The dust swirled, settling like ash on a forgotten tombstone. Hades stood amidst the wreckage, his toga singed, streaks of soot marring his blue-gray skin. His fiery hair, a violent orange, crackled with raw fury, each lick of flame a silent scream. Pale yellow eyes, sharp as obsidian shards, fixed on the figure emerging from the gloom.
"And who the hell are you?" The god's voice, a low rumble, vibrated through the very stones of the Underworld. The earth beneath his feet groaned, fissures spiderwebbing across the shattered floor.
Harry stepped into the flickering light, his green eyes luminous, two emeralds burning in the twilight. A storm of power radiated from him, a violent current clashing against Hades' oppressive divinity.
"Your death."
A beat of silence stretched. Hades blinked, a slow, deliberate movement that seemed to extinguish some of the fire in his gaze, replacing it with something else entirely. A slow, chilling smile spread across his face, revealing those sharp, fang-like teeth. His fiery hair, instead of dimming, flared brighter, but with a different intensity, less rage, more infernal amusement.
"My death?" Hades threw his head back, a cackle tearing through the air. It was a dry, rasping sound, like bone grinding on stone, yet it held a genuine, unholy mirth. "Oh, that's rich. That's really rich. Kid, I am death. I'm the guy who signs the papers, stamps the forms, and makes sure the lights go out. You're telling me you're here to... kill me? You ambushed me, blew up my home, and now you want to be the new guy?"
Harry merely watched, his expression unreadable, as much as he would like to banter, this was not a fight for something like that. The storm of power around him intensified.
"Don't tell me, you're another one of Zeus's little side projects?" Hades waved a dismissive hand, a gesture that sent a ripple of dark energy through the air. "Did he send you to finish the job? Thought he'd get a kick out of watching some mortal try to unseat the King of the Underworld? Or maybe you're just a particularly ambitious soul who got lost on the way to eternal torment?"
The air grew heavy, thick with the clash of two immense powers. The Underworld itself seemed to hold its breath, the River Styx, still churning from Harry's initial blast, now pulsed with an unnatural rhythm.
"No god sent me." Harry's voice was low, resonant, slicing through the god's bluster. "No lost soul. I came here for you....for what you possess."
Hades' smile faltered, a flicker of something colder entering his pale yellow eyes as he stared at this arrogant mortal. He wanted to brush him off, but something was warning him to be careful. His fiery mane dimmed for a fraction of a second, then flared with renewed, predatory heat. "Possess? And what, pray tell, do I 'possess' that you, a fleshy little mortal, could possibly want?" He gestured around the ruined chamber. "This charming décor? The delightful company of the eternally damned? Or perhaps you fancy yourself a new pair of sandals?"
The god's tone dripped with sarcasm, but a dangerous edge now underscored his words. His hands, long and skeletal, began to glow with an inner blue fire, a cold contrast to his hair.
"Your Authority," Harry stated, his gaze unwavering. "Your power over the dead. Your dominion."
Hades froze. The amusement drained from his face, leaving behind a mask of chilling, ancient malice. His fiery hair became a roaring inferno, casting dancing shadows that stretched and writhed like tormented souls. The air crackled, not just with power, but with a palpable, overwhelming rage that made the very ground tremble.
"My Authority? My Authority?" The words were a low snarl and a little disbelieving, each syllable dripping venom. "You think you can just… take it? From me? The Lord of the Dead? The guy who's been running this joint since before your great-great-great-grandpappy learned to walk upright?"
A wave of pure, unadulterated power and anger slammed into Harry. Harry met it head-on, his own power surging, a green tide against Hades' black. The clash created a visible distortion in the air, a shimmering heat haze that warped the ruined chamber and rocked the realm.
Harry took a step forward, then another, closing the distance between them. The ground beneath his boots fractured further, responding to the raw might he unleashed, every step he took forward created shockwaves throughout the underworld. Harry was not planning to hold back here.
Hades let out a guttural roar, a sound that seemed to tear at the fabric of reality. The blue flames on his hands intensified, coalescing into twin spheres of infernal energy. "Who do you think you are, boy? You think you're special, boy? You think you're the first to feel a little too big for your britches?"
And so the battle began when He lunged at Harry. The spheres of blue fire shot forward, expanding into a searing wave that tore through the air, leaving trails of superheated ozone as if burned through everything in its path.
Harry didn't flinch. He didn't raise a hand to block. Instead, his eyes flashed, and a primal hunger erupted from him.
"O, primal hunger of the Final Hour, which swallows the sun and the stars! Let all forms of hostile magic become naught but a feast for my flesh! I am the Wolf at the End of the Chain! I command the energy of the foe to become the fuel of the master! Be Devoured!"
The words ripped through the Underworld. As he opened his mouth, which seemed like a dark, shimmering void, like a tear in the very fabric of existence.
Hades' fiery assault, potent enough to incinerate anything in its path, slammed into the void that was his mouth. It didn't explode, didn't dissipate. It simply… vanished. Sucked into the hungry maw, leaving not a trace.
