King's Cross Station
Ghost stood still, his form flickering between solid light and smoky darkness.
The souls he had consumed swirled inside his chest like trapped fireflies.
"Fascinating," Ernst muttered, circling his creation.
"The Reality Stone didn't just give you mass; it gave you a metabolic engine for spiritual energy. You are a soul-eater."
He looked at the wand Ghost was holding.
"Try again," Ernst commanded.
"Focus. You have their memories. You know the incantation. You know the wand movement. Why did the spell fail?"
Ghost looked at the wand.
"It feels... dead in my hand. The wood resists me. It knows I am not alive."
"The wand chooses the wizard," Ernst quoted Ollivander, a dry smile touching his lips.
"And you are an abomination. But abomination has its perks. Show me the undigested cores."
Ghost opened his mouth, a cavern of black mist.
He exhaled.
A stream of dark smoke poured out, coalescing into floating, spectral figures.
They were the Death Eaters Ernst had killed, stripped of their power and will, reduced to enslaved wraiths.
Two of them were denser than the others.
They had distinct faces, frozen in silent screams.
"These two," Ernst pointed.
"Why are they stronger?"
He turned to Voldemort, who was still slumped against a pillar, nursing his broken ribs.
"Answer me, Tom," Ernst said.
"Who were they?"
Voldemort glared, hate burning in his red eyes.
But he knew he was beaten.
"Avery and Mulciber. They were... talented. Masters of the Imperius Curse."
"Willpower," Ernst deduced.
"Their souls are denser because their wills were stronger. Ghost can enslave them, but he can't fully metabolize that kind of psychic density yet."
He turned back to Ghost.
"Keep them. They are your army now. A legion of the damned stored in your stomach. Useful."
Ernst looked at the station clock.
The Aurors would be arriving soon to clean up the mess.
"We are done here," Ernst said.
He looked at Voldemort one last time.
"Remember our deal, Tom. You stay out of my way, and I don't burn your soul anchors. Go build your kingdom in the shadows. Leave the light to me."
Azazel dropped the barrier, and the Dark Lord vanished with a crack, taking his broken snake with him, leaving behind only the smell of ozone and humiliation.
"Azazel," Ernst said.
"Take us to the new estate. I have a castle to build."
Cornwall, England
The land the King had granted him was desolate.
It was a jagged stretch of coastline where the cliffs dropped sheer into the churning grey sea.
The wind howled constantly.
"Perfect," Ernst said, standing on the precipice.
"It is a rock," Kerry noted, shivering in his coat.
"There is nothing here but sheep and misery."
"Beneath us," Ernst corrected, stamping his foot, "is a ley line convergence intersecting a geothermal vent. It is the most energy-rich spot in the British Isles."
For the next two weeks, Ernst worked.
He didn't hire contractors.
He used his powers and the Red Devil's teleportation to import raw materials: granite, steel, lead, and high-tech polymers from the Skull Island fabricators.
He dismantled the stone blocks with his molecular control and reassembled them into a fortress.
It wasn't a fairy-tale castle.
It was a brutalist masterpiece of black stone and gothic architecture, designed to look ancient but reinforced with Kryptonian alloys.
He cut a moat, not filled with water, but a sheer drop of three hundred feet into the sea.
The only access was a retractable bridge made of hard-light projectors, technology reverse-engineered from the Kryptonian ship.
When the castle was finished, he went underground.
Using the Tesseract-powered mining laser he had built, Ernst drilled a shaft ten thousand meters deep into the crust.
He installed the Energy Siphon, a massive, throbbing engine that tapped directly into the Earth's magnetic field.
HUMMMMMM.
The machine roared to life.
Above ground, the sky darkened.
Perpetual storm clouds gathered over the castle, drawn by the massive electromagnetic discharge.
Lightning arced between the towers.
"The Dark Earl," Azazel laughed, watching the storm.
"The locals are already terrified. They say a necromancer has moved in."
"Let them talk," Ernst said, checking the energy readout.
"Fear keeps the curious away."
He had infinite energy now. Enough to power a fleet.
Enough to fuel his experiments for a thousand years.
"Kerry," Ernst ordered.
"This is your domain now. Manage the estate. Keep the British government happy with trinkets and patents. If they send spies, let them see the castle. Let them see the wealth. But never let them see the basement."
"Understood, Master."
"I am returning to Skull Island," Ernst said.
"I have a dragon to breed and a star whale to train. The world is changing, and I intend to be ready."
-------------
Author's Note:
Do you want to read 25+ Chapters ahead right now?
Stop waiting. Come over to the dark side. We have cookies, advanced chapters, and very, very detailed 'plot.'
patreon.com/
Dark_sym