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Chapter 77 - Chapter 77

Harry's eyelids fluttered.

Warmth pressed against him like a blanket woven from sunlight and silence. A comfort so deep, so ancient, so absolute that it made every muscle in his body loosen for the first time in years.

For a split second… he surrendered.

But that was the mistake.

Because Harry Potter had lived a life where every moment of peace had been a lie.

Every quiet breath a trap.

Every promise of rest a prelude to pain.

Just as the warmth seeped deeper, pulling him down, a single memory sliced through the haze—

Voldemort's voice.

"Bow to me."

The Imperius curse crushing his will.

The struggle.

The fight to stay himself.

Harry's eyes snapped open.

He pushed himself upright with a gasp.

And the world around him… shifted.

The field of light rippled like disturbed water, peeling away. The horizon twisted, melting into something new.

This isn't rest.

This wasn't peace.

This was captivity.

A prison disguised as paradise.

Harry clenched his fists.

"I know this place… This is a trap."

The field trembled. The illusion cracked like thin ice.

Another wave of warmth tried to swallow him, but Harry forced it back with raw divine will.

The white-gold world dissolved—

—and the REAL form of the realm emerged.

A vast primordial dream sea, shimmering like liquid starlight. The sky was a swirling aurora of forgotten memories. Each wave carried whispers—voices of those who had once fallen into this place and never returned.

Elysium.

But not the one mortals spoke of.

This was the Primordial Dream Sea, a pocket realm older than Olympus—

a place meant not to reward the dead…

but to ensnare them.

A place that sedated its victims with perfected illusions until they forgot everything they were.

And died dreaming.

Harry let out a shaky breath.

"I'm not dying here."

The sea shivered, then twisted into a new form—an immense garden of surreal beauty. Vines heavy with silver fruit wrapped around marble columns. Blossoming flowers shimmered in impossible colors.

And they weren't alone.

Figures appeared.

Women—dozens of them—old Greek maidens, nymphs, spirits of the forgotten dead. Each more beautiful than the last. Their skin glowed like morning sunlight; their eyes sparkled with unnatural affection.

The moment they saw Harry, they rushed toward him, gasping, weeping, reaching.

"He awakens!"

"My love, you have finally returned!"

"Rest with us—stay with us!"

"We will take care of you… forever."

They crowded him, touching his face, his arms, his shoulders, as if he were a long-lost lover finally reclaimed.

Harry stumbled back in shock.

"What—? Hey—stop—!"

But they didn't stop.

They poured around him like warm water, their hands soothing, comforting, urging him to relax, to lie back, to forget.

One caressed his cheek.

"You are safe now."

Another stroked his hair.

"Let go of your burdens."

A third whispered, lips brushing his ear—

"Stay. Don't fight so hard. This world is so tiring… isn't it?"

For a terrifying moment, Harry's mind wavered.

They were so gentle.

So warm.

So perfect.

Everything began to fade.

Harry blinked hard.

"No… no. This is wrong."

He pushed one of the women away. She didn't fall.

She simply… dissolved into petals, then reformed behind him, arms looping around his neck.

The others followed, forming a ring around him, voices overlapping like a lullaby.

"You deserve peace."

"Stay with us."

"Forget the suffering."

"Forget the war."

"Forget everything."

Harry's breath hitched.

For a heartbeat, he wanted to give in.

He wanted the constant fear, the constant danger, the constant weight to disappear.

But then—

A small voice echoed in his mind.

Soft, innocent.

"Daddy! Are we going to play now?"

Teddy's voice.

And suddenly everything snapped.

Harry's eyes blazed green.

His titan aura erupted like a supernova.

The garden trembled.

The women recoiled, hissing.

The air warped with raw power.

Harry rose to his full titan height—massive, towering, shadows dripping from his form like living smoke.

"YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY MIND," he growled, the sound crashing like thunder.

The Elysian sea recoiled violently, illusions shattering.

For the first time, Harry saw the realm's true core—

A dark, swirling vortex at the center of the garden, pulsing like a heartbeat.

The prison.

The mind-trap.

The heart of the Primordial Dream Sea.

Harry narrowed his eyes, fury burning bright.

"Now I know what you are."

He stepped forward.

"And I'm getting out."