Hades skidded to a halt, his pale yellow eyes wide, the inferno of his hair faltering for a split second. A flicker of genuine surprise and unadulterated shock crossed his face. His blue-gray skin seemed to pale further.
"What in the—?" He stammered, his usual smooth cadence broken. "You… you just ate my fire?"
Harry's green eyes, now glowing with an inner, emerald light, held a chilling satisfaction. As he retaliated, sending blasts of divine power back at the god, making him teleport and dodge as he appeared not far away.
His chlamys billowed around him, a shroud of darkness. The ground beneath him buckled, and rising, jagged spires of black rock erupted from the shattered floor as they grew out, heading towards Harry, who retaliated with a stomp that seemed to flatten the rocks heading his way, once again taking the god by surprise.
The air grew colder, thick with the scent of decay and ozone. It seemed the god was starting to take him seriously.
"You want my Authority?" Hades' voice dropped to a low, dangerous growl. "Then come and get it. But know this, boy. The Underworld doesn't give up its treasures easily. I am the Lord of the Dead. And you are standing in my domain."
He raised both hands, and the shadows in the chamber deepened, coalescing into grotesque forms. Skeletal hands, spectral claws, and hollow-eyed faces began to emerge from the very air, swirling around him like a macabre retinue. The mournful cries of the damned echoed from unseen abysses.
"From the deepest pits, from the forgotten graves, arise!" Hades' voice boomed, amplified by the spectral chorus. "Serve your master! Tear this upstart mortal apart!"
The shadowy figures solidified, becoming an army of the dead, not the cartoonish figures Harry had seen clinging to Hades in the Styx, but true horrors. Phantoms with glowing eyes, skeletal warriors clanking with rusted armor, and hulking revenants whose forms shifted and wavered like smoke. They surged forward, a tide of spectral terror, their silent screams tearing at the edges of Harry's mind.
Harry's lips curled into a grim smile.
"By the cold stone and the broken vow, The gates of the silent field shall bow. Arise, ye fallen, beneath my breath; For even in shadow, there is no rest from death! Oath of the Dead!"
He snapped his fingers.
" Rise and serve your lord."
The air shimmered, and four figures materialized beside Harry, solid and real, yet with eyes of unsettling blackness. One was a tall, gaunt man with a long white beard and half-moon spectacles, his robes flowing. The other, shorter, with a reptilian face and a snakelike quality to his movements, wore dark, elegant robes. Next was a woman, and the last was a shorter man.
Dumbledore, Voldemort, Bellatrix, and Nott. Interesting fact, this Voldemort was not the one from his own original world, he had sacrificed that one when he nearly died in his battle with Odin back during their fight.
"Make sure I am not distracted." Harry's voice was a low command. He didn't need other things getting in the way of their fight.
Dumbledore raised a hand, and a torrent of pure, raw magic erupted from his wand. A devastating wave that slammed into the approaching phantoms. They shrieked, dissolving like mist in a strong wind, their spectral forms unable to withstand the sheer force.
Sure, his puppet could not really be of use against a god, but by becoming his, they gain a boost in power and become like lesser divine and can affect beings of lesser power like gods' subordinates and minions.
Voldemort moved, His own wand, carved emerald trails through the spectral horde. Dark curses, potent and insidious, snaked through the air, wiping out phantoms.
Hades watched, his jaw slackening slightly. His blue fire hair dimmed to a calmer, though still furious, orange. His pale yellow eyes flicked between Harry and the two legendary wizards, a flicker of genuine alarm now joining the rage.
"What… what are these?" Hades' voice was a strained whisper. "You… you have souls bound to you?"
Who the hell is this mortal. Someone like this should be known, someone with this much power was not a person Zeus would allow to roam freely. His brother would have killed this mortal long ago.
The battle raged around them, a surreal ballet of spectral horrors and controlled magical devastation. Harry's pawns cut through Hades' army like scythes through wheat. Harry and Hades had been going back and forth in their battle.
The underworld trembled wherever they moved, destroying everything in their way.
Hades snarled, a true beast's sound. He was beyond angry right now, this day was not going his way. He had waited eighteen years to rule the cosmos, made his plan and enacted it when the time came, only for him to find his first obstacle, heracules, the boy he had sent fear and pain to kill alive, he had eventually trick the kid and went ahead to release the titans, he had been on the roll before everthing started falling apart.
The kid getting his strength back, defeating the titans and beating Hades, but all that he could simply push aside and try to plan again, what he didn't ever think in his enos of living was that a mortal would match him in power and push him this far, a mortal that wanted to take the underworld from him, it seems.
He snarled. Did this upstart think he was going to be easy to defeat.
"You think your little ghost tricks will save you, boy?" Hades roared, the ground beneath him shuddering. He stamped his foot, and the very black stone of the Underworld erupted into a hungry maw. A vortex of dark earth and shadow began to spin, growing larger, deeper, threatening to swallow the entire chamber.
