrade it, let alone invent a new one; they just recycle devil spell frameworks into a downgraded version based on their own calculations and formulas…
No one bothered trying to figure out a way to use mental magic to make it easier for them to cast spells; all they did was research a way to make their circles more efficient, and that's about it…
After a while, I concluded that studying human magic was a waste of time. I should probably find a devil and see if I can make a deal to study their magic and see how it compares to mine—maybe even add their aspect to my magic—because while the neutral aspect is great, I'd need to develop a whole new magical system just to use it, and that sounds like a thankless job…
Hmm, let's not make any hasty decisions for now…
Before anything else though, let's start by doing my job and actually purify the natural energy—at least actively now that I am awake…
Oh, have I not mentioned what my job in this world is? It's purifying the natural energy of the world and bringing it back to about 90% purity, along with finding a successor for God/YHWH, father of the angels…you know the big guy…
Something about him being needed for the future of the world and him not being able to reform or reincarnate in this world again…
Anyway, I'll think about this too—later.
I started getting into deep meditation, using my own nature energy to purify the corrupted natural energy of the planet.
Here, unlike before, nature energy was different, with different properties and composition. Most of the corruption stemmed from either malice released into the air, clinging to it, or some very deep curses clinging to the very earth that I can't purify just yet because I'm not strong enough.
Oh, and there's a Gaia here—like the primordial of nature, The Mother Goddess. I don't know if there was one while I was in the wizarding world; I couldn't perceive it if there was—not like this one at least—but in this world there is one.
She had been very active since I started the purification process, sending more and more corrupted energy my way while taking most of the purified energy and leaving me with very little.
Even though I didn't speak with her directly, I could still understand what she wanted.
The tasks she was issuing were not easy to solve, so I wanted to say no, but before I could, she showed me how she had been hiding me from prying eyes until now, and suddenly, I couldn't say no.
Well played, Gaia. Well played.
What a rookie mistake. I should have noticed this the instant I woke up. I am a sage, which means anywhere I go, I will always be identified as a sage by anyone attuned enough to any kind of energy—which basically means everyone in the supernatural world…
They will always feel how nature seems purer and happier around me, plus I'm always purifying natural energy passively.
The only reason I meditate and do it actively is that it's a much faster and better process. If I have to give an example, the passive purification is like a small personal water filter, while the active one is like an industrial-sized one. Did that make any sense? It didn't? Well, I don't care; deal with it.
Suddenly, I was interrupted the wards sending me an alarm— a group of people entering the three-meter boundary in front of the shack—forcing me to stop doing my job and go check this out, so I stood up and went to open the front door.
Let's see who the visitors are.
"Well, well, well, would you look at that? I was right—there's a mouse in the house," the guy in the middle said with a sarcastic tone, while the two following him chuckled.
They look young, in their early twenties, I would say.
Their magical reserves weren't big either. The one in the middle had the biggest reserves, and even that was about one-tenth of mine.
Ugh, here we go again…
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This marks out entry into the DxD vol. thanks for your support…