The warm softness of peace evaporated in an instant. The Primordial Dream Sea showed its true form at last—an endless dark expanse, water thicker than tar, lit only by pale blue pulses rising from the abyss below.

Harry hovered in the middle of it, chest heaving, titan aura crackling around him.

"Finally," he muttered, gripping his scythe, "you stop whispering and show your teeth."

The sea trembled.

Slowly… something moved in the deep.

A shadow.

Then another.

Then dozens.

Harry's eyes narrowed.

"That isn't… that can't be—"

The water erupted.

A colossal shape shot upward, jaws wide enough to swallow a house whole. Its rows of teeth gleamed like ivory swords. Another one surged beside it. Then another.

Megalodons.

Not ordinary ones.

Not fossil-age predators.

Primordial Megalodons.

Older than myths.

Larger than ships.

Beasts that once hunted gods.

A whole pack.

Thirty… forty… fifty of them.

Each the size of a skyscraper.

Their eyes glowed with unnatural hunger as they circled Harry, creating a vortex so powerful that even the sea itself trembled in fear.

Harry exhaled.

"So that's your game. If you can't break my mind… you plan to tear my body apart."

The nearest megalodon lunged.

Harry spun his scythe.

CRASH!

The impact shook the ocean realm. The scythe carved a glowing arc, slicing through the monster's snout—but the shark's momentum was immense. It slammed into Harry like a living avalanche.

Harry was hurled across the water, smashing into a pillar of solidified shadow.

It collapsed around him like brittle bone.

He forced himself upright just as the second megalodon charged, jaws snapping shut inches from his head.

He dodged, slashing its eye—

A bellowing roar churned the water.

The creature reeled back, thrashing violently, sending tidal waves crashing against the edges of the realm.

Harry gritted his teeth.

"Two down," he snarled. "Forty eight more."

The pack attacked all at once.

A wall of ancient teeth and raw killing instinct.

His scythe expanded with him, forming a dark crescent capable of splitting mountains.

The ocean boiled.

Three sharks lunged simultaneously.

Harry swung—

WHOOM!

The scythe created a vacuum, cutting so fast the water evaporated around it.

The first megalodon was bisected.

The second lost its fin.

The third crashed into a shadow-spear Harry summoned beneath it.

Blood bloomed like a crimson storm through the water.

But there was no time to breathe.

Two more megalodons struck from opposing directions, jaws clamping down on Harry's arms. Their teeth sank into his titan flesh, drawing black ichor.

Harry roared in fury and spun, smashing the sharks together like giant clubs.

BOOM!

Bone shattered.

The bodies ripped apart.

Harry didn't stop.

He couldn't.

Another one fired upward like a torpedo, jaws snapping toward his throat.

Harry dropped low and sliced straight up—

SHHHK!

The scythe carved through its skull, splitting it in half.

The water exploded with chunks of ancient flesh.

But the pack didn't relent.

If anything, they became more frenzied.

They attacked from every angle, forming a cyclone of teeth. Their movements were impossibly fast for creatures their size—blurred shadows streaking through the water.

Harry held his ground.

He summoned his father's aura—the aura of Thanatos, the aura of finality.

Darkness coiled around him, swirling like a hurricane, giving him strength.

Ten sharks attacked at once.

Harry spun his scythe, creating a vortex of pure void.

It ripped through their bodies, shredding them apart.

Blood filled the sea like crimson mist.

But even titan flesh had limits.

One shark clamped onto Harry's leg, dragging him downward into crushing pressure. Another bit his shoulder. A third rammed into his spine.

Pain flared across his entire body.

Harry's roar shook the realm to its core.

He unleashed a burst of raw Titan power—an explosion of shadows and green fire that reduced the three sharks to ash.

But the fight continued.

Hour after hour.

Relentless.

The sea churned with violence.

Bodies fell.

Harry's scythe never stopped moving.

The beasts refused to retreat.

He lost count of the kills.

Ten.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Every cut left trails of luminous blood swirling through the water.

Finally… only the largest megalodon remained.

It was enormous—nearly twice the size of the others. Its body was covered in scars. Its eyes burned with ancient intelligence.

It circled Harry slowly, deliberately, as though acknowledging him as a worthy predator.

Harry growled. "You want a final fight?"

The beast lunged.

Harry met it head-on.