"Amazing," Harry murmured, almost to himself. "Impressive, for a god who rarely leaves his throne."
The vortex expanded, sucking in the remaining phantoms, the very air, and the light. His puppets, though powerful, found their spells struggling against the overwhelming gravitational pull.
Harry stood firm, a solitary figure against the monstrous manifestation of the Lord of the Underworld. He raised a hand.
"I am the Great Predator unchained, whose jaw knows no limit and fears no binding! I demand the weapon that cleaves the invisible and fractures the absolute! By the iron teeth of the World-Eater, let Law be broken, let Form be nullified, and let all Reality beneath my strike be Rend!"
A shimmering glow extended from Harry's hand as his nails started to shine. The very air around him was distorting, as if reality itself was being stretched thin. Fenrir's Rend Reality, the power to cut through anything, be it physical, magical, or conceptual.
Harry charged.
He moved with impossible speed, a blur of motion against the swirling darkness. The titanic form of Hades, now a mountain of jagged rock and shadow, roared, extending colossal, stony arms to crush him.
Harry met the first arm with a strike. Fenrir's Rend sliced through the stone arm as if it were vapor. The arm simply… separated, dissolving into dust and shadow, leaving a clean, impossible cut.
Hades bellowed, a sound of pain and disbelief that shook the foundations of his domain. His monstrous form recoiled, the colossal head turning to stare at the impossibly clean wound.
"What… what was that?" The words rumbled from his stony mouth, laced with genuine fear for the first time since the fight started. "You cut… You cut my essence!"
Harry didn't answer. He was already moving, weaving through the chaotic energy of the vortex that was lashing out at him, his nails flashing. He struck again, and again, each blow severing another part of Hades' monstrous form. Legs, arms, chunks of his stony torso, they simply dissolved into nothingness.
Hades, the colossal embodiment of his realm, began to shrink, to unravel. His roars turned to whimpers, then to gasps of agony. The vortex of earth and shadow faltered, then collapsed inward, the dark energy dissipating like a bad dream.
In its place, Hades stood, his blue-gray skin bruised and scarred, his toga in tatters. His fiery hair flickered, an unsteady orange, then, with a pop, it extinguished entirely, leaving his head bare, smooth, and oddly vulnerable. His pale yellow eyes, wide with shock and humiliation, stared at Harry.
Hades clapped a hand to his head, his fingers tracing the smooth, cool skin where his infernal mane had been. His mouth opened and closed, no sound emerging. The Lord of the Underworld, the fearsome god of death, looked utterly bewildered.
Harry paused, his green eyes fixed on the now bald god. A faint smirk touched his lips.
"You look… different." Harry's voice was neutral, but the underlying amusement was clear. "Less fiery."
Hades, momentarily distracted, quickly refocused, his pale yellow eyes narrowing. The embarrassment was still there, but now it fueled a fresh wave of cold fury. He was wounded, yes, but he was still Hades. And he was still in his realm.
"You think this is over, boy?" Hades' voice was low, dangerous again, though tinged with a new, raw edge. "You think a few parlor tricks are enough to defeat me? You've only chipped away at the surface. You're standing in my domain. And in the Underworld, I am absolute. No, even Zeus can beat me here, this is my world, my reality".
'Then what have I been doing' Harry thought to himself.
He raised his hands again. The air around them began to shimmer, to distort, twisting into impossible angles. The ruined throne room stretched and warped, the shattered pillars elongating, the floor becoming a shifting, unstable landscape.
"From the hidden realm of slumber and the deep weave of the earth, I decree the shadow to be the substance! The world shall bend to the lie that I have witnessed! Let the fleeting image of my desire be born, solid and undeniable! Manifest!"
Harry's voice cut through Hades' incantation, echoing with the authority of Njörun, the goddess of dreams. The world around them, already twisting under Hades' power, suddenly snapped.
The chaotic distortions froze, then began to re-form, not according to Hades' will, but Harry's.
Hades' eyes widened. "What… what is this? My power"
"Oneiric Manifestation," Harry explained, his voice calm, almost clinical. "The power to shape dreams into reality. Your reality, Hades, is just another dream."
He had used his power to manifest a domain and overlap it with the gods to bypass his own power, he really couldn't hold it for too long.
The entire Underworld seemed to bend to Harry's will, or at least it looked like it for the moment.
"This… this isn't real!" Hades shrieked. He clawed at the air, snapping at the reality before him.
The god tried to use his power but felt something push back, and that took him by surprise.
Harry tilted his head, his green eyes gleaming.
He gestured, and a colossal, shadowy basilisk, its eyes glowing with a hypnotic emerald light, materialized from the swirling starlight. Its scales shimmering with impossible colors. It coiled around Hades, its massive head lowering, its unblinking eyes fixing on the god.
Hades stumbled back, before blasting the large smake with his power, turning it into ash.
Hades glared at Harry, his pale yellow eyes blazing with fury. He was the Lord of the Underworld, yet he stood bald, feeling powerless, and dare he say it for the first time in how nows how long, terrified.
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