Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 123: The Knight Of The Sun
The axe came again, a horizontal sweep that hummed with enough force to shear through the stone pillars.
Harry chose to move away instead of trying to block the enchanted axe. A burst of flames emerging from his staff's base propelled him sideways, skidding across the rune-carved floor.
Gawain's weapon left a deep trench in the pillar next to where Harry had stood a heartbeat before. The red runes flickered, then stabilized.
'Right,' Harry thought, his mind racing, looking for a solution. He could only use what was already inside the chamber.
Gawain turned his glowing red eyes on Harry. There was no recognition there, just the hollow programming of a puppet made for following orders. The great axe casually rested on his shoulder.
Then… his figure became a blur.
Despite its massive weight, Gawain was able to move incredibly fast.
Harry threw himself into a roll. The axe passed overhead, grazing a few strands of his pale hair.
He came up firing another spell. "Glacius Tria!"
A spear of jagged ice, as hard as diamond, shot toward Gawain's chest. The knight didn't try to dodge it… he just tanked it.
The ice shattered against his blackened armor, leaving nothing but a thin frost. Gawain tilted his head, as if amused by the attempt.
"His armor is reinforced with magic," the Admiral called out from the center of the room. He hadn't moved yet. He was watching the fight as if it were a spectacle for him. "The runes on the pillars do more than just keep him tethered to this realm. They also make him very resilient to any spells."
"Yes, I noticed," Harry muttered.
He needed a new approach. Direct force wasn't working. Gawain was stronger, faster, and heavily armored. A typical wizard's battle was about positioning and spell variety, but here, in this sealed cage, the knight could simply brute-force through everything.
Gawain charged again. This time, Harry didn't retreat. He planted his staff vertically and poured magic into it. "Murus Aeternum!"
A translucent wall of pure, silver-white energy erupted between them, stretching from floor to ceiling. Gawain slammed into it with the force of a moving train. The wall held, but just barely. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. Gawain pressed against it, his axe grinding against the magical barrier.
Harry had maybe ten seconds.
He looked past Gawain, toward the Admiral. The man had drawn a sleek, black firearm that was unlike anything Muggle or magical he could recognize.
'Anti-magic bullets,' Harry was wary of the weapon. The other soldiers he had come across were already using such bullets.
The weapon in the Admiral's hand was a bit different, and he didn't think it would be any weaker than those used by his men.
The Admiral raised his weapon. The black firearm hummed with the same angry vibration Harry had felt from the other soldiers' guns, but this one sounded deeper and more dangerous.
Harry didn't wait for him to fire. He trusted the staff in front of him. "Murus Saxum!"
A thick brick wall materialized before him.
The Admiral pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the wall and, instead of embedding itself, it ricocheted, screaming across the chamber in a wild arc.
Harry tracked its path and saw the bullet impact the outer wall of the chamber.
And he also saw the enchantments of the wall flicker.
For just a fraction of a second, the runes on the walls dimmed. The anti-teleportation wards wavered.
Harry did not miss this.
'The bullets disrupt any magic they come in contact with,' he realized. 'Not just my shields, but anything… including the wards on this very chamber.'
A plan formed in his mind as the sound of Gawain destroying his 'Murus Aeternum' reached his ears.
With a final powerful blow of his axe, Gawain destroyed the barrier that separated him from Harry and stepped through the debris, his glowing red eyes now fixated on him once more.
The Admiral chuckled, lowering his gun for a moment. "You see, Mister Merlin? You cannot win. Not against him." He gestured toward Gawain. "In your era, they called him the Knight of the Sun because of his might. He was the strongest of all the Round Table Knights. His power was legendary, even among those who served King Arthur."
Harry kept his eyes on the approaching knight, but his mind was elsewhere. 'Knight of the Sun…' The nickname echoed.
The Admiral continued, his tone dripping with smug satisfaction. "You may have been Merlin, but Gawain was WAR. He could split mountains with that axe. He could outrun the wind. And now, with the runes enhancing him, he is unstoppable. You are merely delaying the inevitable."
Harry froze. The Admiral's words made him remember something relevant.
A dusty memory from centuries ago. On one occasion, he went to visit Camelot's training grounds, and he saw a young knight with light blue eyes. He was squinting against the morning sun and having a hard time against his sparring opponent.
He saw the other knights laughing. They were joking around and using their shields to reflect sunlight into Gawain's face.
"Here is the Knight of the Sun!" Lancelot chuckled. "The only knight who prays for cloudy days."
Gawain ignored their comments and tried to continue the match to the best of his ability, but ended up losing.
Harry understood that Gawain's clear blue eyes must be hypersensitive to light. It was his greatest weakness.
The nickname his companions gave him was not a tribute to his power, but a jest about his weakness.
Harry's lips curved into a thin smile.
"You're wrong, Admiral," Harry said quietly. "He wasn't called the Knight of the Sun because of his power."
The Admiral frowned. "What?"
Harry raised his staff. "He was called that because he hated the sun."
He didn't give the Admiral time to process. He pointed his staff at the ceiling and poured every ounce of magical energy he could spare into a single, blinding spell.
"SOL INVICTUS!"
Light exploded outward with the searing brilliance of a miniature sun.
The chamber became white, the shadows vanished, and every surface reflected the blinding radiance.
Gawain screamed with the same horrible, wet shriek from before, but much worse now. The knight dropped his axe and clawed at his helmet.
The runes on the pillars pulsed frantically, trying to compensate for the damage, but the light was everywhere. There was no escape from it.
The Admiral cried out, raising an arm to shield his eyes. He fired his gun blindly, the shot going wide and striking another wall, making the enchantments flicker again.
Harry didn't hesitate.
He Apparated.
The anti-teleportation wards only stopped him from leaving the chamber, but he could still use this magic to move quickly within the space.
He reappeared directly behind the Admiral.
Before the man could react, Harry grabbed the wrist holding the gun and twisted. The Admiral gasped, his fingers opening. Harry snatched the weapon from the air.
"You talk too much," Harry said coldly. He stepped back and fired twice.
The first bullet went into the Admiral's left leg. The second struck his right shoulder. The man collapsed with a painful cry, blood soaking through his uniform. But he was still alive, for now.
Gawain was on his knees, still shrieking, his armor smoking. The red runes on the pillars were pulsing desperately, trying to restore him, trying to calm his seized mind.
Harry aimed the anti-magic firearm at the nearest pillar and pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck the stone. The runes made a screeching sound and went dark. The pillar cracked down the middle.
Harry fired again. Another pillar, then another… he moved methodically, bullet after bullet, until all six pillars were shattered, their runes broken and useless.
The red glow in Gawain's eyes faded. His body slumped forward, the necromantic magic no longer holding him together. He was just a corpse in ancient armor now, kneeling on the floor.
Harry approached him slowly.
"I'm sorry, old friend," Harry whispered. He placed a hand on Gawain's forehead. "Requiem Anima."
The spell unraveled the last threads of dark magic binding the soul. A soft, golden light rose from the body, warm and gentle, and for just a moment, Harry thought he saw a faint smile on the knight's face.
Then it was gone.