Their collision sent a shockwave through the dream sea.

Harry plunged the scythe into the shark's skull.

The monster clamped onto his torso, its teeth tearing into divine flesh.

For a moment, Harry felt his ribs crack.

He tightened his grip.

"I!

SAID!

STAY!

DOWN!"

With a final roar, he ripped the scythe sideways.

The giant megalodon split open in a single, devastating stroke.

Its two halves floated apart, releasing a massive wave of blood and glowing fragments of spirit energy.

Silence.

Harry floated there, chest heaving, titan form flickering from exhaustion.

His body was torn in multiple places.

But he was alive.

He had won.

Slowly, the shadows of the dream sea retreated.

The waters brightened.

The portal at the bottom of the chamber began to glow.

Harry tightened his grip on his scythe.

"Good," he said through heavy breaths. "Now… show me the Trident."

Harry swam deeper, following the trembling path the Primordial Dream Sea opened for him.

The water around him grew colder, darker, heavier. It pressed in on him like ancient hands, whispering fears long forgotten.

Then—

A glow.

Faint at first, like the first star of a stormy night.

Then brighter.

Brighter.

Until the entire abyss lit with a sickly, otherworldly radiance.

Harry slowed.

There it was.

On a massive circular stone slab—

carved with spirals of creation magic older than time—

lay a weapon unlike anything he had ever seen.

The Trident of the First Sea.

It was completely black—

not the black of darkness,

but the black of void,

of the space between stars.

Its surface shimmered like molten obsidian, shifting and rippling as if liquid.

The three prongs were jagged, crackling faintly with raw power.

Runes unknown to him whispered across its shaft.

Harry floated there, breathless.

"That's it…" he whispered.

But he wasn't alone.

A ripple of light formed beside the stone.

A figure materialized—a tall, ancient man with hair like crashing waves and eyes like shifting tides. His body shimmered translucently, as if made entirely of water.

He regarded Harry with a grave, distant gaze.

Harry knew immediately who he was.

"Thalassan," Harry breathed. "The first Sea King."

The spirit nodded once.

His voice rolled through the water like thunder.

"Titan… son of Death. You stand before a weapon that predates the gods you fear."

Harry swallowed. "I came to claim it."

Thalassan shook his head slowly.

"The Trident is not claimed. It chooses."

He gestured toward the black weapon.

"It is not a tool. It is a mind. A storm. A prison. A battlefield forged from creation itself."

Harry frowned. "A prison?"

"Yes. For the wielder."

Thalassan's eyes hardened.

"Within that trident sleeps every ocean's rage. Every storm ever born. Every monster that crawled out of the deep. To hold it… is to bind yourself to an eternal war within your own soul."

He stepped closer, his aura swelling.

"If you falter, even once… the sea will claim your mind. It will drown your thoughts, your will, your memories. You will not control the trident. It will control you."

Harry nodded slowly.

"I understand."

But he didn't.

Not really.

Not fully.

The adrenaline from the megalodon battle throbbed through his veins like fire.

He felt invincible.

Unstoppable.

Like nothing could break him.

He looked at the trident.

I survived the sharks.

I survived the dream sea.

I can survive whatever comes next.

Thalassan raised a hand sharply.

"Do NOT touch it in arrogance."

But Harry was already moving.

He reached out.

His fingers brushed the black surface—

KRASSSSHHHHH!

His mind exploded.

Pain.

Light.

Pressure.

It felt like millions of Legilimency strikes crashed into his skull all at once.

Screaming voices.

Roaring oceans.

Visions of leviathans turning galaxies into waves.

Storms splitting continents apart.

Civilizations swallowed whole.

Harry's form convulsed—

his scythe evaporating—

his body twisting in agony.

His thoughts shattered like glass under a hammer.

Crash.

Crash.

Crash.

Memory after memory smashed into him.

Every fear. Every nightmare. Every trauma.

His blood felt like boiling sea water.

His lungs filled with crushing depths.

He reached out blindly, trying to pull away—

He couldn't.

The Trident held him like a chained god.

Thalassan's voice echoed faintly behind the roaring madness.

"I warned you…

child of Death…"

Harry's eyes rolled back.

His body went limp.

His consciousness snapped like a broken tether—

And Harry Potter fell unconscious in the heart of Lemuria.

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