Endless Void of the Symbol of Deathly Hallows
POV of Domeric Bolton
When Domeric arrived in the Endless Void, he encountered a familiar sight. Many white, green, and blue orbs floated in the void, waiting to be chosen by him.
But Domeric paid no attention to the low-level orbs and focused on the main prize, the level-four red orb. When Symbol of the Death Hallows reached level four for the first time, and Domeric received his first red reward, he had the chance to reunite with Dobby. And this time, he hoped that maybe, just maybe, he would be reunited with someone else he had lost in the past.
With Domeric's focus, the red orb floated toward Domeric and stopped before him. Unfortunately, just by looking inside the orb, Domeric knew that his hopes were dashed.
"Whatever. It was a long shot anyway," Domeric said with a sigh.
The prize inside the orb looked like a wooden human dummy, like the dummies they used for training in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, but it was impossible to know precisely what it was for by looking at it. So Domeric reached his hand towards the orb, and the information about the prize flowed into Domeric's mind.
Its name was Imposter Queen Mannequin. Or rather, 'her' name was. According to the information from the orb, this wooden mannequin was a living magical being. And the mannequin standing before him was the queen of her lineage.
Like bees and ants, imposter mannequins increased their lineage by descending from their queen, and Domeric had to feed the queen with various materials to get a worker imposter mannequin.
As for what the mannequins were for, they could copy the appearance, abilities, experience, and even memory of others and carry out their orders unconditionally and fearlessly.
So basically, the imposter mannequins were the best spies, assassins, and undercover soldiers. Not only did they carry out orders without question and fear, but they also felt no pain.
In addition to all this, imposter mannequins were also considered an immortal species. For the first creation of a worker mannequin, Domeric had to feed the queen mannequin with some necessary materials. However, even if a worker mannequin was destroyed after it came into existence, as long as the queen mannequin was not destroyed, it could be reborn again from the queen mannequin without the need for any materials after 72 hours.
They were not an indestructible and unkillable species like the dementors of his past life. Still, thanks to their immortality, Domeric could regularly increase their numbers and build himself a troop or even an army of imposter mannequins.
Of course, there were some limitations in terms of copying requirements. If they only needed to copy someone else's appearance, any item containing that person's DNA would suffice. With or without the person's permission, a strand of hair or a drop of blood was enough for them.
But if they wanted to copy a person's memory and abilities, in addition to the person's consent, the person and the mannequin had to stay in a ritual circle for 12 hours. But even though the requirements were higher, the results were too good to ignore. By copying the person's memories, abilities, and experiences, the mannequins could imitate the person so well that even if they lived with the person's family for years, the family would not realize they were not their real family member.
After all, they were no different from normal human beings after copying. Their bodies were made of flesh and bone. They bled when they were injured, just like normal people. In order to survive, they had to eat, drink, and sleep like normal people after their transformation.
They could even have children if they were transformed through a high-level ritual. And since their DNA was identical to that of the people they copied, the children born to the mannequins were biologically no different from those born to the people they copied.
Also, if the materials used for the ritual met the highest requirements, the mannequins could have 100 percent of the physical abilities of the person they were replicating.
So, if Domeric used Varko to replicate his mannequins, he could build an army of mannequins with Varko's full strength, speed, reflexes, memory, skills, and experience. That is if he could afford the cost of repeating the ultimate ritual over and over again.
Frankly, the mannequins reminded him a bit of the Boggarts of his old life. While the Boggarts were shaped according to a person's fear, the mannequins imitated their characteristics.
Unfortunately, Domeric could not copy himself, as the queen mannequin was soul-bonded to him.
But that didn't matter much to Domeric. He could sense that the mannequins could be controlled remotely, that he could see what the mannequins saw through their eyes, that he could hand over control of them to someone else, and so on.
By controlling them remotely and seeing what they saw, he could monitor events directly from the first person if he deemed it essential and give the mannequin the most appropriate orders to behave as it should.
Also, the fact that he could delegate control of the mannequins he wanted to others meant that he could set up different units, such as spies, assassinations, undercover agents, etc., and delegate their management to others.
And the best part was that since the queen mannequin was soul-bonded to Domeric, the people he gave control could not use the mannequins against him. Although in this case, he would have already taken many security measures like the magic contracts, the extra security is always good.
And it seems that with the memory stone or the human sacrifice ritual, Domeric could give the queen mannequin permanent traits. Once the queen mannequin had acquired a permanent trait, all the worker mannequins born to her and born from her would also have these traits.
So, if he sacrificed a skilled cook to the queen mannequin, all the mannequins would have the trait of an experienced cook.
But human sacrifice was one of the red lines Domeric was unwilling to cross. As for the memory stones, he didn't know what they were, how they were made, or how to get them, but if he ever got his hands on one, he could use it to give the queen mannequin new traits.
With all of these characteristics of the imposter mannequins, Domeric knew that he could build the best spy and assassin unit in the world—even a better assassination guild than the Faceless Men.
'Looks like I'm going to be even busier soon,' Domeric thought with a sour smile.
'Aunt Barbrey should be returning to the castle soon. When she arrives, I can push… cough… delegate the paperwork back to her and concentrate on more important things.' Domeric thought, now with a sly smile on his face.
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.138: Lady Barbey's Return
Ch.139: Lady Barbrey Learns about White Walkers